I've been trying to look into ways that I can catalog my Magic collection digitally to help with creating casual decks. I obviously don't want to manually catalog over 20,000 cards, but I don't see any way to do is automatically.
I tried the free demo of the Decked app, but the scanning feature is a pay feature. The search is also very poor, so I wasn't inclined to pay for something in case it works. I've found similar threads in other places (like reddit) but I haven't seen a conclusive way to do so. Has anyone with a similar sized collection manage to find a way to quickly scan a lot of cards?
I know this doesn't really help you, but I was in the same boat once as well (my collection was about 15,000 when I started cataloging it and the grew to over 20,000 at one point). I never really found a good way to automate the process though Decked Builder (which you found) is probably the best. I say probably because I have never tried it.
I ended up just doing it manually and I tried 3 different programs to make the process easier: MTG Studio, Magic Workstation, and Magic Album. I actually liked a lot of features in MTG Studio (enough that I would have paid for it) except when adding cards, there was always a prompt asking me if I wanted to merge the new card in with the existing card if that card was already in the database. It was a pain to have to answer every single time so I just stopped using it. I don't know if the author ever changed it.
Magic Workstation was alright, but I am not sure what the shortcut keys for adding cards were and I don't think I could add a foil card directly. I had to add a record and then edit the record to update the foil count (assuming I am not remembering it wrong).
The best one so far as been Magic Album. It is fast (or, as fast as it can be to manually enter a bunch of cards). Just type in the card name and press F5 for a regular and F6 for Foil. I found it easiest to have the cards alphabetized beforehand, but it isn't really necessary. I know it seems like a lot, but I just did mine over the course of a couple days working a few hours at a time while watching YouTube videos or online TV shows and it went by pretty quickly. I also use it to create my decks as it is easy to keep track of the cards I have. It also has an option to print out card images you don't have so you can playtest your decks before obtaining the real cards.
In my experience with similar-sized collections, it's best to just get a bunch of friends together and sort it out.
Eh, I'm not sure I want to bug my friends about something like this. My gf was interested in helping, but I don't want to bug her either if I end up finding an easier way.
The best one so far as been Magic Album. It is fast (or, as fast as it can be to manually enter a bunch of cards). Just type in the card name and press F5 for a regular and F6 for Foil. I found it easiest to have the cards alphabetized beforehand, but it isn't really necessary. I know it seems like a lot, but I just did mine over the course of a couple days working a few hours at a time while watching YouTube videos or online TV shows and it went by pretty quickly. I also use it to create my decks as it is easy to keep track of the cards I have. It also has an option to print out card images you don't have so you can playtest your decks before obtaining the real cards.
I'll check out Magic Album. I was really hoping there was an easy to use scanner out there that would identify it, though I didn't expect to find one. Does it allow for exports and such in case I end up with a different system for searching? I do want something for building decks and current the MTG Familiar app was the best search I've seen...although still not perfect. I've been tempted to create my own search TBH.
It allows an export to CSV and TXT. The columns exported are the same ones that are displayed and it is customizable in the collection and deck construction sections of the programs. I actually wrote a program to handle the output to put it into a couple different text files that are easier to read on my phone without having to constantly change the columns.
It also allows for an Import which I used when moving my small amount of entries from MTG Studio into Magic Album. Since you are starting from scratch, I am not sure how useful this would be, but it is there.
Probably the biggest issue with the program is the slow updates for supplemental products. Generally, there is only a new application release on major set releases (Amonkhet and Aether Revolt for example). This means that smaller releases (FTV, Commander, Masters sets, etc.) need to wait to be put into the program until the next Expansion is released. It generally doesn't both me as I don't get a lot of cards from each release (less than 100 usually) so I just enter them in a test document until the program is updated but it is something to be aware of.
Thanks for the reply. I checked out MTG Album lsat night and it does look good. It even has some cards that are not on the Gatherer for some reason (like the promo schemes from the first Archenemy). It does seem really easy to add cards to a collection. I can sort the card screen the same way I have my collection sorted, so it would take a bit less time to do it manually.
I'm going to try it on some of my decks at least and see how long it takes. Thanks for the tip.
Edit: Reddit pointed me to a great app called Delver Lens that very quickly scans cards and can export the list to other software suites. Seems to work pretty well.
I tried the free demo of the Decked app, but the scanning feature is a pay feature. The search is also very poor, so I wasn't inclined to pay for something in case it works. I've found similar threads in other places (like reddit) but I haven't seen a conclusive way to do so. Has anyone with a similar sized collection manage to find a way to quickly scan a lot of cards?
I ended up just doing it manually and I tried 3 different programs to make the process easier: MTG Studio, Magic Workstation, and Magic Album. I actually liked a lot of features in MTG Studio (enough that I would have paid for it) except when adding cards, there was always a prompt asking me if I wanted to merge the new card in with the existing card if that card was already in the database. It was a pain to have to answer every single time so I just stopped using it. I don't know if the author ever changed it.
Magic Workstation was alright, but I am not sure what the shortcut keys for adding cards were and I don't think I could add a foil card directly. I had to add a record and then edit the record to update the foil count (assuming I am not remembering it wrong).
The best one so far as been Magic Album. It is fast (or, as fast as it can be to manually enter a bunch of cards). Just type in the card name and press F5 for a regular and F6 for Foil. I found it easiest to have the cards alphabetized beforehand, but it isn't really necessary. I know it seems like a lot, but I just did mine over the course of a couple days working a few hours at a time while watching YouTube videos or online TV shows and it went by pretty quickly. I also use it to create my decks as it is easy to keep track of the cards I have. It also has an option to print out card images you don't have so you can playtest your decks before obtaining the real cards.
Eh, I'm not sure I want to bug my friends about something like this. My gf was interested in helping, but I don't want to bug her either if I end up finding an easier way.
I'll check out Magic Album. I was really hoping there was an easy to use scanner out there that would identify it, though I didn't expect to find one. Does it allow for exports and such in case I end up with a different system for searching? I do want something for building decks and current the MTG Familiar app was the best search I've seen...although still not perfect. I've been tempted to create my own search TBH.
It also allows for an Import which I used when moving my small amount of entries from MTG Studio into Magic Album. Since you are starting from scratch, I am not sure how useful this would be, but it is there.
Probably the biggest issue with the program is the slow updates for supplemental products. Generally, there is only a new application release on major set releases (Amonkhet and Aether Revolt for example). This means that smaller releases (FTV, Commander, Masters sets, etc.) need to wait to be put into the program until the next Expansion is released. It generally doesn't both me as I don't get a lot of cards from each release (less than 100 usually) so I just enter them in a test document until the program is updated but it is something to be aware of.
I'm going to try it on some of my decks at least and see how long it takes. Thanks for the tip.
Edit: Reddit pointed me to a great app called Delver Lens that very quickly scans cards and can export the list to other software suites. Seems to work pretty well.