cmdTower vs Life
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
cmdTower
This companion app simplifies tabletop gaming by allowing players to easily track commander damage, various counters, and game configurations. It supports up to six players and is designed for quick setup and focus on gameplay.
- Track commander damage
- Support for up to 6 players
- Track storm, poison, energy, and radiation counters
- Customize starting values
- Works for 60-card formats
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cmdTower is a commander-first table top companion. Made with simplicity as a core pillar, it takes just one tap to begin a game. Your focus should be casting spells and hanging out with friends, not worrying about missing damage or companion apps asking too many questions. Let cmdTower be your 'command tower' and guide the way! Track commander damage - Quickly track the commander damage dealt to you and by whom. Don’t get caught off-guard, and better prioritize your targets. Up to 5 of your favorite frenemies - Play with yourself, up to 5 of your favorite friends, or any combination between. No need to argue about who goes first either! Feeling salty? No judgement here! Track those counters - Easily track storm, poison, energy, experience, and even radiation damage alongside the normal health/commander damage stats. Get useful utilities during game - Lookup card rules, roll dice, track the game time, and more all without leaving a game! Configure your experience - Customize the default starting values, making it even easier to get into a game if you commonly use certain setups. Not "just' commander! - cmdTower works great for regular 60 card formats, and with it's customizable configurations, probably works for how you want to play as well! Magic on your home screen - View daily card art, or quickly jump into a game from your home screen! — Magic The Gathering is property of Wizards Of The Coast. This app and related content are produced under Wizard's fan policy which means everything here is completely free, and unofficial.
Life
A streamlined life tracker for competitive 1v1 Magic: The Gathering matches. It offers simple controls, game state tracking for common counters, and integrated note-taking for post-game analysis. Supports deck importing and Scryfall integration for quick card lookups.
- 1v1 life tracking
- Game state counter tracking
- Integrated note-taking
- Deck importing and linking
- Scryfall card lookup
- Event history logging
- Match timer
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A life tracker for competitive 1v1 Magic: The Gathering. Clean layout, simple controls, and nothing unnecessary. Most players already know how to track a game. A notepad, two columns, a running tally of life totals. It's simple and it works. Life-Pad follows the same structure. The layout uses two columns like a notepad, adjustments happen with a tap, and the interface requires little explanation. This app has been designed to get out of your way so you can focus on the match. Life tracking here works the way you'd expect: every life change recorded in order. Adjustments can be staged before committing, so a complex combat step doesn't require rushed math. Common game counters (poison, monarch, initiative, night/day, and floating mana) are accessible without needing extra dice or separate tracking. For tournaments that require it: notes can be locked to the main screen so they're visible to players at all times. Recording known card information has been designed from the ground-up to be as quick and simple as possible in game - one tap to enter a card and one tap to dismiss it with customizable 'quick card' buttons available as well. Most other apps just can't provide the utility of pen and paper. Whether it's a Commander-focused app with four-player interfaces and a multitude of sub-menus, or a minimal counter with just plus and minus buttons, most life trackers don't offer match structure, notes, or history. Once the game ends, the information is gone. When at a tournament or FNM simply set up the event by giving it a name and every match and game are automatically tracked while they're happening. After the match, Life-Pad supports notetaking while details are still fresh and reviewing past matches across all saved events. It's a practical way to identify patterns or just to simply remember to add more lands. Import decks and link them to events as a snapshot so that you can always reference what was played on that day. Add your decks and track their history by attaching them to events. Scryfall integration provides quick card lookup in deck view or during a game - perfect for confirming modern printings and for the guy who always plays with foreign language cards. Pin up to 5 cards to the side of your play screen for quick reference during a game. All cards in deck or previously searched are stored on device for fast reference even when cell quality isn't perfect. -- Features include: - Clean two-player life tracking built for 1v1 play - Optional top/bottom simplistic tracking for quick games - Full game life total history - Quick access card-name notes for revealed info at a glance - dismiss with a single tap - Game state tracking for player-counters, monarch, initiative, and day/night - Track floating mana in-game - Scryfall integration for fast card lookup - iOS integration allows for Siri and Quick Action card lookup without opening the app - Calculator for determining the correct amount of each basic land for your Limited deck - Optional ability to lock notes to main screen if required per tournament rules - Event logging and persistent in-game and post-game notes - Deck importing, editing, and linking to events as snapshots. - Sideboard guide per deck with notes - Deck exporting as images or as a formatted PDF for tournament submittal - Event history exporting via JSON for backup, restoring, or additional analysis - Top/Bottom traditional 2-player mode for quick games - Match timer with Dynamic Island and Live Activity support - Pre-Set themes including 6 with the classic Magic: the Gathering card borders - iCloud data backup for added reliability on updates & phone migration
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: cmdTower at free against Life's paid. Life's advantage is ratings volume (4 vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for cmdTower against 5.0 for Life. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 4 respectively.
cmdTower ships an update every 9 days, Life weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | cmdTower | Life |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hellish Creative | Joseph Bertolini |
Customer experience
cmdTower
Life
In-app purchases
cmdTower
No in-app purchases
Life
No in-app purchases









