How to Import a Decklist from Moxfield or Archidekt

Importing your Commander (EDH) deck is where first-timers most often get stuck, and it's nearly always one of three things: the wrong export format, a line the importer can't read, or not realising that you have to pick the commander. Each of them takes under a minute to sort out once you know what you're looking at. This guide is written for EDHMat, which I build, but the part about text exports applies to any browser table. If you haven't opened a table yet, Commander online walks through the whole first game, import included.

The short version

Export your deck as plain text, one line per card, as quantity name.
Paste it into the deck box in the lobby.
Pick your commander.
Lock the deck in.

The rest of this page is about what to do when one of those steps goes wrong.

Getting the text out of your deck builder

Moxfield

Open the deck, choose More → Export, and take the plain text export. You want something like this:

1 Sol Ring
1 Arcane Signet
1 Command Tower
10 Forest

Moxfield often adds set codes and collector numbers, like 1 Sol Ring (LTC) 284. That's fine; the importer ignores that part. What matters is that the card name comes straight after the quantity.

Archidekt

Archidekt has a text export in the same place, and it produces the same kind of list.

Or skip the export: paste the deck's link into the deck box. EDHMat fetches public Archidekt decks itself, so you don't need the export menu at all. The deck has to be public. A private deck comes back as "not found", which means a permissions problem, not a typo.

Moxfield links don't work this way, and I don't expect that to change. Moxfield's API sits behind Cloudflare, which blocks requests from servers, so pasting a Moxfield link would fail for everyone. The text export works fine.

MTG Arena

Arena's export is already in the right format, so paste it as it is. Sideboard and companion sections are left out of the deck rather than counted.

A list you typed yourself

That works too. Quantities are optional, and a line with just a name counts as one copy:

Sol Ring
Arcane Signet
Command Tower

None of this needs an account. Open a table, paste your list, and you'll see straight away whether it resolves.

Open a table

When a card doesn't resolve

After you paste, the lobby lists any lines it couldn't match to a card. You can fix those lines and import again, or continue without them. The usual causes:

Typos. Names are checked against Scryfall with a fuzzy search, so small misspellings are usually fine. Bigger ones can still miss.

Double-faced cards. Write the front face, or the full Front // Back. The back face on its own won't resolve.

Split and adventure cards. Fire // Ice works, and so does just Fire in most cases.

Tokens and emblems in the list. Some deck builders export a tokens section. Those aren't deck cards and are skipped. The tokens your cards make are added to the table from the deck anyway.

Custom cards. Custom or unreleased cards aren't on Scryfall and won't resolve. The only fix is to swap in a real card.

If you continue without a card, it just isn't in your deck for that game. Fix the line and import again if you need it.

Picking the commander

If your export has a commander section, that's used. If it doesn't, which is common with plain text, every card in the list that can be a commander is offered and you choose.

Pick one for a normal deck.
Pick two for partners, or a commander plus a background.
The cards you pick start in the command zone. Everything else goes into your library.

That's also why a 100-card list shows up as 100 cards and not 101: the commander is taken out of the library when you pick it, not counted twice.

Which printing you get

A card can have thirty printings, so something has to decide which one appears on your table.

Scryfall's default printing for a card is its newest one. If you just use that, crossover reprints take over the table. In one of our test games, Command Tower showed up in its Marvel printing. So EDHMat scores every printing and uses the plainest one available: Universes Beyond, joke sets, promos, Secret Lairs, textless and digital-only printings all lose to a normal printing. A card that was only ever printed in an unusual set still resolves to that printing, because printings are ranked, not filtered out.

In practice, your table looks like regular Magic and the rules text is readable.

Once the deck is in

Your browser remembers the deck. Decks you lock in are saved in your browser and appear as buttons in the lobby next time. Nothing is stored in an account, because there isn't one; on another computer, paste the list again.
Tokens are ready. The tokens your cards can make are prepared from the deck, so you can put them on the battlefield when you need them.
The shuffle is real. Each shuffle gives every card in the library a new id, so nobody, including you, can follow a card through it.

Frequently asked questions

How do I export a deck from Moxfield?

Open the deck, choose More → Export, and take the plain text export. You get one line per card in the form “quantity name”, which is what virtual tables read.

How do I export a deck from Archidekt?

Archidekt has a text export in its export menu. You can also paste the deck’s link into EDHMat directly: public Archidekt decks are fetched by the server, so you skip the export step.

Why did a card not resolve?

Usually because of a typo, a card from outside Scryfall’s database, or a double-faced card written with only its back face. Fix the line and import again, or continue without the card.

How does a virtual table know which card is my commander?

If the export has a commander section, that is used. Otherwise every card in the list that can be a commander is offered, and you pick one, or two for partners.

Importing a decklist from Moxfield or Archidekt