Playmat — Goldfish Playtester
Goldfishing playtester — solo sandbox for testing your deck without an opponent.
What Is the Playmat?
The Playmat is a fullscreen, solo play environment for testing how your deck plays. There is no rule enforcement and no opponent — it's pure goldfishing. Use it to test your mana curve, practice your opening sequences, or see how fast your combo assembles.
The Playmat is available for decks you own. Open it from:
- Deck detail page — Click the button in the deck toolbar
- Deckbuilder hub — Click the ▶ play icon on any of your recent deck cards
Game Zones
The playmat has six zones:
- Library — Your deck pile (top-left). Click to draw, right-click for library actions
- Hand — Bottom strip showing your current hand. Click / to toggle visibility (great for OBS streaming)
- Battlefield — The large central area. Cards placed here can be freely repositioned
- Graveyard — Bottom-left pile. Click to view all cards in the graveyard
- Exile — Bottom-right pile. Click to view exiled cards
- Command Zone — Top-center strip showing your commander(s). Commander tax is tracked automatically
Starting a Game
When you open the Playmat, your deck is shuffled and you're presented with your opening hand (7 cards). Choose:
- — Start playing with these 7 cards
- — Shuffle back and draw a new 7. Then put cards on the bottom (London mulligan)
For Commander decks, your commander(s) start in the Command Zone and your life total is automatically set to 40. Other formats start at 20.
Playing Cards
Drag cards from your hand to the battlefield to play them. Once on the battlefield:
- Click to tap or untap
- Right-click (or long-press on mobile) to open the Card Action Overlay — a fullscreen panel with context-sensitive actions
Card Action Overlay
Right-click any card to open its action overlay. Available actions depend on the card's current zone:
- Move to Zone — Battlefield, Graveyard, Exile, Hand, Library (top or bottom), Command Zone
- Tap / Untap — Toggle tap state
- Flip Face Down / Up — Hide or reveal the card
- Add Counter — Choose from 9 numeric counter types (+1/+1, -1/-1, Loyalty, Charge, Verse, Lore, Time, Age, Generic)
- Add Keyword Counter — Add ability counters (Flying, Deathtouch, Hexproof, Indestructible, etc.)
- Clone — Create a copy token of the card
- Remove from Game — Send the card out of play
Library Actions
Right-click the library pile for:
- Scry N — Look at the top N cards, keep or bottom them one by one
- Surveil N — Look at the top N cards, keep or send to graveyard
- Mill N — Send the top N cards to the graveyard
- Search Library — Browse and tutor for any card in the library
- Reveal Top — Flip the top card face-up temporarily
- Shuffle — Randomize the library
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|-----|--------|
| D | Draw a card |
| U | Untap all permanents |
| N | Next turn (untap all + draw + increment turn) |
| S | Shuffle library |
| A | Open Add Card modal |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo last action |
| Ctrl+Shift+Z | Redo |
Shortcuts are disabled while a modal is open or during the mulligan phase.
Player Counters
The Counters Panel (expand from the toolbar) tracks:
- Life — +1, −1, +5, −5 buttons
- Poison counters
- Storm count — Resets to 0 at the start of each turn
- Experience counters
- Mana pool — 6 colored mana buttons (W, U, B, R, G, C), resets each turn
Adding Cards During Play
Press A or use the toolbar to open the Add Card modal. Search by name and add any card directly to the battlefield as a token. You can also create custom tokens with a name, power/toughness, and color.
Undo / Redo
Most actions in the Playmat can be undone. The undo stack holds up to 50 steps. Use Ctrl+Z to undo and Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo.
Game State Persistence
The Playmat saves your game automatically to your browser's local storage. If you close the tab or refresh the page, your game resumes exactly where you left off — same turn, same cards on the battlefield, same life total. Your zoom level is also saved.
The game state is tied to the specific deck. Opening a different deck's Playmat starts a fresh game.
Starting a New Game
Use the button in the toolbar to shuffle your deck and start over from scratch.
Zoom
Zoom the battlefield with the zoom slider in the bottom toolbar or with Ctrl+Scroll (Cmd+Scroll on macOS). The zoom level persists between sessions.
OBS / Streaming Tips
The hand strip can be hidden with — cards in your hand are face-down during dragging so no spoilers appear on stream. The Playmat occupies the full screen with no navigation chrome, making it clean to capture with OBS or any screen recording tool.