Review: We Tried CardFlow, a New MTGA Game Recorder

Last updated on November 27, 2024

Tribute Mage | Illustration by Scott Murphy

One of the biggest challenges I've faced as a Magic content creator, especially one who does voiceovers after recording gameplay, is having to set aside a dedicated time each day just to record games. This involves setting up my recording tools, preparing the deck, and hoping I’m paired with an opponent who doesn’t take a full minute per action—otherwise, editing becomes a hassle as I trim down parts of the game. On top of that, my CPU and GPU are pushed to their limits as MTG Arena and my recording software battle for resources.

But what if I told you there's an app that eliminates all that hassle, keeps your computer free from unnecessary files, and even records all your matches automatically so you don’t have to lift a finger?

Introducing CardFlow—the only app you'll ever need to record all your MTG Arena gameplays. Curious about what this powerful tool has to offer? Let’s dive in!

What Is CardFlow?

Flow of Knowledge | Illustration by Tuan Duong Chu

CardFlow is an innovative app developed by MTG Circle, a new gameplay database designed by the folks at MTGA Codes. It’s designed to track and record all gameplay aspects of your Magic: The Gathering Arena matches.

With CardFlow, players can seamlessly capture in-depth game statistics, deck composition, and player interactions, making it a powerful tool for analyzing and improving your gameplay.

How Does CardFlow Work?

The cool part about CardFlow is that once installed, you just need to play the game. Don’t worry about turning this game recording app on and off: It only triggers whenever you play a match and stays idle in the background when no games are played. You’ll barely notice it’s running even when you’re playing the game if you follow the suggested settings the team has compiled.

With this in mind, it’s worth noting that you can either select their “Defer Uploads” option or not. By selecting it, your videos are processed at a more convenient time to minimize the immediate impact on your network's bandwidth.

Now, about those videos CardFlow records: Where are they stored? Does it make a huge impact on my internal storage drive? Should I buy an external drive for the games?

No need to worry about those last two questions. You see, the gameplay is stored on the MTG Circle team's Cloudflare and uploaded to their YouTube account.

Currently, their Cloudflare option is free, but videos stored there are only be available for one month.

As for YouTube, the plan is to have videos uploaded as they’re processed, but it's currently a work in progress that hopefully works consistently in the long run.

Is CardFlow Safe to Use?

Yes, CardFlow is safe to use. It’s developed by N-Digital-LLC, the creators of trusted Magic: The Gathering resources like MTGA Codes and MTG Circle. CardFlow is designed with high standards to ensure it doesn’t impact gameplay while offering a smooth experience for tracking and recording games, making it a reliable tool for MTG Arena players.

How to Use CardFlow to Record MTGA Games

Download the CardFlow app from their website

Go to MTGCircle.com and click the DOWNLOAD Tab.

Note: Ad blockers may interfere with the download, so you may need to right-click the “Download” button and select “Save As.”

After installation, create an MTG Circle Account

While you can do this in the app, signing up on the website is recommended for a more intuitive experience.

Log into the app with your account

Read through the Introduction page (don’t skip it!) and adjust the settings as desired.

One cool thing is that if your Discord email matches your account email, not only can you log in with Discord from the webpage, but also your Discord picture will replace your account picture.

Start playing!

You can ignore other tabs, as they're mostly optional.

You can easily view your gameplay recordings by using the website's “My Videos” and “Video Library” tabs.

Browse other games

While technically this part is related mostly to the MTG Circle webpage, it’s a feature that’s only possible thanks to CardFlow, as it’s responsible for uploading these videos to the website and YouTube.

Are CardFlow Recordings Automatically Uploaded?

Yes. Depending on which settings you choose from the app, matches will be uploaded after the games end or will wait for low bandwidth periods on your PC so it doesn’t impact the game's performance.

That said, it may take a while until they’re fully processed, and the time for those to finish depends on various factors such as the length of the match, settings on your app, and bandwidth, among others.

Is CardFlow Free to use?

Yes! That’s one of the best features of CardFlow. It’s completely free to use, allowing MTG players to track and record their games at no cost.

My Verdict

After playing for across a few days, I’m very happy with the app's performance. It really works as intended. Of course, no app is flawless, so here’s my honest review of this app's strengths and improvement opportunities.

The Really Good Part

• I like the idea of having my videos uploaded to YouTube.
• It’s not too heavy on system resources compared to Arena.
• Sometimes, I want to record footage without filling my local drive.
• As a content creator who does voiceovers, I find this simply great!
• The App never crashed since I installed it, and it only runs whenever MTG Arena is being played.

Things to Improve

• It doesn’t function like a standard recorder, as you don’t get a local video file. I’d need to download the processed video from their platform for editing, which isn’t ideal. On top of the current features, I’d love an option to store each game file or a copy on my local drive, even if it's behind a paywall.
• While playing, the game captures Arena's sound settings, meaning that if you’ve muted your game, no sounds or effects appear on the replay. While this isn’t as relevant, the app doesn’t capture microphones or external input devices. If implemented, it would be a very relevant feature for streamers.
• Draft gameplay is only logged, but the actual draft portion isn’t. This is a huge downside for Limited enthusiasts.
• Wait for processing time.

Wrap Up

Incendiary Flow | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

I want to stress that CardFlow is a huge tool for those who do voiceovers and want to select only just a few games from their sessions to upload as a YouTube video.

For me, this opens the doors for more MTG content for my channel in the near future!

Still, even if you aren’t a power user and just want to share your insane last game with your friend, you can easily give them the link to your game, and they can send it to other friends as well, which is a fantastic feature other websites have yet to implement.

Thanks so much for reading up until now. Remember to follow us on Twitter/X and join the Draftsim Discord community to never miss a thing! As always, take care, and see you next time!

This post is sponsored by CardFlow. We will never work with a brand we don't love and trust, and by supporting them you also support Draftsim.