Yugioh Card Distribution

Since my son got into Yugioh cards I have been curious about the odds of getting cards in a booster box. I have now opened 5 booster boxes and recorded the results. The odds on the back are pretty accurate, and fairly consistent. Here are the results.

A normal booster box contains 24 booster packs, each booster pack contains 9 cards.

Card Type	Count per Box
Common	183
Rare	24
Super Rare	5
Ultra Rare	2
Ultimate Rare	1
Secret Rare	1

What does this mean? Well depending on your goals you need to weigh the cost of buying packs with what cards you want to find. Say for instance your goal is a complete set of a certain booster pack, using the rough odds above it will take about 10-12 booster boxes to get all secret and ultimate rares. That should also result in several duplicates in ultra and super rares which could help build a great deck. Be careful though, it may be cheaper to buy the cards you are missing or want from a collection site than opening them all yourself. They typically get booster boxes at a lower cost than your average hobbyist. 

As an example I was building a deck, and wanted several Secret Rare tuners from a booster series. This particular tuner was priced at $7.50 online so 3 cost $22.50. That is much less than if I were to try and get 3 from booster boxes. I would most likely have to open 30 or so booster boxes to get 3 duplicate Secret Rares. There are secret rares though that at times can pay for an entire booster box so every once in a while you get lucky and a box is free if you aren't collecting that card.

Good gaming!