<< Reflections II Home Page

Rarity of Foil cards in Star Wars CCG Reflections II: Expanding the Galaxy

The foil card program is a little different from the first Reflections set. So, it might help some people to see a list of the changes, together with explanations as to why those changes are good ones - both for players and collectors.

In Reflections II, there are 100 different foil cards: 50 Dark Side and 50 Light Side. They are split into three rarity levels, with 4 ultra-rare foils (URF), 62 super rare foils (SRF), and 34 very rare foils (VRF). Because of production economics, the display and case topper cards are also printed on the same master sheets, and separated out after they are cut. There are two of each on the sheets, along with one blank card to separate them from the rest of the cards. This makes the toppers easy to identify during the sorting process.

Dark Side
# of Cards	Times Printed on Sheet	Rarity Type
1	2	Case Topper
1	2	Display Topper
1	1	blank card
3	1	Ultra-Rare Foil (URF)
28	2	Super Rare Foil (SRF)
19	3	Very Rare Foil (VRF)

Light Side
# of Cards	Times Printed on Sheet	Rarity Type
3	2	Display Topper
1	1	blank card
1	1	Ultra-Rare Foil (URF)
34	2	Super Rare Foil (SRF)
15	3	Very Rare Foil (VRF)

If you multiply each of those numbers, you'll find that each sheet adds to 121, which is the size of an uncut sheet (11x11).

The changes from Reflections I are numerous:
1) 1:242 URF ratio instead of 1:400
2) 1:2:3 rarity ratio instead of 1:2:4
3) 4/62/34 card split instead of 2/25/87 (100 instead of 114)
4) drawing foils from premium and rare cards instead of just rare cards

Things that stayed the same are the MSRP ($5.00 per pack), the pack size (18 cards), and the number of packs per display (30).

Let's tackle the changes one at a time.
1) What these numbers mean is that in Reflections I, each ultra-rare foil (Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker) was found on average once every 400 packs. In Reflections II, each URF is found on average once every 242 packs. Not only that, but there are four of them! (Emperor Palpatine; Lord Vader; Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight; Mara Jade, The Emperor's Hand)

This means that, in the same number of packs it took on average to get both ultra-rares in Reflections I, you will get about 6.6 ultra-rares in Reflections II!!

2) What this ratio means is the number of times each of those cards is on the uncut sheet. So, 1:2:3 means an URF is on the sheet one time, a SRF two times, and a VRF three times. The change here is that the VRFs used to be on the sheet four times. This means you won't get as many duplicate VRFs... instead, you'll get more SRFs and URFs.

3) This number has been going around the online discussion groups lately, and many people think it is a negative. It is not! Raising the number of SRFs from 25 to 62 is good!

Why? Because every single SRF is still on the sheet two times. Increasing the number of SRFs does not change this fact. What IS changed is that you don't get as many duplicates of your VRF foils. Instead of duplicates, you get more different cards.

4) We thought long and hard about foiling premium cards. We did not want to hurt the value of previous premium products that retailers or distributors still have in stock. Helping this factor tremendously is the rarity program. Getting an Enhanced Premiere "Darth Vader With Lightsaber" is guaranteed when you purchase the fixed pack. Getting one in Reflections II is random.

In addition, where possible we did not include all of the cards in any particular premium product. So, there will always be cards available in those products only. This doesn't work for Enhanced Premiere, of course, since there is only one premium in each pack. It has also been more than two years since this product came out. Chances are that any retailer who still has this product on hand has it more for completeness than because it is selling in any quantity. In any event, there are always people who prefer the normal cards over the foil versions.

I hope this article has helped clarify our decisions and the reasons why we made them. Be on the lookout for a companion article that will explain the rarities of the expanded universe and combo cards, and for the full card lists of the three groups of premium cards!

Sandy Wible
Technical Manager for Product Development
December 7, 2000