Introduction

Magic Players! (been a while since I’ve been able to say that!)

Last Thursday we launched our community focused ‘JustPlay Magic the Gathering Show’ and with it announced that the fan favourite commander league is starting again next Wednesday! 

If you tuned in you would have seen me and Ritchie singing the tunes of Spelltable and announce that this stay at home league will be run via the website, so let's take a look and delve into the realms of the spelltable.

What is Spelltable and why Spelltable is amazing?

Spelltable boasts that it is ‘remote magic made easy’ and they aren’t wrong! Spelltable is the first app designed by magic players that’s sole use is for Magic the Gathering to be played remotely. So let's take a look at what all the hype is about.


1.This is the main play area, as you can see each players, name, commander and life total are always visible. You can only ever change your own life total and if you forget what a player’s commander does you can hover over the name and the commander will pop up!

2. A great feature in Spelltable is the inbuilt card checker. If you are a little unsure of a particular card just click on it while it’s on the battlefield and Spelltable will show you what the card does! Not only is this practical it keeps the flow of the game going as it removes the need for any interruption. It also keeps a history of cards checked if you ever need to double check something yourself.

3. These are all of Spelltables options, while not necessary to fiddle with they include things like changing the layout of the play area or changing something in the settings so you can suit it to your playing style!

How to create and play in a game using Spelltable

Now that we’ve taken a look at the basics and how a game will look let's have a look at how you would make or join a game using Spelltable.

1. Each game has a ‘pod manager’. This player will need an account, once they have one and log in they should see the following.

2. All this manager needs to do is click ‘Create game’ and give it a name. 

3. This will then create a link which should be shared with the other 3 players that want to take part in the game. 

4. The other players follow the link, choose what webcam they want to use and they're ready to go. It couldn't be simpler! 


The technological side.

Spelltable is amazing because it’s simple and easy to use but you might be wondering how you would be able to get that perfect birds eye view position for your game with an ordinary webcam? Here are some tips. 

1. If you are able to position you webcam in a way where all players can see your game board then that's perfect and super simple!

2. Many players (myself included) use a phone arm, the one I would personally recommend can be found here as it's perfect for that clear birds eye view. 

3. There are a number of apps that will allow you to use your phone as a webcam for your laptop or desktop, depending on what phone you have I would recommend. 

Android - Droidcam  

Apple - EpocCam

To use these apps make sure they are downloaded on both your phone and your desktop, use the phone app to connect it and you are good to go!

Conclusion 

I hope this guide has been helpful and I'm excited to see you all next Wednesday for some commander action. Book your tickets here! 

Stay awesome, stay safe, 

Sam.