Quick answer
CardSpicy distinguishes two things a Magic collector usually meets together: the rarity a card is printed at, and the frame treatment a particular printing carries. Rarity is set when the set is designed. A frame treatment is applied on top of it. Wizards of the Coast introduced the treatments as a group under the name Project Booster Fun, in a design article published in July 2019, and they are not a rarity tier of their own: the card underneath keeps the rarity it always had.
Four rarities, three frame treatments, and one rule that ties them together: a treatment changes how a printing looks, never how rare the card is.
The four rarities
A Magic set is designed with four rarity slots. Every card in a set sits in exactly one of them, and the slot is fixed for that set rather than for the card in general — the same card can appear at a different rarity in a later set.
| Rarity | What it means in a set |
|---|---|
| Common | The most numerous slot. Commons make up the bulk of a pack and of any deck built from packs. |
| Uncommon | Less numerous than common, and the slot where many of a set’s strongest supporting cards sit. |
| Rare | The slot a set’s headline cards are usually printed at. |
| Mythic rare | The scarcest slot in a set. Fewer cards are printed at mythic rare than at any other rarity. |
The rarity is what a pack’s odds are built from. It is not the same question as how many copies of a card exist, because a card can be reprinted at the same rarity in several sets, and each printing adds copies without changing the rarity slot.
The three frame treatments
The treatments Wizards groups under Project Booster Fun are three distinct visual treatments. They look similar in a photograph and are quite different in practice.
| Treatment | What changes | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Borderless | The standard black frame is removed and the illustration runs to the outer edge of the card. The card has no visible frame at all. | Concentrated in Collector Boosters, and most often applied to rares and mythic rares. |
| Extended art | The frame stays, and the same illustration is stretched further left and right than the standard printing allows. | Introduced for Collector Boosters as a Collector Booster treatment. |
| Showcase | A restyled frame built around the specific set’s own theme, replacing the standard frame elements with the set’s visual language. | Most showcase treatments can be opened in ordinary boosters as well as Collector Boosters, depending on the set. |
One caution that follows from the table: borderless and showcase can look alike in a photo, because both break the standard frame. The difference is that borderless removes the frame while showcase replaces it with a themed one. A listing or an official card database is the reliable way to tell them apart.
Why the treatments are not a rarity
This is the single most common misunderstanding about modern Magic, and it has a straight answer. A frame treatment is applied to a card that already carries a rarity, and the rarity does not move.
- A rare printed borderless is still a rare. It is not promoted to mythic rare by the treatment.
- One card can exist in the same set in a standard frame, a borderless frame and a showcase frame, all at the same rarity.
- Treatments did not introduce a new rarity slot; they added a second axis that a pack’s contents vary along.
What the treatments did change is what a Collector Booster guarantees. Because the treatments are part of the product design rather than a rarity, a Collector Booster can promise specific treatment slots without promising a specific rarity — which is why the description of a Collector Booster reads differently from the description of an ordinary pack.
Foil is a third, separate axis
Foil is neither a rarity nor a frame treatment. It is a separate property of the printing, and modern sets use more than one kind of it: traditional foil, foil-etched, textured foil and double rainbow foil have all appeared as distinct finishes. A card can therefore be rare, borderless and foil, or rare, borderless and non-foil, and those are different printings of the same card.
Collectors who track a card usually track rarity, treatment and finish as three separate entries rather than one, because the same name can describe several physically different cards.
Serialized printings
A small number of Magic cards are printed with an individual number as part of the card itself, so that each copy in the run is identifiable. Wizards describes serialized cards as appearing in fewer than one in a hundred Collector Boosters, and states two properties that matter for a collector:
- A serialized card is always printed in English, even when it is opened from a Collector Booster of another language. Opening a Chinese, Japanese or German Collector Booster does not produce a serialized card in that language.
- It is mechanically identical to its non-serialized counterparts. The number is a collecting property, not a rules one.
Because a serialized card can be opened from a booster of any language, its language is the one language a serialized card is never found in. That is a useful thing to know before buying a sealed booster for the language rather than the contents.
What this page does not claim
- It does not give pull rates beyond the one Wizards states for serialized cards. Rates vary by set and product, and a general figure would be wrong for most of them.
- It does not reproduce the arrangement of the collector line. The line below the text box carries the set code, a language code and a rarity marker, but its exact layout has changed between frame eras, so this page describes what it contains rather than how it is spaced.
- It prints no prices and makes no valuation or investment recommendation.
Frequently asked questions
How many rarities does Magic have?
Four: common, uncommon, rare and mythic rare. A card’s rarity is set when the set is designed, and the same card can appear at a different rarity in a later set.
What is a borderless card?
A card printed without the standard black frame, so the illustration runs to the edge of the card. It is a frame treatment rather than a rarity, so the card underneath keeps whatever rarity it was printed at.
Is extended art the same as borderless?
No. An extended-art card keeps the standard frame and stretches the illustration beyond its normal width, while a borderless card removes the frame entirely.
What is a serialized card?
A card printed with an individual number as part of the card itself. Wizards states that serialized cards appear in fewer than one in a hundred Collector Boosters, and that they are always printed in English even when opened from a Collector Booster of another language.
Do these treatments change what the card does?
No. A borderless, extended-art or showcase printing is mechanically identical to the standard printing of the same card, and a serialized card is identical to its non-serialized counterparts.
Sources
Sources and scope
- Wizards of the Coast, Mark Rosewater’s Project Booster Fun design article, July 2019 — the introduction of the treatments as a group, and the statement that they are applied to cards that already carry a rarity rather than replacing rarity.
- Wizards of the Coast, Collector Booster product pages for current sets — the contents of a Collector Booster, the guaranteed treatment slots, and the description of foil-etched, textured foil and other finishes as distinct from rarity.
- Wizards of the Coast, licensed-set Collector Booster product descriptions — that serialized cards are found in fewer than one per cent of Collector Boosters, are always printed in English but can be opened in a Collector Booster of any language, and are mechanically identical to their non-serialized counterparts.
- Wizards of the Coast, Collecting Reality Fracture, 8 September 2026 — a worked example of the treatments in a current set, including a serialized chase card limited to 500 copies and printed only in Collector Boosters.
- Scope note: only details published by Wizards of the Coast are stated as confirmed. Rarity slots are described as they are designed rather than as a pack-opening percentage, and no prices are given.
Product contents, treatments and print runs are set by the publisher and differ from set to set. Check Wizards of the Coast’s own product pages for the set you are buying.
Related reading
- Magic: The Gathering cards
- Simplified Chinese Magic cards
- How to start a Magic collection
- Magic: The Gathering Reality Fracture
- Other card games
- The Card Protection Guide
- Card sleeve thickness, explained
- Card accessories
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).