The Magic: The Gathering Rarity Guide

Magic: The Gathering’s rarity system is the oldest in trading card games. It’s also more nuanced than new players assume — rarity affects draft economics, constructed availability, and secondary-market prices in specific, predictable ways.

The four rarities

Common (black symbol)

By far the most printed. A standard booster pack contains 10 commons. Commands the lowest secondary-market price — most commons are “bulk,” trading at $0.05–$0.25.

The exception: Pauper format (commons-only constructed). A few commons that dominate Pauper have pushed upward — Mystical Tutor, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt, and select cyclers are $5–$15 commons.

Uncommon (silver symbol)

Three per booster pack. Uncommons tend to be role-players — strong enough to be constructed staples but not format-defining. Prices usually $0.25–$2. Commander-playable uncommons from key sets (Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, Lightning Strike) hold value around $2–$5.

Rare (gold symbol)

One per booster pack. This is where the range widens dramatically — rares can be worthless ($0.10) or format-defining ($80+). The secondary-market price depends almost entirely on competitive play.

Mythic Rare (red-orange symbol)

Introduced with Shards of Alara (2008). Roughly 1-in-8 booster packs contain a mythic rare instead of a rare. Headline cards — planeswalkers, powerful legendary creatures, chase mythics — print as mythics.

Most expensive non-Alpha cards in Magic are mythics. Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Mana Crypt, Dockside Extortionist — all mythics.

Historical rarity terms

Magic had different rarity systems before 2008:

Pre-mythic era (1993–2008): Common, Uncommon, Rare — the three-tier system. Old-border cards use this.

Alpha/Beta/Unlimited: Common, Uncommon, Rare — same three-tier, printed on sheets with different frequencies.

Portal and Starter sets: Reduced rarities for beginners — just Common and Uncommon.

Masters sets: Add “Masters rare” and “Masters mythic” — same symbols but signify reprint sets rather than new cards.

Special rarities and treatments

Beyond the four main rarities, certain printings get special rarity markers:

Promotional (P symbol): promo prints for prereleases, FNMs, buy-a-box bonuses. Rarity-independent — a promo can be a reprint of any rarity.

Secret Lair (S symbol): exclusive Secret Lair drops. Printed in limited runs, sold direct-to-consumer.

Masterpiece series: ultra-premium limited inserts. Examples: Zendikar Expeditions, Kaladesh Inventions, Amonkhet Invocations. Roughly 1-in-1,400 booster pack drop rate. Usually mythic-tier prices regardless of the underlying card’s rarity.

Serialised: numbered variants like 1/500. Not technically a rarity — it’s a treatment stamped onto regular rares and mythics.

Rarity and price — the actual relationship

New collectors assume mythic > rare > uncommon > common in terms of price. That’s directionally right but full of exceptions:

• A competitive rare (fetch lands, Reserved List duals) can cost $200+.
• A Pauper-staple common (Mystical Tutor, Counterspell from select printings) can cost $10+.
• A bad mythic from a draft set costs $0.25.
• A special printing of a common (borderless, foil, serialised) can cost $20+ for a card that’s otherwise $0.10.

Price is driven by playability and scarcity, not rarity alone.

Rarity distribution per pack

Standard booster pack (2026):

• 10 commons
• 3 uncommons
• 1 rare OR 1 mythic rare (1-in-8 chance mythic)
• 1 token or advertisement card
• 1 foil of any rarity

Set boosters and Collector boosters have different distributions — Collector boosters guarantee multiple mythics and always include at least one foil-rare or foil-mythic.

Rarity’s impact on format economics

Each major format has a different rarity sensitivity:

Standard — rare and mythic prices drive the format. Commons are usually $0.25 or bulk. Rotating format, so prices peak early then fade.

Modern — rares and mythics from the last 20 years matter. Non-rotating, so prices are stickier.

Legacy — Reserved List (mostly rares, some uncommons) dominate the economics.

Commander — mythic Commanders (legendary creatures at mythic rarity) cost $15–$40 each. Common and uncommon staples are cheap; only rare-and-higher chase cards inflate decks.

Pauper — commons only. A pauper deck is affordable, often $50–$150 total.

How Scrytics uses rarity

Scrytics’ catalog indexes every card by rarity. Filter any set by rarity to see only mythics, only rares, or drill into commons for a pauper-focused view. The price leaderboard naturally skews toward rares and mythics because those are where the expensive cards live, but a few commons sneak in from Pauper and select foils.

The rarity symbol is always visible on the card detail page, right next to set information and collector number. For older cards (pre-mythic), Scrytics shows the three-tier rarity correctly rather than retrofitting “mythic” onto cards that predate the concept.

Rarity is only one signal among many for understanding a card’s price and playability — but it’s the first signal new collectors learn and the one that most often gets misread. A rare is not automatically valuable, and a mythic is not automatically in every deck.