Magic: The Gathering API(mtgapi.com)
mtgapi.com
Magic: The Gathering API
http://mtgapi.com/
125 comments
Fun fact: mtgox (the Bitcoin exchange) originally stood for "Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange" and was a site for buying/selling "Magic: The Gathering" cards.
I wish people would stop repeating this.
The domain was just reused, the site was never actually sold cards.
The current owner has absolutely nothing to do with the original domain name.
The domain was just reused, the site was never actually sold cards.
The current owner has absolutely nothing to do with the original domain name.
He didn't say anything about the current owner, only the original intent of the name. Even then, I think your reaction might be a little over the top.
The insinuation is that the current site is somehow tainted by it's use back in 2007, but as far as I can find [1] it was never anything but a "coming soon"page.
It's fairly common to ridicule it's current use in the Bitcoin world by associating the currency exchange with playing cards.
[1]: http://web.archive.org/web/20070817170606/http://mtgox.com/g...
It's fairly common to ridicule it's current use in the Bitcoin world by associating the currency exchange with playing cards.
[1]: http://web.archive.org/web/20070817170606/http://mtgox.com/g...
Why would anyone consider mtg something worthy of ridicule?
No way. MTG is super awesome; the fact that Mt.Gox is indirectly linked to Magic only makes it cooler.
[deleted]
Nop, mtgox stand for "MagicalTux" aka Mark Karpeles who was historically called "MT".
Source : Close friend and : https://twitter.com/magicaltux
Source : Close friend and : https://twitter.com/magicaltux
These people are not my close friends (I occasionally contacted them by IRC or E-mail for support, probably more often their employees) but
I am pretty sure that Jed was the person who started the business, and he sold it to MagicalTux. This would indicate that it's a coincidence that MT in MagicalTux is like MT in MtGox. Maybe MagicalTux chose his nickname for this reason.
I am pretty sure that Jed was the person who started the business, and he sold it to MagicalTux. This would indicate that it's a coincidence that MT in MagicalTux is like MT in MtGox. Maybe MagicalTux chose his nickname for this reason.
Another recently popular game which may be of interest to HN is Android: Netrunner. It is an asymmetrical game wherein one player is the corporation who has a set of servers and is trying to advance adgenda cards while the other player is the runner, who is trying to hack into the corporation's servers with a set of programs, hardware and other resources. Like Magic, there is the actual game play, but then also the meta game play of picking cards to customize decks to play each role.
It shares the same designer as Magic (Richard Garfield), but is a Living Card Game rather than a Collectable Card Game. The difference being that in Magic you spend tons of money hoping for the random drop of particular rare cards or buy them individually from dealers. In A:NR, they release a new "data pack" about once a month and then have mini-expansions maybe once a year. It's more like a subscription model, but the net effect is that every card is worth the same as every other card. Still not a cheap hobby, but capped, at least (maybe about $175 to buy every card ever made up to today).
Anyways, someone built a RESTy API for it as well: http://netrunnercards.info/apidoc/en.html
It shares the same designer as Magic (Richard Garfield), but is a Living Card Game rather than a Collectable Card Game. The difference being that in Magic you spend tons of money hoping for the random drop of particular rare cards or buy them individually from dealers. In A:NR, they release a new "data pack" about once a month and then have mini-expansions maybe once a year. It's more like a subscription model, but the net effect is that every card is worth the same as every other card. Still not a cheap hobby, but capped, at least (maybe about $175 to buy every card ever made up to today).
Anyways, someone built a RESTy API for it as well: http://netrunnercards.info/apidoc/en.html
Not only that but the game is completely different to Magic. It comes from an earlier time, before the idea of "turn cards sideways to show they've been used" took hold. It has a very different economy and the two sides play completely differently.
The LCG data-pack model is great for people playing constructed formats, but it does make drafting more of a challenge. Mature LCGs are also quite difficult for latecomers to get into, especially if key packs go out of print.
The LCG data-pack model is great for people playing constructed formats, but it does make drafting more of a challenge. Mature LCGs are also quite difficult for latecomers to get into, especially if key packs go out of print.
Wizards of the coast actually has a patent on "turning cards sideways to show they've been used". http://www.google.com/patents/US5662332
> It comes from an earlier time, before the idea of "turn cards sideways to show they've been used" took hold.
Netrunner came out 3 years after Magic.
Netrunner came out 3 years after Magic.
[deleted]
I didn't say that it predated magic, I said that it came about before the idea of turning cards sideways (as "tapping", "kneeling", "exhausting", "rotating") became an entrenched mechanic.
It really didn't.
M:TG and Netrunner were both designed by Richard Garfield and Netrunner's design was directly influenced by his experience with M:TG.
Cards in Netrunner aren't tapped because actions in Netrunner are limited by a player's "clicks", not just their available resources.
It was a design decision.
M:TG and Netrunner were both designed by Richard Garfield and Netrunner's design was directly influenced by his experience with M:TG.
Cards in Netrunner aren't tapped because actions in Netrunner are limited by a player's "clicks", not just their available resources.
It was a design decision.
Luckily it looks like A:NR is at least an order of magnitude more popular than previous LCGs so the cards should stay in print for a while - a bigger issue is that at a certain point, the need to have a 'complete' set is going to be a very expensive proposition. But I agree, the downside of not having a built-in obsolescence/reissue function is that old cards might go out of print.
On the other hand, it's just so much better to play. It actually feels like they made a big list of everything that is wrong about MTG and fixed it.
On the other hand, it's just so much better to play. It actually feels like they made a big list of everything that is wrong about MTG and fixed it.
They also had the chance to undo mistakes and rebalance things from the original Netrunner.
The constant release of new data packs is eventually going to become really tough for new players. I hope they run some kind of restricted tournament format (e.g., only the core + most recent data pack cycle + most recent big box expansion) so that the keen newbie doesn't have so much of a buy-in, but they can grow into the open constructed format later.
The constant release of new data packs is eventually going to become really tough for new players. I hope they run some kind of restricted tournament format (e.g., only the core + most recent data pack cycle + most recent big box expansion) so that the keen newbie doesn't have so much of a buy-in, but they can grow into the open constructed format later.
Thanks for posting this. Looks interesting. Something to play with my eldest daughter I think.
I ended up being the local card exchange at university for MTG which was uber-popular. Selling cards made me a fortune simply by enforcing scarcity on some of them and auctioning by email (I wrote an auction system in procmail and perl designed to maximise profit). Made £1320 profit in a year!
Edit: just found my old card database. Had 1540 cards at one point! Still have a box in the cupboard as well according to my wife.
I ended up being the local card exchange at university for MTG which was uber-popular. Selling cards made me a fortune simply by enforcing scarcity on some of them and auctioning by email (I wrote an auction system in procmail and perl designed to maximise profit). Made £1320 profit in a year!
Edit: just found my old card database. Had 1540 cards at one point! Still have a box in the cupboard as well according to my wife.
I play this one with my daughter:
http://gos.bigosaur.com
Only thing bothering me is that she has to pick the almost useless Unicorn each time - because it looks nice. ;)
http://gos.bigosaur.com
Only thing bothering me is that she has to pick the almost useless Unicorn each time - because it looks nice. ;)
Thanks looks interesting. You can't win when unicorns are involved unfortunately :(
This gave me a flashback to Mox Perl.
Until I saw Mox Perl, I had no idea that web pages could be dynamically-generated by computer programs. It truly blew my mind and triggered a year-long love affair with Perl.
Until I saw Mox Perl, I had no idea that web pages could be dynamically-generated by computer programs. It truly blew my mind and triggered a year-long love affair with Perl.
wat
This is absolutely awesome.
I have a few thoughts right off the bat.
1.
It would be nice to put a Gatherer link in every response, just for browsing purposes.
2.
Split cards are weirdly reported, as if they are two separate cards. In Gatherer these are reported with an id and a "part" field:
http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/search/malice
But I can search for "spite" and I find:
http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/249394
3.
It looks like you're using the Oracle text for every version (for example, http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/198 and http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/226588 have the same rules text, though they appeared differently when printed). Is there any way to get that information? That could be really cool for mining information about how terminology has changed over time.
I have a few thoughts right off the bat.
1.
It would be nice to put a Gatherer link in every response, just for browsing purposes.
2.
Split cards are weirdly reported, as if they are two separate cards. In Gatherer these are reported with an id and a "part" field:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249394&part=Malice
http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/search/malice
But I can search for "spite" and I find:
http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/249394
3.
It looks like you're using the Oracle text for every version (for example, http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/198 and http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/226588 have the same rules text, though they appeared differently when printed). Is there any way to get that information? That could be really cool for mining information about how terminology has changed over time.
thanks for the feedback! will keep that in mind in the next few days!
Now someone needs to use this to make a passable Magic AI. Shandalar is ancient at this point, but it's still the best attempt I've seen, and the only Magic computer game I still play.
I'm not sure if you're aware of Forge or not, but it's actively developed and will probably give you a better game than Shandalar.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Forge
http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Forge
I was about to post the same comment. Forge is actually pretty good. And I agree that it's better than Shandalar. I played Shandalar again maybe 5 years ago and the AI gets predictable so fast.
I was not aware of Forge. Thanks! I guess I stopped paying attention about 10 years ago, shortly after WotC killed Apprentice. I figured, based on their behavior, that they would never let any unlicensed innovative MTG software come out. I'm glad they proved me wrong.
Cockatrice is the successor to Apprentice, and is still around even after a recent C&D from WotC. The reason the C&Ds come along is because they all tend to use terms and concepts that WotC owns, like tapping cards.
http://cockatrice.woogerworks.com
http://cockatrice.woogerworks.com
There is a Wizards product called Duels of the Planeswalkers that includes an updated Magic AI. $10 on the consoles or Steam. It is targeted as an entry-level way to learn Magic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_–_Duels_of...
It focuses on premade decks with limited means of customization, rather than open freeform deckbuilding. (Of course they want you to start buying Magic proper to do that.) But it is the only official way to play modern Magic against an adequate AI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_–_Duels_of...
It focuses on premade decks with limited means of customization, rather than open freeform deckbuilding. (Of course they want you to start buying Magic proper to do that.) But it is the only official way to play modern Magic against an adequate AI.
Ahh Magic cards! The first website I ever made was a magic card trivia page, oh about 15 years ago. If I had known about this API, I would have used it back then ;)
By the way, there is an awesome program called lackeyCCG[1] that I use whenever I feel the need for a quick fix, it's almost like a free version of magic online. Plus you can use it to test your own CCG's if you ever had the urge to make one.
[1] http://www.lackeyccg.com/
By the way, there is an awesome program called lackeyCCG[1] that I use whenever I feel the need for a quick fix, it's almost like a free version of magic online. Plus you can use it to test your own CCG's if you ever had the urge to make one.
[1] http://www.lackeyccg.com/
Cockatrice is another good one: www.woogerworks.com
Ahh Magic. That's the game that inspired me to build my own TCG engine.
It uses websockets and modern javascript to let anyone create their own TCG/CCG in the browser. Unlike Lacky or similar all the cards and actions are automated so there's no work for the player. It's currently in beta.
This is one of the games that have been built on it:
http://dulst.com/TouhouRSO
It uses websockets and modern javascript to let anyone create their own TCG/CCG in the browser. Unlike Lacky or similar all the cards and actions are automated so there's no work for the player. It's currently in beta.
This is one of the games that have been built on it:
http://dulst.com/TouhouRSO
You... what... you built what I considered building (I worked on the OCTGN project, which has a similar idea [build your own TCG]).
I had no idea this existed, can't wait to check it out (awww... closed source? Still cool!).
I had no idea this existed, can't wait to check it out (awww... closed source? Still cool!).
Thanks, I wanted to build a really really easy engine that truly anyone can use, not just developers. This is the first time I've heard of OCTGN too. Checking it out.
This is very nicely done. Wish this was available when I was developing CardSplice as it would have saved me some time.
Shameless plug for CardSplice[1] since hacker news is talking about MTG. I had a ton of fun developing this awesome app that lets you quickly feed Magic Cards behind your mobile and uses some advanced image processing and OCR to detect the cards and upload the list into the cloud. Amazing for draft deck building and organizing.
Anyways, thanks for the MTG web service.
[1] http://www.CardSplice.com
Shameless plug for CardSplice[1] since hacker news is talking about MTG. I had a ton of fun developing this awesome app that lets you quickly feed Magic Cards behind your mobile and uses some advanced image processing and OCR to detect the cards and upload the list into the cloud. Amazing for draft deck building and organizing.
Anyways, thanks for the MTG web service.
[1] http://www.CardSplice.com
A slight OT anecdotal - most of the best MtG players I personally knew are now stock brokers.
The game itself, meta-game and the entire ecosystem around it taught me a lot about value, perceived value, sales, psychology... I don't regret any of the thousands dollars spent on it more than a decade ago.
The game itself, meta-game and the entire ecosystem around it taught me a lot about value, perceived value, sales, psychology... I don't regret any of the thousands dollars spent on it more than a decade ago.
Zero sum games, taking prized possessions from your friends... you can do what you will.
I don't regret any of my money spent on my MTG cards, but not because it taught me skills to become a stock broker.
I don't regret any of my money spent on my MTG cards, but not because it taught me skills to become a stock broker.
If dsirijus played at a higher level, his discussion of value is probably more about the value of a card in play, rather than its street price...
I put together a json file of all cards, at least up until May of 2013. It’s not a perfect structure, but it’s close.
https://github.com/ancestral/Verse/tree/master/json
(The Github project itself is many things, and very experimental, but hopes to, one day, achieve the Holy Grail of being able to enforce rules through NLP. Yeah, I’m holding my breath too.)
https://github.com/ancestral/Verse/tree/master/json
(The Github project itself is many things, and very experimental, but hopes to, one day, achieve the Holy Grail of being able to enforce rules through NLP. Yeah, I’m holding my breath too.)
This looks great! I would be interested in talking to the creator about making a plugin based on this for DuckDuckGo if they're around and so inclined.
Jaryd: email if [email protected] if you would like to get ahold of me.
reply
Wait, so how do I use this to buy and sell bitcoins?
Why bother with bitcoins? Magic cards are much better currency.
No joke, I wasn't aware of how much value there is in MTG until a friend of mine put down $6000 investing in a bunch of cards. Then again, I don't know all that much about the game, but you can see that the market for cards on eBay is really active.
Some of my friends made good money playing the market: They bought during the summer drought and sold just after Christmas, when the kids had gotten money as presents.
You do know mtgox used to be a web site whose original owner hoped to use as a place to buy and sell Magic cards, right?
MTGOX == Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange
(Edit: As someone pointed out already.)
MTGOX == Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange
(Edit: As someone pointed out already.)
Unfortunately, and I say this from excruciating experience, this isn't a complete/accurate representation of all M:TG cards.
I spent the summer of 2011 scraping Gather to build out a product catalog and API for a start up that didn't start. I really wish that I had taken the time to put the data out as a torrent.
"Magic: The API" doesn't appear to support:
* Multi-faceted cards such as "Fire // Ice"(http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Both return the data for the "Fire" facet, but with different artists: http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/27165 & http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/27166
* Double sided cards such as "Student of Elements" (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Only shows data for "Tobita, Master of Winds": http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/78691
* Double cards such as B.F.M (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Only shows 1/2 of the cards: http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/9844
* Multi-sided cards such as "Cloistered Youth // Unholy Fiend" (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Only shows the "Unholy Fiend" data: http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/221212
M:TG has 20 years of strangeness to take into account when creating a data model... And Gatherer has its own issues. For example, the way symbols are represented in card text is inconsistent. (e.g. The tap symbol can be represented as both "ocT" and "{T}", and the representations for mana symbols have evolved inconsistently as well.)
Wizards of the Coast are the only ones who can build this API legally. They hold the copyright on all of the data related to M:TG and I truly wish that they would open up it up so that we, as a people, wouldn't have to spend hundreds of hours recreating the wheel. Poorly. [0]
Fortunately, I stopped what I was doing and started on a board gaming "thingy" with friends instead: http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/
[0]: That isn't to say that the mtgapi.com guys/gals did a shoddy job. It's just a big task that WotC should be forward looking enough to do themselves.
While I have WotC on the line... Why wasn't the D&D 5th Edition SRD hosted on GitHub during development?
I spent the summer of 2011 scraping Gather to build out a product catalog and API for a start up that didn't start. I really wish that I had taken the time to put the data out as a torrent.
"Magic: The API" doesn't appear to support:
* Multi-faceted cards such as "Fire // Ice"(http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Both return the data for the "Fire" facet, but with different artists: http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/27165 & http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/27166
* Double sided cards such as "Student of Elements" (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Only shows data for "Tobita, Master of Winds": http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/78691
* Double cards such as B.F.M (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Only shows 1/2 of the cards: http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/9844
* Multi-sided cards such as "Cloistered Youth // Unholy Fiend" (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...)
Only shows the "Unholy Fiend" data: http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/221212
M:TG has 20 years of strangeness to take into account when creating a data model... And Gatherer has its own issues. For example, the way symbols are represented in card text is inconsistent. (e.g. The tap symbol can be represented as both "ocT" and "{T}", and the representations for mana symbols have evolved inconsistently as well.)
Wizards of the Coast are the only ones who can build this API legally. They hold the copyright on all of the data related to M:TG and I truly wish that they would open up it up so that we, as a people, wouldn't have to spend hundreds of hours recreating the wheel. Poorly. [0]
Fortunately, I stopped what I was doing and started on a board gaming "thingy" with friends instead: http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/
[0]: That isn't to say that the mtgapi.com guys/gals did a shoddy job. It's just a big task that WotC should be forward looking enough to do themselves.
While I have WotC on the line... Why wasn't the D&D 5th Edition SRD hosted on GitHub during development?
Not to mention that Gatherer doesn't actually contain everything. For example:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...
Even without counting the two Collector's Edition print runs of the original core set, it's also missing the Anthologies printing, the FNM promo printing and the judge promo printing along with the version that appeared in the Coldsnap theme deck "Kjeldoran Cunning" (which kept the Ice Age art and expansion symbol but put it in the modern card frame).
Meanwhile, this has all of those printings listed:
http://magiccards.info/ddf/en/22.html
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...
Even without counting the two Collector's Edition print runs of the original core set, it's also missing the Anthologies printing, the FNM promo printing and the judge promo printing along with the version that appeared in the Coldsnap theme deck "Kjeldoran Cunning" (which kept the Ice Age art and expansion symbol but put it in the modern card frame).
Meanwhile, this has all of those printings listed:
http://magiccards.info/ddf/en/22.html
While I have WotC on the line... Why wasn't the D&D 5th Edition SRD hosted on GitHub during development?
Hell yeah. I'm tempted to contact some of the creators of some of my favorite RPG systems (Jason Bulmahn, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook), and beg them to agree to make a completely free RPG. Or at least design the core mechanics. I'm thinking maybe some Creative Commons license, which would allow commercial use. Get them to make a bid, as to how much it would cost to have their work-for-hire for however long they estimate it would take to make the Core Rules of this game...
...and then have a Kickstarter, to raise the funds to do it.
And make implementations of the Core Rules in several programming languages, probably JavaScript first (good for the Browser, or for Node.JS), with Reach Goals for other languages...
Let me tell my personal story: I was a DM for D&D 3rd Edition, and I chose to run through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. I had a hard time running it, though, so I made an electronic version of the campaign book. I scanned every single page, I made a wiki on my laptop, one for each NPC. I made a wiki page, with the scanned content for every single monster that showed up. I made wiki pages for every spell (with the scanned content of every spell, right there.) I didn't have to settle for the OGL content, I had the ACTUAL CONTENT FROM THE BOOKS, so my rule-lawyering players couldn't complain that the DM's rules were slightly different from their rules. I made hot-clickable maps, to take me to rooms. I made spreadsheets with every NPC, and their Initiatives, and Hit Points, and any effects on them...
...and now that I've made this thing, for personal use, it would be ILLEGAL for me to share this with anyone.
That sucks.
I've also played around with making computer role playing games, based off of some fantasy role playing game, but most of the "FREE" ones out there, are not available for commercial use, or I'd have to pay a licensing fee.
That sucks.
Ah well, I'm done rambling for now...
One more quick point: I don't begrudge people for making copyrighted, commercial art like games and campaigns. But I think the time for the "Linux" of Fantasy Role Playing Games has come.
Hell yeah. I'm tempted to contact some of the creators of some of my favorite RPG systems (Jason Bulmahn, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook), and beg them to agree to make a completely free RPG. Or at least design the core mechanics. I'm thinking maybe some Creative Commons license, which would allow commercial use. Get them to make a bid, as to how much it would cost to have their work-for-hire for however long they estimate it would take to make the Core Rules of this game...
...and then have a Kickstarter, to raise the funds to do it.
And make implementations of the Core Rules in several programming languages, probably JavaScript first (good for the Browser, or for Node.JS), with Reach Goals for other languages...
Let me tell my personal story: I was a DM for D&D 3rd Edition, and I chose to run through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. I had a hard time running it, though, so I made an electronic version of the campaign book. I scanned every single page, I made a wiki on my laptop, one for each NPC. I made a wiki page, with the scanned content for every single monster that showed up. I made wiki pages for every spell (with the scanned content of every spell, right there.) I didn't have to settle for the OGL content, I had the ACTUAL CONTENT FROM THE BOOKS, so my rule-lawyering players couldn't complain that the DM's rules were slightly different from their rules. I made hot-clickable maps, to take me to rooms. I made spreadsheets with every NPC, and their Initiatives, and Hit Points, and any effects on them...
...and now that I've made this thing, for personal use, it would be ILLEGAL for me to share this with anyone.
That sucks.
I've also played around with making computer role playing games, based off of some fantasy role playing game, but most of the "FREE" ones out there, are not available for commercial use, or I'd have to pay a licensing fee.
That sucks.
Ah well, I'm done rambling for now...
One more quick point: I don't begrudge people for making copyrighted, commercial art like games and campaigns. But I think the time for the "Linux" of Fantasy Role Playing Games has come.
I've also dealt with the data and can confirm it's a stunning headache. Try building a search UI around the inconsistencies and you'll go insane. Even Gatherer has issues!
From what I can tell, there's only one or two guys at WotC that come close to understanding the data. With the rest of the organization in mind, I highly doubt WotC will open up their data - the business guys wouldn't understand it. It's a closed-source kind of company.
From what I can tell, there's only one or two guys at WotC that come close to understanding the data. With the rest of the organization in mind, I highly doubt WotC will open up their data - the business guys wouldn't understand it. It's a closed-source kind of company.
I think http://mtgjson.com/ does it better.
Wow, just looking at the example card on that makes me realize how ridiculous MTG has gotten in terms of powerful cards. Each edition seems to get closer to a "tap to win game" card.
Exact opposite, actually.
The dev team learned their lesson from the earlier days[1] and do strict evaluations of cards and interactions before releasing them. The most popular format, "Standard", is played with the last 2 "blocks" (3 sets of card "sets"), and 1 "Core Set". So basically the last 1.5—2 years worth of cards. Those interactions are studied carefully before being released. Very infrequently do you run into something truly overpowered and needing to be banned from the competitive scene.
Not to mention, in the most basic sense, cards like Counterspell[2] will probably never be printed in a Standard playable set, but cards like Cancel[3] will. One being too cheap to cast and being almost game breaking, while the other has its power balanced just right for the cost.
[1]: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/dai...
[2]: http://magiccards.info/jvc/en/24.html
[3]: http://magiccards.info/m14/en/45.html
The dev team learned their lesson from the earlier days[1] and do strict evaluations of cards and interactions before releasing them. The most popular format, "Standard", is played with the last 2 "blocks" (3 sets of card "sets"), and 1 "Core Set". So basically the last 1.5—2 years worth of cards. Those interactions are studied carefully before being released. Very infrequently do you run into something truly overpowered and needing to be banned from the competitive scene.
Not to mention, in the most basic sense, cards like Counterspell[2] will probably never be printed in a Standard playable set, but cards like Cancel[3] will. One being too cheap to cast and being almost game breaking, while the other has its power balanced just right for the cost.
[1]: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/dai...
[2]: http://magiccards.info/jvc/en/24.html
[3]: http://magiccards.info/m14/en/45.html
Yeah, after the hellish Tempest/Urza block they really cut back, Mercadian Masques was almost critically under-powered, and they've gotten so much better since that time at providing balance.
Thanks. That "Dealing with Power Creep" article is a good read.
You're welcome. Glad I could clear that up.
If you haven't played in a while, you should check it out again. There's a game[1] now for Steam/Xbox/PS3/Android/iOS to get you back into the swing of things and show you many of the current cards.
[1]: https://www.wizards.com/magic/digital/duelsoftheplaneswalker...
If you haven't played in a while, you should check it out again. There's a game[1] now for Steam/Xbox/PS3/Android/iOS to get you back into the swing of things and show you many of the current cards.
[1]: https://www.wizards.com/magic/digital/duelsoftheplaneswalker...
I don't get the obsession with making web APIs for raw data that is publicly accessible and small enough to fit in a single file.
wow, that's really sweet! I'd have done a great job with this info 12 years ago when I created a top MTG website ;)
So many good times!
So many good times!
Shut Up and Sit Down is awesome. Good call.
What is the business opportunity of an open M:TG API? I'm not sure I see the real potential there.
What is the business opportunity of an open M:TG API? I'm not sure I see the real potential there.
The API was just a feature. The actual product was a multi-merchant market place w/ a shipping estimator that was a 1-1 implementation of EasyPost (YC S13).
Not being able to edit out that "market place" typo is going to bug me forever.
100% just a stepping stone ! one that i hope all can appreciate! there will be more features to come.
Thanks for the feedback! I will do my best to get these things fixed asap. And i will checkout your site as well!
Do you have permission to pull data from Gatherer? If so, you should also have the image url in your response. That'd be awesome
I'm interested in where the database came from. Is this all manually compiled or pulled from a general source?
+1
I have previously written a crawler for http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx in Perl that was fairly effective, but never actually finished with the project. That may be a potential source for the data, though.
I have previously written a crawler for http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx in Perl that was fairly effective, but never actually finished with the project. That may be a potential source for the data, though.
All source is pulled form the gatherer. Public Information
It's a cool API, I like it.
Just be careful because Wizards of the Coast might disagree with you about what is and isn't public information. Especially when you are showing the rating and number of votes and rating straight from Gatherer.
Just be careful because Wizards of the Coast might disagree with you about what is and isn't public information. Especially when you are showing the rating and number of votes and rating straight from Gatherer.
There are two "Card by ID" endpoints, I believe the second one should be "Card by name" or possibly "Search card by name".
Part of my research is to semi-automatically generate client libraries for web APIs. For funsies, I made this site a definition and ran it through, producing bindings in Racket, Python, and Java.
They won't be 100% correct, but they'll probably work okay. https://github.com/RealTimeWeb/MagicTheGatheringService
They won't be 100% correct, but they'll probably work okay. https://github.com/RealTimeWeb/MagicTheGatheringService
Are you planning anything beyond multiverse ID and text search? I usually need to filter by many attributes. Specifically searching in the flavor text, filtering by format legality, card color, converted mana cost, etc.
Gatherer offers all of these abilities but not in an easy to use API. Even if you query gatherer programmatically you're still stuck scraping the page to get the data.
Gatherer offers all of these abilities but not in an easy to use API. Even if you query gatherer programmatically you're still stuck scraping the page to get the data.
it is coming :) no worries stay tuned
It looks really good but there is a little bit of a problem with your data structure. Technically rarity, flavor text, number, and artist can all be unique per set. You would be better off including that information in your "prints" sub-array with each set.
The big one with rarity is Serra Angel and Hypnotic Spectre as both of those have switched between uncommon and rare, as well as the original Planeswalkers were just rare in Lorwyn, not mythic as that rarity did not exist at that time.
Another suggestion is to remove the empty fields. It doesn't really matter too much normally, but it could be a slight boost in performance for mobile apps taking advantage of this API as they would essentially be pulling down less data, especially if it is a multi-card search. (100 bytes isn't too much for 1 card, but 100 cards suddenly makes that 9.7kb of extra data that isn't necessary.)
Looks really great though, very responsive.
The big one with rarity is Serra Angel and Hypnotic Spectre as both of those have switched between uncommon and rare, as well as the original Planeswalkers were just rare in Lorwyn, not mythic as that rarity did not exist at that time.
Another suggestion is to remove the empty fields. It doesn't really matter too much normally, but it could be a slight boost in performance for mobile apps taking advantage of this API as they would essentially be pulling down less data, especially if it is a multi-card search. (100 bytes isn't too much for 1 card, but 100 cards suddenly makes that 9.7kb of extra data that isn't necessary.)
Looks really great though, very responsive.
For what it's worth, I have related projects on Github (although they haven't been updated in a while):
https://github.com/zephyrfalcon/magicripper2 (to scrape cards from Gatherer)
https://github.com/zephyrfalcon/magicquery (to query the card database)
I also made a set of files (not on Github (yet)) that indicate a card's keywords and other properties (e.g. flying, protection, split card, etc etc). I found it very hard (read: ~impossible) to extract this kind of info reliably from the card text.
https://github.com/zephyrfalcon/magicripper2 (to scrape cards from Gatherer)
https://github.com/zephyrfalcon/magicquery (to query the card database)
I also made a set of files (not on Github (yet)) that indicate a card's keywords and other properties (e.g. flying, protection, split card, etc etc). I found it very hard (read: ~impossible) to extract this kind of info reliably from the card text.
Naive legal question - is this API considered copyright infringement? Could they charge for it?
Similarly, are you allowed to create an endpoint for "products for sale at Whole Foods" assuming you collect the data legally?
Similarly, are you allowed to create an endpoint for "products for sale at Whole Foods" assuming you collect the data legally?
A couple of years ago, I had a student who wanted to do a kind of MtG assistant for his master's thesis. It would have a database with the functionality of each card stored in a symbolic format, and it would use that for applications like giving you advice during play, with the possibility of implementing other applications in the future (once you have the functionality of cards encoded in a format easy to process by machines, you can do many interesting things).
I told him that it could be a great project and I would be happy to supervise it, but the first thing he needed to do was to ensure there would be no legal problems. So I told him to write to the WotC legal department. He wrote a nice email saying if it would be OK to do this, taking into account that it was not for profit, he would recognize all copyrights, not use illustrations (just raw data about the cards), etc.
They (politely, but clearly) said no.
I told him that it could be a great project and I would be happy to supervise it, but the first thing he needed to do was to ensure there would be no legal problems. So I told him to write to the WotC legal department. He wrote a nice email saying if it would be OK to do this, taking into account that it was not for profit, he would recognize all copyrights, not use illustrations (just raw data about the cards), etc.
They (politely, but clearly) said no.
I don't think it is in Australia at least. Simply collecting such data and making it available isn't illegal; only creative works are under copyright. We've had cases with the phone book being reproduced, and this understanding is apparently correct.
These sites go beyond lists of facts though.
Pretty sure that the text/flavour will be under copyright. The names might well be too.
Pretty sure that the text/flavour will be under copyright. The names might well be too.
Facts are not copyrightable. Collections of facts might be. I think collecting products and prices for sale @ WF is allowable, in the same sense that it is OK to distribute baseball box scores.
As long as you aren't directly republishing without modification a collection of facts, you aren't violating c.r.
You could still be liable, depending whether your efforts create a negative business affect (torturious interference).
IANAL.
As long as you aren't directly republishing without modification a collection of facts, you aren't violating c.r.
You could still be liable, depending whether your efforts create a negative business affect (torturious interference).
IANAL.
Dang. A nice looking system that does exactly what I was hoping to do with a project of mine that lost my interest.....
Oh well. I appreciate the whole api but what I would really enjoy is the source to where the database is acquired from. I presume it is gatherer but could be wrong because there is at least another site that could be scraped. That or they are scraping a storefront which would be interesting and efficient.
And does it handle double sided cards? That's the thing that buggered my scrapping to the point of annoyance. Damn Innistrad and it's double sided creatures!
Oh well. I appreciate the whole api but what I would really enjoy is the source to where the database is acquired from. I presume it is gatherer but could be wrong because there is at least another site that could be scraped. That or they are scraping a storefront which would be interesting and efficient.
And does it handle double sided cards? That's the thing that buggered my scrapping to the point of annoyance. Damn Innistrad and it's double sided creatures!
double sided cards are seen as separate crds at this point . It is a point for improvement though!
I wish you luck, they are painful unless you feel like trying to parse card text. At that point you might as well write a bot that plays magic for you....
http://mtgapi.com/api/v1/fetch/id/4960 results in a Symfony error trace page.
[edited for typo]
[edited for typo]
You know when you're a geek when you see "Magic: The Gathering" & "API" in the same sentence and click the link without a second thought.
This is probably the geekiest thing I've seen all week.
Hey this is so cool! I documented it in Mashape - https://www.mashape.com/community/magic-the-gathering#!docum... .
I can transfer it to your official Mashape account. You can continue documenting it there (on top of managing users, getting analytics, etc). Let me know! - [email protected]
I can transfer it to your official Mashape account. You can continue documenting it there (on top of managing users, getting analytics, etc). Let me know! - [email protected]
This would be much more useful if it had prices and card images.
www.mtgprice.com looks like a really good price API, but I haven't tried it out yet.
www.mtgprice.com looks like a really good price API, but I haven't tried it out yet.
I was thinking it would be cool to make an open source digital trading card game based on a bitcoin like protocol to insure card existence and distribution probability. (plus there's the nice circular reference)
I'm sure I'll tinker with this idea eventually, but if anyone would like to collaborate give me a buzz. I'll spin up a repo and get the ball rolling.
I'm sure I'll tinker with this idea eventually, but if anyone would like to collaborate give me a buzz. I'll spin up a repo and get the ball rolling.
From one of their examples:
[
{
"id": "202424",
"name": "Tundra",
...
}
]
I don't think they are allocated sequentially (and there aren't that many unique cards/versions). But IIRC Gatherer's using the IDs from the internal "Multiverse" DB, which also includes all the brainstormed card ideas that never made it into an actually-released set, which would tend to inflate the numbers.
Edit: and they are not allocated sequentially. These two cards have only ever appeared in the 2014 core set, and have sequential collector numbers in the set but not sequential IDs:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...
Edit: and they are not allocated sequentially. These two cards have only ever appeared in the 2014 core set, and have sequential collector numbers in the set but not sequential IDs:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...
Looks like there are about 13,000 distinct cards at this point. The following stats are about one year out of date:
http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Magic:_The_Gathering_st...
http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Magic:_The_Gathering_st...
Would be sweet to search by characteristics other than id and name.
Eg all GG creatures with power greater than 3
Nonetheless sweet job!
Eg all GG creatures with power greater than 3
Nonetheless sweet job!
Here:
http://magiccards.info/search.html
(magiccards.info does most of this already, albeit not with a JSON API)
http://magiccards.info/search.html
(magiccards.info does most of this already, albeit not with a JSON API)
You might want an SQL like interface for that?
It is coming, no worries :)
Another one: http://mtgjson.com/
I built a draft / sealed simulator, which scrapes Gatherer as part of the build step. There's thousands of draft results available for data mining.
https://github.com/aeosynth/draft
https://github.com/aeosynth/draft
Cool! I did a similar project[1], but I use magiccards.info as a datasource, so it uses the same (not very intuitive, but quite flexible) query parameters.
[1]: http://searchthecity.me
[1]: http://searchthecity.me
"During the Beta Period, everyone has access to the API. Please test it and try it out." So you want us to beta-test your stuff for free, but later you will close it? Not interested, thanks, test it yourself.
Now, it would be nice to have some kind of DSL to encode the `text' field.
Jaryd: email if [email protected] if you would like to get ahold of me.
as one of contributors to the tutor project, I'd recommend Tutor as way to programmatically query gatherer on the command line in a way that handles a lot of the edge cases. I use it on http://cuesbey.com to import into my own data model.
https://github.com/davidchambers/tutor and npm install tutor
https://github.com/davidchambers/tutor and npm install tutor
... I miss versioning; between Alpha, beta, revised, etc till now many cards have changed in their use. Nearly 20 years of crud to deal with...
Is this available for the Pokemon cards?
Honestly I'd love just a Pokedex API. It seems like the best right now is Veekun's work[1]. It just needs to be...API-fied.
Nintendo is very happy to give out C&Ds though, which might explain why such a thing doesn't already exist.
[1] https://github.com/veekun/pokedex
Nintendo is very happy to give out C&Ds though, which might explain why such a thing doesn't already exist.
[1] https://github.com/veekun/pokedex
I'm actually working on that—hopeful to have something passable out by the release of X/Y.
Is this so that someone can build a Pokemon Snap AR game for our smartphones?
No it is not, but can add that to the code fairly easy :P
I've got a bunch of 3rd and 4th edition cards, how do I find the id of a given card?
any plans to add art?
سمَـَّوُوُحخ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ امارتيخ ̷̴̐خسمَـَّوُوُحخ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ امارتيخ ̷̴̐خسمَـَّوُوُحخ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ امارتيخ ̷̴̐خسمَـَّوُوُحخ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ امارتيخ ̷̴̐خ