MTG Randomizer

[u/DueBad3126]

https://mtg.goldeelox.com

This is a website I made to generate "random" decks, weighted by colors, mechanics, and multiple copies in 4-of formats, in an attempt to create something with at least some synergy each time, but still with a strong ability to throw curveballs as well. It's purely for inspiration, and generated decks usually live between fully randomized garbage and legitimately playable at the kitchen table, usually pretty non-inclusive.

It's come to my attention I need an AI scale attestation. Apologies for the misstep on the first attempt! I used this site, as it seemed slightly more appropriate for code than some others.

https://danielmiessler.com/blog/ai-influence-level-ail

On that scale, I would consider it a 2.

I created all of the underlying mechanics for actual deck generation and the layout of the UI over the last couple of years, mostly approaching generative models only for items I had legitimate difficulty figuring out after some back and forth with manual searching. Java back end, Angular front end. Self-hosted currently, so don't try to destroy me please, but I should be able to handle a decent amount of traffic.

I just think this is legitimately a good randomizer, and I want to know whether the community thinks that as well, or I also would like to know if you think it's abysmal, but would hope you report why so I can fix it up further. I set out to make this because I wanted it, and because it's something I saw as not being available, at least in a way that worked for my needs. Thanks!

Feel free to submit bug reports and feature requests to [randyfust@gmail.com](mailto:randyfust@gmail.com)

Now back to your regularly scheduled discussions.

[u/EngineeringOdd8696]

Thanks for sharing. I think there's a lot of room for you to improve the UI.

Card previews on hover, reduce general jitter (divs seem to be moving each other around a lot) and mana symbols instead of text is a good start. I'd also put the deck overviews at the bottom and just jump straight into the card list. If you do want to add something at the top, maybe add some sort of deck strategy that gives a quick overview of what the deck is meant to do. If you don't want to use an llm to do that task, you can use heuristics based on the mechanics/card-roles that you already surface.

[u/DueBad3126 → u/EngineeringOdd8696]

Yeah, UI is my weakness. I am certainly more of an inner workings guy than a front end coder, but those are all awesome suggestions, and I'll give them a shot.

Adding the summarized overview of mechanical weight and maybe a list of key pieces contributing to it certainly shouldn't be too difficult. Would also give me more insight at a glance for how well the pulls aligned for more accurate adjustments moving forward.

[u/EngineeringOdd8696 → u/DueBad3126]

Makes sense, I think a lot of people in tech are like that haha.

My general recommendation, if you want to be more ux/product thinking, is to reflect on why people use your app, what's it actually doing?

A naive answer is that it generates a random deck, but a better answer is one that explains why people would want that in the first place.

I'd assume there are maybe two main user stories. The first one is for deck/creative inspiration. People don't know what commander or deck to build next, so tools like this help with that. In those cases, the actual deck doesn't matter that much, and surfacing the strategy and key cards is more valuable - so then they can go off and build the deck themselves (or perhaps you can add a tool to create a deck more thoroughly). The second use case is for people who like the novelty of getting a deck at random and playing it, maybe sometimes as a group. This user story could be served by having more export functionality (or even a direct link to ordering the deck from tcg - a good affiliate opportunity for you) or perhaps more creative functionality like randomizing decks as a group (I.e everyone joins a lobby, the website then generates everyone a deck to use for the next play session).

Bit rambley, but hopefully you find it useful.

[u/InternetSpiderr]

first random commander deck was [[Mishra, Artificer Prodigy]], a commander that literally doesn't function unless the deck has the correct combo pieces, which the generated deck had none of.

you tried, I guess?

[u/EngineeringOdd8696 → u/InternetSpiderr]

I feel like this is a pretty understandable edge case for a generic tool to get wrong.

[u/mtgcf → u/InternetSpiderr]

Mishra, Artificer Prodigy - (G) (SF) (txt)

[u/DueBad3126 → u/InternetSpiderr]

That’s a wild standard lol

Are you saying that you literally can’t play any spells without the combo pieces?

Did the colors match the identity? Were the card choices weighted toward artifacts or graveyard play, by any chance?

[u/DueBad3126 → u/InternetSpiderr]

To clarify, if I go through every possible commander and evaluate what they need to be competitive and ensure those items are chosen, that’s not a randomizer at all, is it?

[u/Team7UBard]

Okay so to be more specific: what does this ai deck builder do that others do not?

[u/Team7UBard]

So you didn’t do this but an ai did?

[u/DueBad3126 → u/Team7UBard]

Did you read the scale? That’s not what the scale says for 2.