The Most Expensive Magic: the Gathering Card Every Year | MTG 

Mirror universe was very expensive back in 1994 bc the way dying worked. Essentially, it wasn't until the end of the phase in which the game would check that you died, so if you died you could sacrifice mirror universe in response to insteas kill your opponent

Just wanted to say that the amount of effort put into these videos and this channel is incredible. Thank you to the MTGGoldfish cast and the editors for all that you do!

Seth i really want to thank you for taking the time to compile these historical info videos. Magic history is super ephemeral and without videos like this, we will lose that.

Mirror universe was expensive because you didn't lose the game until the end of a step or phase, so if you could pay all your life to abilities and such, you could trade life points before the end of that step or phase and then your opponent lost

People also have to remember that when Jace the mindsculptor was in standard, there really weren't many ways to deal with planeswalkers once they were on the field. In fact the best way was to play your own Jace, which back then killed off both Jaces. So whoever got there Jace out first had a huge advantage.

Time warp makes me think - we've seen the fastest bannings, but what are the slowest bannings? Cards that became surprisingly broken late in their life?

I've only been playing magic for a few years, but I'm loving these historical retrospectives. Keep em coming please!

So much work done for this video, great work as always Seth

For Mirror Universe, life totals weren't checked immediately, but at the end of each phase. So you had until at least the end of your Upkeep to get your life total above zero after burning yourself with City of Brass et al. For sets from before, say, Time Spiral block (I'm a bit fuzzy on a good dividing line here, but anything printed before Mirrodin definitely qualifies), it was rare to see cards get above 20 USD ever, and very occasionally it might hit 25-30. The first card I remember seeing hitting 30+ since then was Jace, the Mind Sculptor, who was being presold for $50 on SCG at the time. As for The One Ring, I would have listed that as an honourable mention, because every other version discussed that made it on the list was the standard version, not a foil or an alternate art or whatever. The regular version of The One Ring according to MTG Goldfish currently goes for between 50-80 USD depending on which version, usually 70-something.

If the Invocations, Zendikar Expditions etc don't count, then neither does the 1/1 One Ring.

What a thorough and well done video!

Love your content, Seth. Keep it up, It's a rare thing being a content creator and no matter how much or how little effort you put into content, We still wanna see it!

I have been so excited for this video!!! 🎉🎉🎉

One thing you didn't mention about why Pithing Needle was so expensive: Saviors of Kamigawa was one of the worst sets in the history of Magic, and nobody wanted to open it. At the time, the set only really had two cards anybody wanted out of the set: Twincast and Pithing Needle.

Back then I traded my Lion's Eye Diamond for a Taniwha because I loved legendary creatures, they were special back then. One of the worst deals in my life, maybe in history.

Great video! Kinda glad to see black lotus take its spot back as #1!

Nice video, dude. I just want to say that while the price of The One Ring most likely wont be beat by a Lotus, there could technically still be a BGS all 10's Black Lotus out there sitting in a box/booster somewhere. If there was a ever a "Best condition Lotus EVER to ever see the light of day" it could very well be 2 million if it were sold in some years from now. I am hoping.

I don't know if others have commented this (if someone did, I didn't notice), but Reflecting Pool was actually a reprint in Shadowmoor, and was first printed in Tempest. I know, because I own that version. Also this made me realise that two years in a row I opened the most expensive cards, and just held to them (while they tanked), they're Teferi HOD and Wrenn and 6. I'm not really regretting it, but it's interesting that it happened twice in a row. Oh and I finally realised why people back in like 2000 or 99 told me I was "swindled" because I bought a mono-green deck from a schoolmate, but he tactically took Multani, Maro-Sorcerer out. OTOH he didn't take out (then not that pricey) Gaea's Cradle, so that "investment" payed off...

If you’re including the one of one ring shouldn’t you include cards like the Neon Ink Hudetsugu and the Shattered Glass Transformers? I think those are over/close to 1k and beat out sheoldred etc

I think that this video illustrates the divergence of prices from source to source. I played back in the day, and the prices that I remember from the 98/99 era are nothing like what you are quoting. I normally used Scrye, and so did all of the shops in my area back then.

You didn't include special printings of cards for previous years but counted 1/1 One Ring for 2023...

An alpha black lotus signed by the man himself for $800,000??? If I had Post Malone money I’d call that a solid deal

This is a crazy look back in time. Except for the first few years, i went through all these phases. :)

I was playing during Prophecy and rhystic study was complete, worthless crap. Then I took a LOOOONG break from the game and started playing Commander around 2019. I'll never forget the first time I saw rhystic study cast. I couldn't process how this utter garbage card from my childhood was now a powerhouse

Deserted Temple was reprinted in LOTR it now sells for $7.

Very interesting. Thks

I remember P3K packs being available at my local shop for 3 dollars a pack instead of the usual 4 because nobody really wanted the set. I probably bought 10 or so packs, still have all the commons and uncommons but have no clue what the rares were or what happened to them lol

Great video. Only Portal: Three Kingdoms was designed for the Asian market. Portal and Portal 2 were plentiful in the US.

My favorite MTG content out there next to maybe Rhystic Studies or Spice.

I can't believe I traded my playset of baby Emrakul. 😖 It was about to rotate from standard so I got rid of it. The only good deals I made from this list was pre-ordering baby Jace for 15$ and Scarab God for 10$. Then buy listing Jace for 75$ and Scarab God for 60$ a few weeks before rotation.

I remember being 10 years old and tearing a lions sue diamond in half…just because 😢

I bought a Mindbreak Trap for a few bucks a decade ago just so I could make the "gelbooru tags" joke, best meme purchase I've ever made.

I was excited in 2013 to be able to buy a few of those Commander decks with True Name Nemesis before they all sold out everywhere 😅

While Shivan Dragon may not be worth much, I reckon an Alpha Shivan Dragon is probably worth many many dollars

I was looking through my Dads old collection of cards. Found 3 lions eye diamonds in pretty good condition

18:08 ok, I am nitpicking here, but Lobotomy was first printed in Tempest, and reprinted in invasion.

Was around in 1994 and bought Revised in stores - Balduvian Hordes was = Juzam Djinn (most expensive AN card for ages, till Bazaar took over), but for RED who wants speed. Back then removal was a lot harder, so bigger creatures was king.

I played back then, and I remember Cursed Scroll being closer to $20.00, and Time Warp was cheap. Where did you get that information?! 7:30

Huh the talk about time walk gave me the idea of basically the opposite of the top ten quickest bans. The top 10 slowest bans. Which cards have been banned the longest after their printing. Could be interesting to talk about why they suddenly got busted

Black Lotus will still be the biggest price tag to me in MTG. Really can't count a gimicky one of a kind card. Lotus might be expensive, but still findable. The One Ring more then likely will end up changing hands a few times, but in the history of the game, will later just be a footnote.

Looking forward to Post playing the One Ring on Gameknights and getting it stolen by some artifact-theft ingame.

For me, Morphling was an auto-concede when it came out against me in Standard.. it was the best card at the time by far.

When I got back into Magic in 2020 I traded in 5 or 6 Rhystic Studies for a set of ONS Flooded Strands. No regrets.

Lotr mtg was one of the best sets they have ever released. Need more of those sets please.

3:06 You don't sac creatures to tabernacle despite what the printed text says. It was errated to destroy instead.

For 2013, pretty sure voice of resurgence was more expensive than true name a few months after printing. I remember it would sell for 60+ at a lot of stores

I think you missed the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos, Red Neon Foil... that was a 2022 print that's still $1200ish.

Painter's Servant was the only good Scarecrow, the rest of his race was worthless, but he was good to combo with that one burn card, Chaotic Backlash. Deal 2 damage for ever blue or white permanent, by making everything blue, they just take two damage for everything on the board, if it was pretty much a one shot kill most of the time if it was allowed to resolve. I'm sure there are more interesting combos to do with it, but that was just from the same block and I had it in a burn deck, might still have it actually, also with Chandra in it I think, and that elemental that let you throw spare mana on it. edit: fixed the card name

Hello ! Could you do a against the odds with fleshtaker from innistrad please ??? I really love that card's art, and I feel like it could have some use, but I still can't quite figure out how to break it

Certified old guy here. The major reason Mirror Universe was so expensive was that it is among the first combos to win the game almost immediately. You cast "Mirror Universe" then "Lich", and on next turn activate the Mirror and its game over. If the opponent wasn't playing White or Red (Disenchant or Shatter), you were likely doomed and might still be anyhow if you didnt have either at hand. The "Chef's Kiss" would be to Time Walk right into your next upkeep; something that was not unthinkable in that time period.

To the editor: Lobotomy was first printed in Tempest. :)

You go from not talking about any serialized cards from Brothers War to jump instantly to the serialized One Ring. There are a lot of serialized cards from Bro that I'm sure are still more expensive than $80 for 2022.

I picked up a playset of Rhystic Study for $0.70 each in Nov. of 2010. When exactly did it explode in value? Commander's Arsenal didn't release till 2 years later.

Damn i pulled a foil extraction back in 04... should of sold it lol 😂😂

I have a Japanese copy of Intuition that at the time like 6 years ago bought for 65 bucks.

god if i could time travel lol. the amount of certain cards id gather up in good condition and keep em up to now!!

For 1996 I would argue the 1996 world champion to be the most expensive because although technically not ever sold it would probably be worth around the same as the one of one ring.

In '97, i bought the Arabian Nights set for $175. The guy i had purchased them from had taken them straight from boosters, years earlier, and straight into hard cases. My parents were pissed that I "wasted" my money. Ohhhh those cards were MINT. About a year later, i sold them for $550 so I could have some extra money (mainly to bring my girlfriend at the time to prom). I thought nothing of it... until I checked prices online in the past year or so. I want a time machine... 😭 What the hell happened?!?

love this seties

Its like buying the boxed Monopoly game. Only you need to pull all the dollars out of your pocket to play it.

I had that Tabernacle back in the day, wish I still had it so I could sell it and buy a house and a car or two.

I was so happy I sold my Shepards when I did I got $780 for a play set and $320 for a foil I was lucky and able to get my hands on a ton of jumpstart having a connect at wotc My brother was a software developer from 2008-2022 and he could get stuff so easy and cheap he was very high up they would give him stuff all the time every year I’d get at least 2/3 case of boxes for Christmas still do even though he left saved a ton just got a case commander legends and new capena

I changed my Sliver deck Commander once I found out Sliver Queen was like 150 bucks.

Did I miss Mox Diamond, or was it beat out for its year?

I just purchased a big lot of magic cards and one of those cards is a black lotus

It would be interesting if these prices were adjusted for inflation: compare minimum and average wages in the early to late 90s to what they are today.

What we learned from this is if someone prints an expensive magic collectible post malone will buy it.

Actually your wrong about the black lotus. The first ever official price guide came out in early 1994, just after antiquities came out, and a Alpha Mox Ruby and Sapphire tie for the highest at $25.50, whereas the Alpha black lotus came in at $25.00. :)

Life swap cards back in the day were way more useful when mana burn was still a rule.

Hah! Bought 3 doubling seasons back then :D

I mean technically the base version of The One Ring is way cheaper, and the one of one version is more like the Kaladesh Invention cards, but even the regular version is still stupid expensive. At my LGS its $100 CAD.

When Gemstone Caverns was a dollar I bought 4 of them for a combo deck. Wish I would have bought much more

The interviewers face when Post Malone said how much he spent on the One Ring is how everyone feels.

Seth is the Magic historian we all need, but don't deserve.

TL;DR of this vid - 2 bullet points: 1) The 1st 9 years of _Magic_ were *weird* 2) 85% of the secondary market pricing is in Commander/EDH's FIRM CONRTOL

Just want more LoTR themed mtg packs please

Man the ceiling price for magic cards has exploded since the early 2000s.

Pretty sure lion's eye diamond was still a better investment than rhystic study. I bought a playset @ $1 each.

I like how post malone made up an entire rap career to justify his mtg collecting.

I feel like Scry suffered a lot from the fact that most people didn't know what constituted a truly good card in a general context (ie kitchen table good), let alone know about all the niche uses for stuff. Even the internet had much worse advice than now, where you can glean quite a bit with a little invested time. Still today though people aren't perfect at this, most people know of cards that are really good for their price, but because they are so unknown they don't move much, and we can all name a bunch of cards that are solid enough cards but cost maybe x10 what they are realistically worth, and aren't even on the Reserved List. People still kind of suck at evaluating cards. Ha! I do actually have one of these! I have a Deserted Temple I cracked in an old starter deck (it also came with a terrible Vampire, so both rares were complete trash then, and one still is). I have a few of these in different printings, but not many of the OG printings. I think your lists like this shouldn't look at Commander stuff, or weird print stuff like the 1 of 1 The One Ring, maybe I'm too much of a purist for wanting you to stick with standard legal stuff only?

Why is Mirror Universe so expensive? The answer is so obvious! Phil Foglio art.

Pretty sure Bonfire of the Damned hit close to $50 at one point during its time in Standard, making it more expensive than Thundermaw

my black lotus was $0.50 and the back is a cool blue yugi-oh spiral so who’s the real winner

If second chance was in modern you know that would have been played on Against the odds

1997 should be Cursed Scroll, not Time Warp

Wtf you mean cavern gets “reprinted constantly” ??? It had one booster set printing, 3 masters set printings, and 2 masterpieces. If you ask me, its no f’ing wonder its still $50

Honestly, Posty just making an investment. If it's worth 2mil now, think how much that card will be years from now.

All the cards ever can be bought on shady Chinese websites. I love them and use them all the time. I win most tournaments at my local games shop because of this.

You used to not die until the end of a phase, so with Mirror Universe you could literally kill yourself, then swap totals before you lost. With fetches and shocks, that card would be insane had they not changed the rules

Whoever makes these thumbnails needs to know the $dollar sign going in FRONT of the number, not after it.

I think, if you were going to go back through the card reviews and talk about what people thought about cards like Necropotence when it was printed, you also should have mentioned what people thought about Jace, Vryn's Prodigy when it was previewed, because surely everyone got that card right.

Bring your life during your upkeep to 0 or less, use Mirror Universe to swap life totals, if your opponent can't do anything you've won.

1999 SHoul've been Masticore, why isn't it there?

the most valuable 2017 card is Edgar Markov at $130

And phyrexian scuta? Was very expensive in his year

It would have been helpful if the old prices were adjusted for inflation. As it stands now, the list is a little misleading.

I kinda love that Post Malone fangirls for MTG :D

17:30

Avanracyn restored

If only they got rid of the reserved list