Frequently asked questions
Short answers. Anything not here — ask.
What does Deckhand do?
It tells you what decks you can build with the cards you own. Add your collection, and it compares it against tens of thousands of real decklists to show what you can build today, what you are a few cards away from, and what finishing a deck would cost.
Which games does it support?
Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering. Switch between them in the header; one account covers both, and each game has its own collection.
Do I need a phone to scan cards?
No. The scanner runs in the browser with a webcam as well as in the phone app. Both read the card’s name on your own device and send only the text they read.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No, and there is no code that could. Text recognition runs on your device, in the browser tab or on the phone. Each captured frame is discarded as soon as it has been read. No image is uploaded and none is kept. The one path that would have sent a photograph to an outside recognition service was removed in September 2026 and nothing replaced it. See the privacy policy.
Does it track rarity, set, condition or value?
Not for the cards you own, on purpose. A card is a card: your collection records how many copies you have, not their rarity, set or condition. Tracking printings would make scanning slower — the scanner would have to stop and ask — and it would turn a deck-building tool into an inventory tool, which is a different product. It does show an estimated value for your collection, and each card’s page lists its printings with their set, rarity and price, as reference.
Where do the decks come from?
Real decklists: tournament results, published meta decks, preconstructed products and community-built decks, from the sources credited on the about page. The same deck gets submitted many times, so the Deck Finder shows one deck per archetype by default — each row says how many it stands for, and a checkbox turns that off. Deck Search does not group: it is there to show you what exists, near-duplicates included.
Is it free?
Browsing decks and cards is free and needs no account, and a free account keeps up to 500 distinct cards. Paid plans cover the size of your own collection and what is kept around it — never the card data or the decklists, which stay free for everyone. The pricing page has the ladder.
Will anything be deleted if I stop using it for a while?
Only on a free account nobody has used for 30 days, and only the decks you have saved or marked as built — never your collection, never the decks you wrote yourself, never the account. You are emailed a week before it happens, and signing in once keeps them. Using Deckhand resets that clock: opening a screen while signed in counts, and so does saving a deck, so you do not have to sign in again for it to count. Paid accounts are never subject to it, and you can export everything at any time. The privacy policy states the rule in full.
How do I sign up?
Create an account on the website or in the app with an email address and a password. Anyone 13 or over can. You will be asked to show you are not a robot, which is there to keep automated sign-ups out, and that is the only check.
The scanner read the wrong card. What now?
It should not have counted it: when a read is ambiguous the scanner stops and asks rather than guessing. If a wrong card did get in, fix the quantity on My Collection and, if you can, tell us which card and which printing — a photo of the card helps more than anything.
Can I get my collection out again?
Yes, always. My Collection exports as plain text and as CSV — and, for Yu-Gi-Oh!, as a .ydk — from any account on any plan. A deck exports from its own page as text and as a .ydk or an Arena list, depending on the game.
How do I delete my account?
From your account page on the web, or the Account button in the phone app. It is immediate and permanent: your collection, saved decks and scan sessions go with the login. If you pay for a plan, the subscription is cancelled at the same moment and the rest of the paid period is not refunded — the delete button says so before you press it. To use up what you have paid for, cancel the plan from your account page instead and delete once the period has ended.
Is Deckhand official?
No. It is an independent tool and is not produced, endorsed by, or affiliated with Konami or Wizards of the Coast. Card names and images are their property; see the credits on every page.