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The end of 2023 was spectacularly exciting for all Yu-Gi-Oh! fans as we had the chance to enjoy the first 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection set of the game just in time for Christmas. The Rarity Collection was a special set designed as part of the year long celebrations for the anniversary of this amazing Trading Card Game and the set literally flew off the shelves. However, just a few months after the release of the first set, Konami took everyone by surprise announcing they were planning to release a second Rarity Collection just six months after the first one.
TCG players are usually quite used to have good collectors sets every one or two years but very rarely they get two released so closely together. As expected everyone went a bit crazy for this announcement and it is safe to say there are a lot of expectations on this set as the release date of Yu-Gi-Oh! 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II is now fast approaching.
25th Anniversary Rarity Collection: Anatomy of the set
The Rarity Collection is a specially designed Collector set that only includes foil cards. The peculiarity of this set is that every cards from this collection can be pulled in one out of the 7 different rarities ranging from Super Rare to Quarter Century Secret Rare. As such, when you open a pack of 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II you will always find 3 Super Rares, 2 Secret Rares (of which 1 out of 4 can be a Platinum Secret Rare or Quarter Century Secret Rare) and 4 Ultra Rares (of which 1 out of 6 can be a Collector's Rare or Ultimate Rare). Imagine how many Rare cards you can get from a Booster Box.
The pull rates of this newer set releasing on the 23rd of May are actually much better than those from the first set released in November 2023. As a start, the size of the booster packs has been increased from 5 cards to 9 but the ratio between Secret Rares and Ultra Rares vs Super Rares has been actually enhanced to make easier to pull the “Luxury rare” cards of higher rarity. In essence, you are likely to find at least one Collector's Rare or Ultimate Rare by buying just two booster packs. Basing on Konami expectations, about two-thirds of the packs should have at least one “luxury rare” while the rest should have more than one. Technically there is also the possibility to pull six “luxury rares” in the same pack. I know it will not happen to me but I will try to hunt for this amazing pack!
What to expect from 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II
At the time of writing, we know 28 of the 79 cards featured in the set. Being a Rarity collection, we also know that all the cards are reprints from older sets although a few of them will be available as an alternate art. It is yet not clear if the alternate art cards will also be available to pull with the original art thus we will need to wait to find out.
Considering the set list from the first Rarity collection, there are high expectations that this set will include also a lot of competitive staples that are hard or very expensive to find at the moment. Among the cards already announced we can count for example: Accesscode Talker; Magicians’ Souls!; Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman (just in time to join the version released in “Legacy of Destruction” set); Droll & Lock Bird; Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit; Ghost Mourner & Moonlit Chill; Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay!; Primitive Planet Reichphobia; Primeval Planet Perlereino; Pressured Planet Wraitsoth; Peaceful Planet Calarium!; I:P Masquerena; Rescue Cat; Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess!; Purrely; My Friend Purrely; Purrely Pretty Memory!; Solemn Judgment; Solemn Warning; Solemn Strike!; Book of Moon; Book of Eclipse; Preparation of Rites; Emergency Teleport; Gold Sarcophagus!; D.D. Crow! Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended!
Final thoughts:
How good will this set be? 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II is definitely a very interesting set and I hope it will be as good as the first Rarity Collection. I would expect the newer one to be actually even more relevant as the previous one was a OCG imported product, while Rarity Collection II is a set specifically created for the TGC.
On the other hand, I am quite puzzled by the very short gap between the two set. This can of course be linked to a strong marketing strategy but we had so many great cards in the first set that it is challenging to guess which ones would be included in this second one. I have, as always, my personal expectations (and hopes) and my guess is that this set will fly off the shelves almost as fast as the previous one. Unfortunately, we will need to wait a couple more weeks to see the full card list and to review the set properly.