Suggestion: Automatic Card Legality Implementation

TappedOut forum

Posted on Jan. 2, 2016, 5:58 p.m. by Femme_Fatale

One of the more difficult things to do when adding cards to a set is determining which sets that card is legal in, with so many casual style formats it is difficult to determine what is legal and what isn't in what format.

My suggestion is to make this process a lot easier for users by having every card added from hence onward be automatically legal in the formats in which every card is normally legal in (barring the ban list, which would only apply to reprints, which this wouldn't apply to) and to have check-based systems for the few that have consistent specific requirements. We would then only have to check the legalities for a few formats, making the job of adding legalities a lot easier for our users, and would make the more fringe formats get more coverage.

The following are a list of formats that every printed card from hence onward will be legal in (unless it is banned in that format, ie the card would be a reprint).

  • Archenemy
  • Casual
  • Commander/EDH
  • Duel Commander
  • Highlander
  • Legacy
  • Limited
  • Noble
  • Planechase
  • Vanguard
  • Vintage

The following are the sets in which we have to determine ourselves:

  • Block Constructed
  • Heirloom
  • Magic Duels
  • Modern
  • MTGO
  • Pauper
  • Pre-release
  • Quest Magic
  • Quest Magic RPG
  • Standard
  • Tiny Leaders
  • Unformat
  • Unknown

Of the ones we have to determine ourselves, Quest Magic and Quest Magic RPG I'm unsure about. Unformat and Unknown are for formats not listed on here. Hero is restricted to RTR-Theros Standard season, since the cards were designed for it. Pauper and Tiny Leaders can be done automatically through whether or not the card is a common for pauper and whether or not the card is 3 cmc or lower for Tiny Leaders. A card is automatically legal in Block Constructed and Pre-release if it is legal in Standard. Heirloom is more difficult as it requires knowing release dates and prices on MTGO, and conversions from Tix into USD. The rest, we have to do by ourselves, and that leaves only Magic Duels, MTGO, Modern and Standard.

If we could get this implemented, it would make our work a lot easier and give more coverage to the smaller formats. I was thinking to implement this we could have a separate legality section that would say "default legality list", and it would look like this:


All we would have to do is for the very small applications that a card isn't legal in one of those formats is click the little X. The regular legality list would still be there (separate from the default), it would just be a smaller list of ones we have to determine ourselves.

EDIT:

This is a secondary option, which I think is the better one.

Another idea would be to have an identifier for sets on the admin side of things. Basically it would just be a little check-box saying "is this set Standard legal?" on the set's creation page and it would automatically update the card legalities as they are added to contain the following if checked:

  • Archenemy
  • Block Constructed
  • Casual
  • Commander/EDH
  • Duel Commander
  • Highlander
  • Legacy
  • Limited
  • Modern
  • MTGO
  • Noble
  • Planechase
  • Pre-Release
  • Standard
  • Vanguard
  • Vintage

And this list if the checkbox is unchecked:

  • Archenemy
  • Casual
  • Commander/EDH
  • Duel Commander
  • Highlander
  • Legacy
  • Limited
  • Noble
  • Planechase
  • Vanguard
  • Vintage

We could probably go even further with this idea for checks on Commander products as they are recurring releases.

Femme_Fatale says... #2

Er, I think I might have gotten Noble wrong. Is the Rare/Mythic used only to be a creature or no?

January 2, 2016 6:35 p.m.

Lame_Duck says... #3

Well, for Heirloom, there's a Google Docs legality list so, if it's possible to automatically scrape the data from there, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

January 2, 2016 7:23 p.m. Edited.

XVicarious says... #4

Well we can say for the normal sets (BFZ, OGW, SOI, etc) that they automatically get added to modern. Standard we can do by date. I imagine that the current setup for sets is a table in some form of SQL. Adding a release date field would be simple enough. Then say it is legal starting on that date. Taking it out automatically would be another story, however.

January 2, 2016 7:33 p.m.

squire1 says... #5

Why is this a forum? Why wouldn't you just suggest this to yeaGO

January 2, 2016 9:29 p.m.

lemmingllama says... #6

@squire1 You need to post it in the forums so other users can also post suggestions and comments. He is subscribed to the tappedout forums so he will see it.

January 2, 2016 9:51 p.m.

yeaGO says... #7

yeah i like this format, it allows for a lot more brainstorm to collect on ideas so that by the time I get around to checking it out its perhaps better refined or stated

January 2, 2016 11:37 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #8

It is also quite a large suggestion. I will tackle him for small things every now and then.

Definitely an excellent resource, thank you Lame_Duck. If doing that is possible, I know of a separate site for Magic Duels.

That would be done a completely different way XVicarious, in that if a card is legal in Standard it would automatically become legal in Modern. Standard you cannot do by date as there are still supplementary products to deal with.

Another idea would be to have a identifier for sets on the admin side of things. Basically it would just be a little check-box saying "is this set Standard legal?" on the set's creation page and it would automatically update the card legalities as they are added to contain the following if checked:

  • Archenemy
  • Block Constructed
  • Casual
  • Commander/EDH
  • Duel Commander
  • Highlander
  • Legacy
  • Limited
  • Modern
  • MTGO
  • Planechase
  • Pre-Release
  • Standard
  • Vanguard
  • Vintage

And this list if the checkbox is unchecked:

  • Archenemy
  • Casual
  • Commander/EDH
  • Duel Commander
  • Highlander
  • Legacy
  • Limited
  • Planechase
  • Vanguard
  • Vintage

We could probably go even further with this idea for checks on Commander products as they are recurring releases.

I think this would be the easiest method for yeaGO to do.

January 3, 2016 5:42 a.m.

XVicarious says... #9

Could supplementary products be treated differently? Technically they are different. I might just be too obsessed with things being completely automated. It tends to make things difficult for me when writing code. Rewritting parts tons of times.

January 3, 2016 4:29 p.m.

XVicarious says... #10

WhatsInStandard.com has an API. You could use that to get what is in Standard.

https://github.com/glacials/whatsinstandard

http://whatsinstandard.com/api/3/sets.json

January 3, 2016 4:39 p.m. Edited.

Femme_Fatale says... #11

Supplementary products shouldn't be treated differently as a whole group in this regard as there are different levels of supplementary products that each have their own set legality. Most supplementary products are full of reprints, with the Commander sets being the ones that actually release new cards. In this, implementing something for supplementary products could very easily mess with what we currently have now.

We already very easily know what is in Standard and have automatic Standard season legality updaters.

January 3, 2016 10:29 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #12

My god does it take a long time adding each and every legality to the cards ... an extra minute or two per card >.>

January 7, 2016 3:47 a.m.

yeaGO says... #13

don't worry about adding legality to cards.... i think you are right and that it may be easy to automate based on what you said

January 7, 2016 11:19 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #14

Cool, thanks yeago.

January 7, 2016 3:03 p.m.

This discussion has been closed