Magic: The Gathering Companion 4+

I mostly use this as a life counter and it’s great. They have some small features that really make a difference. Tracking commander damage, floating mana, infect, etc. is just one swipe away. Most other apps have a really clunky process to get to these features but it’s quite smooth in the companion app. When you subtract life, the screen shows another number that counts up which makes it easier to double check your math. You can save the life totals of the current game and pick up where you left off, which might be nice occasionally. The only thing that is missing is a dice roll feature but that’s ok. I’d use this over Lifelinker for sure.

The app keeps a record of tournament gameplay only for a very brief period before erasing it (seemingly under 24 hours), and if you navigate away from the score page after a tournament is complete it is impossible to return to the page. I’d say the app would be infinitely more valuable if you were able to access tournament records to track your progress and the progress of opponents who’d played in events with you over a long period of time, such as a few months or a year. I doubt the score charts take up much data, perhaps at the very least you’d be able to store them on your phone as a downloadable image or pdf. Instead I find myself copying scores down in notebooks and considering taking awkward screenshots to record the stats. The app accomplishes it’s most minimal requirements to facilitate magic events but there is lots of room for improvement.

The new meta is players just wasting your time. I have limited time and just want to play a match or two before bed. But every match is just playing against someone who wants to waste your time and use the full length of the time clock each turn to get you to quit because you have less free time on your hands. The game itself is great but the perimeters allow people just to wast your free time that you’ve set aside. I just played played 3 best of 3 matches and quit all 3 because it was just people trying to waste my time for easy wins. I fold laundry and do other chores inbetween turns because it takes that long. Make a league for adults who have limited time and speed up the game clock so we can actually play. Do not download if you have responsibilities and your time is limited. Play deck A, only play against decks that counter deck deck A. So switch to deck B, you’ll only see decks that counter deck B. The matchmaking is not random, not in the list bit