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Flesh and Blood Rarities and Foils

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Quick answer

CardSpicy reads a set’s rarity structure from the publisher’s own product page rather than from a dealer’s listing, and Legend Story Studios publishes it in full. For Usurp the Shadow Throne, the twentieth booster set, the composition is 2 Fabled, 27 Marvel, 5 Legendary, 40 Majestic, 66 Rare, 133 Common and 16 Basic, across 263 cards in the set. The stated distribution per pack is 11 Common, 2 Rare or Majestic, 1 Rainbow Foil and 2 Basic, with Cold Foil at 1 in 24 packs replacing a Basic.

A single set is used here because the publisher states a composition for each set separately; the figures below are that set’s, not a universal rule.

Two questions, not one

Flesh and Blood separates two things that other card games tend to run together, and keeping them apart is the whole point of this page.

  • Rarity is what a card was printed at. It is listed in the publisher’s set composition, and it is used by the tournament rules to define formats.
  • Treatment is how a particular copy was produced. The two foiling treatments the publisher uses are Rainbow Foil and Cold Foil, and a treated copy is the same card at the same rarity.

So a card can be Common and foil at the same time. The rarity does not change because of the treatment, and the treatment does not change what the card is.

The rarity ladder the publisher lists

The names come from the publisher’s own set composition list and from the rarity labels its tournament rules use when defining formats. One of them is a legacy term worth knowing: the tournament rules note that the basic rarity replaced the older token rarity, so a card marked Basic today is not marked the same way as the earliest printings.

Rarity Where it shows up in the publisher’s material
Basic Listed first in the set composition and used as the format’s filler: draft and sealed rules let a player use any number of Basic cards from the set without opening them.
Common The largest part of a booster pack, at 11 per pack in the set cited above.
Rare Paired with Majestic in the distribution: 2 cards per pack that are 1 Rare plus 1 Rare or Majestic.
Majestic The other half of that pair. In the set cited, its composition is split into Core and Expansion sections.
Legendary Named directly in the tournament rules. Can occupy the second Basic slot in a pack.
Fabled Named in the set composition and in the tournament rules’ list of card versions. Can occupy the second Basic slot in a pack.
Marvel Named in the set composition and in the tournament rules, where the example given is a full-art back-face of the same card.

One structural detail is easy to miss and matters more than it looks. The publisher’s per-pack list ends with two Basic cards, and then specifies what the second one can be instead: another Basic, an Expansion Slot card, a Legendary, a Marvel or a Fabled. In other words the rare slot in this game is inside the low-rarity slot, which is why a pack can look unremarkable at the front and still contain the set’s scarcest card.

The two foiling treatments

Both treatments are stated on the same product page, and the difference between them is a frequency rather than a description.

  • Rainbow Foil — stated at 1 per pack. It is the treatment a player will meet most often, and it is the one the publisher’s set composition expects to find in every pack.
  • Cold Foil — stated at 1 per 24 packs, replacing a Basic. Because a display is 24 packs, the publisher’s own description makes Cold Foil a one-per-display expectation rather than a one-per-pack one.

The tournament rules also list Cold-foil cards among the extra card versions a player may encounter, alongside Legendary-rarity, Fabled-rarity, Marvel-rarity and Extended-art, Micro-text and Expansion cards. So the foiling treatment and the rarity are recorded in the same place in the rules, but as different things.

The publisher also runs Gold Foil prize cards, which appear in its Collector Center rather than in a booster product. CardSpicy does not describe their distribution, because the publisher does not publish a rate for them.

Rarity feeds straight into the rules

This is the part that makes rarity more than a collecting label in Flesh and Blood. Rarity is a format rule.

The Silver Age format is defined by its card pool: a young hero plus a maximum of 55 arena-cards and deck-cards, where both the hero and the cards must be common- or rare-rarity, and no more than 2 copies of each unique card. The tournament rules then define those two words precisely, and the definition is not what most players would guess:

  • A card counts as common for Silver Age if it has ever been officially printed at Basic or Common rarity.
  • A card counts as rare for Silver Age if it has ever been officially printed at Rare rarity and is not already a common card.

Two things follow. The first is that a Majestic or Legendary reprint of an old common does not push that card out of Silver Age, because the rule asks whether it has ever been common. The second is that the publisher’s reprint policy explicitly allows a reprint to carry new art, a new border, a new rarity and even updated card text — which is exactly why the format rule is written around the card’s history rather than around its latest printing.

Why the set composition differs between sets

The figures quoted above are Usurp the Shadow Throne’s. The publisher states a composition for each set, and the numbers change: the same set’s Majestic count of 40 is divided into 20 Core and 20 Expansion cards, a split that does not apply to every set. CardSpicy does not publish a table of compositions across all sets, because the publisher does not present them in one, and reconstructing one from dealer listings would not meet this site’s sourcing rule.

What this page does not claim

  • It does not rank the rarities as a single ladder of scarcity. The publisher gives names and frequencies; the order in which the composition lists them is not a published scarcity order.
  • It gives one set’s figures. The composition and distribution above are Usurp the Shadow Throne’s, as published on that set’s product page.
  • It does not print prices. CardSpicy quotes no prices and makes no valuation or investment recommendation.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Flesh and Blood rarities?

The publisher’s set composition lists Basic, Common, Rare, Majestic, Legendary, Fabled and Marvel. Its tournament rules additionally note that the basic rarity replaced the older token rarity.

Are Rainbow Foil and Cold Foil the same thing?

No. They are two treatments, and the publisher states different frequencies for them: Rainbow Foil at one per pack, and Cold Foil at one in twenty-four packs, replacing a Basic.

Which cards can go in a Silver Age deck?

A young hero and cards that are common- or rare-rarity by the format’s definition, up to 2 copies of each unique card, with a combined maximum of 55 arena-cards and deck-cards.

Does a reprint change a card’s rarity?

It can. The publisher’s reprint policy allows a reprint to carry new art, a new border and even a new rarity. That is why the Silver Age definition asks whether a card has ever been printed at the rarity in question.

Is the rarity structure the same in every set?

The names are, but the numbers are not. The publisher states a composition for each set separately, so the counts quoted here belong to Usurp the Shadow Throne.

Sources

Sources and scope
  1. Legend Story Studios, the official product page for Usurp the Shadow Throne — the set composition of 263 cards; the counts of 2 Fabled, 27 Marvel, 5 Legendary, 40 Majestic, 66 Rare, 133 Common and 16 Basic; the stated rarity distribution per pack; the Cold Foil rate of 1 per 24 packs replacing a Basic; and the product configuration of 16 cards per pack, 24 packs per display and 4 displays per case.
  2. Legend Story Studios, Tournament Rules and Policy — the Silver Age card-pool specification and the definitions of a common card and a rare card for that format; the note that the basic rarity replaced the older token rarity; the list of card versions including Legendary-rarity, Fabled-rarity, Marvel-rarity, Extended-art, Micro-text, Cold-foil and Expansion cards; and the statement that a reprint may feature new art, border, rarity and updated properties.
  3. Legend Story Studios, the official Collector Center — the existence of Gold Foil prize cards outside the booster product.
  4. Scope note: only details published by Legend Story Studios, or printed on the cards, are stated as confirmed. The composition quoted is a single set’s, and no prices are given.

Set composition, rarity distribution and format definitions are set by the publisher and can change. Check Legend Story Studios’ own product and rules pages before acting on the basis of anything on this page.

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