Frequently Asked Questions

This page aims to answer common questions developers have about data presented by the API. This page is by no means exhaustive - if you have a question, ask away on the #api-issues channel on Discord.

What is the syntax of effect templates?

Most endpoints which return card and edition effect values include three related properties:

• effect stores an effect template

• effect_raw is a plain text representation of the template

• effect_html (deprecated) is a HTML representation of the template

Effect templates are a markdown-inspired format which help provide the building blocks matching how edition effects are printed.

The below table lists the various syntax elements:

Template syntax	Description	Plaintext example	Formatted example
regular text	Regular text with no formatting applied.	regular text
**bold text**	Regular text with bold formatting.	bold text
*italic text*	Regular text with italic formatting.	italic text
[bubble text]	White text inside a rounded black effect bubble.	[bubble text]
CARDNAME	The name of the card using the effect, excluding commas and anything after the first comma.	Lost Spirit
[LIFE]	The life effect icon.	LIFE
[POWER]	The power effect icon.	POWER
[REST]	The rest effect icon.	REST
(99) (LV>1) (X+Y)	A cost to be paid.	(99) (LV>1) (X+Y)
%error%correction%	Corrected text (API-exclusive).	correction
%redaction%%	Redacted text with no correction (API-exclusive).
%%addition%	Added text with no redaction (API-exclusive).	addition

As a simple example, this is Spirit Shard's printed effect text:

Spirit Shard's printed effect text

It contains bubble text, bold text, and regular text.

Here is how the API returns this value:

{
  "effect": "[Level 3+] **Sacrifice CARDNAME**: Draw a card.",
  "effect_raw": "[Level 3+] Sacrifice Spirit Shard: Draw a card.",
  "effect_html": "<span class=\"effect__bubble\">Level 3+</span>  <span class=\"effect__label\">Sacrifice Spirit Shard</span>: Draw a card."
}

What is the difference between circulations and circulationTemplates?

Circulations contain information about how specific editions have been printed.

When editions share identical print runs to others they will be assigned circulationTemplates, whilst editions that have a more unique print run will be assigned their own circulations instead.

Circulations are described by their kind value (e.g. "FOIL" or "NONFOIL").

An edition can contain one or more circulations across both the circulations and circulationTemplates lists, or it may have no circulation information at all.

An edition could have a "FOIL" entry in its circulations list and a "NONFOIL" entry in its circulationTemplates list, or it could have both "FOIL" and "NONFOIL" in one of those lists.

The kind values are both unique and mutually exclusive, meaning these combined lists will never contain more than one of a given circulation type.

How do cost_memory and cost_reserve work?

The cost_memory and cost_reserve values reveal how a card is played.

Parts of a Card - Cost

The cost properties are mutually exclusive - a card cannot have both cost_memory and cost_reserve - at least one of those will always be null.

Cards can also exist with no cost, such as those with the Mastery type. In those cases, both cost_memory and cost_reserve will be null.

Despite being numeric properties, cards also exist with non-numeric costs. Please refer to the table below for how these costs are mapped:

Cost value	Description
0 or greater	A regular numeric cost value.
-1	A cost of "X"

Why do cards and editions have their own effect properties?

The effect value assigned to a card is the default value shared by all of its child editions.

The effect value assigned to an edition is unique to that edition.

To determine an edition's effect value, first look at its effect property and if it is null fall back to the parent card's effect property.

Sometimes effects need correcting after editions have been printed. In these cases, the edition's effect value will highlight what has changed, whilst the card's effect value will return the intended value with the correction already applied.