The Cheapest Way to Print MTG Proxies

At PrintMTG, printing 99 cards costs $79.20. Printing 100 costs $55. Meanwhile, a public library that charges a dime a page can print the faces for that same Commander deck for $1.20. Which would I pick? For a brew that might survive exactly one Friday, I’ll take the scissors. For a deck I expect to shuffle every week, the $55 option starts to look pretty good.

The first thing I’d count is how many cards you actually need. A Commander list might have 100 cards, but if you own 91 of them, the other nine fit on one sheet of paper. A cube is a different proposition. By the time you’ve cut out your 300th rectangle, paying someone else to finish the job has a certain appeal.

Prices checked November 10, 2026. Online prices are in US dollars before shipping and tax.

How to Print MTG Proxies at Home

A paper proxy only has to do two things well. It needs to fit in the sleeve, and everyone at the table needs to be able to read it. The basic land behind it supplies the stiffness. Ordinary copy paper, a pair of scissors, and sleeves you already own will get you through a playtest.

Export your decklist. Paste your list into MTG Print in MTG Arena format. Choose the printings you want. If a card has six lines of rules text, give your opponents a break and pick a version they can read.
Download the PDF. Choose US Letter or A4 to match the paper in your printer. In the print dialog, select Actual Size or 100% scale. Print the first page and compare one card face with a real Magic card before printing the rest.
Cut and sleeve the cards. Follow the cutting guides, then slide each paper face into a sleeve in front of a spare land or bulk common. You can leave the glue in the drawer. A loose insert takes seconds to replace when a card gets cut from the deck.

I’d start with the cards you’re debating. Say nine spells are competing for the last six slots. Print all nine, sleeve six, and keep the others beside your deck. After a game, you can make the swap while you still remember which five-mana spell spent seven turns in your hand.

What It Costs to Print a Proxy Deck at a Library or Copy Shop

If you don’t own a printer, take the same PDF to a public library or copy shop. Ask for the price per single-sided page on ordinary paper. If color costs extra, try one page in black and white. The color of the artwork matters a lot less during a game than being able to tell two mana symbols apart.

Utah’s Salt Lake County Library, for example, lists printing at 10 cents per page. At nine single-sided card faces per sheet, a 60-card deck takes seven sheets and costs 70 cents. A 100-card Commander deck takes 12 sheets and costs $1.20. You supply the sleeves and backing cards. Double-faced cards add faces to the PDF, so check the final page count before sending the job.

Proxy Foundry and PrintProxies.net for Print-on-Demand Cards

Proxy Foundry is my budget pick when you know exactly which cards you want and would like someone else to print and cut them. It accepts single-card orders and lets you choose a printing. One proxy is $3, while two to nine cost $2 each. If you need four copies of a land for a 60-card deck, that’s an $8 playset before postage.

PrintProxies.net is an up-and-comer with competitive prices. That same playset costs $8 there, too. The two services also match at a much larger quantity. Proxy Foundry quotes $190 for 500 cards, and PrintProxies.net’s 38-cent rate comes to the same $190. For those orders, I’d put the cards in both carts and compare the delivered totals. Shipping can settle a tie pretty quickly on an $8 order.

PrintMTG for Custom Cards and Complete Commander Decks

PrintMTG is the service I’d look at first for a complete deck with a few personal touches. You can paste in a decklist and pick the set versions you like. Its custom card maker also lets you upload artwork, choose a frame, and edit the text. That’s handy if the whole reason you’re placing the order is to put your cat on the commander and give her a matching army of Cat tokens.

Take a minute to check the pricing tier before you remove cards you already own. PrintMTG and PrintProxies.net both list 75–99 cards at 80 cents each and 100–199 cards at 55 cents each. The rate applies to the entire order, which produces one of the better quirks in proxy pricing.

MakePlayingCards and MPCFill for Large Custom Orders

MakePlayingCards, usually shortened to MPC, is worth pricing when you want several decks at once or have a long list of particular cards and art treatments. Its 63 × 88 mm custom game cards come in deck sizes up to 612 cards. MPCFill is the community tool that helps prepare the order. You enter card names, select the images and backs, and export a project file. Its desktop tool downloads the selected images and fills the MPC order for you.

MPC prices by deck-size bracket. For example, a 100-card Commander deck fits in the bracket for up to 108 cards. That leaves eight slots for tokens, alternate commanders, or cards you’re considering for the deck. On the price table, “quantity” means copies of the finished deck. If you want one batch containing 600 different cards, look at the price for one deck.

For a group order, agree on the stock and finish before comparing prices. Four friends ordering 100 cards apiece have a useful benchmark. At PrintProxies.net’s published 400-card rate, the print subtotal is $180. Quote the same 400 cards at MPC and compare both totals with shipping. While you have the MPC preview open, check that any transforming cards have the right backs. That takes less time than finding a mismatched pair in a stack of 400.

PrintACube for a Ready-to-Draft Cube

PrintACube has the lowest listed print price among the ready-made 540-card cubes in this comparison. Its Modern and Legacy cubes come in four sizes. The 360-card version is worth a look even if you can afford the bigger box. Eight players opening three 15-card packs apiece will draft exactly 360 cards.

Cube size	Listed price	Cost per card
360 cards	$75	20.8¢
450 cards	$90	20.0¢
540 cards	$100	18.5¢
720 cards	$125	17.4¢

The $100 cube is where the difference between buying a list and choosing every card gets interesting. At PrintProxies.net’s 38-cent tier, 540 individually selected cards cost $205.20. Taking PrintACube’s list saves $105.20 before shipping and tax. Its powered Vintage cube is also $100 for 540 cards, if what your group really wants is a chance to first-pick Black Lotus.

If you’ve spent months balancing your own list on Cube Cobra, use the custom price for your comparison. PrintACube lists custom cubes at $125–$190. Its standard cubes also leave basic lands and tokens to you, so bring the land box on draft night.

Common Questions About Cheap MTG Proxies

Do I need cardstock to print MTG proxies at home?

Plain paper works well when you put a real Magic card behind it in the sleeve. Thick cardstock on top of a backing card can make the proxy feel noticeably different when you shuffle. Try a few sleeved samples before cutting a whole deck.

How do I stop my proxy cards from printing too small?

Match the PDF paper size to the paper in your printer, then select Actual Size or 100% scale in the print dialog. “Fit to page” can shrink the whole sheet. Compare one printed card with a basic land before printing the remaining pages.

Can I use printed proxies at Friday Night Magic?

For a sanctioned event, leave player-printed proxies at home. The head judge has limited authority to issue a proxy under tournament rules. For a casual Commander night or a private cube draft, ask the organizer or your playgroup what they allow.

What I’d Print First

The cheapest way to print MTG proxies for a deck you’re still tuning is one sheet at a time. Print the nine cards you’re curious about and play a few games. You’ll learn more about which ones deserve a permanent slot than you will by comparing cardstock finishes. Once the list settles, order the keepers individually, give your favorite commander the custom treatment, or split an MPC batch with friends. And if eight people are coming over to draft and nobody has a list yet, I’d take the $75 cube and put the extra $25 toward pizza.