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.

Femme_Fatale says... #1

Yes, I never said that they didn't have a source. I just said that some didn't have an "alter's artist".

May 14, 2015 10:36 a.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #2

That happens. Sorry. Anyways, as a source, just put the guy's name who did it, or on deviant for example, the username. It would be better if (don't know if it's under construction) we could just click on the card and in addition to giving us all information on the card, it would also give us the artist or whatever who did the alter.

May 14, 2015 1:53 p.m.

yeaGO says... #3

i wonder if people really want their stuff being published in places that the don't know about. deviantart is a place where artists upload their own work and showcase it.

i guess its kinda like the debate with some tumblers who post a bunch of photography that doesn't belong to them. although they do provide a source its still kinda strange.

i hadn't really envisioned this as the imdb of altered art, but anyway its just a thought.

May 14, 2015 2:18 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #4

"i wonder if people really want their stuff being published in places that the don't know about"

This. So much this. It's kind of not ok to assume that people want their stuff plastered everywhere.

May 14, 2015 2:37 p.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #5

ChiefBell Then why exactly would they put it on Deviant art, or more generally, the internet? If it's from facebook or whatever, that's definitely something to keep in mind, but sites like Deviant are made so that people can advertise their work and get feedback on it. If they didn't want it shown to a lot of people, they shouldn't put it up.

May 14, 2015 2:47 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #6

If it's someone's work its up to them what people do with it, not you. If they want it on deviantart but not elsewhere then that's their prerogative and we shouldn't question that. Its theirs to do with what they wish, and not yours to assume you can take. End of.

May 14, 2015 2:48 p.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #7

"they want it on deviantart but not elsewhere"

Then why would they put it up in the first place?? Deviant art is one of the most popular artistic sites. People are bound to know that their work will get spread. That's like Rule Number One for artists on the internet.

May 14, 2015 2:51 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #8

That's not for you to decide! That's for them! Stop assuming what other people want. At no point do you relinquish rights if you upload to the internet! It's not difficult to understand. Whatever you think rule number 1 is, it's still wrong. Honestly, how can you not understand that it's not up to you to just guess the intentions of the author.

May 14, 2015 2:54 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #9

Deviantart is a place to get work noticed, and not necessarily a place to get work stolen. Regardless of whether it currently is or not, that does not make it right.

May 14, 2015 2:55 p.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #10

I'm assuming that people who post their stuff on the internet should expect it to possibly spread. In no way are we plagiarizing the other person's work for our own uses. It's the same as putting a picture in your deck description. Unless you made it yourself, you most likely looked it on Google, found one that you liked and put it up. Do you know if the person/organization who posted it wanted it on your deck? Absolutely not. But you'll still post it in your description. Same for gifs, same for alters.

May 14, 2015 3 p.m. Edited.

ChiefBell says... #11

"I'm assuming that people who post their stuff on the internet should expect it to possibly spread." - And we all should stop making that assumption. It is not yours to make. I think I've had to type the same thing about 4 times now?

"In no way are we plagiarizing the other person's work for our own uses." - That is literally the exact thing we are doing. We are taking something that doesn't belong to us and not crediting the creator.

In a perfect world we would ask the creator before we used any of these things. With a google image search you can't. With deviantart you can, quite easily. Allowances can be made when you have reasonable doubt and incredible barriers, but when there are no barriers and some doubts, there are few excuses.

May 14, 2015 3:05 p.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #12

So are you saying that we should stop posting images and gifs completely on this site before asking the author for permission? Because I can tell you right away that would make the internet a lovely place, but that it's probably never going to happen. And plagiarizing is when you take something and pretend it's yours. I never said we shouldn't credit the creator.

May 14, 2015 3:09 p.m.

yeaGO says... #13

i guess at the end of the day they can always just email me a normal request to take down original material. its happened before.

May 14, 2015 3:12 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #14

FAMOUSWATERMELON- In reality, we should but that's almost completely unreasonable. What is reasonable however is directly contacting individuals on a website that has that as a specific feature.

I know there's a line between the ridiculous and the realms of the possible. I think this is very much over in the possible end than the ridiculous end.

May 14, 2015 3:31 p.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #15

Which in short means making an account for every possible website where there are alters (that we like), contacting the user, waiting the necessary time for them to respond, and then if they say yes, putting it up? That seems like an awful lot of hassle for one alternated version of a card. I agree that it would be the right thing to do, but a lot of other users probably won't do it. Maybe making a general T/O account for each site to ask for permission once?

May 14, 2015 3:52 p.m.

yeaGO says... #16

eh, let's just make sure we're really thorough with our source material and go from there.

May 14, 2015 3:54 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #17

ChiefBell, deviantart users who do not copyright protect their work understand that their work can and will be taken and plastered everywhere. As long as you credit their work, the use of their material is okay. They'll only ask you to remove your work if you use your work for monetary gain without them getting any profit, or for use to spread a message or for a purpose completely unintentional to the original work. We do this by putting the source as a direct url to the original work. Sites like pintrest make this difficult however ... though I try my best with tineye. Additionally, you have to remember that a majority of artists sign their alters. Users like Blackwingstudio and sites like cardkitty.com have iconic signatures that are easy to spot and know who did that alter. Digital alters generally have both credit for the artists and who made the alter on the card.

Oh, and a majority of the digital alters are made without the original artists permission, should the original art not be copyrighted, and are instead just credited in the description of the work.

May 14, 2015 6:13 p.m. Edited.

yeaGO says... #18

We'll try it out. Just be overly dutiful in citations

May 14, 2015 6:29 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #19

I'll be adding another 150 alters in a short while. yeaGO, any indication as to when the source code will be up? Oh, and there are a few other things I want to mention.

First, we would have to be able to add the source code to existing alters, since there are now over 600 alters in our database. Second, there is a problem with "deleting" an alter. While the alter does indeed get deleted, the code that was used for that alter becomes inaccessible and is blank. These blanks should be able to be filled by newer alters as they get submitted. Finally, we should be able to "update" an alter image. I find many alters of various printings that are higher quality than the ones I've uploaded, and frequently delete the old ones to submit the new ones. Having a "update image" option should allow us to curbtail the deleting and re-uploading and lets that existing code stay connected to the alter you desire.

May 14, 2015 8:45 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #20

Uh, yeaGO, I just noticed something unexpected. I have 4 Tarmogoyfs in this deck: Collected bear test, and each has a different alter. Now in the playtester, this means that only one goyf pops up. This means that the playtester does not recognize each instance of a different alter, as it seems to only look at the number one in 1x Tarmogoyf, even though there are 4 of them. Perhaps a fix? Please?

May 16, 2015 3:59 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #21

OMG!

Worship

EVERYONE! Click on the little green A!

May 16, 2015 5:04 a.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #22

AWESOME!! THANKS YEAGO!!!

May 16, 2015 7:22 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #23

yeaGO, if you can make a few changes to the "add an alter page" that would be awesome. I'm thinking of these changes:

Source should be changed to Source Link, so that way people can remember to put a link of where they got it from.

Right above the "add an image" option, there should be this disclaimer (or something worded to its extent):

"There are 3 things to keep in mind before you upload an image:

• Please make sure to crop the black border out of your images to coincide with the regular images on this site.
• Please make sure that the images you add keeps the obstruction of the card's rules textbox, P/T, subtypes and mana cost at a minimum, as accordant to some of the guidelines WotC set for alters.
• Please keep in mind that this is a PG-13 rated site when adding in images."

We can have an addition of two check-boxes, one for "Do I own this alter?" and another for "Looking to Sell this alter?" For the owning one, the source would pop-up as "owned by (username)" along with whatever other source links they may have, if they decide to put one in. The "looking to sell this alter" function could show up on the card page of "altered versions on sale" right below the haves and wants sections.

May 19, 2015 5:15 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #24

yeaGO/ChiefBell:

The terms and conditions of using deviantART material as listed here: Show

3. License To Use Artist Materials. As and when Artist Materials are uploaded to the DeviantArt Site(s), Artist grants to DeviantArt a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to do the following things during the Term:

a) to prepare and encode Artist Materials or any part of them for digital or analog transmission, manipulation and exhibition in any format and by any means now known or not yet known or invented;

b) to display, copy, reproduce, exhibit, publicly perform, broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute through any electronic means (including analog and digital) or other means, and electronically or otherwise publish any or all of the Artist Materials, including any part of them, and to include them in compilations for publication, by any and all means and media now known or not yet known or invented ;

c) to modify, adapt, change or otherwise alter the Artist Materials (e.g., change the size) and use the Artist Materials as described in Section 3(b); and

d) the right to sublicense to any other person or company any of the licensed rights in the Artist Materials, or any part of them, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

e) Artist acknowledges that Artist will not have any right, title, or interest in any other materials with which Artist Materials may be combined or into which all or any portion of Artist Materials may be incorporated.

f) During the Term, DeviantArt's licenses under this Agreement include the right to use any part of the Artist Materials in the promotion, advertising or marketing of the DeviantART Sites.

g) As used in this Agreement, the term "Artist Materials" means any content uploaded to the DeviantArt Site(s) which may include without limitation Artist's name(s) (including professional names), trademarks, trade names, likenesses, photographs, biographical materials, audio-visual materials, artwork, liner notes, and other graphical, textual, video, film or audio materials and any and all "skins," computer-generated images or other artwork or images that Artist submits to DeviantArt in any medium or format whatsoever.

May 19, 2015 8:06 p.m.

Seority says... #25

I can't select the card set/printing to upload alternate card art. Is this just a small bug or something on my end?

May 19, 2015 8:18 p.m.

Seority says... #26

As usual, it fixes as soon as I say something about it. Disregard my first post. Thanks for this feature!

May 19, 2015 8:20 p.m.

Seority says... #27

Ugh, it seems to work then stop working then work again. Most of the time after I type in the card name and try to select a print, no options appear so I can't upload the image. Gah!

May 19, 2015 8:27 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #28

I can confirm this error.

Also Seority, try and crop them more efficiently. There shouldn't be any black or white borders around the card.

May 19, 2015 8:33 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #29

And I need to stop being a bossy bitch over this shit ... gah.

May 20, 2015 6:43 a.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #30

If you were not a "bossy bitch", yeago would probably be in serious copyright issues right now because of us not following the rules XD

May 20, 2015 7:46 a.m.

yeaGO says... #31

not really.... claimants are welcome to approach and ask me to take down user submitted material which they feel infringes upon their copyrights and trademarks.

May 20, 2015 9:12 a.m.

Lhurgyof says... #32

Sweet. Going to put a few in today.

May 20, 2015 10:54 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #33

yeaGO, I have a profile on deviantART so that deviantART users can easily contact us.

May 20, 2015 5:05 p.m.

Lhurgyof says... #34

Is there a way to indicate that my Commander is altered?

May 20, 2015 7:15 p.m.

_SeriosSkies_ says... #35

Lhurgyof, i just put the alter code on my commander and its showing.

May 20, 2015 8:04 p.m.

_SeriosSkies_ says... #36

On the topic of crediting artists, I've done my homework on my Arid Mesa and have come up with zero names. If anyone recognizes the signature please let me know who the artist is. I picked it up via my LGS 3-4 years ago and even they didn't know who altered it.

(also, yes its still not cropped...working on that still...)

May 20, 2015 8:14 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #37

_SeriosSkies_ if you can't find the artist you can't find an artist. Put a disclaimer on the page that says "If anyone can find out the artist to this alter, please let me know!"

May 21, 2015 8:36 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #38

yeaGO, I was wondering if you can make it so that you have to have the original source for any alter you submit before you can submit it?

May 21, 2015 11:09 a.m.

yeaGO says... #39

I will include some guidance on the upload form.

May 21, 2015 11:12 a.m.

FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #40

Maybe also include some guidance as to recognizing a card? Because under the Lightning Bolt alters, there's one for Rift Bolt here...

May 21, 2015 3:23 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #41

That's probably because Seority is mass-uploading all the alters he has stored somewhere without any concern for the guidelines I have set up here. Then again, he most likely hasn't even read this.

So yeah, Seority, delete that rift bolt disguised as a lightning bolt please :p

May 21, 2015 3:34 p.m. Edited.

Seority says... #42

She* and sorry I was tired.

May 21, 2015 7:27 p.m.

Azami says... #43

Awsome!!

I found some interesting lib for image comparison libpuzzle. Its written in C with an PHP bridge.

Now we need altered Token so i can upload my collection!

May 22, 2015 1:29 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #44

There's already a online program like that Azami, it's called Tineye.

May 22, 2015 1:37 a.m.

Azami says... #45

I know Tineye but it's not the same.

With an image comparison lib you can check each alter upload if this image exist in the DB and give you the id.Tineye maybe can do the same but you need to pay for it if you want to use this function!

May 22, 2015 2:44 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #46

Anyways, for the most part I don't need it, but others will. I make sure to keep sources of all the work I have. I have a literal massive list, posted in the OP.

...

Which needs to be updated.

May 22, 2015 4:32 a.m.

Ixidron says... #47

Femme: "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."

Does that mean there is not a single chance to see altered cards in the playtester in the future?

May 26, 2015 2:16 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #48

Well, apparently they can be portrayed as your commander now, but I highly doubt that they are going to be playtester functional Ixidron. That is a very fringe application and yeaGO has more important things to do.

May 26, 2015 9:15 p.m.

Blackshadow415 says... #49

So cool

Epic Confrontation

May 29, 2015 9:23 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #50

Blackshadow415, please remember to crop your alters.

May 29, 2015 11:46 p.m.