Are MTG proxies legal?

Two different questions

"Legal" means two things here, and they get mixed up.

Legal in the game is about tournament rules. Magic's tournament rules, set by Wizards of the Coast, say what cards may be played in a sanctioned event. Proxies are not among them.

Legal in the law is about intellectual property. Card art and the card frame belong to their owners. Printing a copy for your own use and selling a counterfeit as the real thing are very different acts, and the second is the one with legal consequences.

Sanctioned tournaments: no

In any event sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast, every card in your deck must be an authentic Magic card. A judge may issue a proxy during an event, for instance when a card is damaged mid-tournament, but a player cannot bring one. That covers Friday Night Magic, prereleases, Regional Championship qualifiers and anything run through the Wizards Event Reporter. Show up with a proxied deck and you will be asked to replace the cards or drop.

Casual play and Commander: your table decides

Outside sanctioned play there is no rule against proxies. Commander, cube and kitchen-table games are run by the people at the table, and most playgroups welcome a proxied deck when it is played as one. Commander's format rules leave proxies explicitly to the playgroup.

The courtesies that keep it welcome:

• Say the deck is proxied before the game starts.
• Match the group's power level. A proxied deck of cards you could never afford is still a deck that has to be fun to play against.
• Never present a proxy as the real card, even as a joke.

Proxy-friendly events: check the rules

Many stores and community events allow proxies on purpose, often with a limit such as "up to ten proxies" or "proxies allowed, no counterfeits". Some require the proxy to be clearly marked. Read the event's rules; when in doubt, ask the organiser before you print.

The line that matters: proxy versus counterfeit

A proxy stands in for a card in games where everyone knows it is a stand-in. A counterfeit is made or used to deceive: to sell, trade or play as the real card. The first is a normal part of the hobby. The second is fraud, and it is what the game's rules, the stores and the law all come down on.

What Sideboarding prints are proxies for personal play. Our terms require it: the cards must never be resold or presented as genuine Magic cards, and we refuse an order we believe is meant for that.

Printing art you did not make

The card images in the Studio come from Scryfall, which hosts the official card images, and from MPC Fill's community catalogue of fan art and alternate versions. Printing a single copy for your own game is the ordinary use these catalogues exist for. If you upload your own art, make sure you have the right to use it; our terms ask you to confirm that.

What a proxy is good for

• Testing. Play a list for a month before buying the cards that stay.
• The reserved list. Cards that are not reprinted and cost more than the rest of the deck together.
• Expensive lands. Thirty fetchlands and shocks across five decks.
• A loaner deck. A second deck for the friend who is new to the format.
• Cube. A proxied cube is a cube you can let anyone shuffle.