Double-Sided Commander Tokens?

It's funny you're bringing this up right now! I've actually just been having a conversation with the developer regarding this issue.

Basically, the holdup is that in order to update the Extras editions for C14 - C18, the single-sided versions of the tokens as currently listed would ideally be removed from the database, but this means that they'll also be removed from people's inventories. The tokens can't simply be renamed, because there's no one-to-one relationship between the token faces and the physical cards.

There's two options:

1. full migration from single- to double-sided tokens (possibly with an alert sent out to affected users and/or a transition period where both versions are supported), or

2. adding the double- while (permanently) maintaining the single-sided versions in order to maintain backwards compatibility

Hopefully one of these options will be implemented in the not-too-distant future. Because I'm also very anal about my collection! LoL. I won't add Commander tokens until the double-sided versions are available.

It was in a support ticket, not in the forums. I sent him a list of all the token pairs for C14 - C18, then followed up with this discussion:

However, those recommendations I made were based on the existing system. I did not even attempt to come up with a new system....

....which is why I really like this suggestion!

This would actually be an amazing system. It would simplify import for Sebi, and it's also flexible and robust enough to cover all situations. And importantly for the precedent set by Modern Horizons, if that continues as a trend, this system would greatly simplify the situation. The Modern Horizons situation creates a very complicated token environment. Already 76 combinations are in the Extras: Double Sided edition for Modern Horizons (alongside the single-sided, foil-only Extras edition), and still people have been reporting even more combinations that aren't listed.

In contrast, in the system you're proposing, there'd be a mere 21 tokens for Modern Horizons, all listed in a single, unified edition on Deckbox. But from those 21 tokens, people could create any conceivable combination (even if it didn't actually exist, which I think is an acceptable "side effect", because it's up to a user to be accurate when entering cards).

To potentially eliminate some amount of user error, Sebi could mark some editions as being single-sided only, double-sided only, or both permissible. So when adding tokens to the first type of edition, no pairing would even be possible, and vice versa -- when adding tokens to the second type, Deckbox would require a pairing. Sets like Modern Horizons would allow both. (That said, considering the fact that we're still waiting on a feature to be added that would ensure that the database requires or disallows foil for certain editions / cards, e.g. FTV series or promos, we probably would be waiting on this functionality for tokens as well, since it's a similar type of setting. I'm sure it would entail changing a fundamental aspect of his database design, so I understand why it wouldn't be something he'd implement quickly.)

Another way to keep things organized would be a standardized way of displaying the paired tokens, regardless of how they are entered. For example, I could add a C14 Angel token first, then pick the Cat token to pair it with, or I could first add the Cat token then pair that with the Angel token. But in either case, Deckbox would display it as Angel // Cat, and never Cat // Angel.

As to your concern about it messing up the current ability to "plus" a card from the editions page, I think the best approach may be the simple one:

If I "plus" an Angel token from Extras: C14, I'll initially get a single-sided Angel token (which doesn't exist, but Deckbox could allow it). Then I just need to click on the green Count box next to the plus, and in that dialog would be the new "Pair" dropdown (similar to the language dropdown). Once I pair the Cat token to it, I can look at the count for Cat on that edition page, and it should have increased by 1. Opening the green Count dialogs for either token will show a row that's distinct from any other pairings (or from incorrectly created single-sided versions). So e.g. in C14, I could click on the Zombie token and see something like the following (imagine icons and count boxes in place of the brackets!):

[2] [0] [NM] [EN] [Paired with Demon #12]
[1] [0] [NM] [EN] [Paired with Germ #14]

From there, I could change counts for specific pairings as desired, or use the current split feature to split that example first row into the following two rows and change the language thus:

[1] [0] [NM] [EN] [Paired with Demon #12]
[1] [0] [NM] [DE] [Paired with Demon #12]
[1] [0] [NM] [EN] [Paired with Germ #14]

If I were to click the "Add New Row" button in the dialog, just as with the plus button, it would initially add a single-sided token with the current defaults:

[1] [0] [NM] [EN] [Not paired]
[1] [0] [NM] [EN] [Paired with Demon #12]
[1] [0] [NM] [DE] [Paired with Demon #12]
[1] [0] [NM] [EN] [Paired with Germ #14]

Meanwhile, in my Inventory, if I filtered down to the Extras: C14 edition, I should see:

[1] [0] Demon // Zombie [Price] [C14] [NM] [EN]
[1] [0] Demon // Zombie [Price] [C14] [NM] [DE]
[1] [0] Germ // Zombie  [Price] [C14] [NM] [EN]
[1] [0] Zombie          [Price] [C14] [NM] [EN]

Last edited by meldon44 (2019-07-15 06:37:32)