How to Print MTG Proxies at Home (Step by Step)

What you need

• A deck list in a standard text format: one card per line, with the quantity first ("1 Sol Ring").
• A print-ready PDF with the cards laid out at their real size. Our free MTG proxy printer generates one from a pasted deck list.
• A printer. Inkjet gives richer colors on photo paper; laser is faster and sharper on text. Both work.
• Paper or card stock (see below).
• A cutting tool: a paper trimmer or a craft knife with a metal ruler and a cutting mat. Scissors work but are slow and less precise.
• Card sleeves and, ideally, a stack of spare basic lands or bulk commons.
• Optional: a corner rounder punch (3 mm or 1/8 in radius) for a finished look.

Step 1 — Prepare the deck list

Export your list from your deck builder as plain text. Check the names: typos are the main reason a card goes missing from the final sheet. Decide which cards you actually need — many players proxy only the cards they do not own, and keep real copies of everything else.

Do not forget double-faced cards. Each face needs its own image, and you will want to sleeve both faces back to back or use a checklist card.

Step 2 — Generate a print-ready sheet

Nine cards fit on one A4 or US Letter page in a 3 × 3 grid at 63 × 88 mm each. A good proxy sheet adds thin cut lines between the cards and keeps a small margin so nothing falls into the printer's unprintable border.

Paste your list into the MTG proxy printer, check that every card was recognized, choose your paper size and download the PDF. Doing the layout by hand in a word processor is possible, but it is easy to get the scale wrong.

Step 3 — Choose paper or card stock

Check your printer's maximum paper weight before buying thick stock. Most home printers handle 200 gsm or so; heavier card can jam. If yours cannot, print on lighter paper and use the sleeve method in step 6.

Step 4 — Print at 100% scale

This is the step most people get wrong. Open the print dialog and set the scale to 100% or Actual size. Turn off "Fit to page", "Shrink oversized pages" and any similar option. One wrong setting and every card comes out a few percent too small.

• Select the right paper type in the printer settings so the ink or toner is applied correctly.
• Use the highest quality setting for card images.
• Print one test page first and measure a card with a ruler: it should be 63 mm wide and 88 mm tall. Compare it against a real Magic card.

Step 5 — Cut cleanly

Let the ink dry fully, especially on photo paper. Cut the long lines first to make strips, then cut each strip into cards. With a craft knife, use a metal ruler and several light passes rather than one heavy one. Cut exactly on the line, or very slightly inside it, so no white edge remains.

If you are playing them unsleeved on card stock, round the corners with a corner punch. It takes a minute per page and makes a surprising difference.

Step 6 — Sleeve them (the trick that makes it work)

Paper proxies on their own are too thin to shuffle. Slide the proxy into a sleeve in front of a real card — a spare basic land or a bulk common. The real card gives stiffness and the correct weight; the proxy gives the face. In an opaque-backed sleeve, the result is indistinguishable from the rest of the deck when shuffled.

When home printing is not enough

Home printing is perfect for testing and for a handful of cards. For a whole deck that you will play for months, the limits show quickly: no black core, no casino-style finish, and a lot of cutting.

• Online card printers can print custom cards on real card stock, cut and rounded. You supply the images and the layout.
• Ready-made proxy decks remove all the work. Vanyrix Commander proxy decks come as print-ready files you can print yourself, or printed on black-core card stock and shipped. Every card has original themed artwork.

For everything else about proxies — what they are and where they are welcome — read the full MTG proxy guide.

Frequently asked questions