Add some annotations for what kind of "deck" it is

[taw]

There's a lot of things in this dataset that aren't really precons.

There's a type field, but that's just whatever WotC labelled it as, and they've not been super consistent.

I think two extra fields would help.

• category: "deck", "halfdeck", "box", "guide" (and maybe some non tournament legal precon WCxx?)
• format: "casual", "standard", "commander", "modern", "pioneer", "brawl", "archenemy", "planechase"
• format is always null for boxes, and always non-null for everything else

Issues where I have an answer (but please comment if you have a different opinion):

• [x] 30 card halfdecks legality - M15 actually had Standard legal halfdecks like this, I think they should be category: "halfdeck", format: "standard" as you were supposed to mash two of them and it would result in a tournament legal deck
• [x] Jumpstarts-19? The list is not even actual halfdeck, the halfdeck is that plus one random card (in display field). I think it's best to just make it category: "halfdeck", format: "jumpstart" and be done with it
• [x] Should casual subformats like jumpstart, archenemy, planechase get their own specific format values? I'm leaning towards yes as it doesn't really cost us anything
• [x] about 2/3 of non-SLD boxes (and 1/6 of SLD boxes) only consist of Standard-legal cards. Is there any value in making distinction between category: "box", format: "standard" vs category: "box", format: "casual", or just leave them all as category: "box", format: null? (and they've been a few boxes specifically for Commander like CM1). I'm leaning towards leaving it as null
• [x] MOC is format: "planechase commander"
• [x] undersized precons consisting of only 40 (or less) Standard legal cards format are format: "casual standard"
• [x] a few sets (W17, C20) had minor release time legality mess, I'll just adjust it in legality checker
• [x] what was the format of WC97? WC98+ was all Standard, but it doesn't seem to work fdor WC97. https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Jakub_Slemr says the format was "Special", so I guess format: "casual" (even though WC is the exact opposite of "casual")
• [x] Arena format situation is a mess, so I'll tag all of them as format: "arena", some are Standard, some are Standard+ANB (is that a real format on Arena?)
• [x] 2 precons and 2 guides contained banned cards. Somehow the precon with Stoneforge Mystic didn't, I guess it got banned just slightly after its release.
• [x] it looks like "Arena Starter Deck" and similar are randomly standard legal or not, what's the intended format for it? I just marked them all as format: "arena", as Arena did a lot of weird things with formats over time. About half of format: "arena" decks were legal for Arena Standard
• [x] of 4 "Spellslinger Starter Kit" decks, 3 are Standard legal, and 1 almost-so but has a single GNT card (confirmed in unboxing videos), wtf?

Still open issues:

• [ ] WCxx? are they category: "deck", format: "standard" even though they're explicitly not tournament legal?
• [ ] do we need extra platform field (paper deck vs in game deck?)

[axxroytovu]

I think we also need format:Shandalar, alchemy, brawl, jumpstart

The WCxx decks are format:null because the cards aren't legal for play.

Maybe instead of "in game deck" you use Arena/MTGO/Shandalar to further differentiate?

[taw]

Weren't WCxx literally from Standard tournaments, except in non-tournament legal printings? I'm not sure if that's format: standard, or format: null.

[taw]

I started adding some categories.

There's some weird small products (are they all box?). I'll also need to check if all intro/theme/mtgo/etc. decks are same format or not.

I don't remember which precons were Standard and which were Casual. IIRC WotC used to release both under fairly generic names.

Do we need another field for platform?

[kodawah]

Weren't WCxx literally from Standard tournaments, except in non-tournament legal printings? I'm not sure if that's format: standard, or format: null.

WCxx was but PTC decks had a variation in which 5 non-standard cards were added -- given the weird state, maybe a spearate category is needed? memorabilia?

what's the usecase for adding a format like "standard" or "brawl" given these are rotational?

[taw]

The precon db is mostly of historical interest, it's not like anyone is going to take a Commander or Modern deck from 5-10 years ago and try to play it in a tournament. Cards could be banned by now, or it would just be unplayable anyway.

My format legality checker can be pointed at any date (except for edge cases like Arena rebalanced cards, pre-1997 Magic, and Penny Dreadful), so might as well use that.

I'll tag "ptc" as casual if it's in no established format.

[taw]

Here's the decks format checker flags, either for not being the format they say, or for being Standard when they're tagged casual:

["uds", "Enchanter - Enhanced Deck", 75, "Enhanced Deck", "guide", "standard", "FAIL"]
* Time Spiral
["uds", "Fiendish Nature - Enhanced Deck", 75, "Enhanced Deck", "guide", "standard", "FAIL"]
* Recurring Nightmare
["m19", "Red-White Deck", 60, "Spellslinger Starter Kit", "deck", "standard", "FAIL"]
* Inspiring Captain
["q07", "Mono White Aggro", 75, "Challenger Deck", "deck", "standard", "FAIL"]
* Faceless Haven
["q08", "Izzet Phoenix", 75, "Pioneer Challenger Deck", "deck", "pioneer", "FAIL"]
* Expressive Iteration

[taw]

OK, this is working well enough that I included it in json exports. We can tweak the edge cases. Please report any issues you have.

[taw]

If nobody has any issues with current implementation, I'm going to close it. Let me know if it's working for you.