Magic The Gathering API
Overview
The Magic: The Gathering API provides detailed data on every MTG card ever printed, including set information, card text, mana costs, and legality in different formats. It requires no API key and returns JSON data about cards, sets, and game mechanics. This is a go-to resource for developers building deck builders, collection trackers, or card search tools.
Beginner Tip
Fetch a single card by name using the ?name= query parameter to explore the response structure before building complex queries. The API paginates results, so look for the Link header in the response to navigate through pages.
Measurement Record
What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.
- Request
- GET https://api.magicthegathering.io/v1/cards?name=Black+Lotus&pageSize=1
- Result
- HTTP 200 · application/json · 1,023 bytes · compressed
- Response time
- 208 ms (median of 3) · fastest 205 ms
- Transport
- TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Google Trust Services
- Browser CORS
- Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
- Rate limit
- 1000 per window (998 remaining at test time)
- Served by
- cloudflare
- Recorded
- 2026-08-10
Fields Returned
Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.
| Field | Type | Value received |
|---|---|---|
| cards | array | [1 item] |
Captured Response
Captured from a real request to https://api.magicthegathering.io/v1/cards?name=Black+Lotus&pageSize=1 on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.
{
"cards": [
{
"name": "Black Lotus",
"manaCost": "{0}",
"cmc": 0,
"type": "Artifact",
"types": [
"Artifact"
],
"rarity": "Rare",
"set": "2ED",
"setName": "Unlimited Edition",
"text": "{T}, Sacrifice Black Lotus: Add three mana of any one color.",
"artist": "Christopher Rush",
"number": "233",
"layout": "normal",
"multiverseid": "600",
"imageUrl": "http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=600&type=card",
"…": "(5 more fields)"
}
]
} Field Reference
name The English card name as printed on the physical card manaCost Mana cost string using symbols like {W},{U},{B},{R},{G},{X} for colors and generic mana cmc Converted mana cost — the total mana value used for deck-building and format legality checks type Full type line including supertype, type, and subtype (e.g. Legendary Creature — Dragon) text The oracle text of the card describing its abilities and rules Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
const url = "https://api.magicthegathering.io/v1/cards?name=Black+Lotus&pageSize=1";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
How This API Fails
We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.
{
"status": 404,
"error": "Not Found"
} Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
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