MTG Proxy Cost Savings: Save $2000+ Per Deck
A typical competitive Commander deck costs between $2,000 and $4,000 in original cards. That’s not a typo — and it’s not just for cEDH players. We pulled current market prices for 20 of the most-played Commander staples to show exactly where the money goes. The math is brutal — but proxy cards change the equation entirely. Most players who switch to proxies realize significant MTG proxy cost savings of $2,000+ per deck and still get the same play experience.
What This Article Covers
- Real market prices for 20 top Commander staples (data from Scryfall and TCGPlayer)
- A side-by-side cost breakdown: original cards vs proxy cards
- The hidden costs most players forget (shipping, grading, insurance)
- How the proxy math works for a single deck vs a full playgroup
- What you actually get when you buy premium proxies
The 20 Most-Expensive Commander Staples (July 2026)
These aren’t niche cards. Each one appears in thousands of Commander decks on EDHREC. Prices are current market rates from Scryfall’s aggregated data.
Tier 1: The $50+ Club
Tier 1 subtotal: $465.16 — for 8 cards.
Tier 2: The $15–$40 Range
Tier 2 subtotal: $309.61 — for 6 cards.
Tier 3: The $10–$15 Range
Tier 3 subtotal: $475.15 — for 4 cards.
The Bottom Line on Card Prices
20 staples = $1,249.92 — and that’s before you’ve built a single deck. A typical Commander deck runs 30–40 staples, meaning the average competitive deck costs $2,000–$4,000 in original cards alone.
The Hidden Costs Most Players Forget
The sticker price is just the beginning. Here’s what most cost calculators miss:
A $3,000 Commander deck with hidden costs can easily run $3,500–$4,000 over its lifetime.
What Proxies Actually Cost (Our Data)
Here’s where the math changes. MakeProxyCard offers premium proxies at prices that make the original card costs look like a typo.
Cost to proxy those same 20 staples: ~$32 (at US$1.60/card).
That’s a 97.4% savings — from $1,249.92 to $32.00.
The Bottom Line: Original vs Proxy
And that’s just 20 cards. Scale that to a full 100-card deck with 30–40 staples, and the savings climb to $2,000–$3,000 per deck. For a playgroup of 4 players each running a proxied deck, the total savings exceed $8,000–$12,000.
Our proxies deliver the look, weight, and card feel of the originals — at a price where you can actually play the deck you want instead of the deck you can afford.