Wrought Mg-Al-Pb-RE strips of different thicknesses are synthesized via extrusion and used as the anodes in Mg-air batteries. We find that, compared to other Mg-Al-Pb-RE samples, the 5 mm-thick strip exhibits greater stability and higher discharge voltage plateaus for long time (10 h). Its anodic efficiency at 10 mA cm−2 reaches 64.1%, which is even higher than pure magnesium and AZ31 magnesium alloy. The outstanding performance of the 5 mm-thick Mg-Al-Pb-RE anode strip is attributed to its unique microstructure favourable for anodic dissolution. Furthermore, the correlations between microstructure features and electrochemical performance for the wrought Mg-Al-Pb-RE strips are also systematically defined.