What If Card Recs Were Better?

Intro

Giving Good Recs Is Hard

Starting today, DeckCheck is testing out a new card recommendation option powered by Recommander.

Why? Because Recommanders rec engine is better than mine and it's my desire to give DC users the best tools avaliable.

Background

Why Recommander?

I first came across Recommander because people in the DeckCheck Discord linked me to GamesfreakSA's video, "I Built My Own EDHREC... and It Actually Works". The basic premise was extremely relatable: he had a strange Kadena deck, the usual recommendation paths kept drifting back toward generic Kadena cards, so he built something himself.

Recommander is a Commander recommendation tool built by GamesfreakSA. The short version is this: you give it your deck list, and it tries to find cards that fit your actual deck, not just broadly popular cards for that commander. The longer version is that Recommander is built around collaborative filtering, the same general family of algorithms behind things like movie suggestions or product suggestions. It looks at patterns across a huge collection of Commander decks, learns which cards tend to belong together, and tries to recommend cards for the list in front of it. Watch the full video about Recommander below.

Commander decks get weird. They get personal. They get built around specific engines, constraints, pet cards, budget choices, themes, and little mechanical ideas that are easy for generic recommendation systems to flatten.

All of the features and tools of DeckCheck are highly-personalized solutions. DeckCheck has been built from the ground up not to just be a generic deckbuilder, but rather one that understands your personalized deck and helps you keep it that way. Recommander is trying to serve up recs that are highly-personalized to what you're trying to build, and that is why I have been paying attention.

We both want better tools so people can spend less time fighting with deckbuilding friction and more time actually enjoying Magic. And so, after talking with GamesfreakSA, we're bringing Recommander right to you!

Integration

Where You'll See the Recs

In the builder's Explore Cards panel, there is now a new Recommendations option next to Synergistic Cards.

Importantly, the recs here do not show all the recs available for your deck—and that is intentional. If you want the full recommendation list (which is hundreds of cards), there is a link in the panel that takes you over to Recommander. DeckCheck surfaces just enough info to be useful and actionable, but still gives you a reason to visit the tool that is doing the specialized work (which is similar to how I have handled Commander Spellbook). In Recommander's case, this matters even more because you can upvote and downvote recommendations on the site. That feedback helps GamesfreakSA improve the model over time, which means better recommendations for everyone.

The Beta

Tell Us What You Think

Here's what we're testing: First, can Recommander's system handle being part of the DeckCheck workflow in a reliable way? Secondly, and more importantly, does this actually deliver better recommendations and help people build better decks?

The only way to know is to try it with real decks and real users, at scale.

Are the recs useful? Are they obvious? Are they weird in a good way? Does the link out to the full recommendation list feel natural and useful? Let me know your thoughts through whatever channel you see fit.

Happy Brewing!