Comparison

Gauntlet vs Magical

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

Head to head
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.

About

Magical

This app is a companion for Magic: The Gathering players, offering features to track life, poison counters, commander damage, and game history. It supports up to eight players and includes customizable avatars and names.

Highlights
  • Track Life, Poison, Commander Damage
  • View and Edit Game History
  • Customizable Avatars and Names
  • Support for up to 8 Players
  • Lifelink and Infect Tracking
  • Smart Game State Management
Features
Read full description

Magical, the new companion app for Magic: The Gathering LIFE, POISON, COMMANDER, HISTORY + Magic Scoring Re-imagined. Clean, intuitive interface full of features. KEY FEATURES . . DAMAGE: Life, Poison, Commander . . HISTORY: View & Edit . . AVATARS + NAMES: Choose Them . . 8 PLAYERS: Just in Case . . LIFELINK + INFECT: Yes! . . EXSANGUINATE: Yes! . . SMART GAME STATE OTHER FEATURES . . Coin Flip . . Sub-Scores, see all easily . . Game Outcomes, choose one . . 2 Game Formats, to start from . . Backward Compatible to iPhone 5s . . Running iOS 13 Hope You Enjoy. And Thank You.

Screenshots

Gauntlet4 screens
Magical4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Gauntlet at weekly against Magical's every 6 weeks. Gauntlet also leads on ratings volume (309 vs 21). Magical's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 83%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.4). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Gauntlet against 5.0 for Magical. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gauntlet has 309 ratings behind it against 21, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of Gauntlet's written reviews are positive against 100% of Magical's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gauntlet ships an update weekly, Magical every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Gauntlet versus Magical: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGauntletMagical
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (309 ratings)5.0 (21 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings309 — better21
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.413.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperScott CampbellDiluvium LLC

Customer experience

Gauntlet

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

Magical

All ratings18 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

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

Magical

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Gauntlet

No in-app purchases

None

Magical

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gauntlet free?
Gauntlet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Magical free?
Magical is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Gauntlet or Magical?
Magical is rated higher. Gauntlet averages 4.9 out of 5 from 309 ratings, while Magical averages 5.0 from 21 ratings.
Do Gauntlet or Magical have ads?
Neither Gauntlet nor Magical shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Gauntlet or Magical?
Gauntlet ships an update weekly, and Magical every 6 weeks. Most recently, Gauntlet was updated on October 25, 2026 and Magical on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons