Magic Thesaurus
TappedOut forum
Posted on June 9, 2014, 5:47 p.m. by landcaster
I wish that there was an app, thing, or website of a Thesaurus of Magic. This tool would help deck building significantly. From what I have found there is currently not a full Magic thesaurus, and I feel that it needs to be a thing. I would like some volunteers to help make this happen.
Epochalyptik says... #3
"Thesaurus" is typically used in reference to a list of synonyms and antonyms. The thing it sounds like you want is more commonly called a glossary.
The MTGS wiki has a glossary of Magic terms.
June 9, 2014 6:09 p.m.
landcaster says... #4
I mean something like when someone searches for a card say Blistergrub the "synonyms" of the card would be Perilous Myr , Infectious Host , and Soulcage Fiend . something like that, only with the entire Gatherer.
June 9, 2014 6:13 p.m.
abominableslyvo says... #5
Wizards of the coast made a database that has a function that seems similar to what you are looking for.
June 9, 2014 6:28 p.m.
Mythicspoiler.com is way ahead of you. just click on a card.
June 9, 2014 6:29 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #8
Searching by rules text can be used similar to what you are describing. For example:
You're a fan of Bountiful Harvest and would like to find more green cards that gain life based off lands. So you go to gatherer and search for a green card with the rules text: "life" "gain" "land". SEARCH RESULTS Joyous Respite is the answer to your prayers.
This is what I do currently. It would be cool if there was a site that functioned as a Magic card thesaurus though.
June 9, 2014 6:32 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #9
Learning how to use the Advanced Search on Gatherer is one of the best things you will do for your magic playing life.
June 9, 2014 6:34 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #10
Knowing how to manipulate existing search engines will give you exactly what you want. Nobody has put together a true "thesaurus" (in the sense you use the word) because it's an enormous waste of time. You'd need to go through every card ever printed, then do that several more times. every time new cards are created, you'd need to go back and update the DB. It's too complex.
June 9, 2014 6:35 p.m.
hyperlocke says... #11
I guess it would be possible to define a set of keywords and assign some of them to every card. Blood Artist would be assigned "creature", "dies", "player", "life gain", "life loss", maybe some more. Then you could search for cards that share x keywords with your starting card. Corrupt would show up for x<=3 ("creature", "player", "life gain").
That would be less complex than a true thesaurus and once you are clear on your keywords, you only have to do it once per card. If you want to add a keyword, you have to go through all cards again.
But even so, it is far too complicated. As already stated, learn how to use the advanced search on Gatherer or (the one I use frequently) on Magiccards.info.
June 9, 2014 7 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #12
@hyperlocke: At that point, you might as well just search the terms that are already on the card.
June 9, 2014 7:19 p.m.
Well I'm totally okay with adding this, I'd be interested to know how we arrive at these synonyms. Its not really like we can easily detect it through card text or whatever....
Any idea how mythicspoiler does it?
June 9, 2014 8:21 p.m.
hyperlocke says... #14
I think the "easiest" way to do this is defining certain phrases of the card text that get associated with certain keywords and do it automatically.
You will probably miss some cards with this method.
The safest method would be using a conventional search tool to look up all cards that should have a certain keyword and edit the database manually. I don't envy the poor sap who would have to do that...
It would certainly be interesting to have such a feature, but I really don't think it's necessary. If you understand the wording of cards just a little bit, you can get synonymous cards by doing a quick search.
June 9, 2014 9:51 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #16
The simplest thing would be to just have a set of predefined advanced searches based on rules text and card types. But then, we're really just doing unnecessary work that the users could do themselves with greater flexibility and precision.
June 9, 2014 10:03 p.m.
well someone suggested before linking cards such as Shock and Lightning Bolt in a "series". that would do it.....
June 9, 2014 10:04 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #18
And how would we do that? Manually?
Not really worth, in my opinion.
June 9, 2014 10:33 p.m.
yeah, its a nice idea but its tedious work. an alternate approach would be for users to suggest swaps and other users to accept them.
June 9, 2014 10:53 p.m.
landcaster says... #20
I would be fine with doing it manually because of my ample free time. It wouldn't be to difficult into opinion to make a thesaurus
GoldGhost012 says... #2
Like primers for various archtypes? There's been a bit of discussion on something like that. Or do you mean something more overarching?
June 9, 2014 6:03 p.m.