Unearth Hidden Gems and Useful Techs from the Past!

Watching discussions online and seeing what has been happening to the game has been pretty interesting. As we see, people develop the format to what the future of the game will be, and as such, many older cards have been going up in price. Let’s take a look and see what players have been doing for past formats, and looking at the future with a certain Primite card.

Let’s finally talk about the main card everyone will be needing for any Primite Deck, Primite Lordly Lode. Back when it was released, many put it in their binders for small trades or add-ins, as it was around $3. Now as we inch closer to Primite Dragon Ether Beryl, Primite Lordly Lode is currently sitting around $50 a copy. Players are hyped and ready for the release of Supreme Darkness and Structure Deck: Blue-Eyes White Destiny. This card single handedly makes Primite much more of a potent engine for Decks that can utilize the addition of a Normal Monster for combo plays or an extension to get to Primite Drillbeam for your opponent’s turn.

Looking through the market, one thing that caught me completely off guard was how pricey Dark Sage is. With only 4 printings from Dawn of Destiny (NA Prismatic Secret Rare & EU Super Rare), Dark Beginning 1 and Legendary Collection 3: Yugi’s World, this card has gone up around 24% for each. The video game promo versions from Dawn of Destiny sits around $15 for EU’s Super Rare while the NA’s Prismatic Secret Rare is hitting up to $30 and above. Dark Beginning 1’s Ultra Rare sits at $25 and up, while the Common version from Yugi’s World is around $8-10. Could there be some dark magic brewing for future support for Dark Sage or is this a nostalgic gold mind?

With the recent introduction to the Mitsurugi archetype, players have been using it in odd ways. By using it as a small engine in Ryzeal, you can utilize them to make Infernal Flame Banshee, which in turn can search for Nemeses Flag, allowing you to search up Archnemeses Protos. Even if Infernal Flame Banshee sits at the $1 mark, for its Ultra Rare and Prismatic Secret Rare copies, it allows Ryzeal to use a powerful boss monster to stop your opponent from Summoning certain Attributes after using its effect.

With Atlantean Mermail making ripples in the meta, every player of this WATER Deck has opted to run Atlantean Heavy Infantry. With only having 2 printings, as a Common in Structure Deck: Roar of the Sea Emperor and as a Super Rare in Astral Pack 2, it has missed many opportunities in the past for a new rarity upgrade or another lower rarity reprint. Commons’ sit anywhere from $8-12 from around $3 months ago, to the Super Rares hitting over $20 from $8-10 back in October of last year. This card is used during the opponent’s turn to cause a small interruption as pairing it with Mermail Abyssalacia allows you to discard Atlantean Heavy Infantry to add 1 Mermail from your Deck to your hand, then Atlantean Heavy Infantry targets a face-up card your opponent controls to destroy it. This allows your Deck to have an additional interruption on top of cards like Toadally Awesome and Abyss Dweller.

This trio of monsters always pop up together because of the future support Dragonmaids are receiving. Parlor, Kitchen and Chamber Dragonmaid are all in the hot seat getting bought up by players who didn’t have these cards for their Deck yet. Parlor Dragonmaid currently is $10, formally $3 a copy, for the Premium Gold Rare from Maximum Gold and $15, from $5-6, for the Mystic Fighters Super Rare. Kitchen Dragonmaid’s Premium Gold Rare currently sits at $6, while the Mystic Fighters Secret Rare currently sits at $35, from under $22 a few months ago. And finally, the big star of the Deck, Chamber Dragonmaid, is currently around $19-23 for both copies from Eternity Code and Maximum Gold. This trio are the most important monsters in your Deck because they are able to facilitate combo pieces or add to your endboard.

Blackwings are a fan favorite Deck because of the anime, but especially more for a fan of past formats. Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor is the star of the Blackwing strategy as it has many printings, and they are all going up. The ones I want to look at start with the Quarter Century Secret Rare from Quarter Century Bonanza. Starting off around $8.50, it slowly crept up to $12-13 a piece. For the nostalgic pool, it really did its work giving this card a new life in a higher rarity. While for its other rarities, the Legendary Collection 5D’s version sits around $3 for a Secret Rare and same for the Super Rare from the 2010 Collectors Tin. Players more so have been eyeing the QCR or the original Ultra Rare from Ancient Prophecy as it nears $20 for Near Mint copies.

With the reveals from OCG’s Quarter Century Trinity Box, Noh-P.U.N.K. Foxy Tune has been on the minds of players hitting $4-5 for both Secret Rare copies from $1.50-2 a few months ago. As one of the main starters for the P.U.N.K. engine, it helps you reach whatever Non-Level 8 P.U.N.K. monster you need from your Deck to your field. With this, it allows you to get cards like Noh-P.U.N.K. Ze Amin or Noh-P.U.N.K. Deer Note for starting your combos or extending them. As players anticipate for Noh-P.U.N.K. Rising Scale (YGOrg Translation) and P.U.N.K. JAM FEVER! (YGOrg Translation), this leads to them playing Horus P.U.N.K., a Deck that has seen play throughout the past year as it allows you to utilize the Level 8 Horus cards for Rank 8 plays, or using them for Level 11 Synchro Monsters. With the addition of Noh-P.U.N.K. Rising Scale (YGOrg Translation), which allows the Deck to have a better flow by banishing a P.U.N.K. card from your hand or GY, you can Special Summon this card. Then if it’s Special Summoned, you can take 1 P.U.N.K. monster from your Deck or GY and either add to hand or Special Summon it. This allows the Deck to make Fusion Summoning or Synchro Summoning easier as well as Summoning out Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Sharakusai from your Deck to fuse into Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Rising Carp to go into your main combo line afterwards.

The magical sinkeeper with a big hat has been seeing use recently in Memento and Chimera Decks. Diabellze the Original Sinkeeper is an amazing floodgate like card for stopping your opponent from activating Spells and Traps from the hand as they have to Set them first, like how Anti-Spell Fragrance is. But the downside for your opponent is if a Spell/Trap is Set to the field, Diabellze will allow their controller to target 1 card on each side of the field and destroy them, so be careful what you Set first if you need to make your opponent use the effect, so that way you can use Triple Tactic Talents to take control of it. As Diabellze sits at $13-14 from around $7 a couple of months ago, players are also picking the card up for the final wave of support in Alliance Insight coming in May to play the Azamina White Forest Sinful Spoil Deck that has taken many by curiosity with how powerful the Deck can be.

With Orcust making the rounds again in the OCG, System Down has been put in the spotlight again as a card many Machine players haven’t enjoyed over the many years we’ve seen people keeping notes. As it hasn’t had a printing since July 15th, 2016 from OTS Tournament Pack 2, a majority of its copies has gone up from less than 50 cents to near $1. OTS Tournament Pack 2 copies are up to $7 after some discussion from many communities from under $2 last month. It is never too late to pick up a card like this, but I would personally love to see it in Quarter Century Stampede since it is an iconic card from the past and a meta staple for certain formats as well.

After all those cards, let’s go down memory lane and look at cards from The Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon, Metal Raiders, Magic Ruler and Pharaoh’s Servant. These are the higher end cards for the game since they are the originals from 23 years ago and we will be looking at the original 1st Edition prints for these 8 cards. 

From The Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon, we look at the original Raigeki and Monster Reborn. This duo were the main cards everyone used in Decks at the time from the The Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon format all the way to today. In the many Decks from the past 23 years in the TCG, both Raigeki and Monster Reborn still see play if it is seeing Raigeki in Tenpai Dragon or seeing Monster Reborn in Decks like Maliss or Azamina Decks. They are both super iconic to the anime and the card game where they are also still extremely playable in today’s standard for Yu-Gi-Oh!. While looking at the prices for these 1st Edition cards on the market, it is really shocking because they really don’t exist any more since many have bought them for meta play or to put them in their collections. Raigeki is anywhere from $10 for Damaged copies and well over $100 for Near Mint copies and listings in between. Players have been picking up other copies of the card that are accessible and easier to get than the original. Monster Reborn, meanwhile, is all over the place, market wise. As North American copies of the card are especially hard to come back in Near Mint, they will be excluded from this since it is full of copies that are Spanish, Portuguese and even Australian prints are on the market. 1st Edition Light Played copies of Monster Reborn are up to $400 in some places because of how much demand there is for these older printed cards, whereas Heavy Played versions are nearing $100. Monster Reborn as a whole for the North American 1st Edition LOB versions are unobtainium because the lack of supply there is since a majority of them have been used and played as people grew up through the years.

Next up, we take a glimpse at Mirror Force and Change of Heart from Metal Raiders. These two cards changed the landscape of the game pretty early on, being able to destroy all Attack Position monsters your opponent controls on an attack declaration with Mirror Force, or taking control of any monster your opponent controls with Change of Heart. Both saw a spot on the Forbidden and Limited section many times before with Mirror Force being banned twice, in July of 2004 and October of 2005, while Change of Heart was banned for 17 years from April 2005 to May 2022. For Mirror Force copies within the market, Damaged, Moderate and Heavy played copies can be up to $200, where Light Played can go for $200 to $390 and finally Near Mints hitting over $400 with how popular the card is. While on the other side with Change of Heart, this card still sees play today despite being at one copy per Deck and it doesn’t see the high prices like Mirror Force. Change of Heart can range anywhere from $22-30 for Damaged copies, $35-90 for Moderate Played, $100-175 for Light Played and finally $180 and over for Near Mint copies. Both are amazing and powerful cards for their era of the game, while Change of Heart in today’s age is still holding up strong like it once did with other cards like Mind Control and Snatch Steal.

Magic Ruler had many controversies during the beginning of Yu-Gi-Oh!, which later turned into Spell Ruler. Many cards still have the MRL set code with Spells being called Magic Cards at that time. First, we will look at Mystical Space Typhoon and Snatch Steal. As two of the most impactful cards from this set, they have seen many different meta games to their fair share being on the Forbidden & Limited list, with Mystical Space Typhoon being limited for 6 years from October 2004 to being finally unlimited on September 1st, 2011, while Snatch Steal had been banned in the TCG on three separate occasions only lasting a format each time until the recent limit on the January 1st, 2024 update. Mystical Space Typhoon can range anywhere from $10-30 for Damaged copies to $50 and above for Lightly Played, while Near Mint copies can hit well over $100. With Snatch Steal on the other hand, you can find Moderately Played copies for well under $25, Light Played copies are up to $45-50, and finally, the Near Mint copies start around $55. These high end Magic Cards are great for nostalgia hunters and collectors alike.

The last two we will look at are Jinzo and Buster Blader from Pharaoh’s Servant. Jinzo being a titan of the old days can be found nearing $100 just for Damaged copies of the card. Moderately Played versions hit up to $200 alone whereas Lightly Played copies hit over $220 to the Near Mint version striking over the $400 mark. This card is super collectible for the anime fans or even past format players because of how much of a powerhouse this card is. Just being able to shut off Trap Cards with this 1 single-Tribute monster with very little counters back all those years ago, resulted in it getting placed on the Limited section of the Forbidden and Limited list for almost 5 consecutive years. Buster Blader itself has a different story, being anywhere from $5-45 for Damaged copies, to $47-$55 for Heavy and Moderate Played copies, while Light Played range to $65 and Near Mints hitting $80 and above. This card is a core piece for Destruction Sword strategy even if there is a newer version, being Buster Blader, the Destruction Swordmaster from Breakers of Shadow. The original Buster Blader still can run over many of your opponent’s Dragons with ease with the addition of its 500 ATK boost for each Dragon your opponent controls and in their GY.

As I close out this article, I hope looking at a few retro prices appeals to some as it was quite hard to research and find prices for a couple. But as the year develops, things may change and they could stumble upon a warehouse of unopened products so we will have to keep our eyes on some of these older cards. As for this weekend, we head into the Supreme Darkness World Premiere event starting on Friday, January 17th! So ask your local Official Tournament Store to see if they have the World Premiere event.