Four Daily Wins

The True Value(s) of a Rare

The Bottom Line

I'm going to level with you. You probably don't need this. I've included the below calculations for people who are interested, but if performing calculations isn't up your alley, feel free to move along to something more useful to you!

But Why?

The people who make Magic Arena want the true monetary value of their digital assets obscured to you, the consumer. The less you understand about how much your digital currencies can buy for you, the more likely you are to continue spending. 

To accomplish this, not only have they created multiple types of currencies that don't have consistent conversion rates; they have also created a wide array of possible values that you could assign to any given Rare or Mythic.

So, let's try to unpack this, and shed some light on what exactly is happening here. 

You could do this with gold if you wanted to, but since that creates an extra step (gold can't be purchased with real money), we're going to stick with gems for our conversions.

Gems to US Dollars

This one is easy.

 The store has five evergreeen options for purchasing gems.

750 gems for $4.99 = $.00665 per gem

1600 gems for $9.99 = $.00624 per gem

3400 gems for $19.99 = $.00588 per gem

9200 gems for $49.99 = $.00543 per gem

20,000 gems for $99.99 = $.00500 per gem

We'll be working with the last conversion rate because it's the best deal, so for our calculations, one gem is valued at half a penny.

Gems Per Rare/Mythic

This is where things get murky - and again, that's by design. 

Calculating from the Cost of a Pack: We'll start with the calculations from The Anatomy of a Pack , where we used a system of equations to determine that a Rare is worth 136 gems, while a Mythic is worth 204.

This would mean that one Rare on Arena is worth $.68, and a Mythic would be worth $1.02. Since there are (as of February 2025) 3,180 Rares and 1,227 Mythics available on Arena, at these rates, a playset of 4 copies of all of them would cost you $13,655.16. 

Personally, I like to use this rate, because you could put it into practice by using your money to buy packs, which makes it feel more real to me. But let's explore some other options.

Calculating from Gem Reimbursement Rate: When you draft a rare of which you already own 4 copies, the game reimburses you 20 gems; for a Mythic, it's 40 (these rates also apply when opening packs of a set you've already fully collected). This would mean a Rare is worth $.10 and a Mythic is worth $.20.

We could calculate the theoretical cost of buying every card on Arena at that rate, but it would be pointless, because there is no mechanism to buy them for that price. I don't find this one useful.

Calculating from the Cost of Buying a Complete Brawl Deck: Sometimes, Arena will sell complete decks, adjusted by discounting the values of cards you already have.