1996 world champion shichifukujin dragon

One and done: The story of the only Shichifukujin Dragon in existence


Magic Untapped looks at the story of the Shichifukujin Dragon, one of Magic: The Gathering's rarest cards.

Previously we gave the story of the rarest card in 
Magic
 history, the 1996 World Champion. While there was only one known to exist, there is one other card that has a grand total of one left on the planet: the Shichifukujin Dragon. 



While the 1996 World Champion is straightforward in being a unique, one-of-a-kind card for a winner, the Shichifukujin Dragon doesn’t exactly have the same history. So what made it so special? To get that answer we need to go back 20-25 years ago.

In the mid 1990s 
Magic
 was just beginning to go overseas. It was doing well enough in North America and was beginning to show promise in Europe. Over in Japan, it was expanding with enough speed that a Duelists' Convocation International Tournament Center was in the works in Tokyo.  It was a sign that 
Magic
 had really made it in the Asian market.

By 1996 the center was ready to open, but they wanted something unique to really show their commitment. So they asked Mark Rosewater and artist Christopher Rush if a unique card


Land of the Rising Fun



to Japan Week! This week we'll be exploring the impact that
Magic
has had on Japan and the impact Japan has had on
Magic
. This is a quirky topic for a design column so I thought it best to reply with a quirky column. This week is the story about my first trip to Japan. (Don't worry,
Magic's
involved, I swear.) Please don't wait for some big message to this column because there isn't one. Just a little story to tell you some things about me, about
Magic
, and about a little country called Japan.

“Hey Mark, How'd You Like A Free Trip To Japan?”

Ever since I was a little kid, I'd always loved the idea of traveling the world. But before I got to Wizards of the Coast (with the sole exception of a three-week student trip to Europe when I was 13), I hadn't gotten much chance to scratch that itch. And then for the last nine years I've been scratching like a madman. But this story takes place about half a year after I had started working for Wizards. Before traveling around the world had become commonplace. Back then I'd had some opportunity to travel around North America, but I'd yet to go overseas. But
Magic
sold cards in other countries, right? Sur








Sometimes I reflect on how I became a lifelong
Magic: The Gathering
player to begin with. I know the unique art on each card initially caught my attention. The gameplay was slow to grow on me, given its complexity. I didn't know a thing about efficient deck-building, tournaments and the like, so it couldn't have been that.

I think I was hooked when I discovered that these game pieces -- these components with which I shuffle and play -
also
possessed value in real dollars due to their collectability! This was a new concept to me. Up until that point in life, I was used to kissing my money goodbye whenever I spent it on a game or hobby. The fact that I could spend money on cards and then get money back out of them afterwards was really enticing to me, especially at the time.

Valuable Cards In Magic

Fast forward nearly three decades, and the financial aspect of
Magic
continues to be one of my favorite aspects of the beloved game. Only nowadays, the numbers have ballooned to unanticipated proportions!

Thirty years ago, a $10 card was impressive and the most valuable cards barely cracked three digits. Today, some of those same cards remain the most valuable, but thei




Magic: The Gathering has been around for thirty years now. It has been included in pop culture for decades, with large mentions on Southpark, Home Improvement, Seinfeld and most famously in Spider-man (2002) where Peter Parker had an MTG poster on his wall. Many of the first cards printed have become so rare their prices have rocketed above R100 000 (US$5 000). Some have even gone significantly above that. This is our list of the most expensive cardboard game pieces available for Magic: The Gathering.


5. The Lord of the Pit




We start with something of an anomaly. Lord of the Pit was first released in 1993’s Limited Edition Alpha. As a rare, this meant it only had roughly 1100 copies ever printed. It is, however, not regarded as a particularly powerful card and is most certainly not part of Magic’s classic “Power 9”, which has traditionally held all the top card values.

The card does, however, have extremely well-regarded art and as a 7/7 flying trampler is considered a powerful nostalgia piece by those who played in the early days of Magic.  Even so, when a mint condition copy sold for R2-million (US$105,000) during a January 2023 PWCC auction fan