Regular Cards: 

• Black circle: common
• Black diamond: uncommon

Rare Cards: 

• Black star: rare or holo rare
• White star: ultra rares that will include EX, Full Art, or Secret Rare
• Reverse Holos 
• Holographic Cards 

Regular Cards: 

 

• Normal Common : Your standard common card, and the easiest to find.
• Short Print Common: As the name suggests, these common cards are printed in short supply, and while more common than the other rarities, they aren't as common as your typical commons.
• Super Short Print Common: Much rarer than the Short Print commons, but more rare than the other rarities.

Rare Cards: 

 

• Rare (R): Rare cards are similar to Common cards except they use silver or black holofoil for the card name letters. These are the most common rarity of card to find next to Common cards.
• Super Rare (SR): Super Rare cards have the card art printed in in holofoil.
• Holofoil Rare (HFR): Holofoil Rare cards have the card art printed holofoil and include a holofoil coating.
• Ultra Rare (UR): Ultra Rare cards are a combination of Super and normal Rare cards, with holofoil lettering and holofoil. The difference here is that the name is printed in gold foil instead of silver or black.
• Ultimate Rare (UtR): Similar to the Ultra Rares, except that both the art, borders, and card 'buttons' (depicting the card type and, with monsters, their level) are embossed in a relief effect. These cards are generally reprints of Super and Ultra (and in the English game, normal Rare) cards of the recent sets, within those recent sets (meaning that you can sometimes get an Ultra Rare card and its Ultimate Rare counterpart in the same set). Be careful with these cards, as their unique printing also makes them thinner and flimsier than normal cards.
• Secret Rare (ScR): Secret Rares (also known as Promo Rares) are the same as the Ultra Rare cards, except that the foil on the name is holographic silver, while the holofoil art is polarized, giving a cross-hatched look to it.
• Ultra Secret Rare (UScR): Ultra Secret Rare cards have silver holofoil letters and holofoil backgrounds.
• Secret Ultra Rare (ScUR): Secret Ultra Rare cards have gold holofoil letters and use the polarized holofoil of Secret Rare cards.
• Prismatic Secret Rare (PScR): These have Silver holographic letters and a prism holofoil background.
• Parallel Rare (PR): Parallel Rare cards have the same polarizing effect of a Secret Rare over the ENTIRE card. They come in a few flavors noted below. These cards are the trickiest to find, as they're only printed as certain promos, and their appearance can also be mistaken as being fake.