Junk Rare: Difference between revisions

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has a lot of these, usually [[Intentional Trope|on purpose]]. Mark Rosewater, the game's head designer, wrote a lengthy [[Justified Trope|Justification]] of the practice titled [https://web.archive.org/web/20090602111149/http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom%2Fdaily%2Fmr9 "Rare, but Well Done"], in which he discusses in great detail why this trope exists. In general, cards are rare when they really ''are'' [[Game Breaker|powerful enough]] to dominate games (especially sealed deck and draft games), when they're [[Cool but Inefficient|weird and wacky enough]] that only a small portion of the players would want to use them, or when they're [[Difficult but Awesome|complicated enough]] that they can overwhelm beginning players. When players complain about a rare being one of those last two types and insisting it should have been an uncommon, one of Rosewater's stock replies is "you hate it, so you want to see it in ''more'' of your packs?"

** Of course, it's not unheard of for the quirkier ones to become [[Lethal Joke Character]]s later on—one infamous example is [http://magiccards.info/mr/en/272.html Lion's Eye Diamond], which was originally designed as a [[nerf]]ed [http://magiccards.info/un/en/233.html Black Lotus] so weak that nobody would ever play it.

** Another example would be the super [[Awesome but Impractical]] legends, and some rares are actually extremely weak and nigh unplayable, like early Magnetons, Pidgeot, etc.

** Rarity seems to be more related to the Pokémon featured than the potential for playability. There have been instances in every tournament season up to the present (2010–11) of a player doing well with a deck using nothing above Uncommon, the second-lowest rarity, though such decks have never moved beyond the national level. There was one time a World Championship winner's deck used only 4 Rares out of 60 cards per deck. (There were at least three rarities above Rare at that time. And if you're curious, it was the [[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire|Lunatone-Solrock]] deck.)

* In the early days of [[Hero Clix]], this is applied to uniques like Juggernaut without the helmet and original-costume Cyclops. Adding keywords didn't help these guys much. And the newer sets have gems like [[Spider-Man]] villain The Spot, Mr. Miracle & Oberon duo, and Queen of Fables.