(Frantic Search | Art by Mitchell Malloy)

Greetings and welcome to Digital Deckbuilding! I am thrilled to bring you a new series highlighting the outstanding deckbuilding tools from EDHREC, Archidekt and Commander Spellbook. The emphasis of this series is less about cards and play patterns, and more about methods and processes to help our community build decks online. To that end, I'll be sharing tips, tricks and techniques to help you improve the way you build, curate and share your decks.

Searching the Cyberspace Card Box

In the debut installment of Digital Deckbuilding, we're going to dive deep into card searches. I am certain anyone who plays this game in paper has started compiling a deck by putting the pile in compile. Many of us savor the euphoria of finding the perfect piece of cardboard in a box of bulk. Some of us probably prefer the old ways, but this series is called Digital Deckbuilding. We have the technology; we can find new joy in mastering the new ways. At the time of this writing, there are 26,116 Commander-legal Magic: The Gathering cards, and this article is going to demonstrate using EDHREC and Archidekt to search through them.

Since this is the first article in the series, I think it's appropriate to revisit another significant first in my Magic career: the first legend I ever opened in a booster pack. It was a Nemesis booster, and the rare was Volrath the Fallen.

EDH didn't exist yet and my teenage Timmy mind lacked the precognition to know I wanted to build a Commander deck. In the innocence of youth, I shuffled my one copy of Volrath into deck after deck and challenged my peers at school library tables. I lived for the moment I would resolve Volrath's ability and swing for lethal. Back then the only cards I knew outside my play group were in binders at the local card shop, and no one I knew wrote down their deck lists. Twenty years later, EDHREC and Archidekt are intrinsic parts of my hobby, and Commander is the only constructed format I play. For this article, I indulged my nostalgia and brewed a Volrath the Fallen Commander deck using only cards from that time period. Follow me step by step through the build process to see how EDHREC and Archidekt empowered my search.

It Starts with One

Starting on Archidekt's New Deck Screen, I added Volrath the Fallen directly to the command zone. The predictive text quickly found the card, I clicked on it and hit Create Deck.

The Archidekt Deck Creation Screen

I made use of Archidekt's regular card search next. This search uses the same predictive text. For example, I typed "Sol" into the box, and picked Sol Ring out of the options that appeared. I later repeated this for basic Swamps.

Those searches for my commander, format mascot Sol Ring and basic lands were all easy mode. To find more cards for the 99, I opened the Advanced Options, which opened a multitude of possibilities. I made sure to select the bubble for color identity, then clicked on the White, Blue, Red and Green color symbols to remove those colors from the search. I searched for cards from the same set as Volrath the Fallen by typing "Nemesis" in the text box for Editions.

Archidekt Card Search Advanced Options

This search gave me 42 results, not enough to fill out the 99, but I had to start somewhere. Right at the top I saw Ascendant Evincar. This card was everything my Volrath deck needed: high mana value for synergy with Volrath and relevant card abilities. The thematic connections between the characters pleased my inner Vorthos too. Volrath would love to pitch Crovax in the Graveyard! After adding a few more Nemesis cards to the deck, I moved on to the Syntax Search to find more cards for the deck.

Death and Syntaxes

Syntax Search is the most precise tool for getting finely tuned search results. Searching by syntax requires more thought and input from the user, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Below the search box on the Syntax tab is an information icon that links to the Scryfall Search Reference page. Archidekt pulls data from Scryfall and uses the same search syntax. Volrath's color identity is mono black, and as I said earlier, I wanted to limit this deck to cards that existed at the time I was a teenager. The syntax for Commander color identity "id:" or "identity:" and the syntax "year" allowed me to limit results to the desired time period of my teenage years.

The initial syntax looked like this: id:b (year<=2004).

The (parentheses) are critical! Separating search conditions with parenthesis tells the search engine where each condition begins and ends. If you leave those out, then the engine might not find anything.

Syntax Search results

Those initial search parameters brought up a total card pool of over 2000 cards. Rather than look through those one at a time, I did multiple iterations of the search with additional syntax. These iterations included a mixed bag of card types and oracle text I typically look for in my decks.

The Third Path

If opening the card search menu isn't your thing, then Archidekt offers another path. There's a multifunction search bar right at the top of the deck page. Those functions include Quick Add, Syntax Quick Add and Detailed Add. This search bar is fantastic for adding cards you are already familiar with, because it does not slow you down by loading card images to browse. Use the drop-down arrow to change modes or toggle options.

By the time I got to this point with Volrath, the 99 was full, with good ratios of card types and a sensible mana curve. More importantly, by this point the deck had some of the identity I originally set out for. This proved to be a great point to take a goldfishing detour into Archidekt's Playtester.

The first hand I drew. I didn't believe it either.

If I showed you this hand in paper, you could fairly accuse me of stacking the deck. Believe it or not, the digital stars aligned and the Playtester made all my Timmy dreams come true on the first try.

Volrath is tapped and attacking with Swampwalk on turn 5, and Ascendant Evincar is in the graveyard where he belongs.

On turn five I resolved Volrath's ability and had him tapped and attacking with as a 12/12 with Swampwalk. The only way I could have been more thrilled is if this had happened in a real game. Having achieved a healthy degree of catharsis, I got back to deckbuilding. I thought this deck might need more ramp, so I used the deck page search bar to add some things to the Maybeboard.

Here's a quick rundown of the options: If you know the name of the card, then Quick Add is exactly what the name says. Enter a card name in the bar and add it directly to the deck. Quick Syntax Add provides a list of results that meet the requirements entered by the user. The Detailed Add function assembles some commonly used search options into one convenient package.

I checked the box for Maybeboard and used Quick Syntax Add and ran another iteration of the syntax form my earlier card searches. The new search looked like this: id:b (year<=2004) t:artifact (o:add) o: mana Scrolling through the list of results I saw Mox Diamond. I might have been able to afford that card with my teenage job and few responsibilities. I can't justify the cost now, but I can dream. I used the Detailed Add feature to add a diamond I could actually afford: Charcoal Diamond. I used the filters to select a print, a category and whether or not I wanted foil.

Detailed Add on Archidekt

"...before you wreck your deck"

Stay tuned to the end of an episode of The EDHRECast, and you'll hear writer and editor Joey Schultz's tag line, "...EDHREC your deck before your wreck your deck." The Rec part of EDHREC is a potent search tool at any stage in a deck's lifecycle. Check it out here. This page can be a shortcut to quickly fill out a list, or a data-powered personal assistant to find the perfect tech to finish or upgrade a list. The only requirement from the user is text input. Your input might simply be the commander, or you can include any number of cards from the rest of your deck list.

My favorite use for Recs is discovering synergies I missed.

While building the Volrath deck, I completely overlooked Hypnox during my syntax searches. I might have never seen this card if I hadn't given Recs a chance. This card hits all the right beats for Volrath: discarding an 11 mana value creature with Volrath's ability pumps my commander to 17/17. That's one hit away from commander damage, one hit away from my teenage dream of knocking out an opponent with Volrath the Fallen.

Archidekt's card search also has an EDH Recs tab. Archidekt does all the work for you, as it queries EDH Recs and provides Recs customized to your deck in real time. Archidekt doesn't allow you to edit any of the input here, for that you'll have to go to the link above and use the original. Regardless of which site you prefer to access the Recs for your commanders; give it a chance before you wreck your deck.

Volrath the Fallen and the 99, input into Recs on EDHREC

One Final Tip

If your internet browser supports it, Archidekt allows you to drag and drop cards that use images from Scryfall directly into a deck. That means you can open separate windows for your deck page and any page on EDHREC, then drag and drop cards. No typing required.

That's a wrap for our deep dive into card searches. Special thanks to Jeremy at Archidekt for helping me create this article. Tell us about your own nostalgic decks or share your card search wisdom in the comments. You can check out the deck list below or find it on Archidekt.

Read more:

Mechanical Memories - Extra, Extra! Attack All About It!

Rally the Ancestors - Kataki and The Fun Police

John Sherwood

John Sherwood loves interaction, turning creatures sideways and interacting with sideways creatures. His deck building mantra is, "Run more lands." He has been a devoted Commander player since Zendikar Rising.