PTCG Live stats: what the game tracks, and what a match tracker adds

PTCG Live now keeps a basic record for each of your decks: wins and losses, counted for you, with nothing to set up. If the question is "is this deck winning on ladder?", that answers it, and for plenty of players that's enough.

The questions that decide what you register for a Regional are narrower. Which matchups is this deck losing? Did the change you made last week help? Do your ladder results hold up at a table? Those need more than a per-deck total, and that's the gap a match tracker fills.

What PTCG Live's stats cover

The in-game stats count the matches you play in PTCG Live, grouped by deck. They're automatic, they need no upkeep, and they cost you nothing. Use them.

They also stop where the game stops. A deck's record in PTCG Live is one total, so it can't tell you who the wins and losses came against. Edit the list and you're still adding to the same total, so a change can't be judged on its own. And the paper matches you play at Locals, a Cup or a Regional were never in the client to begin with.

One record across Ladder, Locals and Regionals

A match tracker keeps every match in one place, whatever it was played on. In DeckSequence a PTCG Live match goes in by pasting its battle log, which also gives you a turn-by-turn replay, and a paper match takes a few taps between rounds: result, who went first, prizes each side had left, and the opponent's deck. Tournaments are tracked round by round, and their matches land in the same history.

Each match carries its environment, such as PTCG Live, Locals or Regionals, and every number can be filtered by it. That lets you check whether a list that's winning on ladder is winning at the table too, which is the comparison PTCG Live can't make, because it only ever sees half of it.

Win rate by matchup

A deck's overall win rate blends every opponent together. It can sit at a respectable figure while you lose almost every match against the one deck most likely to be at the top tables.

Win rate by matchup splits the record by the opponent's deck. In DeckSequence you name the opponent's deck yourself when you log the match, and matches under the same name count as one matchup. Nothing guesses the archetype for you, so reuse the same names and the grouping stays clean. The matchup spread then shows your record and win rate against each opponent deck, with a small-sample marker on the ones that don't have enough matches behind them yet. Take that marker seriously: a matchup needs far more matches than a deck before its number means much.

Win rate by deck version

Lists change. You cut two Iono for two Super Rod, add a tech for the deck that's been beating you, take it out again a week later. If all of that goes into one record, you can never tell which list earned it.

DeckSequence saves each change as a new version of the deck. The change is recorded as a mutation, like +2 Super Rod / −2 Iono, and the version number moves up, v1.3 to v1.4. Every match you log belongs to the version you played, and saving a new version never moves matches you already logged. So each version keeps its own record, and Compare Versions puts two of them side by side, matchup by matchup.

Card usage from your battle logs

Pasted battle logs carry one more thing PTCG Live doesn't summarise: what each card actually did. Across your logs, DeckSequence counts how often each card in the list was seen, meaning it reached your hand where the log names it, and how often it was played. A card that's seen often and played rarely is the first one to look at when you need a slot.

What it costs

Logging is free: PTCG Live and paper matches, replays, decks and their versions, tournaments, and your overall and per-deck record. That's already more than the in-game total, because it's one record across every place you play. Pro adds the cuts that turn the record into decisions: win rate and record by matchup, by deck version with head-to-head comparison, and card usage. Every new account starts with a Pro trial, no card needed.

If you're on ladder at a computer, the web app is the quickest place to paste a log. Sign up on the web, add the list you're playing, and log your next match. If you've never copied a battle log before, here's how to export one.