The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG set Rarity Collection 2 is getting mixed reviews to say the least. Coming of the high that was Rarity Collection (1), Konami thought it would be good to keep the ball rolling with a TCG exclusive Rarity Collection 2. Unfortunately, this set doesn’t contain the same value as Rarity Collection (1), as the card pool has less staples that are relevant in the current meta.
HOWEVER, to some there are some desperately needed reprints like Magicians’ Souls and a now really affordable Access Code Talker. We also get some alternate art love for fans of Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, I:P Masquerena, and Rescue Cat. But then we also got a reprint of Mystical Space Typhoon in 7 different rarities all in one set. I’m sure there is at least one fan of MST out there, just in love with this set for that reason.
I really wanted a reprint of Chaos Angle and Transaction Rollback, but maybe the upcoming 2024 tins will have those (please). I know there were some hoping for ANY of the WANTED engine cards thanks to their still hefty price for a play set, or the market-topper S:P Little Knight. I won’t lie, as a Yugiboomer with a deep nostalgic love for Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon, this set has lots of reprint for me. Mainly because some of the Blue-Eyes variants like Blue-Eyes Jet Dragon were a little too pricy for the singles still, in Canada at least.
I would encourage most duelists to buy singles from this set at your local card shop if you are just looking to pick up some older staples for more niche decks or finally get your copy of Access Code Talker. I’ll admit that I purchased 2 booster boxes from this set, one I got already and one is on the way. Why would I do this? Well I suffer from FOMO, hard, with Yu-Gi-Oh. As soon as pre-orders were up I thought since Rarity Collection (1) was so amazing, 2 should be just as good! Oops. I’m still really happy with the pulls I got though, and the joy of cracking packs. I wanted the QCR of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, and I got one from the first box!
I’ve consulted with the Millennium items and searched the labyrinth of Atem’s mind to find this Yu-Gi-Oh! set’s stats, metrics, and other neat insights, let’s go!
Yu-Gi-Oh!
25th Anniversary
Rarity Collection 2
Set colors
#0393B8
RGB: 3, 147, 184
#F3E328
RGB: 250, 227, 0
567
Cards
Including all rarities
&
alternate art
79
Unique cards
Not seeing any charts? You probably have JavaScript disabled.
Card rarities
No, it’s not an error. The Rarity Collection sets feature each rarity for each card in the set. Perfectly balanced. The story isn’t over there, in classic Yu-Gi-Oh fashion, there is way more than complexity under these towering vertical bars.
Like Rarity Collection (1), the set breaks these rarities out further
Standard Rarities:
- Super Rare
- Ultra Rare
- Secret Rare
Special “Luxury” Rarities:
- Quarter Century Secret Rares: Celebrating the 25th anniversary with tons of sparkle and a watermark logo!
- Platinum Secret Rares
- “Prismatic”-style Collector’s Rares: Previously available only overseas
- “Prismatic”-style Ultimate Rares: Featuring special 3D varnish, and also available only overseas until recently
With 7 different rarities for each card in the set, this is a good time to pick up a really shiny copy of your favorite cards if they make an appearance in the set. For me, I really want more copies of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon and my first Access Code Talker.
Card types
Monster secondary types
Vanilla is off the menu for Rarity Collection 2. This set does not feature any reprints of Normal monsters. This is almost split for monster and spell/trap cards, 45 – 34 respectively, but only 5 trap card reprints.
Synchro and Link monsters take the lead with 7 each, followed by Xyz at 6. It’s nice to see ritual and flip monsters get some attention here, but sorry pendulum fans, no reprints for you.
Monster types
Monster attributes
Dragons dominate this set at 14, almost 25% of monsters are dragons, which is probably not much of surprise as they are one of the most common types in the game.
Water splashes to the top with 29 monsters hailing from the realm of the cold dark abyss. Which does line up well with the rumors that Water is going to be going head-to-head with the current fire dominance in the competitive scene. We are getting a set called Rage of the Abyss which has confirmed Shark support. This might be a nice primer to reacquaint duelists with some of the water staples like Abyss Dweller.
Spell types
Trap types
Level / Rank / Link distribution
Level, Rank, and Link 4 (though each carry a different weight) have a lot of representation in the set.
- Level 4 monsters: 7
- Rank 4 monsters: 3
- Link 4 monsters: 2
Then, we see Level 8 monsters dominating in the higher levels coming in at 7 cards.
Top 10 most common words in card text
English and some specific to Yu-Gi-Oh! stop words removed
ATK
Monster attack distribution
Med
2000
Avg
1726.67
DEF
Monster defense distribution
Med
1800
Avg
1542.11
I find it interesting with reprint sets to see what the attack and defense distribution is like. This doesn’t represent much in terms of where the meta may be headed in terms of raw power like it would in a core set, but there are some neat insights to still uncover.
It’s pretty cool how popular 0 attack cards are in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG compared to the early 2000’s. Generally, cards with 0 attack get their power from other sources like effects or combos with other cards. It’s really starting to feel like, to me, attacks of 2500 and 3000 (the same of the iconic Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon) are still the cornerstones of the more modern Yu-Gi-Oh game.
Common keywords
The bigger the block, the more popular it is.
Target keywords: destroy, gain, summon, negate, target, send, banish, banishment, fusion, synchro, xyz, pendulum, link, ritual, graveyard, GY , deck, hand, field, life points, LP, face-up, face-down, tribute, return, shuffle, flip, activate, remove, attach, equip, material, counter, token, effect, once, twice, thrice
Card awards
For every set I analyze, I give awards to the cards with the longest name, highest defense, most words, and more. Introducing the winners…
Psychic End Punisher
ATK/3500
Borrelend Dragon
ATK/3500
Borrelend Dragon
LINK - 5
Underworld Goddess of the Closed World
LINK - 5
Card names and images © 2024 Konami Studio Dice. All rights reserved. Yu-Gi-Oh! is a registered trademark of Konami Digital Entertainment. Card images sourced from – yugipedia.com and ChrispyCrunch.com.
