Scrycall

A command line tool for querying the scryfall.com API for Magic cards.

Scrycall makes it easy to search for MTG cards from the command line. It prints the card information of your choice to the terminal, allowing for easy integration with other command line tools using pipes. Scrycall uses https://scryfall.com/ to query for cards which are returned as JSON objects. You can parse the JSON using special format parameters (see below) to print any information you want about the cards you query.

Scrycall also stores the JSON data in a local cache at ~/.cache/scrycall/ to quickly access for repeated queries. Anything in the cache older than 24 hours is considered stale, and will automatically be replaced with fresh data from the api.

How to run Scrycall

You can download the project using the command git clone https://github.com/0xdanelia/scrycall

The project comes with an executable zip file scry which can be run like any other Python script.

$ python scry [ARGS]

On Linux, this file can be copied to a location in your $PATH and then called like any other program.

$ scry [ARGS]

How to build Scrycall

The project comes with a build.py script which creates an executable zip file of the source code.

$ python build.py

How to query with Scrycall

First familiarize yourself with the Scryfall search syntax at https://scryfall.com/docs/syntax

Then simply run Scrycall using your plain text search query as the arguments. The below examples are from a bash shell. Exact formatting may vary slightly between shells. You can use a backtick ` in place of an apostrophe when making your query as well.

$ scry venser t:creature
Venser, Shaper Savant  Legendary Creature — Human Wizard  {2}{U}{U}
Venser's Sliver        Artifact Creature — Sliver         {5}

$ scry 'Urza`s rage'
Urza's Rage  Instant  {2}{R}

$ scry 'o:"counter target noncreature spell unless"'
Concerted Defense     Instant                  {U}
Decisive Denial       Instant                  {G}{U}
Disciple of the Ring  Creature — Human Wizard  {3}{U}{U}
Izzet Charm           Instant                  {U}{R}
Mage's Attendant      Creature — Cat Rogue     {2}{W}
Spell Pierce          Instant                  {U}
Stubborn Denial       Instant                  {U}

You can also pipe the output into another program. For example, use Scrycall to get the url of a card image, then pipe into wget to download and save the image.

$ scry '!"time walk"' set:alpha --print="%{image_uris.large}" | xargs wget -O "time_walk.jpg"

The Scryfall.com developers request that you add a delay of 50-100 milliseconds when making multiple rapid calls to the api. Scrycall automatically adds this delay between multiple calls within the program, but you are on your own when making calls elsewhere.

How to format output

You can use the flag --print= to construct a format string to print information about the cards. The contents of this format string will be printed for each card. Within the format string % is a special character used to indicate certain card attributes based on the JSON card objects.

%n    name
%m    mana_cost
%c    cmc  (converted mana cost)
%y    type_line
%p    power
%t    toughness
%l    loyalty
%o    oracle_text
%f    flavor_text
%%    this will print a literal % instead of interpreting a special character
%|    this will separate output into nicely spaced columns

$ scry counterspell --print='Name: (%n)  -  Cost: [%m]  -  Text: "%o"'        
Name: (Counterspell)  -  Cost: [{U}{U}]  -  Text: "Counter target spell."

You can also parse the raw JSON yourself by putting the attribute names inside %{} and using . to separate multiple attributes.

$ scry lightning bolt --print="%{legalities.modern}"
legal

To print all available property names as a list, use ?. This can be helpful while constructing your format string.

$ scry lightning bolt --print="%{prices.?}"
['usd', 'usd_foil', 'usd_etched', 'eur', 'eur_foil', 'tix']

$ scry lightning bolt --print="Price: $%{prices.usd}"
Price: $3.61

To access a specific element of a list, you can reference its index as a number. Indexes begin at 0.

$ scry '"serra angel"' --print="%{keywords}"
['Flying', 'Vigilance']

$ scry '"serra angel"' --print="%{keywords.0}"
Flying

To iterate every property of a json object, use *. This may print multiple lines for each card.

$ scry '"serra angel"' --print="%{keywords.*}"
Flying
Vigilance

You can print the name of the previous property using ^. This can be useful when combined with iterating.

$ scry scalding tarn --print="%{prices.*.^}  %| %{prices.*}"
usd        26.90
usd_foil   31.71
eur        24.91
eur_foil   37.99
tix        6.78

Some properties are urls for an api call to another object. You can call the api and continue parsing by using a /. This will always return a list, which you can iterate through with * or with a specific index.

$ scry mox lotus --print="%{set_uri}"
https://api.scryfall.com/sets/4c8bc76a-05a5-43db-aaf0-34deb347b871

$ scry mox lotus --print="The set %{set_uri./.*.name} was released %{set_uri./.*.released_at}"
The set Unhinged was released 2004-11-19

If you try to print a property that does not exist for a card, instead nothing will be printed for that card. You can add the flag --else= to print something else instead. This flag takes a format string just like --print=. You can chain together any number of --else= flags.

$ scry venser --print="%n %| Loyalty: %| <%l>" --else="%n %| Power: %| [%p]"
Venser, Shaper Savant  Power:    [2]
Venser's Sliver        Power:    [3]
Venser, the Sojourner  Loyalty:  <3>

For dual-faced-cards, the top-level card object is formatted differently than a normal card. Some properties look the same, but some are either shaped differently or missing altogether. You can access each face of a DFC via the card_faces property. This is a list of card_face objects which look much more like regular card objects. The first element of the list is the front face, and the second element is the back face.

$ scry 'huntmaster of the fells' --print='%{name}    %{type_line}'
Huntmaster of the Fells // Ravager of the Fells    Creature — Human Werewolf // Creature — Werewolf

$ scry 'huntmaster of the fells' --print='%{card_faces.*.name} %| %{card_faces.*.type_line}'
Huntmaster of the Fells  Creature — Human Werewolf
Ravager of the Fells     Creature — Werewolf

When parsing a DFC, if a property is not found on the top-level object then Scrycall will automatically check the card faces for that property. You can disable this feature with the flag --no-dfc-parse to treat this scenario like any other card with a missing property.

$ scry 'mirror-breaker' --print='%n %| %p/%t'
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki  2/2
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker                               2/2

$ scry 'mirror-breaker' --print='%n %| %p/%t' --no-dfc-parse
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker  2/2

You can also specify which face of the card you want to work with for DFCs with the --dfc-default-front or --dfc-default-back flags.

$ scry 'jace, vryn`s prodigy' --print='%n'
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound

$ scry 'jace, vryn`s prodigy' --print='%n' --dfc-default-front
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

$ scry 'jace, vryn`s prodigy' --print='%n' --dfc-default-back
Jace, Telepath Unbound

Other optional flags