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: : MAGIC WORKSTATION HOW-TO
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Kieth890
Magic Workstation How-To
A tutorial on how to set up the Workstation and use it to play online free
Posted on: 1/4/2011 9:57 PM By Kieth890
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What is Magic Workstation?
Taken from its site:
"Magic Workstation is a powerful tool intended for collectible card players to easily manage their collections, design winning decks and test it on virtual card table."
Basically it's a free program made for card trading games of any kind. You can make decks with it and test them against other real players over the internet all for free. There are no built in rules, you need to know them and follow them as if you are playing with paper cards. The deck builder on this site is much more intuitive and good looking than the Magic Workstation builder, but the Workstation's best part isn't the deck builder. The point of the workstation is that you can actually play with others over the internet for free using any of the cards you want. Before you decide to install it or not, here are some pictures of the actual program installed on my computer:...Hmmm, I can't get the images inserted on the blog, so here are the links to them with the image names in yellow:
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4057/workstationstartup.jpg
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/4601/classicview.jpg
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/2148/workstationdeckbuilder.jpg
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/672/workstationtoolbar.jpg
http://img813.imageshack.us/i/newgamebox.jpg/
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7506/workstationgame.jpg
That last image was me playing against myself, which is why you can see the oppenent's hand.
How to Install it and get it Working
So you've decided that this program sounds pretty neat and would like to try it out. Well then, read on and I'll tell you how.
First of all, there's some things you need to download, so go ahead and get those started while reading the rest of the guide. Here are the links to the downloads:
Download the Magic Workstation program, the download is found here: http://www.magicworkstation.com/downloads.php
Download the MTG Card Database exe(located near the top of the page): http://www.mwsgames.com/index.php/Main_Page
Download this theme to make the program look better: http://rapidshare.com/#!download|155cg|60880641|Malhavoc_s_Post_8th.mwTheme|2062
And lastly (but definitely not least) download the pictures for the cards. The more current sets (except M11, it's in the top right column) are towards the bottom of the page, and you can decide which sets you need. I only chose to download the sets in standard:
http://mws.mtgbr.com/Full-01.htm
Now run the Magic Workstation exe (named mws094f.exe by default).
1. Click Next and accept the agreement, then click next again.
2. IMPORTANT: if you are running Windows 7 then you need to change the installation location to C:\Magic Workstation
If you are not running Windows 7, then just leave the install location alone and click next.
3. Choose icon options if desired, and click next, and finish the installation. Don't worry about any messages having to due with Game Packs or Bases if they appear.
4. This is similar to what a fresh install should look like: http://www.mwsgames.com/files/1/14/Fresh_Install_30.jpg
5. Exit out of the Workstation
Now it is time to configure it for Magic the Gathering.
1. Run the MTG Card Database exe (named mtg_gamepack.exe by default) and let it install.
2. When that is done open the workstation again and you should have mtg cards listed. If you click view you can change your view to deck edit mode and back again.
3. Almost done. Go to Tools->Preferences and under General check the High Quality Image Generation checkbox. Next go go to Image View and check the Flavor text and Help info boxes. Now close out of the Tools box (Clicking OK), then exit the program.
4. Now copy the Malhavoc_s_Post_8th.mwTheme you downloaded into C:\MagicWorkstation\Themes (yours might look a little different, like C:\ProgramFiles\MagicWorkstation\Themes).
5. Open up the Workstation again, go to Tools->Preferences (or press F10), then Interface, and change the graphic theme to the Malhavoc one. Click OK and exit the program once again.
6. The last thing we need to do is get some pictures. Hopefully your downloads have finished by now. The pictures should be pretty simple. First you need to extract them (with/in their folder) out of the archive using 7zip or Winrar (You can easily find these programs with Google if you don't already have them, just Google the name).
7. The images should still be inside the folder with the name similar to their set abbreviation (like WWK for Worldwake or ZEN for Zendikar). All you should have to do is copy the picture folder into the C:\MagicWorkstation\Pics folder (again, your folder address might be slightly different). For example, if you wanted only Worldwake and Zendikar pictures, then the C:\ProgramFiles\MagicWorkstation\Pics folder would contain 2 folders, one named WWK and the other ZEN. Inside those folders would be the actual pictures.
8. That's it. Start up the Workstation, and the cards should have pictures. (only from the sets you downloaded for). The Magic workstation is ready to go.
Using the program isn't all that complicated, but if you have any questions or need help you can either post a comment on this blog or post in this thread: http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/forums/messages.aspx?TopicID=307&MessageID=1702#post1702
Also post in that thread if you want to play a game of magic with someone (like me  )
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