Need to keep your Magic: The Gathering collection organised and your cards safe, or have assistance while you play? Come with us as we check out the best Magic: The Gathering accessories!
Here at Retro Dodo, we’ve been fans of collectible card games (CCGs) or, as they’re sometimes called, Trading Card Games (TCGs) from day one.
Magic: The Gathering (MTG), being the original CCG, despite strong competition from games such as Pokemon, still has a very strong grip on tabletops worldwide.
Long gone are the days when you could just have a set of increasingly worn cards to build your deck from and play with; most players, even casual ones, seek out accessories to make their MTG experience easier and better.
We’ve already covered several MTG accessories in a variety of different articles, but which are the best?
Let’s find out, as we check out the best MTG accessories!
1. Ultra Pro Penny Sleeves
You can’t have a list dedicate to trading card accessories without featuring the infamous penny sleeve.
It’s quite simply a thin bit of plastic that protects your cards from scratches, fingerprints and dirt. It’s a mandatory purchase for any trading card enthusiast.
Not only can they be used to protect your cards when playing and storing, they’re also used for when selling your cards. Any buyer expects good card protection, and a penny sleeve is the first step of protection in any sell.
They fit most trading card perfectly, and are incredibly affordable… there’s a ready they call them penny sleeves!
2. Quiver Citadel Deck Block
Another vital accessory for the serious MTG/CCG/TCG player, not only will you need to invest in sleeves to keep your cards safe and secure, but a deck box is also essential for any decks that you build yourself.
Though we’ve already covered a number of them in our MTG deck boxes list, it’s hard not to continue to recommend our number one choice in that article.
The Quiver Citadel Deck Block was successfully funded via Kickstarter – and, once you’ve seen the final product in-hand it’s not hard to see why so many people were eager to crowdfund its production.
This is the Rolls Royce of deck boxes; it feels like a premium product made by CCG fans, for CCG fans.
So what sets it apart from other deck boxes?
Well, you’ll immediately notice just how solidly made this box is; it’s covered in PU leather, with a completely detachable cover that’s also magnetised to keep it in place – and keep your cards secure!
The interior is soft and has a velvet texture – no harsh or hard edges that’ll damage your cards here.
Speaking of that interior, it can accommodate up to 130 cards – though if you’re intending for it to hold less than that, there’s also space for further accessories.
Also included is a clear plastic divider, so you can keep your cards protected from any oddly shaped accessories you also want to carry inside this deck box – and there’s room for dice and tokens in here too!
There’s even an elasticated strap that keeps the exterior even more secure – Quiver really do seem to have thought of everything with this particular deck box and, despite its premium price, it’s not likely that you’ll find a better or more practical deck box!
Quiver are making quite the name for themselves as producers of premium CCG/TCG products – you can also find their sleeves in our best trading card sleeves article!3.
3. Ultra Pro – Magic The Gathering: Phyrexia: All Will Be One Play Mat
So you’ve got your cards sleeved and in a deck box – what should be next on your shopping list for accessories?
Well, ensuring your cards are safe during play, on a play area specifically designed for them, should also be a high priority.
So we’d absolutely recommend a play mat – and the one we’d recommend for MTG players is this Ultra Pro design.
This Phyrexia: All Will Be One Play Mat also made it to the top spot on our Magic: The Gathering Play Mats list, thanks in part to its gorgeous, officially licensed, holofoil artwork.
It’s not just the lovely aesthetics that make this play mat our number one choice, however.
Ultra Pro will be a name familiar to any CCG/TCG players, as they’re very prominent and prolific providers of tabletop, particularly trading card related, accessories.
You’ll find their products recommended in numerous articles right here on Retro Dodo – including on our list of the best Magic: the Gathering sleeves and on our list of the best toploaders for trading cards.
So it’s a name you can trust – and this particular play mat also has a real premium feel to its construction, making it practical as well as great to look at!
4. Quiver Carry Case (Long)
One of the most impressive Magic The Gathering accessories I have tested is from Quiver, they were kind enough to send us a sample of their long carry case which we have in red, and it’s a phenominal product build with quality in mind.
I am not saying that because they sent us a sample, we’re very honest here at Retro Dodo HQ, but it’s a product I find hard to hate.
This carry case can hold up to 1350 unsleeved cards, perfect for storing a wide range of card rarities.
It features velcro dividers, corner pads, separators, and an adjustable strap should you want to wield this like a blade.
5. ENHANCE MTG Card Box Storage Case
If – like several of us at Retro Dodo Towers – you have an ever increasing collection, perhaps for multiple games such as MTG and Pokemon, you’re going to need a safe place to store all of those cards.
This case is a great option, as it’s portable storage for a lot more cards than just a standard or even slightly larger deck box can hold.
It’s tastefully – if perhaps a little too plainly – designed in terms of its looks, but it’s incredibly useful from a practical standpoint, with a carrying handle and a detachable shoulder strap making it a cinch to transport your collection with.
In terms of the interior, you can arrange it in a variety of configurations depending on your personal preference, as well as what you need to carry.
It’ll accommodate numerous sizes of deck boxes and accessories too – with space for around 1200 cards!
There’s even a separate, zipped pocket for other accessories such as dice, tokens and life counters.
Well made, reasonably priced and incredibly useful, this is definitely an item you’ll want to get hold of if you’re intending to take a larger card collection on the move!
6. TitanShield Standard Sized Premium Sleeves
Surely the most important accessory in any TCG/CCG and MTG player’s arsenal are card sleeves.
Which ones would we recommend picking up though?
Currently our favourite MTG sleeves, the TitanShield Standard Sized Premium Sleeves will cover you not just for your Magic: The Gathering cards, but for Pokemon and other games with standard sized cards too.
They have a clear front and a matte, textured back – which is not perfectly clear, but that’s more help than hindrance as it’ll cover up very minor marks or dents on the back of your cards.
It also makes cards an absolute joy to handle – and these textured backs also keep your deck from being too slippery, remaining firmly as a stack of cards.
Sometimes, cheaper sleeves can be a bit too shiny and slide around when you’re trying to have them neatly stacked during play, but there’s no such issue with these TitanShield Premium Sleeves.
Even better, with this being a pack of 150 sleeves, you get enough to cover a few decks and even a decent number of spare cards – this pack will cover you for a couple of sideboards as well as your precious, custom built decks!
Far from the only option, you can also check out our recommendations here for the best Magic: The Gathering sleeves!
7. MintKeeper Regular Toploaders
If you’ve got yourself Rares or Mythic Rare – or even scarce or sought after Common and Uncommon – cards, you’re going to want to be absolutely sure you can keep them safe in a sturdier form than just normal card sleeves.
No matter how premium the sleeve, they’re still built to be flexible and practical to play with.
Toploaders are different, in that they’re more rigid and built for solid, dependable, long-term protection and even display.
We’ve probably already broken your budget with the products we’ve recommended on this MTG accessories list, so we’ve opted to go for a slightly cheaper option when it comes to toploaders.
MintKeeper are a British company; relatively new, they’re already making a name for themselves with high quality, reliable and affordable sleeves, as well as other CCG/TCG accessories.
Their toploaders come in at around £7 (sometimes even less!) for 25, which – if you’re a seasoned collector like a few of us on the Retro Dodo team – you’ll know is excellent value when it comes to toploaders.
Well made and readily available, these MintKeeper toploaders are an excellent way to keep your most precious cards as protected as possible!
8. Stratagem TCG Life Counters – 2-Pack
A nice-to-have rather than a necessity, if you really want to bring some extra pizazz to your MTG games – for you and your opponent – these TCG Life Counters are a great way to do so!
Tracking life via tokens, dice or even on a notepad is fine – but these Life Counters look great and have a useful dial so you can keep an eye not just on your own dwindling life points as you duel, but your opponent’s too!
Just bring these along to your next duel and – voila – a functional and aesthetically interesting way to track the life of both duelling Planeswalkers!
9. 24 MTG Penalty/Bonus Dice
Sometimes – particularly if you’re using a stacking bonus-heavy deck such as Orzhov Humans, featured on our MTG Theme Decks list – it can be hard to keep track of which characters have been powered up or even neutered thanks to the effects of various cards hitting the battlefield.
Which is where these incredibly useful dice come in.
With several combinations of plus and minus bonuses, you can place them on cards whenever you need to buff – or debuff – one of your creatures in play.
With this pack, you should also have more than enough dice to cover you even if you’re using that aforementioned Orzhov Humans deck, or any others that rely on building up and stacking bonuses onto your creatures!
Various colour options and pack sizes are available – but the dice we’ve chosen strike a good balance of dice quantity and value.
Not to mention that the two variations of coloured dice we have opted for are among the best colour combinations on offer, in our opinion.
10. SIQUK – Pack of 35×20-Sided Dice
This may well be going overboard, since you’ll generally only need to keep track of two 20-point life totals (for you and your opponent) during a standard game of Magic: The Gathering.
This pack of thirty five 20 sided dice – or d20s, in gaming parlance – does feature a great assortment of coloured dice, however.
Which means that you can pick the die to match the colours or theme of your deck. Or even your mood – it’s up to you!
Oddly, Wizards of the Coast sometimes include d20s in certain MTG bundle packs, but for some reason they call them ‘Spindown Life Counters’.
They are just standard d20s with the occasional Magic: The Gathering symbol, however – so you can feel free to use any bog standard 20-sided dice that you have to hand!
11. Vault X Premium Exo-Tec Zip Binder
We’ve gone through numerous storage and security options on this list, with which you can keep your cards in optimum condition for as long as possible.
Mostly, however, these tend to be – in the case of sleeves and deck boxes, at least – most useful when you’ve already built your deck.
With a deck box or even a storage bag, you’re still going to need a way of getting your cards out and sorting through them as you pick and choose the ones that’ll be going into your next deck.
Binders are a great way to do this without exposing your piles of cards to further, individual handling.
The one we’ve chosen is by CCG/TCG accessories veterans Vault X – though it doesn’t display many cards on each ‘page’ as many other folders/binders do, with four pockets per side and 160 in total, you’ve still got access to lots of your cards when you use it.
Cards side load too, which we find is always the best way to allow easier access and prevent damage when removing them from a pocket.
With this being an Exo-Tec product, the exterior is also padded, rigid and waterproof – so this provides fantastic protection for your precious cards!
12. ENHANCE MTG Backpack
Finally, we thought we’d go out with a bang on this list.
It has to be said that his MTG backpack is pretty extravagant.
That’s also reflected in the price too – this certainly isn’t a cheap accessory!
By far the coolest thing about this backpack, however, is that it’ll hold everything else that appears on this very list – all at the same time!
A customisable interior gives you the flexibility to arrange your MTG accessories and cards just how you want them – and a zippered card defender screen prevents everything from shuffling around during transit.
Exterior pockets can hold tokens, dice and life counters – and padded, strong straps keep it safely held on your back.
Believe it or not, there’s even a laptop sleeve – which fits anything up to a 17” laptop!
We’ve saved the most important stat for last though – this MTG backpack can safely store and carry over 7500 cards.
If you are a frequent MTG player and want to take absolutely all of your collection and accessories with you to every game night, this is the MTG accessory for you!
Jason – who lives in the UK – has had a lifelong interest in video games, which all started when he discovered Space Invaders in the early 80s. The first game he ever completed was Wonder Boy in Monster Land on the Sega Master System – which remains one of his proudest gaming achievements. Jason is a passionate writer – and has been writing about gaming since the late 90s. He currently runs pop culture blog midlifegamergeek.com, which he updates on a daily basis (and has written more than 700 articles on the blog alone!).
Outside of video games, Jason is a keen tabletop gamer, film buff and comic book fan.
