For much ofMagic: The Gathering’shistory, the top end of the game came from rare cards. Mighty wizards, massive beasts, and even the first wave of planeswalkers are all in the rare ranking, making it an important slot to be.
As more and more cards have been released into the game, the rare slot has been filled to the brim with all sorts of powerful cards, leading some to top the charts when it comes to price. We took a look at all the rare cards released across Magic’s history and found the most valuable among them.
Just a quick note, all these prices come from TCGplayer’s Market Value and are subject to change. There are likely other exceptionally valuable cards out there in the rare slot, sold either to private sellers or through other nonpublic ways, making them difficult to track.
10Gaea’s Cradle - Urza’s Saga
Rare - $833
There are fewlands that can produce as much manaas Gaea’s Cradle. All you have to do is tap Gaea’s Cradle to add one green mana for each creature you control, which is absurdly powerful at even just a few creatures.
While its mana production hinges on how any creatures you have out, that’s never slowed down this land. At just one creature, you get your normal mana rate. At five creatures, you are ramping up in mana more than practically any other land. Anything more than that is just excessive at that point, and can quickly spiral out of control.
9Moat - Legends
Rare - $999
For a card with exceptionally little text to it, just one line of text, it is an incredibly powerful crrd that can just shut down a game. With this enchantment out, creatures without flying simply can’t attack. you may shut down whole decks with little to no way of your opponents getting around it.
If you’ve never faced a Moat in a game it can be a devastating blow to your strategy. Enchantment removal is rare in Magic, and if there’s no way to get rid of it, there’s nothing for you to do. While Moat isn’t always the most powerful card, there are plenty of flying creatures in Magic, you can shut down plenty of creature-based decks.
8Chains Of Mephistopheles - Legends
Rare - $1,049
Magic hasn’t always been as efficient and clean with its text as it is now and Chains of Mephistopheles is a testament to that. This card has been updated so that if any player would draw a card outside of the first one they draw in their draw step, they have to discard a card instead. Then, if they discard a card, they draw a card. If they don’t discard a card, they mill a card instead.
So basically, Chains punishes players who attempt to draw lots of cards by keeping cards constantly flowing in and out of player’s hands, or into the graveyard. If they only have a few cards in hand, the choices of what to keep or discard are going to be much more difficult. This card is so complicated, that over the years players have made custom flowcharts to keep everything straight, which is fun for a Magic card that needs extra graphs.
7Juzam Djinn - Arabian Nights
Rare - $1,357.48
One of the many cases where a Magic card is valuable despite not being considered good anymore, Juzam Djinn is a classic case of collectability driving the price up. Back in the day, Juzam Djinn was a powerhouse, for four mana you got a 5/5 at the cost of one life per turn, outclassing most other creatures at the time.
Juzam Djinn was only ever printed once in Arabian Nights, and since it is on the Reserved List, it is never going to get a printing again. Past that, if you play the 93/94 format, there are few other creatures better in black.
6Mishra’s Workshop - Antiquities
Rare - $1,952
There’s ramping in Magic, and then there’s Mishra’s Workshop. This land lets you add three generic mana to your mana pool, with the extremely mild stipulation that you can only use the mana on artifacts.
The possibilities withMishra’s Workshop are incredible, especially if its your first turn. You want a turn one Chalice of the Void on one? You got it. Need a Trinishphere to punish your opponents early on? Done. All this potential necessities it being banned in Legacy but you can still go wild in Commander and Vintage.
5Time Vault - Alpha Edition
Rare - $2,949.99
Time Vault is an exceptionally absurd artifact in the scope of modern Magic. This two mana artifact enters tapped, it doesn’t untap on your untap step, and at the start of your turn you can choose to skip your turn, untapping the Time Vault. In exchange, you can tapTime Vault to take an extra turn.
Time Vault has a complicated history, having gone through several erattas and updates to the text to get it to work the way it was intended. While taking infinite turns is the obvious one, there have been infinite damage combos with this card as well over the years.
4The Tabernacle At Pendrell Vale - Legends
Rare - $3,400
A fascinating land that doesn’t actually tap for mana, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is a hard to deal with taxing effect that punishes your opponent for having a lot of creatures. At the start of each player’s upkeep they have to pay one mana for each of their creatures, and if they can’t, that creature is destroyed.
The Tabernacle ties up all your opponent’s mana, assuming they have plenty of creatures out, forcing them to choose to either give up a bunch of their creatures in exchange for a spell or to keep as many of their creatures as they can at the expense of spending all their mana.
3Chaos Orb - Alpha Edition
Rare - $3,500
There are few Magic cards out there that have such a history as Chaos Orb. This weird little artifact has you hold it above the board by at least a foot and letting it drop onto the battlefield, spinning completely over at least once. Any cards it touches are destroyed, which is exceptionally silly.
While it is likely a rumor, there’s the classic story of a player that tore up their copy of the card and let the pieces flutter to the battlefield, blowing up practically everything in play.
2The Moxen - Alpha Edition
Rare - ~$6,000
There are plenty powerful artifacts in Magic, and few are as exceptional as the Moxen. There are five in total, one for each color. These zero mana artifacts add one mana, effectively acting as a free land that skips the land drop limitations.
The Mox are exceptionally powerful and because of this, are either banned or restricted in any format they’re legal in. If you’re looking to snag one of these for a deck, you’re going to be shelling out a good amount of money but the second you cast one of these on your first turn, its going to feel amazing.
1Timetwister - Alpha Edition
Rare - $11,549
One of the Power Nine, Timetwister is a powerhouse, especially in the context of the game back in the day. At just three mana this “Wheel” effect has tyou and your opponent both shuffle your hand, graveyard, and deck together and draw a whole new seven cards, with Timetwister going into the graveyard.
At the time Timetwister was released, you could play the Mox artifacts, zero mana artifacts that provide mana. This means you could drop a land and a few Mox, then trade your hand in for a brand new one on your first turn, and leaving your opponent with a potentially bad hand.
