CardSpicy builds card protection products and runs this collector’s index. We cover Pokémon, One Piece, Gundam, Dragon Ball, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon and Riftbound, plus our newer sections on Magic: The Gathering, Disney Lorcana, Star Wars: Unlimited, Flesh and Blood and UNION ARENA — every card game we index in full, with the sleeves and rigid holders that fit them. We sell PSA 10 only, because that is the grade the market actually trades.
CardSpicy indexes card games with a focus on the Simplified Chinese editions, and Magic: The Gathering is the oldest line on the site. This page is the index for everything CardSpicy publishes about it: the rarities and the frame treatments that sit on top of them, the Chinese printings and what happened to them, and where a new collection starts.
One fact shapes everything below. Simplified Chinese Magic cards are no longer printed. Wizards of the Coast announced in February 2024 that Chinese Simplified and Portuguese tabletop products would end after Bloomburrow. What exists in Chinese is therefore a closed catalogue rather than a growing one, which is exactly why it is worth documenting.
Jump to: Start here · The Chinese printing · Rarities and treatments · Sets and releases
Start here
If you are new to the game, the entry point is a decision about purpose rather than a product. Collecting to play, collecting to complete a set, and collecting Chinese printings are three different hobbies that happen to share the same cards.
- How to start a Magic: The Gathering collection — the three routes into the game, and what each one actually buys.
The Chinese printing
The Chinese line is the part of Magic that a reprint cannot replace. It ran from a mid-1990s Fifth Edition printing to the 2024 announcement, and the cards that exist are all there will ever be.
- Simplified Chinese Magic: The Gathering cards — when the Chinese line ran, when it stopped, and what identifies a Chinese printing on the card itself.
Rarities and treatments
Magic has two separate things that collectors often treat as one: the rarity a card is printed at, and the frame treatment a particular printing carries. They are not the same axis, and one card can exist at one rarity in three different frames.
- Magic: The Gathering rarities and card treatments — the rarities, the frame treatments, and why a showcase card is not a rarer card.
Sets and releases
Wizards publishes a set sequence rather than a single date, and the sequence is what decides when a card can be bought or played.
- Magic: The Gathering Reality Fracture: The Dates, the Mechanics and the Chase Card — the October 2026 set, its three mechanics and its serialized chase card.
Where this section sits
Magic is one of eleven card games given their own material on CardSpicy. The ones still without a full section are collected on Other card games. Every page the site publishes, grouped by game and then by topic, is on All articles, and the sleeves, holders and storage that go around any of these cards start at Card accessories.
Frequently asked questions
Does CardSpicy index Magic: The Gathering cards?
It indexes the game rather than a card list. CardSpicy publishes guides to the rarities, the frame treatments and the Chinese printings; it does not run a page-per-card database for Magic.
Are Magic cards still printed in Simplified Chinese?
They are not. Wizards of the Coast announced in February 2024 that Simplified Chinese and Portuguese tabletop products would end after Bloomburrow, and the Chinese line has not been added to since.
Is a showcase card rarer than a normal card?
No. Showcase, borderless and extended art are frame treatments applied to a card that already has a rarity. The underlying rarity does not change; only the printing looks different.
Where should a new Magic collection start?
With a decision about purpose rather than a product. The guide in the Start here section sets out the three routes, and each one buys something different.
Why does CardSpicy cover Magic through the Chinese printing?
Because the Chinese printing is the part of Magic that is finite. The six languages still being printed are always available new; the Chinese line stopped in 2024, so those cards are collected second-hand or not at all.
Sources
Sources and scope
- Wizards of the Coast, Changes to Magic Product Languages in 2024, 22 February 2024 — the end of Simplified Chinese and Portuguese tabletop products after the release of Bloomburrow, and the reason given: sales of those language products no longer covered printing and operating costs.
- Wizards of the Coast, Changes to Magic Product Languages, 18 July 2022 — the earlier reduction of the printed language set, under which Chinese Traditional, Russian and Korean were dropped from Dominaria United onward.
- Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering 2026 Set Line Up Premieres at MagicCon: Atlanta — the 2026 set sequence and the licensed Universes Beyond releases named on this page and its linked guides.
- Wizards of the Coast, Collecting Reality Fracture, 8 September 2026, and Reality Fracture Mechanics, 8 September 2026 — the dates, mechanics and serialized chase card described on the linked Reality Fracture guide.
- Scope note: only details published by Wizards of the Coast are stated as confirmed. CardSpicy prints no prices on this page and makes no valuation or investment recommendation.
Card languages, product contents and release dates are set by the publisher and can change. Check Wizards of the Coast’s own announcements before buying on the basis of any date on this site.