User Guide
Deck Workspace
The deck workspace is the central focus of MTG Carpenter: It’s where you construct, examine, test, and publish your customized pack of cards for Magic: The Gathering.
Whenever you create or open a deck, you’re taken to the deck workspace. All the cards involved in the workspace come from the currently opened deck, and only one deck can be open at a time.
Always present by the top of every page of the deck workspace is the workspace header, which has these sections:
Below the workspace header is the workspace mode panel, which displays various interfaces depending on which mode is active.
The next subchapters are going to explain each part of the deck workspace.
Deck Name
The deck name section of the deck workspace identifies to you which Magic project that you currently have open in the workspace.
The deck’s name is initially given when the deck had been created. You can change it by clicking the Rename option from the “Other Deck Actions” menu.
Basic Deck Information
In the deck workspace header, the basic deck information section shows some data about the deck you currently have open.
The basic statistics are about these aspects of your deck:
The statistics are live, so they’ll update immediately whenever you make changes in your deck.
Note that the workspace header displays only a tiny portion of all the deck statistics available to you in MTG Carpenter. You can view even more deck data in the Stats Analyzer mode.
The next subchapters explain each of the basic deck information items in more detail.
Deck Format
Deck formats are certain variations on the rules of Magic’s gameplay. The format you choose regulates which cards and how many of them you can include in a deck.
The deck workspace header displays the name of the format that your deck currently follows. (If your deck has no format yet, then the deck format section displays “Undetermined.”) If you click the format’s name, you’ll be taken to the Format Selection page, where you can change your deck’s format.
Mana Colors
This section shows the symbols of whichever of the five mana colors are required for mana costs among spells in your deck’s primary card group. (The primary card group is named either “main,” “deck,” or “cube,” depending on your deck’s format). If there are no colored spells at all, then the colorless mana symbol is shown instead.
For multicolored decks, the color symbols arrange from most to least frequent as the mana colors are in the primary card group. If a mana color is equally frequent to another, then they’re arranged by Wizards of the Coast’s conventional order of them: white > blue > black > red > green.
Average Mana Value
This statistic shows the arithmetic mean of mana values among spells in the primary card group. (Mana value is also known by the older term “converted mana cost.”)
Last Edit
This section shows the date and time of when your deck had been most recently modified. If the deck has never been modified, then the date and time is of when the deck had been created, whether from a method on the Create Deck page or as the product of duplication.
The following actions are considered edits to your deck:
- Setting the deck’s format
- Adding a new card name
- Changing a card name’s quantity
- Changing a card name’s tag
- Renaming the deck
Note that the Last Edit section reacts to not only your deck’s primary card group (Main/Deck/Cube), but also to its secondary card group (Sideboard/Considering).
Total Cards
This statistic shows the sum of every card in your deck’s primary card group, accounting for the quantity of each card name.
Whenever the total number is currently outside the acceptable range according to your deck’s chosen gameplay format, a “⚠” (warning symbol) appears beside the total.
Note on companions: For a deck designed to be played with a companion card—that is, a creature with the “companion” keyword ability, which lets the card exist outside your library at the start of games—that card is supposed to be in your deck’s secondary group. In practice, though, you may prefer to see it in the primary group instead. If your chosen deck format has a maximum card limit, then you can include the companion in the primary group, and the deck’s total maximum limit will accept 1 extra card more than usual.
Workspace Modes
The deck workspace can be set to any one of four modes at a time. Each mode provides you a different way to engage with your deck in MTG Carpenter.
These are the modes of the deck workspace:
The List Editor, to add and remove Magic cards in your deck
The Stats Analyzer, to examine data about your deck
The Draw Simulator, to test your deck as a shuffled library
The Deck Exporter, to take out copies of your deck’s card lists
On a page for the deck workspace, the contents of the active mode appears in the panel just below the workspace header. You can change the deck workspace’s active mode via the mode menu or a keyboard shortcut.
The next chapters of this User Guide explain the details about how all the workspace modes work.