=========================================================== MAGIC: THE GATHERING "Spells of the Ancients" Version 2.15 Readme File 7 November 1997 =========================================================== Table of Contents ================= 1) Changes from version 2.0 2) Important Customer Support Note 3) FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) 4) New Features Shandalar The Duel and Gauntlet Dueling Table Deck Builder 5) Card Notes 6) Tutorial Errata 7) IBM ThinkPad Compatibility 8) Technical Notes Changes from version 2.0 ======================== The following issues have been addressed in this release: * Expansion One cards not being available in towns in Shandalar. * Black Vise and The Rack no longer do double damage. * Cards such as Zombie Master no longer give their effect when only in the spell chain. * Kismet properly lets you target either player. * Several artifacts with continuous effects disable when tapped. These include Howling Mine, Soul Net and others. * Fast effects response is no longer allowed for the activation of Black Lotus. * City of Brass no longer orphans its one point of damage upon activation. * Contract from Below allows user to select order in which cards in hand are discarded. * Fastbond properly handles more than one Fastbond in play. Fastbond also now recognizes lands being put into play by means other than being placed from the hand (Untamed Wilds). * Nevinyral's Disk no longer taps if you cancel activation. * Argothian Pixies/Treefolk are no longer immune to some instances of direct damage. * Disenchanting an Animate Artifact which was cast on an artifact creature no longer removes the creature state from the artifact creature. * Farmstead now recognizes additional cost imposed by Gloom. * Serendib Djinn is correctly now a flying creature. Important Customer Support Note =============================== Do NOT call Wizards of the Coast Customer Service with questions, problems, or other issues related to this computer game; contact MicroProse Customer Support. The WotC folks will happily address card issues, as always, but they will not help you with issues specific to the computer game. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) ================================ For further help for Magic: The Gathering, please read the Magic FAQ included at the end of this file. The FAQ includes help for installation, sound cards, video cards, graphics, gameplay, Shandalar and specific cards. New Features ============ The Duel and Gauntlet --------------------- * When you save a duel during a Gauntlet, you save the status of that current duel, and your progress through the Gauntlet. * The "Spells of the Ancients" installer backs up all of your deck files for Shandalar and the duel. The old Shandalar decks are copied to a new folder called 'old deck'. The old duel decks (including any decks you may have built in the Deck Builder) will be copied to a folder called 'old playdeck'. Dueling Table ------------- A few reminders of often overlooked features: * If you do not put a Stop (the red marker) on a phase, play will bypass that phase without bothering to ask you if you want to use optional effects (a Brass Man's untap or Land Tax, for example). This is a handy way to prevent the duel from bogging down, but if you are not careful, you could accidentally miss an opportunity. Thus, if you plan to use an optional effect (especially during the upkeep phase), make sure to Run To (by clicking on the phase bar) or put a Stop on the phase you have in mind. * Remember that creatures with negative power are treated as having a power of 0 for all purposes except raising the power. Thus, they are displayed during a duel as having 0 power. * Remember that all of the floating windows -- including the Ante and Mulligan displays, both hands, and the Situation Bar (but not the Spell Chain and Combat windows) -- are movable. Just click and drag them out of the way when necessary. * You can minimize both the Spell Chain and Combat windows. Just click anywhere on the title bar of the window to do so. To restore the Spell Chain window to full size, click on the star icon on the phase bar. To restore the Combat window to full size, click on the sword icon on the phase bar. * Hold the mouse over a particular thing (a card, part of the dueling table, or an ability marker, for instance) to find out what it is. * Right-click on things for a mini-menu of useful functions. * Click on things to use them. Double-click to auto-use; that is, to have mana drawn from lands automatically (and indiscriminately). Deck Builder ------------ * Moving multiple copies of a card into and out of your deck can be a pain. Instead of moving one copy at a time, now you can move as many as you need, all in one step. Hold down the Shift key and double-click on the card. Enter the number you want moved. * You can now right-click on the area in between the sets of Filter Buttons to open a mini-menu. This menu has only one option: the Main Buttons toggle. If you choose to toggle the Main Menu Buttons On, all of the filters EXCEPT the Other Filters become active (are turned on). If you toggle Main Menu Buttons Off, all of the Set Filters, Color Filters, and Type Filters are inactivated (switched off). * When you're editing your deck in Shandalar or in the Sealed Deck tournament, you can also right-click on the background area behind the cards in your deck to get another mini-menu. This one has two options that let you to move cards according to their color. Use Move By Color Into Deck to put all the cards of the colors you choose from the inventory into the current deck, and Move By Color Out Of Deck to move cards from your deck into your inventory. You're prompted to choose which of the five colors, plus "artifacts" (not "colorless"), you want moved. Note that the basic lands that correspond to the colors you choose also move. (No lands move with artifacts, and you must move dual and special lands individually.) * The Deck Builder considers basic lands as having the same color as the color of mana they produce for the purpose of deck stats. (For example, 5 Islands count as 5 Blue cards.) Card Notes ========== * A display issue: The name of artist Brian Snoddy should always have a line over the 'o'. (Sorry, Brian.) * In some places in the game, the name of El-Hajjaj is displayed incorrectly. There should always be an accent circumflex (caret) over the final 'a'. Tutorial Errata =============== * Any time one of the wizards in the Tutorial mentions "points," he or she is being informal. There are actually no "points" in the game of Magic: The Gathering. Thus: - In Chapters 4, 6, 8, 9 and anywhere else, when the wizards refer to "points of damage," they mean simply "damage." - In Chapter 4 (and anywhere else), when they speak of "points of mana," they really mean "mana." - In Chapter 8, one of them says, "...the ogre does two points against the knight's two points of toughness." That should be "...the ogre does two damage against the knight's two toughness." - In Chapters 4 and 7, the wizards talk of "life points." They mean "life total." * In Chapter 7, the wizard mentions the "Heal Phase." Obviously, his information is out-of-date. Under the 5th Edition rules, the Heal Phase no longer exists. It has been replaced by the Cleanup Phase. * In Chapter 8, the wizard says, "...other special powers include regeneration, flight, and many more..." He means "...regeneration, FLYING, and many more." IBM ThinkPad Compatibility -------------------------- * Those of you installing this game on a ThinkPad might experience a problem when viewing the Tutorial videos. This is caused by the video software attempting to use an incorrect driver. We've included a program on the Original Magic: the Gathering CD-ROM that corrects this problem. Run this file: autoplay\setindeo.exe and the Tutorial should work just fine. Technical Notes =============== * Don't forget to take a look at the Magic FAQ (MAGICFAQ.TXT) on the program disc for further help with troubleshooting any problems. * If you normally use a screen saver, you should be aware that it is always running in the background. To prevent interference with the game, you must disable any screen saver before you start playing. * Some players might experience compatibility problems. Our tests lead us to believe that the most common cause of these problems is not the game itself, but out-of-date device drivers installed on the computer. If you experience compatibility problems, please make sure that you are using the most recent drivers provided for your hardware. If you have the correct drivers and the problem persists, call Customer Support. * If you experience problems with any part of this game after you install new hardware or software, you might have updated a sound driver, video driver, DirectX driver or Indeo Video driver to a version that is not compatible with the game. To fix this, you can reinstall the DirectX drivers from the Magic: The Gathering CD-ROM. * We stongly suggest that you play this game in High Color (16-bit) video mode or better. If you are playing in a lesser mode (that is, you are using 256 colors or less), you might experience transitory graphic oddities. These are superficial and should not have any lasting effect on the game. Some machines that are below the recomended system requirements may experience problems with High Color (16-bit) video modes when playing in Shandalar. * This game is designed to work with the standard issue Windows 95. We do NOT support ANY of the beta upgrades to Windows 95. * If you experience problems with flickering video in Shandalar, it's likely you need to update your video drivers. Most vendors now supply Windows 95 versions of their video drivers. You can normally download these drivers from the vendor's BBS or Web site. * If you do not hear the sound effects in the game, you might not have selected to install the DirectX drivers. Rerun the install program, but do not select ANY game components to install. Allow the new DirectX drivers to be installed. * If you have the new Sound Blaster 16/AWE-32 driver for Windows 95 (Revision 7), you may experience problems running this game. The new Sound Blaster driver updates the Audio Drive Component to version 4.33.00.0012. This version causes the game to crash with a fatal exception error in VXD VMM(01) and terminates the application. Reinstall the DirectX drivers (as in the previous paragraph). The DirectX Audio Drive Component is version 4.31.00.0068, which functions correctly. Creative Labs also has a new driver, version 4.33.00.0014, which does not cause the problem. * If you try to manually delete this game using Windows Explorer, you might experience problems. (We suggest you ALWAYS use the Uninstall feature instead.) When you run the game, some game files temporarily become part of the Windows 95 system resources. These files cannot be used or deleted if they are currently being used by your system. If you experience this type of problem, you can reboot your computer to free the affected files. You should then be able to delete the files. * The Uninstall feature removes only those files installed by the Install Shield program. Any files created by the game, such as saved games, will be left on the system after you run uninstall. If you Uninstall "Spells of the Ancients" you must also Uninstall your Original Magic: the Gathering product. Some common files used by both applications are removed by the "Spells of the Ancients" Uninstaller. Please re-install the Original product before trying to re-install "Spells of the Ancients". Additional Credits ==================== Original Magic: the Gathering Game Design Richard Garfield Original Magic: the Gathering Graphic Design Jesper Myrfors Christopher Rush Lisa Stevens Very Special thanks to: Daniel Berner Skaff Elias Chazz Elliott Karen Ffinch David Lee Brian Lewis Johanna Mead Joel Mick Rob Stewart Jennifer Clarke Wilkes Darla A. Willis ================================================ Magic: The Gathering "Spells of the Ancients" for Windows 95 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions and Answers) Last revised: 2 September 1997 ================================================ System Requirements =================== IBM PC 100MHz 80486DX/4 compatible or faster Windows 95 16MB RAM Quad-speed CD-ROM drive Hard drive (25MB free) Super VGA graphics for 640 x 480 x 256 colors (must be compatible with DirectX) Mouse Recommended ----------- IBM PC 120MHz Pentium compatible or faster 32MB RAM High Color graphics for 1024 x 768 x 16-bit color (2MB video RAM minimum) DirectX-compatible sound card General ======= Q: What is the latest version of Magic: The Gathering? A: Version 2.1 is the latest version of the game. This version is the update for the "Spells of the Ancients" expansion pack for the original Magic the Gathering. Q: Is Magic: The Gathering compatible with Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11 or Windows NT? A: Unfortunately, because the program uses Microsoft's DirectX version 3.0, it does not work properly with any operating system except Windows 95. Installation ============ Q: I have the demo for Magic: The Gathering installed. Will this cause any problems when I install the complete game? A: We recommend that you either delete the demo directory or rename it before installing the complete game. By default, the complete game uses the same directory name (\MAGIC) that the demo uses. Q: While installing the game, my CD-ROM cannot be verified by the installer. A: If you have more than one CD-ROM drive attached to your system, you must place the CD in the drive that appears first in the drive list. For example, if you have two CD-ROM drives that are lettered D: and E:, you must place the disc into drive D for verification. The second drive (in this case E:) will not be checked. Q: While installing the game, I got an error message of "Assertion error, cannot open sprite file." I am using Corel CD-ROM drivers. A: Unfortunately, the installer is not compatible with Corel CD-ROM drivers. You must load Windows 95 drivers for your CD-ROM drive. Q: I got an error while uninstalling or reinstalling the game that says there is a file that is write-protected or otherwise cannot be deleted. A: Just reboot your computer and try again. Sometimes Windows 95 thinks one of the files is write-protected until the computer is rebooted. Troubleshooting =============== Q: I am experiencing DLL errors, assert errors or lockups. A: Do not run any other programs (such as Norton Crash Protector) in the background. The only programs that should be loaded are Magic: The Gathering and absolutely necessary Windows 95 programs. In addition, make sure that your hard drive has at least 30MB free for the Windows 95 swap file. Make sure that you have the latest versions of the DirectX drivers for your hardware. In particular, make sure that your sound card has the latest DirectSound drivers. Check your sound card to see if it is properly installed and functioning. You can check your sound card by selecting "System" from the Control Panel. Select the Device Manager tab at the System Properties dialog box. Double-click on "Sound, Video and Game Controllers." A description for your sound card should appear underneath. Double-click on this text to bring up a dialog box telling you if your sound card is functioning correctly or not. You can also try turning down the graphics acceleration by selecting the System control panel and clicking on the Performance tab. Then click on the "Graphics" button and slide the bar to the left in order to adjust the degree of hardware acceleration. We recommend lowering the graphics acceleration to "Most accelerator functions." If that doesn't help, try "Basic accelerator functions." Q: The game is locking up when I try to load a saved game, or I am experiencing "Page fault" errors. A: Magic: The Gathering requires at least 30MB of virtual memory. Please check your virtual memory by selecting the System control panel. Then click on the Performance tab and click the "Virtual Memory" button. Q: I am receiving an error message of "Error vids:iv41 decompression." A: This error is caused by the Indeo video drivers. Please run the SETINDEO.EXE program by inserting your Original Magic CD-ROM, changing to your CD-ROM drive and typing "\autoplay\setindeo" [Enter] at the DOS prompt. You need to restart your computer for this change to take effect. If you continue to experience this error message, please download the version of Video for Windows from Intel's Web site at www.intel.com. Q: I am having problems with "Assertion failed" or "Add card" error messages while playing in Shandalar. A: This problem has been mostly eliminated in this version of the game. If your graphics resolution is set to something higher than 1024 x 768, please try lowering it to 1024 x 768. If that doesn't work, please try lowering it to 800 x 600. Q: When I try to run the game, the system crashes with an error message about MSVFW32.DLL. A: You need to install Video for Windows. To do this, you must go to the Control Panel and double-click the "Add/Remove Programs" icon. Click on the Windows Setup tab at the top. Click to put a check mark in the Multimedia component. Then click the "Apply" button to install these components. You will probably need to have your Windows 95 CD-ROM or disks handy. Q: The game crashes when I get to the Wizard Statistics screen (showing the five major wizards) or when the coin flip animation starts. A: We recommend downloading the latest version of the Indeo video drivers from Intel from their Web site at www.intel.com. You can also try turning down the graphics acceleration by selecting the System control panel and clicking on the Performance tab. Then click on the "Graphics" button and slide the bar to the left in order to adjust the degree of hardware acceleration. We recommend lowering the graphics acceleration to "Most accelerator functions." If that doesn't help, try "Basic accelerator functions." Q: Sometimes the game quits back to Windows unexpectedly. A: Applications running in the background may cause the game to close without notice. Please shut down all other applications before running Magic: The Gathering. Sound ===== Q: I don't have a Windows 95-compatible sound card, and the game crashes on me. A: You can play Magic: The Gathering without a sound card if you have version 1.1 or greater. Unfortunately, version 1.0 requires a Windows 95- compatible sound card. Without one, the game will crash in certain parts of the game (usually when you try to duel in Shandalar). Q: I am having problems with the sound in Magic: The Gathering. A: Please note that the game requires DirectX version 3.0 or greater working in order to hear the sound and music. If you are not hearing any sound, the problem is most likely caused by a problem with DirectX not working with your sound card. Please contact your sound card manufacturer for the latest drivers that are compatible with DirectX. Q: I am hearing white noise when I play a duel. A: You may have an older version of the drivers for your sound card. Please contact your sound card manufacturer to obtain the latest DirectX-compatible drivers. Q: I am experiencing glitches in the game due to the sound repeating. A: Please try first uninstalling the game and then reinstalling the game using the full custom install. This will sometimes take care of the problem. Q: I'm having problems with sound in duels. A: Try renaming the folder "DuelSounds" in the MAGIC\PROGRAM directory to something else. You will no longer hear any sounds in the duel. Q: I am having some problems with sound in the game. A: If you have a Sound Blaster AWE32 card, please download the latest drivers from the Creative Labs Web site at www.creaf.com or contact them directly for the latest version of their Windows 95-compliant sound card drivers. If you have an Ensoniq ViVo sound card, please download the latest drivers that should fix this problem from Ensoniq's Web site at www.ensoniq.com or contact them directly for the latest version of their Windows 95-compliant sound card drivers. You can also try downloading the Ensoniq Soundscape ViVo driver installer from Gateway which is called "Soundscape InstallWizard for Windows 95 version 1.00.09" (SSIWIZ.EXE dated 2/97). This installer is supposed to make sure your Ensoniq sound drivers are up-to-date and correctly installed. If you have a Packard Bell computer with an Aztech Sound Galaxy Washington 16 sound card, please download the latest drivers that should fix this problem from Aztech's Web site at www.aztechca.com or contact them directly for the latest version of their Windows 95-compliant sound card drivers. Q: I have an IBM Aptiva with an MWave sound card. Every time I run into a creature in Shandalar, the game crashes. A: Unfortunately, the MWave sound card is a proprietary sound card that is not explicitly supported by Microsoft's DirectX technology. Please contact the manufacturer of your sound card or Microsoft for details. Graphics ======== Q: I am having video glitches or seeing graphic anomalies. A: Please try changing your display resolution to either a lower resolution (such as 640 x 480) or higher resolution (such as 1024 x 768). If at all possible, we recommend running the game in High Color graphics (16-bit color). You can also try turning down the graphics acceleration by selecting the System control panel and clicking on the Performance tab. Then click on the "Graphics" button and slide the bar to the left in order to adjust the degree of hardware acceleration. We recommend lowering the graphics acceleration to "Most accelerator functions." If that doesn't help, try "Basic accelerator functions." In addition, make sure that you do not have any other programs (such as Norton Crash Protector) running in the background. Q: When I run the game, the screen turns black but I can still move my mouse. A: If you are running in 256-color mode, we recommend switching the graphics to 16-bit or 24-bit mode. Q: Sometimes when I exit Magic: The Gathering, the colors on my Windows desktop are messed up. A: Unfortunately, running Magic: The Gathering in only 256 colors will sometimes cause this problem with the color palette. If at all possible, please switch to High Color graphics (16-bit color). Q: I am having problems with the game returning to Windows unexpectedly. A: This problem may be caused by graphics hardware acceleration. Please try reducing the graphics acceleration hardware by selecting the System control panel. Then click on the Performance tab and click the "Graphics" button. Slide the bar to the left to lower the graphics acceleration. We recommend lowering the graphics acceleration to "Most accelerator functions." If that doesn't help, try "Basic accelerator functions." Q: I am having some problems with my video card in this game. A: If you have an ATI Mach 64 video card, please download the latest video drivers from the ATI Web site at www.atitech.ca or contact ATI directly for the latest version of their Windows 95-compliant drivers. If you have a Diamond Stealth 3D video card, please download the latest video drivers from the Diamond Web site at www.diamondmm.com or contact Diamond directly for the latest version of their Windows 95-compliant drivers. If you have a Chips and Technology video card, please download the latest video drivers from the Chips and Technology Web site at www.chips.com or contact Chips and Technology directly for the latest version of their Windows 95-compliant drivers. If you have a Matrox Millennium video card, please download the latest BIOS update from the Matrox Web site at www.matrox.com or contact Matrox directly for the latest version of their Windows 95-compliant drivers. This BIOS update fixes many DirectX-related issues. Q: When the coin flip animation starts, the colors become corrupted. A: Magic: The Gathering is designed to work in higher color depth video modes. The problem is due to running the game in 256 colors. If at all possible, we recommend running the game in 16-bit or 24-bit color mode. Q: Sometimes I get the error message "Video not available, cannot find decompressor." A: Go to the Control Panel and double-click the "Add/Remove Programs" icon. Click on the Windows Setup tab at the top. Select the Multimedia component and click the "Details" button. Scroll down the list and click to put a check mark in the box next to "Video Compression." Click the OK button. Finally, click the OK button again. You will probably need to have your Windows 95 CD-ROM or disks handy. Q: When I play a game in Shandalar, I am having various problems including with graphics (particularly fonts). For example, text is appearing outside their boxes and I am getting invalid page faults. A: The problem is caused by a font conflict. To check for font conflicts, double-click the Fonts control panel. Delete any font that shows a file size of 0K (zero kilobytes). You may also want to copy all the fonts from your MAGIC\PROGRAM folder (TTxxxx.TTF) into your WINDOWS\FONTS folder. Gameplay ======== Q: Will you add multiplayer support to the game? A: Yes, our goal is to add multiplayer support to Magic: The Gathering by the end of this year. We are exploring various options as to the exact specifics. Q: The computer AI is making strange or seemingly stupid decisions in how it plays its cards. A: The computer deliberately makes some mistakes at the easier levels of the game in order to give beginning Magic players a fighting chance. If you feel these AI decisions are annoying, please try increasing the difficulty level. The Duel ======== Q: The game isn't stopping at my upkeep phase. Therefore, I can't do optional upkeep effects such as paying to untap my Brass Man or paying to untap my Paralyzed creature. A: You must put a Stop marker on your upkeep phase for the program to stop there. Otherwise, the game will only stop at your upkeep phase for mandatory effects (such as a creature getting a counter for Unstable Mutation or taking damage for Cursed Land). To put a Stop marker on any phase, right-click on the Phase Bar at the phase that you want the game to stop at and select "Mark this phase to always stop" from the pop-up menu. This will mark the Phase Bar with a red dot which means that the program will stop there if you have a valid action. For example, if you want to use a Land Tax or pay to untap your Brass Man, put a Stop marker on the upkeep phase. Please refer to pages 116-118 of the manual for more information. Q: When I double-click a card to cast it, it's tapping some lands that I don't want to tap. A: You can instead single-click on a card in your hand to cast it. If you single-click, you'll be prompted to click on your mana sources manually. Or you can right-click the lands that you don't want to be automatically tapped and choose "Don't auto tap this card" from the mini-menu. Q: I clicked on the title bar of the Spell Chain Window, and it disappeared. How can I get it back? A: Just click on the staff icon that's between the two phase bars to make the Spell Chain Window reappear. Q: I clicked on the title bar of the Combat Window, and it disappeared. How can I get it back? A: Just click on the sword icon that's between the two phase bars to make the Combat Window reappear (see page 126 of the manual). Q: I have more than four creatures in combat, but I can't see beyond the first four in the Combat Window. A: To scroll the Combat Window, just click on the little white mouse (that's between your creatures and your opponent's). Drag the mouse icon to scroll the Combat Windows so you can see the creatures on the right-hand side. Q: When I bring up the Duel, the program isn't listing any decks in the opening dialog box. A: When you install the game, the directory name must be no longer than eight (8) characters. Exit the game and rename the directory in Windows 95 to fix this problem. This problem has been fixed in version 1.1 of the game. Shandalar ========= Q: I am just starting in Shandalar and am getting beaten up on a regular basis by all those creatures that keep attacking me. What can I do? A: One of your first steps should be to run to the nearest village or city as fast as possible so you can edit your starting deck. You want to edit your deck to the best cards possible while remembering the minimum deck size depending on your difficulty level (30 cards for Apprentice, 35 for Magician, 40 for both Sorcerer and Wizard). If at all possible, reduce the number of colors in your deck to two or at the most three. Next, pick your battles wisely. As the manual says on page 41, the weakest creatures are those that walk. The next hardest are those that are mounted, and the toughest are those look like dragons or other flying creatures. Try to run away from the more powerful creatures until you build up a stronger deck. You can run away by moving to a terrain type that the creature can't follow you onto. Each creature sticks to the terrain type corresponding to its color (for example, red creatures stay near mountains). Of course, some creatures are multicolored and can survive on two different terrain types. Once you cross a terrain boundary, the creature will be unable to follow you. Stay on the roads if at all possible. You will move much faster if you walk on roads and can many times outrun the other creatures. Don't forget that you can bribe many creatures. Discretion is sometimes the better part of valor, and if you can afford the gold, it's probably better than losing a card from your deck in ante. As your deck becomes stronger and you beat more creatures, you'll notice that the weaker ones will start running away from you! In addition, you don't have to face as many creatures in version 1.1 of the game. Q: When I defeat one of the creatures, I see an animation of the five major wizards. What do all those things represent? A: As noted on page 32 of the manual, each skull represents a victory by you against one of that wizard's creatures. The wizards' staffs represent their total life points. Each red dot represents one fewer life point for that wizard. (You can only knock them down by 10 points, though, to a minimum of 20 life.) The tiny floating spheres represent mana taps (see page 46 of the manual). You will lose the battle to save Shandalar if any one wizard accumulates enough mana taps to be able to cast the Spell of Dominion. Q: Every time I receive a notice that a wizard is attacking a particular town, I don't arrive in time to save it. A: If a wizard gains control of a city, it will be converted into a mana dome. You can still battle the wizard there to free it. You will not regain your mana link, however, if you had one there before. Q: My character keeps moving when I'm walking in the main map of Shandalar even after I stop pressing a directional key. A: You can stop your character in two different ways: either press the Spacebar or click on your character's head with the mouse. Q: Can I speed up movement while walking around on the main map? A: Try pressing Shift-U. This may improve performance on slower computer systems. Q: At the Status screen, my Record vs. the Creatures of Shandalar isn't keeping track of all the creatures I have won against in Shandalar. A: Only creatures you encounter in the main map count toward your Win/Loss record. Creatures you vanquish in dungeons and castles do not count. Q: Is there any way I can load a saved game from within Shandalar without having to quit the game first? A: If you update to version 1.1 of the game, you can right-click to bring up a mini-menu with options to save, load, quit, etc. Decks in Shandalar ------------------ Q: I'm building a deck in Shandalar but there seem to be limits on how many duplicates of one card I can put into my deck. A: The number of duplicate cards allowed in your Shandalar deck depends on the total size of your deck and whether you have the Tome of Enlightenment (one of the World Magics). If you don't have the Tome of Enlightenment, you can only have one card if your deck has 19 or fewer cards, 2 duplicate cards if your deck has 20 to 39 cards, 3 duplicates if your deck has 40 to 59 cards, or 4 duplicates if your deck is over 60 cards. Q: Even though I've edited my deck and know exactly which cards are in it, I keep getting random land. A: If your deck does not have the minimum number of cards in it, random basic lands will be temporarily added to your library (after the ante but before the shuffle). Your deck must have 30 cards at Apprentice level, 35 at Magician level, or 40 at both Sorcerer and Wizard level. Q: Every time I try to look at my deck or edit my deck in Shandalar, the game crashes. A: The game will now notify you when you approach the 500 card limit and advise you to sell some cards. The Cards ========= Q: How can I use my Mishra's Factory to attack or block? A: You must turn your Mishra's Factory into an Assembly Worker before you try to attack since no fast effects are possible between declaring an attack and declaring attackers. If you wish to attack with your Mishra's Factory, in your Main phase (precombat), single-click the card and choose "Change to Assembly Worker." Pay the 1 colorless mana and your Mishra's Factory will then turn into an Assembly Worker (a 2/2 artifact creature). As long as your Assembly Worker is not suffering from summoning sickness, you can attack with it by clicking the Combat phase on the Phase Bar. When prompted to "Choose attackers," click on the Assembly Worker card. You can also use your Assembly Worker to block the computer's creatures. Just turn your Mishra's Factory into an Assembly Worker in the "Attacker fast effects phase." Q: Why does Naf's Asp continue to damage me turn after turn? A: According to the latest rulings by Wizards of the Coast for the Naf's Asp, you must pay to get rid of the Naf's Asp legacy to avoid further damage. Otherwise, you will continue to take damage turn after turn.