How Many Cards (2025?)

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—27 November 2025—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  
• 31,658 cards where the cards aren’t reprints

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

• not:reprint not:funny  
• 31,056 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  
• 30,223 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  
• 1,825 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is core

And now expansions:

• not:reprint st:expansion  
• 23,337 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  
• 6,752 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  
• 5,501 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,

• 30,223 unique Magic cards have been released in core sets, expansions, or other special releases that are not funny and not digital only [+1,954 from last year]. The breakdown:
• 1,825 unique Magic cards in core sets [+1 from last year, oddly]
• 23,337 unique Magic cards in expansions [+1,546 from last year]
• 5,501 unique Magic cards in special releases [+428 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, since I started this in 2020, the overall number has increased by over 10K—an increase of 50%. Magic has been around for 32 years . . . in the last six, they have gone from 21K to 31K unique cards. It's getting to be a lot.

Skinned Cards

Not all Magic cards are new; many are reprints. Five years ago, I did a series of posts on this topic. I do an annual post on "how many cards" are in the game (see 2024's post), and I discuss reprints there. I also looked at functional reprints and tweaked reprints. Today I cover another category: skinned cards.

Skinned cards are Magic cards 'traditional' reprints with an alternate name overlay. That alternate name:

- has no bearing on game play (the original name, shown under it, is the official one for rules purposes)

- has a non-Magic IP theme (like Universes Beyond sets)

Skinned cards began in 2020 and have appeared in various releases since. They can be a common feature of Secret Lair Drops. Here are two examples of skinned cards alongside their original cards. The first, Three Visits, was reskinned as a Monty Python card in a Secret Lair Drop. The second, Falkenrath Forebear, was reskinned as a Dracula card in the Crimson Vow set. 

The official rules talks more about these alternate art cards:

201.6. Promotional or alternate-art versions of some cards feature a secondary title bar below the name line. The card’s name as listed in the Oracle card reference is displayed in the secondary title bar, and an alternate name appears in the upper left corner. For the purposes of deck construction, game rules, and effects, these cards have only the card name specified in the secondary title bar. Rules text may also refer to a card’s alternate name; instances of the alternate name that are present in rules text refer to the name specified in the secondary title bar. The alternate name has no effect on game play. 

MTGWiki has more information if interested.

Skinned cards are a fun, if confusing, addition to the game. 

Until next time, keep exploring.

Budget Commander Staples: Artifacts

This year, I've spent two months looking at budget Commander staples. Today I look at budget Commander staples for colorless Artifacts, which are extra handy as they can be used in any Commander deck. I focus on four categories: ramp, card draw, targeted removal, and board wipe. And this is budget, so cards cost under $2.

Ramp

Ramp is about accelerating land deployment and/or mana access. Two staples here: Arcane Signet and Sol Ring. The former is especially critical if you play two or more colors.

Card draw

The main option here is Arcane Encyclopedia, which gives you an extra card per turn if you have the mana to spend.

Targeted removal

Universal Solvent and Meteor Golem are both nice (if costly) removal spells.

Board wipe 

Artifacts offer a surprising number of board wipe options. Ratchet Bomb can work well against tokens or low-cost permanents, and can even allow you to save your own (if they cost more). Boompile is a funny option and good for those who like the element of chance. Nevenyrral's Disk and Perilous Vault are effective if they can stay on the board long enough to be used.

Hybrid

Commander's Sphere, Solemn Simulacrum, and Mind Stone are both ramp and card draw

Conclusion

Of the 12 cards shown above, I'd recommend at least six be chosen for any Commander deck. 

Condensing Commander Decks

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian card art

I love building Magic decks; it's a huge part of the experience. And I like having a lot of decks on-hand for game night. One challenge is space; the other is cards. As I've blogged about frequently this year, many Commander decks will leverage the same staple cards. And of course every Magic deck needs lands. I recently decided to solve the space and card challenge by condensing some Commander decks; this post explains the concept.

Commander decks are 100 cards; 35-40 of those are lands. I currently use KMC Card Barrier 1000ct boxes as my deck storage method; each can hold 12 Commander decks unsleeved (9 decks sleeved).

I have four such boxes to house my Commander decks, meaning I can store 48 total. Awesome (and more than adequate). But I can store more by condensing.

I condense Commander decks by storing the same color-identity decks together, then extracting the land cards that are common between them to save space, keeping one set of the lands needed and using them for the deck I am playing. 

Example: I have three mono-blue commander decks. Each has at least 35 of the same lands (most of them islands). Previously, I stored these three 100-card decks in a row; 300 cards total. Since they all leverage the same 35 lands, I removed those 35 cards from all decks and kept one set at the end of that row. Now, those decks occupy 65+65+65+35=230 cards in the row. I saved space for 70 cards, which lets me make and store a fourth mono-blue commander deck (65 more cards) in the same space.

The same logic applies for two- and three-color Commander decks. If I have more than one of a given combination, I can determine the land cards common across them, keep one set, and remove the rest for more space. This is also helpful for the rare/expensive lands, as I don't have to buy multiple copies to keep in each deck.

The downsides of this approach:

- if I want to use two of the same-color decks at the same time. Easily remedied by pulling the needed lands from storage, and not a common scenario.

- remembering which cards are common between decks. This can be hard to remember once you shuffle and play. Right now, I'm keeping it to lands for this reason (see next paragraph). 

While the above describes only lands, I could apply the same concept to staple non-land cards. I suspect each of my Commander decks has 50 unique cards, and 15 or so staple cards that will show up in any deck of that color. So I could take it a step further and condense more. I haven't, yet, because it is easier to track and keep lands separate. But it is an option for the future.

The above method is letting me store 14-16 Commander decks per Card Barrier box; that should keep me for now.

Until next time, keep exploring.