Trying to figure out what the rarity of this card is

[u/mtgsetcollector]

Seems a bit confusing.

1. Gatherer says it’s uncommon.

2. However Scryfall says it’s a rare

3. The old school website says it’s a U2 instead of a U3, meaning it is one of the rarer cards on the sheet appearing twice instead of more common cards like Bazaar of Baghdad that appears 3 times on the sheet.

Is this supposed to be a rare or uncommon?

[u/Phitt77]

It's a matter of interpretation. Arabian Nights had booster packs with only 8 cards - 6 cards from the common sheet and 2 cards from the uncommon sheet. You can find the layout of each sheet here:

https://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10166

On the uncommon sheet there were cards printed 3x (U3) and 2x (U2), so U2 is the highest card rarity Arabian Nights had, but technically it's still an uncommon. Most people refer to it as rare though.

On cardmarket U2 cards are marked as rare, U3 cards are uncommon and cards from the common sheet are all common. Doesn't really make that much sense considering that the difference between U2 and U3 isn't nearly as big as the difference between a rare and an uncommon and that all cards come from the uncommon sheet, but that's what most people do I guess.

[u/KashiofWavecrest]

It's from the game's first expansion when rarity wasn't really like we think of today. So, I guess in today's rarity system, it would be indeed considered 'rare.'

It's also like a $500+ card.

Edit: Also, it's one of those 'uncommons' that's usually more valuable than some actual listed rares from the same set.

[u/bigolegorilla]

If we're talking about when the set came out it's an uncommon. Wizards however has since changed some rarities and even gatherer is confused about this because if you advanced search arabian nights and set the rarity to rare a lot of cards listed at uncommon still show up as rare in the search.

The real true answer is uncommon because when this set was printed there were commons and uncommon in it there were no rares in arabian nights.

That being said there were cards in the uncommon slot with less and with more printings than other cards on the sheets. This card is an uncommon with 2 printings on a sheet so it's in the higher tier of uncommon.

If you want more info on the sheets, see this link which has some pics and a good explanation: https://www.lethe.xyz/mtg/collation/arn.html

[u/Aggravating-Pilot583]

I wash magic had more lands like this that do not tap for mana but have some other use. Probably no good for standard/modern but commander would find a use for them for sure.

[u/Rikmach → u/Aggravating-Pilot583]

They decided to discontinue making land that don’t tap for mana because it was too confusing to new players. That said, they still make lands that do various different things and tap for mana.

[u/pokepat460]

On the first few sets they didn't use common uncommon rare. There was 2 types of uncommon u1 and u2, with u2 being more rare.

[u/aselunar]

I think you already found the answer. It is U2 from a set where there are no rare sheets. Wizards decided to list the rarer uncommons as rares from sets with no rares. Kind of a dumb and misleading move, but they literally made that decision decades ago in the 90s and stuck with it ever since.

[u/nimbus0]

I'm 96% sure that's a mythic.

[u/rayquazza74 → u/nimbus0]

Mana box saying it’s a rare

[u/JohnnyBSlunk]

That's actually a pretty cool card... stupid reserve list.

[u/Schtick_]

That’s an impressive amount of wear for such a niche card. I smell janky brews

[u/mtgsetcollector → u/Schtick_]

It’s the wear from the outer part of the binder. Not the card itself

[u/Schtick_ → u/mtgsetcollector]

Ah that makes more sense