This is a recent email that I received from Paul Jordan aka PJ, that I thought would be useful to all of you Top8Magic fans. The images did not come out in the post, but the original file is here: Draftcap Instructions.

Enjoy

Matt

Draftcap Instructions (Courtesy of Paul Jordan)

Creating your own “Drafting With” series is pretty straight-forward. All you need is Magic Online and your own webpage. If you don’t have a webpage, you can easily create one at Google, which is what I’ve done.

Creating your webpage

To start a webpage at Google, first make sure you are signed in. Then just go to More > Sites

Then click on Create New Site. Go through the steps, choosing your site name and URL and you’re done.

Recording drafts on MTGO

Go to Menu > Settings > Gameplay and make sure the box for “Enable Draft Recorder” is checked.

MTGO will record all packs and picks and put them into Documents > Games > Magic The Gathering Online > Drafts as text files.

Converting those text files

Go to http://www.zizibaloob.com/convert_images.html and paste the contents of the text file into the Image Converter box and hit Convert Draft. Now there will be 3 boxes on the screen:

Image Converter (where you pasted your text file contents)

Output (what you copy for future use)

Preview (what it will look like on your webpage)

Copy the contents of the 2^nd box (output) onto your clipboard for the next step.

Adding a draft to your webpage

Back at your page in Google, click on Create Page. Enter in a page name and URL. If you’re going to be doing multiple drafts, you probably want a standard naming convention (draft_## or something like that) but it isn’t necessary. Once you have your name and URL, click Create Page. You’ll have a screen something like this:

Click on the HTML button on the top bar and paste the output from the draft converter and hit update. Now your screen should look like this:

You can now add comments, your decklist, or anything else. When you’re done, click Save on the top right of your screen. That’s it, you’re done.

Note – if you want to keep your decklist, you need to save it separately in MTGO during deck construction. To do this, when building your deck click “Save As” and save it as a text file. Then you can just copy/paste it into your commentary.

Forget the buzz around Lotus Cobra and the rest of the Zendikar previews for a moment and read this fact sheet about how the SIXTEEN (!!!!!) Magic Online PTQs for Pro Tour San Diego are going to work. My The Week That Was column this week will include an interview with Digital Games Program Manager Michael Gills and MTGO superstar Brad FFfreaK Nelson. In the meanwhile you can check out all the details here.

This was posted on March 31st over on the MTGO page so I am pretty sure it is not an April Fool’s joke. Michael Gills announced that, just like the game we all love, the Player of the Year race is being replicated on MTGO. Over the course of the 2009 Magic Online Championship Series, the player who racks up the most QP points will earn the title of MTGO Player of the Year. The MTGO PoY will earn a seat at the 2009 MTGO Championship and be qualified for all Season Championships in the 2010 iteration of the Series.