Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a card game that doesn’t require dice, but some players use special 20-sided dice to track life totals. When choosing dice for MTG, it’s important to choose ones that are easy to read and have clear numbers and colors. Chessex D6 sets are a staple for any MTG, and they are used in various situations, such as useful counters and card changes.
The most common dice for MTG is the D20, and players prefer to use D6 for card changes. However, no dice are required for Magic, and some players may use a spindown counter (non-randomized d20) along with 1d6 to track small changes in life points or counters. Most players keep a couple of six-sided dice (d6) handy for tracking small changes in life points or counters.
In 2023, four best dice for MTG include d20 dice, MTG spindown life counters, positive and negative token dice, and planechase – planar dice. Standard six-sided dice are a fundamental choice for many MTG players, as they are versatile and can be used to track just about anything. D20 spindowns are twenty-sided dice that come in multiple colors and have a set’s symbol or other symbol replacing the number twenty.
In summary, Magic: The Gathering is a card game that doesn’t require dice, but players can use various types of dice for various situations. The Chessex D6 set is a popular choice for all-around MTG dice, and players can choose the best dice for their needs.
📹 A Guide To Dice, Tokens, and other MTG Gaming Accessories for Magic: The Gathering
Evaluation Samples: For this review, I received evaluation samples from Turn One Gaming, and Legion for their respective …
📹 BEST ACCESSORIES FOR MAGIC THE GATHERING!
Unboxing #magicthegathering #review This video is just a little showcase of all the things I use when I go play Magic at my local …
Got it fixed faster than I expected. This is the FIXED version of this article. What was changed? No, it wasn’t my incorrect pronunciation of chimera, something I have been willfully doing since 4th grade. In the demonstration of the Turn One Gaming tokens, I accidentally used a wet erase marker and not a dry erase marker. I want to stress that this only happened when I filmed the demonstration, and I used dry erase markers all throughout testing these tokens. Nonetheless, this made the article look much more dramatic in terms of how much ink comes off with a paper towel, and just how much gets on your fingers. My apologies for this error. My comments, evaluation, and grade remain unchanged. You can still see in this article (although not quite as dramatically as the last) that you still don’t get a perfect wipe with dry erase, and I still maintain that you should not be using markers, even dry erase markers, anywhere near your magic cards.
Life Counter Alternatives – A D20, a pen and paper, a free mobile app. Counter Alternatives – A D6 or just any small item you have lying around. Tokens – This one is kind of a bind, but you can just represent the stats of a token with two dice on an empty board. Or just bring the token you need from a booster and put counters on it if needed. Or yeah. Just use paper.
Home made dry erase solution: Get a blank card of some kind, sleeve it, draw on it with a good quality dry erase marker, and it wipes off effortlessly with no residue. That product leaves so much residue because either the card surface is porous, and/or the marker is poor quality. A good dry erase marker has alcohol ink that evaporates on the surface and leaves behind dry powder pigment.
My problem with the Life Calc is the same as with a lot of other options (including dice). Inevitably someone will miss a life loss/life gain and you will have to figure out whether it was you or your opponent who messed up. A simple pen and paper solves this problem. “Oh, I missed when you played that fetchland at 19, you should be at 18 now.”
Interesting review, I didn’t know there are dice specifically designed for Tarmogoyf, let alone multiple different ones. I always assumed players would just figure out its current P/T themselves, as it is self-evident as opposed to creatures that grow through actual counters like Arcbound Ravanger. Using them also means constantly having to change it (searching for the right side) — and possibly even mislead your opponent (or yourself) by forgetting to adapt the dice. In my humble opinion, that makes both of those products act in the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to do, i.e. act as a convenience.
Another really good way to keep track of things like life count, opponents hands after a thought seize or any info is a Boogie Board. It is basically a dry erase board but without need for a special marker or cleaner as well as it cannot be smudged like dry erase. It uses a stylus to write so if u lose the one that comes with it u can anything to write. It’s s lil expensive but it has paid its 10$ off for me many fold
I got a Legion Lifecalc from my LCS today for $10, so I think I came out pretty well. I play almost exclusively Commander, so life totals tend to go all over the place, and I was just about to buy ten bucks worth of D10s when I realized that I could just buy one of these and save a lot of space in my deck box. One of these plus a couple of spindowns for Commander damage are enough to get me through most games.
At 7:45 The dry erase card demonstration. Just wanted to say if someone doesn’t know, hand-sani, medical-grade alcohol or isopropanol works really well with getting dry erase off. However, even though the pens say dry erase some of that chemical color content has the potential to penetrate or leech into material of it is porous.
I come from wargamming (Warhammer and Kings of War mostly) and role-playing, so I have several sets of dice (including sets of D6 in every color you could think of, and a few more), so my need for counters are covered. I also have some sets of translucent diamond-like counters in several colors… so far I’ve used the yellow ones as Energy counters and the transparent / white ones as trigger reminders (on some decks I’ve tried, several abilities can trigger at once, and resolving some of them can trigger additional abilities, and so on, so any help at keeping track of them is welcome). When it comes to tokens, for anything I can think of in advance, all I need is Magic Set Editor and my trusty printer. I even have some pseudo-tokens with “triggered ability” or “temporal effect” in their type lines that help a lot in keeping track of “until end of turn” effects. If I play a deck using “variable” tokens (I built a Hydra Broodmaster deck when Theros was in Standard), I can print some “blank” token templates in thicker paper and use a pencil and eraser for them. IMO, as far as dice are concerned (which can also work as counters), loot at RPG stores. When it comes to dice, nobody takes that more seriously that RPG players and game masters. And, for tokens, either a desktop printer or good old pen & paper get the job done. Last, but not least, for tracking life totals, nothing beats pen & paper. With that, you not only keep track of current totals, but also any changes that has happened throughout the game.
I have the dry erase token cards and can honestly say that I have had no issues with them. Everything comes off at the end of a game and the markers I use work well for the surface. The professor may have just had a marker that was poorly made since some dry erase markers will always leave behind residue.
I have made a 12k Mycoloth making 12k tokens every turn. How would keep track of those? Here is my deck. Also advice is appreciated on how the deck is made. Deck List: Creatures 4 Mycoloth 4 Overgrown Battlement 4 Tukatongue Thallid 2 Sporecrown Thallid 2 Psychotrope Thallid 2 Tendershoot Dryad Artifacts 4 Altar of the Brood 2 Helm of the Host Sorcery 4 Fertile Imagination 2 Nature’s Spiral 2 Nissa’s Pilgrimage Instant 2 Druid’s Deliverance 2 Sprout Swarm Enchantment 4 Parallel Lives Land 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 4 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood 15 Forest
Pro of the dry erase marker tokens: If a new set comes out, you can draw a couple of these in advance and use em right away. You don’t need to fumble around while playing. The upside is the reusability. Con to the lifecounter: You said it in another article of yours. You can’t backtrack like you can with Pen&Paper.
Forgive me if they have changed this, but in a life total dispute a judge is supposed to go with a written history if one is available. A judge gave me this info when he saw me using the (no longer available and generally terrible) official MTG app to track life totals. He recommended always using a piece of scratch paper or a notepad to track life totals for this reason.
1. How do you accidentally swipe your phone of the table? 2. Why would it break, you should have a case on your phone if it’s “$300” 3. It really doesn’t drain the battery that much to just have a still screen open. (and if you buy “lifecalc” the. Your gonna have to go buy those special circle batteries eventually so just charge your phone most of those apps are free and easy to use)
Hello professor! Could you do a review on the new SCG Insiders? They really caught my eye because they were cheap, and SCG branded. I don’t know what that means in quality though, and would like to save the little bits of money I do have. Loving your articles! You have saved me quite a large chunk of money from things I would’ve bought, keep it up!
What’s the highest Tarmogopf can get? Isn’t it 7/8 from land, creature, artifact, enchantment, instant, sorcery, and planeswalker? If so, then Chimera Craft’s Tarmogopf’s D6 die seems a bit lacking. Legions Lifecalc seems decent as an cost/risk effective proxy to the smart phone & MtG app, but it doesn’t overcome the pen & paper’s ultimate advantage that is pseudo-memory of life total changes. That’s the next step that is needed to take such devices to the next level. Am I right?
Can’t say I agree with the Professor on this one. I would love to have dry-erase tokens, and can’t think of anything more useless than a $15 electronic life-tracking doohickey. I have an EDH deck that is capable of making, at last count, sixteen different types of tokens (not all of which have official printings), and carrying that many with me can be a hassle. I don’t mind getting dry-erase markers near my cards because, at least in every game of EDH I’ve played, the cards are all sleeved. Who cares if a six-cent sleeve gets an erasable mark on it? I’ll probably be ordering a set or two of these soon. On the other hand…geez, another electronic device I have to carry around if I want to play Magic? As much as I like ’80s technology, I see absolutely zero reason to pay good money for something that looks like a cheap two-buck calculator with 90% of the buttons removed when I already have an 89-cent 3-by-5 inch notepad that I use to track life totals. The pad of paper lets me make notes, and see changes in life over time to correct any discrepancies, while this device doesn’t. This doesn’t even work in multiplayer games, when I can just add another column to the sheet of the notepad I’m using!
The Lifecalc (8:48) is easily the most useful accessory listed here. Though tere are still two things about it I would have loved to know: • What exact measurements does it have? It looks like roughly the size of a Magic card. I checked the product page and it does in fact fit into a deckbox, which I’d consider another notable plus! • What batteries does it use, and how are they changed? Judging by the back that can be seen at 9:40, it has to be taken apart with a screwdriver, which would be a somewhat bothersome inconvenience, although rarely necessary. (You could even have went the extra mile to figure out the battery life, but that would definitely have went beyond the scope, haha) Also, why didn’t you link to the product page of Legion’s Lifecalc? (legionsupplies.com/lifecalc/) Or were the links of the other two products merely an exception because they are hard to find otherwise? One last thing: I was confused for a moment at 9:37 when you said »emblazoned with your choice of iconic mana symbol«, half expecting them to provide the Lifecalc with the official mana symbols on it as well. Wouldn’t »stylish« be a more appropriate term, consdiering they are rather unknown custom design from Legions, as opposed to the official mana symbols that players would generally think of when they are described as iconic? I’m sorry if I come off as complainer at this point, especially considering this article is an extra. Although as both the Tolarian Community College director and an adjunct college professor, I’m sure you appreciate any feedback.
even if you do really like fried chicken and hamburgers, it’ll run you a lot cheaper to buy them from a dollhouse supply store. miniatures.com/Default.aspx, wonderminiature.com/miniature.html are both options where you can get the same products, better selection, and better prices
Hello I am trying to play magic I am a newb. I am confused about mana. I can’t seem any place to buy mana “tokens”? Does your mana carry over from the previous turn? Do you just write down how much mana you have? It’s driving me crazy I have googled and can’t get a straight answer. Please and thank you.
This article might be fixed on the point where you used the wrong marker on it, but I do believe I see some transparent green dice that was in your intro/outro and was NOT featured in this article. Any reason for that? And come no, Professor. Don’t use the token pads upside down! You look like a doofus :p
I’m so glad I found your website! Hope you get a lot more subscribers bc your articles are great! I mostly play arena and have only ever drafted in paper bc of how expensive constructed is. Really excited to start getting into paper pauper! My personal favorite archetypes right now in Arena standard are Mardu aristocrats and UW soldier tribal. I’m a relatively new player so I got introduced to the domain mechanic with the dominaria united set this year, and I loved domain in DMU limited. I’d love to see deck techs for those different archetypes in pauper, but honestly just keep doing what you’re doing! Hope you’re having a good day
Nice dice, I also recommend +1/+1 and -1/-1 also colour dices are handy if you play with gates that let you choose a second colour. (Also available in extra large) looking forward to see some PP game play. ( is Spelltable an option?) Edit: Also a quick PSA: Everyone should remember to bring the tokens they need. 😉
When it comes the the board, it’s 2024, do not buy plastic toys, use papier, which is actually a sustainable material and won’t spoil our planet for next couple of centuries. If you really want something more fancy, go for life tracker that are built on rotating tracks. They are way less space consuming.