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Judging Technology » Post: Quick reference card translation tool

Quick reference card translation tool

April 25, 2016 11:28:35 AM

Filip Haglund
Judge (Uncertified)

Europe - North

Quick reference card translation tool

A problem I ran into very frequently at GP Barcelona was getting judge calls from players playing Spanish cards and either not speaking English at all, or speaking some English but not knowing the English name of the card. This can make it tricky to make accurate rulings if you, like me, don't speak Spanish or whatever language the cards are in. I've not been able to find a quick way of translating the card name to English to do an oracle lookup, so I created one that I would have wanted to have.

The difference between this and any other card searching enging, is that you can type your search term in any language. So if they're showing you a MORDISCO RABIOSO, you can just start typing that, and you'll see the English name, oracle text, name in all other printed languages, along with a link to Gatherer, in case you need to look at rulings.

One thing to note - the first time you load the page, it will perform a 9.2 mb download, so if limiting your data traffic is a concern, make sure to do this when you're on wifi. On subsequent loads, the app will automatically use your cached version, unless there's been a new set released since you last used it.
Once the search box appears, it doesn't need to perform any more network traffic, you've got every Magic card in existence cached on your phone and searches will be instant.

The tool is mainly intended for limited events, as that's where the problem of not knowing the English name of the card most frequently will come up. For constructed, you'll probably know the name of the card.
It will not be of any use to you if you have the exact wording of every card memorized, and are able to recall them all by looking at the artwork, which again might be tough (at least for me) especially in limited, with a new-ish set.

Anyway, here's the app - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.cordova.mtgtranslator

It's not good looking, but it does the job.

Please send me feedback and suggestions on what would make this more useful for you, and I'll try to accommodate them.

Edited Filip Haglund (April 25, 2016 12:47:53 PM)

April 25, 2016 12:34:47 PM

Joaquín Pérez
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program)), Tournament Organizer

Iberia

Quick reference card translation tool

Oh, that's a very nice app!! Thank you!! :)

April 25, 2016 12:56:36 PM

Rob McKenzie
Judge (Level 5 (Judge Foundry)), Scorekeeper

USA - Plains

Quick reference card translation tool

On Android, both MTG Judge Core and MTG Familiar allow you to search by
collector number, which is the same across all languages. I'm not sure
about MTG Guide on iOS, perhaps someone with it could check?


Rob McKenzie
Magic Judge Level III
Judge Regional Coordinator USA-North
Minnesota
On Apr 25, 2016 4:29 AM, “Filip Söderholm” <

April 25, 2016 12:58:03 PM

Thomas Ralph
Judge (Level 3 (UK Magic Officials)), Scorekeeper

United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa

Quick reference card translation tool

Can confirm MTG Guide allows searching by collector number.

April 25, 2016 12:59:02 PM

Sophie Pages
Judge (Level 5 (International Judge Program)), Scorekeeper, IJP Temporary Regional Advisor

France

Quick reference card translation tool

We can search by number as well on mtg guide on iOS.
Sophie

Envoyé de mon iPhone

April 25, 2016 01:01:15 PM

Fabian Peck
Judge (Level 3 (Judge Academy)), Tournament Organizer

Australia and New Zealand

Quick reference card translation tool

On iOS MTGManager is also great for translations, it's mainly for managing
collections but has a function where you can hold the camera over a card
and it will bring up the oracle text for it, identifying it from the art.
It works offline and is almost instantaneous. I waved my phone over a card
in Japanese without even aiming and it picked it up.

April 25, 2016 01:39:01 PM

Filip Haglund
Judge (Uncertified)

Europe - North

Quick reference card translation tool

The collector number trick sounds very useful. Wish I'd thought of that… :)