Hello and welcome to the Casual Chat!

Today we are venturing back into the realm of card games and talking about an aspect of card games that is important in terms of game design and selling packs, and that is rarity.

Rarity is such a fascinating topic to discuss because of how sneaky it is in terms of what function it serves for a trading card game that most people don’t really realize why.

The difficult aspect in talking about rarity is that each card game has a different scale of rarities that rare in some games means a different thing than in other games.

To keep it simple, I’ll be dividing it into three sections; Low Rarity, Medium Rarity, High Rarity.

But first we need to ask…

What’s Rarity?

Rarity, in terms of cards games, is how often a card is going to be seen when opening a typical booster product.

Low Rarity is what will be seen more often in a booster pack, then a couple of Medium Rarity cards, and then one or two High Rarity cards.

Why do this?

There are several reasons, but the one of the main reasons is to sell packs. It is no big secret that booster packs are seen as lottery tickets, where people will open a ton of packs hoping to get a card that is high value.

The more difficult it is to get that card, the more desirable it is to collectors, and the more actual money the card can sell for.

This can cause issues if there is a desirable card and the set isn’t printed enough to meet demand or a card is short printed, meaning that fewer copies of that card are speculated to have been printed.

While this is the reason why they exist that way in terms of selling a product, game play wise they have a variety of purposes.

Low Rarity: Limited Workhorses

Low Rarity cards are often known as Common cards, meaning that it is not hard to get a good number of them for a very low price, with some exceptions.

The function that Low Rarity cards depends on if your game supports a draft/limited format or not.

If your game supports a draft/limited format, then what Low Rarity cards do is serve to allow you to actually play the limited format. Most of the cards you get in a limited format are going to be of Low rarity, so they need to serve some function in limited play.

They are not often competitive cards, but they allow you to make your limited deck work and can help you play your rarer cards. For example, in Magic a card often seen at Low Rarity is a high cost kill spell in black.

That card will not likely ever see constructed play, but in limited it could be one of the few options you have to get rid of something and it often has something extra tacked on to help serve the theme of the set.

Low Rarity effects are oftentimes not too special, more often serve a function in a limited set. On occasion you get Low Rarity cards that break the glass ceiling and do more than was expected, but that is not something that always happens.

If your set does not have a limited format, the another function that Low Rarity cards serve is to give new players a starting point.

Like I mentioned earlier, Low Rarity cards can usually be bought pretty cheaply (sometimes given away) and they can help a new player understand what the game is about.

Starter products usually have a large number of Low Rarity cards to show how the game is played, and are not often sought after by more experienced players of the game, save for a few.

In fact, for enfranchised players Low Rarity cards can serve as reprint spots for cards that used to be at a higher rarity and difficult to find, and become a place for players just getting into competitive scenes to easily acquire some staple cards.

Yu-Gi-Oh!, for all its problems, has one of the most aggressive reprint policies in the industry in order to get some of the more expensive cards into players hands. They may not get all of them at once and it may take a while, but cards that were a higher rarity will eventually reach a Low Rarity point.

Medium Rarity: Directions

When looking at cards in the Medium Rarity, often known as Uncommons or Rares depending on the game, they are often treated as the middle child of the rarities.

Not printed enough to be seen often like a Low Rarity card, but printed more than a High Rarity card that they are still not often a very valuable card, Medium Rarity cards serve a unique function for card games.

When talking about Medium Rarity cards for use in games with a limited format, Medium Rarity cards help set directions.

You may pick up a decent High Rarity card because it looked fun or is valuable, but Medium Rarity cards help guide how someone builds their limited deck.

In Magic, they have a series of cards at Uncommon called Signpost Uncommons which help guide a person in a draft. They are called Signpost because they do what that color pair is meant to do in that set and can help players figure out what to build around if they don’t have a plan or are stuck.

Another aspect of Medium Rarity cards in a limited format is how often do the designers want players to see a particular effect. At Low Rarity, the designers have cards that will be fine if they are seen often, whereas at Medium Rarity the designers want those effects to be seen often, but much less than Low Rarity.

In games with no limited format, the service of Medium Rarity cards is very similar in that Medium Rarity cards have a mix of effects that range from seen very often to a bit quirky.

Sometimes a Medium Rarity card can have an effect that is seen on a Low Rarity card, but done at a much better rate or has a slightly better version of the effect.

You tend to see more Medium Rarity cards in constructed decks because they often have better effects than Low Rarity cards at a better rate, or they have effects similar to High Rarity cards but are much cheaper price wise.

High Rarity: Splashy

As we get to High Rarity cards, often called Rare or Ultra Rare or some in game specific name, we need to realize that for most games these are the chase cards.

When people open packs, most people want to get cards that are High Rarity. Most of the time they are the most valuable card in the pack, but sometimes they are worth as much as a Low Rarity card.

What gameplay function do High Rarity cards serve? In terms of a game that has a limited format, they are cards that players can splash in their decks to help them do something different.

High Rarity cards have effects that the designers don’t want players to see often in limited formats, usually things like a creature with a big effect or a board wipe, but they do want players to have access to because they are really cool cards.

Because High Rarity cards won’t be seen in a draft often, their effects are often powerful, sometimes completely unique. Because of that, High Rarity cards can sometimes not be great for limited formats because they serve a different function.

That function is usually for constructed formats. One of the reasons why High Rarity cards are so valuable is that they are the rarity most seen in many constructed formats because they are often really good cards.

Take a look at any competitive Magic deck list in the past five years and a majority of the decks will contain a significant number of Rare or Mythic Rare cards.

If a deck is performing well in a tournament and a lot of the deck has cards of High Rarity, people who want to perform well in the next tournament may want to make their version of that deck, thus the demand for High Rarity cards goes up.

Why are some High Rarity cards cheap? That is often the case because not all High Rarity cards are created equally, and some High Rarity cards may have a big or unique effect, but not big enough for competitive play.

High Rarity serves as the chase for a booster pack, a splashy effect in limited, and the majority of a competitive deck.

In Conclusion

Rarities are a tricky thing to balance correctly if someone is a new game designer. What cards counts as a Low Rarity or a Medium Rarity? Is that effect big enough for a High Rarity?

You also have to realize that sometimes people won’t care about the Low or Medium Rarity cards because they just want the High Rarity cards. Look at a lot of pack opening videos and a lot of people just skip the the High Rarity cards and toss the rest away.

It can be disheartening, but there is always a silver lining. Sometimes formats spring up where Low Rarity cards are the focus, like Pauper in Magic or Common Charity in Yu-Gi-Oh!, sometimes allowing a small number of Medium Rarity to come in.

If you understand the function of each rarity if you are planning on making a card game, then you can make your game that much better.

Thank you for reading, see you next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual