The 100 Most Expensive and Must-Have Cards in All of Magic

Last updated on March 26, 2026

Time Walk | Illustration by Amy Weber

Magic has some incredibly expensive cards in its portfolio, and not all of these are special edition versions that fetch a premium. Many cards, particularly those on the Reserved List, are worth a tidy sum.

Let’s break the bank and take a look at the top 100 most expensive cards in Magic, shall we?

How Did We Work Out What the Most Expensive Cards Are?

Timetwister | Illustration by Chris Seaman

There are a lot of ways we can look at the most expensive cards in Magic, so we need to set some ground rules. First of all, for this list we only look at base versions of legal cards, so no special anniversary or collector editions, alt-arts, promos, or any of that kind of thing. This all means no Post Malone’s The One Ring, no gold chocobos, no Shichifukujin Dragon or 1996 World Champion, or the likes of limited print, serialized cards.

Take the least expensive, legal version and look at the prices of English versions of the cards. You may have a very valuable Sol Ring from Limited Edition Alpha (about $1,500), but if the card has a less expensive printing, like from a Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander deck ($1-$2), it is skipped for this list.

To keep things simple, I use the price on Scryfall in USD, which pulls from TCGplayer.com. For a few cards where this wasn’t available, I took the price in euros from Scryfall and converted to dollars.

Where to Buy The Most Expensive Magic Cards

The cards listed here are expensive, especially the farther you go down the list. We're only starting at ~$100 after all. Many cards break into the 3-figures if they're not printed enough, like Power Artifact, and its not uncommon to get into 4, 5, and even 6-figure price ranges for the ultra-rare.

That means that when you want to actually put your money where your sleeves are, we recommend AncestralMTG. They carry everything ultra-rare, from one-of-one playtest cards that Richard Garfield used to Alpha Duals and even the Power 9. They've been around for years, incredibly reputable and well-known in the community, and the safest choice to buy these expensive cards.

#100. Khabál Ghoul ($108)

It's easy to see Khabál Ghoul eat well after a board wipe, and it works upon removing your opponent's creature. The triggered ability is not fully replicated on others though Sautekh Immortal and Bloodcrazed Paladin come close. The devil Mahadi, Emporium Master looks for the same instances of creatures dying, and these cards are each 99% less expensive.

#99. Ancient Tomb ($109)

Fast colorless mana available on lands in Commander is rare, and you'd be hard-pressed to find one older in flavor than Ancient Tomb. More damaging than a shock land and faster than Temple of the False God, but often times, so worth the Game Changer slot.

#98. Thunder Spirit ($111)

I’m always amused by how much some design and flavor points have changed over the years. Why is a white card called Thunder Spirit? A 2/2 flying first striker does seem white, though, and this Reserved List card would’ve been a great rate when it was printed.

#97. Wolf Pack ($113)

What pack will they think of next? If this were a new type of booster where the whole booster pack caters to one creature type, would you buy it? Comment at the end or discuss on Draftsim's Discord when you bounce out of this article. Wolf Pack is a Portal Three Kingdoms card, and not on the Reserved List. I wouldn’t sink any money into this card since Thorn Elemental should be readily available.

#96. Land Equilibrium ($114)

Land Equilibrium is actually quite a balanced way to have a bit of land hate. It seems like a white effect to me, reminding me of Balance, but something you can at least try to play around. If you can cast this with no lands and a bunch of mana rocks, you get a nice lock going, but it’s far away from mass land destruction cards!

#95. Falling Star ($116)

Falling Star is not only a Reserved List card, but a dexterity card, which requires you to flip it over. These cards have gone out of fashion a little since the early days, but they’re a nice look back on a different era of Magic.

#94. Pyramids ($117)

Pyramids are a cool repeatable modal option, and an expensive way to protect your lands. Have you seen a player abuse Wild Growth? Don't call this a playable answer, but an interesting solution to land destruction.

#93. Field of Dreams ($118)

Field of Dreams is a card that’s definitely inflated due to its place on the Reserved List. There are plenty of ways to get similar play from the top of your library effects these days, and it’s not that powerful, but it does really bug a certain subset of players to have their cards known!

#92. Null Rod ($120)

Null Rod is a mean stax card that shuts down some of the most relied upon cards in Commander, mana rocks. If you turn off one Sol Ring or make a pair of Swiftfoot Boots sit on the side, unable to be equipped, you got value out of this Weatherlight rod. Not every deck wants this, but for the low cost of , this is an option for any deck.

#91. Lady Sun ($120)

Lady Sun is a nicely designed tempo piece. A 3-mana 1/1 is a pretty weak body, but I imagine players used control cards like this to annoy their opponents in 1v1 formats during its time. A Portal Three Kingdoms card I wouldn’t want to put my money into, this is in line for a reprint!

#90. Ring of Ma'rûf ($122)

Fairly unique at the time, the wish effect on Ring of Ma'rûf just isn’t worth 10 mana these days, despite being split up and colorless. However, Arabian Nights cards are very popular, as well as cards illustrated by Dan Fraizer.

#89. Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms ($124)

Haste and horsemanship lead Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms to be comparable with Chaos Dragon, Nova Hellkite, or Realm-Scorcher Hellkite in terms of stats and cost. Collectability is the draw to Lu Bu, and leave the combat mastery to other hasty fliers in red.

#88. Tawnos's Coffin ($124)

You might note a few similarities between Tawnos's Coffin and Oubliette, and you’d be right! We don’t have an errata to phasing here, though. While I can’t find anything confirming why this is, it’s likely because it’s on the Reserved List, so Wizards is hesitant to errata something they can’t reprint.

#87. Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen ($124)

Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen is a Portal Three Kingdoms commander that is outclassed by great green generals. Lady dies to a Bolt and does little to help the voltron commander strategy that is your best bet if you insist on this in your command zone.

#86. Yuan Shao, the Indecisive ($125)

Here's an expensive horsemanship commander, that aids your attackers by forbidding double and multi- blocks. This is a good, but not a build-around ability even if you have plenty of ways to give your creatures double strike and trample. Be decisive and buy a cheap booster box, or build a whole deck rather than pay this much cash for such a single. You gotta love the easy-to-read bold text on Yuan Shao, the Indecisive though.

#85. Rasputin Dreamweaver ($125)

We don’t get many cards based on real people anymore (ignoring the celebrity depictions in Universes Beyond). Rasputin Dreamweaver does provide a lot of value, and even the limit of seven dream counters still allows you to do some busted things.

#84. Sun Ce, Young Conquerer ($126)

Sun Ce, Young Conquerer might as well be an evergreen card that is good in Limited as a bouncer and evasive young soldier. However, the number of times you should expect to open this uncommon in a pack is nonexistent. You're much more likely to see Iceridge Serpent, Mist Raven, or Man-o'-War.

#83. Argivian Archaeologist ($129)

The flavor is there with Argivian Archaeologist, but it’s certainly not busted. You could put the artifact onto the battlefield, and it would still just be a strong card. It would’ve been annoying to play against in grindy games from the early years, though.

#82. Earthcraft ($140)

Earthcraft is a neat card and can pay for its cost easily in a couple activations. You don't have to hit an infinite mana combo to enjoy playing this card next to cards like Arbor Elf, Wild Growth, and Utopia Sprawl for lots of extra mana. One of the hundreds of infinite combos with this card might make it valuable enough to get your money's worth out of its $100+ price tag.

#81. Lich ($145)

Lich is a bit of an iconic card and one that’s been riffed on since. It’s a cool effect, even if it’s super risky. Even with how much devotion to black it gives you and how cool it is, most of the price comes from its place on the Reserved List. Sorry to any Lich fans!

#80. Divine Intervention ($146)

Drawing the game is something that’s not often seen in Magic, and is usually the result of a strange interaction, not, as is the case with Divine Intervention, the whole point of the card! I don’t expect to see something like this outside of an Un-set in the future, and being on the Reserved List makes it especially unique.

#79. Hazezon Tamar ($148)

Legends was a unique time in MTG. The first legendary creatures and the first multicolored cards were being explored. Hazezon Tamar still pretty much stands up to modern design principles, although it would likely make the tokens right away now. Cool card, and something that I can see someone wanting to build around in EDH.

#78. Imperial Seal ($148)

Imperial Seal is one of the most efficient unconditional tutors in Magic. It is barely balanced by the two life and inability to go directly into your hand. If you optimize for cEDH and Commander brackets 4 or 5, it is hard to do better than this Double Masters 2022 prize card.

#77. Singing Tree ($149)

Singing Tree is a good defensive green creature that’s quite versatile. Again, this could be a common by today’s standards, but creatures have come a long way. Have we seen a design similar to this since?

#76. Raging River ($152)

Raging River is one of those cards you pick up to show some crazy top-down designs. To me, one of the strangest things about this card is that it’s red. This red enchantment’s at least guaranteed to mess with combat math.

#75. Power Artifact ($159)

If you see a card that cares about artifacts on this list, you know it’s busted. Power Artifact isn’t an exception here. It’s easy to make infinite mana with this and either Grim Monolith or Basalt Monolith, and it works well with cards like Dino DNA with expensive activated abilities.

#74. Serendib Djinn ($161)

I wouldn’t blame you if you thought Serendib Djinn was a 2-mana spell, but that’s just how the print looks. At 2 mana you could imagine playing this flier, but at four () it’s much worse. Another of those big beaters with a downside from back in the day for the early Johnnies.

#73. Metalworker ($165)

Metalworker is one of the most powerful ways to ramp in an artifact deck, and that’s saying a lot. Even attached to a weak body, this is a great combo piece that can do silly things, especially if you can give it haste. I can see why this one’s popular, and it’s well-played in the decks that it fits in!

#72. Tolarian Academy ($167)

If you don't make it into the prestigious Tolarian Academy, I hear there's a community college that's got a great content creator and professor who won't cost this much to learn from.

Over time, this legendary location gets better and better since new artifacts show up in every set, making it the best blue land in the game.

#71. Dong Zhou, the Tyrant ($173)

We’re back in the world of P3K with Dong Zhou, the Tyrant, and I quite like this one. It takes care of business without the need to threaten. A Fling effect that uses your opponent’s creature instead? This can really turn the tide by itself. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t deserve to cost this much, but it’s more than some of the other cards we’ve seen from the set so far.

#70. Gilded Drake ($173)

Gilded Drake is expensive, but it spikes regularly and has been over $400 in the past. It’s a cool exchange control effect and one that doesn’t work quite within modern-day design rules. You see this one at competitive tables, and more casual tables with bigger budgets too.

#69. Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior ($174)

A 4/4 vigilance, horsemanship, Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior is a good beater, but only expensive because of scarcity. It’s not even on the Reserved List, so you could expect it to get a reprint just like other cards seen in Portal Three Kingdoms.

#68. Ifh-Bíff Efreet ($174)

Green has always had ways to hate on fliers, and Ifh-Bíff Efreet was one of the originals. An interesting win-con, your opponent could also use it to win with direct damage if you were too low on life. High risk, high reward. Just pray your opponent isn’t playing green-based aggro!

#67. Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed ($183)

Portal Three Kingdoms likes their leaders that put other before themselves. Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is a rare commander that can sacrifice itself, and this one is for a very useful gravedigger effect. It even shares the mana value of Gravedigger, so I get why this card costs this much, even if I would never build around it.

#66. Living Plane ($186)

Living Plane can create some annoying situations. Cast this, make your creatures indestructible and board wipe. Then all you need to do is reap the salt from your opponents! There are obviously ways for you to still lose after doing this, but it’s going to be difficult.

#65. In the Eye of Chaos ($190)

Blue players are hated for their counterspells, and even if In the Eye of Chaos doesn’t just hate on instants, it’s still a bit unusual to see it in blue. These days I’d expect to see it as a white enchantment, but it’s still a cool, if unusual stax piece.

#64. Old Man of the Sea ($190)

Control Magic was first printed in Alpha, so maybe Old Man of the Sea is the first example of “spell on a stick?” I think it’s also the first example of “you may choose not to untap” if my Scryfall skills serve me well.

#63. Illusionary Mask ($199)

It may not be powerful, but Illusionary Mask is definitely cool! Hiding your creature is great, even if it doesn’t take much to turn it back over. We’ve seen some play in this space since, with morph and disguise type effects, but I’d love to see more exploration.

#62. Yawgmoth's Will ($200)

Not only is Yawgmoth's Will a Reserved List card, but it’s also still a very competitive one. Storm decks based around Tendrils of Agony really maximize this to cast more rituals and storm cards from the graveyard. I’m actually surprised that this is as low as it is.

#61. Gwendlyn Di Corci ($220)

Gwendlyn Di Corci certainly feels like a Grixis legend. It’s not too bad of a rate, either. Your opponent discards a card per turn, or you can have a 3/5 to block with. Difficult casting cost, but I could see this as a signpost uncommon in a 3-color set. Too much money to pay for this effect though!

#60. Angus Mackenzie ($225)

Angus Mackenzie must be an annoying commander to play against. Then again, combat damage isn’t the most important thing for a lot of decks, so maybe not. Bant commanders do seem like good company for this repeatable Fog.

#59. Phyrexian Dreadnought ($229)

Phyrexian Dreadnought has a very real drawback, so it's not something to just jam in a deck because any deck can cast it. Combine a Cloudstone Curio, Phyrexian Altar, Life Finds a Way, mana, and a nonartifact creature token, and you can make token copies of your creature through population, then the Altar uses a neverending resource to pay for the Dreadnought again. This allows for a number of combos that have an enter the battlefield payoff or sacrifice payoff. Some want it for the phyrexian nostalgia.

#58. Island of Wak-Wak ($235)

At this point in the list I’ve given up trying to guess why some cards are higher than others. Some of it will be due to condition available on the market, granted, but I can’t explain why Island of Wak-Wak is this much. It's a mild form of flying hate on a land, but that can't be it. I guess it has a cool name….

#57. Intuition ($256)

The eagle-eyed out there will notice that Intuition doesn’t say three differently named cards. That means if you have three or more of something, this is just an instant-speed blue tutor effect. Even if you’re playing singleton, you can still put your opponent into a lose-lose situation.

Fun Fact: After this are cards that are literally worth more than their weight in gold at the time of writing!

#56. Word of Command ($266)

Word of Command is an early attempt at a Mindslaver, control your opponent effect, but attached to more of a Thoughtseize kind of effect. I like it, even if it ends up being quite wordy to work out.

#55. Survival of the Fittest ($284)

Survival of the Fittest is a really powerful card. It’s a creature tutor to start with, and a way to sculpt your hand, but it gets silly if you make use of your graveyard or discarding creatures. Reserved List, yes, but also playable.

#54. Elephant Graveyard ($291)

Elephant and mammoth typal. Obviously an OP mechanic in Magic, which is why Elephant Graveyard is so expensive. No? It’s not a thing? Well, it’s only a matter of time until we get an elephant precon!

#53. Sliver Queen ($308)

The grand-mammy of Slivers, Sliver Queen is the one that’s included on the Reserved List. Obviously spiking whenever slivers are reprinted, this has been up to $600 in the past, and is a grail card for lovers of swarms!

#52 Plateau ($331)

Plateau is mostly in line with the rest of the OG dual lands. Red is popular, so this fits in Jeskai decks nicely. Sometimes it overtakes other duals, as these fluctuate.

#51. Mirror Universe ($333)

Mirror Universe is an example of a great difference between the printed text and the oracle text. I love the example that’s given in the original. It’s another card that’s been improved upon since the printing, even if it was unique when it was first designed. Mirror Universe really begs for a cool artifact combo to put your opponent on the brink.

#50. Wheel of Fortune ($336)

Wheel of Fortune is a great game show and among a category of cards that in many a red player's case, net seven fresh cards with minimal losses. It's clean simple and oh so effective, a favorite with wheel commanders, Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Niv-Mizzet, Parun.

#49. Savannah ($367)

The dual land here is Savannah for your Selesnya card needs. It sees play in a smattering of Legacy decks, such as Lands and Maverick. Obviously, it also sees play in decks running green and white, too.

#48. Serra's Sanctum ($375)

It’s not quite Gaea's Cradle, but Serra's Sanctum is still a powerful card in the cycle. It tends to see a spike whenever enchantments and are popular, and it’s quite interesting that this is as cheap as it is, in comparison with its green cousin. Surround it with enchantment recursion and tutors to get the most out of this investment.

#47. Taiga ($380)

I have fun saying this dual land, Taiga[tai-guh] as the Gruul version, gets you access to the most ferocious of colors. It sees play in a bunch of Legacy decks, although it’s often not quite used in the best of the best decks there.

#46. Transmute Artifact ($388)

Transmute Artifact goes back to that rule about cards on this list caring about artifacts. It can just tutor up whatever artifact you want, and can cheat into play an expensive artifact, like Metalwork Colossus, this can just go grab anything from your library and put it onto the battlefield. It’s whatever you need at that particular time!

#45. Ali from Cairo ($395)

Ali from Cairo is another example of a damage prevention effect that’s been copied in modern design multiple times. Usually in black or white these days, red just seems to have gotten a little bit of everything in the early days!

#44. City in a Bottle ($401)

We rarely see color-hate these days in Magic, but we NEVER see set-hate. City in a Bottle is one of the few cards that do that, and although it’s on flavor for the story that inspired it, it’s odd that it hates on its own set! Where's the card that hates on blocks?

#43. Scrubland ($407)

Scrubland is the Orzhov () dual land. These Reserved List lands are still the best dual lands ever printed. This version sees much less play than the rest of the cycle, with being particularly unpopular in formats where this is legal. It’s still something desired by many players, and played a lot.

#42. Bayou ($409)

Bayou is an interesting, in-between sort of Golgari land. Of course, I don't mean to make it sound bad, it’s incredible. It just doesn’t tap for that all-important blue () mana!

#41. Zodiac Dragon ($424)

Zodiac Dragon the most powerful of all the zodiac animals, has some great aspects going for it. Though not the most prominent trait of dragons, rebirth is associated with Chinese dragons. While this card comes with an automatic Regrowth and is a huge creature, you want a bit more out of your 9-cost creature that also costs this much money.

#40. Grim Monolith ($425)

Grim Monolith is at the heart of many infinite mana combos. If you can find a way to untap it for less than 3 mana, you can make infinite colorless mana. It also works if you can reduce its untap ability to 2 or less! What’s more, you can just use it for a mana boost right away, as it doesn’t enter tapped.

#39. Drop of Honey ($432)

Drop of Honey is a very narrow card (but with some cool flavor!). The main use for this enchantment based removal is against difficult-to-remove creatures. If your opponent has a True-Name Nemesis as their only creature out, Drop takes it out nicely.

#38. Gauntlet of Might ($450)

Gauntlet of Might is, unsurprisingly, incredibly powerful in red decks. A favorite of goblin players, it can buff your board while doubling your mana. 4 mana for this effect is way too little in any reasonable format!

#37. Badlands ($454)

Badlands is where you go with the best most efficient Rakdos cards. For any players worried about their stuff removed, this land represents swamps and mountains and is formidable.

#36. Shahrazad ($455)

Shahrazad is pretty iconic for its design but was also one of the first banned cards. Mainly banned because it’s just an absolute pain in tournaments as it lets them drag on forever, but it’s still great to see it show up. It also inspired a fun Un-set card, Enter the Dungeon.

#35. City of Traitors ($468)

City of Traitors is a version of “fast mana,” that allows early ramp to race out a Blood Moon or other key 3-drop. It can also be used to power out combos, when you hope to win the game before you have to sacrifice it.

#34. Eureka ($473)

Eureka is a Show and Tell effect, but is rarely played in those shells in Legacy. Show being a blue card just makes it much better. However, Show doesn’t have E=mc² on its art, so that just makes this card better overall in my opinion!

#33. Riding the Dilu Horse ($500)

A sorcery-speed Jump spell? Go home P3K, you’re drunk if you’re making Riding the Dilu Horse over $250! At least it’s fun that the buff from this card sticks around permanently.

#32. Guardian Beast ($502)

Guardian Beast’s name matches its function well. It guards your artifacts, as long as it’s untapped. Cool design, even if it’s unusual to see in black. This beast is not particularly strong in modern formats.

#31. All Hallow's Eve ($503)

All Hallow's Eve is almost certainly a top-down design, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it inspired designs of later scary cards like Living End and Rise of the Dark Realms.

#30. Tropical Island ($525)

One of my favorite dual lands to visit is Tropical Island. This taps for blue or green and is used in a plethora of decks in the formats where it’s legal. Simic is particularly powerful in Commander, so if you run these colors and play competitively, it gives you that little bit of an edge.

#29. Tundra ($554)

Don't forget the Tundra. I need to slip Tundra Wolves into the same deck, since it is one of the first cards I played with yet hardly a powerful play compared to other cards that this quiet dual land enables. Sadly this is not an honorary snow land.

#28. Forcefield ($600)

Forcefield is a card that can find some use to keep you alive, particularly against big creatures swinging at you. It’s not exactly stellar, though, and I’d probably look to sink my money into something else if I was looking to spend this amount to power up my deck!

#27. Lion's Eye Diamond ($656)

Lion's Eye Diamond (also known as LED) was originally seen to be pretty bad, but is now a 4-of in Legacy decks and worth an incredible chunk of money. It’s Black Lotus with upside in decks with dredge that want to fill their graveyard. Now that’s powerful!

#26. Nether Void ($666)

Nether Void is an interesting lock piece, and one that seems strange to see on a black enchantment. It’s not particularly unique apart from its color, but it was pretty groundbreaking when first printed.

#25. The Abyss ($674)

The Abyss looks pretty good, but I’m struggling to find anywhere that warrants such a high price. Destroying one of your opponent’s things at their upkeep is good, but it doesn’t do a whole lot for 4 mana. That’s some sweet art from a 1994 set, though.

#24. Chaos Orb ($689)

An example of a “dexterity card” (a card that requires you to physically do something with it), Chaos Orb might be in shorter supply than other cards from the set, due to the reports of players tearing it into pieces to hit multiple creatures. Whether this happened or not is up for some debate, but it makes for a great story, and likely contributes to its high price! This is banned in Commander and beyond.

#23. Diamond Valley ($690)

Lands that don’t tap for mana aren’t usually something we see anymore, but Diamond Valley is a nice little defensive card and sacrifice outlet. Block with your creature to prevent damage, then sac your chump blocker to gain life. You can run out of resources, but it’s still not bad.

#22. Volcanic Island ($743)

One of the top duals on our list, Volcanic Island (or Volc) is not only used in most of the top decks in Legacy/Vintage, but it’s also in popular colors for Commander. Izzet combos are a part of several formats and enabled by this incredible land.

#21. Time Vault ($785)

Time Vault is a powerful infinite combo card in all formats where it’s legal. If you can find a way to repeatedly untap it, you take infinite turns, as simple as that! We’re definitely at the “busted” point of the list now, where all cards have at least some justification for being here (if you can justify hundreds of dollars per card at all!).

#20. Moat ($850)

Moat is an enchantment that can also be a lock piece. You can tell the top-down design here, where someone asked: “If I design a card to be a moat, what would it look like?” It might not be the most powerful, especially when decks don’t necessarily need to attack to win, but it’s still cool and combines well with cards that enable flying.

#19. Underground Sea ($909)

Underground Sea is usually among the top three duals in price. As we’ve used a relatively crude way of pricing the cards, it may just be that lower-condition versions are currently listed on TCGplayer. Notably, it’s a blue dual, which are usually the most sought-after due to their demand in Legacy.

#18. Mox Diamond ($939)

Not classed as one of “The” Moxen, Mox Diamond is still pretty powerful and can be used to ramp out powerful cards before they should be in any fair game of Magic. It also taps for mana of any color, something that the original five Moxen can’t do.

#17. Chains of Mephistopheles ($1,092)

Drawing cards is powerful, and Chains of Mephistopheles was one of the first cards to hate on that. These days it sometimes sees some fringe sideboard play in Eternal formats, but other than that it’s just collectability.

#16. Gaea's Cradle ($1,232)

Now for a green land that’s a number of people’s holy grail card: Gaea's Cradle. Wanted in pretty much any creature deck as a way to create a lot of mana, this shines in elves, but plenty of other EDH and Legacy/Vintage decks can make do with it. Even World Championship deck versions go for more than $100. An unusual point with this Reserved List card, though, is that it had a reprint… as a $2,000 Judge foil!

#15. Library of Alexandria ($1,333)

Another card where we can start by saying “drawing cards is powerful,” Library of Alexandria is some easy card draw, especially if you do not mulligan and you’re on the draw. Draw your seven, then one for turn. Play this and draw again. Easy value!

#14. Bazaar of Baghdad ($1,699)

A real-world reference on a card that’s also powerful! Bazaar of Baghdad might seem like card disadvantage, but if you want to fill your graveyard, it’s fantastic. You get to select cards and sculpt your hand as well as put three cards of your choice in the bin. This is incredible if you’re using your graveyard as a resource.

#13. Candelabra of Tawnos ($2,200)

Candelabra of Tawnos is a super powerful card if you have a land that taps for or more mana. It features in decks like Cloudpost in Legacy, and even a newer player can probably see how this ability to untap lands can be broken.

#12. Mox Pearl ($2,500)

The Moxen are quite clearly powerful to us these days, but originally people wondered why you’d want Mox Pearl over a land! Fast mana is good, but white is probably the color that it’s least good in because of the Vintage format. Still, you’d include it if you had it!

#11. Time Walk ($2,790)

THE extra turn spell, and Magic's best blue sorcery (sorry, Timetwister!). Time Walk is just an incredibly cheap card (to cast anyway). You rarely see extra turn spells cost less than five mana in modern Magic, and for good reason. This is an example of what happens when you have cheap extra turn spells, and “Time Walking” your opponent (or yourself) is still something referred to in Magic slang.

#10. Juzám Djinn ($2,885)

At one time Juzám Djinn was one of the stronger creatures you could play. It still beats the vanilla creature test, but so do many more cards in the modern age. It just isn’t there anymore.

#9. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale ($3,000)

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, or just “Tabernacle” for short, is a creature-hate card that has risen through the ranks of expensive cards in the last decade or so. Used in decks like Legacy Lands, it can hate out any deck that relies on using creatures to get in. The legendary land has no downside for you if you’re not running any.

#8. Mishra's Workshop ($3,000)

A land that can make 3 mana, but it can only be used for one of the most broken card types in Magic? Who isn’t surprised that Mishra's Workshop is this high on the list? We’ve discussed how fast mana is important in some of these eternal formats, and ‘shop is one of the fastest!

#7. Mox Jet ($3,273)

Mox Jet is our Moxen with a super relevant color. Storm decks tend to use black mana a lot, so it’s especially good there. Of course, just like the others, you’ll play it wherever you can!

#6. Mox Ruby ($3,363)

This Power 9 card is Mox Ruby. Fast red mana is so strong in Magic, which is why Mox Ruby is often among the most expensive of the Moxen. Red provides so many effects: draw/looting, rituals, removal, and more. It’s also one of the colors that works well with artifacts, making it powerful in formats with the best of all of these.

#5. Mox Emerald ($3,670)

Next on our Moxen list is Mox Emerald. There’s not much to say about this that doesn’t apply to all of these ramp cards, but it’s an auto-include basically anywhere you can fit it, even if green isn’t the color that needs that bit more ramp!

#4. Mox Sapphire ($3,900)

Blue is, and possibly always has been, the most powerful color in Magic, so it’s no surprise that Mox Sapphire is the most expensive of the cycle. Combo cards are scattered all over blue’s history, as well as disruption to make sure your opponents can’t combo. All of the original Moxen are powerful, but Sapphire is the king.

#3. Ancestral Recall ($4,151)

It’s crazy to think that Ancestral Recall was originally part of the same cycle that included Giant Growth and Healing Salve. To be fair, this was a rare, unlike the rest of the cycle of 1-mana ”boons,” but I don’t think Richard Garfield and the rest of the designers of the early set could’ve realized how powerful drawing cards can be. You can’t really blame them, as it’s a mistake that all TCGs seem to make in their early days… Professor Oak, Pot of Greed, anyone?

#2. Timetwister ($5,142)

Our penultimate entry is perhaps one of the least well-known of the Power 9: Timetwister. The blue counterpart to Wheel of Fortune, this card not only refills your hand but can shuffle your ‘yard back into your library, giving you access to all of your cards again. Wheel effects can be very powerful, and none more so than this one.

#1. Black Lotus ($17,000+)

Most people reading this list probably knew which card tops it. One of the rarest, most expensive cards in MTG, Black Lotus has always been the Magic card, and deservedly finds its place up here. A huge leap in price over the number two card, it’s an incredible amount. While it may not be the card that’s been sold for the highest amount, you can’t pick up a $40 version of this (that isn’t a proxy), which can’t be said for The One Ring. Black Lotus is iconic in Magic, and has been imitated many times, but, thankfully, has never been bettered.

Despite their massive price tag, there are actually a ton in circulation. You'll see plenty on the floor of any MagicCon, and AncestralMTG has dozens of graded and ungraded copies of Black Lotus for sale.

Magic Cards Worth Over $1,000

In case you jumped here from the table of contents, or found this without reading through the list above, the Power 9 dominates the dozen or so MTG cards worth more than $1,000. This grand category basically extends to the top few cards from Arabian Nights, Legends and Antiquities. Cards like Library of Alexandria, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Mishra's Workshop.

Wrap Up

Black Lotus | Illustration by Christopher Rush

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the most expensive cards in all of Magic. We keep this list up to date, and prices can change wildly over time, especially with a reprint for non-Reserved List cards.

Do you own or have you sold any of these? Do you know about the wealth of card grading services out there? Let us know in the comments or talk about your card in our official Draftsim Twitter. And until next time… may you not sink your life savings into P3K cards!