Guide

Magic: The Gathering MCP: Ask Your Commander Decks Anything

Connect TurnZero to Claude or ChatGPT and your Commander history becomes something you can talk to. Ask who beats you most. Hand it a struggling deck and get five cuts with reasons. Say yes, and it makes the change. Setup takes about a minute and you never hand over a password.

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What a Magic: The Gathering MCP server actually is

MCP — the Model Context Protocol — is an open standard for handing an AI app a set of tools it can call on your behalf. A Magic: The Gathering MCP server is one that exposes Magic data through that standard. TurnZero's exposes your data: the decks you've built, every game you've logged, each deck's rating over time, and your head-to-head record against the people you actually play with.

The practical difference is that you stop pasting decklists into a chat window. You ask a question, the assistant reads the real numbers out of your account, and — if you say yes — writes the change back. It's the difference between an AI guessing about a deck and an AI that can see it went 3–9 last month.

What you need

A TurnZero account you sign into with an email and password.

An AI app that supports custom connectors. Claude and ChatGPT both do, as do Cursor and other developer tools. Custom connectors are usually a paid-plan feature — check yours if the option isn't there.

That's it. Nothing to install, no key to copy, no config file to edit.

Connecting

https://api.turnzerohq.com/mcp
1

Copy the TurnZero address

The MCP server lives at https://api.turnzerohq.com/mcp. That single URL is the whole configuration — there is no API key to generate and no config file to edit.

2

Add it as a custom connector

Every app puts this in a slightly different place, but it's always a screen that asks for a server address. In Claude it's Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. In ChatGPT it's Settings → Connectors → Create, or under developer settings. In Cursor it's Settings → MCP → Add new MCP server. Add it once on the web and it follows you to your phone.

3

Sign in and approve

A TurnZero page opens in your browser listing exactly what's being asked for. Sign in with your usual email and password, then approve. You land back where you started, connected.

Your password stays with TurnZero

You type it on a TurnZero page, never into the AI app. What the app receives is a key that only works for your account, that you can cancel whenever you like, and that expires on its own.

Start here

Once it's connected, just ask — in whichever app you connected. It already knows which account is yours, and the questions below work the same everywhere.

Try

What are my decks, and how has each one been doing?

If that comes back with your list, everything works. Now the interesting part.

Know your numbers

The record you'd have to scroll three screens to work out, in one question.

Try

How did I do this month? Which deck is carrying me and which one is dragging?

Try

Who in my playgroup do I lose to most, and what's my record against them?

That second one is worth asking before you sit down. Head-to-head is tracked per opponent, so it can tell you you're 2–7 against one specific person — which is the kind of thing you feel but rarely confirm.

Which stats are worth tracking in the first place →

Fix a deck that isn't working

This is the one to try first. It can read the whole list, and it can save changes back — so the conversation ends with the deck actually updated.

Try

My Atraxa deck has gone 3–9 lately. Pull up the list and suggest five cuts and five adds, and tell me why for each.

Read the reasoning, argue with it, ask for cheaper swaps. When you're happy:

Then

Make those changes.

The edit is saved as a new version of the deck with a record of exactly what went in and out. The old list isn't overwritten — you can always look back at what it was.

Find out if a change actually helped

Every edit is dated and its games are counted against it, so "is this better?" has a real answer instead of a feeling.

Try

I reworked the mana base on Krenko a few weeks ago. Has it made any difference?

It compares the record before and after, alongside how the deck's rating moved game by game.

What a deck rating actually measures →

Add a deck without typing it out

Try

Import this list and set it up as a new deck: moxfield.com/decks/…

It reads the list, shows you the commander and card count to confirm, then creates it. A pasted text list works the same way. If you keep editing on Moxfield, ask it to re-sync and it'll pull across whatever changed.

Building from physical cards instead? Use the card scanner →

Get a bracket read

Try

What bracket is my Krenko deck, and what would move it up one?

You get a tier from Exhibition through cEDH, what the deck is actually trying to do to win, and upgrades at both a competitive and a budget price. Deck reviews are a premium feature.

All five brackets, bracket by bracket →

Tidy up

The small admin nobody opens an app for.

Try

Archive anything I haven't played since last year.

Archiving hides a deck from your active list. It keeps the deck and its whole history, and you can bring it back any time.

Getting better answers

Ask before you approve. "Explain the cuts before you change anything" gets you reasoning first. It checks with you before saving anything either way.

Say what to keep. When it rewrites a decklist it writes the whole list at once, so "swap these three and leave everything else alone" is worth saying out loud.

Give it the record. "This deck loses to fast combo" gets far better suggestions than "make this better".

Check its work. Ask it to show the list after an edit. It's reading real data, but it's still worth a glance.

What it won't do

Log your games. Recording results still happens in the TurnZero app — this reads your history, it doesn't write to it.

Touch anyone else's account. It can only ever see yours. There's no way to ask it about another player's decks.

Delete anything. Decks archive rather than disappear, and editing a list adds a version instead of overwriting one.

Break down individual cards. It reasons from your list and your overall record, not from per-card win rates.

If something goes wrong

What you seeWhat to do
Email and password not recognisedIf you normally sign in with Google or Apple, your account has no password yet. Set one with a password reset, then try again.
“No TurnZero profile for it yet”Open the TurnZero app once to finish setting up your account, then reconnect.
It can't find your decksAsk it to list your decks first. If that comes back empty, you're signed into a different account than you expected.
Connection stopped workingRemove the connector and add it again. Connections expire after a stretch of not being used.
Your app won't add the connectorCustom connectors are usually limited to paid plans, and some apps keep them behind a developer or beta setting. Check both before assuming the address is wrong.

Disconnecting

Open Connected apps in your TurnZero account settings to see everything you've connected, when each was last used, and cut any of them off. Access stops immediately. Nothing in your account changes — you just take the key back.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Magic: The Gathering MCP server?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting an AI app to an outside service. A Magic: The Gathering MCP server exposes Magic data — in TurnZero's case your own Commander decks, game results, and head-to-head records — as tools an assistant like Claude or ChatGPT can call. Instead of copying a decklist into a chat window, you ask a question and the assistant reads the real data from your account.

How do I connect TurnZero to Claude or ChatGPT?

Add https://api.turnzerohq.com/mcp as a custom connector in your AI app, then sign in with your TurnZero email and password on the TurnZero page that opens and approve the request. Setup takes about a minute. Custom connectors are usually a paid-plan feature in the AI app itself.

Does the AI app get my TurnZero password?

No. You type your password on a TurnZero page, never into the AI app. What the app receives is an access token scoped to your account that expires on its own and that you can revoke at any time from Connected apps in your TurnZero settings.

Can it see other players' decks or stats?

No. Every tool acts on the account that authorised the connection, and none of them takes another player's identifier. It can report your record against a given opponent, because that head-to-head is part of your own game history, but it cannot open anyone else's decks or stats.

Can it actually change my decks, or only read them?

It can do both, but it always confirms with you before writing. Deck edits are saved as a new version with a record of exactly what went in and out, so the old list is never overwritten. Decks archive rather than delete, and nothing can be permanently removed through the connector.

Can it log my games for me?

No — recording results still happens in the TurnZero app. The MCP connection reads your game history and acts on your decks; it doesn't write new game results.

Your decks are only as smart as the record behind them.

TurnZero tracks every game, every deck, and every head-to-head — then hands the whole thing to Claude or ChatGPT when you want to talk it through. Free to start.

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