Would asking for an "X" spell section for CMC be too much?
TappedOut forum
Posted on Nov. 9, 2020, 10:28 p.m. by DanteBeleren
Tl;Dr: I'd like to suggest/request that cards with "X" in the casting cost should be sorted/categorized separately on the site (barring excessive difficulties to do so).
I don't know anything about coding and I do know the initial effort would have to be quite large, but what would it take to separate X spells from others when looking at the stats of a deck? As many know, X spells have a large variance in how they can be used, yet when listed on decks via a CMC sort or even on the graphs, they get allocated to their "proper" cost. For example, I know that technically Hangerback Walker is a 0 CMC card, but how often is it played for less than 2, or even more? It feels disingenuous to a certain degree when trying to evaluate the mana curve of a deck if/when "you" are playing multiple X spells.
I'm willing to help edit cards on the site to be "properly" listed if this were to be a thing. Also open to hearing why this shouldn't happen as this was a fairly spontaneous thought/post (which I hope is in the right section and isn't breaking any site rules). Either way, if you took the time to read this, thank you and happy deckbuilding!
Omniscience_is_life says... #3
I don't think you're the first to wonder this, I'd be interested to at least hear some feedback on why it wouldn't work
November 9, 2020 11:16 p.m.
GenericToaster says... #4
The difficulties in doing this would entirely depend on how the data structures for the cards are currently set up, as well as how the actual mana curve tool is built. If you were to build this from scratch, you could relatively easily have a boolean within each card called "ContainsX" or something, and have the mana curve tool check for it before putting it under any given CMC.
Difficulties aside, I'm not sure how I personally would feel about this. I do like the general idea, especially since it would my Zaxara, the Exemplary deck much easier to manage, but it also seems a little disingenuous to put cards like Diabolic Revelation or Mass Manipulation within the same mana cost category as something like Stonecoil Serpent or By Force.
November 9, 2020 11:21 p.m.
GenericToaster says... #5
I think the trade-off here is clarity vs complexity, with the current system leaning to err on the side of clarity. I think the least clear but most precise thing to do would be to give each cmc, each cmc+X, and each cmc+XX its own bar, but that would look extremely messy and potentially confusing, although it theoretically would be more useful to look at. What I could see possibly happening is adding a button to the top corner of the mana curve tool that says "filter by X" which toggled between two panels: one of which how it is currently set up, and the other which goes something like "x, 0, 1, 2...".
November 9, 2020 11:33 p.m.
I think what the site designers were intending to be the workaround for this would be the "Alternate Values" option in the edit menu. It's located at the bottom of the panel in which you add cards to your decklist. For instance, using the example given above, if you intend for Hangarback Walker to be cast for in virtually every game, then you could give it an "alternate CMC value" as you add it to your decklist. You would add it as a 2 CMC card, rather then the default 0 CMC card. You would then also probably remind the audience in your deck description that Hangarback Walker is more versatile than that though.
Other spells, like Diabolic Revelation could possibly just be given an alt value also, or maybe a special category for CMCs where X=? could be instituted. Just like how specific cards with alternate art have the option to select that alt art "pop-up" at the bottom when you type in the name, maybe similarly, if the card name result returned provides a card with X in its cost, an option would pop up (also near the bottom, I'd assume) allowing the user to select one of 3 options: the default, "correct" CMC; a specific, numeric CMC, or a generic X=? CMC. That would be understandable, something I would use, and something I imagine wouldn't be too hard to code.
November 10, 2020 12:36 a.m.
DanteBeleren says... #8
VampDemigod That does nothing for the stats and graphs which is the point of the addition
enpc says... #2
This thread was moved to a more appropriate forum (auto-generated comment)
November 9, 2020 10:57 p.m.