Gauntlet vs MTG Playbook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
MTG Playbook
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MTG Playbook is an all-in-one app for Magic: The Gathering. Its main features include a life counter, match record, match analysis, deck building, deck solitaire, and detailed card search. ■ Life Counter You can increase or decrease life points with a tap. It allows you to view life history, count energy and storm, and more. After finishing the first game, the app records the win/loss and starts the second game. The match result is automatically displayed after winning or losing two games. - Life history - Count energy/storm/poison/experience - Game results - Display elapsed time - Display who goes first ■ Match Record When you use MTG Playbook’s life counter for a match, the match is automatically recorded and can be reviewed later. You can set your deck, event, and opponent's deck for each match. This setup allows you to search match records and perform match analysis. - Record who goes first - Record game results - Record match results - Record your deck - Record opponent's deck - Record events (FNM, etc.) - Record mulligans - Record troubles like mana screw - Record match time - Add notes for each match ■ Match Analysis By setting your deck, event, and opponent’s deck in the match record, you can analyze your matches, including win rates and match counts by deck. The default analysis covers the entire period, but you can freely change the period and specify opponent decks or events for analysis. You can also analyze game duration, mulligan counts, mana troubles, and more. - Win rate by deck - Win rate by who goes first - Win rate by opponent's deck - Win rate by event - Mulligan rate - Game duration - Mana screw rate ■ Deck Building You can build decks with support for importing/exporting in Magic Online format and viewing stats like mana curves. Cards can use any illustration or language. There are special features like managing foils, a wish list, and saving deck snapshots. - Use cards with any illustration - Use cards in any language - Import/export in Magic Online format - Manage cards under consideration - Manage a wish list - Designate commanders - Designate companions - Specify foils - Manage deck snapshots (change history) - Display mana curve/mana color/mana generation/card type/card rarity - Display deck's estimated price (in dollars and tix) ■ Deck Solitaire You can solitaire your built decks within the app. It covers basic elements like moving cards between zones, changing phases like tapping and flipping, placing various counters, generating tokens, and searching for cards in the library. - Move cards between zones (battlefield, hand, etc.) - Change phases like tapping and flipping - Place various counters (+1/+1, loyalty, etc.) - Generate tokens - Copy cards - Manage commander tax - Search for cards in the library - Create custom dice - Display deck image as playmat - Life count - Count energy/storm/poison/experience - Count floating mana ■ Detailed Card Search You can search for cards by various criteria like card name, text, and type. Unique conditions include searching by generated mana color or cards that can be included in a specified commander's color identity. - Card name - Set name - Language - Card text (Oracle) - Format - Card type/special type/subtype - Include/exclude tokens or only tokens - Color/generated mana/commander color - Mana cost - Total mana value - Power/toughness - Rarity - Full art/showcase/old frame/new frame/new new frame - Artist - Sorting order (card name/total mana value/release date)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Gauntlet at weekly against MTG Playbook's every 2 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Gauntlet ships an update weekly, MTG Playbook every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Gauntlet | MTG Playbook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (309 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 309 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Scott Campbell | Ryo Maruyama |
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
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- 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
MTG Playbook
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Gauntlet
No in-app purchases
MTG Playbook
No in-app purchases








