New features
* New cards -- of course! Avacyn Restored and Magic 2013 are available.
Engine updates
GUI updates
* Abilities are rendered more like cards are, allowing selected modes to be similarly highlighted.
Engine bugfixes
* Granting an object in the graveyard Flashback and then casting it doesn't crash the game.
* Needing to choose between two replacement effects produced by abilities granted by continuous effects (*breathe*) doesn't crash the game.
Card bugfixes:
* Ravager of the Fells's trigger can target zero creatures
* Loyal Cathar's trigger functions
* Blue Sun's Zenith functions
Known issues
* It's possible to activate Deranged Assistant's mana ability while playing a spell or ability, fail to play that spell or ability, and see the top card of your library (while it's in your graveyard). jMagic doesn't yet implement rule 717.1, which would cause Deranged Assistant's mana ability to not be reversed when reversing the illegal play.
* If a card has two instances of flashback (for example, if it already has flashback when Past in Flames resolves) and you cast it via flashback, when it resolves, two competing replacement effects will try to exile it. This is incorrect; only the replacement effect from the instance of flashback you used should try to exile it. This is inconsequential, but annoying.
* Sometimes, if text like "-1/-1" is near the end of a line of text, it will wrap undesirably, putting the "-" and the "1" on separate lines.
New features
* New cards -- of course! Dark Ascension is available.
Engine updates
* Major optimization which should reduce wait times during games significantly.
GUI updates
* Dredge's interface is much less cumbersome. If you want to actually draw a card, just don't select any of the dredge effects. This actually applies to any situation in which all applicable replacement effects are optional.
* In-game chat is available. Just type text in the box below the game log and press enter.
Engine bugfixes
* Hexproof on a player doesn't crash the game
Known issues
* It's possible to activate Deranged Assistant's mana ability while playing a spell or ability, fail to play that spell or ability, and see the top card of your library (while it's in your graveyard). jMagic doesn't yet implement rule 717.1, which would cause Deranged Assistant's mana ability to not be reversed when reversing the illegal play.
* If a card has two instances of flashback (for example, if it already has flashback when Past in Flames resolves) and you cast it via flashback, when it resolves, two competing replacement effects will try to exile it. This is incorrect; only the replacement effect from the instance of flashback you used should try to exile it. This is inconsequential, but annoying.
* Sometimes, if text like "-1/-1" is near the end of a line of text, it will wrap undesirably, putting the "-" and the "1" on separate lines.
There is an additional section in the readme regarding networking. If you're having trouble hosting or connecting to games, you may want to refer to the readme.
Features in jMagic 0.9.0 * New cards -- of course! All of Innistrad, plus lots of Vintage favorites, including Ancestral Recall, Bazaar of Baghdad, Gifts Ungiven, Gush, Mana Drain, Mishra's Workshop, the Moxes, Serum Powder, Time Walk, Tinker, Undiscovered Paradise, Yawgmoth's Will -- and the recently unrestricted Fact or Fiction. A total of 3371 cards are available.
Rules updates in jMagic 0.9.0 * September 2011 B/R list update, format rotations ... plus actually banning any cards at all in Modern.
GUI updates in jMagic 0.9.0 * Corner icons for seeing alternate characteristics such as the other side of a double faced card, what a card was before it copied something, or the front face of a morph.
Card bugfixes in jMagic 0.9.0
* Beastmaster's Magemark actually triggers
* Tarnished Citadel in a decklist doesn't crash the game on startup
* Animate Dead won't remain attached to a noncreature permanent
* Animate Dead doesn't fall off the creature (killing it) at the cleanup step
* Animate Dead's -1/-0 ability functions
* Ichorid and Nether Shadow's graveyard triggers will trigger
* Scavenging Ooze will actually get its counters
* Martial Coup won't destroy its own tokens
* Myr Welder's first ability links it to the cards it exiles
GUI bugfixes in jMagic 0.9.0
* Objects that enter the battlefield attached to an object not on the battlefield don't freeze the interface
Known issues in jMagic 0.9.0
* It's possible to activate Deranged Assistant's mana ability while playing a spell or ability, fail to play that spell or ability, and see the top card of your library (while it's in your graveyard). jMagic doesn't yet implement rule 717.1, which would cause Deranged Assistant's mana ability to not be reversed when reversing the illegal play.
* If a card has two instances of flashback (for example, if it already has flashback when Past in Flames resolves) and you cast it via flashback, when it resolves, two competing replacement effects will try to exile it.
Quick update: We currently have Innistrad in testing. It will be available in jMagic 0.9.
Re: having a card scripting language ... We have actually started on an implementation for one, and let it drop after a short while. To put things in perspective, we wrote all the code for Innistrad in 24 hours. A scripting language would not significantly increase our productivity. This is partly due to a set of convenience methods we have for a lot of common effects, combined with a program that stubs out the classes and constructors for cards based on their text. As an example, a card like Think Twice requires us to actually physically write 2 lines of code. That is hard to beat with a scripting language
A Mac OSX version of jMagic is now available!
Minimum requirements: Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard).
To install: Open the disk image then drag the jMagic icon into the Applications folder.
The deck files have been included in a separate directory in the disk image called "Sample Decks". If you want to use them, copy them to your Desktop or home directory, or somewhere else you will be able to find them.
The folks at slightlymagic are providing a game finding server. In the launcher's settings dialog, specify a game finder location of "http://games.slightlymagic.net/jmagic/" (no quotes, final slash required).
Features in jMagic 0.8.1
* The properties and logs directory is in a new location. On Windows it will be in %APPDATA%, on *nix systems the folder is in the same place as it was before but is named '.jmagic' instead of 'jMagic'. You will need to either move your jMagic.properties file to the new folder or reconfigure all your options. See the spoiler for technobabble about Cygwin.
If you're on Windows and for some reason you run jMagic from a POSIX emulation environment like Cygwin, jMagic will use the HOME environment variable since it exists. If you then run it directly from Windows it'll use %APPDATA%. This means you'll have two jMagic configuration directories on your system.
* The Modern format is playable. We've provided some decklists from the Pro Tour this weekend (and the cards to play them, of course).
* Decklists that aren't legal in today's environment have been removed from the distribution. If you would like to keep these decklists, copy them somewhere before removing your old jMagic installation. Summary of decklists removed:
* All of Block - 10E (rotation)
* All of Block - M10 (rotation)
* All of Block - ROE (rotation)
* All of Standard - ZEN (rotation)
* All of Standard - WWK (rotation)
* All of Standard - ROE (rotation)
* All of Standard - M11 (rotation)
* Most of Standard - SOM (banned cards)
* Some of Standard - MBS (banned cards)
* All of Standard - NPH prebanning except for the green-white infect deck (banned cards)
* All of Extended - ZEN (rotation)
* All of Extended - WWK (rotation)
* All of Extended - M11 (rotation)
* Legacy - the Survival deck (banned cards)
Rules updates in jMagic 0.8.1
* Implemented the rule governing changing one target of a spell with multiple targets ("the Spellskite rule")
* Putting a creature onto the battlefield attacking a player that's gone or a planeswalker that's not a planeswalker anymore causes that creature not to be attacking (i.e., responding to ninjutsu by killing the planeswalker)
Game engine bugfixes in jMagic 0.8.1
* Turn skipping works as intended rather than not working at all (e.g. Meditate)
* Cards that search for and exile cards (like Surgical Extraction) don't crash the game when you choose to find nothing
* If an object tries to leave a library at the same time as that library is shuffled, it actually leaves the library (Intuition/Progenitus interaction)
* Various dependencies-related fixes, including March of the Machines/Bludgeon Brawl, and Melira/Phyresis. Dependencies are reevaluated after each effect is applied (as per rule 613.7c).
* Search effects whose source is the game (such as when Archmage Ascension replaces your draw for the turn) don't crash the game
* Pack wars gametypes clear the sideboards from the loaded decks
* Splice doesn't crash the game
* A spell with multiple targets that resolves while a target after the first is illegal won't affect that target (if the first target was illegal this already worked properly)
Card bugfixes in jMagic 0.8.1
* Arrow Volley Trap and Bogardan Hellkite prompt you for "up to five" targets rather than a single target
* Arc Trail's text matches its implementation (it always functioned correctly but the text said it dealt 1 to the first target instead of 2)
* Mox Opal taps
* Standstill triggers on all spells instead of just enchantment spells
* Shapesharer's effect ends when it's supposed to instead of lasting indefinitely
* Mox Diamond's replacement effect doesn't crash the game
* Leyline of Sanctity functions
* Defense of the Heart's trigger condition is correct
* Garruk's Horde casts the card only if it's a creature card
* Mossbridge Troll actually regenerates
* Cloudpost actually makes mana
* Izzet Guildmage's abilities have legal targets
* Denizen of the Deep doesn't bounce itself
* Etherwrought Page doesn't crash the game
* Tuktuk Scrapper's ability functions
* Furnace Scamp's sacrifice is "you may" as it should be
* Harrow is a Zendikar card (and thus legal in Standard and Extended)
* Archmage Ascension, AEther Figment, and Llanowar Elite's static abilities apply only when they're supposed to
* Guardian Seraph functions
* Ghostly Prison functions
* Genesis's triggered ability doesn't crash the game
* Emerge Unscathed doesn't crash the game
jMagic is alive and well. Unfortunately, the past month has been busy for the developers, so we haven't had as much time to comment on these forums as we would like, but we are still making improvements to the game. We always welcome suggestions for cards to implement that we haven't written yet (the whole point of jMagic is to let people play with any card they want) but our forum over at SlightlyMagic has a better organization for these requests.
The developers are getting together fairly soon (2 to 3 weeks) to put together a release with all the fixes requested by the community.
Frór: We've fixed the configuration directory name. This will be present in the upcoming release. Interestingly enough, we coded Merchant Scroll, but changed the Solidarity deck anyway because Merchant Scroll is now restricted. Cést la vie.
TheWolfen: We have written all of the cards you asked for. They will be available in the upcoming release.
We more frequently monitor the sub-forum at SlightlyMagic as it allows us to keep a better handle on what are bugs, feature requests, and the like. Thanks for your support!
Last things first: The solidarity deck using a missing card is an unfortunate oversight on our part. Thankfully the Merchant Scroll is in the sideboard so you can swap it with another card and play the deck just fine (as of right now jMagic does not play multiple-game matches so the sideboards are only relevant for Wish cards). Merchant Scroll has been coded up and we'll have it in the next release.
The interface issues you mention (1 and 2) are tough nuts to crack but definitely not impossible. We'll look at these, but we can't provide any sort of timeline for them.
Surgical Extraction: This is an unfortunate engine bug that has been squashed. 0.8.1 will contain this fix.
Standard decks: Could you post the list that is being rejected? Specifically, are you sure the deck doesn't contain a banned card? We didn't remove the decks with banned cards from the decks folder, but the Standard - NPH is divided into pre-banning and post-banning decks.
Fetchland frame colors: This is ... difficult. We've thought about a few ways to accomplish this but none are elegant. The frame is chosen dynamically based on what the land can produce (watch a Reflecting Pool's frame change as you get more lands into play). If it's something people really want we can definitely look into it further but we just have other priorities at the moment.
KB shortcut: Request noted. This is something we thought about but weren't sure players would appreciate. It's on our ticket list now.
jMagic's home folder's name: This is a good idea and it is on our list.
Standstill: For some strange reason we inadvertently wrote this to trigger on enchantment spells rather than all spells. Noted and fixed; 0.8.1 will contain this fix.
I was playing a game where my opponent controlled a Mox Opal. Its Metalcraft was active, and he activated it, but it didn't tap. He was able to repeatedly activate it on his turn. I suspect that the encoding for Mox Opal's ability is glitched.
Noted and fixed -- 0.8.1 will contain this fix. Thanks!
H_H -- Pretty sure extra turn cards will work with player-controlling effects... but we'll see!
What's New in jMagic 0.8: * We are hosting a game finder. In jMagic->Settings, type "http://jmagic.dyndns.org/games/" (no quotes, final slash required) into the "Game finder:" box to tell jMagic where you want to list your games or look for others' games. * All cards in Magic 2012 are available.
I have the same problem as tgdgc. I believe he is right on that it has do with the deck. I was trying to use an rtf file (it says .txt in my screen shot but it's actuall .rtf). Try just writing up a decklist and saving it, maybe change the extension to .txt just to be sure. When this happens I have to force quit because the message doesn't actually do anything, just disappears when you say yes. Picture
I also get an error when I try connecting to localhost. It says I/O error while trying to connect: Connection refused. I don't know if this happens when I try to connect to others or when they try to connect to me because I haven't yet tried it with other people. As of now I'm assuming it has to do with my router not accepting my host. I haven't port forwarded my new router yet so that could be the problem.
jMagic doesn't support RTF files describing decks. A deck file must be a plain-text file where each line is blank, starts with a "#" to indicate the rest of the line is a comment, or names a card. Lines that name a card can have an "SB:" at the start to mean to have that card in the sideboard. Naming a card can also include a number before the card name to indicate how many of that card to have in the deck. For example:
20 Plains
# Creatures
4 Suntail Hawk
Soul Warden
SB: 1 Gideon Jura
SB: Day of Judgement
Reading in an RTF file and not giving you an error, on the other hand, is a bug and one we have created a ticket to look at.
Did you start a game on before you tried to connect to yourself? In the case of hosting games for other people, jMagic tries to use UPnP to allow others to connect to you without having to mess with port-forwarding manually, but sometimes routers don't play nicely with standards. We have a bug-reporting thread over at SlightlyMagic which you can use to put the exact details behind the bug. Make sure to read the first post in that thread to see what information we're looking for when you report a bug.
I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I don't know how to use the software.
I select a deck, choose a format and then click on the Host button.
A white window (jMagic Starting) will appear and won't go away. If I try to exit, it will ask me if I really want to cancel the host and even if I click yes the window won't disappear.
EDIT: I found out that the problem was the decklist but still that window annoyed me
A problem with the decklist should not result in this behavior. You should get an error message saying what the problem is (though that message is admittedly a little cryptic right now).
Also closing the jMagic Starting window and then confirming should close bring you back to the launcher in short order. If it doesn't then something is wrong and we need to fix it.
If either of these things happen again could you possibly provide more detail? Unfortunately we haven't been able to reproduce these issues.
Also, is there a way I can play goldfish?
No, although you can play against yourself by connecting to localhost.
EDIT: It would also be easier if we could see our own IP when hosting a game (like mws do)
This is actually pretty difficult. Ideally we want players to be using game-finding servers (in which case you don't need to know your IP), but to our knowledge no one has put one up yet.
This is awesome, when are you planning on adding M12?
Magic 2012 is currently in testing. No formal 100% promises, but the plan is currently to have it tested and released this coming weekend, shortly after it is legal for play in paper Magic tournaments.
New features
* New cards -- of course! Avacyn Restored and Magic 2013 are available.
Engine updates
GUI updates
* Abilities are rendered more like cards are, allowing selected modes to be similarly highlighted.
Engine bugfixes
* Granting an object in the graveyard Flashback and then casting it doesn't crash the game.
* Needing to choose between two replacement effects produced by abilities granted by continuous effects (*breathe*) doesn't crash the game.
Card bugfixes:
* Ravager of the Fells's trigger can target zero creatures
* Loyal Cathar's trigger functions
* Blue Sun's Zenith functions
Known issues
* It's possible to activate Deranged Assistant's mana ability while playing a spell or ability, fail to play that spell or ability, and see the top card of your library (while it's in your graveyard). jMagic doesn't yet implement rule 717.1, which would cause Deranged Assistant's mana ability to not be reversed when reversing the illegal play.
* If a card has two instances of flashback (for example, if it already has flashback when Past in Flames resolves) and you cast it via flashback, when it resolves, two competing replacement effects will try to exile it. This is incorrect; only the replacement effect from the instance of flashback you used should try to exile it. This is inconsequential, but annoying.
* Sometimes, if text like "-1/-1" is near the end of a line of text, it will wrap undesirably, putting the "-" and the "1" on separate lines.
New features
* New cards -- of course! Dark Ascension is available.
Engine updates
* Major optimization which should reduce wait times during games significantly.
GUI updates
* Dredge's interface is much less cumbersome. If you want to actually draw a card, just don't select any of the dredge effects. This actually applies to any situation in which all applicable replacement effects are optional.
* In-game chat is available. Just type text in the box below the game log and press enter.
Engine bugfixes
* Hexproof on a player doesn't crash the game
Known issues
* It's possible to activate Deranged Assistant's mana ability while playing a spell or ability, fail to play that spell or ability, and see the top card of your library (while it's in your graveyard). jMagic doesn't yet implement rule 717.1, which would cause Deranged Assistant's mana ability to not be reversed when reversing the illegal play.
* If a card has two instances of flashback (for example, if it already has flashback when Past in Flames resolves) and you cast it via flashback, when it resolves, two competing replacement effects will try to exile it. This is incorrect; only the replacement effect from the instance of flashback you used should try to exile it. This is inconsequential, but annoying.
* Sometimes, if text like "-1/-1" is near the end of a line of text, it will wrap undesirably, putting the "-" and the "1" on separate lines.
There is an additional section in the readme regarding networking. If you're having trouble hosting or connecting to games, you may want to refer to the readme.
Features in jMagic 0.9.0
* New cards -- of course! All of Innistrad, plus lots of Vintage favorites, including Ancestral Recall, Bazaar of Baghdad, Gifts Ungiven, Gush, Mana Drain, Mishra's Workshop, the Moxes, Serum Powder, Time Walk, Tinker, Undiscovered Paradise, Yawgmoth's Will -- and the recently unrestricted Fact or Fiction. A total of 3371 cards are available.
Rules updates in jMagic 0.9.0
* September 2011 B/R list update, format rotations ... plus actually banning any cards at all in Modern.
GUI updates in jMagic 0.9.0
* Corner icons for seeing alternate characteristics such as the other side of a double faced card, what a card was before it copied something, or the front face of a morph.
Card bugfixes in jMagic 0.9.0
* Beastmaster's Magemark actually triggers
* Tarnished Citadel in a decklist doesn't crash the game on startup
* Animate Dead won't remain attached to a noncreature permanent
* Animate Dead doesn't fall off the creature (killing it) at the cleanup step
* Animate Dead's -1/-0 ability functions
* Ichorid and Nether Shadow's graveyard triggers will trigger
* Scavenging Ooze will actually get its counters
* Martial Coup won't destroy its own tokens
* Myr Welder's first ability links it to the cards it exiles
GUI bugfixes in jMagic 0.9.0
* Objects that enter the battlefield attached to an object not on the battlefield don't freeze the interface
Known issues in jMagic 0.9.0
* It's possible to activate Deranged Assistant's mana ability while playing a spell or ability, fail to play that spell or ability, and see the top card of your library (while it's in your graveyard). jMagic doesn't yet implement rule 717.1, which would cause Deranged Assistant's mana ability to not be reversed when reversing the illegal play.
* If a card has two instances of flashback (for example, if it already has flashback when Past in Flames resolves) and you cast it via flashback, when it resolves, two competing replacement effects will try to exile it.
Re: having a card scripting language ... We have actually started on an implementation for one, and let it drop after a short while. To put things in perspective, we wrote all the code for Innistrad in 24 hours. A scripting language would not significantly increase our productivity. This is partly due to a set of convenience methods we have for a lot of common effects, combined with a program that stubs out the classes and constructors for cards based on their text. As an example, a card like Think Twice requires us to actually physically write 2 lines of code. That is hard to beat with a scripting language
Minimum requirements: Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard).
To install: Open the disk image then drag the jMagic icon into the Applications folder.
The deck files have been included in a separate directory in the disk image called "Sample Decks". If you want to use them, copy them to your Desktop or home directory, or somewhere else you will be able to find them.
The folks at slightlymagic are providing a game finding server. In the launcher's settings dialog, specify a game finder location of "http://games.slightlymagic.net/jmagic/" (no quotes, final slash required).
Features in jMagic 0.8.1
* The properties and logs directory is in a new location. On Windows it will be in %APPDATA%, on *nix systems the folder is in the same place as it was before but is named '.jmagic' instead of 'jMagic'. You will need to either move your jMagic.properties file to the new folder or reconfigure all your options. See the spoiler for technobabble about Cygwin.
* Decklists that aren't legal in today's environment have been removed from the distribution. If you would like to keep these decklists, copy them somewhere before removing your old jMagic installation. Summary of decklists removed:
* All of Block - 10E (rotation)
* All of Block - M10 (rotation)
* All of Block - ROE (rotation)
* All of Standard - ZEN (rotation)
* All of Standard - WWK (rotation)
* All of Standard - ROE (rotation)
* All of Standard - M11 (rotation)
* Most of Standard - SOM (banned cards)
* Some of Standard - MBS (banned cards)
* All of Standard - NPH prebanning except for the green-white infect deck (banned cards)
* All of Extended - ZEN (rotation)
* All of Extended - WWK (rotation)
* All of Extended - M11 (rotation)
* Legacy - the Survival deck (banned cards)
Rules updates in jMagic 0.8.1
* Implemented the rule governing changing one target of a spell with multiple targets ("the Spellskite rule")
* Putting a creature onto the battlefield attacking a player that's gone or a planeswalker that's not a planeswalker anymore causes that creature not to be attacking (i.e., responding to ninjutsu by killing the planeswalker)
Game engine bugfixes in jMagic 0.8.1
* Turn skipping works as intended rather than not working at all (e.g. Meditate)
* Cards that search for and exile cards (like Surgical Extraction) don't crash the game when you choose to find nothing
* If an object tries to leave a library at the same time as that library is shuffled, it actually leaves the library (Intuition/Progenitus interaction)
* Various dependencies-related fixes, including March of the Machines/Bludgeon Brawl, and Melira/Phyresis. Dependencies are reevaluated after each effect is applied (as per rule 613.7c).
* Search effects whose source is the game (such as when Archmage Ascension replaces your draw for the turn) don't crash the game
* Pack wars gametypes clear the sideboards from the loaded decks
* Splice doesn't crash the game
* A spell with multiple targets that resolves while a target after the first is illegal won't affect that target (if the first target was illegal this already worked properly)
Card bugfixes in jMagic 0.8.1
* Arc Trail's text matches its implementation (it always functioned correctly but the text said it dealt 1 to the first target instead of 2)
* Mox Opal taps
* Standstill triggers on all spells instead of just enchantment spells
* Shapesharer's effect ends when it's supposed to instead of lasting indefinitely
* Mox Diamond's replacement effect doesn't crash the game
* Leyline of Sanctity functions
* Defense of the Heart's trigger condition is correct
* Garruk's Horde casts the card only if it's a creature card
* Mossbridge Troll actually regenerates
* Cloudpost actually makes mana
* Izzet Guildmage's abilities have legal targets
* Denizen of the Deep doesn't bounce itself
* Etherwrought Page doesn't crash the game
* Tuktuk Scrapper's ability functions
* Furnace Scamp's sacrifice is "you may" as it should be
* Harrow is a Zendikar card (and thus legal in Standard and Extended)
* Archmage Ascension, AEther Figment, and Llanowar Elite's static abilities apply only when they're supposed to
* Guardian Seraph functions
* Ghostly Prison functions
* Genesis's triggered ability doesn't crash the game
* Emerge Unscathed doesn't crash the game
The developers are getting together fairly soon (2 to 3 weeks) to put together a release with all the fixes requested by the community.
Frór: We've fixed the configuration directory name. This will be present in the upcoming release. Interestingly enough, we coded Merchant Scroll, but changed the Solidarity deck anyway because Merchant Scroll is now restricted. Cést la vie.
TheWolfen: We have written all of the cards you asked for. They will be available in the upcoming release.
We more frequently monitor the sub-forum at SlightlyMagic as it allows us to keep a better handle on what are bugs, feature requests, and the like. Thanks for your support!
The interface issues you mention (1 and 2) are tough nuts to crack but definitely not impossible. We'll look at these, but we can't provide any sort of timeline for them.
Surgical Extraction: This is an unfortunate engine bug that has been squashed. 0.8.1 will contain this fix.
Standard decks: Could you post the list that is being rejected? Specifically, are you sure the deck doesn't contain a banned card? We didn't remove the decks with banned cards from the decks folder, but the Standard - NPH is divided into pre-banning and post-banning decks.
Fetchland frame colors: This is ... difficult. We've thought about a few ways to accomplish this but none are elegant. The frame is chosen dynamically based on what the land can produce (watch a Reflecting Pool's frame change as you get more lands into play). If it's something people really want we can definitely look into it further but we just have other priorities at the moment.
KB shortcut: Request noted. This is something we thought about but weren't sure players would appreciate. It's on our ticket list now.
jMagic's home folder's name: This is a good idea and it is on our list.
Standstill: For some strange reason we inadvertently wrote this to trigger on enchantment spells rather than all spells. Noted and fixed; 0.8.1 will contain this fix.
Noted and fixed -- 0.8.1 will contain this fix. Thanks!
H_H -- Pretty sure extra turn cards will work with player-controlling effects... but we'll see!
* We are hosting a game finder. In jMagic->Settings, type "http://jmagic.dyndns.org/games/" (no quotes, final slash required) into the "Game finder:" box to tell jMagic where you want to list your games or look for others' games.
* All cards in Magic 2012 are available.
jMagic doesn't support RTF files describing decks. A deck file must be a plain-text file where each line is blank, starts with a "#" to indicate the rest of the line is a comment, or names a card. Lines that name a card can have an "SB:" at the start to mean to have that card in the sideboard. Naming a card can also include a number before the card name to indicate how many of that card to have in the deck. For example:
Reading in an RTF file and not giving you an error, on the other hand, is a bug and one we have created a ticket to look at.
Did you start a game on before you tried to connect to yourself? In the case of hosting games for other people, jMagic tries to use UPnP to allow others to connect to you without having to mess with port-forwarding manually, but sometimes routers don't play nicely with standards. We have a bug-reporting thread over at SlightlyMagic which you can use to put the exact details behind the bug. Make sure to read the first post in that thread to see what information we're looking for when you report a bug.
A problem with the decklist should not result in this behavior. You should get an error message saying what the problem is (though that message is admittedly a little cryptic right now).
Also closing the jMagic Starting window and then confirming should close bring you back to the launcher in short order. If it doesn't then something is wrong and we need to fix it.
If either of these things happen again could you possibly provide more detail? Unfortunately we haven't been able to reproduce these issues.
No, although you can play against yourself by connecting to localhost.
This is actually pretty difficult. Ideally we want players to be using game-finding servers (in which case you don't need to know your IP), but to our knowledge no one has put one up yet.
Magic 2012 is currently in testing. No formal 100% promises, but the plan is currently to have it tested and released this coming weekend, shortly after it is legal for play in paper Magic tournaments.