Cantrip vs Explain The Card
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cantrip
Easily build and manage your Magic: The Gathering decks. Search and filter cards from any set, and quickly add, remove, or sideboard cards with intuitive gestures.
- Powerful deck builder
- Card search and filtering
- Add/remove cards with swipe
- Sideboard management
- Supports all card sets
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Cantrip is an poweful and easy to use deck builder for Magic: The Gathering. With Cantrip you can filter and search for cards from any set. Building decks is quick and easy using Cantrips deck builder which lets you add, remove, and sideboard cards with a swipe.
Explain The Card
This app helps Magic: The Gathering players build decks using AI, understand card rules, and analyze card interactions. It offers features like camera scanning for card information and offline access to game rules.
- AI-powered Commander deck building
- Camera scanning for card information
- Plain-English card explanations
- Two-card interaction analysis
- Offline access to game rules
- Deck management and editing
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Explain The Card is your AI co-pilot for Magic: The Gathering. Point your camera at a card and find out what it really does. Ask a rules question and get a straight answer. Build a Commander deck in minutes, and keep your whole collection in your pocket. UNDERSTAND ANY CARD Scan a card, no shutter and no typing, and see its Oracle text, rulings, prices and legality right away. When the wording gets tricky, one tap explains it in plain language. Scan two cards to see how they work together, or whether one quietly shuts the other down. ASK THE RULES, GET A REAL ANSWER "Can I respond to this?" "Does my creature survive?" Ask the way you'd ask a friend at the table. Every answer is grounded in the actual card text, official rulings and the Comprehensive Rules, not internet guesswork, and comes back in the language you play in. BUILD A COMMANDER DECK IN MINUTES Pick a commander, choose a power bracket and a budget, and describe the deck you want in your own words: "goblin tribal", "lands matter", "pillow fort". You get a complete, legal 100-card list sorted by role, with a game plan for how it wants to win. Build from the cards you already own, if you like. DISCOVER COMBOS Search thousands of Commander combos by card name or in plain English, like "infinite mana", and see step by step how each one plays out. YOUR COLLECTION, SCANNED Fan your cards past the camera and each one lands with the right set and printing. Anything the camera isn't sure about waits for a quick check. Keep a binder and want lists right here, or export your cards for ten popular deck and collection sites, each in its own format. See what your collection is worth and how that has changed, down to a single box or binder, and share a dated valuation report when you need one. Scanning, exporting and value history are all free, with no card limit. ALWAYS WITH YOU The full Comprehensive Rules work offline, and widgets, Siri and Spotlight keep any card or rule a moment away. A NOTE ON AI AI features are powered by Google's Agent Platform (Gemini). Nothing is sent until you opt in, and you can turn it off any time in Settings. Scanning, card data, combos and your collection all work without AI. LEGAL Privacy Policy: https://rosalabs.app/etc/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Explain The Card is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Explain The Card at 100% against Cantrip's 57%. Explain The Card also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 4 months). Cantrip's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price 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. Explain The Card sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Cantrip asks for nothing beyond the download.
Cantrip ships an update every 4 months, Explain The Card every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cantrip | Explain The Card |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (15 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 57.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 — better | 26.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 142 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | White Bridge Labs | Danny Hollek |
Customer experience
Cantrip
Explain The Card
In-app purchases
Cantrip
No in-app purchases
Explain The Card
- Premium Monthly$2.991 Month
- Premium Annual$19.991 Year
- 50 Credits$0.99









