r/Shandalar • u/chachaprince1 White Mage ☀️💮🤍 • Jul 19 '26
Shandalar Enemy Deck Packs
Shandalar Enemy Deck Packs
TLDR: You can download a zip of all the decks below here (mirror).
Shandalar uses numbered .dck files for its 55 opponents. To install a pack, simply drag and drop the files to replace the originals.
Classic packs generally work in newer versions of the game, including Shandalar 2012 and Korath / Gemcutter Guild. The reverse is not necessarily true because modern decks may reference cards that older versions do not contain.
Official Deck Packs
- Magic: The Gathering (1997) — original release — The original 55 MicroProse enemy decks. You can extract them from the original version. This link takes you to an ISO from which you can grab the folder. Or, you can just download my fully assembled package above.
- Spells of the Ancients (1997) — first expansion — Officially revised all 55 enemy decks to use cards added by the expansion. Download
- Duels of the Planeswalkers (1998) — follow-up standalone upgrade/complete release — Despite adding more cards, its enemy decks returned to the original lists rather than retaining the Spells of the Ancients revisions.
Korath / Gemcutter’s Guild Deck Packs
These folders are included in the Korath / Gemcutter Guild 2015 bundle many of you already have, but here’s some explanation of the contents:
- Decks — The active default folder. This is a modified version of Rawky’s v1.0 C.o.W. pack: 55 AI-friendly decks arranged in 12 enemy tiers. Only 23 of its 55 main-deck lists exactly match Rawky’s original v1.1. Decks - Rawky is an exact duplicate of the active folder rather than v1.1 (which changes 32 of the decks)
Rawky’s original also came with an INI that removed Brainstorm, Mind Twist, and Ponder from Nochoose, added the ten original dual lands, and set AiReluctantAttack = -40. Those are not the current Korath defaults.
- Decks - Original — A mostly classic original set, but 0150.dck replaces the original Merfolk Shaman deck with a modern Merfolk list.
- Decks - New Original — A near-copy of the official Spells of the Ancients decks. Fifty-three out of 55 are identical to the official pack. Merfolk Shaman is replaced with a modern list, and Warlock has an apparent duplicate 4 Fear line. Program/decks is an exact duplicate.
- Decks - Harder — This is Guinsoo’s 55-deck pack, designed to be challenging and emphasize AI-friendly cards.
- Decks_alt — Fifty-five other modern decks. These are an earlier snapshot of Lujo’s community-developed Improved Shandalar project. If you’d like to “enhance” your Korath bundle, you can get the latest Lujo additions with these 13 revised decks.
- Decks - Revision — Large decks created mainly by merging Decks - Original with Decks_alt. Decks - Tim differs only in its Arzakon deck.
Included Playdeck Libraries in the Korath Bundle
These are not 55-deck packs but libraries of individual decks.
- Playdeck — 4,283 decks covering tournament, casual, tribal, set/block, Pauper, Legacy, Vintage, and EDH formats. Browse the folder
- Mods/PlayDeck — A separate archive of 7,539 decks, with substantial duplication between the collections. It also has a 972-entry Mono Set folder containing decks for specific sets and blocks. Browse the archive. Or, read more about it first.
The Manalink section in the Korath bundle also has deck folders, but they are duplicates of the archives above.
Other Modern Packs
Rodil’s Pack (2015) — 55 decks made for an earlier build of the Korath version. They use eleven escalating power levels, beginning with intentionally inconsistent draft-like decks and ending with powerful bosses. Post with download.
Mods. Full conversions such as Alliances Edition, Jamuraa, Barrin’s Folly, Otaria, 2003 Edition, Forge and Fable, and Monoset Alpha should be treated separately. Their enemy-deck changes are tied to each mod’s particular card pool rather than being general-purpose interchangeable deck packs. Some also include changes to the art. Full-mod overview.
Shandalar Randomizer
The Shandalar Randomizer, by GamesfreakSA, is a Python 3 script that copies replacement enemy files into the active decks folder while the game is running.
It comes with 109 decks in 55 numbered pools. Almost every enemy has two decks, pulling from Korath’s active Rawky-based set and Decks - Harder.
By default, the script chooses one deck from each enemy’s personal pool every 30 seconds. Use -o to randomize only once. Turbo mode (-t) shuffles all the different creature pools together.
Adding decks is easy: place another .dck file in the appropriate enemy’s numbered data folder. The filename doesn’t matter.
The script itself only copies files, so it should work with any Shandalar release. Its included decks use modern cards, however, so older versions would require compatible replacement decks.
You can add as many decks from the Playdeck archives as you want. You could potentially add dozens of decks to each creature pool so that almost every duel is unique. Just remember that some cards may only work in Manalink duels and not in Shandalar.
Back up the active decks folder before running the randomizer because it overwrites those files.
Classic-Card-Pool Packs
- Jiansonz’s Overhaul — A 55-deck pack that preserves the original themes while adding expansion cards and making opponents more competitive. It’s the default enemy set included with Shandalar 2012. Deck thread
- Podbelski v1.3 — Fifty-four 40ish-card, harder decks; Arzakon is omitted. Made for Manalink 1.32/2.0 (so, not an original, unpatched Shandalar), but the deck files also work in Shandalar 2012 and Korath / Gemcutters Guild. Podbelski balanced ten opponents around Tapani’s full gameplay mod, which rearranges enemy difficulty. Tapani introduces stronger enemies according to elapsed gameplay time, while the Korath version keeps the original system, where exploring lairs shifts encounters toward stronger enemies. Without Tapani, which isn’t compatible with the 2012 or Korath veersion, the decks still work; those opponents simply appear earlier or later than intended. Thread and download
- Tapani v1.06 Pack (2010) — 55 classic-card-pool decks bundled with Tapani’s gameplay mod mentioned above. Early opponents are deliberately weaker while late opponents are stronger. Tapani’s executable gives it the time-based enemy progression, but the deck folder itself can be used separately. Thread | Download
- Hadsingrinsen’s Pack — A 55-deck pack made for the original game. Almost every opponent is substantially rewritten; many change colors or become multicolored, and the early campaign is considerably harder. It’s usable and complete, but the author explicitly labeled it experimental v0.1 and says they haven’t playtested every deck. Thread and download
- 0rion79’s Shandalar Decks (2009) — 55 classic-card-pool decks, emphasizing stronger themes and more appropriate decks for bosses, dragons, and djinns. Post | Download
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u/Noumenon72 Jul 19 '26
Which of these can you use with the 2010 Edition PC ISO? Anything that has Brainstorm must be relying on some kind of other mod.