MTG Commander online, with nothing to install
I built EDHMat so my pod could play MTG Commander online without buying a client, making accounts or pointing webcams at a playmat. You open a table in the box on this page and send the link to your group chat. Everyone pastes a decklist, and whoever opened the table deals.
It's free, it seats up to six, and nobody installs anything.
No accounts. Your friends join straight from the link you send them.
Play MTG online without buying the cards
Most online MTG happens in Wizards' two clients, and both are built around a collection. MTG Arena has Brawl, but only one against one; Wizards has said four-player Commander is being worked on and has given no date. Magic Online has four-player Commander with the rules enforced, but the deck you bring is made of digital cards you own there.
Here the deck is the list. Paste an export from Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, or a plain list of card names, and every card is looked up on Scryfall. Anything printed in paper is playable, including the deck you finished brewing last night and never bought. You get the normal printing of each card, too, not this year's crossover reprint.
What MTG Commander online looks like here
Every seat's board is in one browser tab, the way a living room table would look if everyone could reach every card. The table doesn't play for you, but it takes care of the parts that are easy to lose track of over a call:
- Your hand stays yours. The other seats see how many cards you hold, never which ones. Your library is hidden from everyone, you included, until you search it or reveal off the top.
- The stack sits in the middle. A cast spell goes onto it where every seat can see it, in order, until someone resolves or counters it.
- Commander tax is counted. Every cast from the command zone raises it by two, and the number is on the card.
- Commander damage per opponent. Life, poison and commander damage sit on every seat, and anyone can change them, which is how you deal combat damage to someone.
- Discover and cascade work. Reveal cards off the top of your library to the whole table, turn over one more, and cast the hit onto the stack.
- Everything gets written down. Every draw, cast, tap and life change goes into one log the whole table reads, and a misclick can be undone.
Other ways to play Magic: The Gathering Commander online
I'd rather your pod ends up on the right tool than on mine. The short version:
- Magic: The Gathering Online. Wizards' Windows client, MTGO for short. Commander on Magic Online is multiplayer with the rules enforced, played with the cards in your MTGO collection.
- MTG Arena. Brawl, one against one. No four-player Commander yet.
- SpellTable and Convoke. Your paper decks, over webcams. The right pick for a pod that owns its decks and wants to play those.
- XMage and Forge. Free downloads that enforce the rules, including multiplayer Commander.
- Other browser tables. TableCommander, Playgroup Live, EDHLAB and a few more work much like this one. They differ in accounts, voice chat and how many seats are free.
The long version, tool by tool and with what each one asks of you, is where to play Commander online. If you want the setup for each kind of tool, read how to play Commander online.
What the table leaves to you
Most ways of playing Magic Commander online either enforce the rules or film your cards. This one does neither. You move your own cards and call your own triggers, the way you would around a living room table, and the table keeps the records. Commander has too many odd interactions for a rules engine to get all of them right, and when one gets it wrong, you can't make the play at all. If your pod wants the rules enforced anyway, XMage does that well.
Two more things it doesn't do. There is no voice or video, so keep your call in Discord or wherever your pod already talks. And there is no matchmaking: a table is whoever you send the link to. If you want more people to play with, ask in the EDHMat Discord.
Before your first game
If this is your pod's first time here, Commander online walks through a first game step by step, from the box at the top of this page to your first turn. The two guides below go wider.
Common questions
Can I play the Magic card game online for free here?
Yes. The table costs nothing, shows no ads and asks for no account. There are no cards to buy either: any decklist you paste is playable, because every card is looked up on Scryfall.
Do I need MTGO, MTG Arena or a Wizards account?
No. Everything runs in a browser tab. Whoever opens the table sends a link, and everyone who clicks it types a name and sits down.
Can I play with people I don’t know?
Only by sending them the link, because there is no matchmaking. If you want more people to play with, ask in the EDHMat Discord. The larger Commander Discord servers have looking-for-game channels too.
How many players fit at one table?
Up to six, so a four-player pod has room to spare. You can also start alone against a dummy opponent to try out a deck or the controls.
That is all there is to it. Open a table when your pod is ready, or read where to play Commander online if you are still comparing.