Magic: The Gathering Rarities Explained

Magic: The Gathering uses only four rarity tiers, far fewer than most card games. You read it from the colour of the set symbol on the right-hand side of the card.

Common is the base tier, with a black symbol. Uncommon is silver, Rare is gold, and Mythic — the top tier — is orange-red.

The important part is that rarity predicts price less well in Magic than people expect. A Common that is essential to a popular format can be worth many times a Mythic nobody plays. Magic prices are driven by play demand and print run rather than the symbol on the card.

Treatment matters just as much. The same card usually exists in normal and foil, and modern sets add extended-art and showcase versions on top. Each has its own price.

So use rarity to place a card roughly, then open the page for the exact version you hold. Two cards at the same rarity in the same set can still be far apart.

CardStreet carries over seventy Magic sets. Browse a set page card by card, or search the card name in English to go straight to it.