32-Year Old Magic: The Gathering Mystery Finally Solved

Last updated on November 18, 2025

Wedding Festivity | Illustration by Caroline Gariba

How many people can honestly say they've made a marriage proposal with a Magic: The Gathering card? Not like, married to the game, but literally popping the question using a good old-fashioned (literally) piece of MTG cardboard? Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering, can certainly make that claim. In fact, he had a one-of-a-kind card created just to do exactly that.

It's been a bit of an enigma in the Magic community for over 30 years, but the art on the obscure Proposal card is finally public, for better or worse.

A 32-Year Old Secret

Wedding Ring | Illustration by Olena Richards

Here's how the story goes (and full credit to Ben Bateman for explaining many of the details).

In 1993, Richard Garfield, creator of Magic, proposed to his soon-to-be-wife using a manufactured card called Proposal, which was created using actual commissioned art from old school Magic artist Quinton Hoover. Nine copies of the card were created, the real version for Garfield himself, and eight dummy copies that were given to friends and family. The gifted versions came with the stipulation that Mr. & Mrs. Garfield didn't want the art to be publicly displayed, presumably for privacy reasons since their likenesses appear in the art.

Magic players have known about the card for 30+ years now (it was created the year Magic debuted), but if you ever searched for it, you were likely met with this image:

And up until very recently, the Garfields' wishes were respected and the art was kept under wraps by the recipients of the other version. Fastforward to 2025, 32 years later, and the original art has finally been revealed.

While none of the Proposal cards themselves were leaked to the public, a recent Heritage Auctions post for a wedding invitation made the art publicly available for the first time. The wedding invitation is the actual item up for auction later this year, not the card, but the invitation includes a full image of the card on its front page.

Indescent Proposal

Bind to Secrecy | Illustration by David Astruga

As cool as it is to finally see this art after so many years, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. Copies of this card were created and distributed with the understanding that the art wouldn't be made public, and while it's a surprise that the art wasn't leaked any sooner than this, it's still at least a little bit disappointing to see the promise broken so many years later.

That said, it's not clear who put the item up for auction, or if it was even one of the original recipients. It's just as likely that some relative or other inheritor of the invitation did this independently of the people Garfield gifted these cards to. There's no proof of ill intent here, and the card may be up for auction by someone who's not even aware of the original arrangement with this card art.

But the art is in fact public now, to the point where you can even Scryfall search it with the proper image. It's not exactly a mystery anymore, even if it was originally meant to be, and if you're curious to check it out for yourself, you can do so here:

That's one Unsolved Magic Mystery now officially put to rest, even if the circumstances might be a bit disappointing.