The Scryfall Blog

This post is to provide advance warning to developers that Scryfall’s data model will soon change how we present split cards, flip cards, and card images. The changes will unfortunately be backwards-incompatible with the previous API.

High-Resolution Images

We will be slowly rolling out higher resolution images for cards!

👇 Click to ENHANCE.

• Our current cards are available at 336×469px.
• New images will be double that size, at 672×938px. 😱😍

A new field images will be added to the card object with normal and large properties with URIs to each version.

The image property will continue pointing to the normal version of the image, but is now deprecated.

Not all cards will have high-res images immediately. This change will likely creep out to newer sets and expansion sets first, then to all supplemental sets. When a card doesn’t have a high-res image, its images.large property will be null.

The system we’re building to make this change opens up a bunch of future possibilities with card images: art crops, square crops, consistently rounded corners, and more. Let us know what you want to see out of this. Stay tuned!

Split Cards and Flip Cards

Because users so often search for the combined name of split cards or search “across” the two halves of split cards (to discover casting loopholes, etc) we will be combining split cards and flip cards into a single object representing both halves of the card.

• The name field for a split/flip card object will contain both names of the card. For example Wear // Tear
• The mana_cost field for a split/flip card object will contain both values on the card. For example {1}{R} // {W}
• A new faces field will contain two card_face objects that will have the distinct name, mana_cost, type_line, oracle_text, power, and toughness information for each face of the split/flip card.
• The parent-level fields type_line, oracle_text, power, and toughness will be null for split/flip cards.
• Other parent fields such as multiverse_id, prices, set information, etc will be unchanged.

These new combined card objects will replace the previous left-side/top-side object in our results. The object for the other side will be deleted.

• For example, our current object for DGM Wear has ID d169a3b2… and the object for DGM Tear has ID bd0f7a22…. When this update occurs there will be only one object with ID d169a3b2… called Wear // Tear.

We will be updating split cards to adhere to the new Magic rules update:

• The converted_mana_cost will now be the sum of the converted mana cost of both halves.
• The color will now be the union of the colors of both halves.
• The color_identity will now be the union of the color identity of both halves.

When searching for split/flip cards, API endpoints that use either part of the name or the combined // name will work:

• Searching for a card named exactly Wear will find Wear // Tear.
• Searching for a card named exactly Tear will find Wear // Tear.
• Searching for cards named Wear/Tear, Wear // Tear, or Wear //\\/\/ Tear will find Wear // Tear.
• Partial name searches will now match either side of the card or both. For example searching for we tea will now include Wear // Tear.

In addition, our chat bots will now return both halves of a split/flip card when you search for one or both sizes. For example [[Wear]] and [[Wear//Tear]] will now find Wear // Tear.

Transform and meld cards are unaffected by this update. They will remain distinct cards with an all_parts field as usual.

Thank you!

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for using our API. We’ve been delighted by the things we’re seeing people build. If you have any questions or feedback about these changes, please send us a message.