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The Best Monster of 2017 is back in action.

Changes are coming, and some of them took years to return. This week, when diving into the market, we’ve noticed multiple cards being picked up due to preparations for the Current and Blazing Dominion formats. From the “Best Monster of 2017,” according to Konami, to Springans rising up, this week has been insightful, and it’s time to dig in.

Old Returning Techs For New Tricks

First up, we have “The Best Monster of 2017,” that being Sea Monster of Theseus. With only two total prints since its release in 2017, this card has climbed in price due to it being a great monster to use with Super Polymerization. Since this requires 2 Tuners as Fusion Material, this has been seeing plenty of use in the OCG against Kewl Tune as a way to break their board of their powerful Synchro Monsters. It also provides Decks another Synchro, Xyz, or Link Material, for Decks like DoomZ, since having a Level 5 for DoomZ XIII Over – Graflario (YGOrganization Translation) or even in Kewl Tune itself, which can help you Synchro Summon using Kewl Tune RS and itself to make Mannadium Prime-Heart.

With the rise of DoomZ in the OCG, players are going after the Springans Engine as it allows you to access Therion “King” Regular with any 2 Level 4 monsters. This is all thanks to Springans Merrymaker. With 2 Level 4 monsters as Xyz Material, this monster can send any Springans monster from your Deck to the GY and be able to banish itself during the opponent’s turn (until the End Phase) to send 1 Fusion Monster that mentions Fallen of Albaz from your Extra Deck to the GY, but only if Merrymaker had 2 or more Xyz Materials. In DoomZ, this card doesn’t do much for its overall effect, but since it is a Springans Xyz Monster, you can use it to Rank-Up into Gigantic “Champion” Sargas, as it can use any Springans Xyz Monster you control as material. Then, while “Champion” Sargas has material, you can add any Springans or Therion card from your Deck to your hand, letting you search for a copy of Therion “King” Regular for little to no cost, especially when paired with Dodododo Warrior and Onomatokage.

Fidraulis Harmonia (YGOrganization Translation) has caused multiple cards to see buyouts, and Enigmaster Packbit happens to be one of the many. Being one of the many options to use with Fidraulis’ effect, this card allows you to target 1 monster in your GY or 1 face-up monster your opponent controls, provided that Enigmaster is Synchro Summoned or sent to the GY, and by discarding 1 card, you place that target in its owner’s Spell/Trap Zone as a Continuous Trap. Being a useful piece of interaction, the “Reveal 4+ Synchro Monsters from your Extra Deck” effect of Fidraulis lets you send 1 revealed Synchro Monster to the GY, which triggers Enigmaster’s effect.

Another one of these cards happens to be Golden Cloud Beast – Malong, which allows you to target 1 face-up card your opponent controls and return it to the hand when Malong is sent to your GY. Both of these cards are extremely important to reveal and send to the GY via Fidraulis for additional interruptions in every Synchro Deck in the format, from Branded (yes, the Fusion Deck can now Synchro Summon), Kewl Tune, and even Elfnote. On top of this, both monsters are super generic to Summon as they just need 1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuners, which can help in certain situations, especially Packbit in Branded Lists itself with Incredible Ecclesia, The Virtuous and Fallen of the White Dragon, if you already used Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon prior.

Hopefully, these cards see reprints really soon as their prices keep going up, especially cards that players use for Fidraulis, but only time will tell if they will come in the new Ultimate Tournament Pack 1 or Battles of Legend: Glorious Gallery.

Rising Cards for the Current and Upcoming Formats

As players are worried about Lunalight and other Decks with Tower-like monsters springing up again, the price of Gorgon of Zilofthonia has been rising fast. By requiring 2+ Effect Monsters as Link Material, this card prevents the owner of the card from Summoning and Setting monsters to a Zone it points to, and the monsters it does point to cannot attack, and their  activated effects become negated. It also gains ATK equal to the total original ATK of the monsters it points to, making it a huge beatstick when needed, or if it doesn’t point to any monsters, it cannot be destroyed by battle or monster effects, which has its benefits for certain matchups.

Fairy fever is hitting the TCG finally, and recently there have been plenty of Gem-Knight Darklord and Gem-Knight Fiendsmith that are making waves, causing Gem-Knight Nepyrim to finally creep up in price again as it is one of your main combo starters and extenders in the Deck. On its Normal or Special Summon, this card can add any other Gem-Knight card from your Deck to your hand, but halves any damage your opponent would take during that turn. On top of this, it also allows you to gain an additional Normal Summon of a “Gem-” monster in order to allow the Deck to Normal Summon Gem-Armadillo specifically, as it’s your best Normal Summon, since it searches for any Gem-Knight monster already. You can also discard 1 card to Special Summon Nepyrim from your GY, so if it was sent to the GY with Brilliant Fusion, you can Summon it straight to the field to gain an additional advantage.

With the newly revealed support for Elfnote last night, players went out in waves to pick up their copies of Elfnote Lucina once again. This card can Special Summon itself to your center Main Monster Zone, and during your Main Phase, you can add any other Elfnote monster from your Deck to your hand. During your opponent’s turn, you can switch the locations of Lucina in your Main Monster Zone and the monster in your center Main Monster Zone, then you can return 1 Level 6 or lower monster your opponent controls. A really solid piece of consistency and interruption for Elfnote, Lucina will always be the “center of the show” for the Deck.

The upcoming months for Yu-Gi-Oh! will be insanely crazy to watch as new strategies receive buffs and older ones fade out of the limelight; maybe things will change whenever the TCG releases a new Forbidden & Limited List, as many players are talking about when it could happen next. If you have any suggestions for cards to cover in a future article, come join our Discord and comment in the thread, as we would love to hear what you have to say!

Edited and co-written by Angryjon