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Ultimate Rares shine in the darkest moments.

Yu-Gi-Oh! is shifting into a new era with Ultimate Tournament Pack 1 releasing in June and with Series 14 around the corner with Chaos Origins coming this July. Plenty of older cards from the high-end Tournament Packs have been spiking due to Over-Frames coming to the TCG really soon and many other reasons. I do want to preface what others in the community have already said, but if there is something high-end you’ve been wanting, try to make plans to pick it up before the release of Over-Frames in the TCG.

Diving into the Old Treasures

The first card we’re looking at was released in Turbo Pack: Booster Three, that being the legendary Caius the Shadow Monarch himself. This card was a powerful staple from its release in the year of 2008 in a product built around the card, The Dark Emperor Structure Deck. Seeing meta play from its initial release to even seeing some play today, this card paired extremely well with any deck paired with Dark Armed Dragon or just generically ran by Tributing copies of Destiny HERO – Malicious or a monster you’ve taken control of with Brain Control. If this card is Tribute Summoned, it targets and banishes 1 card on the field and can inflict 1000 damage to the opponent if the card banished by that effect was a DARK monster. This was really important for removing specific Spells/Traps on the field, even removing a face-down monster that could’ve been a Marshmallon or Spirit Reaper to open up a hefty attack on the opponent.

Just like Caius, Dark Armed Dragon, from Turbo Pack: Booster Six, was a staple in nearly everything that could put 3 DARK monsters into the GY, like Dark Armed Return, Teleport DAD, Blackwings, and even Lightsworn. Just the thought of this card for veteran players can give them flashbacks to a scarier time or something somber and nostalgic, as Dark Armed Dragon had a format based around itself for how powerful the card was. This card could only be Special Summoned from your hand if you had exactly 3 DARK monsters in your GY, so players would use D.D. Crow, which was extremely important during these times to mess with the number of DARK Monsters in your opponent’s GY. Dark Armed Dragon allowed you to banish 1 DARK monster from your GY to target and destroy 1 card on the field, which was quite similar to Caius’s removal, but you could banish and destroy as many cards as you needed, as long as you had DARK monsters in your GY to supply the effect.

Next on the bill is Lightsworn and their legendary Priority Judgment Dragon from Turbo Pack Booster One Pack. We won’t be getting into priority in this article, as it is a headache to already talk about, but Judgment Dragon was a powerhouse of a boss monster. You can Special Summon it from your hand by having 4 or more Lightsworn monsters with different names in your GY, and this lets you access its board-wiping ability. By paying 1000 LP, you can destroy all other cards on the field. The only downside to this card is that it sends the top 4 cards of your Deck to the GY, so the Deck count really matters for this powerful Dragon.

Tied into Judgment Dragon is that Lightsworn hit a new ceiling when they use both LIGHT and DARK monsters to play a “Twilight” version of the Deck where it would use cards like Dark Armed Dragon and the almighty Chaos Sorcerer from Turbo Pack: Booster Two, the only non-Ultimate Rare card on this list. With Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End both Forbidden during that time, Chaos Sorcerer was the only one to remain legal for a while. By banishing 1 LIGHT and DARK monster from your GY, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. This was similar enough to Caius the Shadow Monarch, as you can target and banish 1 face-up monster on the field, which helps remove threats that you attacked during the Battle Phase, or even a Stardust Dragon that is stopping you from destroying cards on the opponent’s field.

These legendary cards from the older Tournament Packs will rise up more as time goes on, as a bygone era of the game was moved to the side for the new Genesys Format. Hopefully in the future, Time Wizard formats become supported again, as players love their older formats and have the passion for the game still for those older times in the game’s history.

Timeless Cards for the Meta

Over the past four or five years, we’ve seen these cards pop up into the meta due to a new Deck using them or a Deck built for them, and we cannot skip on Mystical Space Typhoon. Being originally from Magic Ruler (better known these days as Spell Ruler), this card was given an Ultimate Rare print in Astral Pack 8, and thanks to Radiant Typhoon from the modern day and many past formats as well, this card’s price has only been going up. This card is just one of the fastest and one of the most efficient cards for targeting and destroying a single Spell/Trap on the field. After destroying Spells and Traps for over 25 years, Konami made the Radiant Typhoon theme that benefits from chaining with Mystical Space Typhoon, searching for Mystical Space Typhoon, and even being destroyed by Mystical Space Typhoon itself.

Do you hear those croaks? Well, Swap Frog, from OTS Tournament Pack 3, has hopped its way up to a higher price as one of the core pieces to the Frog Deck and the Frog Engine itself. By discarding 1 WATER monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and when it is Summoned, you can send any Level 2 or lower Aqua monster from your Deck to the GY. One other thing about this card is that you can return any monster to your hand to gain an additional Normal Summon/Set of a Frog monster that turn, except another copy of Swap Frog. This has been used in plenty of lists over the years from Frogs itself, Paleozoic, Spright, and even Ice Barrier, just to gain an advantage and, later on, to Xyz Summon Toadally Awesome to insulate your combos.

Another card that shows up over the years is Herald of Orange Light from OTS Tournament Pack 7, which was originally released in The Duelist Genesis. This Fairy monster has been seen in Decks like Cyber Angel Herald, Drytron, Tearlaments Ishizu, and, as of recently, Melodious. By sending both this card and another Fairy monster from your hand to the GY, you can negate the activation of an opponent’s monster effect and destroy that card. Pairing this card with a copy of Eva and other Fairy monsters in the GY, you can get an additional advantage by banishing the copy of Herald of Orange Light and a second Fairy via Eva’s effect to search the same number of Level 2 or lower LIGHT Fairy monsters with different names from your Deck, supplying you with an additional monster negate for later.

Finally, for a classic card that was released from Cyberdark Impact, we have Instant Fusion, which was given an Ultimate Rare print in OTS Tournament Pack 4. This iconic Fusion Spell has been used over the past 15 years and beyond with the option to give you access to any Level 5 or lower Fusion Monster that doesn’t have a Fusion Summon restriction to assist you with Synchro Summoning, Xyz Summoning, and even Link Summoning in today’s game. Multiple times, we’ve seen this card used to Special Summon Elder Entity Norden from the Extra Deck to revive any Level 4 or lower monster from your GY to Xyz Summon Bahamut Shark in Mermail Atlantean and Zoodiac Broadbull in Zoodiac. It was also used to Special Summon Tearlaments Kitkalos in Tearlament Decks, Fusionist in Madolche Decks for any Rank 3, and even El Shaddoll Winda in Orcust Decks over the years. This card has been extremely influential for many Decks to access their Level 5 or lower Fusion Monsters to help assist their combos and end boards over the years.

Maybe one day, the prices will settle, but with a new wave of buyouts happening within the community and from the outside too, it’s only a matter of time until something cracks from these cards.

Edited and co-written by Angryjon