MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Keef's Review Of The New Website. What Were They Thinking?
Hey, Its Keef, you may know me on MTGCardsmith as TheKeefMan, or possibly ThatKeefGuy. I've been a predominant member of the community for the better part of 2 years and am hoping of continuing it. This is my review of the new webite layout in its (near) entirety. (I will not be exploring the Proxy printing services and its changes in this review.) Most, if not all of this review is subjective, and is based off my personal experience using the website. You may have had differing experiences than I have, so keep that in mind.
If there was one word to describe these changes, it would be 'Frustrating'. Firstly, lets go over the home page, the front of the website, and it's many flaws. To begin, it is slow as balls. The old interface wasnt exactly speedy to begin with, but using the new layout feels like the webite's packets are being drug through molasses on the way to my browser. I use Cardsmith primarily on a PC, a decent one at that. Running off half-gig fiberoptic view ethernet. I probably have the most ideal machine to run this website, and its awful. It's entirely a server-side slowness.
The layout of the homepage is more or less the same as before. Just with a new coat of paint. It looks good in my honest opinion. Although, when you go to preview a card from the homepage, things start to fall apart. When you click on a card, it no longer redirects you to the cards real page. It instead gives you an embed popup. This makes it harder to share cards, This could easily be fixed if there was a 'Share' button anywhere in this popup, but there isn't. Another issue I have with this embed, there's no easy way to see who made the card or be directed to their profile from this embed. The only way to see the cardsmith from this popup is tucked away at the bottom of it, in the "Love this card?" Section.
I've marked where the cardsmith is, but I've also highlighted deadspace where the author could be put. You can also see who made it on the pagefront where you first saw it. But this doesn't excuse the popup's lack of one.
Now I do want to talk about the issues I had with, and still have logging into the site. I have used the new update on three different browsers; My main browser, Firefox, Microsoft edge and Brave Browser. The latter two being Chromium based. I used to be unable to login on Firefox, but I could sign in if I fiddled with the other two long enough, though it was very inconsistent. It's better now and am able to login on Firefox, but sometimes it will still have issues and will need to fuss about with it.
I will brush over the new 'Contests' tab shortly. There are two contests that will happen at a given time. A weekly contest, that changes weekly, and a monthly. All self explanatory. From what I've seen the weekly and monthly contests are usually the same format, requiring you to give new art to a preexisting magic card, but the monthly having a bigger reward for the winners. The winnings you can earn are cash coupons for aforementioned proxy printing service. The weekly contests awards a 15$, 8$ and 5$ coupon depends on your placement and the monthly awarding 50$, 20$ and 10$ respectively.
Now I'd like to talk about the new 'Browse' section of the website. I'd love this section if it actually worked. But with the speed of the website, you don't so much as "browse" as you do wait. It's fine for what it is and I'll touch on it more as we get into the card editor, because they play hand in hand as you'll see.
We've finally gotten to what most of you probably actually care about, the new editor, and yes I have opinions.
Surprisingly, I've actually used this editor before, and I've got a low of experience with it. It's literally just a copy of MTGCardBuilder's editor, but instead of being very intuitive and straightforward, it is stripped off all polish and usability. If MTGCardBuilder was Windows 11. MTGCardsmith would be fucking MSDOS. Trying to do anything beyond making the most basic card imaginable is a slugfest. Not only with the site's responsiveness being nonexistent, trying to make adjustments and modifications to the frame is so confusing. I most MTGCardBuilder. In my opinion it is the most in-depth editor there is, not to mention its fairly easy to get good with. I've been using CardBuilder for around a year, mainly for custom proxy creation, so you'd think using the new Cardsmith editor would be easy, right? Yes, and a big no.
This editor is a steaming pile of shit. Nothing is polished, it doesn't even looked finished. It looks like a test build, not a release version. Come with me to build card, why don't you?
Before then, lets to a quick comparison. The first image is CardBuilder, the second Cardsmith. Which one looks more intuitive. CardBuilder right? Right. See what I mean by how Cardsmith doesnt even look finished? But its whatever, if it makes a good card, who cares.
First lets add a frame. This is where I first get tripped up. On CardBuilder, the frames are right there to use. Nice and easy. Not on Cardsmith. On Cardsmith I have to go to Frames -> Frames -> Choose a Frame, and go through this god awful UI.
This front page of the frame selection is so weird. All the frames from the legacy editor are here. It's not that its bad, it just looks really unprofessional. For this demonstation I'm going to be making an Adventure card. Something that was impossible in the legacy editor. You go to the dropdown on the left, and click on Adventures.
If there was one word to describe these changes, it would be 'Frustrating'. Firstly, lets go over the home page, the front of the website, and it's many flaws. To begin, it is slow as balls. The old interface wasnt exactly speedy to begin with, but using the new layout feels like the webite's packets are being drug through molasses on the way to my browser. I use Cardsmith primarily on a PC, a decent one at that. Running off half-gig fiberoptic view ethernet. I probably have the most ideal machine to run this website, and its awful. It's entirely a server-side slowness.
The layout of the homepage is more or less the same as before. Just with a new coat of paint. It looks good in my honest opinion. Although, when you go to preview a card from the homepage, things start to fall apart. When you click on a card, it no longer redirects you to the cards real page. It instead gives you an embed popup. This makes it harder to share cards, This could easily be fixed if there was a 'Share' button anywhere in this popup, but there isn't. Another issue I have with this embed, there's no easy way to see who made the card or be directed to their profile from this embed. The only way to see the cardsmith from this popup is tucked away at the bottom of it, in the "Love this card?" Section.
I've marked where the cardsmith is, but I've also highlighted deadspace where the author could be put. You can also see who made it on the pagefront where you first saw it. But this doesn't excuse the popup's lack of one.
Now I do want to talk about the issues I had with, and still have logging into the site. I have used the new update on three different browsers; My main browser, Firefox, Microsoft edge and Brave Browser. The latter two being Chromium based. I used to be unable to login on Firefox, but I could sign in if I fiddled with the other two long enough, though it was very inconsistent. It's better now and am able to login on Firefox, but sometimes it will still have issues and will need to fuss about with it.
I will brush over the new 'Contests' tab shortly. There are two contests that will happen at a given time. A weekly contest, that changes weekly, and a monthly. All self explanatory. From what I've seen the weekly and monthly contests are usually the same format, requiring you to give new art to a preexisting magic card, but the monthly having a bigger reward for the winners. The winnings you can earn are cash coupons for aforementioned proxy printing service. The weekly contests awards a 15$, 8$ and 5$ coupon depends on your placement and the monthly awarding 50$, 20$ and 10$ respectively.
Now I'd like to talk about the new 'Browse' section of the website. I'd love this section if it actually worked. But with the speed of the website, you don't so much as "browse" as you do wait. It's fine for what it is and I'll touch on it more as we get into the card editor, because they play hand in hand as you'll see.
We've finally gotten to what most of you probably actually care about, the new editor, and yes I have opinions.
Surprisingly, I've actually used this editor before, and I've got a low of experience with it. It's literally just a copy of MTGCardBuilder's editor, but instead of being very intuitive and straightforward, it is stripped off all polish and usability. If MTGCardBuilder was Windows 11. MTGCardsmith would be fucking MSDOS. Trying to do anything beyond making the most basic card imaginable is a slugfest. Not only with the site's responsiveness being nonexistent, trying to make adjustments and modifications to the frame is so confusing. I most MTGCardBuilder. In my opinion it is the most in-depth editor there is, not to mention its fairly easy to get good with. I've been using CardBuilder for around a year, mainly for custom proxy creation, so you'd think using the new Cardsmith editor would be easy, right? Yes, and a big no.
This editor is a steaming pile of shit. Nothing is polished, it doesn't even looked finished. It looks like a test build, not a release version. Come with me to build card, why don't you?
Before then, lets to a quick comparison. The first image is CardBuilder, the second Cardsmith. Which one looks more intuitive. CardBuilder right? Right. See what I mean by how Cardsmith doesnt even look finished? But its whatever, if it makes a good card, who cares.
First lets add a frame. This is where I first get tripped up. On CardBuilder, the frames are right there to use. Nice and easy. Not on Cardsmith. On Cardsmith I have to go to Frames -> Frames -> Choose a Frame, and go through this god awful UI.
This front page of the frame selection is so weird. All the frames from the legacy editor are here. It's not that its bad, it just looks really unprofessional. For this demonstation I'm going to be making an Adventure card. Something that was impossible in the legacy editor. You go to the dropdown on the left, and click on Adventures.
Comments
Fine, whatever, its fine. Lets just add the colors. I'm going to make it Izzet, blue and red. now lets compare this to CardBuilder and Cardsmith. Lets start with CardBuilder. On CardBuilder this is very easy. I'll simply click the blue adventure frame, then on the side I can choose the mask I want. I'll click pipline and then click "ADD FRAME TO CARD" Then I'll do the same for the Adventure rules, and card rules.
Looking good, lets mirror it on Cardsmith. Ok I'll click the blue adventure frame and it will say "Frame Added" I didn't get any options for masks like in CardBuilder and I also cant see my card so lets close the frames windows.
Ah. I see. Now I have to manually add the masks by clicking [Workspace] the Blue Frame on my layers. Now here's the fun part. You have to double click the mask you want, go out of the Workshop, and go back to frames and select another blue frame and it will add with the mask you've selected. Repeat this until you get your desired frame.
If you want to move the art on the card. you can physically grab the art and drag it around the card. If you want to make it bigger, click on the cog next to "Art for card" and you can use the "Scale" slider. You can also rotate the art here at well. I do want to mention you can add art via URL also.
Now lets add some text. So we'll click "Text" and it will take us to "Frame Text" and We'll fill this out. We'll be back here for some gripes but for now we'll just name the card and put the card type.
Nice, now we'll click on "Rule text" and go forward.
The things I've highlighted in the "Signature" box are syntax that tell the text to be displaced that way. Which isn't a problem, but you can only edit this box if you pay the 9.99$/m to get a premium account. This is so you can't remove the MTGCardSmith watermark without paying which is fine. But I feel there should be an option to move this text up and down without paying. This is the same with CardBuilder as well, and just seems like something left over from porting the editors. But whatever, lets publish the card.
Press "Save and Publish" It'll ask if its a preexisting card or a custom, answer accordingly and then fill out this little About Your Card thing and click publish. Note that you need at least two tags before you can publish your card.
That's basically all the new website has to offer. Its a disappointing product in my opinion. For how long its taken to come out I expected way more polish. I hope to see many improvements in the coming months or weeks, if not, well, shame. Its usable if you really want to make a card, but if Cardsmith didn't have such a great community behind it I would've been making cards on CardBuilder full time for awhile now.
I give the new update a 4/10.
But yeah, it's definitely all about the Hamiltons up in here baby!
As opposed to this: