Five colors. Seven cards. Twenty life. Magic: The Gathering is a card game ruled by numbers, whether you’re a strategic tournament player or a devoted collector. Moreover, with every booster pack you open and every deck you shuffle, probability and chance add an element of the unpredictable.

But mastering Magic doesn’t require a calculator or exhaustive knowledge of statistics. Sometimes, knowing a few key figures is enough to gain a meaningful edge. In that spirit, here’s a look at eight fascinating numbers in Magic: The Gathering that I have found to be both insightful and surprisingly useful.

What’s the number of unique Magic cards? Over 29,000

The question, “How many different Magic cards are there?” isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Should we include reprints? Alternate art styles? Foil versions? Non-English cards? Tokens? Even sticker sheets? There’s no one definitive answer. However, to reach a meaningful count, I’ve chosen to focus solely on cards you can actually play—cards you can put into a deck or add to a decklist. That means ignoring tokens and Dungeons but including Vintage-legal cards and even the wacky cards from Un-sets. Under this definition, specific art, set, treatment, or language is irrelevant—a Lightning Bolt remains a Lightning Bolt, whether it’s a sleek borderless one from Double Masters or a classic Japanese version from Fourth Edition.

To get our number of unique Magic cards, each with their own rules text, we can use the query “f:vintage or is:funny” on Scryfall, Magic’s trusted search engine. As of this writing, the answer stands at a staggering 29,367. That’s a dizzying amount of choices for building your deck! And if you’re intrepid enough to try collecting one of each, you’ll need around twenty-seven Superhive Xenoskins to house them all in snug, organized style.

What’s the probability of drawing a specific card by turn 4? 53%

In games of 60-card Constructed, you often face pivotal choices under a veil of uncertainty. Should you commit that extra creature to the battlefield when your opponent might be holding a Day of Judgment? Do you risk casting a critical spell when they could stop it with Counterspell? Should you keep untapped blockers, wary that they might flash in Enduring Curiosity? Sometimes, holding back or using your mana differently can be the difference between winning and losing.

In these scenarios, it helps to know the likelihood that your opponent has drawn at least one copy of a four-of by turn four. As it happens, they’re slightly favored to have it by then: a solid 53%. So, barring mulligans, an Azorius Control deck running four copies of Day of Judgment will have one ready on turn four about half the time. Armed with this insight, you can make more calculated decisions—balancing the risks and rewards of committing to the board versus playing it safe.

What’s a safe number for “infinite” life? Googolplex

In Magic, when you create an “infinite” life combo—say, Spike Feeder plus Archangel of Thune—you actually need to name a specific number. So, what’s a good choice for this theoretically boundless amount? It needs to be big—really big. And as history has shown, picking too small a number can backfire! At a 2016 Grand Prix, a player confidently declared “ten million life” after assembling such a combo, only to find themselves on the verge of defeat to a swarming legion of Zombies created by Liliana, the Last Hope. In a similar vein, if your opponent controls Devilish Valet, summons an Army of the Damned, and tops it off with Fungal Sprouting, they could be swinging for far more than even a googol—a one followed by one hundred zeros.

To play it safe, then, you might consider naming a googolplex—that’s 10 raised to the power of a googol, or a one followed by a googol zeros. With this astronomical number of life, you’d comfortably survive any conceivable attack without blinking. In fact, if you tried to write out this number, you’d need so many books that their combined mass would exceed that of the observable universe. So, whenever I need to declare a number for an “infinite” life combo without going into more esoteric mathematical notation, I go with a googolplex—it’s never let me down.

What’s the chance of hitting a third land after keeping a two-lander? 70%

One of the classic mulligan dilemmas is the two-land opening hand that looks amazing—if only you draw a third land on time. Should you gamble on such a hand? Let’s be specific: suppose you’re on the play with 24 lands remaining in a 53-card library or 15 lands in a 33-card deck. The probability of drawing at least one land in your first two draw steps, using the hypergeometric distribution, works out to just over 70%. For quick in-game decisions, I always keep in mind that roughly 7 times out of 10, I’ll draw that third land.

Whether 70% is worth the risk depends on just how strong the hand is if everything falls into place. If the hand only offers an average curve or typical draw, your chances of winning after hitting that third land might not be enough, especially considering that a mulligan generally gives you more than 40% to win. However, if that hand promises a stellar setup upon hitting your third land—let’s say you’d have an 80% win chance with a timely draw—then keeping is more appealing. In that case, you’re effectively playing with a 56% chance to win (80% * 70%), which should be better than a mulligan.

What’s the ideal number of cards for most Standard decks? 60

Every rule has its exceptions, and Magic: The Gathering has seen its share of legendary Hall of Fame players push past the usual 60-card limit on their way to success. Take William “Huey” Jensen’s 244-card deck from the Top 8 of Grand Prix Milwaukee 2002, designed to exploit Battle of Wits, or Makihito Mihara’s 64-card Scapeshift deck from the Top 8 of Grand Prix Kobe 2011, where he needed a precise balance—enough Mountains for Scapeshift and enough blue sources for Cryptic Command. Similarly, Ben Rubin cracked the Top 8 at Grand Prix Oakland 2016 with a 64-card special, squeezing in extra fetchable lands to maximize the power and ratio of fetch lands in his mana base.

While it’s valuable to recognize these edge cases, sticking to 60 cards is typically the optimal choice in Standard and other Constructed formats. Adding more cards dilutes your deck and reduces the consistency of drawing your best spells, making it generally wise to stay disciplined with the minimum count. Additionally, if you go too far over 60, you might have trouble fitting your deck into one of those sleek Sidewinder deck boxes!

At which price is a Magic card worth more than its weight in gold? $105

At the time of writing, a gram of gold fetches over $83. Since a Magic card weighs about 1.8 grams, any card priced above $150 is technically worth more than its weight in gold. While all normal versions of Standard and Modern staples fall short of this mark, the iconic dual lands from Revised—like Plateau or Tropical Island—comfortably exceed it.

To keep these high-value cards pristine, I recommend Ultimate Guard’s Katana sleeves. Crafted from top-notch materials, these resilient sleeves provide premium protection for your prized collection. Personally, I use orange-hue Katana sleeves with a wavelength of around 600 nm, giving my 60-card deck a polished 10/10 look and feel.

What’s the longest Magic card name length in Magic history? 141 characters

What’s the longest Magic card name of all time? Only one card claims this record: Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made this Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental. Clocking in at a staggering 141 characters, its name wraps around all four sides of the card, befitting its tongue-in-cheek origins in the Unhinged set. Naturally, this card was never tournament-legal, joining other whimsically named test cards from Mystery Boosters and Unknown Events, such as Sword of Fire and Ice and War and Peace or Avacyn's Collar, the Symbol of Her Church.

If we exclude Un-sets and non-tournament-legal cards, the longest name in traditional Magic still holds its own: Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers. With 33 characters, this unique land card manages to make room for its extensive name since it doesn’t need a mana cost symbol. Other famous card designs, such as Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, have been based on a similar approach, although it has “only” 31 characters in its name.

How many lands should be in a typical Commander deck? Around 39

When building a Commander deck, your land count plays a critical role in ensuring your strategy runs smoothly. While there’s no universal rule, most Commander decks should aim for around 38 or 39 lands, complemented by roughly 8 mana rocks, ramp spells, or mana-producing creatures (such as Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Rampant Growth, or Birds of Paradise). This guideline is followed by many of the preconstructed Commander decks released by Wizards of the Coast in 2024, and it offers enough mana consistency while ensuring you have the right number of nonland cards to execute your strategy. Moreover, 38–39 lands and around 8 additional sources of mana aligns with the mathematical results from an idealized simulation model that determined optimal mana curves and land counts in Commander.

Many Commander decks run too few lands—36 or even fewer. In comparison, that would be roughly 14.5 lands in a 40-card deck or 21.8 lands in a 60-card deck. For most players coming from Limited or Standard formats, this would seem overly risky, unless your deck compensates with an abundance of mana-producing spells or card draw engines. Many mid-power Commander decks would benefit from higher land counts to reliably hit their land drops, and it’s unwise to run less than 38 unless you are playing cEDH or really know what you’re doing. Ultimately, the ideal land count depends on your deck's specific needs, but 38–39 lands is a solid starting point for most Commander decks. If your deck lacks mana rocks or ramp spells, or if it has a mana-hungry strategy with a top-heavy curve, consider pushing your land count even higher! You can never go wrong by adding a few utility lands.