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. 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. There is a paid fallback in the code for reads the on-device model cannot manage, which would send one photograph to a recognition service — nothing in either app calls it and no plan offers it today, and if that changes it will ask first. See the privacy policy.
Does it track rarity, set, condition or value?
No, on purpose. A card is a card. 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.
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. During the beta, everything is free. Paid plans, when they arrive, will cover the size of your own collection and the features around it — they will never gate the card data or the decklists.
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. 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.
Why can't I sign up?
Deckhand is in a closed beta. Sign-up needs an invitation; if you would like one, write to [email protected].
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.
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.