How GuessMTG works

How the Oracle understands questions

You ask in your own words:

The Oracle maps each question to one known characteristic or gameplay concept: a color, a card type, “mana value is 5 or more”, “removal”, and so on. The game then answers that check from the card’s real data, which comes from Scryfall. The Oracle understands the question; the card data decides the answer. The same question about the same card always gets the same answer, for every player.

What you can ask about:

Colors

Single colors, colorless, multicolored, mono-colored, guilds, shards and wedges (“Is it Izzet?”), and color identity.

Types

Card types, “Is it a permanent?”, “Is it legendary?”, creature types and other subtypes, and “Can it be your commander?”.

Mana

Mana value (“Is it 3 mana?”, “Is the mana value even?”), colored symbols (“Is it double blue?”, “Does it need two blue mana?”), generic mana (“Does it contain a generic mana symbol?”), and hybrid or Phyrexian symbols (“Does it have a hybrid mana symbol?”).

Stats

Power, toughness and loyalty, including even or odd (“Is its power odd?”), and tap abilities (“Is its tap ability free?”).

Keywords

Flying, trample, haste, deathtouch and every other keyword.

Printing

Rarity and year, both from the card’s first printing (“Was it printed in the 90s?”).

Name

First letter or a range of letters (“Does it start with A–F?”), vowel or consonant (“Does it start with a vowel?”; Y counts as a consonant), how many letters (“Is the name longer than 12 letters?”; spaces and punctuation don’t count), words in the name, and punctuation (“Does the name have punctuation?”).

What it does

Gameplay concepts like removal, ramp and card draw (see Semantic MTG concepts), and rules text (“Does it mention the graveyard?”).

One question rule

Each message is one logical question. Compound questions are cut down to the first one:

The rest is ignored and the message still uses one question, and the Oracle tells you it trimmed it. This keeps the game fair: nobody gets two answers for the price of one. Phrases that are really a single question stay whole, like “3 or less” and “between D and M”.

How deduction works

Every answer is stored as a fact, not just a yes or no. Together those facts form your knowledge state, which you can see under What you know. After each answer, the deduction engine checks whether your facts now logically prove anything new.

You aren’t given another free question. The game simply recognizes what your existing questions have already proven, and tells you. Four colors ruled out isn’t enough by itself, because the card could still be colorless. Ruling that out too leaves only red.

More examples of what the engine can prove:

Deductions use only the rules of Magic, never the list of possible answers. They can’t reveal which cards are in the pool. New positive facts are announced (“It’s red”); facts that rule things out quietly update What you know and your filters.

Numeric reasoning

Numbers are stored as ranges, not just “yes” or “no”:

The game stores that as

Mana value < 6

rather than simply

Mana value ≠ 6

Each answer narrows the range, and when only one value is left, it’s announced for free. This works for mana value, power, toughness, loyalty, first print year, tap-ability cost, colored mana symbols and generic mana. Comparisons work too: “Does it cost less than 3?” → “No, 3 or more”.

Name letters are the exception. “Does it start with D–M?” and “Does it start with a vowel?” get a plain Yes or No, because a letter range already narrows things down a lot. A No rules those letters out without saying which side the real one is on.

Semantic MTG concepts

Some questions aren’t simple card fields. Scryfall has no “removal” property, and players don’t always agree what counts. So GuessMTG gives each concept one written definition and applies it the same way to every card, reading the rules text without reminder text. If two players ask the same question about the same card, they get the same answer.

For example, “Is it removal?” is Yes for effects that destroy, exile, bounce or force the sacrifice of an opposing permanent, board wipes, and damage that can hit a creature. Pure combat buffs, pure life loss and effects that only touch your own permanents don’t count.

When does the game reveal information?

Direct facts

What you ask about. Is it red? No.

Derived facts

What your answers logically prove, announced for free as a deduction (see How deduction works). If your facts already settle a question you ask, the Oracle just tells you, and it doesn’t use a question.

Numeric facts

You narrow a range until the exact value is known, and then it’s announced.

Oracle hints

Hints are deliberate rewards, not logic. Miss enough times in one category and the Oracle gives that answer away. A miss is a question in that category answered No: “Is it 4 mana?” → “No, less than 4” is a mana value miss.

Each hint fires once, and not at all if you’ve already worked the answer out.

Good questions vs. less useful questions

Good questions

Questions that split the remaining possibilities roughly in half, whatever the answer:

Less useful questions

Questions about something rare, like an obscure keyword or a very specific word in the rules text, usually get a No that rules out only a handful of cards. They’re great for confirming a hunch late in the game, and costly early on.

Question strategy

Instead of asking “What do I want to know?”, ask yourself:

“How many possible cards does this question eliminate?”

That’s information gain. A question that splits the possibilities evenly halves them whichever way it goes, so a handful of good questions narrows thousands of cards down to a few.

• Search numbers. Ask about the middle of the range (“5 or greater?”), then the middle of what’s left.
• Let hints and deductions work for you. Two color misses reveal a color, and a few range questions can pin down an exact number for free.
• Watch the match count. What you know, the “cards match” count and the card list under the guess box show how much you’ve narrowed things down.
• Guess carefully. Your free guess after each answer costs nothing, but extra guesses count as questions.

What counts as a question?

• Compound questions count as one, and only the first part is answered.
• Statements such as “It’s red” are read as the question they imply.
• Follow-ups are read on their own. Each message is a complete question, so “What about green?” is read as “Is it green?”.
• Natural phrasing is fine. “Can it kill creatures?” and “Is it removal?” are the same check.
• Several characteristics in one question (“Is it a red creature?”): the Oracle answers one of them. Your history shows exactly which fact was checked.
• Guesses are free right after an answer. An extra guess, or one before your first question, counts as a question.
• Free: questions the Oracle doesn’t understand, questions you already know the answer to, card names typed as questions (they’re offered as a guess), deductions and hints.

How the card pool works

• Eligible cards are a hand-picked pool of well-known Magic cards, focused on popular, widely played ones. Most are Commander staples, across every color, type and era.
• The daily card is picked from a fixed, shuffled order of the pool, so everyone gets the same card on the same day.
• No repeats until every card in the pool has been used.
• The pool will grow over time. It’s kept hidden so the card list can’t be used to solve the puzzle.
• Card details come from Scryfall. Rarity and year refer to the card’s first printing (Rhystic Study counts as common, from Prophecy in 2000). Hybrid and Phyrexian symbols count toward each of their colors, and “The One Ring” starts with T.

The daily game

• One game per day, and everyone gets the same mystery card. It resets at midnight in your time zone.
• 20 questions. Your score is how many you used; fewer is better.
• Guessing: one free guess after each answer, and extra guesses count as questions. The game ends when you name the card, or when the guess after your 20th question misses.
• Stats and streaks: games played, win rate, current and longest streak, and average questions. A streak is a run of consecutive daily puzzles won.
• Spoiler-free sharing: 🟩 yes, ⬜ no, ❌ wrong guess, 🎯 the winning guess, ✨ free deductions. It never shows your questions or the card.
• Accounts are optional. Progress is saved in your browser; an account (email, Google or Discord) syncs it across devices and keeps your streak.
• Anonymous totals: each finished game is counted once for site-wide statistics, using a random ID for your browser plus the puzzle, whether you won, and how many questions and guesses you used. Nothing identifies you.

Why the Oracle doesn’t just tell you everything

The Oracle is designed to

answer what you asked while giving you only the information that question logically provides.

It knows the card, but it won’t volunteer unrelated facts. The puzzle is in choosing what to ask. What it will do is point out anything that has become logically certain from your own answers, since you’ve effectively earned that already. Oracle hints are the one deliberate exception, a small push when you’ve missed the same kind of question a few times.