Useful Magic Set Editor (MSE) Tips
Hi! I’m DamnYouModoShuffler (DYMS, never came up with a better shortname). I’m a reasonably well-known (not really) custom magic card designer. I wanted to share some tips for those who use MSE, since this reduces the hassle of design, improves the quality of the work, and thus increases the other part of designing - the fun!
You’ve got some kickass flavor text attributed to some super badass in your story. Make sure you save space and template properly! Otherwise they won’t be so badass. Have the attributed person’s name go on a line directly beneath the quotes. To do this, hit Shift+Enter instead of simply hitting Enter to go to the attribution line. Also be sure to type the dash twice (no spaces!). It converts it from the short dash to the long dash used for quoting and card modes (but we’ll get to that later).
Be sure to put your name/url/username/whatever in the “Copyright” section before you start making cards. It’s in the “Set Info” tab at the top of your screen. Do this every time you make a new file!
This will automatically put your name into every card you make. It’s a lot easier than doing it individually!
You can also edit any individual copyrights at will, but you can’t make batch changes, even if you change the copyright. It only affects new cards made.
Your work is art too! Make sure that people know who made it! This is great for building followers too, since sometimes custom cards go viral and you want to make sure they know who the designer is.
Have a cycle? Rather than make the same cards over and over, make one card and then copy+paste it four/nine times!
To maximize your awesome skills, fill out all the cycle-bits before copying. These are the rarity, card type, subtypes, mana cost (minus color), and abilities. Also, if you leave the name blank, it stays with the editable [CARDNAME] field, which will allow easy cycle-filling once you’ve copied the cards. Don’t give the first card a name before copying!
Also, the [CARDNAME] field is created by typing ~ instead of actually writing the word CARDNAME - don’t do that! That’s silly and nonfunctional.
Now this is a great copy template!
And the fruits of our labor!
Here’s a bullet point. •
I found mine here, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_(typography)
If you lose this post, just remember to Google ‘Bullet Point’ and you’ll get the Wikipedia page as your first result.
When making cards with modes, be sure to type the dash twice when saying “Choose X”. Also be sure to hit enter when going from the ‘choose’ line to the modes, and shift+enter when going between modes. Save space, template smart!
NEVER FORGET ARTIST CREDIT
Not sure who the artist for your piece is? Run a Reverse Image Search through TinEye. I also believe that Google has a Reverse Image Search, but I am not knowledgeable with it.
http://www.tineye.com/ - TinEye lets you upload images or enter a URL. Look for DeviantArt pages or anything that has a real person’s name in the search results.
If you’ve lost the image file but still have the image on your card (happens to me plenty, actually) - just do this:
1. Export the card image.
2. Open the card image file you just exported in your photo editor of choice. (I use paint for expediency on this)
3. Crop out only the art, and save that as its own image.
4. Run it through TinEye! Even if the image is stretched or cropped, it should still find what you’re looking for.
Artists put their heart and soul into their work. Be sure to credit it! Don’t have no heart and no soul by refusing this.
Thanks for reading! I hope you learned something from this. To those who already knew all of these, I hope you read it and realized your awesome skills! Now go out there and make cool things!
amandla
gamechangershow
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
origamiaround
blakekathryn
