Magic: The Gathering (MTG), the world’s premier buying and selling card recreation, is as widespread because it’s ever been. Apart from the playing cards themselves, longtime Magic gamers know that there are numerous equipment and different goodies to boost your expertise.
With Black Friday arising quickly (November 28), I’ve compiled an inventory of nice MTG items, from playmats and card sleeves to cube and merch, for that particular Magic participant in your life.
As a aggressive participant of 10+ years, these are merchandise I’ve had and would purchase for my private use, so relaxation straightforward understanding that these ideas aren’t with out intensive trial and error.
High Magic: The Gathering Items
Magic has been round for over 30 years, however due to the current crossover units with different IPs, what Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) has dubbed Universes Past, its viewers has grown monumentally. Properties like The Lord of the Rings, Fallout, Murderer’s Creed, and extra have all acquired the MTG remedy, with the Avatar: The Final Airbender set releasing subsequent week as the following crossover. The subsequent Universes Past crossover after the in-universe Lorwyn Eclipsed set is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Each of those upcoming units can be found to preorder.
Sealed Product
Magic: The Gathering units are launched each few months, and with them come numerous sealed merchandise to assist complement your assortment. You could have booster packing containers, collector boosters, starter kits, commander decks, the record goes on. I like to recommend beginning with bundles of probably the most just lately launched units, or wanting again to expansions like Fringe of Eternities. They make nice items, as they embrace 9 booster packs, an alternate-art promotional card, further land playing cards, a spindown life counter, and the field itself is a good storage answer for further playing cards.
Card Sleeves
You could have all these fancy new playing cards, what are you supposed to place them in? Card sleeves are the right answer not just for safety however for simply shuffling. Final Guard and Extremely PRO are among the greatest MTG equipment manufacturers round, however Dragon Protect sleeves are my go-to advice as a present for dad. The Final Guard Katana sleeves are nice, too. The matte sleeves are crisp and really feel nice in your arms. It doesn’t matter what you decide, ensure you get customary dimension sleeves, not Japanese card dimension — Yu-Gi-Oh! playing cards are a lot smaller than Magic playing cards!
Deck Packing containers
Your playing cards are actually sleeved up and prepared for battle. Now you want a dependable deck field. Right here, you possibly can’t go incorrect with Final Guard’s sturdy choices. I am a giant fan of the Flip ‘n’ Tray myself, as it may possibly maintain a completely sleeved deck, sideboard, and tokens, together with a built-in cube compartment. For bigger storage options, there are large packing containers that may maintain as much as 500 unfastened playing cards. All Final Guard choices are available in a handful of various colours, and the Extremely PRO packing containers sport some nice official MTG artwork.
Playmats
Playmats are vital for any Magic participant, since taking part in with out one could make it laborious to select your playing cards up off the kitchen desk. Often manufactured from the identical materials as a typical mousepad, many individuals (myself included) like to make use of mats that includes artwork of their favourite playing cards or of their proudest Magic accomplishments. You possibly can even purchase clean white playmats if you end up at a Magic Con and need to fee your favourite artist to make it look snazzy!
Cube and Counters
Holding observe of Planeswalker loyalty, +1/+1 counters, or Finality counters are a large headache with out an environment friendly manner of doing so. Fortunately, a set of D6 will set you proper. Some extra distinctive playing cards, like Qarsi Revenant, give different creatures potential counters which can be laborious to maintain observe of, so I extremely advocate a set of potential counters to go together with your equipment arsenal.
Binders
If in case you have uncommon or worthwhile playing cards you do not need to retailer in a bulk storage field, binders are the way in which to go to maintain them good and pristine. You may get numerous sizes and colours from each Final Guard and Extremely PRO, however the Zipfolio from Final Guard is my go-to for costly singles. These match nice in your backpack for while you’re heading out to your native Friday Evening Magic
Different Equipment
These ideas are simply scratching the floor of what these accent makers have to supply. There are numerous different sleeves, packing containers, and mats to select from, so decide your favourite Magic participant’s favourite for an excellent reward. Different equipment I like to recommend are lifepads; some Magic gamers want to write down their life totals down and take notes as an alternative of utilizing the MTG Companion app or a spindown counter.
Dry erase tokens are nice for playing cards with copy talents. A playmat tube is a good storage answer to maintain your mats dry and secure, and the Extremely PRO land station is an efficient strategy to type your primary lands or have lands prepared in your booster draft night time.
Merch
Do you know that the IGN retailer has some superior Magic: The Gathering merch? We’ve got a handful of t-shirts, a crewneck sweater, and even a 17oz chrome steel water bottle on the market. These make nice items should you aren’t fairly positive what playing cards, units, or codecs your favourite Magic participant enjoys!
Myles Obenza is a contract author for IGN. Observe him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.
