"What is the rarest Magic: The Gathering card?"

Have you ever heard that question, particularly from colleagues or friends who are less familiar with the collectible card game? It's a fun trivia question about the game that, believe it or not, a surprising number of players may not be able to answer correctly.

Enfranchised players who don't follow current market trends may believe it's an Alpha rare, since we have documented evidence that only about 1,100 copies of each were printed. Newer players would sagely point to the serialized cards, which are conveniently numbered and often have fewer than 1,100 copies released. Clever players may point out an accidental misprint as a true rarity, such as the famous Blue Hurricane.

These are all extremely rare (and valuable), but they aren't the rarest MTG cards of all time. There are, in fact, numerous cards known to have even fewer copies in existence.

The Three Rarest Magic Cards

The truth is, "rarest" is a bit of a misnomer if we take its definition literally. To be the rarest Magic card, Wizards of the Coast would have had to have printed fewer copies than every other card in the game's history. It's difficult to prove this definitively, but the community is aware of at least three unique cards with exactly one copy in existence. Let's have a look at each one and their history, starting in 1996.

1. 1996 World Champion

Wizards of the Coast was planning the first ever World Championship, shortly after the birth of the Pro Tour. Upon completion of the Pro Tour season, 125 players met to compete in a unique tournament experience featuring three formats: Booster Draft, Standard, and Legacy.

When the dust settled, Australian Tom Chanpheng prevailed over Mark Justice 3-0 to secure victory. Chanpheng, a relatively unknown player at time, took down the Standard finals playing a streamlined mono-White deck featuring Order of Leitbur, Order of the White Shield, Savannah Lions, and White Knight. Classic Magic at its finest.

To recognize Chanpheng for his victory, Wizards of the Coast awarded him with a custom Magic card, called 1996 World Champion. According to the magiclibrarities site (which I must trust, since I've never seen the card myself), "the card is encased in Lucite, apparently floating above a silver globe."

After a few years, Chanpheng may have been tempted by the growing value of 1996 World Champion, being a truly unique Magic card. He eventually sold it, and a private collector purchased in 2001 for $17,500. That was a steep cost for a Magic card 25 years ago, but considering that Wizards of the Coast had a sheet printed of this card and then proceeded to destroy every copy but one (as well as the printing plates), this goes down in history of one of Magic's rarest cards.

What is the card worth today? It's impossible to place a value on this one-of-a-kind card, especially since there is no recent sale of the card to benchmark with. Allegedly, the card was for sale from a Swiss eBay seller in 2017, but I am skeptical to say the least. As far as I can tell, the current owner of the 1996 World Champion card is a mystery.

2. Shichifukujin Dragon

It appears 1996 was the year of the unique Magic card, because Wizards of the Coast commissioned a second 001/001 card that year, named Shichifukujin Dragon. Once again, magiclibrarities is a fantastic resource to learn about this one-of-a-kind card.

"The Shichifukujin Dragon was created to celebrate the opening of the Japan DCI Tournament Center in Tokyo, Japan. All copies except for one were destroyed. The remaining Shichifukujin Dragon has been encased at the Tournament Center for public view together with the original artwork of the card."

Sadly, the Tournament Center closed on February 28th, 2003, which begs the question. What happened to the card once the center closed down?

It turns out the card was moved to the Hobby Japan Head Office, which is where it resides to this day. Based on this provenance, it would be virtually impossible to estimate this card's value. It is truly one-of-a-kind, and unlike 1996 World Champion, Shichifukujin Dragon has never been sold.

While we can't estimate the card's value, we can definitively say this is one of Magic's rarest cards, with only a single copy in existence. While there have been numerous Magic-adjacent products printed with the dragon's art, collectors will have to accept the fact that they're unlikely to ever own this piece of history.

3. The One Ring

For 27 years, 1996 World Champion and Shichifukujin Dragon were the only two unique cards printed by Wizards of the Coast. That's quite a long drought.

Then, in 2023, they did it again. This time, it wasn't a commemorative card to honor someone's tournament victory or the opening of a new center. Instead, this card was released in a random Lord of the Rings collector booster pack or gift bundle, granting the opportunity for a random player to own a unique card for the first time ever. The One Ring was aptly selected to be the 001/001 card.

A couple weeks after the set's release, Brook Trafton opened the The One Ring from a pack sold by Face to Face Games, in Toronto, Canada. After having the card graded by PSA and engaging his lawyer, he worked out a deal to sell the card to Post Malone for $2,000,000 (that's two million dollars!).

Unlike 1996 World Champion and Shichifukujin Dragon, the serialized The One Ring was discovered and sold on the secondary market recently. Thus, that $2 million price tag is a fair estimate for the card's current value (perhaps slightly more adjusted for inflation, plus the fact that Post Malone owns the card).

We may not see it hit the market again for years, much like the 1996 World Champion, but it's the only recent data point we have for what a unique card sells for on the open market.

Wrapping It Up

That sums up the three unique cards across Magic's history. Granted, there are many cards with extremely low print runs, as low as double digits. Serialized cards are one example, but there are other, older cards with a similar print run. One famous example are the Richard Garfield celebration cards, where he printed a tiny number of commemorative cards to celebrate life events (a proposal, a marriage, birth of his children).

Don't get me wrong, these cards are extremely rare and valuable. They just aren't quite as rare as the three unique cards. Still, they're noteworthy for their special nature and fetch quite a lot on the open market. For example, a single copy of Splendid Genesis is currently listed on TCGplayer for $45,000 (who knows if it'll actually sell, though).

What does the future hold? Will Wizards print another one-of-a-kind Magic card to create hype and excitement like they did with The One Ring? The answer is unknown by the public. At least now, the next time you're asked for Magic's rarest cards, you can reference this article to share the definitive answer.