Comparison

TopDecked MTG vs Gauntlet

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

TopDecked MTG

This app is a comprehensive tool for Magic: The Gathering players. It allows users to build, simulate, and manage decks, track card collections, and stay updated on game trends and tournament results.

Highlights
  • Intuitive deck builder with legality checking
  • Virtual battlefield for deck simulation
  • Life counter for up to 6 players
  • Advanced card search with pricing
  • Collection tracker with value estimation
  • Metagame analysis and tournament results
  • Deck import/export for Arena and MTGO
Features
Read full description

TopDecked® is the essential Magic app for brewers, collectors, traders, competitors, and fans. Simulate decks on a virtual battlefield, test new ideas, and keep up with the latest decks and strategies. Run tournaments at home. We’re on your side of the battlefield - your portal for everything MTG. Basic accounts are free to use, forever (Power-ups available.) — Your account syncs between devices, including our website. Real, human customer support available for all users. Feedback and ideas welcome! DECK BUILDER - Easy to use intuitive design, with legality checking for popular formats. - See recommended cards & ideas - Support for Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, and more. - Cloud sync, share to friends or social networks. - Deck charts, analysis, hypergeometric probabilities, mana curve, and more. - Move cards between main, side, and maybe board. - Import, share, and export MTG Arena, MTGO, .dec, and text deck-lists - See missing cards and cost to complete or buy decks. - Tag, archive, and color code decks in your account - Track decks in your collection DECK SIMULATOR - Drag, drop and test on the go. - Test on a real battlefield. - Swipe between your hand, library and other zones. - Tap to select and drag, or double-tap for menus. LIFE COUNTER - Quickly start games for up to 6 people - Swipe open or closed to access card search or other app features while in-game - Quickly track commander damage & counters CARDS & PRICES - Advanced search - Quickly find any card, any types, any printing, any artist, any colors (and more filters available). - Daily and weekly trends - for each set and printing (including promos!) - Simple and fast card search, with images, text and rulings. - Always up to date with latest sets and special products. COLLECTION TRACKER - Track the value of your cards with intuitive haves and wants lists. - Quickly add and remove cards of any set or printing. - Cloud sync, always available in app or website. - Easily move cards between decks and binders. Always know where your treasure is! ARTICLES & METAGAME - Read the latest articles - always up to date. - Browse local and national top-8 tournament results and deck lists. - See a breakdown of the top cards & decks, by format. TRADE TOOL - Up to date cards and prices. - Select set, foil, and/or custom price by condition. - Updates your collection at the push of a button. TOURNAMENTS - Run tournaments at home or on the go - Set custom rounds, see standings & stats PREMIUM FEATURES: - Upgraded accounts (Spark, Powered, and Elite) are available for sale as Monthly or Yearly Subscriptions. Upgrades increase the features and storage capacity beyond basic free services - see "Power up" screen in-app for more details on individual features. PURCHASE TERMS: - Payment will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. You can switch between plans at any time --- you'll only pay the prorated difference in plan price, if any. - Your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions renew at the same price at which they were purchased. - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription, where applicable. - Your subscription may be managed by visiting your "Account" -> "Power level" screen after purchase, or via iTunes. If you cancel your TopDecked subscriptions, you will retain access your purchased items through the current period's expiry date. - All purchases are final and subject to the TopDecked Terms of Service (https://www.topdecked.com/terms) and Privacy policy (https://www.topdecked.com/privacy). Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC. © 1995-2025 Wizards. All rights reserved. TopDecked, LLC. is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast LLC.

About

Gauntlet

This app helps Magic: The Gathering players track game lives, build and customize decks, and record game history. It offers detailed stats for players and decks, supports multiple players, and includes a powerful hand simulator.

Highlights
  • Life tracking for up to 6 players
  • Deck building and importing
  • Game history and stats
  • Hand simulator
  • Deck customization with card art
  • Deck organization with folders
Features
Read full description

Gauntlet is the most feature packed Magic: The Gathering utility app available. It’s a life tracker, deck builder and record keeper of your games. THE BEST LIFE TRACKER: • Select your deck and the decks your opponents are playing. Player tiles will be updated with the cover art of each deck. • Save the results when the game is over. Select a winner, and each player will have their career and deck stats updated immediately. • Full support for up to 6 players with custom life totals, and a turn randomizer to determine who plays first. • Other features include 21 unique tile colours, 15 unique counters, rolling D6, and a game timer. THE BEST MOBILE DECK BUILDER: • Brew on the go or import your decks from other deck building sites. • Customize your deck with art from any card in the multiverse. • Pick a format and your deck screen adapts to show things like your commander or your signature spell. • Bling out the cards in your deck with foils. • Shuffle up and draw an opening 7 with a powerful hand simulator. • Stay ahead of your competition with deck list data. View your mana curve, pip breakdown, and more. • Export your deck lists as text, or share a link to your profile on social media. • Keep your decks organized with folders, and sort them by name, games played, wins, and format. YOUR GAME HISTORY IN DETAIL: • Every game is saved making it easy to go through previous games and see who played, who won, and which decks came to battle. • Track wins and losses for each deck, and see how your career wins and losses change over time. • Follow your friends to stay up-to-date with their latest brews, deck performance, and game history.

Screenshots

TopDecked MTG4 screens
Gauntlet4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Gauntlet at none against TopDecked MTG's 6. Gauntlet also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). TopDecked MTG's advantage is ratings volume (2.6K vs 299) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.4). On price, rating and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. TopDecked MTG sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Gauntlet asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for TopDecked MTG against 4.9 for Gauntlet. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TopDecked MTG has 2.6K ratings behind it against 299, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of TopDecked MTG's written reviews are positive against 83% of Gauntlet's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TopDecked MTG ships an update fortnightly, Gauntlet weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
TopDecked MTG versus Gauntlet: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTopDecked MTGGauntlet
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (2.6K ratings)4.9 (299 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.1% of reviews83.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.6K — better299
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB18 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperTopDecked LimitedScott Campbell

Customer experience

TopDecked MTG

All ratings2,587 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.0%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews160 reviews
Positive73.1%
Neutral5.6%
Negative21.3%

Gauntlet

All ratings299 ratings
Positive97.7%
Neutral1.0%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative10.0%

User reviews

TopDecked MTG

From 2.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fantastic mobile experience
  • 👍 Great deck builder and management tool
  • 💡 Helpful features like deck simulation and price tracking
  • 👍 Clean and intuitive user interface
  • 🚀 Responsive and helpful customer support

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy performance, crashes, and data loss issues
  • 💰 Subscription model with limited free features
  • 🔍 Unintuitive and limited search functionality
  • 🔍 Incomplete card database and missing new cards
  • 👁‍🗨 Small font size and poor visual accessibility

Gauntlet

From 299 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great deck builder
  • 👍 Excellent life tracker
  • 👍 Covers player profiles and match records
  • 👍 Useful for tracking win/loss records
  • 👍 Good for looking at card collections

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Search engine requires precise typing
  • 🐛 General load time for cards is slow
  • 🐛 Scrolling on the board can be annoying
  • 🐛 App appears small on iPad Pro
  • 🐛 Does not track win-rate for non-primary deck in matches

Bugs and requests

TopDecked MTG

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Decks disappearing or reverting to previous versions
  • Card prices not displaying correctly
  • Slow loading times and freezing issues
  • Compatibility problems with newer devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Card scanning functionality
  • Improved deck sharing and collaboration
  • More advanced deck building and analysis tools
  • Better integration with other Magic platforms

Gauntlet

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Developers have seemingly given up (according to one review)
  • App ruined for jailbroken phones (iOS 14 and up)
  • Board scrolls every time life or counters are moved
  • Does not track win-rate for the deck not shown as primary in a match
  • App is very small on iPad Pro

Requested features

19 requests
  • Scan cars to make adding decks easier
  • More precise search engine
  • Faster card loading times
  • Display card prices
  • Scan cards in deck building
Show 14 more
  • Add Android support
  • Add tournament bracket functionality
  • Deeper stat tracking
  • Leave notes about each deck
  • Leave notes about individual cards
  • In-app purchases for donations
  • Add play test cards
  • Better layout for exporting decks to text
  • Feature to track win/loss ratios without starting a game
  • Option for locking board scrolling
  • Android release (mentioned as desired)
  • Manual change of player names when playing 'against yourself'
  • Add friends who don’t use the app to games
  • Add full deck lists

In-app purchases

6 purchases

TopDecked MTG

Subscriptions6
  • Spark (Monthly)$2.991 Month
  • Powered (Monthly)$4.991 Month
  • Elite (Monthly)$8.491 Month
Show 3 more
  • Spark (Yearly)$29.991 Year
  • Powered (Yearly)$49.991 Year
  • Elite (Yearly)$84.991 Year
None

Gauntlet

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is TopDecked MTG free?
TopDecked MTG is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Gauntlet free?
Gauntlet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, TopDecked MTG or Gauntlet?
Gauntlet is rated higher. TopDecked MTG averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.6K ratings, while Gauntlet averages 4.9 from 299 ratings.
Do TopDecked MTG or Gauntlet have ads?
TopDecked MTG shows ads; Gauntlet does not.
Which is updated more often, TopDecked MTG or Gauntlet?
TopDecked MTG ships an update fortnightly, and Gauntlet weekly. Most recently, TopDecked MTG was updated on September 22, 2026 and Gauntlet on September 10, 2026.

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