# Magic Assistant
:Author: Seth Kenlon
:Email:
[email protected]
:License: CC BY-SA
The world's first trading card game was **Magic: The Gathering**, first published in 1993.
It remains notable today for its great flexibility.
With over 25,000 unique cards published over the course of nearly three decades, there are enough cards for players to build hundreds of different decks for surprisingly unique gameplay experiences.
Along with this flexibility, though, there comes a cost: many **Magic: The Gathering** players collect lots of cards so that they can construct lots of different decks so they can focus on different win conditions and try out different strategies.
It can be quite a job to keep track of 1000 cards when you only need 60 to 100 for a deck, but the open source application **Magic Assistant** makes managing your **Magic** collection easy.
## Installing Magic Assistant
[Magic Assistant](
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgbrowser/) is a Java application, so it's cross-platform.
Regardless of whether you're on the open source operating system [Linux](
https://opensource.com/resources/linux), macOS, or Windows, you can download **Magic Assistant**, double-click on its launcher icon, and use it to manage your cards.
After the application first launches, there are sure to be updates to the card database available.
Multiple new **Magic** sets are being released each year, so accept the offer to update and go grab a cup of coffee while new cards are being added.
## Importing cards
To catalogue your cards with **Magic Assistant**, you can either rummage through the card database manually to add cards to your local collection, or you can import an existing list.
The simplest format for a list of **Magic** cards is a text file containing the number of copies you own and the name of a card on a line by itself:
```text
2x Mimic
1x Mordenkainen's Polymorph
2x Ray of Frost
4x Sol Ring
```
Many formats are supported, though, including a CSV from **Magic the Gathering Online**, TCGPlayer table, MTG Studio, Apprentice, DeckBox, and more.
To import your cards, select the **Import** option from the **File** menu.
Importing cards either adds to the default collection database (called **main**).
This is meant to represent the entirety of your collection.
You can use cards from your collection to build decks and cubes.
There's no limit on how many collections you can have, though, so you can organize your cards in whatever way you prefer.
## Browsing your collection
A collection is organized by its metadata by default.
That means you can browse through your collection by any number of attributes, including mana cost, card type, color, keyword abilities, and format legality.
All of these options are available as tabs at the bottom of the collection interface.
## Building a deck or cube
One way to get better at **Magic the Gathering**, and to get a better feel for how you like to experience the game, is to build decks.
On the one hand, it's great to hold physical cards in hand, but on the other hand it can be a lot of work to sort through hundreds of cards kept in several different boxes or binders.
But with **Magic Assistant**, it's easy to sort through your cards based on whatever attribute you need, so building decks with it is a pleasure.
To build a new deck (**Magic Assistant** has no concept of a cube, but functionally a cube is arguably no different than a deck), right-click on the **Deck** category in the **Card Navigator** panel.
Select **New** to create a new deck.
There are two kinds of decks you can build.
You can build a virtual deck, which is purely theorycrafting, with no implication that the deck physically exists.
When you create a virtual deck, you can use a card you actually only own one copy of in several decks.
You wouldn't be able to build the decks in real life, obviously, because you're over-using some number of cards, but as a deck idea or recipe, it works well.
Alternately, you can build a "real" deck, which affects your collection the same as a physical deck does.
If you put three copies of **Sol Ring** into a deck, then your collection shows that you have three fewer copies of **Sol Ring** available (because they've been moved to your deck).
Choose what kind of deck you're building, and give your deck a name for your own reference, in the **New** window.
To add cards to your a deck, locate the card in your collection, right-click on it, and select **Move to** or **Copy to** followed by the deck you want it to appear in.
A virtual deck never lets you move cards to it, instead prompting you to copy the card instead, because a virtual card never removes a card from you collection.
When you have multiple copies of a card and copy that card into a deck, **Magic Assistant** adds all copies.
To decrease or increase the number of copies of a card in a deck, **right-click** on the card in your deck and choose **Decrease Count** or **Increase Count**.
## Deck reports
After you've built a deck, you can view reports on the statistics of what you've assembled.
You can get charts to view card types, creature types, mana curve, color distribution, and more.
## Open source tools for everything
There's an open source application for nearly everything, and so it's no surprise that there's a robust card collection manager like **Magic Assistant** to help **Magic the Gathering** players.
If you play the original trading card game, try this one out.
It can help you keep track of what cards you have available for decks.
And just as importantly, it may encourage you to build more decks more often, because it's so easy to do when all the cards are at your fingertips.
