MTG Guide 4+

MTG Guide has a snappy, no-frills UI that makes navigation fast and easy whether you are looking for oracle text or an infraction. It includes a card database with the expected oracle text as well as rulings, printings, and legality. It also includes the expected Comp Rules, MTR, and IPG (including JAR). The Comp Rules are nicely hyperlinked with section references and the built-in search functions let you not only search for matches within the rules text but also do a glossary match that can quickly let you find important sections and related concepts. All of the documents can be easily navigated between via the bottom menu, and your location in a document is not lost as you swap between them making it easy to check complicated interactions. Finally, there are included basic Draft timers and deck-check tools.

Overall, this app has everything you need to take judge calls or refresh yourself on ropes without becoming bogged down in excess “features”, information, or graphics.

The one area that I would love to see more added would be via the integration of the annotated versions of the IPG and MTR as those can be useful references to have on hand; although I am unsure as to whether the authors of those permit reproduction in an app such as this.

What more to say? For all your non-life counter/game tracking needs, it doesn’t get better than MTG Guide. Its most useful features I’ve found to be the comp. rules and the Gatherer rules, which together cover nearly any rules or interaction questions you might have, even when you’re playing Ice Cauldron aggro. The only shortcomings of MTG Guide is with its card search feature. It’s not that it isn’t powerful, accurate, or comprehensive: it’s somewhat limited with the search criteria available. Further, if the search turns up many hits, the results list is truncated after a certain number of entries. The above issues are annoying but not frustrating, and they don’t diminish the overall utility of this app. It’s always up to date with the latest set releases, bannings, and rules changes. It even has art for each printing of a card and its associated monetary value. If you’re at all a “serious” MTG player (liberally interpreted), you should strongly consider getting this app, unless you’re a level infinity judge. If you were I’d guess you’d just planeswalk or something whenever someone had a rules question.

Update 2: Still waiting for filters! Also how about giving us the ability to click on a card & get full screen images. Every time I use the app to search a card up for somebody, be it price, text, or rules, they always try to zoom the picture in, which obviously they can’t. (iPhone 7+). Also how about moving cards to the top, followed by text-description, then rulings. Another suggestion - Give us the option to choose settings “always display card art” “display original/newest card art/current filter art”
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Update: App is still good, it still needs search filters, and I’m still salty it doesn’t have them! MTG Trades & this app should probably be 1 & the same app. They are very similar & it seems this app trades off the list management for rules. I own both & use this one 99% of the time. Price wise, both apps in one @ this price point is good. This price on each, not so much. I do feel it’s one of the better MTG apps for card & rule searches.
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I've been using this app since I came back to MTG, sometime during Theros. This is my goto. Quick & easy card search, TCG prices, viewing different sets & art and information on which formats the card is approved or banned in. Very helpful. Only wish we had 2 improvements. 1) Searching with filters. 2) displaying full-screen image of the card art, maybe even ability to further zoom in.