Topic: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

The main problem I have in regards to inventory management is figuring out which of my decks are utilizing one of my limited number of cards. For example, I know my Tundras and Flooded Strands are split up amongst my 5 decks that run white and blue, but how many and in which? Other cards this would be a boon with are artifact accelerants, search cards, and other utility cards that need to be assigned and used efficiently.

So if someone needed to co-opt a Demonic Tutor for a new deck, they can see where and how they are currently utilized, and be able to decide where to substitute a Diabolic Tutor.

I think the best way to implement this would be an action on the card in the inventory that would lead to a page showing which decks have it and how many.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

Just to be clear, this is not a request to tie inventory quantities to decks. This would only show which decks use a card, not "how many cards do I have left?". I think the latter could cause problems (retired decks throwing the count, etc.) although a total number of cards utilized may be of some limited use. In any case, that's a separate issue.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

I definitely have this same problem.

Users can find a list of all decks that have that card but a list of all *my* decks with that card would be equally useful (if not more).

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

I just signed up here, and this was something I was looking for right off the bat.

Love the site by the way, just needs a few more features.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

thalaric wrote:

Just to be clear, this is not a request to tie inventory quantities to decks. This would only show which decks use a card, not "how many cards do I have left?". I think the latter could cause problems (retired decks throwing the count, etc.) although a total number of cards utilized may be of some limited use. In any case, that's a separate issue.


I think this should be implemented anyways with users able to classify a deck as "Current" or "Retired" (or some variation of the two). So you can check how many of each card you have and for old decks that are no longer currently made you can just check it as retired and release those cards into the general inventory pool.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

yes, Yes, YES.  This would be GREATLY appreciated.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

Would this long-standing feature request solve everybody's problems?

http://deckbox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=67

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

I really think the column on the inventory screen showing how many of that card are in use between all my decks would be VERY useful.  With the size inventories can reach, and the number of decks I'll wind up building it'll be very useful to know how many of what I have left.  Especially in regards to land.  I realize this makes me odd, but I don't like to re-use the same card across multiple decks if I can avoid it, so knowing what's still available would save me a ton of time.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

Agreed. I would love to see this feature implemented.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

Agreed. Something like this is really needed.

I think this is the best solution:

In deck management: Option: Is deck currently constructed? yes/no

In inventory management: auto-calculated, per card: Number available (i.e., total minus number in constructed decks)

In inventory management maybe also a scroll-over or something which lists which decks the card is currently in and how many are in which decks.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

In my opinion this is three separate requests and map to three phases of development.

Phase 1: Allow cards in inventory to be queried for (your) decks that contain them

Phase 2: Add to the inventory a "Total Used" (in your decks)

Phase 3: Track currently Built/Unbuilt decks, in inventory calculate running total (number that are "Available for Use")

I think the majority of deckbuilders would find 1st to be convenient, a smaller but still large subset would intuitively use the 2nd, and the smallest subset might take full advantage of the 3rd. That being the case, it makes sense to incrementally add the three features. Granted, the 3rd sorta supersedes 2nd, in that you probably would not carry both Total Used and Number Available fields, since it's simple math to determine one from the other...

However even the first phase solves many problems because its hard to click on every one of our decks looking for a certain card until all four (or more) are located.

Last edited by thalaric (2011-10-07 22:45:40)

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

Also, in response to surial, I don't think tagging is the solution to this problem because each card can exist among any number of labels/tags. For example, I might have 4 of a card, all 4 of which are promised to Mike, 2 of which are in two separate decks, the remaining available in my inventory. While tagging helps track my Promise to Mike, it doesn't locate which of my two decks have the card in it so I can pull them and give them to Mike.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

thalaric wrote:

[...]

Phase 3: Track currently Built/Unbuilt decks, in inventory calculate running total (number that are "Available for Use")

I think the majority of deckbuilders would find 1st to be convenient, a smaller but still large subset would intuitively use the 2nd, and the smallest subset might take full advantage of the 3rd. That being the case, it makes sense to incrementally add the three features. Granted, the 3rd sorta supersedes 2nd, in that you probably would not carry both Total Used and Number Available fields, since it's simple math to determine one from the other...

The only problem with this mentality is that the Deckbuilder tool is used to create decks with cards you do not have yet (planned decks). Also, most people do not construct a deck and keep it that way forever. They may 'steal' some of the rares from one deck to put into another they are playing with that weekend. They should not need to delete the other deck in the Deckbuilder tool so that their card list is accurate. Without the currently built/unbuilt deck feature, the Deckbuilder is not nearly as useful since all the card information will be inaccurate.

My 2 cents. smile

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

I know what you mean. I played in a small tourney one weekend so I built a UB tendrils deck by pulling around 5 cards from 12 other decks. It took forever to rebuild my decks because I couldn't remember what came from where smile

For that very reason though, the idea of marking a deck built or unbuilt seems wrong to me. In this case, the tendrils deck is the one that is Built, and until I put the cards back the other 12 are really Unbuilt. In a perfect world, the state of the deck is not based on an arbitrary flag, but rather the inclusion (or not) of cards from inventory. Just because you have cards in your inventory does not mean those cards are in a deck, that could be another step. Then a built deck is any deck with all 60 cards allocated from inventory, and an unbuilt deck would have a list of 60 cards but not all are allocated for whatever reason (not available from inventory, or pulled to another deck?). Then you are no longer flipping deck statuses - you are tracking your cards through the decklists.

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

As a new member and a new MtG player (the things I missed in high school and college -- [sigh]), I find myself having to be mindful of where I'm putting my cards in from the inventory and into decks.  I don't have very many, so if I build multiple decks that share some common artifacts or colorless cards, I find myself checking between decks to make sure one of these cards isn't in another.

That's really the only beef I have with this site so far.  It's terrific, and VERY HELPFUL to new MtG players trying to make sense of their inventory.

Regards,
nthdegreeburns

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

I am a Software Engineer who has been debating about building a site that can track an MTG Collection. In seeing the feedback of users from this site, it appears that this is the site that can do almost everything I envisioned in my original plan. The only thing that holds me back from beginning to enter my ~20,000 cards is whether on not I can track in which decks my cards are in. Any idea if this is on the list of features to be added?

Re: Track which decks utilize cards in inventory

Yes, it's definitely in the list.

There are some more advanced requests in this thread that we don't yet know in what form to implement, but as thalaric very nicely put it in one of his posts, the first step will definitely be to show which decks of yours have a card. This will probably be present as a dropdown option on each card's page.