Magic: The Gathering has been running for literal decades, and while reprints will always keep making harder-to-find cards a little easier to collect, there are some cards so rare that they become almost like urban legend.
There are cards worth thousands, for example, but there are also cards worth millions, from wild serialized, one-of-a-kind prints like The One Ring (famously purchased by Post Malone) to cards like Time Walk, which were so powerful they’ve been banned.
Below, you’ll find some of the priciest cards around, marking some of the rarest in the game’s history.
Magic: The Gathering’s Rarest Cards Of All Time
10 – Time Walk (Alpha)
Magic: The Gathering Time Walk
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A card from the game’s Alpha Edition, Time Walk has sold for around $25,000 and offered an extra turn for a measly two mana, meaning it was banned pretty swiftly.
It’s not legal in any format, but for collectors it’s a piece of Magic history regardless, forming part of the ‘Power 9’ (more on those shortly).
9 – Euroakus
A card so rare that TCGPlayer doesn’t have it, Euroakus was a Heroes of the Realm card awarded to Wizards’ European Team in 2020.
Heroes of the Realm cards are given to Wizards employees, with their name printed. As Wargamer explains, one of these Euroakus cards was sold for $25,200 in 2022, but the name was blurred out.
8 – Phoenix Heart
Magic: The Gathering Phoenix Heart
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Phoenix Heart might not be legal (it doesn’t actually have an effect), but it’s very sweet. Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering, has the card printed to celebrate his wedding to Koni Kim and send it out among the wedding invites.
It’s previously sold for $27,500, which is even better than an open bar at a wedding if you ask us.
7 – Splendid Genesis
Magic: The Gathering Splendid Genesis
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Richard Garfield commemorated the birth of his first child with this neat card. Splendid Genesis reads, “Shuffle all cards in the game together and deal them into three decks. The game continues with a new player.”
Naturally, it serves no gameplay purpose, but it’s a wholesome card that still fetched around $72,000 at auction in 2022. Only 110 were printed.
6 – Timetwister
Magic: The Gathering Timetwister
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Remember when we mentioned the ‘Power 9’ earlier? Here’s another, and yes, it’s banned.
Timetwister puts your hand, library, and graveyard together and lets you draw another hand of seven cards. Essentially resetting your deck (and your opponents) while leaving the board state as it is – a neat trick, and one that someone paid $84,000 for.
5 – Lord of the Pit
Magic: The Gathering Lord of the Pit
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Demon decks are all the rage these days, but Lord of the Pit was one of the first. It’s a 7/7 with Flying and Trample that does damage to its owner unless they sacrifice a creature.
While it’s sold for as high as $105,000 in the past, there are reprints. In fact, you can grab one for under 50 cents on TCGPlayer.
4 – Mox Opal
Magic: The Gathering Mox Opal
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There are five ‘Moxes’ included in the ‘Power 9’ (scroll down for the full list), and while the effect of adding a single mana may seem a little tame, it’s a powerful ramp in the early turns.
It’s been sold for $108,000 in the past, but we can’t find it on TCGPlayer. Instead, a newer version (which taps for any color but requires multiple artifacts be in play) is available instead. It’ll cost you $160, mind.
3 – Autographed Black Lotus
The iconic Black Lotus pops up on this list twice, with an autographed version signed by its illustrator, Christopher Rush, going for around $511k.
And yet, Post Malone claims to have bought a similarly signed one for $800k, and that brings us nicely to…
2 – One of One Ring
While some purists felt the chase of a single ‘one of one’ version of The One Ring made the game of Magic more of a sideshow to a Willy Wonka-esque spectacle, it’s become legendary.
The card was found and sold to Post Malone for around $2 million, although there have been suggestions it was higher than $2.5 million. You can buy one of the more commonly available ones for your collection for around $70 if you’re keen.
Magic: The Gathering The One Ring
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1 – Black Lotus
Magic: The Gathering Black Lotus
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The only card that’s sold for more than the ‘One of One Ring’ is a Black Lotus card in pristine condition, sans autograph.
A private buyer snapped up a Pristine 10 graded version of the iconic card for $3 million in 2024, making this the most expensive Magic: The Gathering card. You can buy a ‘moderately played’ version right now for $79k.
A quick glance on eBay shows a fair few for sale still, but in varying graded conditions.
Can You Still Pack The Rarest Magic: The Gathering Cards?
Sure, you could, but your chances are astronomically low. Many of the cards on this list haven’t been printed for years, and while there are still valuable cards to find in packs (we’ve got a rundown of the most valuable ones in Edge of Eternities), you’d have to find a super dusty old pack to get some of the cards on this page.
That makes the secondary market the only option for collectors.
Magic: The Gathering’s Power 9 Explained
We’ve referred to the ‘Power 9’ in this list a few times, so here’s every entry, and their effects.
Black Lotus
Adds 3 mana of any single color of your choice to your mana pool, then is discarded. Tapping this artifact can be played as an interrupt.
The Mox: Emerald, Jet, Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire
Add 1 [color] mana to your mana pool. Tapping this artifact can be played as an interrupt.
Ancestral Recall
Draw 3 cards or force opponent to draw 3 cards.
Timetwister
Set Timetwister aside in a new graveyard pile. Shuffle your hand, library, and graveyard together into a new library and draw a new hand of seven cards, leaving all cards in play where they are; opponent must do the same.
Time Walk
Take an extra turn after this one.
The Power 9 were found in the Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets of Magic: The Gathering.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
