On 17 March 2026, Wizards announced that SpellTable's voice chat would be run through AI-powered voice moderation supplied by ggwp.com — software that listens to player audio and flags speech it judges as potentially harmful. Wizards framed it as a safety measure. A large part of the Commander community read it as "Wizards is listening to my pod night" (coverage at MTG Rocks).
Both readings have something to them, which is why the reaction was as loud as it was. I will try to keep this page useful rather than outraged: what changed, what it means in practice, and what your options are if you would rather not think about it again. I build one of those options, which you should know before you read the list.
What was announced
The short version: SpellTable's in-app voice is no longer just a pipe between four people. Audio passes through a moderation system that classifies speech and can flag it.
Two things follow from that regardless of how the policy is worded:
- Your audio is processed by a third party. Not merely transmitted — analysed. That is a different category of thing from a voice call, and most of the objections I have seen are about the category, not about the accuracy of the classifier.
- Something automated is making judgement calls about table talk. Commander runs on threat assessment, trash talk, deal-making and jokes that read badly out of context. Automated classifiers are famously bad at context.
Check the current terms yourself before deciding. What is retained, for how long, and who can see it are the parts that matter, and they are the parts that can change after this page was written. Wizards' own SpellTable documentation is the authority, not this page.
Does this affect your pod?
For a lot of pods, no. If your voice call already lives in Discord — which is where most established playgroups keep it — and SpellTable is only your camera feed, the voice moderation is not in your path. Turning off SpellTable's built-in voice is the entire fix.
It matters if:
- your pod uses SpellTable's built-in voice as the call,
- you play with strangers from LFG channels and would rather not be recorded around them,
- or you object on principle to a game platform analysing player speech, which is a coherent position that does not need a threat model attached.
If the listening is the part that bothers you, the simplest fix is a table with no voice channel to moderate. Open a table in one click →
Where to play instead
Keep real cards, move the camera
If your pod plays with paper decks, Convoke is the closest replacement — the same webcam-and-real-cards model, actively developed. You supply your own voice call.
Or skip the tool: a Discord video call with everyone's playmat in frame is how remote Commander worked before SpellTable existed, and it still works. No card recognition, but also nothing to have a policy about.
Move to digital cards
Browser tabletops deal digital cards from a decklist you paste. None of the ones below have built-in voice chat, so there is nothing to moderate — the conversation stays wherever your pod already trusts it.
- EDHMat — mine. Free, open source, no accounts, six seats, and self-hostable: one Docker container, and your games never leave a machine you control. If the objection is "I don't want a company in the middle of my pod night", self-hosting is the strongest available answer, because it removes the company.
- TableCommander — free, browser, guest play, Moxfield and Archidekt import.
- Kiku.gg — free, browser, no account, supports larger tables.
- untap.in — long-running, free up to four players.
A fuller survey of all of these, including the rules-enforcing clients, is on the SpellTable alternatives page.
What "self-hosted" buys you here
Worth being precise, because the word gets used loosely.
Running EDHMat on your own box means the game state — who is at the table, what is on the battlefield, the whole event log — lives in a SQLite file on hardware you control. There is no account system, so there is nothing to profile. There is no voice channel, so there is nothing to analyse. The only outbound traffic is card lookups to Scryfall and the card images each player's browser loads from Scryfall's CDN.
What it does not buy you: your Discord call is still Discord's, your ISP still sees your traffic, and anyone you invite to your table can screenshot it. Self-hosting removes one intermediary. It does not make you invisible, and I would rather undersell that than have you believe otherwise.
The uncomfortable part
SpellTable is free, first-party, and works with the cards you already own. Nothing on this page matches all three. If you leave, you are trading something away.
The useful framing is that you used to have one option and now have several. Try two of them for one pod night each; it costs an evening, and then you will know instead of wondering.
Frequently asked questions
Is SpellTable recording my voice?
Wizards announced in March 2026 that SpellTable voice chat is being piped through AI moderation from ggwp.com, which analyses player audio and flags speech that may be harmful. Read Wizards’ own current documentation for exactly what is retained and for how long — that is the part that matters and the part that can change.
Can I turn SpellTable’s voice moderation off?
The practical answer for most pods has been to stop using SpellTable’s built-in voice and keep the conversation in Discord or another call, which is where most groups already had it.
Which Commander tools do not process voice?
Any tool without built-in voice chat — EDHMat, TableCommander, Kiku.gg and untap.in among them. Your voice call stays in whatever app you already use.