Stickers and Tickets in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on January 28, 2025

Ambassador Blorpityblorpboop | Illustration by Dave Greco

Get in line folks! Unfinity’s space carnival/circus set is upon us, and with it comes rides, attractions, tickets, and stickers. Who doesn't like a souvenir at the end of the ride?

Today I’m taking a look at a couple of Unfinity mechanics: stickers and tickets. Ready? Let’s dive in!

How Do Stickers Work?

Bioluminary | Illustration by Vincent Chritiaens

Stickers are a mechanic exclusive to Unfinity. You can have sticker sheets that you drafted or opened in your boosters, and those sheets have various stickers on them.

There are four types of stickers: art stickers alter the art of the card, name stickers add to the name of the card; power/toughness (P/T) stickers replace a creature’s current P/T, and ability stickers add an ability to a creature. You put stickers on a card when another card’s ability allows you to do so.

Animate Object gives you tickets and allows you to use an ordinary object as an MTG card with stickers that give it a name, art, P/T, and abilities. Command Performance’s modes let you put any sticker on a nonland permanent you own.

Stickers stay on a card as long as it’s in a visible and public zone. So permanents continue to be “stickered” in the graveyard and exile, but not in your hand or library.

The History of Stickers and Tickets in MTG

Stickers and tickets were created in Unfinity, the most recent in a now long line of Un-sets (joining Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable), in September 2022. WotC said that they were already experimenting with stickers on cards for a long time and Unfinity was the perfect place for them.

In a May 2024 Banned and Restricted Announcement, Wizards officially banned any card that produces a sticker or attraction from Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper. This same batch of cards was subsequently banned in Oathbreaker, though they remain legal in Commander, which is now the only format recognized by WotC where they're allowed.

This ended up being the largest banlist ever released by Magic, removing around 60 cards from sanctioned play, mostly off the back of _____ Goblin becoming a powerful staple in Legacy and other Eternal formats.

What Are Sticker Sheets?

A sticker sheet consists of four sections: three name stickers, three art stickers, two ability stickers, and two power/toughness stickers. There's a ticket cost associated with the abilities and P/T stickers, which means you'll need to collect tickets and find a card that lets you grab a sticker before you can use these.

Forty-eight sticker sheets were introduced in Unfinity, each with unique names, arts, and abilities.

There are some stipulations to sticker sheets depending on the format you're playing. For Constructed and Commander, if you're playing with stickers, you must present a separate “sticker deck” with at least 10 different sticker sheets at the start of the game. This number drops to exactly three sticker sheets in Sealed, or however many you drafted in Draft. When instructed to choose a sticker, you can only choose from the ones presented at the start of the game.

How Are Tickets Related to Stickers?

Stickers come in sticker sheets. Some stickers are free to put on cards, like the name and art stickers. Others, like the ability and P/T stickers, require you to have and spend tickets to balance the game since their effect is more powerful. Imagine putting a 7/7 P/T sticker on a 1-drop for free.

You can see the options to change a card’s name, art, P/T, and add abilities. The extra cost to put P/T and ability stickers are tickets. For example, giving first strike to a creature costs 2 tickets, while changing a creature’s P/T to 5/3 costs 5 tickets.

What Ways Are There to Get Tickets?

Lots of cards from Unfinity give you tickets. They’re reminiscent of energy counters in a way.

Robo-Piñata gives you 2 tickets when it dies (when you crack it open). Animate Object gives you 7 tickets. Carnival Carnivore gives you a ticket and then lets you put a sticker on something, so there’s the tempo gain there.

What Types of Stickers Are There?

There are four kinds of stickers:

• Name stickers allow you to change the name of a card or add stuff in a card’s name.
• Art stickers allow you to add something in the card’s art, or change the art by covering certain spaces.
• Power/toughness stickers override the previous power/toughness of a creature. You need to change them both, not just power or toughness.
• Ability stickers add an ability to a creature. You can add undying, flying, infect, and more.

How Do Sticker Cards Work in Sealed?

You can play up to three sticker sheets that you open in your Sealed pool. Since each booster has a sticker sheet, you get to play three out of six. You’ll need to play tickets and sticker-related cards in your 40-card decks to really make it work, though.

Do You Have to Draft Sticker Cards?

Yes. Each booster pack comes with a sticker sheet, so you’ll see plenty of them in Draft. Unlike a Sealed deck you can play every single sticker sheet you draft, and they won’t be a part of your 40-card deck.

Can You Put Stickers on Your Opponent’s Cards?

No, you can’t. Stickers can only be put on nonland permanents you control. That’s one of the main concerns I’ve seen online because players would rather not have their own cards and sleeves stickered against their will.

What Is Sticker Kicker?

“Sticker kicker” a mechanic on Wicker Picker where you can pay when you cast a creature to get a ticket and put a sticker on that creature (which is what’s “sticker kicked”).

Are Sticker Cards Legal?

Commander is the only format where sticker cards are still legal. They have been banned in every other format where they were previously allowed.

Cards from Unfinity that don’t have the acorn symbol were originally designed to be legal in Eternal formats, but due to complications with tournament play and a general distaste for the mechanic from the player base, WotC wiped all cards that produce stickers from tournament play.

The Commander Rules Committee decided to leave sticker cards legal in Commander, though they were banned in Oathbreaker. Notably, the Commander Rules Committee was disbanded later that same year, and it'll be up to the Commander Format Panel and WotC to decide if stickers remain legal moving forward.

Gallery and List of Sticker Cards

• Aerialephant
• A Good Day to Pie
• Ambassador Blorpityblorpboop
• Angelic Harold
• Animate Object
• Art Appreciation
• Astroquarium
• Baaallerina
• _____ Balls of Fire
• Big Winner
• Bioluminary
• _____ Bird Gets the Worm
• Carnival Carnivore
• Chicken Troupe
• Clandestine Chameleon
• Command Performance
• Costume Shop
• Cover the Spot
• Croakid Amphibonaut
• Done for the Day
• Fight the _____ Fight
• Finishing Move
• Focused Funambulist
• Gift Shop
• Glitterflitter
• _____ Goblin
• Goblin Airbrusher
• Grabby Tabby
• Haberthrasher
• Juggletron
• Knight in _____ Armor
• Last Voyage of the _____
• Lineprancers
• Make a _____ Splash
• Minotaur de Force
• _____-o-saurus
• Park Bleater
• Pin Collection
• Prize Wall
• Proficient Pyrodancer
• Robo-Piñata
• _____ _____ Rocketship
• Roxi, Publicist to the Stars
• Sanguine Sipper
• Scampire
• Scared Stiff
• Scavenger Hunt
• Solaflora, Intergalactic Icon
• Stiltstrider
• Sword-Swallowing Seraph
• Tchotchke Elemental
• Ticketomaton
• _____ _____ _____ Trespasser
• Trivia Contest
• Tusk and Whiskers
• Unlawful Entry
• Wee Champion
• Wicker Picker
• Wizards of the _____
• Wolf in _____ Clothing

Best Sticker Cards

#10. Animate Object

Animate Object gets you a lot of tickets, and you even get a creature out of an object. You also decide if you want to spend lots of tickets to have a good creature or not.

This is a very interesting card in decks aiming to put good ability or P/T stickers on creatures.

#9. _____ Balls of Fire

A true sticker build-around in the sense that you’ll accumulate stickers on _____ Balls of Fire, and it deals increasing amounts of damage.

#8. Sword-Swallowing Seraph

You’ll need to win the game somehow, and Sword-Swallowing Seraph is at least a 4/4 flier with vigilance. It interacts with stickers too, and you can put some +1/+1 counters around stickered creatures.

#7. Roxi, Publicist to the Stars

Roxi, Publicist to the Stars is the card that wants art stickers on your creatures (and it’s Izzet’s () theme in this set). It’s going to be at least a 2/4 flier for 4 mana, and you can even benefit from cards with art stickers in the graveyard.

The good part here is that putting art stickers doesn’t require tickets, so all you need is creatures and cards that throw stickers around.

#6. Tusk and Whiskers

Tusk and Whiskers is a lord of stickers, so to speak. It’s even got an activated ability that gives you tickets and throws stickers around too. It’s a good build-around for the Selesnya () tickets deck. It's possibly good enough to start this Unfinity commander in your command zone.

#5. Ambassador Blorpityblorpboop

Ambassador Blorpityblorpboop is a 3/3 that lets you put a sticker on a permanent and gives you three tickets, which is above average. You can later make its power and toughness equal to the sticker you put on another creature. You can even choose between defensive and offensive stickers.

#4. Pin Collection

Pin Collection caught my attention because it can turn mana into tickets. The more you pay, the more powerful the sticker you can put on a creature. It also offers the benefit of coming from an equipment.

#3. Tchotchke Elemental

Tchotchke Elemental is a 1-drop that synergizes with everything Selesnya or Simic () tries to do. It grows whether you put stickers or counters on creatures, or make tokens.

And the interesting part is that although its P/T is 1/1 it grows with +1/+1 counters, so you can still alter its P/T with stickers. Don’t forget to bring enough different materials to use as counters like beads, dice, coins, etc.

#2. Solaflora, Intergalactic Icon

Solaflora, Intergalactic Icon would be a fun and powerful Voltron commander. By putting stickers on it you’re effectively putting the stickers on other creatures you have, so your little critters are still relevant when Solaflora has a good P/T sticker.

This is also a good target for Pin Collection.

#1. _____ Goblin

_____ Goblin was the posterchild for how ludicrous the sticker mechanic ended up being for tournament play. The creature enters and generates anywhere from 1-6 red mana on ETB based on something that felt completely arbitrary and random. And yes, there were stickers that used all six vowels, like the one with “Delusionary” as an option.

Even worse, the card was adopted into “Name Sticker” Goblin on Magic Online, where you couldn't replicate the way stickers worked exactly, and they had to rework the ability to make it close to the original, which was very messy overall.

Decklist: Solaflora Stickers

It Came from Planet Glurg | Illustration by Marco Bucci

Full disclaimer: This deck isn't technically legal anywhere, so this is fully kitchen table/casual Magic fair. I’ve chosen to build a casual deck around Solaflora, Intergalactic Icon since it cares about stickers, and everything that’s applied to Solaflora is applied to other creatures you control. Other stickers and ticket cards that come to mind are Pin Collection and Tchotchke Elemental. Tusk and Whiskers is another synergy card to have in your deck. You want a 3-color mana base since there are some good cards in Simic. Lineprancers fills the 2-drop slot and adds tickets.

You also need some ramp with mana dorks and mana fixing, but you’re relying on normal sets for that. You’ve got Llanowar Elves and Noble Hierarch for that along with some shock lands and Spara's Headquarters. You also have a powerful card in It Came from Planet Glurg because it looks like a fun card to try.

Wrap Up

Ticking Mime Bomb | Illustration by Greg Bobrowski

I know that a lot of players don’t like Un-sets, and I’m on the fence. It’s really fun and silly, but Unfinity got a lot of hate from players that didn't want these cards to be tournament-legal. Hopefully those of you who got to play some Limited Magic with the set saw some sweet synergies between art stickers and art sticker lords, or just had enough fun that it was worth it.

What do you think about tickets and stickers? Yar or nay? Let me know in the comments below or in the Draftsim Discord.

Stay safe folks, and I’ll see you in the next one!