Questions, answered plainly

Four things, in one place: it scans your physical cards into a collection, lets you build and analyze decks from what you own (or anything), tracks live matches and tournaments with the people at your table, and connects you with friends, pods, and the stores and creators you follow.

It works on the web and as an Android app. Your account is the same everywhere.

Yes. Scanning, collections, deck building, live matches, tournaments and the social features are free. A Supporter plan ($4.99/month or $49.99/year) removes limits and adds extras — see “What's Supporter?” below.

Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon TCG, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Pick the game with the selector at the top of the sidebar; your collections, decks and scanner follow whichever one is active.

Point your camera at a card. The app fingerprints the artwork and matches it against a table of every printing — usually in under a second. If two printings look nearly identical, it reads the card's title text to tell them apart.

On the Android app the whole match runs on your phone, offline. On the web the fingerprint is sent to Kardcore's servers to match.

No. The scanner sends a 96-byte fingerprint of the artwork, never the photo. The image stays on your device.

Even lighting, no glare from a sleeve, and filling the guide box with the card. Hold still for a beat — the scanner waits for a steady frame before it commits. Foils and heavily worn cards are the hardest; the title-reading fallback usually catches them on the second try.

The camera works in Safari, but Safari doesn't expose the high-resolution still-photo mode the scanner uses for its best results, so accuracy is a step behind Chrome on Android or desktop. The Android app is the strongest scanner.

A shared life-and-results tracker for everyone at the table. One person starts it; the others join by scanning a QR code or typing a short code. Each player tracks their own life on their own phone, and everyone sees the same table.

When the game ends, results are recorded, win rates update, and (when points are on) season standings move.

No — and this is the one people ask most. Nothing pairs phone-to-phone. Everyone connects to Kardcore's servers, the same way a group chat works. That's why it works across Android, iPhone and laptop at the same table, and why a player can leave and rejoin without breaking anything.

Very little. Live Match sends tiny updates; scanning on the web sends 96 bytes per attempt. Anything 3G-or-better is fine. The only heavy moments are one-time: caching card images and, on Android, downloading the offline scanner tables.

No. A match that lasts under five minutes awards no points, and a table needs at least two real (non-guest) accounts to score. Placements are still recorded so tournament standings stay right.

In the lobby, always. Once the match starts it's up to whoever created it (or the tournament's settings) — decks are locked by default in tournaments. If you joined without a deck you can always set your first one, even when switching is locked.

Friends are people you've connected with. A Circle is a hand-picked list of your friends you can post to — like “Tuesday crew” — and they aren't notified when you add them. A Pod is a shared board with a join code where everyone posts. A Channel is a broadcast page: the owner posts, followers read. Stores and creators use Channels.

Events lists what's happening in the community. As verified game stores join, it will show their events near you — set your location and you'll see tournaments, prereleases and game nights within a radius you choose.

Use the report option on any post or comment. Reports go to a moderation queue that's reviewed by a person. You can also block someone, which hides their content from you everywhere.

Kardcore's paid plan: $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. It lifts collection and deck limits and unlocks Port Keys — plug in your own AI provider key for deck analysis, and mint personal access keys to use your collection and decks from your own scripts. Verified storefront tools are coming to Supporter too.

Everything you can see or delete stays available if you ever cancel — you'll never be locked out of your own data.

Account → Subscription → Manage. Billing is handled by Stripe; cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period and nothing is deleted.

Create a Channel, print the QR sign, and put it on your counter. Players who scan it follow you and see your posts in their feed. Verified storefronts with local event listings are the next step — if you'd like to be an early store, email support@kardcore.com.

Channels: your followers see your posts inside the app they already track their cards in, and a QR on your stream overlay or event table gets people following in one tap. If you'd like a channel set up, get in touch.

Yes — decks and collections export to standard text and CSV formats, and decks can be sent straight to a TCGplayer cart. Your data is yours.

Account → Danger zone. Deletion removes your data; it isn't reversible.