Draconis 8: Rarity Explained!

Draconis 8 is a unique card game in a lot of ways.  Among them is the way it handles rarity.  Unlike other most collectible card games, which have defined Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, Ultra Rare, Secret Rare, Legendary Rare, Mythic Rare and various other synonyms for the word rare, Draconis 8 has no such system in place.  It’d be easy to assume there is no rarity at all in this game, but that would be incorrect.  In reality Draconis has its own host of rarities, they’re just less obvious then in other games, so this article hopes to clarify what collectors should be on the look out for.  I’m going to use my own terms for each rarity for simplicity and comparison, but at the time of this writing, there are no official terms.

Draconis 8 rarity can be broken up into 5 types, what I’m going to call “Type Rarity”, “Speed Rarity”, “Cosmetic Rarity”, “Stat Rarity”, and “Pack Rarity”.

Type Rarity:

Super Common – Territories : There is a single territory in every pack and in set 1, there is only a single type of territory (rooted).  This means a single pack will get you all the “types” of territories there are to be had.

Common – Champions : There are 7 champions in every pack, and 9 champion types.  This means there will always be at least 2 types of champions you don’t get in a pack, and at minimum it’ll take 2 packs to get 1 of every champion type.

Rare – Dragons : There is a single dragon in every pack, however, unlike territories, there are 7 different types of dragons.  This means at minimum it will take at least 7 packs to get 1 of every dragon type.

Takeaway: In short, Dragons are the rare’s of Draconis 8, 1 per pack, and a LOT of unique types to collect.  That’s not to say territories and champions can’t have value (as we’ll see), but a dragon which is also rare in one of the other ways, is inately more rare then a champion with that same rarity, and a champion more so then a territory.

Speed Rarity:

Common – Speed 6-15

Uncommon – Speed 5 and 16

Rare – Speed 4 and 17

Super Rare – Speed 3 and 18

Ultra Rare – Speed 2 and 19

Legendary Rare – Speed 1 and 20

Takeaways: At the time of this writing we have not been given exact percentages, only told that speeds 6-15 are more common (and all have the same odds), while speeds 1-5 and 16-20 are less common, with the lowest speeds and highest speeds being progressively rarer such that the most rare speeds in the game are 1 and 20.  While debate remains about which speeds are the best gameplay wise, from a pure collector perspective, these highest/lowest speeds are the most obvious gameplay impacting chase cards of the game, with 1 and 20 being the ultimate prize.

Cosmetic Rarity:

Common – Standard : 99 out of every 100 cards opened are standard.

Legendary Rare – Gold Border and Animated : 1 out of every 100 cards opened are Gold Bordered and or Animated.

Takeaways: In digital only packs there is a 1 in 100 chance for every card pulled to be animated.  In the physical game there is a 1 in 100 chance for every card pulled to have a gold border (and from the sound of it foil face though these cards don’t exist yet to confirm).  Gold cards scanned into the digital game will retain the gold border AND gain the digital only animation so you could argue golds are a class above just animated, but as the rates are the same and the gold border is more just making it clear the card has a physical counter part, I’d still put them on the same tier.  Either way, as this is the only rarity with no gameplay impact, the Cosmetic Rarity is the rarity specifically designed for collectors and the most visually obvious “you got something rare” the game currently offers.

Stat Rarity:

Common – Good and bad Stats for an ability : What constitutes good or bad stats for an ability varies from ability to ability, and is open to some subjectivity, but the majority of stat distributions will likely fall into these camps.

Rare – Great Stats for an ability : What constitutes great stats for an ability varies from ability to ability, and is open to some subjectivity.  For example, having your highest stat between the range markers and lowest opposite that, is generally great for range, but wouldn’t apply to anything else.

Legendary Rare – One or more maxed out challenge sides : For most champions this is a 50 on a side, for most dragons its a 55 on a side, but at higher speeds on certain abilities a max’d out side will be sub 50 and thus confirmable instead by the card having nothing but 1s on the other sides.

Takeaways: Stat Rarity is the one rarity that demands you be familiar with the competitive side of the game to assess, and will largely be shaped by the meta that develops.  That said, the most obvious stat rarity to look for is a 50 on a champion side, or a 55 on a dragon.  Really anything 51-55 will probably be desirable on dragons but 55 in particular is the max.  That said, even max sides value will likely be dependent on the ability, as a 50/1/1/1 aura, for example, would not be particularly useful.  Beyond that, most abilities prefer having their two strongest sides be next to each other (a strong corner), so while not universally applicable, that’s also something to be on the look out for.

Pack Rarity:

Common – Packs that are weak in single pack format.

Uncommon – Packs that are strong in single pack format.

Legendary Rare -Packs that are so powerful they could be used effectively even in constructed.

Takeaways: Up until now we’ve just talked about individual cards, but its worth noting that because every pack can be used as a deck, Draconis 8 has a unique, single pack, format, where players use their strongest pack against each other.  This means that packs which lack individually rare cards, may still have value if they create a cohesive deck.  The ultimate chase pack is one which could, un-modified, compete in constructed formats as well, having lucked into a top tier deck as printed.  There’s some subjectivity here of what makes such a pack, but less subjective is the fact that to open such a pack would be extraordinarily rare.

Final Takeaway: All of the above contribute to the rarity of a card or pack, and are things to be on the look out for when opening your packs.  Because of the many types of rarity, this also means that the rarest and more desirable cards and packs will be those which contain multiple rarity elements.  A 1 speed dragon, for instance, will be one of the rarest cards in the game.  A 20 speed champion with a 50 challenge side will likely be among the rarest and most desired cards in the game.  And the gold border/animations will only further multiply a cards rarity and value.