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A few months ago, I wrote a preview of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II and I was very excited to start opening some of those packs of this incredible new set. Now that a couple of months have passed since the set released, I think it is worth to see what I was able to pull and judge if the set was worth the hype. Spoiler alert: I was very unlucky with my pulls but I overall enjoyed this set!
What is the 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II?
For those who may have missed my preview, it is important to know that Konami released a first 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection set in November 2023. Like the name suggests, this first Rarity Collection was intended as one of the many celebratory sets released as part of the yearlong celebrations for the 25th anniversary of Yu-Gi-Oh! the Trading Card Game. The set literally flew off the shelves and it was overall very well received by the community even if some collectors complained (as usual) about the very low pull rates for the highest rarity cards of the set. Some players also pointed out that the 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection was an OCG imported product and, as such, it included some cards not very relevant for the TCG players in the UK.
While everyone was still trying to get more boxes of the first set, Konami unexpectedly announced a second Rarity Collection set for May 2024. The news took everyone by surprise as it is very rare to see two good collector sets released closely together. Yu-Gi-Oh! 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II is also very different from the previous set both in terms of content and, most important, in terms of pull rates. In fact, Konami decided to increase the size of the pack from 5 to 9 cards in the newer set AND to increase the ratio of Secret Rares and Ultra Rares vs Super Rares. As a result, you may expect to have a higher chance to hit any of the highest rarity cards of the set. Statistically, there is actually a chance to find at least one Collector's Rare or Ultimate Rare every two booster packs that is almost twice the chances you had in the previous set. There were surely high expectations for this set basing on these premises...
Right out of the Booster pack – Set main characteristics
The Rarity Collection II is a specially designed Collector set that only include 79 cards. The peculiarity of this set is that each of these cards can be pulled in any of the 7 different rarities range so that there are actually more than 550 cards to collect if you are looking to have a complete set of Yu-Gi-Oh! 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II.
How it works? Each pack of the Rarity Collection II you buy will come with 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 Prismatic Collector's Rare or Ultimate Rare). The best part is that each individual Ultra and Secret Rare cards has the same chance to be upgraded to a higher rarity class thus there can be a pack with 4 Quarter Century Secret Rare and 6 Prismatic Ultimate Rare. Considering the above, it is quite easy to see that the pull rates of this newer are actually much better than those from the first set released in November 2023. The value of the packs is also higher as the increased price for the new ones is largely compensated by the higher average rarity of the cards you can pull from them.
Which cards can I pull? Set card list
As mentioned, there are 79 cards in 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II and they are all reprints from older sets. Being this a 25th anniversary collection, Konami has picked cards from many different sets to continue to celebrate the story of this Trading Card Game through some of the cards that made part of this story. The final card list seems to include a balanced mixture of cards to please both the players and the collectors. In terms of gameplay, the majority of the cards featured in Rarity Collection II can definitely have a space in competitive decks. None of them, however, are key, sough-after staple for any archetype while the cards from the first Rarity Collection were much more meta-relevant. A lot of these cards, however, are very suitable for other Yu-Gi-Oh! formats including the fan-favourite “Time Wizard” one.
In terms of long term value, we should start by saying that there are 13 cards in this set that have only been re-printed once before and that may not see another re-print for a long time. At the same time, there are some card among the set that have been re-printed a lot of times and that are not hard to find.
Looking to the card list, the most valuable ones from this set are surely the Quarter Century Secret rare. At the time of writing, “I:P Masquerena”, “Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess”, “Crossout Designator”, “Accesscode Talker”, “Droll & Lock Bird” and “Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit” are those with the higher value on the secondary market although they are exchanged for less than £30. Not surprisingly, it seems that the overall value of the set does not hold on as much as we saw for the cards from the 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection. This is partially due to the cards from this set being less meta-relevant and partially due to the release of this rarity collection being so close to the previous one.
Final thoughts: Is this set for you?
25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II received a mixture of positive and negative feedbacks as quite typical for a TCG collection set. The main positive aspects of the set include the selection of good competitive cards and increased rated to pull very rare cards including the Quarter Century Secret Rare. However, the lack of strong meta-relevant cards highly impacted the overall cost/ long term value of cards from this set. In summary, the overall feeling is that this set is a good collection but it is not as good as the first Rarity Collection and that's a bit of a shame considering Konami has pulled this set so close to the other one.
That concludes our thoughts on Yu-Gi-Oh! 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy 25th Anniversary Rarity Collection II today click here !