Feature request: Include showcase cards in packs

[joshbirnholz]

I use Draftmancer to draft with friends and then import our decks to play on Tabletop Simulator rather than Arena. When drafting (ie, not cube or custom card lists), it would be fun to have an option to include showcase cards in packs to more closely mimic opening paper packs. I don't know the exact drop rate of showcase cards, but it could be something like: Whenever a card shows up in a booster, if it has a showcase version 1 in 3 times it's replaced with the showcase or borderless version.

Another suggestion would be that it would also be nice to have a similar feature for custom card lists, where a different art version (or a card from a different "showcase" slot) can be pulled at some rate, within the same layout. This would also make it easier to create layouts with some different individual slots, and others shared.

[tiera3]

Most sets seem to have showcase versions at 1/3 (as you suggested), though there are some sets that use 1/4.

You can look up a set on https://www.lethe.xyz/mtg/collation/ for information.

As long as you are using "withReplacement": true then you can do this with the current cube format.
If the set has 1/3 showcase frequency, list cards as:

3 cardwithoutshowcasevariant (set) cn
2 cardbaseversionthathasvariant (set) cn
1 cardshowcasevariant (set) cn

For example, AFR uses 1/4 showcase frequency, as has a showcase variant for You Find the Villains' Lair, so the following specification works

4 You Hear Something on Watch (afr) 42
4 Silver Raven (afr) 74
3 You Find the Villains' Lair (afr) 84
1 You Find the Villains' Lair (afr) 399
4 Vampire Spawn (afr) 123
4 Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade (afr) 128

[joshbirnholz]

I understand that this can be done in the cube format. But that would involve recreating cube layouts for real sets, if we just want to draft real sets.

This is easy enough for old draft boosters, but for play boosters and sets that have their own custom complicated slots (like March of the Machine with its double-faced cards and multiverse legends), it can be a lot of work to recreate those accurately. That’s work that is already done by draftmancer! That is why I’m asking for the feature to be an option when drafting a real set.

[tiera3]

That is a project I have started - recreating old sets with printrun collation to better mimic paper drafts. I have not attempted MKM yet (the only play booster set with some printrun information), but I have done March of the Machine.

For DMR I have included full variant options, however other sets I have only implemented card variants for Uncommons, Commans, and Lands, not for Rares or Mythics. If you are interested, the files for the sets I have done are available https://vm1.substation33.com/tiera/t/lethe/ . For sets other than DMR, you would need to manually edit the files to include variant printings for rares and mythics.

[joshbirnholz]

Oh wow, yes I've referenced that site many times while working on my own projects. These are very helpful, thanks!