10 Most Valuable Magic: The Gathering Cards Of All Time

Published Sep 25, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. 

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Magic: The Gathering is one of the longest-running tabletop card games of all time, building an enormous community since its debut in 1993. Across more than three decades of releases, the game has introduced countless expansions, iconic characters, and some of the most sought-after collectibles in the entire trading card market. While most Magic cards can still be picked up for relatively modest prices, a small handful have sold for astonishing sums thanks to factors like extreme scarcity, historical importance, condition, and unique serial numbering.

The earliest Alpha cards remain especially desirable, as you'll see below, with the legendary Power Nine continuing to command enormous prices in top grades to this day. More recent releases have also entered the conversation, including one-of-one and serialized crossover cards tied to major franchises. Based on confirmed public auction results and documented private sales, these are some of the most valuable Magic: The Gathering cards ever sold.

Shivan Dragon (1993)

Alpha Edition — BGS 9.5 Gem Mint

Highest Sale Value: $44,400

Shivan Dragon debuted in Magic: The Gathering's original Alpha set in August 1993, featuring artwork by Melissa Benson. Its imposing design became one of the game's enduring images, surviving through decades of reprints. On the battlefield, the creature combines flying with an ability that lets players spend red mana to increase its attacking power.

An Alpha copy graded BGS 9.5 Gem Mint sold for $44,400, including the buyer's premium, in November 2022. The auction identified it as one of just ten copies at that Beckett grade, with only two graded higher at the time. Wizards of the Coast CEO Peter Adkison has estimated that only about 1,008 copies of each Alpha rare were printed, including Shivan Dragon.

As such, Alpha copies remain valuable collectibles, although nothing close to that selling price nowadays. A different copy, graded CGC 9.5 Mint+, sold through Heritage Auctions for $4,750 in July 2025.

Mox Sapphire (1993)

Alpha Edition — PSA 9 Mint

Highest Sale Value: $46,800

Originally printed in 1993's Alpha set, Mox Sapphire belongs to Magic: The Gathering's celebrated Power Nine, a group renowned for its extraordinary gameplay strength. Featuring artwork by Dan Frazier, this artifact costs no mana to cast and can be tapped to produce blue mana, helping players cast powerful spells earlier than usual.

The five original Mox cards—Mox Pearl, Sapphire, Jet, Ruby, and Emerald—make up more than half of Magic: The Gathering's legendary Power Nine, with Mox Sapphire and Mox Jet also ranking among the ten most valuable individual cards ever sold.

An Alpha copy graded PSA 9 Mint sold for $46,800 on April 21, 2023, with its condition explaining much of the appeal: the auction description notes that many early Mox cards suffered damage from extensive play and shuffling, making well-preserved originals difficult to find. Although this copy falls below PSA's highest Gem Mint 10 grade (a controversial aspect of PSA among collectors), its Mint designation distinguishes it from the heavily played cards you might otherwise find.

Time Walk (1993)

Alpha Edition — PSA 10 Gem Mint

Highest Sale Value: $63,000

Time Walk's deceptively simple effect offers an extraordinary advantage, letting players take an entire extra turn for just two mana, including one blue. Featuring Amy Weber's eerie illustration of skeletal figures crossing a strange landscape, its a beautiful early release that's extremely hard to come by in good condition. Originally released in 1993's Alpha set, it once again belongs to Magic: The Gathering's celebrated Power Nine, as do many of the most valuable cards.

An Alpha copy graded PSA 10 Gem Mint sold for $63,000 on April 21, 2023. The auction listing identifies it as one of only ten Alpha copies at that grade. PSA 10 is the company's highest grade, indicating virtually perfect condition, although it's worth noting that slight printing imperfections are permitted in PSA when they do not diminish the card's overall appeal (also a controversial aspect of PSA's policies).

Splendid Genesis (1997)

Richard Garfield Promo — BGS 8

Highest Sale Value: $72,000

Splendid Genesis has an especially unique and personal origin compared to most cards. Richard Garfield created the 1997 promotional card to celebrate his first child's birth, sharing copies with family, friends, and select Wizards of the Coast employees. According to Heritage Auctions, only 110 were produced.

Monique Thirifay's artwork shows a baby gripping an adult's finger, while the card's effect fittingly adds another player to the game. The card’s flavor text also quotes Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, reflecting on how parental love grows through the bond formed while raising a child.

A BGS 8 Near Mint–Mint copy sold for $72,000 through Heritage Auctions on June 11, 2022. At the time, Beckett had graded just three copies, with only one receiving a higher score, underscoring how rarely collectors come across professionally graded versions.

Traveling Chocobo (2025)

Final Fantasy Gold Serialized /77 — CGC 8

Highest Sale Value: $75,000

Traveling Chocobo became one of MTG's biggest modern chase cards through the Final Fantasy crossover, with the special Gold version limited to just 77 serialized copies. One that was graded CGC 8 NM-MT sold for $75,000 earlier this year through Fanatics Collect on March 20, 2026. Fanatics also noted that this particular grade had a CGC population of one, with seven examples graded higher.

That $75,000 result is not the only high-dollar sale associated with the Gold /77 Traveling Chocobo, although some later figures are less firmly documented. A CGC 9.5 copy was reported at $76,860 in October 2025, while another serialized example was reported to have sold for $78,000 that August. Unlike the Fanatics Collect transaction, however, those higher amounts are not backed by the same kind of surviving first-party auction record.

Even so, the repeated five-figure results make it clear that the Gold /77 Traveling Chocobo remains one of the most valuable modern Magic collectibles, with its extreme scarcity keeping the market both expensive and difficult to benchmark.

Timetwister (1993)

Alpha Edition — PSA 10 Gem Mint

Highest Sale Value: $84,000

Timetwister is yet another one of Magic: The Gathering's legendary Power Nine, but it is often considered the fairest of the group because its effect reshuffles both players' hands and graveyards before drawing seven new cards. Even so, its power and scarcity have made original Alpha copies major collector pieces. A 1993 Alpha Timetwister graded PSA 10 Gem Mint sold for $84,000, including buyer's premium, on April 21, 2023. At the time, PSA had graded only three copies at that level.

Comparable Alpha copies have also commanded substantial prices, although not quite at the same level. A BGS 9.5 Gem Mint copy sold for $52,800 in May 2023, showing how significantly the higher grades can affect value. PSA's current census still lists only three Gem Mint 10 Alpha copies, showing just how scarce examples at this level of quality remain.

Lord Of The Pit (1993)

Alpha Edition — BGS 10 Pristine

Highest Sale Value: $105,000

Lord of the Pit dates back to Magic: The Gathering's original 1993 Alpha release, with Mark Tedin's demonic artwork helping establish the darker aesthetic of the game's earliest black cards. Alpha itself had an extremely limited print run, and Fanatics Collect estimates that only around 1,008 copies of each rare card, including Lord of the Pit, were originally produced.

A particularly extraordinary example graded BGS 10 Pristine sold for $105,000, including buyer’s premium, on January 20, 2023. At the time of the auction, it was the only BGS 10 example known to Beckett, making its condition just as important as the card's underlying rarity.

That $105,000 result remains an outlier, as others have subsequently sold for only thousands as opposed to the six-figures for the Pristine 10.

Mox Jet (1993)

Alpha Edition — PSA 10 Gem Mint

Highest Sale Value: $108,000

Mox Jet is another one of the famous Power Nine and one of the five original Mox cards mentioned above, illustrated by Dan Frazier. Interestingly, Fanatics notes that Frazier was instructed to make the Mox artwork recognizable from more than 15 feet away and even when viewed upside down, helping explain their unusually bold designs.

Mox Jet costs nothing to play while immediately providing black mana, giving early players a major advantage. Because card sleeves were far less common during Magic's earliest years, many original copies were heavily worn through shuffling and play, making pristine examples exceptionally difficult to find.

This PSA 10 Gem Mint Alpha copy sold for $108,000 on January 26, 2024; only four PSA 10 examples were known at the time.

The One Ring (2023)

Tales Of Middle-earth Serialized 001/001 — PSA 9 Mint

Highest Sale Value: $2,000,000

Probably one of the most famous Magic sales in modern history, The One Ring was purchased by Post Malone for $2 million in July 2023 from Brook Trafton, the Canadian collector who pulled it from a Collector Booster.

The staggering price comes down largely to absolute scarcity: this special version from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is serialized 001/001, making it literally the only copy Wizards of the Coast produced. It was also printed as a traditional foil with its text rendered in the Black Speech of Sauron using Tengwar letterforms and was subsequently graded PSA 9 Mint.

FYI, the English translation text on the card reads as follows: When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn. At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring. Tap: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.

Malone has not simply locked his $2 million purchase away, either. In 2026, he brought the genuine card onto Game Knights, removed it from its protective holder, and actually played it during a Commander game, an extraordinary fate for one of the most valuable Magic cards ever sold. Incredibly, however, there's still a card that outranks The One Ring by a long shot.

Black Lotus (1993)

Alpha Edition — CGC 10 Pristine

Highest Sale Value: $3,000,000

The undisputed king of MTG in terms of value is the legendary Black Lotus, with one extraordinary Alpha copy setting a record that still dwarfs every other confirmed Magic sale. In April 2024, a CGC Pristine 10 example sold privately for $3 million, making it the most expensive card ever sold and the highest-priced card ever certified by CGC at the time.

Its value comes from a combination of age, scarcity, condition, and legendary gameplay power. Black Lotus debuted in Magic’s original 1993 Alpha set, with only about 1,100 copies of each Alpha rare believed to have been printed. It is also one of the Power Nine, capable of producing three mana for no casting cost, which made it extraordinarily powerful from the game's earliest days.

The $3 million copy was even more exceptional because Pristine 10 requires essentially flawless centering, corners, surface, and manufacturing quality, an almost unheard-of condition for a card more than three decades old. Black Lotus is the Holy Grail of Magic: The Gathering, and its dominance goes beyond the record-setting $3 million copy.

In September 2026, another PSA 10 Gem Mint Alpha Black Lotus sold through Goldin Auctions for $2,208,200, making it the highest-priced publicly auctioned Magic:The Gathering card and even surpassing the $2 million paid by Post Malone for the unique 001/001 The One Ring.