It’s time to crack open that piggy bank – and use all of the cash you’ve ever saved – as we check out the most expensive MTG cards!
With a history dating back to its launch in 1993, it stands to reason that there will be some Magic: The Gathering (MTG) cards that are a lot more sought after than others.
After all, the variance in rarity is deliberate in terms of the distribution of cards in booster packs; most packs will have more Common cards than Uncommon, then Rares and finally – if you’re lucky – Mythic Rare cards too.
The most highly sought after – and therefore most costly – cards tend to be at either the Rare or Mythic Rare levels.
Often, they’re chosen as less common by MTG’s designers due to their power; of course, these days it’s easy to collect a set of four Mythic Rares – if you can afford to – thanks to sites such as Cardmarket, eBay and others – but back when MTG was first released, it wasn’t as straightforward to find specific cards in the wild.
Note that we’ve used Cardmarket and current, real listings to gather the information on what are the costliest MTG cards available.
There’s an awful lot of very expensive cards, even though reprints and decent substitutes for card abilities exist these days – but which ones cost the most?
Let’s find out, as we check out the most expensive MTG cards!
1. Black Lotus
Everyone’s heard of the infamous Black Lotus, right?
When most people think of expensive MTG cards, the default card that comes to mind tends to be the Black Lotus; it’s iconic.
That’s likely because it’s been around since the very first Magic: The Gathering set in 1993 – now known as ‘Alpha’ – and is one of the famous ‘Power Nine’ cards.
Banned in just about every format – and restricted even when you are ‘allowed’ to use it – Black Lotus accelerates mana in such a powerful way that, in theory, a player could win the game on their very first turn!
Though you can pick up an Alpha Black Rose for close to £27,000, slabbed versions certified at over 9.0 are listed on Cardmarket’s website for just over £400,000.
A signed version of the card – autographed in person by none other than MTG creator Richard Garfield himself – is listed for the comparatively reasonable price of £157,000!
Numerous other versions of Black Lotus populate the list of the most expensive cards on Cardmarket’s site, but it wouldn’t be any fun to keep seeing the same card popping up over and over again, would it?
So let’s check out what else made the cut for the most expensive MTG cards!
2. Black Round Corner Foil Star Filler Card
The next to make the cut is a card that – if we’re being overly literal – shouldn’t have made the cut at all!
What do I mean by that? Read on, as we check out the story behind this unusual card.
Who could have possibly guessed that the number two spot in this list would be occupied by what is, essentially, a completely blank MTG card?
Yet, that’s what we have here – with the Black Round Corner Foil Star Filler Card.
Currently listed for an astonishing £87,140 on Cardmarket’s website, this card has no function within MTG and is actually a misprint – which wasn’t supposed to be included in a pack at all.
How does this happen, I hear you ask?
Well, MTG cards are printed on sheets of cardboard; when uncut, certain spaces may be filled by these blank cards – which are supposed to be disposed of before the cut cards make their way into boosters.
Of course, sometimes these cards do make their way into packs – and they can often sell for hundreds of dollars, pounds or euros at a time.
This is definitely among the highest price MTG cards on Cardmarket’s site right now – but is it realistic?
It’s not particularly common to see a foil treated filler card, for sure; this is the only black, round corner filler card listed – and to top it all off, there’s also a star printed on the front of the card too, making it even more unusual.
Interestingly, other filler cards are listed, but these are priced at a much more sensible level – between £0.09 and £15 each – though there are still some that run into the hundreds, occasionally thousands, of pounds too.
So perhaps this hundred grand card will naturally drop in price – but for now, it almost makes it to the top spot of the most expensive MTG cards overall!
3. Animate Dead
From the 1994 Summer Magic set, this two-mana card – 1 colorless, 1 Black – has been reprinted so many times that 20 different versions of it exist.
Which means you won’t have to break the bank by purchasing the Summer Magic variant, if it’s the card itself you’re interested in and not the specific version here!
In fact, you can pick up Animate Dead for a few pounds; yet this specific variant will, at the time of writing, set you back a cool £77,457.01 on Cardmarket’s website.
So what’s so special about Animate Dead?
Well, Animate Dead allows you to bring a creature back to the battlefield from either your own, or your opponent’s graveyard – and place it under your control.
It does take a minus one hit on its original power, but this can still result in a very powerful card being placed under your control after it’s been sent to the graveyard!
As for this particular variant being so expensive?
Well, it is the oldest version of the card; given that it’s listed in Near Mint condition, with the Summer Magic Animate Dead card being close to thirty years old, it’s no wonder that it’s more valuable than the vast majority of other cards!
4. Fraternal Exaltation
Only 220 copies of Fraternal Exaltation exist, making it one of the rarest MTG cards ever.
For a cost of four blue mana, you can, well – sometimes it’s best to let the card text speak for itself.
Here’s what the text of Fraternal Exaltation says, word for word:
“Sneak into your parents’ closet to get a deck. Your new brother is joining the game.”
That text is absolutely baffling unless you’re aware of the story behind Fraternal Exaltation’s existence.
According to user BramB on Cardmarket’s site, Fraternal Exaltation was created by Richard Garfield to celebrate the birth of his second child – a boy named Schuyler Garfield.
The same user also notes that the card was only given to close friends and certain Wizards of the Coast employees – so it was never in general circulation.
Naturally, this means that its very high price – listed at around £53,000 by two separate Cardmarket sellers – does feel appropriate to its rarity, especially as no other versions exist.
It isn’t a mechanically useful card to play with, but it is of course quite the collector’s item!
5. Volcanic Island
Another Summer Magic card, Volcanic Island is also a card that’ll hurt your wallet far less if you opt for one of its other reprints.
However, this Red or Blue Land card (an Island Mountain, being both types at the same time – despite only being able to provide one type of mana each turn) is still ludicrously expensive even if you opt for the lowest cost version on offer via Cardmarket.
Volcanic Island’s cheapest variant is the 1993 International Edition card, which will still set you back around £300!
As for that Summer Magic variant though?
The one currently on offer, nestled in-between other variants of Black Lotus – is priced at a sky-high £16,000!
6. Timetwister
Another classic card from the original 1993 Alpha set of Magic: The Gathering, Timetwister can be found at prices ranging between £10,000-£107,000.
Seven versions of Timetwister are available; even though that’s the case, it remains highly sought after – and, therefore, expensive.
The cheapest version of Timetwister available on Cardmarket’s website is listed at just under £700!
Which begs the question: what makes Timetwister so desirable?
Well, this 2 colorless and one blue mana card is astonishingly powerful, especially given that it almost entirely resets the game state.
When Timetwister is played, each player’s deck, hand and graveyard cards are shuffled together, then a new hand is drawn.
If you’ve lost valuable cards already, it’s a hail mary that can be really effective.
Even if you haven’t, used wisely this can entirely disrupt your opponent’s plans – and give you entirely new options too!
7. Wheel of Fortune
Summer Magic seems to find itself mentioned quite a bit in this list of the most expensive MTG cards – with this particular version of Wheel of Fortune being from the 1994 set too.
This 2 colorless, one red mana Sorcery card forces all players to discard their hands and draw seven new cards.
Though it’s listed for close to £10,500, this card can actually be purchased much cheaper – thanks to numerous reprint versions that are also available.
In fact, an English-language, standard-sized version of Wheel of Fortune is listed as low as £130 on Cardmarket’s site!
Though that is of course a significant amount of money for a single card, it’s a very far cry from the £10k+ of its most expensive version!
8. Ancestral Recall
For the cost of just one blue mana, you can either draw three cards or force your opponent to draw three cards with Ancestral Recall.
Widely known as one of the most powerful cards in the game, eight versions of Ancestral Recall exist – with prices starting at £460.
Yet of course, we’re looking at the most expensive MTG cards – and Ancestral Recall’s priciest version – from the 1993 Alpha set, perhaps unsurprisingly, starts at nearly £10,000, going all the way up to nearly £45k for a graded copy of this incredibly powerful, highly sought after card!
9. Mox Pearl
Seven versions of Mox Pearl exist, though its most expensive printing is from the 1993 Alpha set of Magic: The Gathering.
So, what gives Mox Pearl such enduring appeal – and therefore keeps its value high?
Well, Mox Pearl adds one white mana when tapped; all but two versions of the card specify that tapping Mox Pearl can be played as an interrupt too.
It’s not a Land; instead, Mox Pearl is actually an Artifact card.
It also has zero mana cost to play – so in theory, it can accelerate your available mana hugely in the early game, at least if you build multiple copies of the card into your deck and draw them quickly.
Having multiple copies of Mox Pearl in your deck is likely to be a very costly endeavour, however; even in its lowest cost form, it’ll set you back at least £260!
Yet of course, we’re not here to explore the cheapest printings of expensive MTG cards – so what’s the damage if you are looking to get yourself the priciest copy of Mox Pearl?
Well, the Alpha version starts at close to £9k, but is on offer for nearly £35,000 at the highest end of the price scale!
We knew pearls could be pretty valuable, but this is something else!
10. Shivan Dragon
One of the most iconic cards in Magic: The Gahering’s three decade history, Shivan Dragon has been a mainstay in an incredible number of sets.
It’s so widely reprinted that there are 40 different versions of Shivan Dragon available at this point!
So naturally, it’s hardly due to its rarity that Shivan Dragon can prove to be very expensive.
In fact, if you want to get hold of Shivan Dragon in order to use it in your deck, rather than as a collector’s piece or investment, you can pick it up in any number of reprint versions for a few pennies.
Yet of course, as it was one of the very first Magic: The Gathering cards, it did appear in the 1993 Alpha set.
It’s this version of Shivan Dragon – which costs four colorless and two red mana card to play, giving yourself a 5/5 Flying creature; it can also get a +1/+0 bonus each turn, if you pay one red mana to do so – that can fetch ridiculously high prices.
At the lower end of the scale for this version, you’d be looking to pay not too far off £3,500.
Yet for a highly graded Shivan Dragon card from the Alpha set, prices go as high as just over £11,000!
Not bad for a thirty year old card that’s almost endlessly available in numerous, frequent printings.
Do you own any of the most expensive MTG cards? Or do you have any highly sought after, high value cards in your collection? Let us know on our social media pages!
