About CardForge

What CardForge is

CardForge is a web app for building, saving, and sharing Pokémon TCG decklists. You can search the full card database, check your list against Standard and Expanded legality, see how it compares to decks that are actually winning tournaments, simulate your opening hands, and export straight to Pokémon TCG Live.

Most of it is free and always will be. Card data, card images, tournament data, deck building, sharing, the Battle Journal and the hand simulator don’t sit behind a paywall. Most of it works without an account too; the Battle Journal needs a free one so it has somewhere to keep your results.

Who builds it

One developer, Dan Ryan Chan, working evenings and weekends. CardForge started as a closed friends-and-family beta, opened sign-ups to everyone on 9 June 2026 and launched publicly on 1 July 2026. There’s no company behind it and no investors, which is worth knowing because it explains the pace: features ship when they’re ready rather than on a roadmap somebody promised a board.

It also means feedback goes straight to the person who writes the code. The fastest route is the contact page.

How it pays for itself

Servers, the database, and the AI models cost money every month. Two things cover that. CardForge shows ads to visitors who aren’t subscribers, and CardForge Pro is a paid tier that removes those ads and unlocks the AI features built on top of the free tools.

Pro pays for what CardForge builds: card suggestions, matchup analysis, strategy guides, consistency recommendations and coaching on your own logged games. It has never been a charge for access to Pokémon card data, and it won’t become one.

An unofficial fan project

CardForge is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Nintendo, The Pokémon Company International, Creatures Inc., or GAME FREAK inc. Pokémon and all related names and images belong to their respective owners. Full details are in the fan-content notice.