The Digimon Card Game is young enough that this question behaves differently than it does for an older game. There is no long print history to work through and no forty-year back catalogue to sort, which means the version of a card is decided by a smaller number of things, and three of the four can be read off the publisher’s own product page for the set the card came from.
What follows is a structure rather than a ranking. This site publishes no price for Digimon cards, so the useful thing to explain is not which card currently leads but what makes one printing of a card different from another — and which of those differences the publisher actually states.
Quick answer
Four things separate one version of a Digimon card from another: the rarity step it sits at in its set, the set itself and whether that set is still in print, whether the copy is an alternate art rather than the standard printing, and whether it has been graded. The first two are published by Bandai for every set, the third is visible on the card, and only the fourth happens after the card is made.
The four things that decide which version leads
| Layer | What it is | Where it is settled |
|---|---|---|
| Set | Which booster the card came from, and whether that set is still being supplied | Published by the publisher, set by set |
| Rarity step | Where the card sits on the ladder, from Common up to Secret Rare and Special Card | Published by the publisher as a count for each set |
| Art version | Whether the copy is the standard printing or an alternate art, which keeps the same card number | Printed on the card |
| Grade | Whether the copy has been graded and sealed, and at what grade | Determined by a grading company, after the card is made |
The order matters less here than in older games, because the game is new enough that no single layer has had time to dominate. What matters more is that the second layer is published as a count per set rather than as a per-card statement, which is unusual and worth understanding: the publisher tells you how many card types sit at each rarity, not how hard any one of them is to find.
Where the top of the ladder sits
The rarity ladder in this game is stated by the publisher for every set, which makes it possible to see the ceiling of a set before seeing its cards. Below are the published counts for two recent sets, one a main-line booster and one an Extra Booster.
| Rarity | BT-26 Timeless Bonds | EX-13 Chivalrous XIII |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 40 | 22 |
| Uncommon | 26 | 20 |
| Rare | 21 | 18 |
| Super Rare | 12 | 12 |
| Ultimate Rare | 3 | 3 |
| Secret Rare | 2 | 2 |
| Special Card | 4 | 4 |
Two things follow from reading that table. The first is that the top of a set is small and stable: both sets carry exactly three Ultimate Rare types, two Secret Rare types and four Special Card types, whether the set has 81 types or 108. The second is that a larger set is larger at the bottom, not at the top, which is why set size is a poor guide to what is at the top of it. The ladder itself is set out on card numbers and rarity codes.
Why the set matters as much as the rarity
The first layer is the one most often left out of the conversation and the one the publisher speaks about most clearly. A card game only prints a set once, and the difference between a card from a set that is still being supplied and a card from one that is not is a difference in supply rather than a difference in the card.
This game has an unusual feature here. Alongside the booster and Extra Booster lines the publisher runs an Advanced Booster line, whose stated purpose is to address this exact problem by returning particular cards to the market rather than reprinting a whole set. The first of those sets is largely made up of reprints, which makes the line the clearest place to see the publisher distinguishing between a card and a printing of it. Booster, extra booster and starter decks sets out which line is which.
The layer the publisher does not publish
The fourth layer is the only one this page can describe but not state, and being clear about why is the point of this section. Grading is done by companies outside the game, and the population of graded Digimon cards is still being built, in contrast with older games where decades of submissions have produced a settled picture.
What that means is modest and worth saying plainly rather than dressing up. A grade on a Digimon card records the condition of one copy; it does not indicate what that condition is worth, and it cannot be compared against a large body of similar copies that does not exist yet. That is a statement about the state of the market rather than a judgement about grading, and it is the reason this page stops where it does instead of ranking the cards in it.
What this page does not claim
No prices, and no ranking of cards by value. We have not yet run a checked pull of graded sales for the Digimon Card Game, and a number we cannot re-count is worse than no number, so this page publishes the structure that decides value and none of the value itself. It also does not state which printing of a card is hardest to find, because the publisher publishes rarity counts rather than per-card appearance rates. Every count above is quoted from the publisher’s product page for the set it belongs to.
Frequently asked questions
Why are two copies of the same Digimon card worth different amounts?
Because they are different versions of the same card number. An alternate art printing keeps the same card number as the standard printing, and the set the card came from and its rarity step belong to the individual printing rather than to the card name.
Does an alternate art change a card’s card number?
No. An alternate art keeps the same card number, which is why a restriction on a card applies to its alternate arts as well. A different illustration is not a different card in the rules.
Which rarity is the top of a Digimon set?
Secret Rare and Special Card sit at the top of the published ladder, with Ultimate Rare a step below them. Both recent sets carry two Secret Rare types, four Special Card types and three Ultimate Rare types, regardless of how large the set is overall.
Are older Digimon sets reprinted?
Not as whole sets, but the publisher runs an Advanced Booster line whose stated purpose is to return particular cards to the market. The first of those sets is largely made up of reprints of cards that were hard to obtain, which is the publisher addressing supply rather than reissuing a set.
Is there a graded market for Digimon cards?
It exists but is still being built. Grading is carried out by companies outside the game, and the population of graded Digimon cards is thin compared with older games, so a grade records the condition of one copy rather than placing it against a large settled population.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- Bandai — the official Digimon Card Game product pages for BT-26 Timeless Bonds and EX-13 Chivalrous XIII, which state the rarity breakdowns and the pack and box contents reproduced on this page. Accessed 6 October 2026.
- Bandai — the official product listing that names the lines of the game, including the Advanced Booster line and the Starter Decks, referred to above.
- Bandai — the Digimon Card Game official rules and glossary, which establishes that a card is identified by the card number printed on it and that an alternate art keeps that number.
- This page was compiled 2026-10-06. We publish no price for Digimon cards and no ranking of them by value, because we have not yet run a checked pull of graded sales for the game.
Related reading
- The Digimon Card Game index on this site
- Reading a Digimon card: codes, numbers and rarity marks
- Digimon Card Game sets: booster, extra booster and starter decks
Where to go next
- The CardSpicy card index — every card we track, with its PSA 10 population and market history (195 cards).
- The illustrator index — every artist behind those cards, card by card (110 artists).
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