Rarity levels explained: Common to Mythic

Common, Uncommon, Rare, Mythic, Secret Rare & co.: how rarities work in Magic, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!.

A card’s rarity says how often it appears in boosters. It strongly affects price and availability, and for collectors it is the most important figure besides the collector number. Every game has its own system.

Magic: The Gathering

• Common (black symbol): the most frequent, usually very cheap.
• Uncommon (silver): a bit rarer.
• Rare (gold): one guaranteed per booster.
• Mythic Rare (orange-red): the rarest regular tier; many of the expensive chase cards live here.

Pokémon

The small symbols at the bottom of the card reveal the tier: ● Common, ◆ Uncommon, ★ Rare. Above that are many special tiers such as Holo Rare, Ultra Rare (EX/GX/V/ex) and the coveted Secret Rares, whose number is higher than the actual set size (e.g. card 201/198).

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Here rarity mostly sits in the printing: Common (matte), Rare (silver name), Super Rare (shiny artwork), Ultra Rare (gold name) and Secret Rare (shimmering name). The same card can exist in several rarities. An important difference when collecting and for the price. How to recognize each level is explained in How to tell Yu-Gi-Oh! rarities apart.

Why this matters for collecting

A “complete” set by collector number usually contains exactly one version per number. The many special finishes beyond that (Secret Rares, alternate arts, promos) are their own, often separately listed sets, in TCG-Completist you find them as separate entries. So you decide for yourself whether to chase only the base series or the shiny extras too.