This is a known problem. I'm planning to add something similar to the mechanics page where a cardset admin can define a text string like "{E}" and the URL of the image it should expand to.

Two kittens up!

I'm sure you're hurting for space already, and remote hosting is probably more sensible for several reasons; but remember you can store binary files as BLOBs in a database. Paperclip plugin is the one for that, I think.

If I were to move the site from Heroku's free plan to something else, I might start allowing images to be stored on-site. But since I've already gone the external hosting route for card art and whole-card images and watermarks, it'd seem odd to break from that tradition for the fourth kind of user-specifiable image.

Would it make sense to add one or two placeholder images that people can use, like they often do with , just because it's probably a lot easier? I agree custom mana costs would be fun long-term, but probably needn't be top priority.

That's a good idea. makes sense.

­ added (thanks to SadisticMystic for the image). I still plan to support the whole feature here though.

Other related enhancements: Images for set symbol/rarity, Different symbols for DFC day/night.

A simple (temporary?) solution would be to allow markdown in card text - including images:

Hmmm. I have a feeling I had a reason why I didn't allow Markdown in card texts, all those years ago when I first designed the site. But I've since added *italic* and **bold**, so the main difference would be hyperlinks in card text. Which seem odd, but on the other hand I'm happy to allow animated GIFs as card images. So... yes, there might be some sense in just allowing full Markdown parsing in card text. I'll have to give it some thought.

This probably isn't a good idea, but I wondered about using unicode "character in circle" symbols instead of images.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosed_Alphanumerics

That's mostly less good, since they don't have specifically snow, colorless etc. But would give lots of options (any other letter to start with, plus any other something-in-circle in unicode). And I often browse with images turned off, but that makes it hard to see costs.

­"I often browse with images turned off, but that makes it hard to see costs."

Hm, really? I'd've thought that ought to show the images' title text instead of the image contents? And all Multiverse mana images ought to have title text of the symbol they're expanding - so ought to have title text "", so with images turned off it ought to just show as "", I would have hoped.

I'm using a plugin which may not do the right thing; if you like I can check if it works correctly with normal way of disabling images.

ETA: Yes, that seems to be it. It turns the images into blank images, but doesn't include their title text (which is still there, eg. if i copy it and paste elsewhere). That's a problem with the plugin not this website.