How many cards (2024)?

The Grand Calculatron

How many Magic cards have been made? I looked at that question and the difficulty it creates in this post from 2020. Today, I simply update the numbers. This post will focus on how many unique cards have been made.

As with last year, Scryfall will be our guide. Any commands shown below were typed into the main Scryfall search bar. And all results are accurate only as of this writing—9 November 2024—as the numbers are always changing.

The first query: how many unique Magic cards have been made? Using Scryfall's syntax, we search as follows, and get the result (presented immediately after and copied from Scryfall's explanation):

• not:reprint  
• 29,609 cards where the cards aren’t reprints

Cool. But this includes funny cards . . . let's drop those:

• not:reprint not:funny  
• 29,008 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the cards aren’t funny

Now let's remove those digital-only cards:

• not:reprint not:funny not:digital  
• 28,269 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the cards aren’t funny and the cards aren’t digital prints

Great. Now let's look at how many unique cards have appeared in core sets:

• not:reprint st:core  
• 1,824 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is core

And now expansions:

• not:reprint st:expansion  
• 21,791 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is expansion

All that remains are cards that weren't in core sets or expansions:

• not:reprint -st:core -st:expansion  
• 6,232 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is not core and the set type is not expansion

Oops, that includes funny and digital cards. Adjusting:

• not:reprint -st:core -st:expansion not:funny not:digital  
• 5,073 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is not core and the set type is not expansion and the cards aren’t funny and the cards aren’t digital prints

Alright, I think that's it for today. So in summary, as of today,

• 28,269 unique Magic cards have been released in core sets, expansions, or other special releases that are not funny and not digital only [+4,035 from last year]. The breakdown:
• 1,824 unique Magic cards in core sets [+139 from last year]
• 21,791 unique Magic cards in expansions [+2,256 from last year]
• 5,073 unique Magic cards in special releases [+1,939 from last year]

The numbers are always changing; here's a screenshot on how the numbers have changed over the past few months. Note that the "-is:" or "-st:" syntax is interchangable with "not:" in some cases:

That's a lot of Magic cards, and quite a jump from last year (4K more unique cards!!). And, since I started this in 2020, the overall number has increased by ~8K. Magic has been around for 31 years . . . in the last five, they have gone from 21K to 29K unique cards. It's getting to be a lot.

State of MTG Arena, 2024

A few days ago, Wizards released two articles on the state of their free online platform, MTG Arena. Here they are:

• State of the Game
• State of the Formats

They are both worth a read; below, I unpack the most important (or intriguing) elements of each.

State of the Game

On Arena this year, they are on pace to release

• 5 Standard set releases
• 2 Nonrotating releases
• 1 Classic release
• 4 Alchemy releases
• 1 Jumpstart release

That is over 3000 new cards. In one year. That is a lot to absorb. The rest of the article talks about various offerings (like preconstructed decks) or what is coming in 2025 (generically; no specific sets are listed).

State of the Formats

The below chart is copied from the article and shows the popularity of each format available on Arena.

• Standard is a rotating format including the most recent sets.
• Historic is "MTG Arena’s largest Constructed format, filled with both old and new Magic cards. Digital-only cards are legal in this format, including rebalanced versions of existing cards."
• Brawl is similar to Commander: 100-card decks, single copies only
• Alchemy adjusts Standard releases; the "cards feature mechanics designed for play only in Alchemy and Historic formats."
• Explorer is "all cards legal in the Pioneer format that appear on Arena."
• Timeless is "MTG Arena’s largest Constructed format where every card is legal. It includes the most powerful cards throughout Magic history."

Interesting how two formats—Historic and Timeless—are billed as Arena's largest Constructed format.

Chart aside, this paragraph bears quoting as showing the goal (and challenge) of each format:

In general, we want every format to be balanced, diverse, and fun. Balance is important so that you always feel like you have a fair shot at winning and that your decisions throughout a match matter. Diversity means both facing a wider range of opponents, which is refreshing, but also that you have a large number of viable decks and archetypes to play yourself. And fun is always vital. After all, any given player is going to lose about half of the games they play, so we want to make sure the play in each match is interesting and enjoyable.

They do a good job with these areas, even if it seems overwhelming.