How many total cards are there in Magic?

In the game, two or more players each assemble a deck of 60 cards with varying powers. They choose these decks from a pool of some 20,000 cards created as the game evolved.

How many Magic cards total?

There are several ways of winning the game, the most common being reducing your opponent to 0 life, from a starting total of 20. There are currently more than 25,000 unique Magic cards, to which hundreds are added each year.

What is the rarest Magic card?

1. Black Lotus. Black Lotus has long held a reputation as the most valuable Magic: The Gathering card ever made, dating from MTG's very first set, Limited Edition Alpha, released in 1993.

How many black lotuses exist?

The Alpha version of Black Lotus is the rarest and most sought-after, with an estimated 1100 ever printed, followed by the Beta version, with 3300 ever printed.

What is the oldest Magic card?

Limited Edition Alpha, commonly known as Alpha, is the first print run of Limited Edition, the first core set of Magic: The Gathering. Alpha contains 295 black-bordered cards and was released on August 5, 1993. Alpha is actually a nickname, but is widely accepted as the name for this print run of Limited Edition.

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Why is Black Lotus so expensive?

First off, Alpha and Beta copies of Black Lotus are worth quite a bit more than Unlimited copies. It isn't just the look, either—it's scarcity. We have pretty good intel stating that there were only ever 1,008 copies of every Alpha rare even printed, and only 3,025 copies of each Beta rare.

How much is a black lotus worth?

The card's sale for $540,000 via auction house PWCC beat the previous record set by another Gem Mint 10 Alpha Black Lotus signed by Rush, sold for just over $511,000 in January 2021. The new price makes this latest card the most expensive Magic: The Gathering card ever sold at public auction, according to PWCC.

Why are MTG cards so expensive?

This is largely due to the secondary market, which is what we call anything and anywhere that sells singles instead of just MTG packs. Despite the high cost of these cards, buying an expensive single is still often more cost-effective than buying packs until you pull the card you want.

What is the least printed MTG card?

1 1996 World Champion Has Only One Card Printed

What makes this the rarest Magic card is the fact that Wizards of the Coast destroyed not only the original print sheet, but also the printing plates for the card in a ceremony after the tournament, ensuring that only one of these cards exists.

Who has the most MTG cards?

Spencer is also among the eleven artists that have contributed more than 200 pieces for Magic, notable others being Greg Staples, Pete Venters, and Kev Walker. As of 2020, Walker is the most-featured artist, with 436 cards featuring his art as of the Double Masters set.

How many of each Magic card are printed?

Total number of Unique Magic Card Printings

“Just take the 22,630 total unique cards in Gatherer, and multiply that by the number of different printings per card, like the 10 versions of Remove Soul.” That gets you to a total of roughly 49,998 total unique printings.

Is MTG harder than chess?

Chess and magic are both very deep and intricate games. Magic is harder to learn, deeper, and more complex but what they share is that you are playing against another person.

Is MTG the most complex game?

These two, while shown to be especially complex, can still be figured out by a computer algorithm. “This construction establishes that Magic: The Gathering is the most computationally complex real-world game known in the literature,” the paper concludes.

What is the most complex game?

Chess. One of the most famously difficult games in the world to master is chess. There's much debate about how old chess is and where it came from, but one thing's for sure: The objective is to checkmate the opposition king, while keeping your own monarch safe.

What Magic card did Post Malone buy?

it was a Black Lotus (an artist print, at that) and, yes, it was signed by artist Christopher Rush. But, as he admitted to Howard Stern on his radio show, he also spent $800,000 on it. This was a big deal, but not specifically because a millionaire bought something expensive.

How can you tell if a Magic card is rare?

To tell if a card is rare or mythic rare we look at the expansion set symbol. Almost all cards will have an expansion set symbol on it to help you identify it. The colour of this symbol will tell you what rarity the card is; common = black, uncommon = silver, rare = gold, mythic = orange-red / bronze.

Who owns the most Black Lotus?

This exorbitant price of this card makes Post Malone's signed Black Lotus the most expensive Magic: The Gathering card ever sold. Previously this record was held by, surprise surprise, another Black Lotus. Sold in January 2021 for $500,000, this card was, similarly, a Chris Rush signed Black Lotus.

What are the most expensive MTG cards ever?

Estimated Value: $100,000 to $250,000. Black Lotus is the most expensive Magic: The Gathering card of all time. It's also the most infamous card in the game, as it grants its master three extra mana of any one color.

Is Black Lotus still banned?

Not long after the initial release of Black Lotus in 1993, it was swiftly restricted and subsequently banned from all but MTG's Vintage format, making one solitary appearance in the 1994 MTG Championships before never being seen again.

What is the highest selling Black Lotus card?

But the clincher is the very rare autographed Alpha Black Lotus signed by artist Christopher Rush. On the average, a PSA Gem mint 10 graded copy like this would sell for more than $500,000, but rap artist and hardcore MTG fan Post Malone shelled out $800,000 for one back in 2022.

What Magic card has no date?

Alpha and Beta cards are black bordered with no printed copyright date or set symbol. The best way to tell the difference between an Alpha and a Beta card is to check the corners. Alpha card corners are much more rounded than typical Magic cards.

What is the very first magic trick?

The oldest trick in Magic

The first ever recorded magic trick was historically recorded as being performed by a Magician called Dedi. The trick he performed was the cups and balls magic trick and the images were found on pyramids in Egypt around 2,700 BC.

What is the best MTG color?

Blue is defined by knowledge and intellectualism, and it has the signature ability to draw and manipulate cards. This is among the most powerful things you can do in competitive Magic and has made blue historically the strongest color (which becomes more apparent in formats where cards from the 1990's are legal).