Older format cards can compliment newer themes in the future.

This week’s article is going to be an interesting one to write, as it’ll be covering cards I’ve had in the backlog for some weeks now, from Past Format cards to even Current Format wonders. After watching the market and keeping up-to-date on strange oddities on the market, I present some that I’ve pulled together for this week.

Entering the Sands of Time

It’s not that shocking to see that Timelord has finally made its way into one of these articles; only that it took well over a year to mention them. Both Michion, the Timelord, and Sandaion, the Timelord, are currently at around 30 listings or less on the North American market, but for the European market, Michion has 6 times the quantity, while Sandaion has 13 times the quantity. However, prices on both sides are nearing the same. What do these do exactly, though? Like almost all the Timelord monsters, they cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck, and if you control no monsters, you can Normal Summon them without Tributing. Also, you take no battle damage from battles involving these cards, with the downside that they get shuffled into your Deck during your Standby Phase. For Michion, at the end of the Battle Phase, if it battled, you halve your opponent’s LP. This card mainly has helped in older formats with the previous time rules the TCG has had and in many game-winning plays with other cards that deal burn damage.

Sandaion, on the other hand, has the same clauses and normal Timelord effects as previously mentioned, but when this card battles, it would inflict 2000 damage to your opponent at the end of the Battle Phase. This helps with the strategy that Timelords want as a slow burn to end the game. But like Michion, Sanadion also helps with multiple burn strategies over the past years since their release in Battles of Legend: Relentless Revenge. Even with their singular print from that set, Timelords in general haven’t seen many reprints outside of Metaion, Sephylon, and their Synchro Monster Vorpgate. This might be a possibility for why it is rising in price, so maybe we could see new support, or maybe there is a tech for Genesys Format that not many players have realized is there and only a couple have.

Moray of Greed happens to be another card many players that play the Edison Format have been picking up for their WATER-based Decks. It’s a main consistency piece in Frogs, as you can shuffle 2 WATER monsters from your hand into the Deck, and then you draw 3 cards. That way, you rotate the cards you want back into the Deck and see if you can draw more of your play starters or defensive options if you are going first, unless you can FTK the opponent as an option. There have been players testing this card in Genesys as well in Shark, Ghoti, and Frogs for additional consistency in case they need to fix their hands if they end up bricking. Only time will tell how this card performs in the future.

More on past formats, Gladiator Beast Murmillo is another card that I’ve noticed that has been slowly going off the market due to how nostalgic Gladiator Beasts are to many fans of the game. Murmillo has always seen play in most lists because it can target and destroy a monster if Murmillo itself is Special Summoned by a Gladiator Beast monster’s effect. The last printing of this card was in the Legendary Collection 2: The Duel Academy Years Mega Pack in 2011, and somehow it has been passed up on reprint after reprint with every new wave of Gladiator Beast support being released. Like every Gladiator Beast monster, if it battled that turn, you can shuffle it into the Deck and Special Summon a Gladiator Beast monster from your Deck to gain or trigger the new Gladiator Beast’s effect to net additional advantage during Main Phase 2 or to help Contact Fuse into a Gladiator Beast Fusion Monster that needs a specific named monster.

Plenty of cards from the past deserve reprints for making the game more accessible for newer players and veteran players alike, so maybe in the future, a couple of these cards could see the light of day again in a fresh rarity.

Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions

As Burst Protocol finally releases in the TCG, starting today at your local OTS Stores, many have been picking up copies of Ancient Warriors Oath – Double Dragon Lords for Tri-Brigade Decks once again over the past couple months, thanks to the new Tri-Brigade Springans Kitt. This card has tons of potential, since the Main Deck Tri-Brigade monsters can cheat this card out of the Extra Deck by banishing 2 Beast, Beast-Warrior, and/or Winged Beast monsters from their GY to have another form of interruption on their end board. While you control this Link Monster, all Ancient Warrior monsters gain 500 ATK/DEF, and you can quickly send 1 card from your hand or field to the GY in order to target 1 face-up card your opponent controls and return it to the hand, similar to how Hieratic Seals of the Heavenly Spheres works for Dragon Decks. With only having the 1 print from Rise of the Duelist, it’s slightly shocking that this card hasn’t seen any form of reprint as a prominent card in Tri-Brigade Decks itself.

Recently, plenty of cards from Doom of Dimensions have been rising in price, and one of them is the Ultra Rare D/D/D Zero Doom Queen Machinex. Thanks to Master Duel, D/D is more familiar to the player base in what it does, being the smorgasbord Deck of Summoning mechanics, since it uses everything but Rituals. Machinex happens to be a great 3-of the deck that has recently been added to their arsenal. While in a Pendulum Zone, if this card was activated that turn, you can place a Dark Contract Continuous Spell/Trap from your Deck, which is amazing for putting down Dark Contract with the Gate from your Deck, which results in an additional search for Kelpar or Gryphon. For Machinex’s Monster Effect, you can Special Summon it when a D/D/D and/or Dark Contract card(s) you control were destroyed while Machinex is face-up in your Extra Deck, and then you can destroy 1 card on the field. Finally, when Machinex in the Monster Zone is destroyed, you can place it in your Pendulum Zone, a perfect place for a Scale of 0 in D/D/D itself.

In the upcoming meta, I’d expect to see a reprint of Armades, Keeper of Boundaries, soon for the new Elfnotes strategy, as they are using this card as a bridge to access the Fiendsmith Engine, being a LIGHT Fiend monster and all. Even then, this card has uses in the Battle Phase, as when it attacks your opponent, they cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. How are they making this card, though? Thanks to Elfnotes Power Patron being a Level 1 Tuner monster, you can Synchro Summon this card with Medius the Pure, then use Armades to Link Summon Fiendsmith’s Requiem to start your Fiendsmith combo, then after you Summon your D/D/D Wave King High Caesar, you can go on with your Elfnotes plays afterwards.

Finally, to tie into Armades, this last card will wrap up this week on a shorter note; we will look at what is going on with Elzette of the White Forest. This card’s price has been going up due to multiple reasons, from Droll & Lock Bird being newly Semi-Limited on the new list (effective on Monday the 2nd), and Elfnotes have adapted to use White Forest in their Decks for additional cards for Synchro Summons, thanks to Rucia and Silvy being Level 4 Tuners. Even paired with the new Elfnotes Power Patron, Elzette can allow you to access your Level 6 Synchros more consistently. Pairing Elfnote monsters with the Level 4 or 6 Tuners from White Forest opens a new world for the Deck by letting you access Level 10 and 12 Synchro monsters from Chaos Angel and Snake-Eyes Vengeance Dragon for counter choices against the opponent.

Even with the shifting meta from Burst Protocol, next weekend will be the 300th YCS in Richmond, Virginia / Guadalajara, Mexico / Dortmund, Germany, so only time will tell what players have cooked up for this major and vital event that will dictate the future meta going forward.

Edited and co-written by Angryjon