The 48 Best Playtest Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 10, 2026

Do-Over | Illustrated by Madison Mosley

I’ve always been a big fan of Magic’s goofier designs, which they reserve for non-legal cards like the silver-border Un-sets. These cards usually play with established Magic rules in a fun way that is a real treat for ardent fans and even bring back old mechanics that will likely never get printed on legal cards again. If you’re looking for cards with unique and sometimes silly designs, Magic’s crop of playtest cards are likely perfect for you.

Because playtest cards are a mixed bag, this ranking may be even more subjective than normal. I tried to include a variety of cards that I think are good, fun cards, and ones that are just cute or funny jokes. I also tried to prioritize ones that you might actually play with. This means I excluded cards with rules specific to certain events, and I tried to prioritize cards that I thought Commander playgroups would approve of during Rule 0 discussions.

What Are Playtest Cards in MTG?

Experimental Frenzy | Illustration by Simon Dominic

There are two distinct groups of playtest cards in Magic: the ones available in Mystery Booster and Mystery Booster 2, and the ones used as part of Gavin Verhey’s Unknown Event at MagicCon. Because the Unknown Event cards are tailored to the specific environment of their respective events, you will see less of them on this list. That said, some have enough general applications that I've included them.

#48. Banding Sliver

This may be a controversial take, but I don’t hate banding. While I completely understand why it can be a confusing mechanic, now that I understand how it works, I think it’s also a very useful one. Because of that, Banding Sliver is a card I’d love to be able to include in my sliver decks.

Sliver decks often have some disposable creatures that would allow you to attack as a band and keep the attackers you need alive. When all of your creatures have banding, you can also create multiple bands, giving you even more control over how you attack and how your opponents block.

#47. Blustering Barnyard

Blustering Barnyard is…. really weird. This card got me at “pretend it works on a land.” It’s like a warning: You probably don’t understand what this card does or its correct ruling. The idea here is that if you storm off, you can either discard this card by paying 5 mana to get many “Bloomburrow paw” symbols and spend them on tokens, or you can play many copies of the land, but you’ll lose more life the more Barnyards you have. Points for fun and novelty, though.

#46. Barry’s Land

Barry's Land is an interesting little piece of Magic history. It was created by Mark Rosewater back in 2000 for Invasion to create a new basic land type that would work in tandem with domain abilities. The card is named after domain’s creator, Barry Reich.

While the card never ended up getting printed in a legal set – in large part thanks to the introduction of Wastes – thanks to being printed in Mystery Booster, you can now get your hands on a piece of Magic history. It’s also a good addition to a domain deck or a cute alternative to Wastes in a colorless deck.

#45. One with Death

When I saw One with Death printed, my immediate thought was, awesome, how do I break this? Though the answers are a little less creative than I had hoped, it can still be a lot of fun to cast One with Death followed by a Sudden Substitution. Alternatively, if Hive Mind is on the field, you can cast it, which will put a copy of it on the stack for each other player above your own.

#44. Aggressive Crag

I think Aggressive Crag is an interesting form of quick mana fixing. You get the colors you need from it right away, but it still has a downside by forcing you to use that mana between your untap step and combat step. I have a few Boros decks that wouldn’t mind having mana that can only be used earlier in the turn, and I would still rather play this than a vanilla tap land.

#43. Chicago Loop

Chicago Loop is actually nice as a start your engines card that lets you do something with your speed once you reach max, and it also gives you the tools to return to max speed after that. Now you can think of speed as something that also ramps and color fixes. And it has an activated ability, so you can use it as a control wincon. All tokens Chicago Loop creates have evasion, so it helps you boost your speed, too.

#42. Second City

Second City is neat land to play in decks that want to cast two spells a turn, AKA the flurry deck. Your payoff is huge as a Food token that also draws a card when you crack it – almost like a food–clue, or something.

#41. Hidetsugu’s Poison Rite

Decks using poison counters are typically focused on quickly eliminating opponents, making Hidetsugu's Poison Rite a perfect addition. Not only will it help you eliminate a player faster, it can also take out players who assume they’re safe. Maybe they won’t block all your creatures, allowing themselves to get seven poison counters, thinking they’re safe from another three. Having a trick like this up your sleeve isn’t a bad backup plan if you can’t get more poison damage through or proliferate.

#40. A Girl and Her Dogs

A Girl and Her Dogs can be a great asset for a legends matter deck, and it also creates a minigame for you. You have to keep coming up with unique dog names each turn, which can be a fun challenge.

#39. Emrakul and Chatterfang

For a long time, Magic players have joked that Emrakul can’t be that strong if she can be beat by 15 squirrels. What they should have really been concerned about is how powerful Emrakul would be if she teamed up with those 15 squirrels, as seen on Emrakul and Chatterfang.

This legendary team-up isn’t just a running joke, but also a very powerful card. Yes, it takes a lot of mana to cast, but you can also immediately generate an additional 15 mana after casting it. If you’re running this card as your Golgari commander, that means even if your opponent counters it the first time, you can just sacrifice the squirrels from your cast trigger to try again.

#38. Your Favorite Character

I’m sure you have a favorite character in Magic, but for some reason, you can’t run them as a commander. Maybe they haven’t been printed on a card, maybe they’re a planeswalker, or maybe – like me – you’re just a little frustrated you can’t put Gerrard's Command in your Gerrard decks. Well, Your Favorite Character exists to fix this exact issue.

While Your Favorite Character will never be the most powerful commander, if you just really want to build a themed deck around, well, your favorite character, this is an option now. It’s also perfect for proxying and including your favorite official or unofficial artwork of that character.

#37. Buried Ogre

Plenty of decks, especially ones in black, would be happy to start with Buried Ogre in their graveyard. Whether you plan to reanimate it, or simply benefit from having more cards in your graveyard, this card can give you a nice headstart for a very low cost.

#36. Gold Mine

Gold Mine is an excellent form of mana fixing. You aren’t always going to need to use its second ability, meaning it will likely be useful for more than five turns. By the time this card runs out of nodes, you should have all the colors you need.

#35. Pokey, the Scallywagg

Pokey, the Scallywagg allows you some more flexibility when constructing a coin flip deck because you can now also include cards like Delina, Wild Mage and have their dice rolls count toward your total number of coin flips. Having a 50% chance to get a natural 20 is also much better than its typical 5% chance, meaning you’re more likely to get the best effects off any dice-rolling cards. Add something like Krark's Thumb into the mix and the odds are even more in your favor.

#34. Duelists’ Convocation International

While I haven’t played Magic for as long as some veteran players, I have been playing long enough to have a DCI number. Duelists' Convocation International is therefore a somewhat nostalgic pick for me. Depending on your randomized number, it could also become a powerful card-draw engine, just cross your fingers for a lot of small numbers.

#33. Twenty Lessons

The card name says Twenty Lessons, but the number of lessons is actually much higher. The concept of the card is interesting, practically equivalent to a Momir Vig of lessons. This card can be really nice if you get something busted like Mascot Exhibition, or bad if you hit something that doesn’t even work like Teachings of the Archaics.

#32. Heart of a Duelist

Heart of a Duelist is a cute reference to the Yu-Gi-Oh! catchphrase “heart of the cards”, which is when the anime protagonist would pull whatever card they needed to win at just the right moment. While the cartoon gave me unrealistic expectations for playing a TCG as a kid, Yu-Gi-Oh! did eventually get me into Magic, so I’m grateful for that.

And if you’re scrying, this card lets you pull cards you put on the bottom of the deck, which gives you more options.

#31. Maro’s Gone Nuts

Doubling effects are already some of the most impactful in Magic. Maro's Gone Nuts makes all of them even more effective for just 2 mana. This would be an especially good inclusion for a Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider deck since you know you have a counter doubling effect in the command zone.

#30. Slivdrazi Monstrosity

Cards like Slivdrazi Monstrosity that give decks several creature types to combine and work with can lead to some unique combinations that you wouldn’t otherwise think to use. This card is also just a very powerful 5-color commander in its own right, especially since it can both create more slivers tokens and give each one annihilator.

#29. Sliv-Mizzet, Hivemind

Whoever came up with the name Sliv-Mizzet, Hivemind deserves an award. Also, sliver decks tend to go pretty wide so being able to tap all your creatures to draw a card, while also dealing massive amounts of damage each time is busted. This is likely one you’re not getting to play outside of kitchen table games, but it’s still a lot of fun.

#28. Convention Maro

Convention Maro’s malleability makes it perfect for cubes. It presents a lot of different deck-building options, and its flexible mana cost means you don’t need all three of its colors to cast it.

#27. Biting Remark

In general, Biting Remark’s introduction of scrycast would earn it a spot on this list. I like the mechanic, though I’m skeptical if scrying really needs to become even more powerful. This card’s 0-mana scrycast cost means that it is both a free body and a good way to thin out your deck while scrying.

#26. Domesticated Mammoth

With the introduction of bargain in Wilds of Eldraine, Domesticated Mammoth can easily become a strong early attacker in the right deck. That said, you may have a harder time getting this one approved in a Rule-0 conversation. But if you’re doing a Chaos Draft, keep an eye out for this card.

#25. There//They’re//Their

As a former English teacher, There feels like it was printed just for me. The effects are also solid for their respective mana costs, though I do feel the third mode is slightly too niche for this blue card to be great.

#24. Wowzer, the Aspirational

Apart from having some of the cutest art, Wowzer, the Aspirational also presents a unique way to win the game. Running commanders that force you to build a deck that is completely unlike anything else is always a fun challenge. This card also very clearly telegraphs how you plan to win, so it’s likely your opponents would be okay with you using it as your commander. It’s the kind of alternate wincon that isn’t too easy to pull off, and will likely be exciting for the whole table if you do it.

#23. Liliana’s Other Contract // Liliana’s Undead Minion

Liliana's Other Contract gives you a decent number of cards, but the real fun part of this card comes from its Liliana’s Undead Minion side. This is a fun way to play with the idea of all players being planeswalkers and can give you some extra time to try and pull out a win. It’s also just a fun bit of flavor that you signed a contract with Liliana and now are an undead lich as a result.

#22. Call from the Grave

Call from the Grave can be a chaotic play, but also an impactful one. Alternatively, if a player dumps a powerful creature in their graveyard early in the game, you have a high likelihood of snagging it for yourself if most graveyards are still empty.

#21. All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

All-You-Can-Eat Buffet sometimes solves a big problem. You’re casting cards from the top of your library, and suddenly you can’t because it’s a land or a very expensive spell. Now, the Buffet lets you crack the top card for 2 mana as a food card and gain 3 life, so you can look at another card. It’s interesting in Ad Nauseam or Bolas's Citadel decks.

#20. Life at Stake

Life at Stake creates an interesting scenario where you and your opponent have to decide how much life you think one of their creatures is worth. This can be a bit of a mind game. For example, target a powerful creature then say a very low number, and you can almost guarantee your opponent will lose some life. Even if they don’t you get to exile one of their best creatures.

Alternatively, you can stake a lot of your own life if you know that getting rid of that one creature is all you need to pull off a win.

#19. Chea, Friend to Maybe Too Many

Chea, Friend to Maybe Too Many is an Abzan commander that creates a unique style of deck. The range of creatures they care about casts such a wide net that you have a ton of options for building around this commander. I will admit, it is slightly overwhelming looking through the 1,600+ unique familiars in Magic to try and find the best build, but sometimes it's nice to have a deck-building project that lasts for a while.

#18. Slobad, Actually Just Fine

This card was in an Unknown Event from after March of the Machine, so I like to believe Slobad, Actually Just Fine is canon, and, like many other Magic characters, Slobad’s compleation was reversed and he’s now just fine.

From a mechanical standpoint, this card is also great for a Sakdos build. Being able to sacrifice artifacts and creatures interchangeably opens up a lot more ways to pay for sacrifice costs, especially if you have a consistent artifact token generator like Descent into Avernus.

#17. Colossal Dreadmaw and Storm Crow

The main thing stopping Colossal Dreadmaw from being the perfect Magic card is the fact that it can’t block Storm Crow. Well, Colossal Dreadmaw and Storm Crow fixes that issue. Magic design has peaked here.

#16. Catch of the Day

I like modal cards for their flexibility since there is a greater chance they will be what you need when you draw them. Catch of the Day takes that design mentality and applies it to a creature. While I could see this getting a bit out of hand if too many creatures were printed like this, I do like the idea when it’s limited to just a few.

#15. Temur Elevator

Even without the city’s blessing, Temur Elevator is still a 3-color pain land that I would be happy to run in a multicolor deck. Temur commanders like Animar, Soul of Elements and Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm can easily fill your board with permanents and get you the 10 you need to ascend.

#14. Form of the Mulldrifter

Form of the Mulldrifter can help you dig through your deck much faster since even a dead draw is now a way to draw more cards. This card’s art is also perfect, making it a good balance between a funny card and one that is also useful.

#13. Phyrexian Seedling

Phyrexian Seedling’s proliferatelink could easily get out of hand very quickly. If this card was legal, it would probably find its way into every superfriends deck and infect deck running green.

#12. Don’t Worry About It

Cards like Don't Worry About It that introduce the possibility to bluff in Magic can be a lot of fun. Yes, you can use this card as intended and copy a powerful spell, but you can also attach it to something weaker and hope that players hold onto their counterspells as they anticipate a big move, allowing you to cast other spells instead.

#11. The Faction Dragon

The Faction Dragon looks like a sweet addition for players who like to draft Commander decks from Cubes or something like that. Here, you get a “faction commander” that does everything you want from a typal commander: It reduces mana for your spells and gives +1/+1 to creatures. The thing is, all cards have to have a certain watermark, so all Tarkir Abzan () cards, or all Ravnica Izzet () cards, and so on.

#10. The Colossal Dreadmaw

Two Colossal Dreadmaw jokes in the same list would be beating a dead horse, so I promise I actually think this card is good. If it’s later in the game, even a bad draw becomes a potential 6/6 with trample. I could see this being a decent green commander for a stompy green deck that is built to be less commander-dependent.

#9. Welcome to Mini-apolis

Welcome to Mini-apolis ensures that any great creature abilities that hit your opponents’ side of the board go on yours for free. While they are weak, you won't complain about a 1/1 when you're also getting something like a free Etali, Primal Storm trigger.

#8. Shadowmoor Draw Spell

In the right situations, Shadowmoor Draw Spell can untap four of your creatures and draw you two spells for free. This can be a major swing in your favor, allowing you to reuse tap abilities on those creatures, or just untap them after attacking.

#7. Bombardment

Bombardment is great for a red aggro or burn deck that is looking to close out the game. It can be really frustrating when you get a quick start, and nearly take out an opponent, but then you just can’t do those last few bits of direct damage. This card also works with impulsive draw, making it less likely you’ll whiff when using it.

#6. Jund ‘Em Out

When in doubt, Jund ‘Em Out! This card solves many of your problems in Jund () fashion, allowing you to grind value slowly with Liliana of the Veil, make your opponents discard with Blightning, or just beat them down with Tarmogoyf. It also has retrace, so it’s the ultimate value machine even if you draw those useless lands in the late game.

#5. Awoken Nephilim

Awoken Nephilim is just a very common Rule-0 exception printed on a card. Lots of players like to build decks around the nephilim, and this card is essentially an endorsement of that idea.

#4. White Rhystic Study

Although mono-white card draw has been getting better recently, White Rhystic Study would still be a great inclusion alongside a mono-white Commander. That said, I do see this being a hard sell during a Rule-0 discussion when plenty of players get frustrated by the actual Rhystic Study.

#3. Tax Taker

Tax effects can already give you a good advantage, add Tax Taker and these cards become even better. Players are no longer forced to choose between giving you an advantage or paying a tax, they now have to choose what type of advantage they’re going to give you.

#2. Naturalize 2

Naturalize 2 is just a much more powerful version of Naturalize and is the only form of removal for emblems or other gameplay trackers. I can see why this card has never been printed. Emblems are typically hard-won, and losing one to a 2-mana instant would be incredibly frustrating. That said, it’s hard to deny how powerful this card could be.

#1. Do-Over

As long as you have Do-Over in your hand and leave up 2 mana, you can play your turn exactly how you want, knowing you’ll get a second chance if things go wrong. This gives you an insurance policy and can also give you information about what your opponents have in their hands. As an instant, you can also restart an opponent’s turn if you missed countering a combo piece or a big threat.

Are MTG Playtest Cards Legal?

No, playtest cards are not legal in any Constructed format. You can only use them if you are doing a Limited event using Mystery Boosters, or are participating in one of the MagicCon Unknown Events that has its own unique playtest cards.

How Can You Get Playtest Cards?

Most of the playtest cards on this list you can get either in packs of Mystery Booster or Mystery Booster 2, or you can buy them as singles. I would recommend getting the singles, since both Mystery Booster sets are pretty expensive, while most playtest cards cost under a dollar.

For the Unknown Event cards, your best bet is probably to proxy any that have previously existed, though you might occasionally find a few on the secondary market.

Wrap Up

Guff Rewrites History | Illustration by Matt Stewart

Magic’s playtest cards represent some of the most fun and unique design choices in the game. I honestly had to significantly cut down my initial list here, because I kept finding more that I thought were great. If you have the time, I urge you to take a look through all the playtest cards, because I guarantee you’ll find some niche ones I couldn’t include that fit your personal Magic tastes.

Do you have a favorite playtest card? Let me know in the comments or join a discussion in our Discord server. And while you're here, check out our newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Thank you for reading!