Mythereum — Understanding Rarity
Welcome everyone to yet another fun, exciting adventure to the intricacies of Mythereum! Today we will look a bit deeper into the current Rarity system that Mythereum employs. Now keep in mind, for the time being rarity has no effect in game other than being a vanity visual (which looks amazing!). We covered the release of the rarities in this article (HERE), so what this article will provide is a mental flow that will help you identify rarities by rank in a very easy-to-do method.
P.S. note: Rarities in Mythereum are much different than in other traditional card games, and they are based on real life gem types and rarities, as picked out by Mark Ranford! Mark had also hinted that at the time of implementation, having the rarities contribute some sort of future effect is not off the table!
There are a total of 15 rarities, 14 of which are represented by gemstones and similarly matching colored borders. So for a simple breakdown of the above image, the top left is rarest, and the bottom right is most common (except #15 which doesn’t have a stone, just a placeset).
So how do we differentiate between then gems (not including rainbow of course)?
Easy, we do a 3–4–4–3 split. If you start at the top left, you can see 3 unique gemstyles, followed by 4 identical gemstone cuts (not colors but shape), from there, and additional 4 come in the next row, followed by three in the most common area.
The following images captures each “Tier” into its playset. There are a total of 4 tiers, with blank carbons not being included:
Starting Top to bottom, left to right, we see rarest to least rare. Each Tier is represented by a unique cut (except the prime tier — each has its own). It is easy to remember that:
A. Rares (1): Rainbow, then Black Oval, and then Blue Diamond, being rarest in that particular order (ROD).
B. Teardrop Tier (2): Red, Green, Blue then Purple (RGB-P).
3. Square Tier (3): Orange, Teal, Dark Blue, Light Blue (OTB-DL).
4. Obelisk Tier (4): Lavender, Gold, White (LGW).
With that being said, its easiest to remember by gem cuts:
Unique, Teardrop, Squares, Obelisks (UTSO).
Mnemonic Devicing — each of the abbreviations can be submitted to memory.
This is how I do it:
- ROD: Car ramROD from Super Troopers (Farva constantly tries to imply his partnership makes car Ramrod).
- RGB(P): Red green Blue as televisions color scheming, and then of course purple light thereafter.
- OTB(DL): OTB being OffTrackBetting and DL being DownLow. Both common abbreviations used in big cities.
- LGW: As weird as it sounds, Lesbian, Gay, White. Don’t ask, it just works. (I commonly hear LGTBQ these days, and White comments such as -superiority, privilege etc, makes easy reference points for memory).
Disclaimer: None of these terms or concepts represent any of my personal preferences, positions or anything of the sort, they are strictly for Mnemonic Devicing. The same applies to Mythereum, and any coincidence, is strictly that.
With that being said, it is my hopes that you may be familiar with one or more of these. If not, maybe try to find similarities in your culture, experiences or world and see how you can also apply this tactic.
Now, none of what’s above is intended, and strictly a tool I am offering to help you remember. [ ROD RGB-P OTB(DL) LGW ]. The creators of Mythereum also determined the rarity designs, and likely there was some learning moment intentions here as well. Not many people are familiar with the cuts and types of gemstones that exist in the world, however, the creators are offering some insight! So maybe take some time to learn, and you may have some handy, applicable knowledge! Below are the names of the fourteen gemstones being used:
Rarity Gems
Top Tier Gems (Unique Gem Shapes):
1. The Mythstone — (The Rarest Gem in Mythereum)
2. Black Opal
3. Diamond
2nd Tier Gems (Classic Elegant Gemstone cuts)
4. Ruby
5. Emerald
6. Sapphire
7. Taafiette
3rd Tier Gems (Standard Gemstone cuts)
8. Painite
9. Grandidierite
10. Tanzanite
11. Benetoite
4th Tier Gems (Common simple cuts)
12. Amethyst
13. Topaz
14. Quartz
15. Carbon — (most common has no gem)
Now, when reviewing the above list, remember the actual names are different from the colors used in the mnemonic devicing mentioned above. Some of these gemstones are commonly used in the marketplaces around the world, while others are rarer. Ruby, Emerald, and Topaz are household names, but Painite, Grandidierite and Benetoite are generally not. The colors associated with these can be correlated with their tiers, and are also searchable on the official Mythereum website.
getting to know the rarities in this fashion is more rewarding, but also much more difficult. Starting from the top left, the first six, not so hard. But man, what happens when we get to the first purple……TAAFIETTE! What the heck is a TAAFIETTE we are probably saying to ourselves. Out of the 14 listed, 5 have generally unknown names, which can be turned around to your favor.
First 6 = known names
Middle 5 = unknown
Final 3/4 = pretty well known
I’d love to hand over some Mnemonic devicing for these…….but its extremely difficult. TPGTB runs into a problem due to the 2x T’s present, and they’re both followed by A’s to boot. Luckily, we all can agree, the third tier are all unique gemstones unheard of in most places, and that tier 2 ends with TAAF, so it shouldn’t be too hard to differentiate this way.
My suggestion? Until you memorize them, just save the image with the names, that’s the easiest way, as it tiers the rarity from top to bottom, and provides all names. Using the above mentioned Mnemonic devicing, you can then correlate each to one another by color and shape.
Luckily, since they do not currently provide any unique function other than a visual, it really does not matter if you know these or not! The people who will benefit most from this knowledge listed out here today are collectors and investors.
If you would like to know more about Mnemonic Devicing, feel free to check THIS article out (HERE) if you missed it, or just simply do a scholastic or google search on the term!
