The best SpellTable alternatives in 2026

If you're reading this, SpellTable probably still works for you. It's free and Wizards still runs it. It has also been in Beta for years, and pods that use it have built up a list of small complaints: a loading screen that sometimes never finishes, card recognition that fails in bad light, and no record of what happened in the game.

One of the tools below (EDHMat) is mine. I've tried to write this page so it's still useful if your pod ends up choosing something else, because for plenty of pods something else is the better fit.

First decide: real cards or digital cards?

Every remote Commander (EDH) tool falls on one side of this line, and it matters more than any feature list.

Real cards and a camera. You own the decks, you shuffle them, and you point a webcam at your playmat. That's what SpellTable is. You keep the physical game, but you also inherit its problems on camera: reading a card someone holds up, following a board of forty permanents, and needing decent light and upload speed at every seat.

Digital cards in a shared window. Everyone sees the same board, drawn from card images. Nobody needs to own the cards, lighting doesn't matter, and there's never any doubt about what's on the table. What you lose is the feel of real cards.

Pods that already own paper decks and mainly want to see each other should stay with a camera. Pods spread across time zones, testing new brews, or playing cards they don't own will get on better with digital cards. Most of the frustration I've seen around "SpellTable alternatives" comes from trying a tool on the wrong side of this line.

If you want to keep using your real cards

Convoke

The closest replacement for SpellTable, and where many pods go when they leave. It works the same way: webcams pointed at real cards, card recognition and a shared view of the table. It's also under active development, which is the main thing people miss in SpellTable.

Choose it if: you like how SpellTable works and just want it maintained.

A plain video call

A pod that already uses Discord video and a life-counter app has most of what SpellTable offers, minus card recognition. There's nothing to set up, no account and nothing that can go down. Plenty of long-running pods never used a dedicated tool at all.

Choose it if: your pod is three or four people who know each other's decks and mostly want to hang out.

If you want digital cards in a browser

This category has grown the fastest since 2024 and now has a lot of options. All of these run in a browser, deal digital cards and leave the rules to you.

EDHMat

Mine, so take this with a grain of salt. Free, no account of any kind, up to six seats, and decklists pasted from Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena. It's built around getting a group of friends into a game quickly: one person creates a table, posts the link, and everyone else is seated as soon as they click it. What sets it apart is how little stands between you and a game: nobody installs anything or makes an account, not even the host. Every action also goes into a log you can scroll back through, so "when did that come down?" has an answer.

Choose it if: you want the quickest way into a game with friends, and a record of what happened in it.

Skip it if: you want the app to enforce the rules. It doesn't, and that's intentional.

TableCommander

Free, in the browser, with guest play, deck import from Moxfield and Archidekt, and 2–6 players. It doesn't enforce the rules either. In pitch and features it's the closest thing to EDHMat.

Kiku.gg

Runs in the browser with no download and no account, imports decks, and supports bigger tables than most. Useful if your group regularly has more than six players.

Playgroup Live

Bigger and more opinionated: a browser table with playgroup features around it, like stat tracking, pod management and game history. It needs a free account, which some pods will like and others won't.

untap.in

One of the oldest browser tables still running, and a stable one. The free tier is limited to four players.

If you want the computer to know the rules

Everything above leaves the rules to you. The tools in this section don't, and if that's what you're after, pick one of them over anything above, including mine.

XMage

Full rules enforcement, free, open source, and a huge card pool. It's a desktop client that looks like it's from 2009, and it takes a while to learn. But it plays full Magic: the stack resolves properly and triggers happen whether or not anyone remembers them.

Forge

Also free, also enforces the rules, also a download. It has strong single-player and AI support, which none of the browser tools have, so it's the best choice here if you want to practise against an opponent that plays back.

Tabletop Simulator

A physics sandbox on Steam rather than a Magic client, so it costs money and every player needs a copy. In return you can set up any card, any layout and any house rule, though it takes the most fiddling of anything on this page.

Side by side

What I'd pick for which pod

• Your pod owns the decks and likes watching each other play them: Convoke, or just a video call.
• You want a shared board in seconds with nobody signing up: try EDHMat, TableCommander and Kiku.gg in any order. They're similar enough that whichever one your pod likes the look of is fine.
• You want a record of the game: EDHMat, for the log.
• You want the rules enforced: XMage or Forge. A browser table won't do that for you.

For the whole list beyond SpellTable's alternatives, Magic Online and Arena included, see where to play Commander online. If you just want to try a browser table, the MTG Commander online page has one you can open without signing up.

SpellTable's AI voice moderation

On 16 March 2026, Wizards announced a pilot that runs SpellTable's voice chat through a moderation tool from ggwp.com. According to the announcement, it "utilizes voice recording and artificial intelligence to highlight and alert speech that may be harmful", and flagged speech goes to Wizards' customer service team, where people make the final call. Wizards calls it a pilot and says it will decide whether to continue based on how it works. How long recordings are kept is not in the announcement, and the details can change, so check Wizards' own SpellTable documentation before deciding anything.

For many pods it changes nothing. If your voice call already runs in Discord and you only use SpellTable for the cameras, the moderation isn't in your way: not using SpellTable's built-in voice is the whole fix.

If you would rather leave anyway, the options are the ones above. Convoke keeps the webcam-and-paper setup and leaves the call to you. On the digital side, EDHMat has no voice or video channel at all, so there is nothing of yours to record; your call stays wherever your pod already has it.

Frequently asked questions

Is SpellTable shutting down?

No. As of August 2026 SpellTable is live at spelltable.wizards.com and still labelled Beta. People look for alternatives because of slow development, outages and the March 2026 AI voice-moderation change, not because of a shutdown announcement.

What is the closest thing to SpellTable?

For webcam play with your real cards, Convoke is the closest replacement. For digital cards in a browser, EDHMat, TableCommander and Kiku.gg all give a pod a shared table in a couple of clicks.

Is SpellTable recording my voice?

Wizards announced in March 2026 that SpellTable is piloting a moderation tool from ggwp.com that uses voice recording and AI to flag speech that may be harmful, with people at Wizards making the final decisions. The announcement does not say how long recordings are kept, so check Wizards’ current documentation for that.

Do any SpellTable alternatives work without an account?

Yes. EDHMat has no accounts at all, and TableCommander and Kiku.gg offer guest play. Playgroup Live and untap.in ask you to register.