MX (M10) Apprentice Patch (Oracle)

[Seneschul]

Edit: Zendikar is out. Please see This Thread for the newest patch

Heyodi,

I'm Seneschul, I'm and I'm a Lurker.
I like doing data massage. (taking large portions of raw information and changing the format)
Coandco has posted a deck or two of mine for me on here to get advice ( Link )
Anyhoo, I've been working on some near-like stuff similar to Apprentice.
Coandco mentioned that there wasn't going to be a patch for Apprentice for MX.
Soo, well, I had time. (Well, Fiancee gave up some of my time to 'let' me )
And I like to give back to the communities I frequent.

Harvested from Oracle
http://toxikoala.com/cardinfo.zip

As far as I can tell, there are few errors. (I'm not about to claim error free!)
If you see any, please let me know, and my sincerest apologies.

P.S.
There are some unhinged/unglued cards in the mix, but they are labeled as such.
M10 is shortened to MX
I could not see any way to get Gatherer/Oracle to show "mythic rare' & I don't know the names of any of them so I've been unable to test wether my file properly deals with'em.

Does anyone know how to properly redo the other data files Apprentice uses? I've tweaked with them a bit, but i'm quite clueless.

My apologies if someone else has a better cardinfo.dat; I'll quietly take mine down.

P.P.S.
Many thanks to firsttype, who's patching everything is built upon. And to a melange of MTG related tools out there, some of which I read to get ideas from.

Edit: Zipped the .dat file up
Edit: Changed internal data from MX to 10
Edit: Followed Pichoro's advice and just copied over the Sealed pack generator files (Distro.dat, Expan.dat, & Format.dat) tested, and Works Swell, thanks.
Edit: Pichoro's bug noted and fixed - Mythic Rares and sets fixed
Edit: Conflux acronym fixed. Set counts accurate for CO, 10, SA, and AR
Edit: Grabbed Pichoro's adjustments and included them.
Edit: Timeshifted "Spirals" and Promo Cards reconciled. Set names adjusted. Land Pack added (LD). Missing Unhinged/Unglued cards found and beaten into submission. (*&^&^%$ Umlaut'd U fixed.
Edit: Zendikar is out. Please see This Thread for the newest patch

[Pichoro]

I actually would love this and appreciate it very much, but is it possible to repost it using 10 as the two-letter code for the set? The reason is, well, what do you use for the next one? 11? But that doesn't match.

This is why FirstType used "XE" for his 10th Edition, so 10 could be used for M2010, 11 for M2011, and so on.

The other Apprentice data files can be opened using Notepad and just plain old edited by hand. Very easy. In fact, if you changed the set code to "10", then you could use this cardinfo file with either mine or Bogardan Mage's non-oracle patches, and get pretty good results.

Edit: Also, how did you do this? I ask because when FirstType stopped, we were all left with no options for doing this. So, would you mind sharing your method with someone? Not to take credit from your or anything, but so the community can continue to benefit if you stop?

[Seneschul]

Originally Posted by Pichoro

I actually would love this and appreciate it very much, but is it possible to repost it using 10 as the two-letter code for the set? The reason is, well, what do you use for the next one? 11? But that doesn't match.

This is why FirstType used "XE" for his 10th Edition, so 10 could be used for M2010, 11 for M2011, and so on.

The other Apprentice data files can be opened using Notepad and just plain old edited by hand. Very easy.

Wish Granted. (new set uploaded using 10 instead of MX)
I'll take a closer looksie at the sets data then. I had a vague error with them last time I monkeyed.

Originally Posted by Pichoro

Edit: Also, how did you do this? I ask because when FirstType stopped, we were all left with no options for doing this. So, would you mind sharing your method with someone? Not to take credit from your or anything, but so the community can continue to benefit if you stop?

I'm a regex nutcase - I see patterns relatively easily, and with a bit of discipline I can write out logic flow based on the results of pattern matches.
currently the gewgaws I'm using cover 2 raw data streams proccessed by 810 lines of perl code with 68 regexes. (some are simple. a few are real doozies )

I'll probably post the code that does it in a while, but I want to clean it up some more; there's a few dirty spots & it's quite grungy.

I also had to eyeball it and remove a few unhinged cards that apprentice choked on ("ach hans run")
Flip cards (Like Budoka Gardener) and dual cards (Like Assault // Battery) where a (censored).
I probably have some unicode problems in the file - I did convert the AE thing around to AE. If you know of any others I can get'em fixed up too.

[Pichoro]

First, let me thank you for changing the key.

Also, before I go on, please don't double post. Although I don't have a tag stating such, I'm a "mod-helper" here, and merged your posts. If you continue to do so, its my responsibility to warn and/or infract you. I'd hate to do that, considering you're doing the community a huge favor here.

In my experience trying to patch Apprentice, split cards, flip cards and planeswalkers have to be formatted a special way. Flips, for example are usually done like this:

<name> <cost>
<type>
<rules text>
----flip----
<flip name>
<flip type>
<flip rules text>
<flip p/t>

Don't be afraid to put extra information in the textbox. You may have, but I don't know since I haven't looked yet. But you talked about having trouble with flips and splits.

Edit: Browsing through, there seem to be cards. At the very least, mythics from all three sets in Shards block seem to be missing, but I think it might be more than that. Not sure - but set sizes just seem lower than they should be. I couldn't find any Shards block planeswalker, though, such as Tezzeret or Nicol Bolas.

[Seneschul]

Hmm, interesting.
Thanks for catching that.
Noted; I see what I missed and I'll get that fixed for the next revision tonight.


Edit:
Sidenote: a severe problem with Gatherer from an under the hood point of view is that it uses 163 different set acronyms, most are redundant

[coandco]

Edit: Browsing through, there seem to be cards. At the very least, mythics from all three sets in Shards block seem to be missing, but I think it might be more than that. Not sure - but set sizes just seem lower than they should be. I couldn't find any Shards block planeswalker, though, such as Tezzeret or Nicol Bolas.

Boy, is my face red. This problem's largely my fault -- my method for grabbing a complete dump of Gatherer for Seneschul to process was to to do a search for all rarities... except I managed to leave off Mythics in the search. We're now preparing a new version that includes the results for every valid value of rarity. Sorry about the goof.

[Seneschul]

Update:
There was a deeper issue - printings instead of sets (which caused an overflow error in apprentice and a silent death).
All fixed, and mythic rares included, along with most of the unicode characters fixed.

If someone notices any other non-ascii characters in it, let me know and I'll fix it - Many eyes make light work

Thanks,
Seneschul

Edit:
If you even notice grammatical or spelling errors - I'd be much obliged to hear about it.

[Pichoro]

Yeah, as I was looking back, I realized that FirstType's patch (which mine was built from) was always missing cards too, but nobody noticed.

I'll check yours out again later today.

Edit: Still missing cards. For example, Tezzeret from Shards of Alara (which should be 234 w/ one of each basic), and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker from Conflux (which should be 145). Also, cards missing from Alara Reborn (which should be 145), but I don't know which ones, and by my count, and six cards missing from M2010 (which should be 249 with basics, but is 228 with one of each basic, with one of each, the count should be 234).

[Seneschul]

Eh, serves me right for working at 2AM - I uploaded apprentice.zip instead of renaming it to cardinfo.zip.
Now Coandco and I both have red faces >_>
Server side cardinfo.zip is now updated

Edit:
OOh, so that's how Apprentice filters work.
Right now I've got Conflux being named CF for some reason.
Shards of Alara, Alara Reborn, and M10 all match with your numbers now, however.
I'll see if I can quickly adjust the Conflux set error.

Edit:
Conflux changed from CF to CO, count is 145 (dang, where can I get a listing of how many cards are supposed to be in each block?)

[Pichoro]

For card counts in recent sets, I've looked at past spoilers here. You can click the newest spoiler at the top of any page, then click Spoiler Archive. For ones not there, you'll probably need to go to Wizards product pages and try to find the FAQs for those sets.

You might also try searching the wiki here or actual wikipedia for those sets. Link at the top of the page.

Edit: I've gone through and weeded out empty set keys that you picked up from using Bogardan Mage's files. I'm posting an update here, take it and cannibalize if if you wish. I'm also including an updated Rules.dat file - that file updates the banned/restricted listings for the various formats.

Finally, I'm going to take my patch down - it obviously serves no further purpose.

Thank you for doing this. If I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Edit2: Oh, something else. I updated Distro.dat as well. The reason is that since Shards of Alara, booster packs only have 10 commons. Now, pretty much everyone working on online tabletop programs has ignored this, but the reality is that there just aren't 11 commons in a booster anymore. I updated distro.dat to reflect that fact.

[Seneschul]

Originally Posted by Pichoro

Edit: I've gone through and weeded out empty set keys that you picked up from using Bogardan Mage's files. I'm posting an update here, take it and cannibalize if if you wish. I'm also including an updated Rules.dat file - that file updates the banned/restricted listings for the various formats.

Actually, if you could tell me some of the empty set key'd cards I'd apprecciate it - I didn't use Bogarden's files at all, and what you've found means I have a glitch in my logic flow I want to repair.

Originally Posted by Pichoro

Thank you for doing this. If I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

My pleasure - I definately will when I find myself in need of the mtg exp I lack

Originally Posted by Pichoro

Edit2: Oh, something else. I updated Distro.dat as well. The reason is that since Shards of Alara, booster packs only have 10 commons. Now, pretty much everyone working on online tabletop programs has ignored this, but the reality is that there just aren't 11 commons in a booster anymore. I updated distro.dat to reflect that fact.

Thanks, I'll canni' the new files from yah.
btw, there's 3 (give or take) UN set cards missing from this pack; I still have to track'em down, but it's relatively low priority I'll address when I finish cleaning up the source code, prolly.

[Pichoro]

I had to hunt down an old version of the file (the new one you've got cannibalized mine and doesn't have them anymore), but here're the keys I deleted from Expan.dat.

P1 <-Probably shouldn't be empty, but was. No idea about contents.
AF <-No idea about contents.
P4 <-Maybe? Not sure. No idea about contents.
LD <-No idea about contents. Maybe basic lands, like Plains?
DL <-Sample would be Tundra.
D1 <-No idea about contents.
D2 <-No idea about contents.
D3 <-No idea about contents.
D4 <-No idea about contents.
T1 <-Akroma, Angel of Wrath; Assault // Battery
T2 <-Groundbreaker, Damnation
T3 <-Tarmogoyf, Death Rattle
RM <-Mythics? But they were in "-M".
-B <-Basic lands? But they were in "-L". And if those are basics, what's the point of "LD"?

I added:
-M <-This is the mythic grouping.
-L <-This had basic lands in it. Replaced -B.

Also, a note. I like the idea of splitting the timeshifts into their own sets, and it could help the Sealed Generator better emulate Time Spiral and Planar Chaos packs, but it'll mess Future Sight sealed packs up if you do the same for it. The reason is that while Time Spiral and Planar Chaos had slots in packs that were always devoted to timeshifted cards, Future Sight's timeshifts were randomly inserted like any other card. So, it'd be nice as a way to find the cards quickly, but I thought you should be aware of that hickup.

Edit: I just re-read, and realized you wanted to know some cards from those empty keys. I'm updating my list with some sample cards.

[Dream_Merchant]

Errors:

1) This is a bit complicated.
Problem: Legends (LG) contains only 1 card - Aerathi Berseker.

Solution: Change cardinfo.dat so that Legends cards are LG. Currently they are LE (which is for Legions). Example The Abyss.

2)
Problem: Revised (3E) contains 0 cards.

Solution 1: Change cardinfo.dat so that Revised cards are 3E. Currently they are RV. Example Sol Ring.

Solution 2: Change format.dat, expan.dat, rules.dat and distro.dat so that they reference RV instead of 3E.

I find solution 1 better since 3E better reflects the set. RV could be used for a future expansion, whereas 3E is unlikely to be used in the same manner.

3)
Problem: Unlimited (2E) contains 0 cards.

Solution: Currently Unlimited cards are UL (which is actually for Urza's Legacy). See solutions for (2). Example Mox Pearl.

4)
As above for Alpha (AL-0E) and Beta (BE-1E)

5) This is a bit more complicated.
Problem: Portal set (P1) is missing. The designation in info.dat is PO which is the same as Promotional. Example Alabaster Dragon

Solution: Change cardinfo.dat so that Portal cards are P1 and include P1 in all the other .dat files. Keep in mind not to change the Promotional cards (example Mana Crypt) in this way.

As an additional note, would be good to change Promotional cards and references from PO to PR and Prophecy cards (example Avatar of Will) and references from PR to PY.

6) This is a bit more complicated.
Problem: Starter 1999 (S1) is missing and the Portal: 3 Kingdom set returns the wrong cards.

The cards for Starter 1999 are in cardinfo.dat but they are listed as P3. Example Bargain. Keep in mind that Bargain is also in Portal: Second Age which is P2.

The serious problem is that the cards from Portal: 3 Kingdoms are also listed as P3. Example Zodiac Dragon.

Solution: Change cardinfo.dat so that Starter 1999 cards are S1. Change Portal 3 Kingdom cards from P3 to 3K. Using P3 for 3 Kingdoms is not good as Wizards might release a third portal set in the future. Change all appropriate references in the other .dat files.

7)
Problem: Rarity for Promotional cards is -S. This is the same rarity as for Timeshifted cards. Example Nalathni Dragon.

Solution: Change rarity for Promotional cards to -P. Change references likewise.

8)
Problem: You removed Land Pack. Land Pack is a set of basic lands. The problem is that because basic lands are in so many sets I can't see from the Apprentice GUI which reference is for Land Pack.

Solution: Figure out which reference (LP perhaps?) is for Land Pack and include it.

Note: I often use Land Pack to generate lands for a sealed game. Theoretically you have access to all the basic lands for a sealed game, so I include half a dozen land packs which makes sure I get the lands. But since sealed generator in apprentice is no longer able to meet the current mtg standards anyway this is not such a big issue.



----------

I think this covers many of the issues. If I find anything wrong with individual cards.. I will let you know.

Thanks for the effort and for the patch

[Pichoro]

If you take the Dream_Merchant's suggestions, would you mind posting a list of set keys you change? My reasoning is that I kinda like to build my own accessory files to match the cardinfo.dat, because I use MSE to patch my custom sets in. Thanks.

[Seneschul]

prophecy changed to PY
Legends to changed LG
Revised is 3E
Unlimited is 2E
Alpha 0E
beta 1E
Starter 1999 S1
(Have not updated cardinfo; posting intended changes)

Researching the rarity issue; query: How are mythic rares handled - am I handling'em right?

It looks like I may need to add a line to reconcile Gatherer's concept of rarity with ours/aprentices' and I'd like to make sure i fully understand how everyoneexpects rarity done.

Also, LD is not a "real" set, is it? This is one that is an apprentice only set, so to speak?

(Reasons are simple - Gatherer knows nothing of the "land pack (LD) nor a difference between promo/special/timeshifted spiral cards, all their rarity is "special")