MTG Reserved List: What It Is and Every Card's Value

The Reserved List is the reason a handful of 1990s Magic: The Gathering cards cost more than a car. This guide explains what the list is and what Wizards of the Coast has promised, then prices the cards on it using our nightly market data, including a Black Lotus edition comparison and a set-by-set breakdown.

What Is the Reserved List?

The Reserved List is Wizards of the Coast's list of Magic cards it has promised not to reprint. Wizards' official reprint policy puts it plainly: "Reserved cards will never be printed again in a functionally identical form." A card counts as functionally identical if it has the same card type, subtypes, abilities, mana cost, power and toughness.

The list is closed. According to the same policy, "No cards will be added to the reserved list in the future," no cards from Mercadian Masques or later sets will be reserved, and "in consideration of past commitments, however, no cards will be removed from this list." In practice, the list covers cards first printed between Limited Edition (Alpha) in 1993 and Urza's Destiny in 1999.

The policy has changed once in an important way. An earlier version allowed premium versions of Reserved List cards, such as foil promos, to be printed. That ended: "Starting in 2011, no cards on the reserved list will be printed in either premium or non-premium form." A few cards were reprinted as premium promos before then, which is why some Judge promos and the From the Vault: Relics set appear in our table of Reserved List printings.

Three other details of the policy are worth knowing:

• It applies to tournament-legal cards. Wizards may print special versions not meant for normal play, such as oversized cards.
• It applies to English and non-English cards alike.
• It covers physical cards only, not Magic Online or other digital versions.

Our Reserved List flag comes from Scryfall's list of reserved cards, imported on Oct 26, 2026: 571 card names. Wizards' own list has 571 names too, with one card, Plateau, listed twice under its two artists. The flag is applied by card name, so every printing of a reserved card counts. We leave out printings that aren't tournament legal, such as Collectors' Edition, International Edition and the 30th Anniversary Edition, because the policy covers tournament-legal cards.

Why the Reserved List Matters for Prices

Most old cards eventually get reprinted, and a reprint gives players a cheap way to get a card into their deck, which pulls the price of older copies down. Reserved List cards don't face that risk. The supply is fixed at whatever survived from the 1990s print runs, and many of those copies were played, damaged or lost.

Demand keeps growing at the same time. Some of these cards are among the most powerful ever printed and are still played in formats like Vintage, Legacy and Commander, and collectors want early printings of famous cards for their own sake. Fixed supply plus steady demand is why the list is home to Magic's most expensive cards.

It also explains the edition gaps. The same card in Alpha, Beta and Unlimited can sell for very different prices, because each edition had a different print run. Wizards printed about 1,100 copies of Black Lotus for Alpha, according to Polygon's reporting, far fewer than for later editions.

Not every reserved card is valuable, though. The list includes plenty of cards that were never good in play and have little collector interest. Of the 788 Reserved List printings we track, 631 have a recent market price, and many of those sell for a few dollars.

Most Valuable Reserved List Cards

These are the 25 most valuable Reserved List printings we track right now, by ungraded market price:

Power Nine

The Power Nine are nine cards from Magic's first sets that are considered the most powerful ever printed: Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Timetwister and the five Moxen. All nine are on the Reserved List. Here is what each one sells for in the first three editions:

Many of these show "No recent sales". The Power Nine rarely change hands, and sales of very expensive cards often happen privately or at auction rather than on TCGplayer, so our data has no recent market price for them. We show that honestly rather than guess.

Dual Lands

The ten original dual lands, such as Underground Sea and Volcanic Island, are lands that produce two colours of mana with no drawback. They were printed in Alpha (except Volcanic Island, which Alpha left out), Beta, Unlimited and Revised, and all are reserved. Revised copies are the most common and the ones most players use:

Other notable cards

Beyond the Power Nine and dual lands, a few other Reserved List cards consistently rank among the most valuable. These are the most valuable printing of each that we track today:

Black Lotus Price by Edition

Black Lotus is the most famous Magic card ever printed. It costs nothing to play and adds three mana of any one colour. It was printed in the first three editions of the game and then never again in tournament-legal form.

None of the three editions has a recent sale in our TCGplayer data, so we show "No recent sales" rather than a guessed price. When a Black Lotus does sell, it usually goes through an auction house or a private sale, and condition and grading make an enormous difference. For example, Polygon reported in May 2024 that an Alpha Black Lotus graded a 10 by CGC sold in a private sale for $3 million. That is a graded record for one exceptional copy, not a guide to what an ungraded Black Lotus is worth. Our Alpha Black Lotus and Beta Black Lotus pages will show a market price as soon as a sale is recorded.

Reserved List Cards by Set

Here is how many Reserved List printings we track in each set, and the most valuable of them today. Sets are listed in release order.

The early sets dominate the value: Alpha, Beta and Unlimited hold the Power Nine and the first dual lands, while Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends and The Dark were the first expansions, each with its own reserved cards. You can browse every Magic set on our MTG sets page.

Will the Reserved List Ever End?

People have asked this for years, and Wizards' written policy hasn't changed: no cards will be removed from the list, and reserved cards "will never be printed again in a functionally identical form." We report only what the official policy says. Anything else, including rumours that the list will be abolished, is speculation.

The policy does allow special versions that aren't tournament legal, such as oversized cards. It also says that leaving a card off the list "doesn't indicate that there are any plans to reprint that card." For players, the practical result is that Reserved List cards stay scarce, and their prices depend on collector and player demand. For more on which Magic cards tend to hold value, read our guide to Magic cards that hold their value, and see today's most valuable MTG cards or check any card with our MTG card value checker.

All prices here are market estimates for ungraded cards and change every night. They are not investment advice.