Rage is a collectible card game based on Werewolf: the Apocalypse where you control a pack of werewolves fighting to save the world. It's a fun game, but where do you start? There's five printed sets (and six fan sets) available, six if you count Limited verses Unlimited. Which ones should you buy?
I'll start with the Limited/Unlimited set.
Why do I want this set?
This is effectively the "base" set. Limited is effectively 1st edition, Unlimited is 2nd. It is also the only set to be issued as boosters and starters. Even if you really just want to play the 'evil' factions from Wyrm, you'll need this set anyway. This is the core set of cards that both groups will use.
What's in this set?
This is the largest set largely because it releases all 13 base factions. Yes, 13. If you want to include the alternate ordering by breed and auspice, this gives you 21 factions. Wow. There's a group for everyone in this set. This is [bobviously a BIG set. About 75% of the cards from a standard deck will come from this set.
The key thing you need from this set is combat cards. You need 20 cards in every combat deck and no more than 2 of any single one. There's 40+ combat actions in Unlimited. Most other sets have 5 or so, so you can't make a deck out of a booster box.
Unlimited also contains most of the Combat Events, including the key card, Frenzy. Later sets have some events, but frenzy is one of the 3 main combat strategies. You want lots of copies of this and of the pack actions.
This set pretty well has the most of everything because it's the largest. There are some card types it doesn't have because they came out in expansions.
What's the difference between Limited and Unlimited?
Limited is effectively 1st edition. Unlimited is 2nd. They were printed within a year of each other so there's not a lot of obvious difference. Some cards got a slightly update in wording but they were generally small changes. Cards are generally assumed to use the Unlimited wording.
The major change between the editions was some cards shifted card types. Some Events became Quests, which were introduced in Umbra. Umbra was printed in between the two editions.
Both Limited and Unlimited are easily available. If you're a collector, you probably want Limited. If you are primarily a player, pick Unlimited.
There are also about four characters that have different art in Limited and Unlimited. You may want both. Dharma Bum, No'Iri'N Ni'Dhonaill, Bron Mac Fionn, and Scar Throat Leech-Killer changed art.
There's a few cards that also got printed with the wrong symbols. If you have a limited version, pay attention to the text, not the symbols.
Boosters or starters?
Ideally, you want at least one starter deck and then go mostly boosters. Unfortunately, it's sometimes hard to find lone starter decks. You may end up buying a whole box of them. A box of starters contains ten decks (or roughly 2 booster boxes worth of cards). If there's no other players nearby, this may be a good way to go, since you'll have enough combat decks for 10 decks. If you have an existing group, you'll probably want Boosters.
In the boosters, combat cards are distributed just on rarity, so with a bad draw, you might not get enough combat cards out of a booster box to build 2 decks. Ow.
Rarity
The big difference between the boosters and starters is with the chase cards. Rage has some of the earliest foil cards and may possibly have the originator of the trend. These aren't like the holofoils for other games, these are actually shiny silver cards. Only the booster boxes have foils.
The chase foils are a pain to get as they are 13 of them! There's a Past Life for each of the tribes. Some are better than others. They also don't exist as regular cards. Expect to find one per booster box.
There's generally a direct correlation between power level and rarity. The more powerful cards are rare. This is largely because early CCGs used rarity as the means of balancing the game. He who had the most rares tends to win. There's plenty of great commons and uncommons, but some rares are clearly superior to common and uncommon cards that do something similar.
This is generally one of the easiest sets to collect, even if its HUGE. The rarity system is well balanced. Only the set of 13 chase foils makes this difficult.
How do I tell apart unlimited and Limited once they're out of the box? Or apart from other sets?
The set mark is in the upper left hand corner. Unlimited and Limited use a set of four slashes. Telling Unlimited and Limited apart is easy because of the hologram. All the sets EXCEPT Unlimited have a hologram in the lower right corner.
The promotional cards also lack the hologram, so if you see a card with no hologram and a different glyph, you've got a promo!
Promos
Everybody loves promos. There's five for this set that appeared in various magazines. Some are really hard to tell apart from Unlimited versions.
Rite: Victory Party- the promo version says "rite" in the title. Unlimited and Limited versions don't.
Scourging the Wyrm & Umbral Quest- in Unlimited, these are Quests. The promo versions they're Events and have no hologram.
Pumpkin Man- this one is tricky to ID. The only difference between the promo and Unlimited is that the Promo version the second sentence reads: "Pumpkin Man can use..." Unlimited is read "THE Pumpkin Man..."
Syntax- Another hard to ID version. In Unlimited and Limited it says "... she and her pack faces..." Promo version has no S. it also wraps the sentences different. The promo version puts the first word of the second sentence (all) on the first line. The normal versions don't.
The bad bits
Being the oldest and largest set, Unlimited naturally generated the most broken cards and the most cards that need errata to make it clear how they work. It was also low on cards to counter other strategies. It's largely offense. Defense is not a big component. If this is the only set you ever played with some cards may seem unstoppable.
If you played this when this first came out, the rules were also TERRIBLE. Some things weren't well thought out, but it was in the first post-Magic glut, so compared to some games, Rage was not that bad. Still, toss out the rules books as soon as you find it and use online rules. It will save you from a headache.
There's also a bunch of common card types missing. If they'd done a 3rd edition they'd be here, but since they were only in sets printed after Unlimited, you won't get any Caerns, Territories, Realms, or Victims in the set. You also can't play Wyrm with this set. There's no Battlefields, but that's actually a GOOD thing. (they're banned from play)
To deal with some of the broken cards, its recommended you download Least Wanted, which reprints some of the broken cards. More than half of the reprints for Least Wanted came from Unlimited. Gaia's Vengeance, Furmling, Bane Arrow, .38 Special, Alias, Eye of the Cobra, Mangle, Master of the Pack, Klaital Stargazer, and Umbral Escape are reprinted. Save yourself rules headaches, print out the PDF.
How much should I be looking to spend?
Fortunately Limited and Unlimited were overprinted so despite being out of print are readily available. For a booster box of either edition, look to spend around $20-$35 US, including shipping. If you buy a starter box, look to spend between $35-$50 US including shipping. Keep in mind, a box of starters is roughly equivalent to buying 2 Booster boxes, but you won't get any foils.
You can sometimes snatch up boxes for less than this, but watch the shipping! Cheap boxes usually make up for it in 'handling' fees.
If you decide you want a whole set of foils, without buying 13 booster boxes, you can usually trade for them or find them online for $3-$10 depending on the card. Klaital Stargazer got a reprint in Least Wanted, so you can grab him for the cost of a color copy.
You can sometimes find boxes through online game stores, but your best bet is Ebay. You may also be able to find full of partial collections for sale.
Summary
If you buy no other set for Rage, but this one. Other sets really enhance the base set and help balance it, but you simply can't use them without this one. It's readily available and easy to collect. It also gives you the most options for factions. Buy Unlimited if given the choice and there's not a big price difference. Get the reprints to go with this.
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Contributor's Note
I am a registered judge for this game and frequently run tournaments.
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