The 58 Best Treasure Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 4, 2025

Ancient Copper Dragon | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo

Hello Planeswalkers! I want you to know that I treasure each and every one of you. So let's explore the best cards that create treasure tokens.

I’m sure you've had some matches against or using treasure tokens. They are widely popular and provide much-needed mana support and ramp to builds. They’ve become so popular and useful that you might even consider them mistakes, considering how they grant equal access to mana fixing and ramp to all colors. However you feel about them, they're a huge part of Magic right now, with tons of cards producing treasure.

What Are Treasure Cards in MTG?

Goldspan Dragon | Illustration by Andrew Mar

Treasure is an artifact subtype in MTG. It most often appears on colorless artifact tokens that can be tapped and sacrificed to produce 1 mana of any color. Treasure tokens debuted in Ixalan in 2017 as the pirates’ mechanic, but they have become evergreen since then and are everywhere these days.

For this article, I’m focusing on cards that can produce Treasure tokens. These tokens can come from activated or triggered abilities.

#58. Sticky Fingers

Sticky Fingers gets the treasure generation going fast, and menace goes a long way towards making this stick. The real selling point is getting your card back when the enchanted creature dies, giving this an incredibly low opportunity cost to play.

#57. Black Market Tycoon

Black Market Tycoon is a great treasure creator that also has a downside. You can reliably create a treasure token each turn, but make sure to use the token or you’ll be paying in life points. Unless you have a card like Axis of Mortality to hurt your opponent, of course.

#56. Captain Lannery Storm

Pirates and treasure go together like peanut butter and jelly. Captain Lannery Storm is a fun pirate that creates a treasure token whenever it attacks. This card doesn’t have great stats, but at least you can sacrifice the treasure token for mana and still get the pump instead of directly sacrificing it.

#55. Descent into Avernus

Want a quick pick-up game? Try out Descent into Avernus. Everyone gets a bunch of treasure, and everyone dies super quick, on top of the accelerated pace at which everyone’s casting spells. It’s a good “every now and then” card that some players base their entire personality around.

#54. There and Back Again

Look, I’m not going to leave off the card that says “Create fourteen Treasure tokens.” There and Back Again isn’t that special, and the Smaug token’s a little disappointing, but the overall package on this saga is fun and flavorful, and it gives players a dream worth living for if they can slay the dragon.

#53. Bootleggers’ Stash

You’d swear the sky was falling the way people talked about this green artifact when it was first previewed. That’s not to say Bootleggers' Stash is unplayable, but it’s nowhere close to being worth its original $60 price tag. It’s kind of like a slow mana doubler, but there’s rarely a real turnout on your investment until about two turns after you play it. Leave this one for decks that really care about the token/artifact generation; you can do much better for actual mana doubling.

#52. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

One of two Lord of the Rings cards depicting this halfling citizen, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins has a lot of nice keywords and a high ceiling if you snipe the right card out of the graveyard. It has to be a creature that died the turn this enters, but the reward for timing this right is a stack of treasure and a small bit of graveyard denial.

#51. Storm-Kiln Artist

Treasure tokens fit well into artifact decks, and Storm-Kiln Artist is a good example. It can help you make treasure tokens, and its power grows with every artifact you control. A mana value of 4 and low toughness reduce the value of this card significantly.

#50. Treasure Map

With Treasure Map, you have a slow play counter that gives you a scry. If you have the spare mana and can get to the three landmark counters, this is where the value lies. Treasure Cove creates three treasure tokens that can help you curve out or draw cards. This is a decent late-game push kind of artifact.

#49. Brass’s Bounty

Brass's Bounty is only for those of you who need a ton of mana or artifacts. You can essentially double your mana pool or create a massive number of useful artifacts. Cards like Crackle with Power or Dragonspark Reactor could greatly benefit from creating a massive amount of treasure tokens.

#48. Spiteful Banditry

There are actually a handful of board wipes that leave behind Treasure tokens, though Spiteful Banditry’s one of my favorites, since it continues to make treasure as creatures die on later turns. You’ll only get one per batch of creatures dying, but trust me when I say you don’t want to play in a world where this red enchantment didn’t have that floodgate in place.

#47. Reckless Endeavor

Brass's Bounty has its moments, but I prefer Reckless Endeavor at this cost. Now that I’m seeing them side-by-side, this red sorcery is very similar to Spiteful Banditry, often wiping the board and leaving behind some Lotus Petals. Just dodge the snake-eyes when you roll the die!

#46. Blood Money

Apparently we’re in board wipe city, with Blood Money being a black sweeper that converts all creatures in play into treasure for you. You’ll have an absurd amount of mana on the following turn, which you’re likely to get since you just wrathed the board. Tapped treasure is fair treasure.

#45. Kalain, Reclusive Painter

Kalain, Reclusive Painter gives a pump for using your treasure tokens. When you cast a creature, it enters with a +1/+1 counter for each treasure used to cast it. The treasure tokens are wonderful for being ahead of the curve, and with this card, you can now have even more powerful creatures earlier. What's even more interesting is that the mana doesn't have to come from Treasure tokens specifically. That makes Glittering Stockpile and excellent pairing with this Rakdos commander.

#44. Prosperous Innkeeper

Prosperous Innkeeper is a nice ramp card for green and multicolored decks. The Treasure token is a nice curve helper in the early game and the lifegain has many advantages. Especially with cards like Voice of the Blessed.

#43. Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

I never was a fan of Monologue Tax, which has comparable text to Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff without the life payment. But having this effect on 2 instead of 3 is vastly different, plus you can trigger the ability yourself by double-spelling. It’s not quite impactful enough to want in the command zone, though I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me it was a cEDH playable Orzhov commander.

#42. Gonti, Night Minister

Gonti, Night Minister is the newest card on this list, and therefore the one I’m least certain of, but it plays and reads like cards we’ve seen before. Think of it like this: All your creatures become Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Except there’s a sort of Edric, Spymaster of Trest minigame that incentivizes dissension amongst your opponents, which always makes for interesting gameplay.

#41. The Reaver Cleaver

The Reaver Cleaver is an equipment made for Commander equipment decks. The mana and equip costs are steep, but the fact that you can make as many treasure tokens as damage done to a player by the equipped creature is worth it. With some luck, you can make enough treasure tokens to carry out the rest of your strategy seamlessly.

#40. Generous Plunderer

I like the mini-game that Generous Plunderer presents, allowing you to ramp at the expense of gifting treasure to other players. But it’s also just an aggressive artifact-hate card, piling on damage depending on the amount of junk your opponent has in play. Cards from The Big Score are somewhat elusive and expensive though, so I don’t see this red creature that often.

#39. Magda, the Hoardmaster

This dwarf berserker returned to Magic in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, where somehow, despite the first iteration literally being named Brazen Outlaw, the character still doesn’t count as an outlaw. Wild. The “Scorpion Dragon” text is enough for me to forgive that missed opportunity, and Magda, the Hoardmaster’s a great treasure payoff that turns your stack of gold into bodies and damage.

#38. Tireless Provisioner

Landfall is always a wonderful ability to take advantage of. With Tireless Provisioner you can turn land plays into Food or treasure tokens. I prefer treasure tokens for the mana-producing abilities, but this card gives you options and can fit in several different builds.

#37. Prismari Command

Prismari Command is the exact kind of card you want in a noncreature control deck. It's cheap to cast and instant speed, and you have many options depending on your needs. You can choose two modes among dealing damage, drawing cards, making a treasure token, or removing artifacts.

#36. Mahadi, Emporium Master

Spells that can create treasure tokens over multiple turns have high value. Mahadi, Emporium Master can create a treasure token on each of your end steps if a creature has died that turn. This trigger fits incredibly well into aristocrat, Grixis, and Rakdos decks.

#35. Nuka-Cola Vending Machine

Nuka-Cola Vending Machine was one of the most hyped cards from Fallout, and while it didn’t exactly turn Commander on its head, it’s still a great token generator. Any deck that’s fiddling around with Food synergies or artifact tokens makes good use of this colorless card, though it’s sadly around the $15 mark and unlikely to be reprinted basically ever.

#34. Prosperous Partnership

Streets of New Capenna Commander is, fittingly, a gold-mine of awesome Commander cards, and Prosperous Partnership is one that flies under the radar. The funny thing is, people immediately knew how broken Baylen, the Haymaker would be, and yet this Boros enchantment doesn’t get the love it deserves. Token players, try this one out!

#33. Burakos, Party Leader

Party decks felt like a flash in the pan. They were cool, and there’s enough opportunity for customization with the different party creature types, but the payoffs feel stagnant and new Magic sets have very little to offer the archetype. That’s all to say that Burakos, Party Leader is an excellent black commander for a narrow strategy. An attack trigger that can generate up to four treasures each turn is powerful.

#32. Galazeth Prismari

Galazeth Prismari is an interesting card to use with other treasure token creators. It allows you to avoid sacrificing your treasure tokens to get their mana. This allows you to build on your treasure hoard and you can quickly get a ton of mana. Have fun!

#31. Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

Atsushi, the Blazing Sky is an affordable dragon spirit that can apply pressure to your opponent. When it dies, you can either get a mana or hand advantage over your opponent.

#30. Storm the Vault

Storm the Vault may seem like a slow way to develop a big mana pool. I’m here to tell you that the value of this card is high: it's among the strongest Izzet enchantments. You don’t need five treasures to transform, but rather five artifacts. However, this card helps that process by creating treasures if at least one of your creatures deals damage to an opponent. Transforming into Vault of Catlacan is worth the investment in artifact-heavy decks.

#29. Rev, Tithe Extractor

Rev, Tithe Extractor isn’t unlike Gonti, Night Minister, throne and all! The thing is, Rev gives you Treasure right away when your creatures connect (once per opponent dealt damage), and granting creatures deathtouch on attacks makes it more likely you’ll connect. It also gifts nothing to your opponents like Gonti does, which is less fun, but perhaps more strategically sound.

#28. Spell Swindle

Five mana for a counterspell isn’t curve-friendly. That’s unless it can turn your opponent’s spell into a mana advantage. Spell Swindle is a staple for many treasure decks and has a ton of value in changing the fortunes of a game in your favor.

#27. Ancient Copper Dragon

Can you imagine what kind of deck or cards you could use if you had 20 Treasure tokens? With Ancient Copper Dragon, I hope the dice are in your favor. If you deal combat damage with this creature, you have a chance to get a massive hoard of Treasure tokens. All the Ancient Dragons are good, but I love the upside of never having to worry about mana again.

#26. Old Gnawbone

Old Gnawbone was a shocker when it came out, though it was followed up by Ancient Bronze Dragon soon after. This mono-green dragon can make treasures right away though, provided you have creatures that can deal combat damage to opponents. This green creature is basically the definition of kill-on-sight.

#25. Mr. House, President and CEO

I really hate the design of Mr. House, President and CEO. I mean, I like all the words written on this Mardu card, but I think everything’s trivialized by d20s, which are incredibly easy to roll given the die-rolling cards that exist. It just means you get max benefit most of the time, which isn’t how I think the card should play. Though truthfully, it makes the card much more viable, and more appealing to people who want to build a deck that “plays the odds.”

#24. Cavern-Hoard Dragon

Dockside Extortionist, is that you? Well, no, but there are times when it’ll feel like it. Cavern-Hoard Dragon does have one significant advantage that Dockside never had, which is being a giant hastey flampling 6/6 dragon, which I hear has its perks.

#23. Bonehoard Dracosaur

There’s an old comparison between “Mulldrifters,” creatures with weak combat stats but valuable abilities, and “Baneslayers,” which offer basically no advantage outside of being giant battlecruiser creatures in combat. Bonehoard Dracosaur is the common modern-day fusion of the two: the “Mullslayer,” if you will.

Dracosaur has the classic Baneslayer issue of needing to survive a turn before doing anything interesting, though it’s ridiculously hard to tussle with in combat. If you untap with it, you unlock the Mulldrifter half of the card, drawing up to two cards per turn while spitting out extra board presence and Treasure tokens. Consider this all a long-winded way of saying it’s really, really good.

#22. Prosper, Tome-Bound

Many of the abilities from the Forgotten Realms set give you choices between two different effects. Prosper, Tome-Bound’s abilities actually work together for a greater effect. This great Rakdos commander lets you play with more cards from the top of your deck and create Treasure tokens to help cast these cards even faster, making it one of the most versatile treasure commanders.

#21. Professional Face-Breaker

Professional Face-Breaker is a nice turn-three card that helps you with your curve. Creating Treasure tokens to use as mana or to top deck is wonderful value. Another intricacy of this card is that you can create two treasure tokens per combat phase with first strike and normal damage.

#20. Magda, Brazen Outlaw

Dwarves are a good typal build that work well together. Magda, Brazen Outlaw is a wonderful addition to dwarf decks, and it makes for an excellent mono-red commander. It helps pump your dwarves and can create a ton of Treasure tokens. You can now also mix your dwarf typal deck with a few powerful dragons, which are fetchable with Magda, Brazen Outlaw and your Treasure tokens.

#19. Grim Hireling

I love a card that can create more than one Treasure token and can create them over many turns. Grim Hireling is a nice way to turn your aggressive attacking into mana production for game-finishing moves. If you don’t need the mana, your treasures can also be used as removal with Grim Hireling.

#18. Rashmi and Ragavan

Rashmi and Ragavan is a fun way to steal your opponent’s favorite cards. The mana value is cheap enough for the upside you can get from this card. You have the chance to cast cards for free while getting Treasure tokens for your spells. This card can be a decent Commander with an artifact theme.

#17. Gala Greeters

Gala Greeters is a wonderful turn-2 play to try and ramp up your strategy. Alliance gives you plenty of options, including making tapped treasure for later mana use. The fact that it's an ETB trigger and not a casting trigger gives this card huge value with creature tokens and other creature decks.

#16. Warren Soultrader

Warren Soultrader has serious Modern Horizons syndrome; it’s just way better than it needs to be for seemingly no reason. Nearly unmitigated sac engine that creates Treasure tokens? Yeah, what could go wrong with that? Not like Gravecrawler exists or anything. Oh, and of course Soultrader’s a zombie, in addition to having two other relevant creature types. Sheesh.

#15. Pitiless Plunderer

Pitiless Plunderer dodged the era of “triggers once per turn” text, which makes it much more exploitable than I think it was intended to be. It’s part of many infinite loops involving creature deaths, and loves to hang out with squirrels in Chatterfang, Squirrel General decks.

#14. Currency Converter

Love, love, love this card. And it’s yet another New Capenna Commander gem. One-mana artifacts are already premium thanks to cards like Urza's Saga, but this is just a great artifact to have floating around. You can spend any excess mana looting and stocking away exiled cards, which you can then, well, convert into currency (Treasure), or 2/2 Rogues if you prefer. I also appreciate that it stores away cards that are discarded for any reason, perhaps from cycling, or an opponent’s hand disruption effect.

#13. Big Score + Unexpected Windfall

Big Score and Unexpected Windfall both work in the same way. Discard a card to draw two cards and create two treasure tokens. This is a wonderful way to out-draw your opponent and gain the curve advantage. At instant speed, they have much more value than the similar Pirate's Pillage.

#12. Deadly Dispute

Deadly Dispute is a personal favorite of mine. I’m a fan of using a doomed or useless creature to draw cards and ramp mana. This card fits well into aristocrat decks and graveyard decks, as well as general ramp for black.

#11. Reckoner Bankbuster

Oh boy. What can I say about Reckoner Bankbuster that you probably don’t already know? This card is a quick turn-2 play with many interactions like drawing cards, becoming a decent-sized creature, and creating a treasure and pilot creature token. If you ask me, this card will be banned from some formats real soon. Until then, use the many interactions to your advantage. Too late!

#10. Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator

Much like Pitiless Plunderer, if Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator had a “once per turn” rider on it, we wouldn’t be talking about it. But as it stands (flies?), it goes infinite with a few other pirates, Glint-Horn Buccaneer being the most common. That pushes it into cEDH territory, with entire decks built around assembling these two cards together.

#9. Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Tivit, Seller of Secrets offers way too much value on its trigger, which happens on ETB and attacks. Each trigger creates five artifacts in a 4-player game, which is conveniently enough to activate Time Sieve, and the rest is history. It also commits the Voja, Jaws of the Conclave sin of having ward , for some reason? I actually really love the idea of a voting commander in Esper colors, but that part of the sphinx gets pushed under the rug here.

#8. Alchemist’s Talent

Bloomburrow class enchantments were a mixed bag of narrow effects that are really good in specific decks, Alchemist's Talent being perfect for treasure decks. Level 1’s a pretty hard pill to swallow, but the progression thereafter makes it pretty easy to get to level 3 using your renewable treasure mana. From there you can kind of go nuts; notably, level 3 hits all opponents, and you only need to spend one treasure on a spell to get the full amount of damage from it.

#7. Goldspan Dragon

I have to tell you that I was a happy man when Goldspan Dragon rotated out of Standard. Goldspan Dragon is just so good! It doubles your treasure mana production, it has haste and flying so it can be effective immediately, and it still benefits you slightly when your opponents remove it with spells. I think most everyone has seen this card and for good reason.

#6. Black Market Connections

Black Market Connections is the card that buried Phyrexian Arena for me, at least when budget isn’t a concern. This is just an incredible black enchantment, allowing you to pay up to 6 life a turn for some combination of mana generation, card draw, and board presence. Those are the three big boxes to check off for most effects, and this gives you all three if you need it. Making changelings is also a big deal, letting you use this as a synergy card for some lesser typal decks like spiders, minotaurs, and so on.

#5. Dockside Extortionist

Dockside Extortionist is just going to stick around in a top spot despite being banned in Commander, and rightfully so. This put the power of Treasure tokens on full display, and performed like a 2-drop creature that just ended the game way too often.

#4. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is Magic's best 1-mana commander, and also a wonderful first mate for ramping up your builds. For just 1 mana, you may get a free swing and treasure token before your opponent has any removal spells or defenders. If you’re worried about removal then skip turn 1 and pay the dash cost to return Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer safely to your hand. The value is great, but this card has been banned from Historic and Legacy formats.

#3. Hullbreacher

Unfortunately, Hullbreacher isn’t widely available in many formats and is banned in Commander. The reason is Hullbreacher’s wonderful ability to turn a draw effect for an opponent into a treasure token for you. The flash ability took this card over the top and made it too powerful for many to handle. Play it with glee in any non-cEDH matches if you’re that kind of friend.

#2. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker / Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is a staple in many competitive deck builds. The goblin token it creates is a problem for your opponent. They either need to use a removal spell or you can get treasure tokens each turn. This card has a ton of value before you even get to the fact that it can copy powerful or useful non-legendary creatures.

#1. Smothering Tithe

Smothering Tithe is probably the most famous instance of a taxing card. When your opponent draws a card, they must pay mana or you can get a treasure token. You’ll most likely be ahead of the curve against your opponent no matter what they choose.

Best Treasure Payoffs

Treasures have a ton of value for decks, especially for creating more mana, having more artifacts, and sacrificing permanents.

Treasures are made to produce mana. A single treasure from a card like Prosperous Innkeeper can push you ahead one turn, enough to turn the tide of a game in your favor.

More mana means you can play bigger spells like Etali, Primal Conqueror or have a bigger value for X like with Zoanthrope.

Treasures can also be wonderful mana fixers. You don’t need to draw the specific mana for cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier and Scion of the Ur-Dragon.

Since treasure tokens are artifacts, they can be wonderful support for cards like Akiri, Line-Slinger, Bronze Guardian, and Fathom Fleet Swordjack. They can even be weapons with cards like The Antiquities War.

Treasure tokens can especially help you cast cards with improvise or affinity for artifacts like Battle at the Bridge or with Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge.

Sacrificing treasure tokens for mana can also benefit your aristocratic builds. Sacrifice treasures with cards like Disciple of the Vault, Mayhem Devil, and Oni-Cult Anvil in play to maximize their effectiveness. Don’t forget to get even more treasure tokens with cards like Anointed Procession or Mondrak, Glory Dominus. I’d be remiss not to include Xorn to help you create more treasure tokens.

If you like alternate wincons like Revel in Riches, you may like Hellkite Tyrant or Mechanized Production.

Both commanders from the Most Wanted Commander precon deal with Treasure tokens as a subtheme for outlaw decks. These two outlaw commanders are Vihaan, Goldwaker and Olivia, Opulent Outlaw, both of which can push tons of damage.

Many of the cards listed as treasure-makers in the ranking are also payoffs for making treasure. Professional Face-Breaker turns treasure into cards, Galazeth Prismari can make your treasure into permanent mana sources, and Revel in Riches turns treasure into auto-wins.

Which Commanders Make Treasure Tokens?

There are quite a few legends that incidentally produce Treasure tokens, but some of the ones that specifically benefit from doing so include:

• Magda, Brazen Outlaw
• Forge, Neverwinter Charlatan
• Glóin, Dwarf Emissary
• Kellogg, Dangerous Mind
• Jolene, the Plunder Queen
• Kalain, Reclusive Painter
• Magda, the Hoardmaster
• Mr. House, President and CEO
• Olivia, Opulent Outlaw
• Iron Man, Titan of Innovation

Is a Treasure Token a Permanent?

Yes, tokens are permanents. They are permanents with no regular card representation or casting costs. Treasure tokens remain on the board until removed by some action, effect, or spell.

Do Treasure Tokens Have Mana Value?

Yes, they technically have a mana value of 0. Since they’re created tokens and not copies of another card, they have a mana value of 0 and can be removed immediately by cards like Ratchet Bomb.

Can Treasures Tap for Colorless?

No, they can’t. They can tap for any color and pay for generic mana costs, but they can’t directly tap for a colorless mana.

What’s the Difference Between Gold and Treasure?

The main difference between gold and treasure tokens is gold tokens don’t have to be tapped to sacrifice them for mana. Gold tokens came first and were replaced by treasure tokens because of the huge advantages of not having to tap to sacrifice. This was especially apparent with the improvise mechanic.

Are Treasure Tokens Sent to the Graveyard?

Yes, they are. All tokens that are destroyed or sacrificed enter the graveyard and then disappear. Treasure tokens count towards “enter the graveyard” triggers, but not “cards in graveyards” effects.

Can You Proliferate Treasure Tokens?

No, you can’t. Proliferate only works on counters. Since Treasure tokens are tokens with no counters on them, they can’t be proliferated. Tokens aren’t counters.

Why Do Treasure Tokens Tap?

Treasure tokens tap to prevent you from using them for mana plus additional other benefits at the same time. Gold tokens could be used to improvise and still sacrifice for mana, which gave them double the value. Treasure tokens tap so this can’t happen.

Do Treasure Tokens Enter the Battlefield?

Yes, they do. Tokens enter the battlefield and trigger ETB effects.

Can You Tap a Treasure without Sacrificing?

Yes, you can. They can't do this on their own, but other effects and abilities like Galazeth Prismari or improvise can tap Treasure tokens without sacrificing them.

How Do You Deal with or Stop Treasures in MTG?

There are a few ways to stop or lessen Treasure tokens’ abilities. You can have some artifact hate like Brotherhood's End to remove them or use activated ability stoppers like Karn, the Great Creator or Yasharn, Implacable Earth. Some other ways to neutralize treasure tokens are Kill Switch and Energy Flux.

Wrap Up

Smothering Tithe | Illustration by Mark Behm

I hope you treasured every moment of reading. Treasure tokens are essential parts of competitive play, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Use the rankings above to make smart decisions with your builds and stay ahead of the curve with Treasure tokens.

Which are your favorite treasure generators? Do you focus on them or use them as part of other strategies? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to join our Discord.

Always remember that the greatest treasure is sharing quality time with loved ones.