Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

What is The Deck Cauldron™?

The Deck Cauldron™ is a TCG collection manager.

Track every card you own across formats and printings, build physical and virtual decks, and see what's available to play at any time.

It also covers what happens between players: loan cards out and get them back, trade with friends in a way that actually moves the cards between collections, keep a wishlist your friends can see, and sit down at a shared playmat to test a deck alone or play a game together.

How do I add my first card?

Open the Card Scan and Lookup page and choose one of three methods.

Input Methods

• Camera scanner Point your camera at a card; OCR reads the name and matches it to a printing
• Manual lookup Enter the set code and collector number from the card's bottom border
• Catalog search Search by card name and browse results

After Matching

• Fill in condition, finish, and any other details
• Confirm to add the card to your collection

What card games are supported?

Currently Magic: The Gathering is supported, with more games planned.

Your active game is shown at the bottom of the left sidebar. Each game has its own collection, decks, and color system.

Scanning & Adding Cards

How does the card scanner work?

The scanner photographs your card and uses OCR to identify it, then matches it to a printing in the catalog.

Workflow

• Camera captures the card → OCR reads the name → ranked list of matching printings appears
• Select the correct printing and set condition and finish
• Add to your scan queue; review and confirm to commit to your collection

Matching Improvements

• Every paper printing Looking a card up returns all of its real-world printings, not a single collapsed entry

  Digital-only printings are filtered out, so a version nobody can own no longer hides the one you're holding

• Cards the catalog met late A printing discovered by a live lookup is fingerprinted in the background so the image scanner can recognise it next time

Can I use my phone camera?

Yes. The scanner works on any device with a camera: phone, tablet, or desktop.

Grant camera permission when prompted. Hold the card flat with good lighting and let the frame settle before capture for best results.

What if the scanner doesn't recognize my card?

Switch to manual Lookup mode if OCR can't get a confident match.

Enter the set code and collector number from the card's bottom border (for example, MH3 / 42). This always returns an exact match regardless of image quality.

Does my scan session save if I close the browser?

Yes. Your scan queue is stored locally in your browser.

Close the tab, return later, and pick up where you left off. Cards stay in the queue until you confirm and add them, or manually clear the session.

How do I look up a card by set code and collector number?

On the Card Scan and Lookup page, select Lookup mode and enter two pieces of information.

• Set code 3–4 character abbreviation printed at the bottom left of the card (e.g. MH3)
• Collector number The number printed at the bottom right of the card (e.g. 42)

Card Detail & Images

What information can I track for each card?

Each card has a full detail view with fields for quality, quantity, organization, and personal notes. All fields are editable at any time.

Card Quality

• Condition Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played, or Damaged

  Identifies tournament-playable copies vs. casual or trade stock

• Finish Standard, Foil, or Etched

  Filter by finish when building decks or browsing

• Language Non-English copies show a badge on collection tiles

Ownership

• Quantity How many copies at this exact printing and finish

  Update after trades, purchases, or losses to keep availability accurate

Organization

• Tags Free-form labels you define: format, purpose, trade status, etc.

  Searchable and filterable from the collection view

• Location Physical storage place (binder name, box label, sleeve number)

  Helps find cards without pulling everything out

Personalization

• Alias A personal nickname or playgroup shorthand for the card
• Notes Private free-text notes visible only to you

  Trade history, sentimental value, reprint reminders: anything unstructured

How do I change the image shown for a card?

Open the card detail and tap the card image to open the image picker.

• Image picker shows all available images: the system image and any scans you've uploaded
• Select the image you want and save
• Your selection updates everywhere: collection tiles, deck views, and variant groups
• Selection persists after closing and reopening, and after logging out

What is the difference between a system image and a scanned image?

Two types of images are available for every card. You can switch between them any time from the image picker, or set which kind wins per card from the card's Card Image setting.

• System image Official card art from the catalog; always available
• Scanned image A photo of your physical copy taken with the scanner

  Captures your specific copy, condition, or alter; won't change if the catalog art is updated

What does "Use as top image" mean in the grouped variants view?

When a card has multiple variants, they're grouped into a single tile in your collection.

• Tap a group tile to open the variant view and see all individual copies
• Use as top image Sets that variant's display image as the group tile image in your collection
• The active top image variant shows a checkmark in its corner

What are the Deckbuilding Insights?

The Deckbuilding Insights panel analyzes a card's deckbuilding role and fit. Sections vary by card type, so not every section appears for every card.

Analysis Sections

• Strategic Role The roles this card plays: Finisher, Ramp, Commander Piece, etc.
• Curve Slot Where it sits on the mana curve: Early-game, Mid-game, or Top-end
• Best Archetypes Which archetypes benefit most, and the card's role in each (Cornerstone, Role-player, etc.)
• Key Synergies Mechanics or themes that pair well with this card (Tribal, Graveyard, etc.)
• Weaknesses Build constraints or downsides to be aware of (Mana-intensive, Legend-rule redundancy, etc.)

Collection & Browsing

What does "Available" mean?

Available is the number of copies ready to pick up and play.

• Available = Owned − Loaned Out − Copies in physical decks
• Virtual deck copies do not reduce availability; they're planning tools only
• Borrowed cards (others' cards you're holding) are not counted as owned

Why does a card show 0 available even though I own it?

All your copies are committed: loaned out or slotted into a physical deck.

Open the card detail to see exactly where each copy is.

What does the "Available Only" filter do?

Available Only hides cards where every copy is loaned out or slotted into a physical deck.

Use it when you want to see only what you can put into a new deck right now.

How do grouped variants work?

Cards owned in multiple versions are displayed as a single grouped tile to reduce clutter.

• A group can include different printings, finishes, or conditions of the same card
• The tile shows totals across all variants
• Tap the tile to view, edit, or compare each variant individually
• Availability and loan counts are summed across the full group

How do I filter and sort my collection?

Use the filter bar above your collection to narrow and reorder cards.

Filters

• Color, type, rarity, condition, finish Standard catalog attributes
• Tags Your custom labels
• Available Only Hides fully committed cards

Sorting

• Sort options Name, quantity owned, color, rarity, or recently added
• List View In List View, click a column header to sort by it and click it again to reverse the order. The headers and the Sort menu share one setting, so a sort chosen in either place shows in both
• Filter and sort settings are remembered during your session

Tabs

• The tab row across the top (All, Your cards, Available, In decks, Loaned out, On loan to you, Wishlist, Tomes) is a set of filter presets, not a separate mode
• Any tab can be narrowed further with the filters, and the active tab follows whatever the filters currently say

Saved Filters

• A filter combination you use often can be saved by name and reapplied with one click
• Saved filters follow your account, and the filters you had active survive a refresh

Can I search cards by what's in the artwork?

Yes. The Artwork section of the filter drawer searches the pictures themselves, not the rules text.

What You Can Filter By

• Art description Free text over a written description of what's in the frame: "zombie graveyard" or "two figures" finds cards whose art shows exactly that
• Tags A searchable list of subjects that appear in card art, with counts, or type your own and press Enter
• Color vibe The palette of the artwork itself: a mostly-teal illustration, not a blue mana card
• Mood, style, composition Ominous or serene, oil painting or digital, close-up portrait or wide landscape
• Time of day and figures Night scenes, dusk scenes, or art with exactly one figure in it

• Values within one section broaden the search; different sections narrow it: "night" plus "dragon" finds dragons at night
• The same Artwork filters are available everywhere cards are searched: the collection, Look Up, the deck builders, the wishlist, trade binders, and the tome filing tray

How do I make the cards bigger or smaller?

The slider at the right-hand end of the tab row sizes the collection grid in Card View.

It sets a minimum tile width rather than a column count, so one setting reads correctly on every screen: drag toward the large card and the tiles grow until the row can only fit fewer of them. Your choice is saved to your account.

It applies to Card View only. In List View every row is the same height, so the slider is not offered there; it comes back, at the size you left it, when you switch back to cards.

Can I edit several cards at once?

Yes. Select cards in the collection and a bulk edit bar appears in the header, showing how many are selected.

Fields You Can Set

• Condition Apply one condition across the selection
• Language Mark a batch as Japanese, German, or any other printing language
• Acquired date Stamp when the cards came into your collection; a box bought on one day is one edit
• Price Set your own price across the selection, overriding the market price
• Location Move a batch into a binder or box
• Tags Add or remove your custom labels in one go
• Notes Write the same private note onto every selected card
• Card image Choose whether these cards show the system image or your own scan
• Visibility Hide the selected cards from friends, or unhide them

Behaviour

• File into a tome The selection can also be filed straight into a tome; pockets fill in the order the cards appear on screen, so a sorted view files sorted
• Your selection survives the edit, so you can apply a second change to the same cards without reselecting
• Quantities are deliberately not bulk-editable; copy counts are only ever changed one card at a time
• Right-clicking a card offers the same fields and opens the bar with that field already chosen
• List View Selection works the same way in List View: tick the box beside a card name, shift-click for a range, or long-press a row on a phone. Switching between Card View and List View keeps your selection

Can I hide individual cards from my friends?

Yes. Each card has a visibility setting, separate from your overall collection privacy.

A hidden card stays fully yours (it still counts as owned, still fills deck slots, and still appears in your own views), but friends browsing your collection never see it, and it is never offered when they build a trade against your collection.

What are Display Settings?

Show or hide individual pieces of information on collection tiles, or choose which columns appear in List View. One set of options serves both views.

Toggleable Elements

• Card image The card art thumbnail
• Mana cost The mana symbol row
• Card type The type line
• Rarity dot Color-coded rarity indicator
• Quantity badge The ×N count overlay on the tile
• Tags Your custom label badges

List View

• Card or List The switch beside the Sort menu shows your collection as tiles or as a table with one row per card
• Columns Every option that has a column in List View shows or hides it. Options that only apply to tiles, such as Card Image and the badges, are marked Card View only there, and the three finish counts are marked List View only on tiles. A greyed option keeps its saved setting for the other view
• Regular, Foil, Etched Three List View columns counting the copies you own by finish. They add up to Owned
• Column order Drag a column header on a desktop, or use the up and down arrows under Column order in Display Options. Card Name always stays first. Reset Column Order puts the default order back without touching anything else

Tomes

What is a Tome?

A tome is a virtual card binder: an ordered book of nine-pocket pages you open and turn like the real thing.

Each pocket holds exactly one physical copy (four copies of a card fill four pockets), so a tome answers "where is my cardboard" the way the binder on your shelf does. Filing a card is storage, not allocation: it never changes what you own, what's available for decks, or any loan.

Tomes live in the Tomes tab of your collection. They are private to you; friends browsing your collection never see them.

How do I file cards into a tome?

Create a tome from the shelf with a name and page count, then file cards any of four ways.

Ways In

• Drag Drag a card from the "Not in the tome" tray into a pocket; carry it to the book's edge or the page rail to reach a distant page
• Click Click a tray card to drop it into the first pocket with room
• From the collection Right-click (or long-press) any card and choose File in a Tome
• In bulk Select cards in the collection and file the whole selection at once; pockets fill in the on-screen order

• The tray shows copies you own that no tome holds yet, searchable with the full filter drawer
• You can't file more copies than you own, counted across all your tomes

Can I sort and rearrange a tome?

Yes: pockets can be rearranged by hand or stamped into a sorted order in one go.

• Pocket menu Right-click or long-press a pocket to view the card, move it to another page or tome, or take it out
• List view Flip to a plain list, sort it by name, color, rarity, set, mana value, or price, and stamp that order back onto the pages
• Auto-sort Sorts the whole tome with optional compacting and a new page per group
• Pages Add or delete pages from the filmstrip; deleting a page unfiles its cards without deleting them

• A tome's cover art comes from the same skin system as playmats, and shows on the shelf like a spine
• The card detail's Location section shows which tome and page each copy sits in, with a link that opens the book right there

Chests

What is a Chest?

A chest is a box of cards with no order at all, and a table you can tip it out onto.

Where a tome is pages and pockets, a chest is just what is inside it. Each card in a chest is one physical copy (four copies of a card are four cards in the box). Putting a card in a chest is storage, not allocation: it never changes what you own, what's available for decks, or any loan.

The table is what makes a chest worth having. Dump the chest out, spread the cards around however you like, and the chest remembers where you left every one of them. Come back tomorrow and it is exactly as you left it.

Chests are independent of tomes: a card filed in a tome can also go in a chest. Chests live in the Chests tab of your collection. They are private to you; friends browsing your collection never see them.

How do I put cards in a chest?

Create a chest from the shelf with a name and a lid color, then put cards in any of three ways. They go into the chest.

Ways In

• Click Click a card in the "Cards you can put in" tray under the chest to put one copy in, or use Put everything in
• From the collection Right-click (or long-press) any card and choose Put in a Chest
• In bulk Select cards in the collection or a deck and put the whole selection in at once

• The tray shows copies you own that no chest holds yet. The search box and Filters at the top of the page narrow it, the same way they narrow the collection
• You can't put more copies of a card in than you own, counted across all your chests. Tomes don't count: a card can be in a tome and a chest at once

How does the table work?

Switch a chest to its Table view and the chest sits at the top right of the table. Drag cards out of it and put them wherever you want.

• Dump Tips the whole chest out onto the table in loose rows, so you can look through it
• Put back Puts everything on the table back in the chest
• Tidy Lines the cards on the table up in neat rows by name; whatever is still in the chest stays there
• Undo Takes back the last move, up to thirty moves deep

• Drag a card onto the chest to put it away. Right-click or long-press a card to view it, move it to another chest, or take it out of the chest entirely
• The zoom buttons at the bottom right zoom in and out, and Fit brings the whole table back into view. You can also scroll to zoom and drag the table to pan
• The search box at the top of the page dims every card that does not match, so a card is easy to spot on a full table
• The Grid and List views show the same cards as tiles or rows, each marked as in the chest or on the table

Deck Building

What is the difference between a Physical and Virtual deck?

Decks come in two types with different effects on your collection.

• Physical deck A real assembled deck; slotted cards reduce your available count

  Disassembling the deck returns those cards to available

• Virtual deck A planning or wishlist deck; no effect on availability, any card allowed

Does adding a card to a deck affect my collection availability?

Only physical decks reduce availability.

When you add a card to a physical deck, that copy is marked as slotted and won't show as available. Virtual decks are planning tools and don't affect availability.

Virtual Deck: Can I build with cards I don't own?

Yes. Virtual decks let you add any card from the full catalog regardless of whether you own it.

Use a virtual deck to plan a build before purchasing, map out a theoretical list, or prepare for conversion once you acquire the cards. The Analysis tab will then show exactly which cards you still need and suggest owned alternatives.

What is the Deck Log?

The Deck Log is a deck's own tab, next to Analysis and Goldfish, for recording the games you've actually played with it.

• Logging a game only needs a date and a result (Win, Loss or Draw); length, player count, opponents and notes are all optional
• Four summary tiles read the log at a glance: Games (with the win, loss and draw split), Win rate, Avg length, and Last played
• It is yours alone. Even a friend you've shared the deck with does not see its Deck Log
• Any entry can be corrected or removed afterwards; a correction does not show up in the deck's Activity tab, but logging or removing a game does

Deck Analysis

How does deck analysis differ between virtual and physical decks?

Both deck types share the same Analysis tab: a readiness banner, the Analysis Scope switches, the Goldfish this deck button, and six sections (Overview, Deck Health, Collection Coverage or Physical Deck Status, Deck Structure, Strategy & Mechanics, and Bring to the Table). The one place they differ is the readiness banner and the third section, which ask a different question of each type.

Shared: both deck types

• Overview Deck Facts, plus a stable, read-only summary tile for every other section. Select a tile to open the full section
• Deck Health Legality and format recommendations, with the card-by-card breakdown behind them
• Deck Structure The Mana Value Curve, Type Distribution, Land Makeup and Color Distribution charts, then the Mana Base check of pips against sources
• Strategy & Mechanics Game plan, themes and functional roles, read from the cards
• Bring to the Table Bring to the Table shows the tokens, counters, abilities, and other game pieces your deck uses or creates. The Overview provides a quick summary, while the individual sections show these items by name, making it easier to understand what your deck needs during play

Virtual Deck: answers "Can I build this from my collection?"

• This Brew is Ready! / Brew Incomplete The readiness banner compares the deck against the copies you own and have available
• Collection Coverage The dedicated tab: ownership and availability, Required Cards Needed, and the Convert to Physical Deck button

Physical Deck: answers "Do all my physical decks work together?"

• This Brew is Ready! / Brew Incomplete The readiness banner checks that every card is in hand and not over-allocated across your other physical decks
• Physical Deck Status The dedicated tab: allocation status, the Conflict Summary with its Reallocate tools, and Shared Card Analysis

What does the Overview tell me?

Overview is the first section of the Analysis tab: a stable, read-only dashboard. It never expands into a workspace of its own; every tile on it is a summary that opens the real section when you select it. The readiness banner above the tabs answers the one question first (can this deck be played or built right away?), and Overview then gives you Deck Facts and a summary tile for every other section.

The readiness banner

• This Brew is Ready! Green. For a physical deck, every required card is in hand and within your allocation limits. For a virtual deck, the mainboard (and the commander, in Commander and Brawl) is fully covered by copies you own and have available
• Brew Incomplete Amber. Names the most useful blocker (for example, one or more assigned copies are unavailable on a physical deck, or a specific count of missing mainboard cards on a virtual one) and a button that takes you straight to Deck Health, Collection Coverage, or Physical Deck Status, whichever applies
• Empty decks A deck with no cards is never ready; the banner asks you to add cards first
• The banner is a summary only. The full accounting (which cards, which conflicts, what to do about them) lives on the dedicated tab its button opens, never inside the banner itself

Deck Facts

• The compact row of key numbers directly below the readiness banner. Deck Health, Collection Coverage, and Physical Deck Status are now their own tabs, each with its own article in this category

The summary tiles

• Deck Health Legal or Not Legal for the format, plus a one-line format-recommendation summary
• Collection Coverage or Physical Deck Status The same This Brew is Ready! or Brew Incomplete verdict, with the key ownership or allocation counts underneath
• Deck Structure How many cards are in scope, the split of lands, creatures and other spells, and the average mana value
• Strongest Detected Themes Up to four themes from Strategy & Mechanics, each with its evidence (a card count). Fewer appear when fewer are meaningful, and No strong themes detected yet appears when none are
• Bring to the Table How many token types, counter types and granted abilities the deck produces, plus any other game pieces by name

• Every tile is a button: select it to open that section. Its content is the same data the section shows, so the tile and the section can never disagree

What do the Analysis Scope switches do?

The Analysis Scope switches sit above the section tabs and decide which of the deck's cards the analysis looks at. By default the analysis covers the commander and mainboard only, with lands included.

The switches

• Include Sideboard Off by default. Adds sideboard cards to every section. The switch only appears for formats that have a sideboard
• Include Maybeboard Off by default. Adds maybeboard cards to every section, useful for seeing how a card you are considering would change the deck
• Include Lands On by default. Turn it off to take lands out of Deck Structure: the Mana Value Curve loses its pile of zero-cost lands at the left, and the Type Distribution, Land Makeup and Color Distribution charts count spells only. Deck Health and the readiness banner keep counting lands, because format recommendations describe the whole deck

What the switches do not change

• Strategy & Mechanics and Bring to the Table always consider lands; Include Lands has no effect on them. A landfall theme or a land that makes a Treasure token is reported either way
• Readiness in Overview is not a scope question. Collection Coverage always treats sideboard and maybeboard as optional, and Physical Deck Status always checks the whole physical deck
• The switches are not saved. Leaving the Analysis tab returns them to their defaults

How does deck legality checking work?

The Legality drawer, inside the Deck Health section of the Analysis tab, checks your deck against the selected format and lists exactly what is wrong, if anything. Its header reads Legal or Not Legal for the format, with the card count and the number of illegal cards beside it.

What Is Checked

• Deck size Whether the total card count meets the format's minimum requirement
• Card legality Cards that are not legal, banned, or restricted in the format are listed by name
• Copy limits Singleton formats such as Commander flag any card with more than one copy
• Commander rules Commander and Brawl formats require a valid commander entry in the deck
• Color identity All cards must fall within the commander's color identity

How It Updates

• Legality updates automatically whenever you add or remove cards, with no manual refresh needed
• The Legal / Not Legal badge on your deck list always reflects the current result

• Legality data is based on locally cached Scryfall information. Tournament organizers, local stores, and official publisher rulings may differ. Always verify for sanctioned play.

What are Format Recommendations?

The Recommendations drawer, inside the Deck Health section of the Analysis tab, shows typical card count targets for your format and flags which areas are low or high. Its header names the format (for example Commander Recommendations) and summarises the result: either the areas that are off, or All areas on track.

Categories Shown

• Lands, Creatures, Other Spells Shown for any format that has data, counted from the cards in scope
• Ramp, Card Draw, Removal, Board Wipes Shown for formats like Commander where these targets are well-established
• Deck size and Copy limit The format's rules, stated underneath for reference

Status Labels

• On track Your count is within the recommended range
• Low Fewer cards than the suggested minimum
• High More cards than the suggested maximum

• The drawer only appears for formats with recommendation data. For a custom or unknown format, Deck Health shows a Card Type Breakdown in its place

What does Deck Facts show?

Deck Facts is a compact always-visible row on Overview, directly under the readiness banner, that gives you the key facts at a glance.

• Commander and companion Named first, when the deck has them
• Cards Combined quantity across mainboard and commander entries
• Side The sideboard count, for formats that have a sideboard
• Colors Color identity pips derived from the cards in your mainboard
• Format The format assigned to the deck
• Physical or Virtual Which kind of deck this is
• Estimated value The deck's worth from Scryfall prices, shown when prices are known and you have collection values turned on; hover it to see how many cards are unpriced

What does Deck Structure show?

Deck Structure is a section of the Analysis tab. It holds four charts about the composition of the cards in scope (the Mana Value Curve on top, then three donut charts side by side) and, below them, the Mana Base check.

The charts

• Mana Value Curve Bar chart of cards grouped by mana value (0 through 7+). This is the one chart the Include Lands switch affects
• Type Distribution Donut of card types among the cards in scope
• Land Makeup Donut of what your lands produce, by color, useful for checking mana base balance
• Color Distribution Donut of color symbols across all cards in scope

Reading the legends

• Each donut has a legend listing every category with its count and percentage. Click a legend row to hide that category and click it again to bring it back; the percentages are recomputed over what is visible, and Show all restores every category
• Hiding a category only changes the chart in front of you. It does not change the deck, the Deck Health counts, or the Overview tile

Mana Base

• One row per color your spells ask for. The solid bar is how many of your lands produce that color, the paler bar behind it also counts mana rocks and dorks, and the marker is the recommended number of sources for the most demanding card of that color. The recommendations follow Frank Karsten's 2022 analysis of casting spells on curve and depend on deck size, so a Commander deck reads a different column from a 60-card deck
• These are recommendations, not rules: a deck can run fewer sources than the model suggests and be exactly what you want. A color below its recommendation opens to list the cards to review, each with its cost and the count the model suggests for it. Hybrid pips are counted separately as flexible, since either color can pay for them
• Include Lands does not change this section. Lands are what it measures. Include Sideboard and Include Maybeboard do

• The Deck Structure tile on Overview summarises this section: cards in scope, the lands / creatures / other spells split, and the average mana value of exactly the cards the curve charts

What is Strategy & Mechanics?

Strategy & Mechanics is a section of the Analysis tab. It reads the cards in scope and reports what the deck is trying to do, grouped deck-wide. It only reports what the card text supports: nothing here is a guess, and nothing here is a score.

The five cards you'll see

• Your Deck's Detected Patterns A quick highlight reel: up to a handful of the deck's strongest game-plan and mechanical signals in one place
• Game Plan & Archetype Signals Every archetype the cards support, such as Aggro, Control, Combo, Ramp, Aristocrats, Voltron or Tokens / Go-Wide. A deck can contribute to more than one
• Mechanics & Synergies Mechanics the deck is built around (+1/+1 Counters, Sacrifice, Lifegain, Landfall, Blink, Graveyard, Cost Reduction) and card types it specifically pays off (Artifacts, Enchantments, Planeswalkers, Lands, Creatures, Instants and Sorceries). Running a lot of a type is not enough on its own; the deck needs cards that reward it
• Creature Types & Tribal Synergies A creature type the deck cares about (Elves, Zombies, and so on), needing at least one payoff and a real creature base behind it. Changelings count as every type
• Card Roles What each card does: Ramp, Removal, Value Engine, Protection, Finisher and the rest, grouped for scanability. Roles describe what cards do; a high count is useful information but does not make a role the deck's theme, which is why roles are listed with a count and never appear as a theme

Primary and Support

• Primary The card directly performs, produces or embodies the theme: it makes the tokens, places the counters, is the artifact, is the Elf
• Support The card enables, rewards, amplifies, protects or otherwise cares about the theme without performing it: a card that triggers whenever you create a token is Support for Tokens, not Primary
• A card can be Primary for one theme and Support for another. Select any theme row to open its details and see both lists

Evidence, not scores

• Every theme shows one piece of evidence: its label and a card count, for example +1/+1 Counters · 18 cards. That count is the number of cards in scope taking part in the theme. There is no percentage, grade or confidence number, because a number like that would imply a precision the analysis does not have
• The Strongest Detected Themes tile on Overview shows up to four of these themes. A theme has to involve at least three cards and a meaningful share of the deck to qualify, so fewer appear when fewer are meaningful, and a small or unfocused deck may show none

Some cards are still being analyzed

• Card insights are computed on the server, card by card, and refreshed whenever the analysis rules change. If a deck contains cards whose insights are behind the current rules, this note appears at the top of the section (and under the Overview tile). The themes shown are real but may be thinner than they will be; they fill in once those cards finish

What is Bring to the Table?

Bring to the Table is a section of the Analysis tab. It is a preparation list: the physical pieces you might want to have with you before you sit down to play this deck, read from the text of the cards in scope. All four categories are listed on the page at once, each as its own group of tiles; scroll to see all of them. Select an individual tile to open its details: the cards behind it and how each one relates to it.

The four groups

• Tokens Each token the deck can create, with its name, power and toughness, colors and keywords where the card states them, and the cards that create it (Creates) or copy something as a token (Copies). Treasure, Food, Clue, Blood and the other named resource tokens are included
• Counters Each named counter type the deck uses, marked Permanent or Player (poison, experience and rad), with the cards that place it (Places or adds), enter with it, remove or spend it, move it, double or modify it, proliferate, or otherwise care about it
• Granted Abilities Keywords such as flying, haste, hexproof or trample that cards in the deck give to other creatures (Grants) or to themselves (Gains). A creature that simply has flying printed on it is not listed here; only the giving is
• Other Game Pieces Emblems, the Monarch, the Initiative, dungeons, day and night, energy, the Ring and the City's Blessing, when a card names them

What it deliberately leaves out

• No quantities are ever suggested. "Create X tokens", "that many" and repeating triggers make any number a guess, so the list tells you which token to bring and never how many
• A card that only rewards tokens (for example, one that triggers whenever you create a token) is not listed as making them. It counts toward the Tokens theme in Strategy & Mechanics instead, because it is not something you bring to the table
• Anything the card text does not state plainly is omitted rather than guessed: unnamed counters ("a counter of each kind"), buffs that happen to affect tokens, and abilities a card takes away

Not the same as the playmat

• This section is static preparation: what the deck is capable of producing before a game starts. The playmat in Rooms tracks live tokens and counters during a game, including any a player makes by hand, and the two are kept separate on purpose. Use Bring to the Table to pack your bag; use the playmat to keep score

Some cards are still being analyzed

• Card insights are computed on the server, card by card, and refreshed whenever the analysis rules change. If a deck contains cards whose insights are behind the current rules, this note appears at the top of the section. The groups shown are real but may be thinner than they will be; they fill in once those cards finish

Virtual Deck: How does Collection Coverage work?

For a virtual deck, the readiness banner at the top of the Analysis tab shows This Brew is Ready! or Brew Incomplete. Select the Collection Coverage tab to see the Physical Conversion card, which compares every card in your virtual deck against what you actually own.

How Cards Are Matched

• Cards are matched by card identity, not by specific printing: any printing you own of a card satisfies that slot
• Example A Dominaria reprint you own covers a virtual deck entry pointing to the original printing
• Available Only copies not already in a physical deck and not loaned out count toward coverage

Required vs Optional

• Mainboard Always required: must be fully covered for conversion to be available
• Commander Required for Commander and Brawl format decks
• Sideboard / Maybeboard Optional: shortages are shown for information but never block conversion

Expanding the Details

• Click the Physical Conversion card header to expand it. Inside you'll find three sub-sections: Coverage (owned vs missing totals), Conversion Readiness (what's blocking or clearing the Convert button), and Section Breakdown (per-board progress bars). The readiness banner, and the Collection Coverage summary tile on Overview, both show a one-line summary of the same verdict

Virtual Deck: How do I convert to a physical deck?

When all required cards are covered by your available collection, the readiness banner reads This Brew is Ready! and the Convert to Physical Deck button becomes active. The button lives inside the Physical Conversion card, on the Collection Coverage tab.

Requirements to Unlock

• The deck must have at least one card
• All mainboard cards must be covered by your available collection
• Commander and Brawl decks additionally require a commander card to be added to the deck and owned
• Sideboard and maybeboard shortages do not affect eligibility

Conversion Steps

• On the Collection Coverage tab, expand the Physical Conversion card and click Convert to Physical Deck
• Optionally rename the physical deck being created
• Commander and mainboard cards are always included
• Sideboard and maybeboard entries show only cards you own; toggle each on or off
• Click Convert to create the deck

After Conversion

• A separate physical deck is created with your owned cards allocated to it
• Allocated cards are deducted from your available count
• Your original virtual deck is preserved exactly as it was

Virtual Deck: What is Required Cards Needed?

Required Cards Needed sits inside the Physical Conversion card, on the Collection Coverage tab. It lists every card in your virtual deck where you don't own enough available copies, and suggests owned cards you could swap in.

Card Indicators

• Legality dot Green = legal or restricted in your format; red = not legal or banned; gray = no legality data available
• Color pips Color identity of the missing card at a glance

Actions on Each Card

• Replace Swap the missing card with a suggested owned alternative in the deck
• Remove From Deck Remove the card from the virtual deck entirely
• Review Deck Open the full card list for this deck
• Free Card If the missing card is allocated to another physical deck, remove a copy from that deck to make it available here

Virtual Deck: How do replacement suggestions work?

When a required card is missing, Required Cards Needed suggests up to three owned cards you could swap in. Candidates pass through hard filters first, then are ranked by score.

Hard Filters: Candidates That Fail Are Excluded

• Card type Lands only replace lands, creatures only replace creatures; instants and sorceries are interchangeable with each other
• Color identity Cards outside the deck's color identity are excluded
• Availability Only cards with available copies in your collection are shown

Scoring: Higher Is a Better Fit

• Strategic role Highest weight: cards that serve the same deck-building role as the missing card rank first
• Mana value proximity Cards with a closer mana cost to the missing card score higher
• Type match Matching the exact card type adds to the score
• Legality Legal cards rank above equally-scored illegal options; illegal cards are still listed with a red dot so you can choose knowingly

Physical Deck: What does Physical Deck Status show?

For a physical deck, the readiness banner at the top of the Analysis tab reads This Brew is Ready! or Brew Incomplete. Select the Physical Deck Status tab to see whether all your physical decks can exist simultaneously with the copies you actually have in hand.

Status Indicators

• Complete All cards are in hand with no conflicts; the readiness banner reads This Brew is Ready!
• Missing Cards One or more required cards are not in your collection, or are not currently in hand; a card you have loaned out still counts as yours, but cannot go in the deck
• Conflict Detected The same card is allocated to more physical decks than you have copies available for
• Complete with Conflicts Coverage looks full but shared cards are over-allocated across decks

Cards you are short

• Any card the deck cannot currently field is listed by name with how many copies are short, and the reason where we know it, for example "on loan". The readiness banner repeats this list, so you can see it without leaving Overview
• Cards are never removed from the deck automatically; the list you built stays exactly as you left it
• The status clears itself once the copies come back; marking a loan returned is enough
• Copies you have borrowed from someone else do count, since they are physically in your hands

Conflict Summary

• Conflicting cards show how many copies are over-allocated and which physical decks are using them
• Tap any deck name in the conflict list to navigate directly to that deck

Shared Card Analysis

• Cards used across two or more physical decks are listed with owned, allocated, and available copy counts

Reallocation

• Use the Reallocate button on a conflicting card to move a copy from one physical deck to another
• Useful when you want to rebuild a deck using a card that is currently slotted into a different deck

Precons

What does marking a card as from a precon do?

It records which preconstructed deck a copy came from, and treats that origin as part of the card's identity.

A Sol Ring from a Commander precon is a separate collection entry from one pulled from a booster; they never merge, and a precon badge on the variant tile is often the only visible difference. Precon is collector metadata for you alone; friends browsing your collection never see it.

Setting It

• Open This Copy in Card Detail: the Precon picker sits under the copy's own fields, so pick the deck from the catalog, or remove it, and Apply
• Own several copies? Choose how many the precon applies to, and those copies split into their own entry
• If an identical entry already exists, the two merge, and decks, tome slots, images, and loan history follow
• Copies out on loan block a merge; the card keeps its own entry until it comes home

• Filter your collection by precon from Card Data; the picker only offers precons your collection actually contains

How do I add a whole preconstructed deck at once?

The Precon Decks page lists the full catalog; search by name or set code and import one in a single step.

Three Import Modes

• I bought this deck Creates the physical deck and adds every card to your collection
• Just create it virtually A deck to study or brew from; nothing is added to your collection
• I don't have it yet The deck plus a shopping list: collection rows at zero copies, tracking what you still need

• Reach it from My Decks (Brew from Precon) or from Card Scan and Lookup (Add Precon)
• Imported cards are stamped with their precon, so importing the same deck twice grows its own entries instead of blending into your booster copies

Exchanges

What is the difference between a loan and a trade?

They look similar and work in completely different ways. The difference is whether the card actually changes hands.

• Loan Your own record that someone is holding your card. Nobody has to agree to it, and the card never leaves your collection

  You still own it; it just stops counting as available until it comes back

• Trade An offer both people agree to. Accepting genuinely moves the copies out of one collection and into the other

  There is no undo: a completed trade is a completed trade

How do I record a loan?

Open the card detail for the card you're lending and use the Loans section.

• Record who you loaned to, how many copies, and the expected return date
• Linking a friend Typing filters your friends list; picking someone links the loan to their account, and they are told about it

  The card then appears in their collection under "On loan to you"

• Loaning to anyone else A name that matches nobody records a plain-name loan, exactly as before

  You lend cards to people who will never sign up; that path is fully supported, not a fallback

• Loaned copies are immediately removed from your available count
• Mark the loan as returned when you get the card back to restore availability

Where do I see everything I have lent out?

The Exchanges page in the sidebar keeps the full ledger on its Loans tab.

• Every loan currently out, with who has it, how many copies, and how long it has been gone
• Show returned Tick it to include loans that have already come back
• Filters Narrow by person or by card name
• Mark a loan returned from here, or reopen one you closed by mistake

What is the difference between Loaned Out and Borrowed?

Two directions of lending are tracked separately.

• Loaned Out Your cards lent to someone else

  Reduces your available count

• Borrowed Cards in your possession that belong to someone else

  Not counted as owned; tracked separately

Where do cards a friend has lent me show up?

They sit in your collection grid alongside your own cards, on the "On loan to you" tab.

• Because they ride the normal grid, they answer search, color, type and mana value filters like any other card
• They are never counted as owned; the header counts them separately
• Borrowed tiles carry no editing, selection, or deck actions; the card is not yours to change

How do loans affect my availability count?

Every loaned copy is subtracted from your available count.

When the loan is marked as returned, availability goes back up automatically.

How do I offer a trade?

Open Exchanges and start a new offer. A trade is built from both sides at once: what you give and what you get are part of the same offer.

Building the Offer

• Choose a friend Trades are between friends only
• You give Pick cards from your own collection
• They give Pick from theirs, subject to their privacy settings and anything they've hidden
• Cash Either side can add an amount to balance the trade, but only one side, not both
• Message Optional note explaining the offer

Values

• Each card shows a suggested value so you can see roughly how the two sides compare
• Your own price wins If you've set a custom price on a card, that is used instead of the catalog figure
• Values are advisory only; nothing in the trade is decided by them. Two people agree a trade, not a valuation

Does the app actually move money in a trade?

No. Cash amounts are recorded, never transferred.

There is no payments integration. Recording "$5" on a trade writes down what the two of you agreed so the history makes sense later; settling up is between you and the other person.

What happens when a trade is accepted?

The copies genuinely move: they leave the giver's collection and arrive in the receiver's, on both sides at once.

What Moves

• Only the printing, finish, condition and language that was offered; the receiver gets exactly what was agreed
• What stays behind Notes, tags, custom prices, aliases and image choices are private annotations and remain with the original owner

When It Refuses

• Copies no longer free Cards lent out, slotted into a physical deck, or already traded away in the meantime are not available to trade

  The check runs again at the moment of acceptance, not just when the offer was made

• The card changed If the giver has edited the condition or finish since offering, the trade is refused rather than quietly handing over something different
• A refused trade stays pending; free up the copy and it can be accepted
• Nothing is ever half-executed. Either the whole trade goes through or none of it does

Can I counter an offer, and do offers expire?

Yes to both.

Countering

• Countering opens the composer pre-filled with the original offer so you can adjust either side
• The original is marked Countered and your version becomes the live offer
• The whole back-and-forth stays linked as one negotiation

Expiry and Final States

• Pending offers expire After 14 days, if nobody has acted on them
• Accepted, declined, cancelled, countered and expired are all final; there is no reopening

  To revive a dead negotiation, make a new offer or counter it

Wishlist

What is the Wishlist?

A list of cards you want but don't have, so friends know what to look out for.

A wish is recorded against the card itself, not a specific printing: wanting a Lightning Bolt means any Lightning Bolt will do. Chasing one particular art is not what this is for.

How do I add a card to my wishlist?

Use the star control on a card, anywhere you find one: search results, a friend's collection, or the card detail view.

You can add a note to a wish, and the Wishlist page in the sidebar shows everything you're after.

What happens when I finally get the card?

The wish closes by itself. You never have to tick it off.

• It doesn't matter how the card arrives: scanning it, trading for it, importing a deck, or any other route

  Fulfilment watches your collection itself, so no way of acquiring a card can miss it

• Got it tab Fulfilled wishes move here rather than being deleted, with the date you got the card
• A wish closed by a mis-scan can be reopened; the record is kept, not thrown away

What do the yellow and blue stars on my cards mean?

Both mark a wish. The color says whose.

• Yellow star This card is on your own wishlist
• Blue star A friend wants this card; hover to see who

  If more than one friend wants it, the star carries a count

• A card can carry both at once: you want it, and so does someone else

Who can see my wishlist?

Whoever you choose. Wishlist visibility is set separately from collection privacy, in Settings.

• Anyone Public
• Friends only The default
• Private Only you
• It is a separate setting on purpose: plenty of people keep their collection to themselves but still want friends to know what they're hunting for, and the reverse holds too
• Friends tab Shows what your friends are after: only their open wishes, never the ones they've already filled

Rooms & Playmat

What are Rooms?

A shared playmat you can actually play on: drag-and-drop cards, real zones, life totals and counters, in real time.

Two Ways to Use It

• Goldfishing Play a deck out on your own to see how it draws and curves

  No opponent, no timer: just the deck and the mat

• A table Up to four seated players, each with their own deck and their own mat, arranged around a shared table

  Anyone else who joins watches and can chat

• This is a playtest surface, not a rules engine. Nothing is enforced: no priority, no turn order, no legality policing. It does the bookkeeping and leaves the game to the players

How do I test a deck on my own?

Open the deck, go to its Goldfish tab, and choose Open playmat.

• The deck is shuffled server-side and dealt straight onto the mat
• Each deck keeps one goldfish room, so returning to it picks up where you left off rather than starting a new one
• The top drawer gives you Draw 7, Mulligan, Keep, Next turn and Restart

How do I play with other people?

Create a room from the Rooms page, then invite people to it.

Getting People In

• Invite link Share the link and anyone who opens it can join
• Visibility Private (invite only) or Friends

Sitting Down

• Take a seat, then pick which of your own decks to play; every player brings their own
• Four seats Anyone beyond that watches as a spectator, and can still chat
• Stand up at any time; standing up clears your board, and the seat frees for someone else
• The room owner is the host: they set the format and can adjust anyone's life total
• Closing the room The owner can close a room when you're finished with it

How do I move cards around the mat?

Drag them. The mat behaves like a real table rather than a set of fixed slots; a card can sit anywhere you put it.

Cards

• Play Drag from your hand onto the battlefield
• Tap and untap Tap a card to turn it sideways; ending your turn untaps everything
• Flip Turn a card face down; only you can see what it is
• Zones Drop onto your graveyard, exile, command or library stacks to send it there

Piles

• Drop a card onto another to form a pile, the way you'd stack cards on a table
• Piles can be moved, shuffled, flipped, fanned out or stacked up, and scooped whole into a zone
• Pull the top card back off a pile to play it; a pile down to one card becomes a loose card again

Tokens and Counters

• Tokens Common ones are one tap away; anything else is searchable by name
• Counters Drag a counter onto a card to stick it there. Left-click the badge to add one, right-click to remove one
• A token disappears when it leaves the battlefield, as it should

Tidying Up

• Sort Re-tiles every loose card on your battlefield back into neat rows
• Piles are left alone; they're arrangements you made on purpose

Can other players see my hand?

No. Hidden information stays hidden, and it is enforced on the server rather than by the interface politely not showing it.

• Your hand and library Other players only ever receive a count, never the cards
• Face-down cards Only you can see what a face-down card or pile actually is
• Peeking at your library Looking at the top cards to scry or search is yours alone
• Email addresses are never shared with a room. Players are identified by display name

How are life and other totals tracked?

Every seat carries a life total, and anything else worth counting gets its own counter.

• Life Adjust your own from your seat chip. The host can adjust anyone's
• Custom counters The Counter button in the tray adds a counter with any label you like: poison, energy, commander damage from a particular commander

  Add as many as you need; everyone at the table sees them, but only you can change yours

• Table notes The Notes button pins a sticky note you can drag and scale anywhere on the table

  Notes start private; nobody else sees a word until you share one, and unsharing pulls it back

How do mulligans and turns work?

Mulligans follow the London rule, and turns are per-player bookkeeping rather than an enforced sequence.

Mulligans

• Mulligan redraws a fresh seven; Keep lets you choose which cards go to the bottom
• Free mulligans A counter you manage yourself; the app never enforces it

Turns

• End turn Untaps everything you control, draws you a card, and advances your turn count
• Phase tracker Step through the phases of a turn if you want to track them
• There is no turn order enforcement; each player advances their own turn

Can I arrange my mat the way I like it?

Yes, and the arrangement is yours alone; it doesn't affect anyone else's mat.

What You Can Place

• Zone stacks Library, graveyard, exile and command: put them where your hands expect them
• Areas Battlefield and land regions that cards tile into automatically, resizable by their corner
• Read-outs Life and turn panels, sized to taste

Presets

• No layout A bare mat, and where every new seat starts. Your zones wait in the tray at the bottom left until you place them
• Tournament Lands nearest you and nonlands beyond, following tournament rules on card placement
• Commander Right- and left-handed versions; the graveyard is the pile you touch most, so it belongs under your dominant hand
• Goldfish and Classic Compact and traditional arrangements

• Dropping a card without aiming it puts lands in your land area and everything else on the battlefield, but an explicit drag always wins
• The room can snap positions to a grid, or leave placement completely free

Can I change my playmat art?

Yes. Playmats belong to players, and the table surface underneath belongs to the room.

• Your mat Choose your own from the mat library; everyone at the table sees you sitting on it
• The table The surface under everyone is the room owner's choice
• Lettering Pick the typeface used for your own mat's zone labels and read-outs
• Some mats are included, some come with a subscription, and some are sold individually. Table surfaces are always free

Is there an Undo button on the mat?

It's back. Undo steps through your own actions, up to thirty of them, and only ever your own.

• Seating, clearing your board, choosing a mat, rearranging your layout and peeking at your library stay outside it

  Those are setup and viewing, not game moves

Why do other players' cards look rotated?

Because everyone is sitting at the same table, facing in.

Your own mat is always the right way up. An opponent across from you is upside down, and players at the side seats are turned ninety degrees, exactly as their cards would look if you were all sat around a real table. Counters, life totals and area names are kept readable whichever seat they belong to.

Your own cards appearing sideways is not intended; that one is a bug worth reporting.

Account & Friends

How do I change my password or account details?

Go to the Settings page to update your account details.

From Settings you can change your username, email, and password.

What emails will the app send me?

Only what you've left switched on. Every kind of email has its own toggle in Settings under Email preferences.

• Loans When someone lends you a card, or marks one you were holding as returned
• Trades Offers sent to you, counter-offers, and when a trade you started is accepted
• Friends When someone sends you a friend request
• Precon releases When newly released Magic preconstructed decks land in the catalog, so you can add them the day you buy them

• Password resets and other account emails always send; they're how you get back in

How do I view a friend's collection?

If a friend has granted you access, their name appears in the Collections section of the left sidebar.

• Tap their name to browse their cards
• Access requires the friend to enable sharing from their Settings page

How do privacy settings work?

Control who can see your collection from the Settings page.

• Friends only Friends you've connected with can browse
• Private Only you can view your collection - there is no public option
• Changing to a more restrictive setting removes access immediately for anyone who previously had it

Separate Controls

• Wishlist visibility Set independently of your collection, so you can share what you want without sharing what you have
• Per-card visibility Individual cards can be hidden from friends regardless of your overall setting

Is there a free trial?

Yes, and during the beta it is a fixed date rather than a countdown: every new account has Curator, the top support level, free until December 1, 2026. That is the same date for everyone, whether you joined in September or the week before it ends. No payment method is needed.

When it ends you keep everything you added. Your account moves to the free Hobbyist support level, and only creating new items past its limits is paused until you upgrade. Nothing is deleted and nothing is hidden.

Your own end date is on the Billing page in Settings, along with the full comparison of support levels. If you were using the app before the paid tiers existed, that page will show a longer grant instead: early accounts were given free access well past the beta, and the date you see there is the one that applies to you.

What do the different support levels include?

Three support levels, each raising the caps of the one before it. During the beta every new account has Curator free until December 1, 2026; see "Is there a free trial?" above.

The three support levels

• Hobbyist Free
• Collector $1.99 a month
• Curator $4.99 a month, and unlimited on every cap below

What raises with the support level

• Card storage 500 non-basic cards, 2,500, or unlimited. Basic lands never count toward this at any support level
• Saved decks 5, 20, or unlimited; physical and virtual decks count together
• Tomes 1, 5, or unlimited, each holding 12, 25, or unlimited pages
• Chests 1, 5, or unlimited
• Price watches None on Hobbyist, 25 on Collector, unlimited on Curator
• Saved filter presets 3, 10, or unlimited
• Rooms you host 1 open table on Hobbyist, unlimited on Collector and Curator. Joining a friend's room and goldfishing never count, and closing a room frees the slot

Included at every support level

• Artwork search Find cards by what their art shows, and see every match

Collector and up

• Import a precon into your collection Add every card in a preconstructed deck to your collection in one step. The cards count toward your card storage
• Brew a deck from a precon Start a new deck already loaded with a precon's list. It counts toward your saved decks

Curator only

• Premium room cosmetics Hobbyist and Collector choose from the starter set of playmats and table surfaces; Curator can use the premium ones too

• The Billing page in Settings has the full, always-current comparison table. Changing support levels is not available yet; that page will let you do it once billing goes live