Introduction:

I made this thread almost a year ago on the WotC forums where it quickly disappeared and was never seen again. The idea was that Gatherer is a very powerful tool for researching cards, but the advanced interface is not exactly easy to use, especially for people without some sort of background in Boolean logic. This thread is a visual walkthrough of how to use Gatherer to find pretty much any card in existence without even knowing if it exists first. I'm porting the post over from WotC so that it can continue its existence in obscurity here.


Gatherer at a Glance:

First, lets take a look at the Gatherer page. Gatherer has 2 main search pages, "Simple" and "Advanced Search". The Simple Search page is the default and is a bit easier to use, but not as robust as the Advanced Search page. It's the Advanced Search page that we are interested it, because it contains a host of filters that allow us to discover cards that do whatever we want, even if we don't know if such a card exists or what its name is, if it does exist. Lets take a look at the Advanced Search page:



The main components of this page are the search fields (things like Rules Text, Type, and Color), the filter type (the dropdown menu next to each filter with the default value of "and"), the Search Criteria which shows all the current search filters set, and the Output Format which we'll get to later.

The most difficult to understand part of these components is the filter type. It uses the Boolean logic operators, "and", "or" and "not" to determine what the filter does.

The default value is "and". Any filter created with this value will require all search terms to be present for that field. For example, if you typed "creature enchantment" into the Type field, left the filter type as "and" and clicked ADD and Search, you would get a list of all cards that are both Creatures AND Enchantments (the enchantment creatures from Theros block).

The OR value requires the result to match one or more of the search terms for that field. If you were to enter the same search as above but change the fiter type to "OR", you would get a list of all cards that are either Enchantments, Creatures, or both.

The NOT value requires that NONE of the terms in the search field be present. So, if you were to enter the above search with the NOT filter type selected, you would end up with a list that contains all cards that are not creatures or enchantments.

As you add more and more filters, the Search Criteria will expand to list all the filters you've set, grouped by field. Each filter in the Search Criteria area will have a tiny x icon next to it that allows you to remove that filter (or group of filters) with a single click.

The Output Format feature allows you to choose how the results are displayed. I usually leave it as the default, which is Visual Spoiler. It also has a sort feature which should allow you to sort the output by a variety of sort orders such as casting cost, community rating, or the default, collector's number. This feature is bugged, however and only ever sorts by the default. You can still apply other sorts from the results page, which can definitely be handy.


Examples (Lets see it in action!):

Now that we've done a brief overview of the advanced search page and what each component does, lets see some examples to demonstrate how powerful the search tool actually is.

A while ago, I decided to build a deck around Athreos, God of Passage. Since the opponents get to choose whether to pay the life or return the card, I wanted to make it a lose-lose situation. I settled on the idea of using Heartless Summoning to make my cards cheaper and to automatically kill them, triggering Athreos. I also wanted to use Immortal Servitude as a bombshell to return a loaded GY to play. To make these cards work together, I needed a pretty specific cast of creatures to work with. They needed to be on color ( , or colorless ), have a toughness of 1 so that they would die to Heartless Summoning, do nasty things when they die to make Athreos's ability worth paying the life for, and, in order to maximize the value of Immortal Servitude, all have the same casting cost.

I knew about the card Black Cat so I decided to use key words from that card as a template for my search.

First I set the rules text using the words "when" and "dies". I wanted to make sure both words were in the rules text of any results so I left the filter type as "and". After setting the filter, remember to click the ADD button or it won't be applied.



Next I set the color filter. This time, I wanted cards that were black, white, colorless or any combination of the above so I changed the filter type to "or". Unfortunately, this would allow cards that are other colors to be included so long as they contained at least one of the selected color options (Child of Alara for example). In order to keep the results to ONLY the selected terms, after adding the desired colors, I clicked on the "MORE COLOR OPTIONS" and added the "Exclude unselected terms" qualifier.



Since I'm only interested in creatures, I set the type filter to "and" creature. Typing a letter in a field that has a limited number of options causes a dropdown menu listing those options to appear and you can save yourself some typing by just clicking on the desired options like so:



After that, I chose the casting cost of 2 since I was already interested in using Black Cat and wanted to keep everything the same CC



Here is what the Search Criteria looks like after setting these filters:



I hit the search button and get 2 pages of results. I decide to sort them by community rating descending so that the highest rated cards appear at the top of the list. In this case, the community rating isn't very helpful, but a lot of times, it is a great way to find outstanding cards for a given deck. Sorting by casting cost ascending (lowest cost cards at the top of the list) is another very useful sort order if the CC filter isn't set. Remember that the sort order only works from the results page - the sort order feature in the advanced search page doesn't do anything.



Oops! I forgot to set the toughness criteria to 1 and am getting some cards that won't die to Heartless Summoning. No problem... I just hit the "Refine Search" button (tho the back button on your browser works just as well) and add a toughness filter:



This nets me a list with several interesting results. My favorites are Black Cat, Perilous Myr, Blood Artist (which seems weak until you think about what happens when it gets Servituded back into play with several other creatures!), and Abyssal Gatekeeper. But there might be other cards with different wording that also do powerful things when they die. I decide to refine my search again and add a rules text AND filter for "when" "leaves" and "battlefield", but first I delete the old rules text filter by clicking that little x button:



There aren't too many relevant results (only 3) but one of the is a winner! Mesmeric Fiend acts like a powered up Thoughtseize with Summoning in play since its ETB and LTB triggers happen at the same time and I can choose the order they resolve in, letting the return to hand trigger happen first and then the exile trigger.

So there you have it: a brief demonstration of the power of Gatherer. By using the right combination of filters, understanding how the Boolean logic operators work, and playing around with the rules text, you can find just about any card in existence without even knowing it exists first.


Advanced Tricks:

I will happily update this section if people post any more.

Search for color symbols in rules text by enclosing the appropriate letter code in curly brackets:

{w} ==
{u} ==
{b} ==
{r} ==
{g} ==

This trick works for other symbols too.

{t} ==
{q} ==
{1} ==
{x} ==

*Hybrid mana symbols are a bit trickier. They all use the string "{(" followed by a combination of letters to determine which hybrid symbol is being referenced, but the search function bugs out if you try to input more than "{(". Instead, just use the letter combination for the appropriate symbol:

m/g\/w/ ==
m/w\/u/ ==
m/u\/b/ ==
m/b\/r/ ==
m/r\/g/ ==
m/w\/b/ ==
m/u\/r/ ==
m/b\/g/ ==
m/r\/w/ ==
m/g\/u/ ==

*Search for specific casting costs:

At the bottom of the advanced search screen, there are filters for a variety of miscellaneous fields, one of which is "Mana Cost". You can use this to search for specific combinations of mana in the casting costs. For example, "GG" would return all spells with at least 2 mana symbols in the casting cost. "2GG" would return all spells with in the mana cost. In the operator field, you can choose either "=" or "≈". Choosing "=" will return results with that exact cost (no other symbols). Choosing "≈" will return results containing that string. So "=" would only return cards like Abundance while "≈" will also return results like Cloudthresher or Experiment Kraj. You can also input the hybrid mana strings listed above to search for spells with hybrid mana costs.

Use quotation marks in the rules text:

If you just enter words in the rules text field it will search for cards with rules text containing those words but not necessarily in the order you entered them. A good example is if you searched for cards with "gain" and "control", looking for spells that let you steal or borrow opponent's permanents. The search results would contain cards with wording like "creatures you control gain..." - not what you are looking for. If you enclose the words in quotation marks ("gain control"), however, it will search for that exact wording.

Use wording from other cards as a template:

WotC learned early on to be careful with the way they word the rules text to prevent unintended interactions (Flash/Hulk, anyone?). You can use this fact to your advantage by using the wording from cards that do similar things to what you want as a template for your search, since most cards are worded the exact same way.

Use the sorting feature on the results page:

Usually we are more interested in low CC cards so sorting by CC (ascending) puts the most relevant results at the top of the list. Occasionally, if there are too many results, I'll try sorting by community rating (descending) so that the highest rated cards are at the top of the list. This isn't always helpful, but often there is a correlation between the community rating and the overall playability of a card.

*Thanks to adeyke and Xenec for this info.

Gatherer is my favorite way to search for magic cards.

The Simple search isn't only useful for finding cards with specific names.

I use the Simple search to find cards with specific abilities (by checkmarking the "text" box instead of "name" ) all of the time. Especially handy if I'm trying to build an EDH deck that has only creatures with, I don't know...flying. Or cards that do things based on discard. If there are cards I don't want to find (like say cards that have Cycling when I'm looking for stuff that cares about discarding), then I use Advanced.

I miss the text spoiler output so much

Fair point. I think maybe it didn't used to have all the features it currently has and so I stopped paying any attention to it and didn't realize that it had a fair bit of functionality. I just checked it out a few minutes ago and was surprised by how much it CAN do. The color interface is a lot nicer than the Advanced Search, too. I've revised that statement and might add a small section for the simple search later.

The one thing that bothers me about gatherer is that you can no longer search by text or type from the search results page. It is incredibly annoying to have to go back to simple or advanced search every time.

That is true. I also hate that you have to go to advanced to turn the special items (planes, schemes, conspiracies, etc.) search on, whereas a previous version of Gatherer allowed you to turn that on with the simple search.

I tried using Gatherer and it didn't work. Everyone should use any other site because any other site is better than Gatherer. You can't even type comment's by golly!

So, uh...any idea how to do a search for hybrid mana symbols? I've never actually wanted to search for a hybrid symbol in a text box until today, and I tried everything that seemed to make sense. Nothing worked.

You could search for "w/u".

The way they're represented in the database is "{(w/u)}", but Gatherer doesn't like that search (you can search for just "{(" if want everything with any hybrid mana symbol in the text, but as soon as you add a letter at the end, such as "{(w", it starts giving an error).

Oh, ok. Interesting...Thanks for pointing that out.

For Text

Either on Gatherer's main page or on the advanced search page, do a text (rules text) search for one of the following.
m/g\/w/
m/w\/u/
m/u\/b/
m/b\/r/
m/r\/g/
m/w\/b/
m/u\/r/
m/b\/g/
m/r\/w/
m/g\/u/


For Mana Costs

On Gatherer's advance search page, scroll to the bottom and look for Mana Cost. Set this option to "and ≈". (The double squiggly lines.) Put either of the following into the input field for the first color you want.
w
u
b
r
g
Click the Add button, then do it again for the second color you want. This will let you search for all spells that have both of those colors in their mana costs, including those with hybrid costs.

If you only want spells with hybrid mana costs, put one of these into the input field instead.
m/g\/w/
m/w\/u/
m/u\/b/
m/b\/r/
m/r\/g/
m/w\/b/
m/u\/r/
m/b\/g/
m/r\/w/
m/g\/u/

That is useful info. Added to the OP. Thanks

Good thinking on the regex. For completeness, that also works on mono-hybrid (2/w etc.), and Phyrexian mana (w/p etc.).

This is a good post to have in obscurity. It is also well written. Kudos.
Gotta love Gatherer. I use it all the time for YMTCing to look up wording or find power level comparisons. When i actually feel like making a deck, I use it then too.
Rather sad that the last big update crippled some of the functionality. All the core bits still work fine though.

Bump, cause this is useful information that would be handy to keep on the first page instead of having to dig for it.

Every few months or so, we have a 3CM format that requires some convention within card names. For example: All cards must begin with the letter S. I've seen the formula that searches all those cards out (though I forget it now), but I've never really understood why it worked. Anyone care to elaborate? (And post the command if you know it.)

Input this as the card name:
m/^s/
where s is the letter you want the card names to start with.

This is a simple regular expression that says to search for all things in the input field (card name in this case) that start with whatever character or group of characters is written between the ^ and second / symbols. For example, not only can you just search for card names that start with the letter s, but also any card names that start with st
m/^st/
star
m/^star/
or whatever you like.

On the same token, you can also search for card names that end in a certain thing by imputing this as the card name:
m/s$/
where s is the character or group of characters you want the card names to end with.

Unrepentant thread necro.

As of the C17 card update the GUI for the Advanced Search on gatherer is not functioning correctly (at least for me). Half the time when I submit a search request the page simply refreshes and wipes out my search parameters, the other half the time it will search but it won't pick up all the parameters.

If you are as stubborn as I am you may have noticed that you don't technically have to use the GUI. You can type your parameters directly into the URL address bar if you know how to code the search terms. My goal here is to research for myself and also inform anyone else interested how to put those terms into the address bar correctly.

This is the core line necessary to start every search in gatherer:

Had to put the line in code brackets or it was compressing the spelled out address and making an actual link. I don't want that, I just want to show the start of the search function url.

After that you may have any one of the following entries to designate the field you would like to search:
Name:
&name=

Rules Text:
&text=

Expansion:
&set=

Format:
&format=

Colors:
&color=

Types (and supertypes):
&type=

Subtypes:
&subtype=

CMC:
&cmc=

Power:
&power=

Toughness:
&tough=

Flavor text:
&flavor=

Water Mark:
&mark=

Artist Name:
&artist=

User Comment:
&discussion=

User Name:
&User=

Community Rating:
&rating=

Mana Cost:
&mana=

Block:
&block=

Rarity:
&rarity=

Hand Modifier:
&handBonus=

Life Modifier:
&lifeBonus=

Include Special Items:
&special=true


Exclude Unselected Terms (only used with the "color", "types", and "subtypes" search parameters):
@()


Boolean Marker:
And:
+
Or:
|
Not:
+!

Numerical Relationship (fields with numbers only: cmc, power, toughness, community rating, hand modifier, or life modifier):
equal to:
=
less than:
<
less than or equal to:
<=
greater than:
>
greater than or equal to:
>=

Mana Cost Relationship marker (for use in the mana cost field after the boolean marker)
Is Exactly:
=
Contains:
~

search term enclosing brackets:
[]

Special notes for Rules text:
When searching for a mana symbol in the rules "text" box you MUST use the curly brackets {} surrounding the color abbreviation.
For example to search for all cards with the symbol in the rules text box use the following string:
&text=+[{w}]

Special notes for color searching:
When searching for the "color" of a card use the letter for the color abbreviation.
For example to search for all cards of the color white use the following string:
&color=+[w]
to search for all multicolor cards that are both green and white:
&color=+[w]+[g]
to search for all multicolor cards that are both green and white, and no other color or colorless:
&color=@(+[w]+[g])
to search for all cards (multi or mono colored) that are either green or white:
&color=|[w]|[g]
to search for all cards that are white, that are also either green and/or blue, and not red:
&color=+[w]|[g]|[u]+![r]



Notes about the Exclude Unselected Terms @() functionality:
The @() exclude terminology is basically a shorthand for applying the +! functionality to all remaining terms
to search for all cards (multi or mono colored) that are either green or white and no other colors or colorless:
Did you know that the bold font code for the board is the same as the black color search character string. XD
(err.....um.... interestingly enough those two don't come out equal, I'm not sure what term I'm missing there...Nope, I'm not missing anything Gatherer just added a few cards to the second one that it shouldn't have like Clay Pigeon?)


to search for every artifact creature
&type=+[artifact]+[creature]
to search for every nonartifact creature
&type=+[creature]+![artifact]
to search for every creature that has no other type or supertype (no legendary, snow, enchantment, or artifact creatures)
&type=@(+[creature])


To combine the parameters from the different sections is as simple as adding them on to eachother, in any order:
To search for all white creatures:
&type=+[creature]&color=+[w]
or
&color=+[w]&type=+[creature]


As a full example search here I am looking for every cat or dragon creature, that is not blue, with power 2 or greater, and containing the symbol in its mana cost


I think that covers everything relevant to most people.

Just use [url]magiccards.info[/url], good lord

e. That is definitely a URL