These two tools solve the same problem — a Commander pod that cannot sit at the same table — and almost nothing else about them is alike.
I build EDHMat, so weigh everything below accordingly. The table is checkable, and I have tried to write the SpellTable column the way a SpellTable user would.
The one question that decides it
Do you want to play with the cards you own, or with any cards at all?
SpellTable is a camera pointed at your real deck. The good parts follow from that: you shuffle your own cards, you keep the physical game, and the cards on screen are cards you paid for. The awkward parts follow from it too: lighting, upload bandwidth, and reading a card held up to a webcam.
EDHMat deals digital cards from a decklist you paste. The good parts follow from that: play a deck you have never owned, play from a laptop in a hotel, see the same board state as everyone else because it is data rather than a video frame. What you give up also follows: it is not your cardboard, and it never will be.
Neither answer is wrong. But pods that answer "the cards I own" and then use a digital tabletop tend to conclude that remote Commander is a poor substitute, because they picked the tool that removed the thing they cared about.
Head to head
| EDHMat | SpellTable | |
|---|---|---|
| Cards | Digital, from a pasted decklist | Your real, physical cards |
| Account | None at all | Wizards account |
| Install | None — a browser tab | None — a browser tab |
| Camera needed | No | Yes, one per player |
| Voice chat | None built in (use Discord) | Built in |
| Seats | Up to 6 | Typical pod |
| Rules enforcement | None, on purpose | None |
| Board state | Data — everyone sees the same thing | A video frame of each table |
| Game log | Append-only, every action, scrollable | No |
| Deck import | Moxfield, Archidekt, Arena, plain text, Archidekt URL | n/a — you own the deck |
| Cost | Free, open source | Free |
| Self-hostable | Yes, one Docker container | No |
| Made by | One person, as a hobby project | Wizards of the Coast |
Where SpellTable is better
You already own the decks. This is the whole argument and it is a strong one. If your playgroup has shelves of built Commander decks, a webcam tool lets you play those decks, with the sleeves and the foils and the twenty-year-old lands.
It is first-party. Wizards runs it. It is not going to disappear because one developer got a new job, which is a fair thing to hold against a project like mine.
It handles paper-only situations. A deck you built from your collection this afternoon and never wrote down, cards in weird physical states, a rules dispute settled by holding the card up to the camera.
Voice is built in. One tab instead of two. (Though see the moderation note below.)
Where EDHMat is better
Nothing to sign up for. No account, no email, no password, at any point. Create a table, share the link, everyone clicks it.
Any deck, instantly. Paste a list from Moxfield or Archidekt and play it. No proxying, no printing, no buying a deck to find out it is bad.
The board is unambiguous. Everyone sees the same rendering of the same state. Nobody squints at a camera or asks somebody to move their hand out of the shot.
Every action is written down. An append-only log records each draw, move, tap, token and life change, in the same order for everyone. When someone asks "when did that get there?", the answer is in the log instead of in four conflicting memories. In a long game this is the difference I would miss most.
Hidden information is enforced by the server. The other seats only ever see how many cards are in your hand, never which ones. A shuffle re-keys every card in the library, so nobody can follow a card through it — you cannot even see your own library until you search it.
You can host it yourself. One Docker container, one SQLite file, no external service except Scryfall for card data. If you would rather your pod's games did not live on someone else's server, that option exists. SpellTable has no equivalent.
No voice to process. Since the March 2026 AI voice-moderation change, SpellTable's built-in voice runs through a third-party classifier. EDHMat has no voice channel at all; your call stays wherever you already trust it.
Where they are the same
Both are free. Both run in a browser with nothing to install. And — the one that surprises people — neither enforces the rules. SpellTable does not know what your cards do, and neither does EDHMat. If you want the stack modelled and triggers put on it automatically, both of these are the wrong category and you want XMage or Forge.
What I'd tell a friend
- Pod owns the decks, wants the physical game → SpellTable, or Convoke if the neglect is what bothers you.
- Pod wants to play brews, test lists, or play at all without owning cards → EDHMat.
- Long games where board-state arguments keep happening → EDHMat, for the log.
- You care who runs the server → EDHMat, self-hosted.
- You want the rules enforced → neither. XMage.
If you are weighing more than these two, the full alternatives survey covers nine tools including the rules-enforcing ones.
Frequently asked questions
Is EDHMat better than SpellTable?
For a pod that wants to play decks it does not own, or wants an unambiguous board state and a written game log, yes. For a pod that owns its decks and wants the physical game, SpellTable or another webcam tool is the better fit and no feature list changes that.
Does EDHMat have video chat like SpellTable?
No. There is no camera and no voice channel — pods keep their call in Discord, which is where most of them already had it. It also means there is no audio for anyone to process.
Can I use my real cards with EDHMat?
Not directly — it deals digital cards from a decklist. You can paste the list of the deck sitting on your shelf and play the same 100 cards, but the camera-and-cardboard experience is what SpellTable does and EDHMat does not.