Trading card rarity is a tiered classification system that determines how frequently a card appears in booster packs, and it is the single biggest driver of a card's market value. A Base Set Charizard from 1999 sells for $300-$500,000+ depending on condition and grading, while a Common Rattata from the same set goes for about eight cents. Same set. Same cardboard. The only difference is the little star symbol in the bottom corner.
That's the short answer. Here is everything else you should know.
How Rarity Actually Works
Every trading card game uses a rarity system, but they all solve the same problem: making some cards harder to pull than others so that opening packs stays exciting. The psychology is straightforward, variable ratio reinforcement, the same mechanism behind slot machines. You know a Holo Rare is in roughly 1 out of every 12-14 packs. You do not know which pack. So you keep opening.
The core tiers are nearly universal across games:
| Rarity Tier | Pokemon TCG | Magic: The Gathering | Yu-Gi-Oh! |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most common | Common (●) | Common (C) | Common |
| Mid-tier | Uncommon (◆) | Uncommon (U) | Rare |
| Standard rare | Rare (★) | Rare (R) | Super Rare |
| Premium rare | Ultra Rare / ex | Mythic Rare (M) | Ultra Rare |
| Top tier | Secret Rare | Borderless / Special | Secret Rare |
| God tier | Illustration Rare / Special Art | Serialized (001/500) | Starlight Rare / Quarter Century |
The symbols matter. Pokemon uses a circle for Common, diamond for Uncommon, and star for Rare, and collectors learn to read these before they can read the card's actual text. Magic uses color-coded set symbols: black for Common, silver for Uncommon, gold for Rare, orange-red for Mythic. Yu-Gi-Oh does not use symbols at all and instead prints the rarity as text in the set number.
Pokemon TCG Rarity: The Full Breakdown
Pokemon has the most layered rarity system of any major TCG right now. The Scarlet & Violet era (2023-present) restructured everything, and it gets genuinely confusing if you haven't kept up.
Base Rarities
Common (●): 50-60% of cards in any set. These are your Magikarps and Bidoofs. Playable in decks, mostly ignored by collectors. Every booster pack contains 3-5 Commons.
Uncommon (◆): 25-30% of the set. Stage 1 evolutions, decent Trainer cards. Slightly better pull than Commons, but you will not be selling these individually. Three per pack, typically.
Rare (★): Here is where Scarlet & Violet changed things. Since early 2023, every Rare card in English booster packs comes with a holofoil treatment. No more non-holo Rares. This was a significant shift; it meant every pack guarantees at least one shiny card. One per pack.
Premium Rarities
This is where value lives.
Double Rare (★★): Pokemon ex cards (the lowercase "ex" matters, it's distinct from the original EX era). These are the chase cards for competitive players. Full-art illustrations, higher HP, powerful attacks. Pull rate: approximately 1 in 5-6 packs.
Ultra Rare: Full-art Trainer cards and certain special Pokemon. The art extends to the card edges with no border. Maybe 1 in 10-15 packs.
Illustration Rare (IR): Extended artwork that tells a story. These cards show Pokemon in their environments; a Pikachu playing in a meadow, a Charizard soaring over a volcano. The art quality here is genuinely stunning, and these are the cards that get posted on Reddit and TikTok. Pull rate: roughly 1 in 18-20 packs.
Special Illustration Rare (SIR): The top. These are the "chase of the chase", full-art cards with unique artistic styles, often featuring Pokemon and Trainers together. A Special Illustration Rare Charizard from Obsidian Flames sold for $200-$400 raw in late 2024. Pull rate: approximately 1 in 40-60 packs. That's about 2-3 booster boxes worth.
Hyper Rare: Gold-textured cards. Trainers, energy cards, or Pokemon rendered entirely in gold foil. Visually striking but actually less valuable than most SIRs. Pull rate: 1 in 50-70 packs.
The Numbers That Matter
A standard Pokemon TCG booster pack costs $4.49 MSRP (as of February 2026). A booster box contains 36 packs and runs $130-$145.
Here is what a typical booster box yields:
| Category | Expected Pulls per Box | Approximate Value Range |
|---|---|---|
| Rare Holofoil | 20-25 | $0.50-$3 each |
| Double Rare (ex) | 5-7 | $1-$15 each |
| Ultra Rare | 2-3 | $3-$25 each |
| Illustration Rare | 1-2 | $5-$50 each |
| Special Illustration Rare | 0-1 | $15-$400+ each |
| Hyper Rare | 0-1 | $10-$60 each |
The math is not in your favor. A booster box costs ~$140, and the expected value of the pulls is usually $80-$120. You open packs for the experience, not the ROI. (Anyone telling you otherwise is either lying or running a YouTube channel where the content itself is the profit center.)
Magic: The Gathering Rarity
MTG invented the modern rarity system. Richard Garfield designed it in 1993, and the basic structure hasn't changed in 30+ years.
Common: Black set symbol. 101 per set, typically. 10 per booster pack. These make up the backbone of Limited formats (Draft and Sealed), and a surprising number of competitive Constructed staples are Commons. Brainstorm, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell, some of the best cards ever printed were Commons.
Uncommon: Silver set symbol. ~80 per set. 3 per pack. This tier holds a lot of deck-defining cards that fly under the radar of collectors.
Rare: Gold set symbol. ~60 per set. 1 per pack guaranteed (in Standard boosters). Before 2008, this was the highest rarity.
Mythic Rare: Orange-red set symbol. Introduced in Shards of Alara (2008). ~15-20 per set. Replaces the Rare slot about 1 in every 7-8 packs. These are your planeswalkers, legendary creatures, and format-warping spells. A Mythic Rare like The One Ring from Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth sold for $2.6 million; the most expensive trading card ever sold.
MTG has also added premium variants in recent years: Borderless art, Extended art, Showcase frames, Serialized cards (numbered /500), Surge Foils, and Textured Foils. The product line has gotten complicated. There's a reason the joke in the MTG community is "I need a spreadsheet to understand what's in this set."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Rarity
Yu-Gi-Oh! takes a different approach. Where Pokemon and MTG use rarity symbols, Yu-Gi-Oh! differentiates primarily by visual treatment; the type of foil and finishing on the card surface.
Common: Standard card, no foil. The majority of any set.
Rare: Silver foil on the card name only. Everything else is regular cardstock. Introduced in 2002 with Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Super Rare: Holographic foil on the card artwork, but the name remains standard print. This creates that satisfying shimmer when you tilt the card.
Ultra Rare: Holographic art AND gold foil name. The visual "premium" tier that most players associate with chase cards.
Secret Rare: Holographic art with a prismatic/rainbow pattern, plus gold name. The pattern is distinctly different from Super/Ultra; it has a crosshatch diffraction that catches light differently at every angle.
Starlight Rare: Introduced in 2020 in the TCG. The rarest standard pull in any Yu-Gi-Oh! set. Subtle micro-etched foil across the entire card surface. Pull rate: approximately 1 per case (12 boxes, or 288 packs). A Starlight Rare Blue-Eyes White Dragon has sold for $1,000+. These are absurdly hard to pull.
Quarter Century Secret Rare: Added for Konami's 25th anniversary. Prismatic foil with a special "25" stamp. Limited to specific products and time frames.
A Brief History of Holofoil
The first holographic trading cards appeared in 1996 with the Japanese Pokemon Base Set. Sixteen cards in that initial set received holographic foil treatment; the "holo" pattern on the card artwork that shifts and shimmers when tilted under light.
The technology behind it is surprisingly simple in principle. Holographic foil uses a diffraction grating, microscopic grooves etched into a thin metallic layer (usually aluminum) on a polymer substrate. When white light hits these grooves, different wavelengths (colors) diffract at different angles. Tilt the card, and the angle changes, which changes which wavelengths reach your eye. That is why the card appears to shift through the rainbow.
Different patterns create different effects:
- Cosmos Holofoil: Random sparkle pattern across the entire card art. The classic Pokemon holo look from Base Set through early ex era. Small circular dots of light scattered across the image.
- Tinsel Holofoil: Linear parallel streaks, like tinsel strands. Used in various Pokemon TCG products.
- Sheen Holofoil: Smooth, gradient-like color shifting without distinct patterns. More subtle than Cosmos, introduced in Scarlet & Violet era.
- Cracked Ice: Geometric shattered pattern, used primarily in theme decks and special products.
- Reverse Holo: The card frame gets the holofoil treatment instead of the artwork. Every modern Pokemon booster contains one reverse holo. The art stays matte; the border shimmers.
MTG introduced foil cards in 1998 with Urza's Legacy. Yu-Gi-Oh followed with holographic treatments in its earliest English sets (2002). But Pokemon pioneered the consumer-facing trading card holofoil market, and it remains the standard-bearer for the effect.
The cost of adding holofoil varies. For commercial printing at scale (runs of 100,000+), holographic foil application adds roughly $0.02-$0.05 per card depending on complexity and foil type. That tiny cost difference translates into enormous perceived value; a holofoil card can be worth 10-100x more than its non-holo equivalent.
God Packs: The Ultimate Pull
"God Pack" is not an official term in any TCG's rules documentation. It comes from the Pokemon community, originally from the Japanese TCG, and has exploded in usage since Pokemon TCG Pocket launched in October 2024.
A God Pack is a booster pack where every card inside is rare or higher. Normal packs guarantee one rare; God Packs guarantee everything is rare. The odds of pulling one in Pokemon TCG Pocket are estimated at approximately 1 in 2,500 pack openings, though the exact rate is not officially published.
When someone pulls a God Pack, it goes viral. Every time. The TikTok hashtag #godpack has billions of views (not a typo, billions). The combination of extreme rarity and visual spectacle; every card gleaming, every pull a hit, creates a moment designed for social sharing.
God Packs exist because TCG companies understand attention economics. A God Pack costs them nothing extra (the cards are all in circulation anyway). But the aspirational pull drives millions of pack purchases. Smart design.
The term has since expanded beyond its original meaning. Some collectors use "God Pack" loosely to describe any pack with unusually good pulls, two Ultra Rares in one pack, or a Special Illustration Rare alongside a regular Holo. Purists will correct them. They are right to.
How MakeACard's Rarity System Works
MakeACard implements a five-tier rarity system inspired by the Pokemon TCG structure, applied to AI-generated custom cards:
| Tier | Drop Rate | Visual Effect | Real TCG Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 50% | Standard card frame | Pokemon Common (●) |
| Uncommon | 30% | Subtle green glow, slightly elevated design | Pokemon Uncommon (◆) |
| Rare | 10% | Blue shimmer on card border | Pokemon Rare (★) |
| Holo Rare | 7% | Full holographic shimmer across card art. CSS-based animation | Pokemon Ultra Rare |
| Secret Rare | 3% | Rainbow prismatic effect across entire card + special border | Pokemon Secret/Hyper Rare |
When you create a card, the rarity is randomly assigned at generation time using weighted probability. You do not choose your rarity; you pull it. The 3% Secret Rare rate means roughly 1 in 33 cards you generate will get the rainbow treatment.
The holographic effects on Holo Rare and Secret Rare cards are built with CSS animations, not image overlays. They respond to cursor movement on desktop and device orientation on mobile, creating a tilt-to-shimmer effect that mimics physical holofoil cards. The Secret Rare rainbow effect cycles through the full diffraction spectrum. It looks good. We're biased, but see for yourself.
MakeACard also includes a pack opening experience: you can open packs of cards rather than generating them individually. Same rarity odds apply. It is genuinely exciting to see whether that card flip reveals a Secret Rare. The dopamine loop is real, even when the cards are digital and custom.
Why Rarity Matters (Even for Custom Cards)
There's a reasonable question here: if you are making a custom card of your dog, why does rarity matter? You can just... make another card.
Three reasons.
First, scarcity creates value perception. A card that says "Secret Rare" with rainbow holographic effects just feels more special than a Common. Even when you know the odds, even when you could theoretically make 100 cards until you hit one, the one you actually pull hits different. Psychology doesn't care about logic.
Second, it makes sharing more exciting. "I made a card of my cat" is nice. "I made a card of my cat AND it pulled Secret Rare with full holographic" is a social media post. The rarity adds a narrative to the creation, luck became part of the story.
Third, it mirrors what collectors already understand. If you're into trading cards at all (Pokemon, MTG, sports cards, whatever), rarity is the vocabulary you think in. Applying it to custom cards plugs into existing mental models. The Common/Uncommon/Rare/Holo/Secret framework communicates value instantly without explanation.
Understanding Pull Rates: The Math
For the probability nerds (respect), here is how rarity odds actually work in practice.
If you open a single MakeACard pack, your odds of getting at least one Secret Rare depend on the pack size. Using the binomial probability formula:
P(at least 1 Secret Rare) = 1 - (0.97)^n
Where n = number of cards in the pack.
| Cards Opened | P(at least 1 Secret Rare) | P(at least 1 Holo Rare) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3.0% | 7.0% |
| 5 | 14.1% | 30.0% |
| 10 | 26.3% | 51.6% |
| 20 | 45.6% | 76.6% |
| 33 | 63.5% | 91.3% |
| 50 | 78.2% | 97.2% |
| 100 | 95.2% | 99.9% |
You need about 23 cards to hit a coin-flip chance at a Secret Rare. For a near-guarantee (95%+), you're looking at 100 cards. Our Pack Odds Calculator lets you plug in any number and see the breakdown visually.
Rarity Across Physical and Digital
The relationship between physical and digital trading cards is shifting. Pokemon TCG Pocket proved that digital packs with digital rarity drive the same dopamine response as physical ones, 60+ million downloads say so. The physical TCG is still growing too (The Pokemon Company reported record revenue in 2024). It's not zero-sum.
Digital rarity has one fundamental difference from physical: there is no supply constraint. A physical Secret Rare Charizard is scarce because only X were printed. A digital Secret Rare is scarce because the odds are set to 3%, but the total supply is theoretically infinite. This is why physical ultra-rares hold monetary value in ways digital ones typically don't (with some exceptions, see: Starlight Rares in Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel).
MakeACard's approach sits in an interesting middle. Your custom cards are digitally generated with digital rarity, but they're designed to be print-ready at standard trading card dimensions (2.5" x 3.5" at 300 DPI). You can print that Secret Rare of your dog on proper cardstock, sleeve it, and put it in a binder. The rarity becomes physical. That's pretty cool, actually.
Collecting Across Rarity Tiers
If you're building a collection, whether of official TCG cards or custom MakeACard cards, here's a framework that most experienced collectors use:
Tier 1: Complete the base set first. Get all Commons and Uncommons. This is cheap and satisfying. Seeing a binder page fill up is its own reward.
Tier 2: Chase the Holo Rares you actually like. Don't chase everything. Pick the artwork or Pokemon you genuinely love. Chasing completionism on premium rarities is a path to bankruptcy (or at least a very unhappy wallet).
Tier 3: Let the ultra-rares come to you. If you pull a Special Illustration Rare or Secret Rare, celebrate. But buying booster boxes specifically to chase a $200 card with a 1-in-50 pull rate is negative expected value. Buy singles if you want a specific card. Open packs for the experience.
Tier 4: Appreciate what you have. Sounds trite. It is also true. A well-curated collection of cards you care about, whether they're Common or Secret Rare, is more satisfying than a pile of expensive cards you bought because TikTok said they'd appreciate. They probably will not.
Further Reading
Want to go deeper into rarity? Check out these resources on MakeACard:
- Rarity Guide: Visual encyclopedia of all five rarity tiers with live holographic CSS effects
- Pack Odds Calculator: Interactive probability calculator for any pack size
- What is Trading Card Rarity?: Quick definition for the glossary crowd
- What Is a Holographic Card?: How holo cards differ from foil
- What Is a Booster Pack?: The sealed product that drives the hobby
- How to Create Custom Pokemon-Style Cards with AI: Step-by-step guide to making your own cards
- Make a Holographic Card: Jump straight to creating Holo-tier cards
Or just open the app and pull your first card. Maybe it will be a Secret Rare. Probably won't be. That's what makes it fun.
Sources
- Heritage Auctions - Trading Card Results - Verified auction data including the $420,000 PSA 10 Charizard sale and $2.6M The One Ring MTG sale
- The Pokemon Company - Official Figures - 75 billion+ Pokemon TCG cards produced across 90+ countries
- PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) - Industry-standard card grading service with population reports for rarity verification
- Pokemon TCG Official Rarity Guide - Official rarity symbols and set composition data for the Scarlet & Violet era