Comparison

CardCastle 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

CardCastle MTG

Digitally manage your Magic: The Gathering card collection. Scan cards using your device's camera to add them to your inventory, check real-time prices, and browse your collection. Build decks using the companion web platform.

Highlights
  • Scan cards with camera
  • Real-time card pricing
  • Digital card inventory
  • Browse and edit collection
  • Deck building (web platform)
Features
Read full description

The best Magic players are organised. Quickly and effortlessly create a digital inventory of your Magic: The Gathering cards with the CardCastle app. Browse your collection, get real-time prices and build decks on the CardCastle web platform. Features: • Use your camera to scan cards into your CardCastle collection • Check real-time prices of cards with a simple scan • Browse and edit your CardCastle collection

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

CardCastle MTG4 screens
Gauntlet4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Gauntlet at weekly against CardCastle MTG's every 2 months. Gauntlet also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.5). CardCastle MTG's advantage is iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.4). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gauntlet holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 378 and 309 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 88% of CardCastle MTG's written reviews are positive against 83% of Gauntlet's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CardCastle MTG ships an update every 2 months, Gauntlet weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
CardCastle MTG versus Gauntlet: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCardCastle MTGGauntlet
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (378 ratings)4.9 (309 ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.6% of reviews — better83.3% of reviews
Number of ratings378 — better309
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size89 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOzGuild Pty. Ltd.Scott Campbell

Customer experience

CardCastle MTG

All ratings369 ratings
Positive89.4%
Neutral3.8%
Negative6.8%
Written reviews226 reviews
Positive87.6%
Neutral6.6%
Negative5.8%

Gauntlet

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

User reviews

CardCastle MTG

From 378 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Quick scanning
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🔍 Helpful for organizing collection
  • 💰 Provides card values
  • 🤖 Accurate card recognition

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent scanning performance
  • 🔍 Difficulty identifying correct card set
  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔍 Limited free features

Gauntlet

From 309 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

CardCastle MTG

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Scanning issues with certain card types
  • Occasional app crashes or freezes
  • Login/account problems

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to manually add/edit cards
  • Improved deck management functionality
  • Option to view total collection value
  • Compatibility with more card types (e.g. foils, alts)

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

None

CardCastle MTG

No in-app purchases

None

Gauntlet

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CardCastle MTG free?
CardCastle MTG is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Gauntlet free?
Gauntlet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, CardCastle MTG or Gauntlet?
Gauntlet is rated higher. CardCastle MTG averages 4.5 out of 5 from 378 ratings, while Gauntlet averages 4.9 from 309 ratings.
Do CardCastle MTG or Gauntlet have ads?
Neither CardCastle MTG nor Gauntlet shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CardCastle MTG or Gauntlet?
CardCastle MTG ships an update every 2 months, and Gauntlet weekly. Most recently, CardCastle MTG was updated on November 2, 2026 and Gauntlet on November 6, 2026.

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