The Rising Cost of Magic: The Gathering | Is Wizards of the Coast Pricing Players Out?

Magic: The Gathering is one of the most well-developed and popular card games on the market. It’s been around for over 30 years, has a thriving community, and they keeps innovating with new mechanics and sets. But there’s one thing that’s been “innovating” a little too aggressively: the price.

Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast (WotC), in their infinite corporate wisdom, have been steadily raising the cost of Magic cards, pushing many players to the breaking point. The game we love is getting more expensive, and the excuses aren’t holding up.

Let’s talk about why this is happening, why it’s a problem, and how long we can keep pretending that spending $300 on some shiny cardboard is normal.

The Price Creep No One Asked For

Remember when a booster pack was $3.50? Ah, the good old days. Then it became $4. Then $5.50. And now, with premium products, a single pack can cost as much as a cheap meal at a sit-down restaurant.

Now you are looking at:

• Collector Boosters (for those who like gambling in card form)

• Secret Lairs (limited-run cards with fancy art at not-so-fancy prices)

• Universes Beyond (your chance to pay $50 for a Lord of the Rings card)

  
  

They’ve mastered the art of slicing the same pie into more and more expensive pieces. Instead of lowering costs by printing more, they’ve decided to turn every new set into a luxury event.

How It’s Hurting the Game

Sure, people are still buying Magic cards, but at what cost? (Literally, what cost? Because I need to know if I can afford groceries this week.)

1. Barrier to Entry

New players already have to learn a mountain of rules, but now they also have to take out a small loan just to build a decent deck. Commander, the most popular format, used to be a budget-friendly way to play. Now, even precons are creeping past $50, and competitive decks can cost hundreds—if not thousands—of dollars.

2. FOMO and Burnout

With a new set coming out every other month, players barely have time to enjoy their cards before the next batch drops. You either keep up or get left behind, and it’s exhausting.

The constant influx of premium products and "limited-time" collectibles means that instead of enjoying the game, people are stuck worrying about what to buy next. Oh yeah, tell me as a standard player how excited you are that Universes Beyond sets are now legal in constructed play?

3. The Secondary Market Mess

Wizards has tried to print more premium versions of cards (foil! borderless! alternate art!) to capitalize on collectors, but all they’ve done is inflate prices further. Regular versions of staple cards are still expensive (Radiant Lotus, Dockside Extortionist, The One Ring—need I go on?), while chase variants and serialized cards turn Magic into a glorified lottery.

Wizards’ Excuses—and Why They Don’t Hold Up

• "The cost of production is rising!" Sure, inflation is a thing. But do we really believe it costs that much more to produce a collector's booster? Somehow, other trading card games (cough Pokémon cough) still manage to keep prices reasonable.

• "Players want premium products!" Yes but also no, players want affordable cards. Premium products are fine, but not when they become the standard and not the exception.

• "Magic is still accessible!" If “accessible” means “pay up or play Pauper,” then sure. But many formats are becoming financially burdensome for casual players to enjoy.

  
  

Where Do We Go From Here?

As long as people keep buying, Wizards has no reason to stop. They’re owned by Hasbro, a company that has made it clear that short-term profits matter more than long-term sustainability.

The only way this changes is if the community pushes back. Stop impulse-buying overpriced products. Support reprint-heavy sets like Masters series (when they actually lower prices). And if you’re feeling really rebellious, consider proxies—because let’s be real, WotC doesn’t own fun, and no one should have to spend $500 on a deck just to be competitive with friends.

How much Magic is left in Magic: The Gathering?

We love Magic: The Gathering, that’s why this is frustrating. The game should be about the game, not about how much you can afford to spend. If Wizards keeps treating players like ATMs, they might just find themselves with a smaller player base in the long run.

But hey, at least we’ll always have basic lands. Those are still free… for now.

What do you think? Is WotC pricing players out of the game, or is this just the new reality? Let’s chat in the comments!