Rifter

The ledger, read

Analytics

Market structure from daily TCGplayer closes, cross-read against 500 community decklists. Decklists and prices only — never win rates.

$159
index level
1,171
printings priced
500
decks read
1
daily closes

Set power

Epic vs rare market price, by set

Average is skewed upward by a few chase cards; median is what a typical card is worth. The gap between the two bars is the chase premium.

Epic cards — average vs median

AverageMedian

Rare cards — average vs median

OGN average $0.16OGN median $0.16$0.16$0.16OGN
AverageMedian
RaritySetCountAverageMedianMinMax
rareOGN1$0.16$0.16$0.16$0.16

Price curves

The top-50 price curve of each set

Every set's cards sorted by price. A curve that stays high deep into its ranks is a set whose value is broad, not one lucky chase card.

$0$9$18OGN — top 50 card prices, sortedOGNSFD — top 50 card prices, sortedSFDUNL — top 50 card prices, sortedUNLVEN — top 50 card prices, sortedVENcard rank within set (most expensive → 50th)
OGNSFDUNLVEN

The hypothesis, measured

Set universality — do OGN & SFD cards go in every deck?

The market thesis says early-set epics and rares are priced high because they slot into any deck. Read against 500 real decklists (runes excluded): OGN+SFD cards appear in 98% of decks on average, UNL+VEN in 52%. The data supports the thesis.

Share of decks running ≥1 card from the set

OGN
99%
SFD
97%
UNL
93%
VEN
10%

Average deck slots from the set

OGN
19.5
SFD
10.8
UNL
11.7
VEN
0.6

Bulk & chase

Where each set's value actually lives

Share of printings worth under $1 (the bulk rate), and how much of the set's total market value its top five cards hold.

Bulk rate — printings under $1

OGN
66%
SFD
66%
UNL
68%
VEN
68%

Top-5 cards' share of set value

OGN
54%
SFD
51%
UNL
47%
VEN
29%

Set chase leaders: OGN Nine-Tailed Fox $3000.96 · SFD Ahri, Inquisitive $3089.05 · UNL Baron Nashor $1634.89 · VEN Rogue Assassin $404.49

Treatments

What a treatment is worth

Median price multiplier of each art treatment over its base printing (same card, same set), and the foil premium per set.

Treatment multiplier vs base

showcase
42.8× (6)

Foil premium (median, per set)

OGN
2.9× (164)
SFD
2.8× (123)
UNL
3.3× (123)
VEN
3.2× (94)

Playability

The staples — and the value board

Most-run main-deck cards across the corpus, with the cheapest printing's price. Runes excluded — every deck runs 12 and they'd swamp the chart.

Defy
32% $4.66
Discipline
30% $2.06
Stacked Deck
28% $16.76
Star-Crossed
26% $0.17
Hidden Blade
26% $1.03
Punch First
24% $0.20
Charm
22% $0.89
Stupefy
21% $0.24
Thousand-Tailed Watcher
21%
Falling Star
20%
Noxus Hopeful
19% $0.41
Gust
19% $0.21

Cheap staples — power per dollar

Pricey but unplayed — collector-driven

Sealed

Box price vs the set it contains

Booster box market price against the summed value of one of every card in the set (normal finish). Not pull EV — Riot doesn't publish collation rates, and industry practice says most boxes open below their sticker anyway.

Pool structure

The shape of the card pool

Energy curve of all units, spells and gear; domain and keyword distribution across identities.

Cards by energy cost

7
0
59
1
189
2
180
3
143
4
97
5
73
6
29
7
21
8
5
9
9
10

Cards per domain

order
166
body
164
calm
162
fury
160
mind
159
chaos
157
colorless
76

Most common keywords

Reaction
112
Action
91
Equip
50
Empowered
45
Hidden
44
Empower
41
Deflect
40
Ganking
37
Add
31
Accelerate
26