If you've ever wondered how far the passion for Magic: The Gathering can go, the answer may lie in the value of its rarest cards. Since the game's creation in 1993, some cards have become coveted not only by players, but also by collectors and investors. From limited editions to cards from the first expansion in pristine condition, these cards carry fascinating stories and a price that surprises even some TCG fans.
In this article, we'll explore the most expensive cards in Magic: The Gathering, explaining what makes them so valuable and how they became icons in the game's history, both for collectors and for curious people who want to know how pieces of cardboard can be worth so much money!
For the sake of diversity, it's important to note that we sought to list ten different cards that had the highest sales value in the history of Magic: The Gathering, since some copies of cards like Black Lotus reached hundreds of thousands of dollars in different versions.
The Ten Most Expensive Cards in Magic: The Gathering
10 - Ancestral Recall - Alpha Pristine 10


{Image: CGCCards}
Price: US$ 38,500
The tenth most expensive card in Magic: The Gathering has a history: this is an Ancestral Recall, one of the cards from the famous Power 9 - the nine cards originally considered the most powerful in the game - opened on the show Pawn Stars, where the host Chumlee closed a deal of US$ 25,000 for a sealed Beta edition deck box.
At the time of the Beta release, some cards left over from the printings of Alpha, the first edition of Magic, were inserted into these deck boxes, and the show's staff opened one of these cards, being none other than an Ancestral Recall from Alpha, later graded with the highest conservation grade and sold for US$ 38,500.
9 - Shivan Dragon - Alpha Gem Mint 9.5 & Chaos Orb - Alpha Gem Mint 10


{Image: Beckett Grading Services}


{Image: PSA Grading}
Price: $44,400
Two cards that represent historic milestones in Magic tie for ninth place for most expensive cards in history. On one side, Shivan Dragon, one of Magic's most iconic creatures since the launch of the game's first edition and which, reprint after reprint, remains visible on the tables of beginner players, being considered a landmark of the game's introductory products. This version, however, is the best available of this card in its first edition.
On the other side, Chaos Orb, which gave rise to one of Magic's first urban legends: the card was one of the weird designs from the early years of Magic that required physical actions to perform an effect - in this case, tossing Chaos Orb into the air and, if it flips at least once while in the air, destroying all permanents it touches.
The legend says that, in a tournament in the early days of Magic, a player read the card and, since there were no specific rules about the execution of Chaos Orb, he tore the card into small pieces and threw them at the opponent's table, destroying all of their permanents. This story led to the creation of the Chaos Confetti card in the Unglued expansion.
In both cases, these iconic pieces from Magic's first decade sold for $44,400.
8 - Mox Sapphire - Alpha Mint 9


{Image: PSA Grading}
Price: US$ 46,800
The Moxen are one of the most famous cycles in Magic, and all of its cards are part of the Power 9. After all, they are at the heart of one of the first lessons Magic learned about maintaining resource parity and, consequently, the balance of the game's speed: free mana is always a risk.
Mox Sapphire is probably the most famous of the cycle and a staple of Vintage decks that, for the most part, use many blue cards to support Force of Will and other means of free protection, in addition to being the color of timeless staples like Tinker and Ancestral Recall.
7 - Time Walk - Alpha Gem Mint 10 & Vesuvan Doppelganger - Gem Mint 9.5


{Image: PSA Grading}


{Image: Beckett Grading Services}
Price: $63,000
The seventh most expensive Magic card in history is split between two opposites: on one side, there's Time Walk, another Power 9 card and the game's first - and most powerful - extra turn, rated with the highest conservation rating by PSA. On the other, a card that never saw much competitive viability, but which deserved its value due to the rarity of finding a copy of Alpha in near-perfect condition: Vesuvan Doppelganger, sold on February 16, 2023 for $63,000.
6 - Splendid Genesis - Near Mint 8

Price: US$ 72,000
Splendid Genesis is a card that few people have heard of, and even fewer have had the opportunity to see a copy of it in person. Magic: The Gathering's creator Richard Garfield printed a few cards during his years at Wizards of the Coast to commemorate important moments in his life and distributed them to friends, family, and some of the company's employees.
In 1997, to celebrate the birth of his first daughter, Richard printed 110 copies of Splendid Genesis and distributed them. Some copies have already sold for very high prices at auction, and a Near Mint version of it fetched $72,000 in June 2022.
5 - Timetwister - Alpha Gem Mint 10


{Image: PSA Grading}
Price: US$84,000
Another Power 9 piece, Timetwister is commonly considered the weakest card of the cycle and the one that had the most attempts to replicate its effect at some point, with cards like Day’s Undoing or Time Spiral.
Its title as one of the most powerful spells in the game still holds its value and historical contribution to fans and collectors, and led to a Mint 10 version of it selling for $84,000 in 2023.
4 - Lord of the Pit - Alpha Pristine 10


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Price: US$ 105,000
Lord of the Pit is another of those cards that evoked power in its controller and fear in opponents when it came into play in the early years of Magic, but today it has become a relic of the past and a touchstone of nostalgia for players who lived their brief years of glory in 1993.
This same nostalgia is one of the points that contributes to their high market value in Alpha versions, and like other cards on the list, a version with a near-perfect rating of Lord of the Pit fetched stratospheric prices and hundreds of times its general market value, selling for $105,000 in January 2023.
3 - Mox Jet - Alpha Gem Mint 10


{Image: PSA Grading}
Price: $108,000
Mox Jet is probably the second most popular Mox in Power 9. Its combination with cards like Dark Ritual has made it a staple of the past and today, with the addition of cards like Yawgmoth's Will, Deathrite Shaman and Lurrus of the Dream-Den or even Orcish Bowmasters in Vintage, its color is perhaps the second most important in the only format in which this cycle is tournament-legal.
A Gem Mint 10 copy represents a nearly impeccable condition of the card, which justifies its value of US$ 108,000 for collectors and enthusiasts of the secondary market.
2 - The One Ring 001/001 - Mint 9

Price: $2,000,000
The One Ring is one of the most powerful cards released in Magic in the last decade. Part of the collaboration between the game and J. R.R. Tolkien's books, this artifact was so played in the Modern format that it had to be banned after reaching more than 60% of the format's decks.
The story of the 001/001 version, however, has little to do with its competitive viability. As part of the promotion of the Lord of the Rings expansion, Wizards announced that it would be releasing a serialized version of the card with only one copy available worldwide, and that it would be available in a Collector Booster of the set - anyone could be lucky enough to open it and become, literally, a millionaire since an influencer offered a million dollars to whoever opened the card before the set was even released.
Produced in the Elvish language of Tolkien's saga and in a special foil treatment, the One Ring led to a treasure hunt in the Magic community, including streamers buying Collector Booster cases to open on livestreams searching for their moment of glory. In the end, the Ring was found by a Canadian player, Brook Trafton, and the card's certification was given a Mint 9 rating, proving that, even fresh out of a booster, a card may not be in perfect condition.

The One Ring 001/001 was sold for US$ 2 million to the singer Post Malone, who has already starred in other purchases of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the game, with the record for “most expensive sale of a card” previously belonging to him with the purchase of a Black Lotus signed by its original illustrator, Christopher Rush, for US$ 800,000.
1 - Black Lotus - Alpha Pristine 10


{Image: CGCCards}
Price: $3,000,000
Posty's reign as the buyer of the most expensive card in Magic lasted less than a year. In April 2024, a copy of Black Lotus, considered the most powerful card in Magic history, in certified Pristine 10 condition, was sold for US$3 million in a private transaction and currently holds the title of most expensive Magic card in history.A Black Lotus holding this title is extremely iconic, as this card has always been known as the most expensive card in the game and the one that even those who have never played Magic before have heard of, making it one of the legends in geek culture.
Wrapping Up
That's all for today!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
Thanks for reading!
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