Hi all,

The Dark Ascension writeups from Darwin Kastle are finally available. Learn to draft from a Limited master! Just update your database to version 12 from within the Decked Drafter app to get access to them.

Two sample writeups from Darwin's style of draft are attached below:

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Briarpack Alpha, Rating: 88

One of the best Green Uncommons in this set. With all of the 2/1s, 2/2s and 2/3s in this format, I'm a fan of a vanilla 3/3 for four mana in this format. The fact that it's both an instant and a pump spell is an incredible bonus. Further, it even gives you a creature to target with your pump. This card is a great fit in any deck running Green mana.

===
Black Cat, rating: 48

This card has two big things going for it: it's a cheap zombie and it has a cool ability when you sacrifice it. With the addition of Dark Ascension to Innistrad block draft, zombie draft decks have gotten more powerful and are a much better option. As a result, every one or two cost Zombie is worth considering. While Black Cat is only a 1/1, it makes a great turn two blocker because most people find its ability terrifying. In addition, it's excellent with sacrifice effects like Altar's Reap, because its ability helps you maintain card advantage.

Hi all,

The situation with Marlon (pneumonia) was unfortunate, and we had to search for a suitable replacement for the Dark Ascension writeups. We must apologize for the long delay but we are happy to announce that Darwin Kastle will be taking over as the main writer for Dark Ascenion.

A man who needs little introduction (but you will be getting one anyway), Darwin Kastle was included in the very first 2005 Wizards Pro Tour Hall of Fame, in the same cohort as Jon Finkel. He built his reputation on playing Limited formats and then went on to win multiple Constructed events. His Pro Tour career spanned from 1996-2004 with 17 top eight Pro Tour appearances and 3 champion titles. He was one of the first players to play Magic professionally.

A short writeup of his career can be found on the Wizards website itself:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/HallOfFame.aspx?x=mtgevent/hofplayer/dkastle

Today, Darwin Kastle is both a game designer (he helped designed Ascension, one of my favorite non-MTG games) and a prolific writer for GatheringMagic.com, and he has kindly agreed to lend his experience and skill to our Decked Drafter app. We are certainly honored to have him writing for us.

His likeness is immortalized on the Avalanche Rider card below.

We hope to have the DKA writeups available by the end of the week.

Last Friday we announce by Twitter that we were going to give away a copy of our iPhone app to a lucky (and very random) winner. In order to be entered into the contest, all you had to do was re-tweet the announcement.In our first give-a-way contest, we received a total of six re-tweets, so if you re-tweeted, your chances of winning are pretty good! Since everyone likes to see their own name in print here are the people who entered the contest:

1. @superhiro21
2. @CoryJMartin
3. @SnapKeep
4. @AllenStucker
5. @endermugen
6. @4PlayMTG

Thankfully the number of people entering the contest was a number that was nice enough to fit on a single dice!

Here is the fateful roll...

... and it’s a 4!

Congratulations to Mr. @AllenStucker. You have won yourself a free copy of Decked Builder. I will Direct Message you with your complimentary code. Please be sure to brag about it ... ER! tell all of your friends about the program and the nice features that we have to offer.

As a surprise give away, we have decided to give a door prize out as well. This one is more selective though. Mr. @superhiro21 will receive a free iPad version of Decked Builder. Thank you for your support @superhiro21. Be sure to tell your friends about Decked Builder as well!

Stay tuned, I have two more codes to give a way in the coming days.

---

Chris Newton
Community Manager / Business Relations Manager
Decked Builder

Connect with Me!
Twitter: @cnewton_igm
LinkedIn: Connect!
Skype: cnewton_eov

Upgrade away! :)

This version could actually help save you money by showing card prices from multiple sources at the same time. We are also giving away promo codes for the app at cardshark.com, coolstuffinc.com and mtgotraders.com -- stay tuned.

iTunes seems to have broken our new icon though -- gotta get it fixed.

We have also made it possible to export your collections to CSV or via email.

A list of the changes made:

- You can now toggle between different price sources when viewing a card by tapping left or right on the header arrow (note that the tap area is much larger than the arrow itself).
- You can now price just your main deck, your entire deck, or just the missing cards in your deck.
- You can now toggle between different pricing sources when pricing a deck.
- Added CardShark.com as a price source.
- Added CoolStuffInc.com as a price source.
- You can now purchase entire decks or just missing cards after pricing a deck from MTGOTraders and CoolStuffInc.
- When listing Creature cards, we have shortened the card type to make it easier to figure out what type of creature it is.
- You can now export your collection via email, and as a CSV file.
- Added instructions on importing collection CSV files in Collection Help (under settings).

Hi all,

We are happy to announce the results of some hard work -- a revamped iPad search UI that should make it even better for building decks. The key changes are as follows:

1) The search input box collapses away to present an enlarged search screen

2) You can now swipe through the cards, just like on the iPhone -- making it much easier to browse.

3) As a side effect of all the changes, the card art is now displayed in even larger resolutions.

Check out the screenshots below (although to be honest, they do not really do the new features justice)!

Oh, and if anyone is lucky enough to get his or her hands on an iPad 3 and is willing to help us best test the app in HD glory, do drop us an email at support@deckedbuilder.com.

Hi all,

We are happy to announce that (after more than a year since our first email exchange), we will finally be getting price feeds from CardShark.com onto Decked Builder!

CardShark.com is like an eBay for cards, which allows individuals (and shops) to list their cards for sale. As such, you can sometimes find lower prices for cards here compared to other vendors. Also, you will be able to see foil prices and purchase them as well. CardShark.com also provides MTGO card prices as well.

Check out the screenshot below!

Again, please note that purchasing cards through CardShark.com via the app provides us a (really) small commission which allows us to keep our image and news servers running.

We have also made the day/night switch button when viewing an Innistrad flip card slightly transparent now as well, which should make it less distracting.

Patch 2.6 is shaping up to be a pretty interesting release.