We recently rolled out a number of updates to the Master Vault that included the Master Vault Deck Ownership system.

Master Vault Deck Ownership is an exciting feature that allows Ghost Galaxy to serve players in new ways such as providing the option for players to make copies of their deck, to translate their deck, to register their decks for play in official tournaments, and more to be announced.

Before KeyForge, no publisher had created or published a unique game (one in which every deck is a one-of-a-kind object). This took tremendous effort and vision to accomplish. While the Master Vault registration system was created to “discover” and register decks by players, the concept of providing and sustaining a unique player-to-deck registration service (which we call “Master Vault Deck Ownership”) was, along all the newness and other challenges in rolling out the new concept, a bridge too far in those days.

Simply put, by creating Master Vault Deck Ownership, Ghost Galaxy can do many things for players that before was impossible to accomplish without compromising the uniqueness of the physical decks. However, in making this new system available, we also understood that the transition from the free-for-all deck registration system to user-deck assignment system would be bumpy.

Not only would players need to re-register their physical decks (as a first step in connecting the physical-to-digital credential), a transfer system would be necessary, and, in rare cases, some decks would be registered by multiple players which meant that one or more mechanisms for disputes would need to be implemented.

These are not small, nor easy, challenges to overcome. That said, we believe the long-term upside to KeyForge will be well worth the short-term obstacles and challenges. The first step was to have players begin registering their decks to ensure system integrity and to insure that the system was able to handle the load. As the next step, today we are thrilled to launch the first version of the Master Vault deck-transfer system, including deck-dispute resolution mechanics.

This article will go through the steps needed to register or transfer Master Vault Deck Ownership, as well as provide instructions for raising a dispute over Master Vault Deck Ownership, if needed.

Discover a Deck to get Master Vault Deck Ownership

To register a deck, players must have an account on the KeyForge Master Vault. Once an account is established, navigate to “My Decks” and then follow the instructions for “Add Deck”.

When a deck is first registered to the Master Vault, that deck is considered to have been discovered. Upon discovery, Master Vault Deck Ownership of the deck is connected to the registering player (and the registering player is awarded one Æmber for the discovery).

Players should be sure to hide their deck registration-code located on new decks from others until they have registered the deck to their account. Failure to keep the code confidential may result in another party registering the deck to the Master Vault.

Transferring Master Vault Deck Ownership

The Master Vault Deck Ownership of an individual deck can be transferred between two Master Vault users.

In order to transfer a deck a user must a) be the deck’s Master Vault Owner, b) must have at least one Æmber in their account, and c) must know the Master Vault User Name of the receiving user.

Here’s how to go about transferring Master Vault Deck Ownership of a deck:

Instructions for the Transferring User
To start the process for transferring a deck, first navigate to the “My Decks” page. Here, locate and select the deck you want to transfer to another user, select that deck. Then, on the deck’s detail page, scroll down to locate the “Transfer Deck” button.

Upon clicking this button, a field will open to enter the Master Vault username of the user to whom you wish to transfer the deck’s Master Vault Ownership to. The transferring user must know the recipient’s Master Vault username to initiate a transfer.

After submitting the recipient’s username, the transferring user must confirm the transfer. To proceed, hit proceed to submit the request. One Æmber will be deducted from the transferring users’ Master Vault account for each deck transfer.

The Receiving User
The user receiving the deck will be notified by email that a deck is being transferred to them. Additionally, a red dot will be visible in the “Deck Transfer” listing in the Master Vault drop-down menu, signifying that one or more actions are required.

The deck recipient may click on the link in the email to navigate to the “Deck Transfers” page on their Master Vault account.

Here, the deck recipient will see a list of pending deck transfers (both incoming and outgoing). For each deck transfer, the recipient is provided with two options: to Accept Transfer or Deny Transfer.

After accepting a transfer, the deck recipient may now navigate to see the deck in their “My Decks” list (a few minutes and a browser refresh may be required for the transfer to be viewed).

Denied Transfers
If a transfer is denied by the recipient, then no transfer will take place, and the transferring user will be credited back one Æmber.

Master Vault Deck Ownership Dispute

Master Vault Deck Ownership Disputes are rare, but take place when a deck is claimed by two users. This will occur when a user seeks to register a deck, but the system informs them that another user already is the Master Vault deck owner.

In such a situation, the registering player may escalate the failed registration to a dispute. Master Vault Deck Ownership disputes include a tiered escalation approach in which each tier needs to be resolved before the next tier may be initiated. We will detail these layers and how to initiate them in detail below.

Tier 1 – Submit deck claim request

If user scans a deck that has already been claimed by another user in the Master Vault, they will be asked whether to submit a claim request.

Submitting a claim request will deduct one Æmber from the claimant’s account.

Once submitted, the current Master Vault deck owner will be informed by email that another Master Vault user has submitted a request claiming Master Vault Deck Ownership of the deck. The current Master Vault owner has seven days to accept or reject the claim request.

A link is provided on the email for the current Master Vault deck owner to take them to where they can approve or decline the deck claim request in their Master Vault account.

If approved, the Master Vault Deck Ownership will transfer to the claimant.

If denied, or if the current Master Vault deck owner does not respond within seven days, the system will automatically mark the request as rejected. A rejected claim will result in one Æmber being refunded back to the claimant.

If the Claim Request does not resolve the situation to the claimant’s satisfaction, they may escalate their claim to a digital review.

Tier 2 – Digital Deck Claim Review

The next tier up in the Master Vault Deck Ownership dispute system requires a digital review by a member of the Ghost Galaxy team.

After a denial in the Claim Request tier, a Master Vault user whom wishes to escalate a Master Vault Deck Ownership claim will be able to initiate a Digital Deck Claim Review on the Deck Claims page (link to Deck Claims are found at the bottom of the Deck Transfer page).

The submission portion of Digital Deck Claims are handled by our technology partner Playstile. Submitting a Digital Deck Claim will cost the claimant a non-refundable amount of 10 Æmber.

Once on the relevant Playstile page, the claimant will need to follow the steps listed in order to properly submit the deck claim for review. These steps are as follows:

1) The claimant must click on the indicated button to generate a unique token PDF. This PDF will feature a code that is unique to the deck claim and will be required to verify your submission.

2) The claimant must now take six specific photos of their claimed deck. These photos will need the cards to be placed in the outlined space found on the unique token PDF. Be sure that each photo includes the unique code found on the PDF. The card photos needed for this step are as follows:

• Front of the Deck List card
• Back of the Deck List card
• Back of any other card in the Deck
• Front of the 1st card listed for the 1st House found on the Deck List
• Front of the 1st card listed for the 2nd House found on the Deck List
• Front of the 1st card listed for the 3rd House found on the Deck List

3) Check each photo to ensure it is of good quality and clearly shows the card details, in particular be sure that the focus is correct. Claims with low quality or unreadable photo(s) will result in an automatic denial.

4) Claimant must attach and upload each image to the claim request in the designated section of the Playstile web page.

5) If everything looks correct, the claimant should then submit the form for review.

A Ghost Galaxy team member will personally review the submitted information, along with internal data, to make a decision on the validity of the deck. The decision of the reviewer is final.

If Ghost Galaxy verifies that the data submitted is correct and corresponds with internal measures, the deck claim will be approved and the Master Vault Deck Ownership will be transferred to the claimant. In this case, an email will be sent to both the submitting user and the previous Master Vault deck owner explaining the result of the digital deck claim.

If Ghost Galaxy determines that we cannot verify the deck’s validity digitally, the deck claim will be denied and the claimant will receive an email explaining the decision.

If a denied claimant believes that the situation warrants a final escalation, claimant must request a physical deck review at Ghost Galaxy. The method for submitting a physical deck review will be be explained in the digital ownership claim denial email.

Tier 3 – Physical Deck Review

If denied in both previous dispute tiers, the final method for a Master Vault user to claim Master Vault Deck Ownership will be to initiate a Physical Deck Review. Specific instructions for physical deck review will be provided to claimant upon request. It should be noted that this authentication service will incur the claimant a fee of $25 per deck, plus shipping costs (to and from Ghost Galaxy), so it is not a process that should be used lightly.

Upon receipt of the physical deck, Ghost Galaxy will make a physical inspection of the deck to confirm authenticity. If the deck is found authentic, the deck claim will be approved and the Master Vault Deck Ownership will be transferred to the claimant. In this case, an email will be sent to both the submitting user and the previous Master Vault deck owner explaining the result of the physical deck claim.

Ghost Galaxy will not have the equipment, materials, expertise, or needed data necessary to adjudicate physical deck claims at in-person events (such as Vault Tours).