(Preface: I found this detailed breakdown from this comment from a 5-year old thread, and I feel it's worth making a dedicated thread about it as it's very informative, and I think more people should know about this. I made some revisions, but full credit goes to the commenter from the link above).
Each OCG core set (as of ROTD) has 30 packs per set (5 cards per pack, at least a Rare guaranteed in each pack) and only has 18 Rares, 10 Supers, and 8 Ultras. You pull 24 Rares, 6 Supers, 3 Ultras, and 4 "others" (Secret, Prismatic, Ulti, Holographic Rare, and formerly Ghost & 20th Ann.) per box - usually 1 Secret, 1 Ulti, & 1 Prismatic, plus 1 random non-Ulti holo from the "+1 Bonus Pack" in each box.
Notice how I left out the "others" from the card pools? That's because the OCG has no cards that only appear as a Secret Rare (or any of the "others"). Those cards are just alt-holo versions of thesame cards that are already Supers & Ultras.(Your Ulti is basically just a 4th Ultra. For the Secret, Prismatic, & Bonus Pack, 10/18 of the time, it's a Super, and 8/18 of the time, it's an Ultra.) So you actually pull 7.666 "Supers" (6 + 3*10/18) and 5.333 "Ultras" (4 + 3*8/18) per box.
Each TCG core set has (as of ETCO) has 24 packs per set (9 cards per pack, at least a Super guaranteed in every set), with 0 Rares, 26 Supers, 14 Ultras, and an absurd10Secrets. You pull 18 Supers, 4 Ultras, & a pitiful 2 Secrets per box.
In the OCG, the expected number of copies of each card per box are:
- Common: 2.5909 (114 per box, 44 per set)
- Rare: 1.3333 (24 per box, 18 per set)
- Super: 0.7666 (7.666 per box, 10 per set)
- Ultra: 0.6666 (5.333 per box, 8 per set)
In the TCG:
- Common: 3.84 (192 per box, 50 per set)
- "Super": 0.69 (18 per box, 26 per set)
- "Ultra": 0.28 (4 per box, 14 per set)
- "Secret": 0.2 (2 per box, 10 per set)
This leads to a neat little talking point that should make you royally pissed off at Konami: Thelowestnon-Common rarity in the TCG, Super, is about as rare as thehighestOCG rarity, Ultra.
It's even worse when you realize the cost of an OCG box is only 4500 yen (about $45), compared to ~$75 for a TCG box. (And the OCG price is the MSRP; the TCG price is from TCG Player. If we go by MSRP, TCG boxes cost nearly $100. More thandoublethe price for much fewer good cards.)
So, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, imagine if you boughtonebox of ETCO or ROTD for $90, and pulled69 Supers,21 Ultras, and13 Secret Rares. That's how good it is in the OCG.
TCG Commons are all unplayable garbage (not so in the OCG - many good cards show up as Commons and Rares over there), and so are most of our Supers as well. Since playable TCG cards show up so much less frequently, their prices necessarily must be higher (a lot higher) to cover the cost of the box.
In the OCG, suppose you want a specific Ultra Rare - you would get 1 copy per 1.5 boxes, on average. In the TCG, suppose you want a specific Secret Rare - you would only get 1 copy per5boxes! You could (and would)literally fill a garbage bagwith the all unplayable, unsellable crap you'd get per playset of a competitive TCG Secret Rare - not just commons, but also the cards that got "bumped" up to pad out those massive rarity pools. It's not like the cards we get are any better simply because they're rarer. Most of our Supers, Ultra, and even some Secrets were unplayable filler Commons & Rares in the OCG.
In the OCG, 5 boxes (about $200) would get you (on average) at least a playset of every card in a set.
- Ultras: 5 boxes * 5.333 Ultras/box = 26.66 Ultras (3.33 copies of all 8)
- Supers: 5 boxes * 7.666 Supers/box = 38.33 Supers (3.83 copies of all 10)
- Rares: 5 boxes * 24 Rares/box = 120 Rares (6.66 copies of all 18)
- Commons: 5 boxes * 114 Commons/box = 570 Commons (12.95 copies of all 44)
In the TCG, you need 15 boxes. (over $1,000)
- Secrets: 15 boxes * 2 Secrets/box = 30 Secrets (3 copies of all 10)
- Ultras: 15 boxes * 4 Ultras/box = 60 Ultras (4.3 copies of all 14)
- Supers: 15 boxes * 18 Supers/box = 270 Supers (10.4 copies of all 26)
- Commons: 15 boxes * 192 Commons/box = 2,880 Commons (57.6 copies of all 50)
Also, the OCG tends to put staple meta cards and/or cards you need full playsets of as Supers & Rares (and sometimes Commons), rather than Ultras. S:P Little Knight, Dominus Impulse and Dominus Purge, Silhouatte Rabbit, and Snake Eyes Poplar, among others were all Supers. WANTED, Fiendsmith Tract, Bystial Magnamhut, Mulcharmy Purulia and Mulcharmy Fuwaross were Rares, and Bystial Druiswurm, Bystial Baldrake, and Silhouatte Trick were Commons.
In the TCG, any useful meta card is immediately a Secret (or Ultra if we're lucky), especially if you need a full playset and/or it's a staple.
Watch an OCG box opening likethis,this, orthison YouTube. Every $X of sealed product gets you so much more value (in terms of usefulness, not re-sale card prices) in the OCG.
