WhileDiablo 4andMagic: The Gatheringare two very different games, with the former being an online live-service action RPG and the latter being a tabletop game with physical cards, they do share an interesting similarity.Magic: The Gatheringis not new to crossovers with other IPs, to the point that itsThe Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earthsetis just a part of the Universes Beyond sub-brand of the iconic tabletop card game, with it often adding sets in the form of Secret Lair packs. What makesThe Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earthspecial is the fact that it has a single The One Ring special card, and it can easily be compared toDiablo 4’s chase Uniques.
The concept of chase Uniques in games comes from the fact that loot can be obtained in different rarities, and even then, some items of the highest rarity may not be exactly like the others.Diablo 4’s ultra-rare chase Uniquesare six, and players can only obtain them from level 85+ enemies with very slim odds. These are all extremely powerful pieces of gear, but they are so rare that they could easily be a one-in-a-lifetime drop, especially considering how seasons work.
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Diablo 4’s Chase Uniques Could be as Rare as Magic The Gathering’s 2 Million Card
Diablo 4’s seasons will require new charactersfor players to join them, and while this has been a staple of the action RPG genre for a long time, it has also raised some eyebrows considering how grindy the game can be at high levels. With a constant renewal of characters and in-game population, reaching a level that’s high enough to allow chase Uniques to drop is already going to be out of the ordinary for most of the playerbase, especially if this has to be achieved with every single season.
As such,Diablo 4’s best Unique itemscould very well drop in one or two copies each per season within the entire playerbase, which makes their rarity comparable to that ofThe Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth’s The One Ring special card. It’s worth noting that this card has amassed offers upward of $2 million due to it being the only one in existence, although Wizards of the Coast did print multiple regular The One Ring cards with its in-game text and effect laid out. Instead, this one-of-a-kind card’s text is purely written in Lord of the Rings' own Black Speech.
It’s likely that Wizards of the Coast is not done with similar sets and unique cards that prompt a community-wide search, which in this case raised the prices ofThe Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earthsets by quite a lot, now dipping after the reveal that The One Ring had been found. Coincidentally, this one-of-oneMagic: The Gatheringcard was found on June 30, just a few weeks after the release of the set, and the same happened for the last of the six chase Uniques inDiablo 4, which now has been documented to have dropped for one very lucky player.
InDiablo 4, these ultra-rare items will, unfortunately, be confined to the realm they were found in, meaning that current copies will not be transferable toDiablo 4’s first-season characters. Considering how rare the chase Uniques are, how steep the curve is before players can find them, and how they are bound to either Eternal or seasonal characters, any single player finding one of them could be as lucky as the owner ofMagic: The Gathering’s The One Ring card. Granted,Diablo 4items are digital-only and provide no further value beyond the game, whereas it’s not uncommon forMagic: The Gatheringto have pricey cards.
Diablo 4is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
