Buying singles can be a cheap way to expand your Magic: The Gathering collection, but not when it comes to the most expensive MTG cards of all time. We don’t recommend paying what you would for a car for a small cardboard rectangle, no matter its prestige, but it is fun to gawk at those who will.
Much like rare Pokémon cards – and, these days, the most expensive Lorcana cards in the Disney TCG – some cards from the oldest MTG sets have become ultra-valuable, prized items, ballooning in price on the second-hand market.
Generally, it’s not simply because of their power – though the Power 9 do rank amongst the most valuable Magic cards, most pricey entries are prized just as much for their age and scarcity as their actual effect. Here you’ll find a list of the most expensive rare Magic cards ever made, along with the highest prices they have sold for.
The rarest and most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards:
- The One of One Ring – $2 million
- Black Lotus Autographed Alpha – $511,100
- Timetwister Alpha – $84,000
- Ancestral Recall Alpha and Beta – $20,000
- Mox Sapphire Alpha – $18,000
- Mox Ruby Alpha – $10,000
- Time Walk Alpha – $10,000
- Underground Sea Alpha – $7,000
- Intuition – $866
The One of One Ring
Price: $2 million
Printed for the 2023 Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth set, the 1/1 The One Ring is both the newest and the most expensive magic card on this list. This very special edition printing of the regular The One Ring card replaces the rules text with the elvish inscription on the jewellery. It also comes with unique art, and a gold serial number – 001 / 001. That’s right – only one copy of this card was ever printed.
The hunt for the one of one One Ring was a major factor in the success of the already extremely successful Lord of the Rings set, as fans from around the world opened packs and prayed they would be the lucky one to find the illusive artefact. A bidding war began before the card was even discovered, and had escalated all the way up to $2 million (plus a paella) before it was eventually found.
Rapper and Magic the Gathering superfan Post Malone purchased the One Ring card. Though the amount he spent isn’t available publicly, estimates of $2.6 million circulated, and seem quite realistic given the hype for the card at the time.
Black Lotus Autographed Alpha
Price: $800,000
Magic: The Gathering’s most famous flower is also its most prized card. Long coveted as a collector’s piece, a mint-condition Black Lotus from the game’s 1993 Alpha set (the first print run of MTG’s original core set), signed by illustrator Christopher Rush, sold for a whopping $511,100 / £360,427 in an eBay auction in January 2021. That would make this Black Lotus the second most expensive MTG card ever sold, except that Post Malone recently claimed to have bought a similar Black Lotus for $800,000.
Besides its mythos, the card’s prized for its powerful effect. An Artifact that requires no mana to play, Black Lotus adds three mana of any color to your pool, letting you cast powerful spells rapidly in the early game. It also has a spot on the MTG Reserved List – a selection of cards which Wizards has sworn never to reprint, keeping their price high on the secondary market.
Black Lotus Black Lotus $10,000 Buy now Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales. This product uses TCGplayer data but is not endorsed or certified by TCGplayer.
Timetwister Alpha
Price: $84,000
One of the ‘Power 9’ cards printed in Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited and banned from every format except Vintage, Timetwister is the ultimate reset card. When played, you’ll combine your hand, library, and graveyard, give the deck a good shuffle, and draw a fresh seven-card hand. Then, your opponent gets to do the same. It was absurdly good with other fast mana spells, letting you empty your whole hand, then get a brand new one.
Found on the Reserved List, Timetwister’s price has gradually increased over the years, with the most expensive copy we found evidence of selling on Fanatics Collect (formerly PWCC) for an astounding $84,000. 
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Ancestral Recall Alpha
Price: $20,000
Another oldie – although it might not possess the same fame as Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall packs all the same utility. Letting you draw three cards for one blue mana, it’s one of the best draw cards in the game, and effective for getting the advantage on your opponent.
Copies of Ancestral Recall, taken from MTG’s Alpha and Beta editions are listed for sale at around $20,000 / £14.100 in 2021, with near-mint versions going for significantly more.
Ancestral Recall, Alpha Edition Ancestral Recall, Alpha Edition $19,499.50 Buy Now Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales. This product uses TCGplayer data but is not endorsed or certified by TCGplayer.
Mox Sapphire Alpha
Price: $18,000
‘Moxes’, as they’re now known, have been cropping up in auction houses for years. Rare artifact cards printed in MTG’s Alpha and Beta editions (the first and second printings of of the original core set), these snazzy pieces of jewellrey function similar to Lands, adding one mana of a single color to your pool at no cost. However, while you can only play one Land per turn, you can slap down as many Moxes as you like, letting you build up a surge of mana, and unleash powerful spells before your opponent has the option of mounting a defence..
People have been clamouring for these pretties ever since their introduction. A mint Mox Sapphire, which provides blue mana, from the game’s Alpha set, lists upwards of $18,000 / £12,700 in 2021. You might think folks’d prefer to buy a real gemstone with that money.
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Mox Ruby Alpha
Price: $10,000
Another of the coveted stones, the Mox Ruby matches the Mox Sapphire in effect, fame, and prettiness, but not color: this one is read instead of blue, and produces red mana. There’s little distinction between the Moxes, but Alpha and Beta Mox Ruby cards are usually listed at around $10,000 USD / £7,000 in 2021. Maybe sapphires are just a little more chic.
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Time Walk Alpha
Price: $10,000
A straightforward rulebreaker, Time Walk let you take an extra turn for two mana. Play another one straight after, and it’s not too hard to see why this card was quickly added to the game’s list of banned cards after its release in Alpha.
Copies of Time Walk Alpha editions crop up from time to time, and usually sell for anywhere between a couple of thousand dollars to $10,000 / £7,000, depending on their condition.
Time Walk, Alpha Edition Time Walk, Alpha Edition $16,999 Buy Now Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales. This product uses TCGplayer data but is not endorsed or certified by TCGplayer.
Underground Sea Alpha
Price: $7,000
A dual Land that pairs Black and Blue mana, Underground Sea lets you tap for either color at no additional cost. Although just an improved basic Land card, this Alpha set card is particularly prized for having no downside – why use a Land that offers one color, when you could use a Land that offers two?
The card’s price has fluctuated in recent years, sitting around $7,000 / £4,900 in 2021, with prices still rising.
Underground Sea, Alpha Edition Underground Sea, Alpha Edition $16,999.69 Buy Now Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales. This product uses TCGplayer data but is not endorsed or certified by TCGplayer.
Intuition
Price: $866
Intuition’s ability is a little more peculiar than the other cards here. You’ll pick three cards from your deck, and let your opponent choose one to put into your hand, while the remaining two are discarded. Still played in some cEDH decks, it requires a little nuance to play effectively, as you wait for the right time to hand yourself an advantage at your opponent’s discretion.
Released in 1997’s Tempest set, copies of Intuition can go for hundreds of dollars rather than thousands, putting this at the bottom of this list right now. But Intuition is one of those cards that an old MTG collector might well find is still kicking around their house somewhere. Unsurprisingly, Intuition doesn’t owe its high price to an incredible ability, but rather to its spot on the Reserved List, which has been quietly bumping the card’s price upward for years.
Intuition Intuition $837.49 Buy Now Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales. This product uses TCGplayer data but is not endorsed or certified by TCGplayer.
For everything else Magic: The Gathering, check out our MTG release schedule guide to see what’s coming out next. Or stay on top of the competition with the best MTG Arena decks.