It’s time to grab your deck and fully kit yourself out – as we check out the best MTG accessories!
Thanks to the ongoing popularity and success of the now three-decade-old Magic: The Gathering (or MTG), the market for accessories to assist players with their game, as well as keep their cards safe and in great condition, is absolutely huge.
There’s a bewildering number of different types of accessories out there – but which would Card Gamer recommend you pick up?
Let’s find out, as we check out the best MTG accessories!
1. Quiver Citadel Deck Block
Once you’ve become an MTG player, the need for a deck box becomes very quickly apparent.
Your collection grows, you build your deck – and you need somewhere to store that special set of 60 cards straight away!
Though there are plenty of options when it comes to deck boxes – in a massive range of prices and features, at varying levels of quality – we’re obviously here to discuss the best MTG accessories, so here’s the best deck box we’ve ever had the pleasure of using!
The Quiver Citadel Deck Block has it all.
It’s incredibly solid – and it keeps your cards safe and secure with a soft interior and even a magnetised, fully removable cover.
That’s not all though.
Every little feature on the Citadel Deck Block has clearly been added by card game enthusiasts, for card game enthusiasts.
A glow in the dark label (that can be wiped clean if you change the contents), space for tokens and dice with a clear plastic divider that ensures any oddly shaped objects won’t damage your cards and even an elastic band to strap around the case, just on the off chance that you don’t think its strong magnets are enough to do the job in keeping it closed.
It even allows for you to orient the cards to use as a draw deck during play – and it’ll hold at least 100 cards, so you can use it for standard format MTG, with room for a sideboard, or even for your 100 card Commander deck!
In our opinion, the Quiver Citadel Deck Block really is the very best deck box currently available – though it’s obviously more expensive than many generic brand boxes, it’s surprisingly cost effective given how long it’ll last you.
It’s an accessory that any MTG player will find themselves using for years to come, you should also check out the Quiver Card Case too!
2. TitanShield Premium Card Sleeves
Though a deck box is an essential purchase for any serious MTG player’s deck, card sleeves are incredibly important too – for an entire collection, not just a single deck of cards!
There are many great brands of sleeves and, just like deck boxes, can come in varying levels of quality.
Penny sleeves have their place, particularly for common or Land cards in your MTG collection, but they are definitely too thin and flimsy for most players to actually use during their MTG games.
Despite using a wide variety of card sleeves in the last few decades – with Ultra Pro, Mint Keeper and Dragon Shield being some of my favourite brands – my current go to brand and sleeve type are these TitanShield Premium Card Sleeves.
They feel robust, well made and they’re reliable too; it’s rare that you’ll find any in a pack that aren’t usable due to manufacturing faults.
The front side of the sleeve has a slight gloss finish, with the rear having a matt, textured look that stops the cards from sliding around once they’re put together in a deck.
Even better is the fact that you can purchase these sleeves in 150-sleeve packs at a price that some higher end card sleeve brands charge for just 50 or 60 sleeves!
For the cost per sleeve and the overall quality, we feel that the TitanShield Premium Sleeves are the best value sleeves available – which is why we’ve made sure they’re on the best MTG accessories list!
3. Paramint Stitched Play Mat
So you’ve sleeved your cards, you’ve got them into a deck box – what about making sure you’re not exposing them to any unsavoury surfaces when you’re out and about on your MTG adventures?
For that, you’ll need a play mat.
I’m a big advocate for play mats personally; so often, you’re forced to play on tabletops full of crumbs or coffee mug rings – there’s little that triggers the very specific anxieties of MTG players more than an unclean table.
So carrying your own play mat with you is priceless – and Paramint make some of the most beautiful and well made mats you’ll find.
The one we’ve chosen to take a look at reveals our love for Lord of the Rings in general, as well as our excitement for Tolkien’s rich world coming to MTG.
So, gorgeous design aside, what’s so special about the Paramint play mat?
Well, they undoubtedly look and feel like reliable, well made accessories – with stitched edges on the polyester top and a non-slip rubber underside.
The 24” by 14” size gives you plenty of space for those MTG games where your spellslinging gets a little out of control too!
4. MTG Token Dice
So you’ve got tons of bonuses (and penalties, perhaps) stacking up on different cards – or perhaps you just don’t have that 1/1 token card to hand during a game.
So what’s an easy way to keep track of – as well as adjust – all of these bonuses, penalties or tokens during play?
These dice are the answer to that particularly perplexing problem.
Though they can be purchased in a variety of quantities and colours, we find the black and white options to be the most readable – and with 36 dice in a pack, they’re also the best value too.
Got a 1/1 bonus that increases every turn? Just place one of these dice on your card and increase the number every turn – simple!
The same applies for any reductions to your Power and Toughness too, with the black dice providing negative numbers from -1/-1 to -6-6.
It’s a bit disappointing that no token dice we’ve found seem to offer asymmetrical Power and Toughness numbers (such as +1/+0, as found on the iconic Shivan Dragon – which you’ll also find on our list of the most expensive MTG cards), but they’re admittedly rarer than the bonuses and penalties that are symmetrical in nature.
Nonetheless, these are a fantastic and often overlooked accessory for MTG players!
5. d20 Dice
Another MTG accessory that’s a no brainer once you’ve thought of it – but less than obvious before you do – is the humble icosahedron more commonly known as the d20.
If you’re wondering just why we’re recommending twenty-sided dice for a completely diceless game (though just like the token dice we’ve already covered, there are numerous uses for dice in MTG – as you can see on our best dice for MTG list), we’ll explain.
As you’ll already – no doubt – be well aware, in a standard format game of MTG, each player has a life point total of 20; the aim of the game being to reduce your opponent to zero life points.
These are usually – and, admittedly, easily – tracked using pencil and paper, but a great way to track these, that’s both visually clear and very tactile, is by using twenty sided dice.
Though you’ll only need one per player, it’s a great idea to just stock up on them; it’s easy enough to lose one d20, after all – but losing 42 brightly coloured twenty sided dice, especially if they’re stored in a black, velvety dice bag?
Well, this way you’ll certainly never need to buy another d20 again – which is what I told myself twenty years ago after stocking up on dice and, well, here I am stillcollecting polyhedral dice like a dragon hoarding gold coins.
So there you have it – our picks for the top five accessories to make your MTG kit the envy of your Friday Night Magic game!
Got any suggestions or ideas of your own with regards to the MTG accessories you just can’t do without? Hit us up on social media and share your recommendations with the world!
