FAQ

What is this?

ShoeboxMTG is an application that allows you to take your collection of Magic cards and see what established decks you can build or come closest to building.

Do I really have to enter my whole collection into this thing? What a pain.

No, you don't. You'll get better results the more you enter, but really the fastest way to start is the Format Staples Wizard.

Pick a format. The Wizard will show you the most expensive cards that see play in that format. Enter how many (if any) you have of each card. The more you enter, the better your matches will be. But you can stop and come back at any time.

Isn't this just "Netdecking"?

Yes. This tool just provides a way to maximize the value of the cards you already own.

Who do you use for pricing?

We partner with TCGPlayer.com for pricing data.

I want to use another price source. Can you use SomeOtherBrandMagicStore?

Most other online Magic vendors don't provide an easy way for apps to use their price data. In fact, some prohibit it. There are really only a few stores worth considering as market makers and of them, TCGPlayer is by far the best to work with. Something major would have to change in the landscape for us to consider a change / addition.

Can you implement Magic Online pricing?

This is a planned feature for the future. Stay tuned.

I found a price that doesn't match what TCGPlayer is selling the card for. Why is that?

We update our price database daily. When prices change between updates (say if a card spikes durring a major tournament), sometimes individual cards can lag behind. They will catch up in the next update. This usually will not impact the total price of most decks by much. This is a tradeoff we make to keep the performance of the application relativly fast.

Where did the decks come from? How were they chosen?

The decks in our database were all decks that placed (Top 8, Top 16, etc.) in recent "premiere" Magic Tournaments. Generally these are Pro Tour, Grand Prix, Open, Max Point series, and qualifiers for the same. The lowest-level tournaments tend to be TCGPlayer and SCG States.

Do you include MTGO Dailies in your deck data?

Not currently. We're looking for a way to implement decks from smaller tournaments to give more choice, without dilluting the quality of the decks that get presented.

I did a search for decks by date and the results included decks outside that range. How come?

Our system uses the publishing date, because not all events have a date listed. For example, if an event occurs on August 1st, and the decklists aren't published until August 5th, our system will see the date of the event as August 5th. Sometimes the date of the event is in the event name, sometimes not. If you see an error, let us know.

Why is it called ShoeboxMTG?

Because it makes it easier to build decks when you're just starting with a "shoebox full of cards".