TCG Lightning Is Here — A New Way to Build MTG Decks

After months of development, TCG Lightning v0.1.33 the first major release is out. A fast, modern desktop app for building Magic: The Gathering — with EDHREC integration, Archidekt Combo Spellbook integration, and some AI features like deck tagging.

The TCG Lightning deck overview — manage all your decks at a glance.

Why I Built This

My deck building workflow was scattered across multiple tools. I'd search for cards on Scryfall, track my decks in Cockatrice, check synergies and staples on EDHREC, and when I couldn't decide what to cut I'd start talking to an AI to figure it out. I kept thinking — why isn't all of this in one place? And since I love building things, I started working on TCG Lightning.

Cockatrice inspired user interface.

What's in the First Release

EDHREC Integration

TCG Lightning connects directly to the EDHREC API — synergy scores, inclusion rates, top cards for your commander, all available right inside the app.

Combo Detection

Powered by Archidekt Combo Spellbook — find combos already in your deck and discover what pieces you're missing.

Proxy Printing

I always used mtgprint.net for proxies, but the images took forever to load. It made sense to have this as part of the app. Now I pick the artworks I want and print directly — no waiting around.

Collection Management

I love using Manabox, and I track my collection actively there. I actually already wrote an application once where my friends could upload their collections and we could crosscheck who has what. Well, now I can do that directly in the app :) noice!

Deck Import & Export

Classical formats — plaintext import and export. And also Cockatrice import and export, so you can play directly.

AI Chat

I know a lot of people are already screaming "aehh AI slop, aehh mimimi." But it's still nice to have some AI features. What I use the most is the chat for cutting cards, or to tag my deck. I have a lot of tags — draw, removal, you name them. I just say "tag my deck," all the cards are checked by the LLM and it tags them in your style, with your tags. You can still decide whether it makes sense. But this saves me a lot of time. And to be fair, I built this for myself!

Get In Touch

Join my Discord — I'd love to hear from you ❤