Master Deck Building w/ These Scryfall Hacks | The Command Zone 608 | MTG Magic Gathering Commander

[@commandcast]

Do you have any special search functions that you like on Scryfall? Would you be interested in an even deeper dive into syntax?

[@UninvitedGhost]

Absolutely would love a deeper dive!

[@TheSkynovel]

A deeper dive into Syntax sounds like an absolute dream!! Yes please!!

[@Jonnytrox]

Yes please! And thank you very much for this neatly tied bundle of information!! It helps a ton ❤

[@Computer-STEM-NERD-903]

Scryfall is a very comprehensive, Elastic-like (Django) Pythonic , driven, web framework architecture that is COMPREHENSIVE enough to act as a Web-Based GUI Application. I'm not going to demystify what makes website applications fun... However, I will say this: Whoever(Whatever team) made the most COMPREHENSIVE Dictionaries (JSON Object Database with Clusters on the Back-End) of Set Names, Artists, Oracle Text (Oracle/Full-Oracle), keyword responsiveness for input + keyword syntax shorthand, did so with full knowledge of how users would query. It was TRULY a labor of love. If only I could find out how they were rendering those cyclically rotating front-facing Images of cards on their homepage/ dynamically rendering relevant cards.

[@aner_bda]

One that I like to use is to search for mana rocks, mana value 1 or 2, and don't ETB tapped. Below shows the Dimir rocks, but you can change "dimir" to any other colour identity. ci:dimir otag:mana-rock mv=1 -o:'enters the battlefield tapped'

[@trevorwilliams5144]

I love the channel shift from “put these cards in this deck” to “here are the tools to build and test your deck”.

[@jeffreylong1478]

I don’t know that that’s a shift, they’ve been doing that since the start

[@pauldyson8098]

English professor here. I have used Scryfall as part of my database instruction lesson. It functions similarly to the way in which academic databases function, plus it helps me identify the Magic players in the class!

[@removelimitbreak7524]

I recently learned about the scryfall art tag search. I made a felix 5 boots deck with as many cards with bare feet on them as possible. "Felix stole our shoes"

[@michaelw7252]

Quentin?

[@removelimitbreak7524]

​@@michaelw7252 I was never here....

[@lukebranam-wenger1999]

Another common regular expression I use is o:/^{t}:/ This gives you all cards that have an activated ability, where the only cost is to tap it. The “^” character lets you specify the beginning of a paragraph in oracle text!

[@minine6508]

Banger expression

[@Ultinuc]

Is there one for activated abilities that don't require tapping?

[@Hemlocker]

@@Ultinuc I think you can pretty much do this without regex, as below: o:":" -o:"{T}"

[@seraph_six]

Shared this with the rest of the Scryfall team on our Discord server :)

[@celphys]

Being in the database field it is crazy how you can search on anything a and everything and it is super fast.. god-level indexed. .. how can this be free to use. THANK YOU MUCH.

[@Breakstop]

Deodorant sponsoring an MTG video, I’ve truly seen it all now.

[@Mcrypt117]

They know we need it😂😂

[@majesticviews5397]

TCG Players take some notes please

[@SmashAdams]

i smelled my armpit when the ad started playing

[@hellstocker7707]

If you've been to fnm then you know why

[@Freedom6from6religion666]

Makes sense have you been to FNM, some need it 🤣

[@JasonOshinko]

I didn't see a mention of "fulloracle", which will search reminder text. So if you want something that gives +1/+1 counters, it will include cards with undying that don't actually mention "+1/+1 counter" in the actual rules text.

[@CraigStevenLikesStuff]

Learning Scryfall syntax helped me learn Jira Query Language (JQL) for my job.

[@trevorwilliams5144]

Funny that it wasn’t the other way around. I love when skills cross over.

[@jameshsiao2042]

I am happy (Scryfall) and sad (jql) for you.

[@jasonyu-gi-oh1056]

That's awesome man!

[@hugmonger]

38:00 ish "Advanced search keeps you safe" It keeps you from the forbidden knowledge gleaned when you stare directly into the syntax

[@SaintSoba]

This video is over an hour and a half long. I picked up my phone randomly while watching it and started looking at the comments. Yours was the first to catch my eye and as I read "keeps you safe" he said it in the video at the exact same time. Kinda cool, thought I'd share haha

[@hugmonger]

@@SaintSoba Its the ripples of eldrith knowledge and the universe aligning to try and show you the true syntax of things XD

[@SaintSoba]

@@hugmonger Oh no, not the SYNTAX

[@hugmonger]

@@SaintSoba next thing you know you're gunna be programming in c+ and making comparisons to computers and programming when talking and real life things

[@SaintSoba]

@@hugmonger nah we're safe, I code in java. That was close

[@bobbiechristine]

I consider myself extremely efficient with Scryfall and this STILL leveled me up

[@CarefulWithThatAx]

Thank you for /.*/ ! I've been wanting to be able to use * on Scryfall forever and had no idea how.

[@Kjos_jax]

So informative! I had no idea about half of this and I've been using scryfall for years

[@commandcast]

Glad you liked it!

[@Calophon]

The last function they included /.*/ is called a Regex or regular expression and it is so cool that y’all added that and explained it so well. It’s probably one of the less known functions but can be incredibly useful to find what you need.

[@thedoubledoor2055]

This may have been the single most useful video I've watched to help improve finding cards without just copying whats on EDHREC. Thank you so much.

[@Deedotcharles]

Needed this episode, thank you all for improving my magic experience over this last 12-14 months

[@Flyboy245]

When I first discovered scryfall, I took the time to learn the syntax and how to search. The ability to get as specific as scryfall allows is fantastic. It’s such a good tool. So many times, people at college would ask me for help deck building because I could just pull great synergy cards seemingly out of nowhere. All that being said, I still learned new things with this video, like the keyword search and the tag, which seems phenomenal. Will definitely be implementing in future search’s

[@the_r4ts]

I think you hit enter a bit early, what object or property of search will you be implementing keywords into?

[@Flyboy245]

@@the_r4ts the keyword search function and the scryfall tags haha

[@XxiiDrAsTiCxX]

Absolutely amazing, this kind of video helps immensely when learning how to navigate such a deep site. Please make another demonstrating more complex things

[@xanderporter7524]

I love your guys content!! This channel has single handedly made me want to learn everything i possibly can about magic.

[@gregboulton8230]

Wonderful video. I'm a hardcore scryfall user and knew most of this, but I appreciated the refresher.

[@ryantomczak2248]

Just finished the podcast on KZbin. Awesome job you guys. Very informative and I learned a few things, like keywords. A side note, I have not used Scrufall directly in years. Once I put all my decks and my collection on Moxfield that is all I use. Moxfield does use Scryfall database and search functions which is what I like. Side note, if you are building a commander deck you do not need to enter in the color identity, Moxfield automatically adds that. I find this helpful, especially when searching for Talismans or Signets. I just type Talisman of and Moxfiled pulls up all of the Talismans that are in my commanders color identity.

[@uandubh5087]

Great episode! I've been using scryfall for ages but never got into the syntax searching or using the tags, which really makes it much easier and precise. Also, I love the art tagger - best feature ever!

[@Hemlocker]

I was aware of regexes but hadn't really used them very much, this vid inspired me to use them more. They're actually super useful

[@andyony2]

So amazing. Thank you very much, you both! I am using Scryfall for many yeards and feel very confident with it, but wow: The otag i didnt know, also the is: and the function etc. Really great stuff!! What amazed me the most was Jordans tip for using archidect with scryfall!!! Thank you very much :)

[@unseeliedream42]

the otag changes the game completely!

[@EnorchesDei]

Works also with Moxfield!

[@nopedefnope9924]

Very helpful. Thanks for doing this. Watching my on phone…. Kinda wish editing did a zoom on the search bar for this, otherwise just awesome.

[@MissingNovice]

I'd say that -is:permanent isn't equivalent to searching for Instants and Sorceries, because it'll exclude things like MDFCs that have a land or creature on the other side, or adventure cards. Another weird wrinkle that might trip people up!

[@JordanPridgen]

Yeah there are always weird exceptions in magic!

[@magnusprime962]

Third rule of MTG: every following rule has an exception

[@JNB6037]

Using full oracle(FO) is one of my favorite because it helps you to findabilities like extort for life gain decks

[@chrisvanderheiden12]

One thing that wasn't mentioned is that many commanders (and other cards) have a "related search" section on their card page. For example, Omnath, Locus of All has (mana:/\sc\sc\sc/ or (is:split mana:/\sc.*\sc.*\sc/)) Whoch finds all card that would generate mana off the ability.

[@EN-nz5xe]

This was SO very helpful! Exactly what I needed to become a better deck builder.

[@1990PaKu]

I appreciate your tips so much!!! It is so helpful to get better in brewing, I am looking forward for all the upcoming tips! ;)

[@albusfish]

Joooooordaaaaan!! So good to see him back!

[@nickjoeb]

MOAR of this please. Do you have an archidekt video?

[@smurfton14]

I’ve been waiting so long for this episode! Thank you for all you do!

[@stumilesyt]

I found a great one recently. Wanted to build a deck only using cards printed in my nostalgia era - the early modern border (8ED to M15). Originally I was trying convoluted terms with sets to include/ignore or between release dates, but that was eliminating reprints from old border. Then I found this.... "frame=2003"

[@brettbarrett9423]

I love using Scryfall and evangelizing it to everyone I meet! I was thinking earlier today how this would be a great video format, and would you look at that??

[@zramirez5471]

This is such a great video/topic! I got hooked on Moxfield early on and this really gives me some direction on what syntax i need to learn (Moxfield uses Scryfall syntax)

[@gilopunk]

Deodorant and Keeps, they have our number.

[@PatataMaxtex]

They just put their eyes and nose into a lgs once during fnm :D

[@stereolove21]

Got us with the double whammy 😞

[@fdrehug7318]

Love this I use comparators with ci all the time to get cards for my decks

[@verlandes1]

As a librarian, I love seeing boolean functions being discussed on the Command Zone.

[@green_dragon_knight]

True 😊

[@TheRedKnightOfPain]

Scry fall is great for super bizarre deck ideas, like your deck only has 1 creature and you only want things that work with 1 and only 1 creature; or everything needs 3 or more activated abilities

[@broveku]

Haven’t even watched this yet but this was the video I’ve been waiting for

[@87seanroon]

A lot of the search functions that you can do in scryfall to help narrow down the results you can do in Archidekt too since Archidekt is using Scryfall. Not sure if it gets brought up in the video, but just wanted to state this.

[@Frankythemanky]

*gets on scryfall* "commander format, ignore blue" me Everytime lol

[@heresyseed]

I probably have almost 2k cards in total… not one of them are green😅….

[@CDekar]

More of an Easter egg, but one fun thing about scryfall is that you can search for some card nicknames like is:gary and is:steve

[@K0NGUS]

I would like to find a way to search by what you are looking for. Like if I know I want an artifact that is for ramp, finding something within that category.

[@guico33]

t:artifact otag:ramp You might wanna watch the whole video because what you want is essentially what they're talking about.

[@pajurr]

It is a good subject ! I would say that putting chapters to the video, and also I think you could have made it shorter. I think I will give the link to my friends starting, telling them "It is quite at length for some simple information, but it is complete". I would like another one more in depth for myself, I am using the advanced search and tags, and I feel like your syntax session in the search bar was not bringing me a new tool, because it is just like using the tags and the advanced search with more precision. So I see the same cards plus some extra. However, if you say that there is more to learn and you can do a deeper dive into syntax, that is not obvious in the Scryfall "syntax" page, I am all for it !

[@lioco6124]

honestly, scryfall taught me boolean syntax logic and i am so thankful

[@umbertoandre7335]

Please do another episode, I need to know the more advanced stuff XD

[@m80wulf]

Since we are talking about building decks is there a way if you have most a deck you built can get suggestions of cards needed?

[@commandcast]

Archidekt does a great job of this! If you put your deck list into Archidekt, you can click on Card search and switch to the EDH Recs tab in the top right corner of the popout. It will give you cards that are often played in this deck, that are not currently in your list.

[@charliemarlow647]

If anyone wants to apply this kind of knowledge to other things, learning how to use Scryfall's search is a good introduction to learning about databases in computer software. If doing Scryfall searches tickles your fancy, learning about databases might be a good start to a career path for you :)

[@jaredclasper7616]

Jordan is back!!!!!! When are we going to see his decks video?!?!?

[@Carracan]

super helpful. Loved this episode!

[@rayhinojosa7681]

Thank you. I needed this information.

[@RG3EXFM1IBANEZ]

Please get Dragon Shield for a sponsor, much better then Ultra-Pro

[@thechikage1091]

I use scryfall to build my decks because i dont want the bias that EDHrec gives, and its tendency to consolidate and make everything same-y. However, the one thing that gets me with scryfall is being generally "unfamiliar" with the game. I got back into magic after college, having only played standard for a little bit with a single friend in 2016 before now. Ive been playing for a little less than a year at this point. I just dont know enough oracle text or historical context of the different sets and stuff to really take full advantage of the scryfall search. I get better at it every day, but its still my greatest handicap despite how incredible the tool is.

[@nabilchih8084]

Thank you for the tutorial very useful !

[@brentwalker9576]

Scryfall OP, clearly needs a ban.

[@mattsully5332]

I think you mean st st st st STATS section. also, they didn't edit you out, because lloryn is a 2 expansion block, and shadowmoor is the next 2 expansion block. (though to be fair, i tend to think of all 4 of them as one block).

[@JordanPridgen]

I KNEW I was forgetting something! I was sitting there afterwards trying to remember if eventide or morningtide was the real name of the set... and it was both

[@ErstonOutway]

When I saw the title of the video I thought, "really using scryfall is a pro tip now?" and then I remembered that a majority of the people I play commander with actually don't use scryfall when deckbuilding. There is probably a lot of magic players out there that needed this video, so I won't complain.

[@Justadadonthetok]

I don’t use it to make a deck. I take a commander and what ever cards I have in my stash and sort by a theme I’m going with. Once I have stuff together I will then look online for similar decks to see what other cards might fit best. I don’t tend to start online first because it feels to me most decks online are super clones of each other. A Tiamat deck may have all the same cards in each deck version I find. I want to make something unique. That’s just me. My friends do something similar.

[@guico33]

Nothing in the video title says using scryfall is a pro tip. The video is about understanding how to better leverage the platform. Most people know about scryfall but might not be aware of how powerful a search engine it is.

[@seanbrown2201]

Squiggle bracket {} is called a brace. [ ] are brackets.

[@weedragonauts4729]

Fun fact, the gift of strands is Gimli asking for Galadriel's hair

[@Groovemancer]

I use "otag:sweeper", "otag:removal", "otag:ramp", and "otag:draw or otag:card-advantage or otag:impulsive-draw or o:draw" all the time in Moxfield's highlighter feature when I'm deck building or updating a deck to see at a glance how many board wipes, removal, ramp, and card draw I've got, respectively. It's funny, I don't think I ever look at the Scryfall "Advanced" page any more because I mostly know the syntax of what I'm looking for, occasionally I'll have to search for some general oracle text and then find the tag for a particular mechanic to search with that tag, but when I do that I just do "o:draw o:damage" or something of that sort and then look at the tags of that card to find similar cards.

[@Robert-vk7je]

I love to use scryfall to browse through specific artists.

[@calebjorgenson4444]

Dont know how well this would translate into a long form video, but what about a video where you build a deck showing the process with all these other websites?

[@DrOmnipotent]

Hi 👋 how do I search for all creatures with activated abilities? Thank you

[@jacobbrj]

Can you suggest what we can do to help when we find mistakes? like titania, voice of gea has the tag "lands-in-graveyard-matter" because of the land entering graveyard trigger, but the gitrog monster and titania protector of argoth has the tag: "synergy-land-graveyard", presumably for having a land entering graveyard trigger on them. These tags should be merged, and I'm more than happy to point out issues like this so that they can be addressed by scryfal--like an extra, un-paid eye. This isn't the first time I saw a mistake with existing tags. If I knew how to help productively, then we can all help make the tagging system even better than it already is. of course, with hopefully not overwhelming them...

[@linguaphile9415]

Is there any need to know regular expressions that can be used on Scryfall?

[@klaunish]

Question for experts: how can I display all cards that make a specific token? For example the good construct token (like Urza's Saga etc.)? Somehow I can't get it to work, I think because the wording is not exactly the same on all cards.

[@KaylaSmith-gx7mo]

Open urzas saga click on token and then there should be a list of cards that make that token and hit open all

[@kl3r1k3r-7]

Even though this is a podcast you guys could have really shown all the syntaxes when talking about them. Yes later on you can see them in the search bar, but still

[@GliveMtg]

something that I notice is that you don't need to write the whole words when looking for card, for example is I'm serching for enchantment that destroy enchantment I would type t:ench o:destroy o:ench, and it works just fine, so now I search for crea, arti, equipt, ench, etc

[@thatguycam1989]

Most of these functions are available in other card databases I use. However, sometimes, I need to search for cards only made within a certain time period. Is this possible on scryfall without having to select each individual set? Also, is it possible to search by the card's category rather than keyword? I.e. removal rather than destroy.

[@JordanPridgen]

yes! there is a "year" function you can use like year

[@ZorakGoesOn]

You can actually use date as a modifier, and you can set it relative to specific sets. So if you want cards printed after OTJ, you could use date>otj Also, it's worth noting: many sites like moxfield etc actually just call Scryfall, so the same syntax often works there.

[@morganahart2575]

For anyone that's actually curious the "squiggle bracket" is called a brace

[@c0barsm]

Seeing Kamahl beat down on BO is pretty funny, excellent add.

[@ShapelessCrab]

Have you guys ever done a video on cards that scale with your groups' power level? That sounds vague but I mean look at ad nauseam. Its gets worse (less broken) the more "casual" your group/decks are.

[@peterlk3276]

Anyone think this was an E 0:04 clipse IDE promotion from commander Zone?

[@narvuntien]

I built a malcator deck and the EDHRec just didn't show me the cards I wanted to build with, I wanted UW artifact aggrorish deck everyone else was building blink or golem kindred. unfortunately I was still struggling to get these all to work :/ but I had scryfall open and practising as I was listerning

[@Threeve703]

Damn, Rachel, only playing since 2017? I started playing around then, how do I get to be as good as you? 😂

[@tirone231]

Does anyone know, or know how to find the option to search for all creatures with power greater than toughness? Trying to build a Zilortha deck.

[@bend.543]

pow>tou t:creature commander:rg

[@kodamag-bb2of]

I was just in the middle of watching the master your mama curve video. Great timing.

[@gamereyemd7264]

I've always used Scryfall, but never like this! Thank you!

[@sambrown9475]

How do you search up cards that gain you energy

[@ianoble]

Rachel would make a great teacher.

[@hugmonger]

Shout-out to otag:group-hug the best tag on Scryfall

[@robertsweeney7040]

Can you add your owned card list and scroll within that collection?

[@guico33]

You can't do that on scryfall, however you can track your card collection on archidekt and it supports the same search query syntax as scryfall does (since it is doing scryfall searches under the hood).

[@Innate47i1]

I prefer to use ManaBox!

[@kefrensepulveda455]

Please Mando your Cavern of Souls before going to your LGS . Thanks! 😊

[@kefrensepulveda455]

This episode’s sponsor. ( At the beginning of the show)

[@RickyChops]

Whatever you're paying Rachel, go ahead and double it.

[@chimarielucie]

Genuinely, she's basically the face of the command zone podcast nowadays. Such a good host too

[@markovart6094]

Double it and give it to the next person

[@chrisguard696]

this was amazing

[@bejita7831]

Have you petitioned for an "equine" tag to group all those horses/ponies/etc.?

[@YBladeY]

Oh man.... my secrets are out for my side Hussle of buyouts & flips.

[@Atmatan]

Manabox is my scryfall.

[@seansuprem]

Scryfall is great for brand new commanders i'm sure but I feel like for 99% of magic players you're just better off using EDHREC. Sure there will be some weird includes at times but if you grab the average deck for any given commander, shove the list back into EDHREC, grab the next 50 or most popular cards and then just cut back from there based on price/cards you like you'll end up with all the cards that make sense for any given commander. Sure I could go hunting for exact cards that fit what i'm looking for but chances are the community at large will come up with everything that makes sense much faster than you could trying to find all the cards on your own.

[@thechikage1091]

This is good advice if you want to have the same deck as everyone else.

[@Justadadonthetok]

@@thechikage1091that’s my gripe with going with online sources first. I end up closing tons of tabs because I end up seeing all the same cards in each deck. I was looking at a certain green deck and the first 5 cards in each 10 decks was birds of paradise, specific elf dork, etc. I get synergies are a thing but where’s the variety?

[@Computer-STEM-NERD-903]

Tbf... Don't even use the advanced function anymore... More efficient when you just command search with keyword shorthand. Of course, saying I want John Avon nonlands from Sets Spanning Alpha to MH2 is doable, but is tricky... You have to know set year interval span, and/or have a cap on type, or [...]. BIG Pro: Can always search for Hyper-Specific Cards that have a match for the cards' oracle/fulloracle text you need, types' matches, identity, legality, specific fun ones, tags matches, artists, years, and specific sets by Set Tag Name (Outlaws of Thunder Junction OTJ ).

[@TheDarkElder]

Wait, there is no exam at the end, like "add your solution to this search pattern in the comments"? Well, good for me! Btw - they are called "curly braces", not "squiggly things" 😀

[@creature2711]

I was updating my old Muldrotha deck. Turns out I was way worse 5 years ago at deck build and the deck lacked mill engines big time. Of course I saw what EDHREC had to offer but decided to go on Scryfall to find cheap random permanents that milled you. Suddenly I discovered a ton of Dirt cheap (mana & money wise since most are random draft chaff commons) that for 2 mana get 3-4 cards in your grave at ETB. But the star of the show was an unassuming Cephalid from torment: Cephalid Vandal. 1 and blue that gets a counter at upkeep and then mills that many cards. Sounds clunky, sounds slow… just hear me out. You guys have to try this card. This lil boi, when it’s on my opening hand and play it on turn 2. It snowballs so hard is not even funny. Played in a grand total of 60 Muldrotha deck in all EDHREC. Its best quality is that nobody pays attention to it until it has milled you 15+ cards. By then if it eats a removal that’s just gravy. If you have a mill deck just give it a shot for a few games. Trust me. It will set you back 34 cents. Extra points if the deck also proliferates hahahaha.

[@JohnGarner-d7i]

Maybe just me bc I'm on mobile but if you go back a page a 2 or 3 or whatever it saves your last search

[@thetogtube2]

EDHREC is also great.

[@Nicola396]

I've gone thru this video so many times, some time stamps would help A THON 🙏

[@user-tx2mu3cr2o]

The squiggly brackets are called braces I believe

[@JohnGarner-d7i]

I'm honestly surprised Rachel doesn't have an alliteration deck......