Cards in Brackets – Blocks for MTG

Cards in Brackets displays individual cards and pasted deck lists. It provides three native blocks for the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg) and two shortcodes:

• Cards in Brackets: Card: show one or more card images.
• Cards in Brackets: Card Details: show a card beside its Oracle text, with optional flavor text, card-specific rulings, printing details, and selected format legalities.
• Cards in Brackets: Deck: paste a main deck and optional sideboard, show a compact list with hover previews, switch to visual card stacks, and optionally group the main deck by card type.
• [cardsinbrackets_mtg_card name=”Lightning Bolt”]: show a linked card name with an image preview on hover or keyboard focus.
• [cardsinbrackets_mtg_card name=”Lightning Bolt” image=”true”]: show the card image directly.

Use a set code in parentheses to select an edition, for example Lightning Bolt (M11). Cards with multiple faces can display both images. The deck and detail views show a flip control where a second image is available.

Card data comes from the public Scryfall API. No Scryfall account or API key is required. Please read the Third-party service and privacy section before installing.

Usage

Enter one card name per line in the Cards in Brackets: Card block. For a deck, paste quantities and names under Deck and Sideboard headings:

Deck
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Kessig Flamebreather
19 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Smash to Smithereens

In the Cards in Brackets: Deck block, enable “Group main deck by card type” to separate the main deck in both list and visual views. The sideboard remains one section. The deck can also be named. For a shortcode deck, use [cardsinbrackets_mtg_deck title="Mono-Red Burn" group="true"]...[/cardsinbrackets_mtg_deck] with the list between the tags.

Hover or focus a linked card name to preview its image. The link opens the card on Scryfall. Press Escape to close a keyboard preview. On touch devices, use the link to open Scryfall.

Third-party service and privacy

This plugin depends on Scryfall (https://scryfall.com/) to retrieve card data and image URLs. When a card needed by a block or shortcode is absent from the WordPress transient cache, the WordPress server sends the card name and optional set code to https://api.scryfall.com/. Multi-card grids and decks send uncached card names and optional set codes in collection requests; quantities, deck titles, post content, and visitor identities are not included in those API request bodies. If the Card Details block has card-specific rulings enabled, the server also requests that card’s rulings from api.scryfall.com.

Each API request includes a User-Agent identifying Cards in Brackets – Blocks for MTG, its version, and the WordPress site URL. Successful card and ruling responses are cached in WordPress transients for 24 hours. Missing-card and temporary error results are cached for shorter periods. Requests made during one page render are spaced apart; after a rate-limit response, new lookups pause briefly across the site. Cached cards remain available. WordPress may evict transients early.

The plugin displays image URLs supplied by Scryfall rather than bundling card art. When an image is displayed or previewed, the visitor’s browser requests it directly from the Scryfall image host. As with other third-party image requests, that host receives the visitor’s IP address and normal browser request information. Clicking a card link takes the visitor to Scryfall.

Scryfall’s API documentation: https://scryfall.com/docs/api
Scryfall’s Terms of Service: https://scryfall.com/docs/terms
Scryfall’s Privacy and Security page: https://scryfall.com/docs/privacy

Cards in Brackets is not produced, endorsed, or sponsored by Scryfall or Wizards of the Coast. Magic: The Gathering card names, rules text, and images belong to their respective rights holders. The GPL license above applies to the plugin code; it does not relicense card data or artwork. Site owners displaying Magic content should follow the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy: https://company.wizards.com/en/legal/fancontentpolicy