The Pod Companion for Android
The Commander life counter built for the whole table
One phone in the middle, two to six players, and every seat turned to face its owner. Life, commander damage, counters and turns while you play, and a real record of the game when it ends.
Coming soon to Google Play
- Free, with no ads
- Works offline
- No account needed
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Two to six players
Commander, Brawl or Oathbreaker, on a phone or a tablet, at any starting life.
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Works with no signal
Commander art is cached on the phone, so the back room of the game store is fine.
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No account needed
Signed out, the counter is the whole app, and nothing about your games leaves the phone.
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Free, and no ads
Not between turns, not anywhere. No paywall on any feature, and no premium tier.
During the game
Built for one phone and a whole table
Every part of the counter starts from the same picture: a phone lying in the middle of the table, read upside down and sideways by people who are also trying to play Magic.
Built for the table
Every seat faces its player
Each player gets a zone turned toward them, with their commander's art behind the number. Tap the left half to lose life and the right half to gain it, or hold to run. The numbers read from across the table, and a burst of taps lands as one change instead of eleven.
- The screen stays awake for the whole game
- Every committed change gives a small buzz
- Undo is one tap away, and it never erases anything
Commander damage
Know exactly whose commander hit you
Open a seat's commander damage and every commander at the table gets its own tile, set on that commander's art with its color identity beside the name. Twenty-one from one commander is never confused with twenty-one spread across three, and by default the damage comes off life too, so nobody counts it twice.
- The sheet turns to face whoever opened it
- Damage is kept per commander, for the whole game
Your table, your rules
The app never decides who is out
Zero life, ten poison and twenty-one commander damage each raise a question once, in that player's own zone. A person answers it. Nobody is knocked out by a miscount, and nothing has to be undone because the app jumped the gun.
“Tables rewind, miscount and run Platinum Angel. You decide.”
Mistakes happen
Rewind to any moment
Every change is written down as it happens, so the whole game is a tap away. Open the history, tap any line, and the table goes back to just after it: life, commander damage, counters, the monarch and who is out all follow.
- Nothing is erased. The rewind is recorded too
- Undo puts it all back if you went too far
Everything else on the table
Counters, turns and the rest of the bookkeeping
Everything a Commander game asks you to remember, kept on the seat it belongs to, or on the table bar when it belongs to everyone. Turns are tracked with a game clock, and a countdown per turn is there for tables that want one.
- Poison
- Energy
- Experience
- Rad
- City’s Blessing
- Custom counters
- Commander tax
- Storm count
- The monarch
- The initiative
- Day and night
- Turn timer
- Dice and a coin
Add-ons
Planechase and Archenemy are built in
Turn on Planechase and the table shares a deck of planes and the planar die. Turn on Archenemy and one player takes on everyone else with a deck of schemes. You don't need to own the cards: they download from Scryfall once, then work offline like the rest of the app.
- Roll the planar die, and planeswalk when the table says so
- One tap turns a card round for the far side of the table
- Pick the archenemy, then set schemes in motion
When it's over
A record of the game, not just a winner
The end of a game becomes a summary: placements, final life and poison, the commander at every seat, and how long it really ran, measured rather than guessed. Fix the order if the table disagrees, mark the winner, and note whether anyone handed someone else the game.
- Saved on the phone whether or not you sign in
- Each seat's details, down to who dealt the commander damage
Phone or tablet
Lay a tablet flat and the table fills it
On a tablet the board goes landscape: the far seats turn to face across the table, and every commander's art runs edge to edge.
Optional free account
Sign in, and every game counts
An account connects the app to this website, with the same sign-in you use here. Finished games upload to your game log, and the numbers your pod argues about stop being guesses.
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Game log
Every game you've played, with its standings and a chart of everyone's life.
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Stats
Win rate by commander, by color and by turn order. Does going first really matter at your table?
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Pods and seasons
A shared record for your regular group, with standings by season and a rating for each player.
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Decks
Build a deck or import one from Moxfield, Archidekt or TappedOut, then pick it when you sit down.
The same account runs the website's game tracker, deck builder and collection tracker, so nothing you have logged here is left behind.
What the app will never do
Short, and meant literally.
- Show you an adNot between turns, not on the summary, not anywhere.
- Track youNo ads SDK, no analytics SDK and no advertising ID.
- Make you sign upThe counter works start to finish without an account.
- Charge youFree, with no paywall and no premium tier.
What the app sends, and what it never sends, is set out in plain words in the app privacy policy.
Coming soon to Google Play
The app isn't on the store yet. Email us and you'll hear the day it is: one email, no newsletter. Until then, the web life counter works on any phone tonight.
FAQ
Is The Pod Companion app free?
Yes. The app is free, with no ads and no paywall on any feature. The optional account is free too.
Do I need an account to use the life counter?
No. Signed out, the counter is the whole app: life, commander damage, counters, turns and the end-of-game summary all work, and nothing about your games leaves the phone. An account adds uploading games to your log, stats, pods and decks.
Does the app work without a signal?
Yes. Nothing in a game needs a connection. Commander art is fetched once and cached on the phone, so a seat keeps its art in a basement game store. Games you save while signed in wait in a queue and upload when the phone is back online.
How many players does it support?
Two to six, on a phone or a tablet, with any starting life total. Commander is the default, and Brawl, Oathbreaker and Standard are on the setup screen too. The layout follows the shape of the device, so a tablet lying flat turns its far seats to face across the table.
Is there an iPhone version?
Not at the moment. The app is Android only. On an iPhone, the free web life counter on this site runs in the browser, keeps working offline once it has loaded, and hands the finished game to the same game log.
When will the app be on Google Play?
Soon, but there is no date to promise yet. Email thepodcompanion@gmail.com with the subject "notify me at launch" and you will hear the day it is live. One email, no newsletter.
Does the app use the same account as this website?
Yes. It is one account, so games you log by hand on the website and games the app tracks at the table land in the same history, and feed the same stats.