The One Piece Card game is a huge hit right now, and it is easy to see why. The anime is a huge hit, but the cards are amazing too. But starting a new TCG can be intimidating, especially when you can’t even find the rarity of a card! Follow our guide to properly determine the rarity of a card, plus a few more tips for One Piece cards!
How to Find a Cards Rarity
To find the rarity of a One Piece card, just check the lower right corner of the face of the card. You’ll see a letter within a small rectangle.
- C = Common
- UC = Uncommon
- R = Rare
- SR = Super Rare
- SEC = Secret Rare
- L = Leader
Promotional cards cannot be pulled from booster packs, but they do have their own unique rarity symbol.
- P = Promotional
This rarity scale is simple to follow and not unlike Digimon or Dragon Ball Super cards, so it’s nice to see consistency among different trading card games.
And I should add, rarities are the same between the different regions and languages. Here is our guide on all the differences between English and Japanese One Piece cards.
How Rarity Works for One Piece Cards
The basics of a rarity scale determine how, well, rare a card is. But what does rare even mean? It all comes down to booster packs, and the odds of pulling specific cards from said packs.
Well in this context, ‘rare’ is somewhere in the middle of the scale. You’ll always find a rare card inside a booster pack.
For example, one of the original sets, Romance Dawn, has an available 121 different cards to pull, and the rarity breakdown can actually be found on the back of the booster pack itself.
- 45 Commons
- 30 Uncommons
- 26 Rares
- 10 Super Rares
- 2 Secret Rares
- 8 Leaders
- + alternate art cards
How Alternate Art Cards Work
Each set has alternate art cards. These are duplicate cards in terms of moveset and stats but have alternate artwork. Romance Dawn has 33 alternate art cards in addition to the 121, for a total of 154 cards in the set.
A booster box of One Piece cards (24 booster packs) will have 1-3 alternate art (AA) cards. This means that AA cards are extremely rare, sought after, and expensive on the second-hand market.
You’ll know you’ve pulled an AA card if the artwork stretches across the entire card, eliminating the border. It will also have a texture on the face of the card, and be very nice to look at. Each AA card is a holofoil as well, so they will all shimmer and reflect the light.
Older sets don’t have a symbol to tell that a card is AA, but the newer sets will have a star next to the rarity symbol.
What Are SP Cards in One Piece?
With the latest releases, we’re now getting Special Art cards. These are like AA cards but boast an even higher rarity.
These cards have unique artwork for each set they belong to. For example, OP04’s Special Art cards have high-detail close-up depictions of characters and OP03’s Special Art cards have a ‘WANTED’ poster design.
Conclusion
Starting a new TCG isn’t a quick and easy process, especially if you don’t have friends to help you out. When new rarities or special-looking cards are included in a new set, they often go unannounced or unnoticed until a few days before release. After this, what they are are often still shrouded in mystery. It can be helpful to reach out to friends or join and online community to learn the new stuff in the One Piece Card Game!
