How to Understand Digimon Card Rarity

At the beginning of 2021 in the West the new Digimon Trading Card Game launched, in Japan these cards have been available since 2020. The first question you might ask yourself is, wasn't there already a Digimon Trading Card Game? and the answer is yes. Between the years 1999 and 2005 (and then with some anniversary boxes from 2013 onwards) there was a different Digital Monsters Card Game, unfortunately, as that never took off to the level hoped we've now got the 2020 version of Digimon Card Game. This guide will go over how to recognize Digimon Card Rarity so you know what you're getting when you open your packs.Even though the Digimon Card Game is still in its infancy there's still plenty of players getting involved as new series of cards are being released. 

If you're interested in rarity in different card games, after you finish this article you should also check out our exploration of Pokemon Card rarity and Magic: The Gathering card rarity!

How do I find out the rarity of my Digimon cards?

There are a lot of different types when it comes to Digimon Card Rarity. In order to tell what type of rarity a card is though you need to look to the right of the name of the Digimon card where you'll see its card set info and then a letter, or series of letters, in a circle.

For the majority of Digimon cards, this letter is representative of what level of rarity it is, there are a few exceptions to this but here are the basic Digimon Card Rarity levels:

• C - Common
• U - Uncommon
• R - Rare
  • These cards can also be identified by the gold Digimon Level or Security Lock on the left-hand side of the card. If it's a Tamer card there will also be a gold outline around the character.
• SR - Super Rare
• SEC - Secret Rare
  • These cards can also be identified by the gold Digimon Level or Security Lock on the left-hand side of the card.
• P - Promotional Cards

From C to SEC is the normal scale you'll be working on as Promo cards can only be obtained through special promotional packs. 

How do Alternate Art and other special Digimon cards come into play?

While the above list is what you'll see in scaling rarity there are also cards that feature alternate artwork. This alternate art can be found on Digimon, but can also be seen on Tamer cards. These Alternate Art cards, or Parallels, will keep the same rarity indicator, as well as all other stats and special abilities. The only way to tell them apart is by recognizing that the art is different and the changes to the border.

How to recognize an Alternate Art Tamer Card?

Alternate Art Tamer Cards will not have a white border around them. Instead, they'll be borderless and the regular background that you see on the small window of its regular variant will take up the whole card. It might be simpler to think of it that a Tamer Cards alt-art is going to be a full art card if you're familiar with that from other TCG like Pokemon. 

How to recognize an Alternate Art Super Rare Card?

The clearest way to recognize when a Super Rare Digimon card has its Alternate Art is the gold foiling on the card. It can be behind the artwork of the Digimon, around the border, or in both locations you'll see gold foiling and parallel lines like you'd imagine seeing on a computer chip. Seeing this level of detail on an SR card should help immediately tip you off that it's an Alternate Art card.

How to recognize an Alternate Art Secret Rare Card?

Somewhat similarly to Alternate Art Super Rare Cards if you get a Secret Rare Digimon Card with Alternate Artwork you'll see again that Gold Foiling. The big difference between SR and SEC cards is that there will be less gold on the Secret Rare variants. This is a tradeoff for more detailed artwork, usually encompassing the full card.

The exact probabilities aren't known for the likeliness of pulling an alternate artwork card but it has been approximated that the chance of a non-Secret Rare Alternate Art is 0.30-0.35% and for a Secret Rare for there to be a 0.12% chance it's an Alternate Art.

How many cards do I get in a Digimon Booster Pack?

In a Digimon Card Game Booster Pack, you'll receive 12 cards. Inside each Booster Pack you'll find the following breakdown of cards:

• 7 Common Rarity
• 3 Uncommon Rarity
• 1 Rare Rarity Guaranteed
• 1 Rare Rarity or higher

Of the above cards, a Booster Pack will contain at least two Option cards, but there's no guarantee on acquiring any Digi-Egg or Tamer cards from a Booster Pack. Booster Packs will also contain one card that contains a player Memory Gague on it and an Index card for that set listing each card name, card number, and its rarity.

In a standard Booster Box that contains 24 Booster Packs, you'll end up coming away with the following number of cards

• 168 Common Rarity
• 72 Uncommon Rarity
• 24 Rare Rarity Guaranteed
• 24 Rare Rarity or higher

Each Digimon Booster Box also comes with one Box Topper Promo and one Special Box Promotion Pack. The Box Topper Promo is an alternate artwork Tamer card, and the Promotion Pack is a Booster Box exclusive pack that just contains two cards. These two cards will be thematically linked though like Taichi Kamiya and Veedramon from the V-Tamer manga.

How much are rare Digimon cards worth?

Digimon Card Rarity is one of the most important factors when it comes down to what you might be able to get for a Digimon card. As is to be expected common cards don't go for too much, but as you get into Rare and higher cards can start becoming worth something. An immediate factor that can make your cards worth something is if you get that Alternate Artwork. On websites like TCGPlayer a regular Agunimon can be only 25c whereas the Alternate Art version (which again, has no change in any ability or stat) is averaging for $18.

Another factor that goes into the sale of these cards is the quality that the card has been kept in. You might have a card that's extremely expensive in pristine condition, but if you left it under a couch for years and it's folded in half and dog-eared that value will begin to drop rapidly.

The biggest worry for those looking to get into Digimon Cards for the purpose of reselling rare cards is that it's just such a new game. At the moment there's sizeable traction but as a new game card prices and the popularity of the game itself are somewhat volatile. Compared to Pokemon or Magic the Gathering it's much easier to get in on the ground floor, but who knows what the future will contain.