felixschoen / proxky-v2

A fully-automated proxy generator for 'Magic: The Gathering'

ProxKy

ProxKy is a fully automated custom proxy generator for the trading-card game Magic: The Gathering. It pulls data from Scryfall and fills an InDesign template with the retrieved information. ProxKy supports specification of the amount, set, collector's number and special printing flags for each card.

Examples

We provide example images of four automatically generated cards, these being Black Lotus , Underground Sea , Jace, the Mind Sculptor , Brisela, Voice of Nightmares , Mountain , Murderous Rider , Paladin Class, and The Eldest Reborn. Note that these were generated using version 1.0 of ProxKy.

Note that the literal and graphical content provided is copyright of Wizards of the Ceast, LLC. All images provded serve as fan content, permitted under the WotC fan content policy.

Changelog

Version 1.0, 2022-02-07

• Initial release

Guides

This section provides readers with some information on how to e.g. format their decks lists in order to make ProxKy able to parse them.

Decklist Formatting

Note that ProxKy is only able to parse decklists in the form of *.txt files, where each entry corresponds to exactly one card. No line may be empty. At the moment, ProxKy does not support comments, although support for this feature is planned. The general format of a line in a decklist is as follows:

{Amount} {Cardname} [{Flags}]

Note that text in italics represents an optional argument, meaning that it is not required for all cards and can rather be used to make some adjustments for specific ones. An example of the above syntax would be as follows (note that for the third entry we used one of the optional arguments):

5 Black Lotus
1 Far // Away
3 Mox Diamond [set: V10]

For an explanation of which optional arguments are available, what they do and how to use them, we refer to the section Parameters.

Generally, and entry will correspond to the card first found using a standard search on Scryfall. Although this means that e.g. artwork, set information like rarity, and other information of this nature depends on the exact card found, the printed rules text corresponds to the internal oracle text, which is the same across all versions of a card. Due to this fact, it is usually sufficient to only provide the name of one face of a card (in case of multi-faced cards, such as Clearwater Pathway).

Parameters

These special arguments allow for further customization. For example, the exact version of a card can be defined (in case there are several version, and one prefers artwork of one version over the other), or some style choices can be made. Multiple arguments can be used for a single card, in this case they need to be separated using ,  (a comma and a whitespace).

We provide an example of the use of such arguments:

1 Black Lotus [set: OVNT]
1 Lotus Cobra [set: ZNR, cn: 307]
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth [tba: front]
1 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager [tba: both]
1 Gisela, the Broken Blade [tba: back]

In the following, we will discuss the exact usage and effect of the parameters.

Parameter "set"

Using this parameter, we can define the exact set which a card is pulled from. This is useful in case there are several printings, which differ in e.g. artwork. The exact syntax is set: {SET}, were {SET} is to be replaced with the (all uppercase) 3 to 5 letters uniquely identifying a set. Example:

1 Black Lotus [set: OVNT]

In this case, the card Black Lotus is pulled from the "Vintage Championship" set, which is not its default set when searching for it on scryfall.

Parameter "cn"

Using this parameter, we can define the collector's number of a card in addition to its set. Note that this only works when also specifying a set, since collector numbers are not unique across sets. Example:

1 Lotus Cobra [set: ZNR, cn: 307]

In this case the Lotus Cobra card with collector's number 307 in the set Zendikar Rising will be retrieved, which is not the standard when searching for it. This card has a special artwork, which will then be used by ProxKy.

Parameter "id"

Using this parameter we can uniquely describe a card in the database of Scryfall, although this process is rather tedious. It can be useful for cards which cannot be otherwise fetched using the search function, e.g. tokens. The internal id value can be found by clicking on "Copy-pastable JSON" under "IMAGES AND DATA" on the Scryfall page of a card, and then copying the value (without quotation marks) which is under the "id" entry. Example:

1 Treasure [id: a3a684b7-27e0-4d9e-a064-9e03c6e50c89]

This results in a Treasure token being printed, in this case from the set Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Tokens. We once again remark upon the fact that this method should only be used for cards where specification over set and collector's number is not possible.

Parameter "tba"

This parameter results in a style choice which can be made for cards. It stands for "transparent body artwork", and once applied will make the lower half of the card (containing rules text and so on) slightly transparent. This provides a visual distinction from other cards, and can make certain special cards feel more valuable. It is very important to note that this approach does only work for cards where high-reolution artwork is locally stored, and not for cards where the artwork is automatically retrieved from Scryfall (which is almost all of them).

It is usually best to assume that no such artwork already exists. In this case we recommend checking out Art of MTG, which often provide such artwork. If it does not exist on that page, conducting a quick Google search often yields usable results. We refer to section Providing High-Resolution Artwork on information on how to provide this artwork yourself.

This parameter takes as input either the value "front", "back" or "both", which directly correspond to which face of a card to apply the style choice to. The latter two parameters only work for cards which actually have a backside. An example:

1 Gisela, the Broken Blade [tba: back]

In this case, the front side of the card, representing Gisela, the Broken Blade, will remain normal. Only the backside of the card, containing Brisela, Voice of Nightmares will have the special transparency effect.

Providing High-Resolution Artwork

In case you insist on using the "tba" parameter, you have to make sure that high-resolution artwork of the cards exists. Since this artwork can only be manually downloaded and cannot be automated, the only option is to manually add it to the database. In order to do so, decide on which version of the card you want to use (using the Scryfall) platform. note the name, set and collector's number of the card. Proceed to find high-resolution artwork of this card afterwards.

After finding such artwork it is very important how this artwork is saved, otherwise it will not be found by the program. In the root folder (containing all the different artwork, e.g. a folder called "Artwork") create a folder for each set that you found artwork for. Then, save the artwork under the corresponding folder, using the following format:

[Collector's Number] - [Cardname]

For example, if you want to provide artwork for Black Lotus of the Vintage Masters set, and a few other cards, your folder structure would have to look like this:

Artwork
    \ EMN
        \ 15a - Bruna, the Fading Light.png
        \ 15b - Brisela, Voice of Nightmares.png
        \ 28 - Gisela, the Broken Blade.jpg
    \ UMA
        \ 6 - Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.jpg
        \ 250 - Rogue's Passage.jpg
    \ VMA
        \ 4 - Black Lotus.png
    \ ZNR
        \ 189 - Kazandu Mammoth.png
        \ 189 - Kazandu Valley.jpg

Note that the collector's number has to correspond to the number in Scryfall, not to the one printed on the card.

The above example also shows how to provide images for double faced cards (using Bruna, the Fading Light and Kazandu Mammoth). If the backside contains an entirely different card (as is the case for meld cards), the collector's number for the two faces will differ, otherwise simply provide two files with the same collector's number but different card names. The program will use them for the front- and back faces respectively.

Finally, after having created this structure, zip the files and send them to me via any means possible. I will them add them to the database, and they will automatically be used for the program. This can be done for any cards where you would prefer higher-resolution artwork instead of the (low resolution) Scryfall one.

License

As of time of writing, we are not making the required templates publicly available.