Three Variables, One Answer

Ask online which printer is best for proxies and you'll get two entrenched positions shouting past each other. The actual answer depends on three things: how much you print, your budget, and whether your cards get sleeved or played bare.

Cost Per Page

Laser wins on running cost. Toner is cheaper per page than ink, and a single cartridge set prints far more than a comparable ink set. For a 360-card cube, that gap is the deciding factor.

Inkjet's catch, and its escape hatch, is the cartridge model. Standard inkjets are expensive to run. Refillable-tank models flip the math entirely, dropping cost-per-page low enough to make high-volume inkjet printing economically sound.

Color and Detail

Inkjet. Deeper blacks, smoother gradients, and the only path to convincing glossy or foil-style looks on photo paper. Laser color is consistent and flat. Perfectly acceptable, but it won't render a dark, moody card with any dimension.

Durability: The Shuffle Test

The warning most people miss: laser toner can crack when a bare card flexes during shuffling. Toner sits on top of the paper. Repeated bending crazes it. Sleeve the cards and it's completely irrelevant. Play bare and it matters over hundreds of shuffles.

Inkjet ink soaks into the fiber, so it flexes with the card, but it's water-sensitive. An unsleeved inkjet proxy and a spilled drink is game over.

The most important question most people skip: do your cards get sleeved? Sleeved play makes laser's toner-crack issue disappear. It's the strongest argument for buying laser.

What Applies to Both

  • Feed path. Heavy cardstock jams in bottom trays. A rear or straight-through feed handles thick stock without bending it.
  • Cardstock weight. 170-200 gsm is the home sweet spot. Real-card feel without jamming.
  • Resolution. 4800×1200 dpi is the floor for crisp card text.

The Verdict

Buy laser if you print in volume, sleeve your cards, and want the lowest cost per page.

Buy inkjet if you want the best-looking cards, print full-art or foil treatments, or print in lower volume. Get a refillable-tank model if you'll scale up.

Test It With These Cards

Print this sheet on both technologies (dark art, bright art, text-heavy card) and judge the difference yourself:

1 Griselbrand
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Cryptic Command
1 Doubling Season
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Cultivate
1 Counterspell
1 Sol Ring

Print, cut, sleeve, shuffle for a week. The right answer for your setup will be clear.