Feature
TurnZero HQ keeps two different clocks for two different jobs: a running turn clock during an ordinary Commander game, and a dedicated round timer built for a draft night's Swiss rounds, where time being up is not the same as the round being over.
There are really two different problems hiding under "timing a game." An ordinary Commander pod just wants some sense of pace: how long is this turn actually taking, how long has the game been going. A draft night running actual timed rounds needs something else entirely: a real tournament clock, because a Swiss round has a rule about what happens when time runs out and an evening's worth of rounds to get through.
Most casual groups solve the second problem by pulling out a generic phone timer and setting it for fifty minutes. That works right up until it hits zero, alarms, and everyone stops playing mid-combat, because a countdown app has no idea that Magic's own rule is to finish the current turn and then play five more.
TurnZero HQ doesn't try to make one clock do both jobs. It keeps two, and each one is built for the game it actually sits inside.
The in-game turn clock: running on every live game, visible on the active player's seat. It's simple and always on: a sense of how long a turn is taking, with nothing to configure. A Pause Game option freezes it locally on that device for a genuine mid-game break.
The draft round clock: a separate timer built specifically for a draft night's Swiss rounds. It's startable independently from when pairings go up, adjustable in either direction mid-round, and it counts up past zero instead of stopping, because a round running long is a normal part of a real tournament round.
That independence matters for the round clock specifically. Pairings go up, players still have to find their seats and shuffle up, and starting the clock the instant pairings are generated would eat into the room's actual playing time while people are still walking to their tables. A judge or organizer starts it once the room is actually ready to play, and can nudge it a few minutes in either direction afterward, which covers the two things that happen at every real tournament: a ruling that ate some time, or a table that started late.
Magic's actual tournament rule for a round running out of time isn't "stop playing." It's finish the turn currently in progress, then play five more full turns before the round ends. That rule exists so a match that's still being decided doesn't get cut off arbitrarily the instant a clock hits zero: it gives both players a real, bounded chance to finish what they started.
A timer that simply alarms and stops at zero is worse than no timer at all for a round played by that rule, because it tells the table the round is over when it isn't. TurnZero HQ's round clock keeps that distinction straight: it counts up past zero rather than stopping, and nothing about the timer itself ends the round or reports a result. A person still has to actually call it: the clock's job is to make the time visible, not to make the ruling.
Casual pods who just want a running sense of pace during an ordinary Commander game
Organizers running an actual multi-round draft night who need a timer that understands Swiss round conventions
Judges and TOs who need to adjust a round for a ruling without losing track of where the clock actually stands
No, and it's not supposed to. The draft round clock counts up past zero rather than stopping or alarming: Magic's own tournament rule is finish the turn in progress, then play five more full turns, and only a person at the table can actually call the round over.
Nothing ends. The clock keeps running, now counting up, so everyone can see how far past time the round is. That's the moment to start counting the five extra turns Magic's rules give a round that runs long, not the moment to stop playing.
Yes. The round clock can be adjusted in either direction by a few minutes mid-round, which covers the ordinary reasons a round needs it: a judge ruling that ate a few minutes, or a slow start while the last table finished sitting down.
Pause Game freezes the running turn clock locally on that device, for a genuine mid-game break. It's built for an ordinary Commander game taking a breather, not for coordinating a stop across a whole draft event; that's what the dedicated round clock is for.
Both exist, and they're deliberately different tools. Every live game in TurnZero HQ has a running turn clock on the active player's seat for a simple sense of pace. The dedicated round clock is separate, and it's built specifically around Swiss round conventions for draft nights.
A turn clock for ordinary Commander games, and a tournament-aware round clock for draft night. Free to start.
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