Life Tracker

A life counter for Commander, for one phone in the middle of the table. Open Play in the menu. You don’t need an account to use it, only to save the game afterwards.

Setting up

The tracker opens straight onto the board. Put the phone in the middle of the table and set up the game right there.

1. Add players. Signed in, you’re already seated, with your commander’s art. Tap Add player (the dashed panel in the next free seat) and:
   • pick one of your pods under Play with a pod, then tap each member who’s playing to seat them;
   • search for an Icarian user by username (signed in);
   • or just type a name and tap Add.

   Each new player takes the next seat clockwise, and their Edit sheet opens so you can pick their deck or commander straight away. The board lays out again for 2 to 6 players. You need at least 2 to start.

2. Edit a player. Tap their panel, then Edit, to pick their deck (signed in) or their commander and partner. Commander damage is tracked per commander. Remove is at the top of the same sheet; anyone removed from your pod, you included, waits on Add player as a chip. Tap Done at the bottom to see the change on their panel.
3. Seat everyone. Each panel faces its player’s edge of the phone. The starting player has a Goes first badge (the first player added, by default).
   • Tap a player, then tap another to swap their seats. Tap the same player again to cancel.
   • Seats seats everyone at random; whoever goes first stays the same.
   • Goes first spins round the table for a random starter.
4. Game has the game’s settings: the pod you’re playing with, the turn timer, and Exit tracker. Picking a different pod keeps everyone you added by name or username, and offers the new pod’s members on Add player in place of the old pod’s.
5. Tap Start to lock the seats and start turn 1.

Setup is saved on your phone as you go, so a reload brings the board back with the same players, seats and starting player.

Playing

Each player gets a panel facing their edge of the phone.

The controls sit in a strip between two rows of players: Undo, the turn number and game clock, Next turn in the middle, and Menu.

• Life: tap the left side of your panel to lose 1 and the right side to gain 1. Hold to change it by 10 at a time. A running total (“+5”, “−3”) shows briefly as it changes. Life can go below zero (“−4”), for Platinum Angel and friends: nobody is ever taken out by the numbers alone.
• Damage: tap Damage (or your poison count) on your panel. Your Damage sheet fills the screen, turned to face you, with your life total at the top:
  • Commander damage: one row per opposing commander (partners get a row each), in seat order clockwise from you. Tap + to take 1 from that commander and − to give it back; your life moves with it. Hold either to count by 10. A commander that has dealt you 18 or more turns red, because 21 from one commander is a loss.
  • Opponents who are out come last, grayed, and can still be corrected.
  • Poison: − and + at the bottom, hold for 10. 10 counters is a loss.
  • Out: at the bottom, beside poison. It asks **How is out? (optional)**: Life, Poison, Commander damage, Milled, Conceded or Other. The likeliest one is picked for you from your counters; tap it again to clear it, or pick another. **Mark out** takes you out on this turn (with no reason if none is picked), and **Cancel** goes back. To concede, pick **Conceded**.
  • Done, Escape or your browser’s back closes the sheet.
• Turns: Next turn passes the turn clockwise, skipping anyone who’s out. The turn number goes up each time play comes back to the first player.
• Out? When a player still in is at 0 life or less, 10 poison, or 21 from one commander, their Damage button turns solid red and reads Out?. It opens the Damage sheet, where Out marks them out. It goes away if the numbers come back.
• Back in: an out player’s panel has Back in under the stamp, for a mistaken out. Their life and counters are as they were.
• Undo reverses the last action, outs and Back in included.
• Menu: opens the game menu, turned to face whoever’s turn it is. Give the monarch or the initiative to a player (or nobody), end the game, start a new one, or exit. New game asks first, then opens a fresh setup board.

The game is saved on your phone after every tap, so a reload brings it back exactly as it was. The screen stays awake while you play, where your browser supports it.

Reading the board

• Commander art: each panel shows its commander’s art, with the artist credited in the corner. Partners split the panel on a diagonal. Without art (offline, or no commander), the panel is tinted in the commander’s colors, or plain dark. The color symbols after the commander’s name are its color identity.
• Whose turn: the player who is up glows in their colors and the others dim slightly. Next turn takes their color and points at them.
• Danger colors: life turns amber at 10 and red, pulsing, at 5. Poison turns green from 1 and red from 7. A commander that has dealt 18 or more shows a red row in the Damage sheet, and that panel’s Damage turns red too. Below zero, life stays red.
• Out: an out player’s art goes gray under an OUT stamp with how and the turn (“Milled · turn 6”). Back in or Undo brings them back.
• Monarch and Initiative: a gold crown and a teal torch before the player’s name. They fly across the board when they change hands.
• Goes first circles the table for a few seconds before it lands on someone.

If your phone is set to reduce motion, nothing pulses or flies and Goes first picks at once.

Turn timer

A chess-clock style timer, on by default (turn it off with Turn timer in Game before you start; your phone remembers the choice).

• Only the active player’s clock runs. Next turn stops it and starts the next player’s.
• Every panel shows that player’s total time at the bottom; the player whose turn it is also sees how long this turn has run, next to their name.
• The clock in the controls shows the whole game’s time under the turn number, turned to face whoever’s turn it is.
• Tap the game clock to pause the game for a break. Every clock stops and the board freezes: life totals stay readable under a Paused card turned to face whoever’s turn it is, but nothing on the board responds until someone taps Resume. The card’s Game menu still lets you end the game, start a new one or exit. Ending the game pauses it too, so time on the end screen never counts, and Back lands on the Paused card.
• Undo never creates or loses time: undoing Next turn gives the seconds since the tap back to the previous player.
• The end screen shows each player’s total and the length of the game.
• When you save the game, each player’s turn times are saved with it. Nothing shows them yet.

The end screen

When one player is left in, or you tap End game, the end screen opens.

• The winner: their commander’s art fills the top (partners on a diagonal; without art, their colors), with confetti in their colors, a gold WINNER · TURN n pill, their name in big type, their commander, its color symbols and the artist.
• No winner yet: if the game ended early, pick the winner or mark a Draw. A draw has no art or confetti.
• The numbers: the winner’s life left, the game time (when the turn timer was on) and the number of turns.
• Life over the game: a line per player in their color showing their life at the start and at the end of every turn. The winner’s line is thicker and glows; a player who went out has their line end at that turn, on a hollow dot. Games started before the chart existed don’t have one.
• Players: in finishing order, with each player’s commander and how they finished (“Winner”, “Out T7 · 21 commander damage”, “Conceded T9”, “12 life”), and their total time when the timer was on.

• How did it end? (optional): Combat, Combo, Commander damage, Alt-win, Concession or Other, saved as the game’s win type. If the last out was by commander damage or a concession, that one is picked for you; tap it again to clear it. It isn’t offered for a draw.

• Share image: under Rematch once there’s a winner or a draw. It makes a picture of the game to post: the winner’s art, name and commander, the numbers, the life chart, every player in finishing order, and icarian.app/play at the bottom. Tap Share to send it through your phone’s share sheet, or Save image to download it. Phones and browsers that can’t share files only offer Save image. The picture is made on your phone and nothing is uploaded, so it works signed out and before the game is saved.

If your phone is set to reduce motion, the art doesn’t zoom, there’s no confetti and the chart lines appear without drawing in.

Saving the game

The game is saved unless you throw it away. It’s saved with its players, decks, commanders, the winner, the end turn, places, each player’s turn times and how they went out, and how the game ended.

• Rematch: saves the game and opens seating with the same players, decks and commanders in the same seats, everyone back on 40 and nobody going first yet. Rate the game later from your game log.
• Exit: saves the game and opens it, so the table can rate it. To add a note or change anything, tap Edit there.
• Back: undoes the end and returns to the game.
• Discard: throws the game away. It asks first.

Signed out, Rematch and Exit take you to sign in or sign up first. The game waits on your phone and is saved once you’re back.

After Exit, the game page also shows Rematch. It opens seating the same way, with the same pod, on the phone the game was tracked on.

See Logging games for what happens next.