Join our Discord to discuss this article with fellow Duelists

Become a Patron to support us for 12 years of all-volunteer work

Diving through bulk is extremely worth it.

Bulk diving is a thing that many players do as a pastime to search and find cards as they look through massive boxes or bins of low-valued, unorganized, and unwanted cards. Sometimes you find a card that has been going up in value due to meta trends and even old classic cards that are rare to come by. From Charmers to Shaddolls to even new meta trends for the new format coming up, let’s dive into this week’s Market Watch and see what some great finds are for players looking for new cards to try out.

Diving Through The Low Rarity Bulk

Our first stop happens to be Lyna the Light Charmer. This Common card from The Shining Darkness has been having so many sales over the weeks due to hype from the Fairy Tail Charmer Deck. Even though this card is a Level 3 Flip monster, it helps the Deck as it allows you to Special Summon a copy of Familiar-Possessed – Lyna from your Deck by sending Lyna and another face-up LIGHT monster you control to your GY. Then when Familiar-Possessed – Lyna is summoned this way, it can add any Spellcaster monster with 1500 DEF from your Deck to your hand. Some of the best cards you can search up are Gravekeeper’s Shaman (which shuts out the GY), any of the Channelers or Familiar-Possessed monsters, Zoroa, the Magistus Flame, Incredible Ecclesia, the Virtuous, and even Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous.

Shaddoll Squamata is a hot commodity again because of the new Shaddoll support from Battles of Legends: Glorious Gallery. Even though the commons are the cheaper alternative, the Ultra Rare copies have fewer than 15 listings on the market while also demanding over $8 a copy. This card is still an important card for the Deck as its Flip Effect lets you target and destroy 1 monster on the field. In addition, if this card is sent to the GY by a card effect, you can send 1 Shaddoll card from your Deck to your GY. Even though you can only use 1 of the effects of this card per turn, it’s still extremely powerful with the newer support thanks to Tohushaddoll Grysta being able to Fusion Summon a Shaddoll Fusion Monster by banishing materials from your hand, field, and/or GY, provided it’s sent to the GY by a card effect. It gives you access to El Shaddoll Winda on the opponent’s turn or other Shaddoll Fusion Monsters as well.

Plant Decks will always be Plant Decks as Snowdrop the Rikka Fairy is still demanding a high price even after 6 years of no reprints. This card can Tribute a Plant monster to Special Summon both itself and 1 other Plant monster from your hand, but it locks you into Plant monsters for the rest of the turn. This card shows how much power is behind it when paired with Rikka Konkon, which lets you Tribute any face-up monster your opponent controls, which is free removal of any issues on the board. Snowdrop can also target a Plant you control to make all Plant monsters the Level of the targeted monster to help Xyz Summon in-theme and generic Plant Xyz Monsters.

Finally, for this section, we will look at Raidraptor – Arsenal Falcon, a card that has never recovered in price since well over a year ago, thanks to Kashtira. This card was mainly used to Special Summon a copy of Mulcharmy Fuwalos to your field so you can use it for a Rank 4 or to pair with Harpie’s Feather Storm. But with Harpie’s Feather Storm banned, this card hasn’t gone down in price for unknown reasons, outside of the fact it is a generic Rank 7 monster that can be used in a Kashtira engine to bridge into Fire Kings, thanks to Fire King Courtier Ulcanix, or in Blackwing to access Sudri the Phantom Glimmer or Shamal the Sandstorm. Who knows why it’s still at the price it is, as it hasn’t seen play in well over a year, and maybe some players have a secret up their sleeves that they’re hiding for the NA and EU World Championship Qualifiers.

Maybe in the future, these cards will see reprints, as all of these are one-print wonders. Hopefully, they see a rarity upgrade as a handful of players have been asking for reprints of these cards to make them more accessible to the player base, especially Lyna the Light Charmer for Fairy Tail Charmer decks.

Chaos Origins Meta Trends To Consider

While looking out into the new meta, post-Chaos Origins, players have grasped a new engine to run that lets them access any Floodgate in the game through either sending it to the GY through Zenna’s Deceiving Doll Maidens or Special Summoning a copy of Pharaonic Advent from your GY to then Tribute a Fiend, Fairy, or Reptile to add any Continuous Trap from your Deck to your hand. The card that has recently risen in price happens to be Protectcode Talker. This Link-3 monster is extremely important to this new combo, as it prevents your opponent from targeting Link-4 or higher monsters you control with card effects, and they can’t be destroyed by battle, which protects both Firewall Dragon and Zenna’s Deceiving Doll Maidens. The best thing about this Link-3 is when it’s in the GY and you control a Firewall Link Monster, you can banish Link Monsters from your GY whose Link Ratings equal exactly 3 to Special Summon this card from your GY, but it’s banished when it leaves the field. This gives you additional Link Materials for Charmer Quartet in Bloom, which lets you revive the monster you chose to send off of Zenna’s effect.

Another Deck that has been rising in popularity again is Onomat Ryzeal and Onomat Mitsurugi, and this has caused Dodododo Warrior to spike in price over double the past month. Being the best starter for the engine, it can send 1 Dododo monster from your Deck to the GY to Special Summon itself from the hand, and it becomes a Level 4 and its ATK becomes 1800. However, you are locked into Xyz Summoning for the rest of the turn, which is perfectly fine for both Mitsurugi and Ryzeal. If this card is detached as an Xyz Material to activate that Xyz Monster’s effect, you can add 1 Zubaba monster from your Deck to your hand, which searches for a copy of Zubababancho Gagagacoat for further Xyz plays.

Finally, we’re going to look at the Dominus card that didn’t end up anywhere until now, Dominus Spiral. This card has found a home after nearly a year with the new Ashtra archetype from Beyond the Brave. This is the weakest of the Dominus Trap Cards, but it can be activated from your hand during a turn your opponent has activated a monster effect in the hand or GY. Spiral lets you target 1 monster your opponent controls to return it to the hand or Extra Deck, but if you have no Traps in your GY, your opponent can Special Summon a monster from their GY. The downside of the card is that if you activate this card from the hand, you cannot use the effects of LIGHT or DARK monsters for the rest of the Duel. This is perfect for Ashtra since they have EARTH, FIRE, WATER, and WIND Attributes only, which lets them bypass the lock. You can even Set the card on the field for the Ashtra theme thanks to their ability to Special Summon their monsters from the hand, by revealing a face-down card you control, and returning it to your hand/Extra Deck.

All the cards we’ve talked about only have ever had 1 print in the TCG, and hopefully in the future, we do see them receive a welcomed reprint. The meta is shifting once again thanks to Chaos Origins and even further with Beyond the Brave in October, so keep an eye out for what happens at the North American and European World Championships that are taking place in a couple weeks from now, as players will be buying their last-minute cards for the event. Along with this, the new Ultimate Tournament Pack 1 will be releasing for North America next week, and it brings plenty of great reprints as players have been asking Konami to print, such as the new Ultimate Rare Ash Blossom & Joyous Springs and Dark Magician of Chaos.

To all the Canadian readers, have an amazing Canada Day and happy card hunting! – Bolt Spider

Edited and co-written by “Happy Canada Day!” Angryjon