Power Nine

In Magic: The Gathering, the Power Nine are nine rare cards found in the Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets, and are widely considered to be the most powerful cards ever printed. In games where they are legal, they play an important role in the competitive tournament atmosphere. However, they are only legal in Vintage in which they are restricted, meaning a deck may not contain more than one copy of the cards. Due to their power, these nine cards are considered "broken".

The "Power Nine"
Scryfall Statistics
9 cards 11.1% 11.1% 44.4% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1%

The cards

The Power Nine consist of six mana-producing artifacts that cost , and three cheap, powerful blue spells:

• Ancestral Recall
• Black Lotus
• Mox Emerald
• Mox Jet
• Mox Pearl
• Mox Ruby
• Mox Sapphire
• Timetwister
• Time Walk

Black Lotus

The Black Lotus is the most valuable Magic card ever to be released in a regular set. Especially its Alpha and Beta versions are considered to be extremely valuable. Former Pro player and Magic writer Zvi Mowshowitz has declared Black Lotus as the best artifact of all time, claiming every deck in the history of the game is better with a Black Lotus in it. The illustration on Black Lotus was painted by Christopher Rush, who was at the time a Wizards of the Coast employee. The Black Lotus illustration is a depiction of a black lotus flower over a foliage backdrop.

The Moxen

The cycle of five Mox cards — Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, and Mox Emerald — are Artifacts, that are similar to the five Basic lands in that they add one mana of a specific color. In most situations, the Mox cards are better than lands because a player can play as many of these as they desire while a player can only play one land per turn. All five Mox cards have been illustrated by Dan Frazier. In each artwork, a different piece of jewelry is depicted.

Ancestral Recall

Ancestral Recall allows the player to use one card to draw three more at an extremely low mana cost. It originated as part of the "boon" cycle, one of each color, which gave three of something (e.g. mana, life, damage) for the cost of one mana. Ancestral Recall remains the only one of these cards to not have been reprinted since Unlimited.

Timetwister

While many wheel effects exist in Magic for similar prices, Timetwister's power is in the context of the other Power Nine, and other forms of fast mana: a player could play their land, cast three Moxen and a Sol Ring, then cast Timetwister on turn 1, resulting in their opponent getting a potentially unusable hand while the caster goes from one card in hand to seven. Later wheels are more expensive or have restrictions on the caster.

Time Walk

In Time Walk's early playtest version it had the text "Target player loses next turn." While the game designers intended that the opposing player would skip a turn, many new players saw the card and believed that the targeted player would lose the entire game (i.e.: "Target player loses [during their] next turn" instead of the intended "Target player loses [the ability to take their] next turn"). However, the wording was changed before the release of Alpha. Even with the altered wording, Time Walk remains the cheapest way to get an extra turn in the game.

The "Power Nine" in a modern frame

Variants of power cards

The fame of the cards has been alluded to in subsequent printings of Magic: the Gathering.

Black Lotus

Though it is common for the word "lotus" to appear in the names of cards that can produce mana, many of the cards that make these references function as standard mana rocks rather than as a single burst of mana like Black Lotus. Due to the extreme power of Black Lotus, attempts to emulate it frequently end up overly powerful as well.

• The first attempt to design a fixed Black Lotus was Lion's Eye Diamond from Mirage. Lion's Eye Diamond was designed to be unplayable due to requiring the player to discard their hand but still ended up being very powerful. The card was eventually restricted in Vintage play.
• The Tempest card Lotus Petal is identical to Black Lotus except that it only produces one mana instead of three. This is still an extremely powerful effect; Lotus Petal was restricted in Vintage.
• Urza's Saga saw the release of Lotus Blossom, which costs and enables its controller to put a petal counter on it at the beginning of their upkeep, then tap and sacrifice it to add an amount of mana of any one color equal to the number of petal counters that were on the card.
• Lotus Bloom (Time Spiral) has no mana cost (meaning that it cannot be cast normally) but instead has suspend 3 for . Despite this significant limitation, Lotus Bloom still sees play in decks that can utilize the burst of mana later in the game (e.g., storm decks).
• Jeweled Lotus was introduced in Commander Legends as a Black Lotus that can only be used to cast one's commander. Despite this severe restriction, Jeweled Lotus proved to be a worthy successor to Black Lotus, as it could improve nearly any Commander deck it was added to. As a result, it was banned from Commander in September 2024.
• Lotus Ring (The Big Score) grants the equipped creature Black Lotus's ability, but costs to cast and to equip.
• Radiant Lotus (Aetherdrift) can sacrifice any number of artifacts to add three mana of a single color for each artifact sacrificed. This can functionally turn all of one's artifacts into Black Lotuses. However, Radiant Lotus itself has a mana cost of , making it difficult to cast until the late game.

Moxen

Moxen are definitionally 0-mana mana artifacts, something that has been enforced by Design to retain the connection. Due to the extreme power of the original moxen, newer moxen usually include additional restrictions to make obtaining their mana more difficult. The standard rate for reusable mana rocks in modern Magic is three mana (Manalith), oftentimes with additional upsides, or two mana with downsides (Coldsteel Heart).

• Mox Diamond (Stronghold) and Chrome Mox (Mirrodin) both act similarly to pitch spells by requiring an extra card to be given up from hand. Despite this, they remain extremely powerful forms of fast mana. Like the original cycle of moxen, Mox Diamond is on the Reserved List.
• Mox Opal (Scars of Mirrodin) requires Metalcraft to be active in order to produce mana. Since Mox Opal itself is an artifact, and since artifact-focused decks oftentimes play a plethora of free artifacts (including artifact lands), this condition tends to be easily met in decks that play Mox Opal. However, as the first (of several) legendary moxen, Mox Opal is not as powerful in multiples as previous moxen.
• Mox Amber (Dominaria) taps for one mana of any color among legendary creatures or planeswalkers you control. Unlike with artifacts, nearly all legendary creatures cost at least one mana; most planeswalkers cost at least three mana. As such, Mox Amber's mana acceleration is more difficult to effectively utilize than that of previous moxen.
• Mox Tantalite (Modern Horizons) stands in for all five of the original moxen and follows in the footsteps of Lotus Bloom by removing the mana cost and replacing it with suspend 3 for that same cost. Since waiting for three turns runs counter to the usual function of the moxen (fast mana), Mox Tantalite is among the least powerful of all the moxen.
• Mox Jasper (Tarkir: Dragonstorm) uses a design similar to that of Mox Opal and Mox Amber, with its mana ability only functioning if one controls a dragon. Since dragons are a creature type that skew heavily towards higher mana values, Mox Jasper is another moxen that is difficult to use as a mana accelerant in the extreme early game.

Ancestral Recall

While many cards across the ages draw three cards, to call back to Ancestral Recall it needs to cost or can be cast for one mana. In modern Magic, drawing three cards at instant speed with no downside costs a minimum of five mana (Jace's Ingenuity). Though the ability to have an opponent draw three can occasionally be useful, Ancestral Recall is most commonly cast targeting oneself. As such, many of these variants cannot make an opponent draw cards.

• Brainstorm (Ice Age) draws three but requires that two cards from hand then be put back on top of the library. Though this ostensibly results in a variation on a standard cantrip effect rather than a true draw three effect, the ease with which the two cards put on top of the library can be shuffled away using fetch lands results in the card selection far surpassing most cantrips.
• Ancestral Vision (Time Spiral), similar to Lotus Bloom, removes the mana cost but adds suspend 4 for .
• Visions of Beyond (Magic 2012) has a baseline function as a cantrip, but can act as an Ancestral Recall if any player's graveyard has 20 or more cards in it.
• Shared Discovery (Rise of the Eldrazi) requires tapping four creatures in addition to paying , and is additionally a sorcery.
• Treasure Cruise (Khans of Tarkir), with its mana cost of , initially appears far more expensive than most draw three effects. However, the built-in delve mechanic provides an incredibly efficient way of reducing this cost to as little as . Since older formats feature rapid methods of filling the graveyard, Treasure Cruise was frequently cast for the ideal cost of , making it feel nearly as good as Ancestral Recall. As a result, it has been banned in Modern, Legacy, and Pauper, and restricted in Vintage. It is a defining card draw spell in Pioneer, the largest 60-card paper format where it remains fully legal.
• Emeritus of Ideation (Secrets of Strixhaven) has the actual spell as its prepare spell. Bloodline Recollector (Reality Fracture) has a shifted variant in black.

Time Walk

Time Walk is the original extra turn card, but two mana proved to be far too cheap for such a powerful effect. The cheapest unconditional extra turn effects not on the Reserved List cost five mana (Temporal Manipulation), though newer unconditional extra turn effects usually start at six mana (Part the Waterveil) and oftentimes attempt to limit recursion by exiling or being shuffled into their owner's library on resolution.

• Red has received several cheap extra turn effects with the substantial downside of causing one to lose the game at the end of the extra turn. The cheapest of these effects cost (Final Fortune, Last Chance, and Warrior's Oath); Final Fortune (Mirage) features the additional upside of being an instant.
• Chance for Glory (Guilds of Ravnica) is very similar to Final Fortune, costing instead and additionally granting indestructible to your creatures.
• Savor the Moment (Shadowmoor), with a mana cost of , comes far closer to Time Walk's mana cost than most extra turn spells. However, since untapping all of one's permanents is usually a core aspect of what makes extra turn effects powerful, the lack of an untap step makes Savor the Moment desirable only in specific decks that are able to negate that downside.
• Temporal Mastery (Avacyn Restored) has a base cost of , but with a miracle cost of only . This results in the card performing near-identically to Time Walk when drawn for turn, and potentially even better if drawn as one's first card on an opponent's turn (where it can then be cast at instant speed, as miracle circumvents timing restrictions). However, should miracle not be achieved, the standard cost of seven mana is subpar even by modern standards.
• Time Sieve (Alara Reborn) is a two mana artifact that requires sacrificing five artifacts to take an extra turn. While it can be sacrificed to its own ability, this is not required; thus, Time Sieve can be used to take multiple extra turns over the course of a game. Combined with the Magic 2010 reprint of Time Warp, many standard decks of that era were built around taking extra turns using both Time Sieve and Time Warp.
• Temporal Trespass (Fate Reforged) has a base mana cost of , but like Treasure Cruise features delve. As a result, it can cost as little as three mana. Though it has not received widespread bans like Treasure Cruise, the ease with which the graveyard can be filled in older formats results in Temporal Trespass performing as one of the consistently cheapest extra turn spells without major downside.

Timetwister

As a unique effect, Timetwister has inspired many effects that involve drawing seven after shuffling hands and graveyards. Due to the relative rarity of these effects, it is difficult to determine a baseline mana cost in modern Magic; one of the most similar versions with the least downside relative to Timetwister costs five mana (Time Reversal). Like with Time Walk variants, modern variants of Timetwister are more likely to exile themselves on resolution to prevent infinite recursion.

• Time Spiral (Urza's Saga) untaps enough lands to pay for itself (although its mana value of six keeps it unplayable in the early turns) and exiles itself from the game. Like Timetwister itself, Time Spiral is on the Reserved List.
• Diminishing Returns (Alliances) costs only a single mana more than Timetwister (). However, it exiles ten cards from its controller's library after the shuffle but before the draw; this makes infinite recursion far less useful as repeated castings will eventually exile the rest of the user's library. Additionally, each player may draw less cards if they so choose; this makes the effect less useful in certain situations compared to other wheel effects (e.g., as part of a combo with Notion Thief).
• Sway of the Stars (Betrayers of Kamigawa) adds the effect of setting each player's life total to 7 but costs ten mana.
• Temporal Cascade (Mirrodin) splits the shuffle and draw halves of Timetwister into two separate choices. Either single half can be had for seven mana, or both halves can be had for nine total mana using entwine.
• Out of all Timetwister variants, Time Reversal (Magic 2011) is among the most similar to the original, with a self-exile clause on resolution being the sole change to the rules text. Though an entwined Temporal Cascade has an identical effect to that of Timetwister due to the lack of a self-exile clause, Time Reversal's cost of five mana makes it significantly easier to cast and one of the cheapest "no-frills" Timetwister variants printed to date.
• Day's Undoing (Magic Origins) has an identical mana cost and wheel effect to that of Timetwister; the sole difference is that it prematurely ends the turn if it's your turn. While this may look recurable at a glance, prematurely ending the turn causes Day's Undoing to be exiled from the stack. This downside could be circumvented by casting Day's Undoing on an opponent's turn; however, since it is a sorcery, this cannot be done without additional help (such as from Leyline of Anticipation). Assuming it is cast on one's own turn, the next opponent in turn order will have the first opportunity to utilize the cards drawn.
• Echo of Eons (Modern Horizons) costs six mana when cast normally, but becomes has the same cost as Timetwister when cast from one's graveyard using flashback. Though it will not exile itself when cast normally, casting it using flashback will cause it to exile itself (as an inherent part of the flashback mechanic).

Parodies of the Power Nine

Several un-sets contained humorous direct homages to Black Lotus and the moxen, parodying their fame, value and overall power.

The Unglued parody set contained Blacker Lotus, which was illustrated with the original Black Lotus being overshadowed by a much larger, more powerful lotus. For the same casting cost as Black Lotus, Blacker Lotus can enter the battlefield and produce 4 mana of any one color as opposed to the original 3. However, the improved utility comes with a much greater price, as instead of merely sacrificing Blacker Lotus to activate its ability, its controller must literally "Tear Blacker Lotus into pieces."

Unglued also contained Jack-in-the-Mox, which costs like the original five moxen and depicts in its artwork a Jack-in-the-box whose crown is ornamented with the original five gems. Based on the outcome of a six-sided dice roll, its ability might either sacrifice the artifact and lose its controller 5 life (on a roll of 1), or mimic any of the moxen by adding , , , or (on rolls of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 respectively).

The Unhinged parody set that followed Unglued contained Mox Lotus, a combined parody the powerful mana generation of the Lotus and Mox cards. Like its Mox predecessors, the artwork for Mox Lotus depicts it as a piece of jewelry, and it follows the floral form of its Lotus predecessors. For the hefty mana value of , Mox Lotus is the first card to have been printed that, by itself, enables its controller to generate infinite mana.

Power Ten?

The term "Power Nine" was originally coined based on the cards in the group representing a substantial jump in price over any other card in the game. However, with slowly dwindling supply (due to loss and accidental destruction), no reasonable expectations of reprints, and increasing demand, the market has changed, putting three more cards on nearly the same price plateau as the Power Nine: Bazaar of Baghdad, Mishra's Workshop, and Library of Alexandria, the last of which, from the Arabian Nights, was historically often referred to as the tenth piece of power. All are worth at least $1000 USD on the secondary market. It has also been argued that the cards Yawgmoth's Will, Tinker, and Sol Ring all rival or exceed the power level of the Power Nine, but because of their much lower rarity, they do not fetch nearly the same price.

Oracle of the Alpha avatar with the Power Nine for Magic: The Gathering Arena.

Reprints

All of the Power Nine cards are on the Reserved List, preventing them from being reprinted in a tournament legal paper product. Despite this restriction, the cards have been reprinted in a small number of products. The first paper reprint of the cards after Unlimited was in the Collectors' Edition commemorative set. These cards had gold borders on their backs and had square card edges.

Starting in 2003, winners of the Vintage Championship received an oversized Power Nine card. These cards had new art commissioned and each had the year of the tournament as flavor text.

The first digital reprint of a Power Nine card was Black Lotus for the Magic Online Cube. The full set of Power Nine became available for players to own with the release of Vintage Masters. The cards were included at a special rarity and, to differentiate between the original Power Nine cards, used the Vintage tournament prize art. Black Lotus continued to use its Magic Online Cube art.

The Power Nine were brought to Magic: The Gathering Arena through the spellbook mechanic in Alchemy: Dominaria. While they can be conjured into a player's library using Oracle of the Alpha, they cannot be owned by players directly. Oracle of the Alpha was printed as an Acorn card in paper for Mystery Booster 2. Alchemy: Thunder Junction introduced the Collector cycle, which conjured a Mox to the the player's hand.

In 2022, Wizards of the Coast reprinted the Power Nine in the 30th Anniversary Edition commemorative set as part of its year-long celebration of 30 years of Magic. The set was a reprint of Limited Edition Beta with the cards in modern card frames and special gold-borders card backs.

Rulings

• As referred to by the rules text of Oracle of the Alpha: The "Power Nine" are Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Timetwister, and Time Walk.
• You might think Yargle, Glutton of Urborg is part of the "Power Nine" because he has a power of 9. You would be wrong, but we encourage you not to debate this in front of Yargle.