Setting up Magic Workstation for Magic: A Beginner's Guide

So you want to play some matches online, but you're tired of trying to do fancy things with Skype and trying to share parts of your desktop, or going oldschool and just pointing your webcam at a table. Well, allow me to introduce you to some free software you might find helpful, Magic Workstation.

Magic Workstation is free software that is no longer being developed. The last time it was updated was back in 2005. However, the community support is incredibly strong to this day. New sets are added to the database as quickly as they are spoiled, and the servers are always bustling with people playing.

The first thing that you're going to need to do is download the basic client for MWS, go here: http://www.magicworkstation.com/downloads.php
Make sure you click on the actual download link, and not the weird spammy ads that are on the page that look like download links.

Once you've downloaded the installer, go ahead and run it. If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, make sure that you change the installation folder to be outside of your program files directory. Install it to C:\Magic Workstation\ instead. If it is installed into your Program Files directory MWS automatically sets up file permission settings, and you will never be able to access your decks or game logs.

Don't worry about running MWS right after it is installed. It doesn't yet contain any Magic cards. MWS is a tool to allow you to play just about any kind of CCG, you'll often see people playing the World of Warcraft CCG in the waiting room. What you need to do is install the card database for MWS.

Go to this website here: http://www.mwsgames.com/index.php/Main_Page and choose to download the MTG Database exe file. Once you run the database installer every Magic card from Alpha to New Phyrexia will be loaded into MWS. However, it won't look pretty.

The cards will be colored to help differentiate red cards from blue cards, but there will be no card art, and the card frames and text will be the old dated style. What you want to do next is install the card image files.

This website has a full list of every card from every set, already formatted to work in MWS: http://mws.mtgbr.com/full-01.htm

If you are only playing standard currently you need to download 7 sets. Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged, New Phyrexia, and Magic 2011. Download the zip files from the above site, and then extract them into the PICS folder (if you installed to where I told you to, it's C:\Magic Workstation\Pics\). Keep the images in their set folder.

Now we can start up Magic Workstation. Go ahead and look at your desktop and you should have 2 links, "Magic Workstation" and "MWS Online Play." Start up Magic Workstation and wait for the advertisement to go away. Now you need to change one option in the game settings to see full cards. Press F10 and click on "Image View" change "Picture Search Priority" to "External Pictures First" and then press OK. A loading bar should pop up and when it's gone Magic cards will be presented in their full glory.

Now, let's make things a little easier. Click on View, and choose Deck Edit Mode. Now go ahead and start a new deck under the File menu, and name it something. Once you've done that you'll be presented with an enormous list of Magic cards in the left column. Remove all the cards that aren't Standard legal by clicking on the clipboard icon next to the magnifying glass (It's called Complex Card Filter). In the top left of the new window that just opened click on the drop down menu. Now choose "Standard T2." And down in the bottom left click on "Set as Main Filter." A warning box will pop up, just click on OK. Once the warning closes, click on the OK button in the Card Filter window.

You're now ready to build! Every card currently in Standard is listed in your left column. You can search through the cards (name only) by typing in the top Search box. I don't feel as though the MWS interface has a very good way to search for cards beyond just the card name. If you want to find a specific card, but don't know the name, the best place to do that is the Gatherer: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Advanced.aspx

On the Gatherer you have access to all kinds of search options. For example, if you want to find all Green and Artifact creatures that have Infect; type "Standard" into the Format box, then type in "Green" and "Colorless" into the color box, then choose "Creature" as Card Type. Finally, type "Infect" into Rules Text, and then let the search run. Once you've found a card you want to add to your deck, start typing its name into the white Search box in MWS and the card filter will jump to your card.

Once you've found the card you want, the Blue arrow will add 1 copy to your main deck. The Green arrow will add 1 copy to your sideboard, and the Red arrow will remove 1 copy of the highlighted card from your list. Below the colored arrows are 2 grey arrows. The up arrow will move a card from your sideboard to the main deck, and the down arrow will do the opposite.

Finish building your deck (60 cards in the main, and 15 in the sideboard) and save your deck. (Note that sometimes to actually save your deck you need to close MWS or open a new Deck in it). Now click the link for "MWS Online Play" on your desktop.

You'll be greeted with a big blue background. Press F2 to start a new game (or choose New Game from the File menu). Click the big load deck button in the middle, and then select your deck that you just made. Over on the right side you can select a name to separate yourself from the crowd. Now, up in the top right corner, select Solitaire game, and click Start.

You're now looking at the default battleground. You are on the bottom, and your opponent (currently also you) is on the top. You'll notice that you've started with 7 cards in your hand and 20 life. Your hand is visible in the very bottom row, and on the left side of the screen is your info box, showing your life, your deck and hand size, and your graveyard and exile zones. Right down the middle of the screen are the phases, left to right: Untap, Upkeep, Draw, Pre-Combat Main, Beginning of Combat, Declare Attackers, Declare Blockers, Combat Damage, End of Combat, Post-Combat Main, End of Turn, Clean up, and Pass turn.

Go ahead and play around in Solitaire mode for a while, getting a handle on the phases changing, how to move cards around, and how to interact with the board. Tomorrow I'll walk you through some of the finer details of MWS to make your play cleaner and easier to understand.

Thanks for reading!

Also, keep an eye on my Facebook page, I'll be announcing an awesome prize drawing soon! GG Games on Facebook

Part 2 here: http://ggxgames.blogspot.com/2011/06/magic-workstation-part-2.html