Welcome to the All New Card Alter Feature!!!

Site Updates forum

Posted on May 9, 2015, 1:18 a.m. by Femme_Fatale

Hi-ho~ Femme_Fatale here to bring you an important update that has been around the site for about a week. This update is the alters function. Where you can upload your own image to a card and have it portrayed as that. Examples:

• Command Tower
• Elixir of Immortality
• Engineered Explosives
• Forest

First question you may be having is: "OMG HOW DO I DO THAT THAT IS SO COOL!" Well, I am here to divulge in the wondrous art of uploading your own alters. Show

That's how you do it. Simple. Now comes how to code your alters into deck lists or comments and descriptions. All you have to do is implement the alter code at the end of the card syntax separated by a space. Here's what they would look like:

• 2x Gaea's Cradle *A=166*
• Gilded Lotus

Now where do I get that code you may ask? Well, you find it on the alters list, the same page where you go to find the "Add Alter" button displayed on the gif. The very middle column is the "alter code" column. And this is where you will find your code to copy and paste.

Do you have to add your own alters? Show

Certainly not! Many other users will be adding their own alters and you will be able to use theirs as well. The easiest method to finding another alter is by just experimenting with the alter code. All you have to do is change the number and a new alter may pop-up.

For reference, I'll post my own alters list and a deck list which will list all the alters and users who have submitted an alter. Please note that this deck list does have some loading problems, so keep that in mind if you have a slow computer or are searching from a mobile device. You'd be better off going straight to my alters list.

deck-large:Alters List

Where do I get all my alters? Everywhere. The biggest three are deviantart, cardkitty and ebay. I even have an overly massive list of alters of which I'm slowly adding to the site.

I am also free for requests. If you wish to have an alter for a particular non-standard, non-fringe card, whether it be from that list of alters that I linked above, from another site, or even if you don't know how to find one, I'll easily find one for you. But if you are going to add your own, please be sure to check those lists to see if I already have one added that you could use instead. This prevents duplicates or needless uploading.

Now I'm going to lay out some guidelines for if you are to submit alters yourself. There are two main things I will be looking at, and there are the same criteria that WotC focuses on when examining the alters of decks themselves. Show

Rule number one: Information must be adequately portrayed and be visible on all alters.

While this isn't as necessary for us as it is for tournament play, the general rules apply. The most important thing on a card is the rules text. The whole point of having roll-overs for us is to have the ability to find out what a card does without having to go into its individual card page. Exceptions are made for non-utility lands (ie, things that aren't like Cavern of Souls or Homeward Path) and for really well known cards that don't have much text.

The next important thing is the card's power and toughness, if it has it. Since there is nothing on T/O that dictates something's P/T. Mana cost comes second since it is generally easy to remember. The card's type is second last since deck-lists do have it sectioned off into categories and name is the least important since, well, you have the name in the alter list and when you put it in decks.

Rule number two: No excessive or blatant sexualization portrayed on magic cards. This game is PG-13, so we cannot have blatant nudity or have sexualized characters on lands just because you like to look at them. Keep it clean, or at the very least, sensual and empowering. An example of two alters that could be considered sexualized, one that many users may dislike and one that many users may be okay with.

If you are uncomfortable with a user's use of alters, politely ask them to remove it, and if they refuse, you can bring the potential offense up to a reputable user on this site or create a thread for it and we'll discuss the acceptance level of that alter. Just be aware that some of us may be more accepting of it than others, like me. If you wish to read a bit more in depth about sexualization of mtg related product, here are links to the important posts I made in a thread that was discussing that very issue.

• Part one.
• Part two.
• Part three.

There are numerous other rules which are not as important, but should still be kept in mind when uploading alters. Show

These include: Keeping the submitted alters MtG related, cropping the borders out of cards that may have them (ie, this Azusa, Lost but Seeking should have been cropped), making sure the uploaded image has a high enough resolution and quality to be seen, keeping the language of the cards as English, giving credit to the original artist wherever you link the card, keeping the submitted alters as actual cards and removing any foreign objects during cropping, like fingers or the table or light glare (example: this Arid Mesa should have been cropped).

For MtG related alters and being kept as actual cards, if you have a custom set made from MSE and wish to make a cube of it on here, you can do that. Just let me know before hand so I know what's happening, and be aware that the draft simulator most likely won't show the alters since the playtester won't show them either. As for cropping, it is pretty easy to crop. Photoshop, paint, iranview and gyazo are all good cropping tools. Remember that the goal is to get the borders out to present the alter in the same way that we present any other image here on T/O, without that black or white border. This doesn't apply to alters whose borders have been coloured/painted completely over. The English language rule is because most of us here do not speak a language other than English, and having a card in another language violates the first rule of legibility.

Finally, giving credit to the artists is the hardest for most to do, and the most tedious, but you can make this much easier by doing the same thing that I've done with the massive alters list pastebin I linked earlier, and just link that wherever you use the alters. This is further easier if you just use my alters since I already make sure to source all the images I use in the massive alters list pastebin I linked earlier. That pastebin shows a variety of things. First, it says the card name, and then it has a bunch of urls right below that. Most of those urls are links to the source of where I found an alter of said card name. If there is a tinyurl, or a gyazo or something that ends in an image format like .png that follows right after the source url, than that is the cropped image or shortened url image (the list was originally made for untap after all) of the above source.

The very last few things I want to mention, is that most of these rules don't really apply if you are using alters that you actually own and/or are trying to sell. So you can freely ignore these ones with the exception of the sexuality rule. While we would be a lot more lenient on the sexuality rule for sellers of alters, keep in mind that we have people under the age of 18 on her and selling sexual alters is grounds for selling pornography to children, which is not allowed. But beyond that, you are free to go.

These rules are not set in stone and nor will they be governed with an iron fist. They are here for you to get a general idea of what is acceptable in our community and to provide users with a enjoyable and convenient experience at all times.

Please keep these in mind when uploading alters, and go out and have some fun :D

EDIT: As some may have noticed the ability to add alters has been removed, this is due to too many people using the alters database as a personal image repository. Users will now have to be manually accepted to be able to add alters.

The alters database is not used for custom cards, please use the custom card feature, it's button is found under the "Cards" tab at the top.

The alters database is not used for missing cards/printings, please make a submission form using the card add/fix form on the given set page also found under the "Cards" tab. Not that the fix button on each individual card's page goes to the most recent printing, not the printing that you want to add.

Sainted says... #2

subsribed to remind myself!

good STUFF!!!!

May 9, 2015 1:40 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #3

yeaGO/ Epochalyptik/ChiefBell, can you move this to the site updates thread please? Thank you.

May 9, 2015 1:58 a.m.

PepsiAddicted says... #4

Very nice! Thx

May 9, 2015 2:03 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #5

Linking everyone I currently have on the list, and their respective alters page lists, so that they can see this tutorial for future reference.

• Brasshatchet's List
• CausticZombie's List
• CYborghb's List
• Definitely_Paying_Attention's List
• Diamonddust2012's List
• Eldrin5's List
• FAMOUSWATERMELON's List
• FanaticOfKiora's List
• Femme_Fatale's List
• Finarfin84's List
• Grumiio's List
• Hellsing's List
• ivaggione's List
• JexInfinite's List
• kaolbrec's List
• LbBurger23's List
• LiKWiDCAKE's List
• Magicrafter's List
• palmercurling's List
• PierreThePlaneswalker's List
• Pornman's List
• quesobueno123's List
• _SeriosSkies_'s List
• sirbar's List
• TheFanatic's List
• TheSuperDodo's List
• Tyransraszor's List
• VampireArmy's List

May 9, 2015 3 a.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #6

Awesome Femme! Thanks for the lists!

May 9, 2015 8 a.m.

Dr_Jay says... #7

Femme_Fatale I have a collection of around 500 digital alters on a dropbox I found, should I link you to it?

May 9, 2015 8:01 a.m.

ChiefBell says... #8

May I make a request from yeaGO that there is some way to see all the alters available for a particular card. This could stop people uploading the same alter and let people customise their decks the way they want by browsing through available variations?

For example -

If I search for Command Tower and go onto that cards page, there's a button that says 'fix card', one that says 'view at gatherer' and one that says 'add to deck / binder'. Could you please add a button that says 'view all alters'. Then I would be able to scroll through and select the one I liked the most and add it to my own deck, right?

May 9, 2015 9:40 a.m.

yeaGO says... #9

Cool. Hadn't really thought people would use each other's alters.

If we are going that route we need source attribution.

May 9, 2015 9:42 a.m.

rorofat says... #10

yeaGO maybe on the rollover? (for the attribution)...

That could take up room though...

May 9, 2015 10:13 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #11

Do you have the sources to all the alters Dr_Jay? Because a dropbox is nice, but I need source material. You can link it, and maybe I can find something of worth.

May 9, 2015 10:17 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #12

We won't need a source attribution on the roll-over rorofat. When you go to upload the alter, there should be a section claiming that you need to put down the source, which is where you'd put down the site origin of say deviantart or what not. This would have to be updateable too, to account for all the ones that don't currently have a source. Finally, the source of the user who uploaded these is easy, as you have the lists themselves. The "list of alters for this card" thing that Chief mentioned would be a very good idea, and clicking on an individual alter in that list should bring you to the full alters list of the user who uploaded that alter.

There is one thing that I have to mention, and that is deleting alters. If you go onto the alters list deck list that I have posted you'll notice a lot of plain basic islands that aren't actually alters. These are the result of users deleting their alters. Once an alter is deleted, that space can never be recovered. What we would need is to have those slots "open up" for the next uploader, otherwise we'll end up with quite a few slots that contain nothing.

May 9, 2015 10:30 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #13

Kryzis, Tirande

May 9, 2015 10:47 a.m.

palmercurling says... #14

is there an option for indicated where our alters came from? my best friend does alters and commissions, i just manage her site with her work, and i have had many cards done by here (every altered card in my decklists come from her) and i would like to be able to indicate that.

May 9, 2015 11 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #15

There isn't currently palmercurling, which is why I said that it would be best to create a pastebin dictating the source for every alter you have until yeago implements it.

May 9, 2015 11:03 a.m.

palmercurling says... #16

hmm. maybe just toss a link to her site in my deck descriptions and profile for now.

May 9, 2015 11:04 a.m.

rorofat says... #17

Femme, I misinterpreted yeago's statement as requiring attribution to the user who submitted it... My bad, for the actual attribution, I think the lists would work fine :)

May 9, 2015 11:26 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #18

No, you interpreted that correctly, I was just saying that being able to link to the lists themselves would be more than enough for user source.

May 9, 2015 11:36 a.m.

TheFanatic says... #19

Thanks for the information! I'll be sure to crop out the borders on my alters later on today.

May 9, 2015 12:35 p.m.

rorofat says... #20

I don't see how adding an "alter added by (name)" could have a negative impact on the site...

May 9, 2015 1:04 p.m.

yeaGO says... #21

fear not, all attribution concerns will be addressed.

++tokens to the OP

May 9, 2015 1:10 p.m.

WicKid52 says... #22

Thank you! This is helpful!

May 9, 2015 1:33 p.m.

_SeriosSkies_ says... #23

So, i get wanting them cropped and all. but my technical skills towards anything photo related are garbage. I mean i didn't even take those photos ( im that bad at it). So if anyone would like to crop them for me i'll fix that otherwise ill either leave them as such or remove them.

And you mention crediting the artist, since there is no physical place to do this on the alter upload section I take it you mean signatures//artists name remaining visible? Was something i noticed when i first uploaded the images. I thought " Where do i credit who did the art?"

May 9, 2015 1:40 p.m.

yeaGO says... #24

Yeah it will all have to be added

May 9, 2015 1:42 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #25

Wasn't saying that they were a negative impact rorofat, just saying that it isn't really necessary to have it on the roll-overs.

I meant that you had to actually credit the artists in your posts _SeriosSkies_. But if you were to use only the alters I submitted, you could just link the pastebin and be good to go.

Also: TOKENS! YEAH! I needed these! I'm broke and can't buy them XD

May 9, 2015 9:38 p.m.

LbBurger23 says... #26

Thank you!

May 9, 2015 11:33 p.m.

htgtmd says... #27

Amazing stuff :)

May 13, 2015 4:51 p.m.

One_Myle says... #28

Is it possible to set your commander to an altered art?

May 13, 2015 5:15 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #29

Anything that requires alters to be viewed in an across-site fashion cannot be done. This includes, but are not limited to, alters being portrayed as your commander, the playtester, and the deck-list script.

May 13, 2015 5:22 p.m.

yeaGO says... #30

...that feature will be available tonight.

May 13, 2015 5:26 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #31

Cool :D

May 13, 2015 5:27 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #32

I have added about 300 alters to our database. Just click on my alters list here to see all the ones I've added so far.

May 13, 2015 11:25 p.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #33

Femme, I also got one or two of those myself...

May 13, 2015 11:27 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #34

I can't really tell. I won't bother policing the duplicates thing until we have an adequate system in hand to make it easier. It's not like I'm gonna go through each and every single user's submission to see if it's a duplicate or not.

May 13, 2015 11:29 p.m.

yeaGO says... #35

Policing?

May 13, 2015 11:35 p.m.

yeaGO says... #36

Are these like famous alters? I'm so confused.

May 13, 2015 11:36 p.m.

yeaGO says... #37

How can two people have the same alter?

May 13, 2015 11:38 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #38

Island *A* Island *A*

The first one is one posted by FAMOUSWATERMELON and the second one is one posted by me.

May 13, 2015 11:44 p.m.

yeaGO says... #39

who's the artist? its just some thing floating around the internet or something?

May 13, 2015 11:55 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #40

That is a digital alter, so it technically doesn't have one. FAMOUSWATERMELON showed that to me and asked if it was all right to use, and I said yes, in which I promptly added it to my list of alters a few moments after Famous put his in. Other forms of duplicates like perhaps the Wurmcoil Engine ones are most likely because of us using the same resource: my pastebin list of alters.

May 14, 2015 12:06 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #41

Oh god ... I'm no where near finished getting this alter list populated... I just found a tonne of sources on pinterest x.x

May 14, 2015 12:29 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #42

Okay, a little news for everyone. If anyone wants to use alters from standard legal sets, your best bet is to find them at ebay. Just be aware that you are going to have to do a lot of cropping for these alters.

May 14, 2015 1:41 a.m.

yeaGO says... #43

how doesn't a digital alter have an artist?

May 14, 2015 1:54 a.m. Edited.

Femme_Fatale says... #44

• Academy Ruins
• Academy Ruins *A*

All the person did with the 2nd one was take the original high-definition photo and shopped it. They took the text box and put it inside the artwork, made it 3D, and put textures on it so that it looks like it is part of the art even thought the textures don't actually seem to appear elsewhere.

Others are just people stretching an image or changing the colouration. They can't technically be called the artist as they are doing very few minor works to someone else's work. Additionally many proxies/digital alter renders are made with artwork that the proxies' creator, nor WotC, made. Are these people still technically the artist of that work? In this, the question shouldn't be "who's the artist" but "what's the source". The source of the work should credit the original artist for their work if it isn't already portrayed on the card. The challenge then would be to find appropriate sources. I'm quite good at being able to do this, but others may not and will just put a google image url instead.

So the source thing should say "Source: Who created this alter." As none of us would doubt that the person who photoshopped this Academy Ruins *A* is the creator of that alter, however we would doubt that they are the artist of that alter.

May 14, 2015 5:52 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #45

Oh, and there's something I want to mention FAMOUSWATERMELON. The "guidelines and rules" I posted above are just there to mitigate negative events that might occur. Keep people aware from just going through an entire artist and posting all their work when I or someone else may have already uploaded all their work, or keep them from posting completely nude alters down. Basically, help prevent the extremes. If there are a few small issues here and there I'm honestly not going to be bothered to police them. They'll happen, and it isn't that big of a deal to hound people for what is normally a good intention.

May 14, 2015 6:03 a.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #46

Hahahahah you're giving me responsibilities femme? Not really the person for that XD

I kid. Sure, I'll help prevent the extremes.

May 14, 2015 7:47 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #47

Um ... you completely misinterpreted that post.

May 14, 2015 7:55 a.m.

yeaGO says... #48

eh, still has a source and an artist. that doesn't mean its very traceable or whatever, like many memes on the internet.

May 14, 2015 9:22 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #49

I'm unsure as to what you are trying to get at here ...

May 14, 2015 9:32 a.m.

yeaGO says... #50

i am not getting at anything except to say they all have a source and deserve a reasonable attempt at artist attribution. but those fields don't even exist yet.

i am also still trying to thoroughly understand use-cases.

May 14, 2015 10:08 a.m.