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Hey Dakka. So, just started Magic: the Gathering with my friends, and was wondering if there was a legend telling the rareness of each card? Thanks!

-Wolf Guard 252

http://www.blackborder.com/cgi-bin/prices/welcome.cgi

Price guide

Thanks, but I was thinking about like a legend with the symbols, such as the "Star", and others.

-Wolf Guard 252

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090429170438AASJVCP

I literally typed "magic card rareness" into bing.

I tried Google. Thanks.

-Wolf Guard 252

Older cards didn't have a rarity color on card, it was based off set list. Newer sets use these colors on symbol in middle of card...
Gold = Rare
Silver = Uncommon
White = Common
Purple on some is a reprint.

Old Man Ultramarine wrote:Older cards didn't have a rarity color on card, it was based off set list. Newer sets use these colors on symbol in middle of card...
Gold = Rare
Silver = Uncommon
White = Common
Purple on some is a reprint.

The newer sets have an even more rare type of card. I think it's called "mythic." The symbol on those is red.

black: common, there are 11 of these (including a land) in each booster
silver: uncommon, there are 3 of these in each booster
gold: rare, there is 1 of these in each booster
red/orange: mythic rare, in 1/6 of the boosters, there's a mythic rare instead of the rare.
purple: timeshifted, which is a special type of rarity WotC used in the set Time Spiral (and only there), a 'time travelling' set as it were. They are as rare as a 'rare' card.

As for identifying the rarity of older cards (before 6th edition all set symbols were black and you couldn't tell the rarity from the card itself, so if you have an older card with a black symbol don't just assume it's a common) and for deckbuilding in general magiccards.info is imo the best card search engine/deckbuilding tool.

Also, rares from sets that did not have any mythic rares are relatively rarer than rares from sets that do. They had more different rares per set back then, so the chance of getting a particular one was smaller.

Cards being 'rarer' than each other is a bit relative though.

I think all 'rares' are printed in equal number, as they all come off the same sheet printed together. In that sense no rare in a set is more or less frequently occurring in boosters than others.

The difference is that some are more sought after than others, some rares are just poor cards and have very little value, others that are very popular and, especially when people want multiple copies of them, are priced higher in the second hand market.

Yes of course all rares within a set get put into boosters at the same frequency.

But when you have a set with 100 different rares, your chance of getting a particular rare in a booster is 1/100. If you have another set with just 50 rares your chance of getting a particular rare in a booster is 1/50. So, while within a set each rare occurs with the same frequency the rares in the second set will be only half as rare as those in the first set!

TiB wrote:Yes of course all rares within a set get put into boosters at the same frequency.

It's not the same with all card games though, I'm sure some rares were much less common than others with the Star Wars and Star Trek CCGs from Decipher. Mainly all the characters.