Comparison

Stacked Deck vs Stack Trainer

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

Head to head
About

Stacked Deck

This utility app aids magicians in learning, maintaining, and testing stacked deck and memorized deck techniques. It's specifically designed for those who perform or wish to perform magic using these specialized card handling methods.

Highlights
  • Learn stacked deck techniques
  • Maintain memorized decks
  • Test card skills
  • Specialized for magicians
  • Card trick utility
Features
Read full description

A utility to help you learn, maintain, and test stacked deck and memorized deck skills. If you're a magician that works (or would like to work) with a stacked deck or a memorized deck, this is the app for you. For anyone else, it's probably not appropriate.

About

Stack Trainer

This app provides a realistic card deck experience for close-up magicians to train their memory of card stacks. It offers various challenge modes and filters to aid learning and practice, with a focus on a clean, distraction-free interface.

Highlights
  • Realistic card deck simulation
  • Multiple mnemonic training approaches
  • Customizable stack filters
  • Lorrayne's peg words integration
  • Interactive quick-touch analyzer
  • Display and whisper modes
Features
Read full description

Stack Trainer forms part of a comprehensive suite of apps that dedicate to technical learning tools for Close-up magicians. Stack Trainer addresses those who are familiar with the concepts related to Aronson, Tamariz, Nikolas. If you know what these names relate to, and you apply the according techniques, then this app will help you stay tuned and inspired.  Stack Trainer provides a most realistic card deck experience. It sets the golden standard for mnemonic deck training. A radical slim design. Cycle through the logical phases of the challenges at hand. Name it the "virtual spectator" concept. Approaches: - Next Card: Sequentially displayed, name the next card - Each Card: Name each card's position in a shuffled stack - Each Position: Name each position's card in a shuffled stack - Get Position: Name the position of a given card - Get Card: Name the card at a given position - Next Suit: Name the distance to the next of the same suit - Wrong Card: Identify the one card that is displaced in the face-up spread stack - Missing Card: Find the missing card in the face-up spread stack - Spot: Spot a specific card in the face-up spread stack - Highest Card: Identify the high and low cards of a random sub-stack - Four of a Kind: Name the distance to the next of the same kind Filters: Filters can be set to reduce the actual stack to a substack of lower size addressing and supporting the gradual progress during the early learning phase of a stack. Filters also provide different perspectives onto a stack to inspire and engage expert users. These filters, applied to the chosen approach, can be set: - ranges 1-13, 14-26, 27-39, 40-52, and a custom range - pair and impair positions - red and black cards - any of the four suits - court and number cards Some Features: - Aronson, Tamariz and user defined stacks - Lorrayne's peg words for the 52 cards and 52 positions, plus 3 user defined sets - display and whisper modes - includes the quick-touch interactive analyser visualising the solution path and allowing for self imposed problem statements with decadic and tridecadic layouts - feedback driven development - feels almost like a true deck of cards. Practicing card magic you don't want no complicated, overloaded and distracting user interface. Less is more. - probably the most complete, and straightforward solution available. A card, the one downwards (or upwards), maybe its mates, maybe the next one of the same suit. Either on random walk, or deliberate choices on the complete map. Touch swipe, swipe. Swipe and again. To experience the look and feel of 'Stack Trainer' load the free 'Random Input' app available by this developer. Additional information: - License agreement - https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ - Privacy policy - https://yeahgic.com/pge_PrivacyStack.htm

Screenshots

Stacked Deck4 screens
Stack Trainer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Stacked Deck at 64% against Stack Trainer's 0%. Stacked Deck also leads on rating (3.0 vs 1.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Stack Trainer's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 6 months) and price ($3.99 vs $4.99). On ratings volume, ads 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

Stacked Deck costs $4.99 and Stack Trainer $3.99 up front. Stack Trainer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 3 months. Stacked Deck asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Stacked Deck holds the better App Store score, 3.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Stacked Deck's written reviews are positive against 0% of Stack Trainer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Stacked Deck ships an update every 6 months, Stack Trainer every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on June 2, 2026 and August 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Stacked Deck versus Stack Trainer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStacked DeckStack Trainer
Price$4.99$3.99 — better
Rating3.0 (2 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews63.6% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKelvin SherlockRalph Cos

Customer experience

Stacked Deck

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews11 reviews
Positive63.6%
Neutral18.2%
Negative18.2%

Stack Trainer

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

Stacked Deck

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Stack Trainer

Subscriptions2
  • 3 Months Subscription7 Days trial$1.993 Months
  • Annual Subscription$2.991 Year

Questions

Is Stacked Deck free?
Stacked Deck costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Stack Trainer free?
Stack Trainer costs $3.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Stacked Deck or Stack Trainer?
Stacked Deck is rated higher. Stacked Deck averages 3.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Stack Trainer averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Stacked Deck or Stack Trainer have ads?
Neither Stacked Deck nor Stack Trainer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Stacked Deck or Stack Trainer?
Stacked Deck ships an update every 6 months, and Stack Trainer every 3 months. Most recently, Stacked Deck was updated on June 2, 2026 and Stack Trainer on August 28, 2026.

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