New Techs and Upcoming Meta Trends!

As we arrive closer to the release of Supreme Darkness, let’s take a look at some tech cards that have been seeing play in regional events along with other past format cards and some cards for the future to look at. 

The first card that shocked me to see since it hasn’t been on players radar until a week ago. Soul Drain is up to $5 for Rare and Super Rare, while the Lost Art Promotion Ultra Rare hit $10 and has currently escaped the view of the playerbase once again. Its main focus is to stop cards and effects from activating in the Graveyard and Banished. This card completely shuts down decks such as Maliss or Mermail Atlantean from being able to play under normal circumstances by banishing or discarding their monsters respectively to use their effects, or by summoning the Maliss monsters back by paying life points.

As Field Spells are becoming more prevalent again, Veidos the Eruption Dragon of Extinction is currently hanging around $10 and is an interesting side deck option against Ryzeal and Maliss. Both decks use field spells that are important for their endboard like Ryzeal Cross, or for starting or extending their play like Maliss in Underground. On top of it being effective in that respect, if it were to be sent from your opponent’s field to your Graveyard, you can destroy all monsters on the field as an additional bonus if they use it as a Synchro or Link Material to attempt to continue their plays.

As the format takes shape, Knightmare Gryphon is up to $12 for the Secret Rare, 2$ Ultra Rare, 20 cents Rare) has been seen as a tech in many Maliss players lists. Being able to prevent Non-Linked monsters from activating their effects is essential in this format against threats such as Ryzeal, Yubel, Tenpai Dragon, or Maliss, whose monsters can easily Link to one another to be able to gain advantage over the opponent.

With the recent limitation of Tenpai Dragon Chundra and Sangen Kaimen, Tenpai Dragon Paidra is still holding firmly on to its price at $7.75-$8 as players continue to playtest Tenpai Dragon this format by pairing the archetype with both the Fiendsmith Engine and Bystial monsters. They are still a worthy foe in this format that can end games quickly and with ease.

Once Blue-Eyes becomes a contender for the meta again after the Blue-Eyes White Destiny Structure Deck, Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman around $5 and Destruction Sword Memories is anywhere from $2.50 – $3.50 will be used in a different version of Blue-Eyes. Buster Blader Blue-Eyes has been picking up in traction in the OCG as Blue-Eyes reign supreme once again after a 9-year slumber since 2016. Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman only has a single printing from Breakers of Shadow from early 2016 as a Super Rare, while Destruction Sword Memories has 2 Common printings from The Dark Illusion and 2017 Mega-Tin Pack.

Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon currently has only 3 printings, each of which are from the Dark Side of Dimensions Movie Pack (as a $6 Gold Rare, $11 Ultra, and $18 Secret Rare respectively), and it has a 100% possibility of being in the Blue-Eyes White Destiny Structure Deck. Despite this, players are flocking to the higher rarity options to bling out their deck. Being the biggest fusion they would ordinarily make in Primite builds, it’s the strongest Fusion to run in the Deck. This monster can declare additional attacks by sending Blue-Eyes Fusion Monsters from the Extra Deck to the GY, which can help close out games faster. It also allows you to protect your Blue-Eyes monsters from targeting effects by banishing itself from the GY.

Being the manga counterpart to Yusei’s Shooting Quasar Dragon, Stardust Sifr Divine Dragon hitting $14-$15 for both Ultra Rare Copies has been a great option to use with Crimson Dragon in Blue-Eyes and Centur-Ion decks. While this Monster is on your field, every card you control gains a one-off protection against destruction per turn , which is vital considering many decks have a number of options when it comes to card destruction. On top of this, it also has a quick effect that you can negate 1 Monster effect your opponent activates per turn, which also then allows you to destroy one of their cards to disrupt their plays.

With many players eyeing the new Gladiator Beast support from Supreme Darkness, a few are also picking up Tri-Brigade cards. One of these cards is Tri-Brigade Fraktall, which can be found anywhere from $1.50-$2 since it is the main combo starter for this specific engine. With every Tri-Brigade Main Deck Monster having the effect to banish a certain amount of Beast, Beast-Warrior and Winged Beast monsters from the Graveyard to summon Link Monsters from the Extra Deck, they can help further extend your combos. Test Panther is one of the best targets to summon here since allowing you to tagout a Gladiator Beast monster on your field with a different named one from your Deck can net you some advantages.

Another big pickings for support from Supreme Darkness, Crystron Quariongandrax, Crystron Sulfefnir and Crystron Citree, have both been spiking up in price. Crystron Quariongandrax has been steady being around $17+ while Crystron Citree has shown its force hitting around $17 and Crystron Sulfefnir crept up to $5 a copy. From looking at lists players have been testing in TCG to the state of OCG, it seems like the deck will have a solid rogue status as we head into the new format. Some players have been using the Horus engine to get your Crystron Monsters in the graveyard, along with Therion “King” Regulus since Crystrons are Machine monsters. Others meanwhile make use of Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls, or approach the deck in a pure manner. I’m excited to see what players do with these new cards and how well this deck will perform.

As we head closer to the release of Maze of the Master, Protector of the Sanctuary being $1.75-$3 on common copies and $4+ for the Dark Revelation 2 Rare will be a useful card to search off of Seventh Tachyon. Number 106: Giant Hand is an ideal target to reveal for Seventh Tachyon since it is an EARTH attribute Number 10X monster, meeting the requirements to add this card from your Deck. Protector of the Sanctuary stops your opponent from drawing cards outside of the Draw Phase, so it puts a stop to effects such as Mulcharmy Fuwalos, Mulcharmy Purulia and Mulcharmy Meowls. This then allows you to combo in peace denying your opponent any advantage.

Everyone’s favorite past format Reptile deck Worms has been having some heads turning due to rumours of a possible Terminal World 3 set. Worm Xex and Worm Yagan both stabilized around $7.50-$8.50 for DT Normal Parallel Rare and 50 cents for the Super Rare are the primary Main Deck monsters in a Worm Control strategy. The presence of another Worm on the field (in this case, Yagan) prevents Xex from being destroyed by battle, while Yagan can return any monster your opponent controls back to the hand when it is flipped face-up. Other parts of this strategy include W Nebula Meteorite which allow you to change all LIGHT Reptiles you control to face-down Defense Position then letting you draw 1 card for each, or Worm King which can help you close out the game by attacking with Worm King, Xex and Yagen on your turn.

With the reveal of Mitsurugi in the TCG, Planet Pollutant Virus a $5+ Rare from Crimson Crisis has been going up in price as the Reptile pile deck gained additional pieces to their combo plays. Planet Pollutant Virus allows you to tribute 1 Alien monster you control to destroy all monsters your opponent controls without A-Counters. This lasts for the next 3 turns, but after activation you place an A-Counter on each monster they summon instead of destroying them. ThisAs  pairs extremely well with Cosmic Slicer Zer’oll from Dawn of Majesty as it adds Planet Pollutant Virus from your Deck to your hand while distributing A-Counters, switching all your opponent’s monsters into Defence Position and negating their effects as long as they have A-Counters on them. In the Alien deck, A-Counters are vital as they grant your monsters benefits while  disrupting your opponent’s cards.

Of many of the cards from the original OCG Premium Pack, Magician of Black Chaos ($2-$3 for the Speed Duel Common and Legendary Collection: Yugi’s World/Yugi’s Legendary Decks Ultra Rare, $10 for Speed Duel Ultra Rare, and $13+ for the Premium Pack (TCG) Secret Rare is one of the six cards left from the Tokyo Dome pack to receive a retrain. Many players like myself are hoping that this card gets its own deck, much like the treatment Skull Guardian received in Phantom Nightmare in 2024.

For the Dark Magician players, Bond Between Teacher and Student is still $17 and above that still has been forever locked to the Ultra Rare rarity. This card, originally released in Duel Power, hasn’t seen the light of day in some time. With the release of Quarter Century Stampede coming in a couple months, here’s hoping this card gets a reprint in the future to be more accessible to players.

Graydles have been a fan favorite deck since 2015 with Graydle Kaiju. Graydle Dragon has hits $12 and has only had 1 Print from Dimension of Chaos as a Super Rare. As the main boss monster of the deck, it’s quite shocking to see it having a neglect of a reprint. Let’s hope this card didn’t get skipped for a reprint slot for upcoming reprint sets. 

As new support for Ancient Fairy Dragon was released in the OCG, Ancient Forest being $17 and more has been the main target of players to pick up as it helps to force all your opponent monsters to attack position on activation. With the new Ancient Fairy Life Dragon (YGOrganization Translation) it’s a niche tech since all Monsters that mention Ancient Fairy Dragon can attack while in defense, and with Eternal Sunshine these Monsters also gain 500 Defense for each Ancient Fairy Dragon (and monster that mention it) that you control.

Skimming through lists from the Official Card Game (OCG), there was a single list that caught my eye. It was an Argostar list running copies of both You’re Finished and That’s 10! Both being under 20 cents a copy. Between these two cards, That’s 10! is a useful piece for the deck as once the 10th Access Counter is placed on this card, it returns itself to the hand to set 1 Continuous Trap that can Special Summon itself to your Spell/Trap zone from your Deck which can also be activated the same turn. By setting, activating and summoning You’re Finished, you can then respond to your opponent’s card or effect activation by destroying as many cards as they control then resetting itself for a later turn. This duo works well with Argostars since their main style of play is to use Trap Monsters that can summon themselves. Adding Silhouette Rabbit into your Extra Deck can also help boost the consistency of this deck because It allows you to set Trap Monsters that can summon themselves from the deck.

As we continue into the New Year players have been testing out many ideas for this new format. I cannot wait to see how much Supreme Darkness adjusts the format for the upcoming YCS Orlando, Florida in February. Thank you all for the wave of support and feedback from the last article, it was much appreciated!