How to tell Yu-Gi-Oh! rarities apart: Rare, Super Rare, Ultra Rare & co.

Yu-Gi-Oh! cards don't print their rarity. Here is how to recognize Rare, Super Rare, Ultra Rare, Secret Rare, Collector's Rare and more by the foil.

In Magic the set symbol tells you the rarity, in Pokémon the small mark at the bottom of the card. Yu-Gi-Oh! has nothing like that: the rarity is not printed anywhere on the card. You can only tell it by what shines. Once you get the idea, sorting your cards takes just a few minutes.

The rule of thumb: name, artwork or whole card?

Tilt the card in the light and ask yourself three questions:

1. Does the name shine? If so: silver, gold or rainbow?
2. Does the artwork shine?
3. Does the whole card shine, including frame and text box?

With these three answers almost every card is clearly identified.

The most common rarities

In short: if only the name shines, it's a Rare. If only the artwork shines, it's a Super Rare. If both shine, the colour of the name decides: gold means Ultra Rare, rainbow usually means Secret Rare or one of the special rarities below.

Special rarities in collector sets

• Collector's Rare (since 2021): the foil in the artwork follows the outlines of the art, single details sparkle almost as if embossed. The surface is not evenly holographic.
• Starlight Rare: the whole card shines with horizontal lines, including frame and text box.
• Ultimate Rare: name, frame parts and art are embossed and shimmer gold, without rainbow holo.
• Ghost Rare: the artwork is silvery, almost colourless, like a translucent hologram.
• Platinum Secret Rare and Prismatic Secret Rare: variants of the Secret Rare, with a rather silvery pattern or with many light dots instead of lines.
• Quarter Century Secret Rare: like a Secret Rare, plus the Quarter Century stamp for the 25th anniversary.
• Gold Rare and Premium Gold Rare: name and card frame shine gold. On the Premium Gold Rare the gold has a grainy glitter texture.

Short Prints and Super Short Prints look exactly like Commons, by the way. They were just less frequent in packs.

Common mix-ups

• Super Rare or Common? In weak light a Super Rare looks almost plain. Tilt the card and you'll see the holo effect in the artwork.
• Rare or Ultra Rare? Check the colour of the name and the artwork: a Rare has a silver name and plain art, an Ultra Rare has a gold name and holographic art.
• Collector's Rare or Starlight Rare? On the Starlight Rare the whole card shines. On the Collector's Rare the foil mostly stays on name and artwork.

Why does the same card appear several times in one set?

Especially in collector sets like Rarity Collection or Quarter Century Stampede, every card comes in several rarities, sometimes seven different ones. The card number stays the same, only the foil differs. Prices can be worlds apart: the Super Rare costs a few cents, the Quarter Century Secret Rare of the same card easily many times that.

So collectors have to ask themselves what “complete” actually means. Most mean: every card once, in any rarity. Others hunt every single version.

How TCG-Completist helps

• Rarity guide in the card window: when you open a Yu-Gi-Oh! card, the box “How do I recognize the rarity?” lists every rarity this card has in the set, each with a short rule. Clicking a rarity opens exactly that version so you can mark it.
• Collection goal “Each card once (any rarity)”: this is the default for Yu-Gi-Oh!. A card counts as collected as soon as you own it in any rarity. If you want every version, set the goal to “All cards”.
• Own price per rarity: every version has its own Cardmarket price. The missing amount of a set uses the cheapest rarity of each missing card.

For rarities in Magic and Pokémon, see Rarity levels explained.