Bolt SpiderToday is the 100th Market Watch that has been posted to YGOrganization, and it has been fun keeping track of the market as it gives players insight into some of the cards players have been picking up and eyeing for new releases or popular techs over the past week from events. Thank you, everyone, for the support over the past 2 years of doing these.
This past weekend was YCS Orlando, Florida, and firstly I would like to give a huge congratulations to Logan Kite for winning the Advanced Main Event with Angelechy, along with Timothy Dhal winning the Main Genesys Event with Blitzclique Ashtra. This event showed that Angelechy and Elfnote Ars Magna are the decks to beat in Advanced, while for Genesys, it has been Blitzclique and Fairy Tail, and many have been using the Angelechy and Ashtra engines. But this Market Watch will be covering preparations for the next format with Magnificent Maestros releasing this week, so let’s dive right into the chaos to see what players have been picking up.Preparations for the new Format
Before YCS Orlando started, some players were in search of copies of Dr. Frankenderp. This card has seen plenty of play over the years, especially in Gold Pride, and many pile Decks as a card to Special Summon with Emergency Teleport. Upon its Normal or Special Summon, you can pay 500 LP to look at the top card of your Deck, and either put it to the bottom of your Deck or reveal it to your opponent and add it to your hand, but you skip your next Draw Phase if you do so. This has been an option that players have been wanting to try out with Emergency Teleport again, especially with Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit being one of the best Hand Traps currently within the game as a deterrent against Angelechy and Light and Darkness Ritual Decks.
With its new Common reprint in Ultimate Tournament Pack 2, Veidos the Eruption Dragon of Extinction might end up in the Side Decks once Magnificent Maestros is released, as it can be used to combat Toon’s new Perfect Toon World Field Spell. During the Main Phase, you can target 1 card in a Field Zone and Special Summon Veidos to the opponent’s field, and if you do, you destroy that Field Spell, and then, if you want, you can add or set an Ashened Continuous Trap from your Deck. If your opponent decides to Link it away or use it for a Synchro Summon, and it's sent to the GY as a result, you can destroy all monsters on the field, which makes it a huge drawback for the opponent if they want to push to make a massive board. Even though the effect to destroy a Field Spell can be affected by Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, it still has tons of potential in the future meta as a way to destroy the Field Spells of Toon and Angelechy Decks.
Fire Formation - Tenki has been seeing some price increases for all of its copies in the past weeks, even with an Ultimate Tournament Pack 2 Alternate Artwork printing being available, and this is not only for Lunalight but also the Tri-Brigade variant of Toons. Upon activation, you can add 1 Level 4 or lower Beast-Warrior monster from your Deck to your hand, and all your Beast-Warriors gain 100 ATK. This naturally makes Decks that play Level 4 or lower Beast-Warriors very consistent, as you can search for a copy of Tri-Brigade Fraktall to help start the full Tri-Brigade combo. Fraktall allows you to send any Level 3 or lower Beast, Beast-Warrior, or Winged Beast monster from your Deck to your GY, which grants you access to Tri-Brigade Kitt, Nervall, or even Animimicat so you can recur it back to your hand with Fire Fighting Daruma Doll, or Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon. Even though both Cross-Sheep and Charmer Quartet in Bloom are Forbidden in the TCG, I do think the Ryzeal and Tri-Brigade versions of the Toon Strategy will be the best versions going forward, as the Link Pile has been heavily slaughtered over the past months.
With Angelechy being the biggest Deck in the format, plenty of players have swapped over to Evenly Matched once again, and it might stick for the remaining future as a Side Deck tech. Making your opponent banish cards face-down they control till they have the same number of cards you control is a major toll on what they’ve set up on the field, especially against Angelechy since they can’t recover their cards when they’re banished face-down. Hitting the End Board and resource gain that a player has done in the course of a turn can be devastating to many. Even if they have a negation to deal with it, you can try and bait it out with other powerful cards first, then hit them with a surprise Evenly Matched if they think they're in the clear. Even then, there is actually no limit on how many times you can activate Evenly Matched during a single turn, as it lacks the “hard Once-Per-Turn” most board breakers have these days, so if you have an additional copy, it could be over in a blink for your opponent.
With many cards rotating back into the format to deal with the top Decks, we’ve seen Artifact Lancea, Different Dimension Ground (which can be fetched with Triple Tactics Thrust), Super Polymerization, and plenty of other cards to deal with the amount of End Board pieces and Hand Traps that the players have added to fill the void of the many cards that were lost on the recent October Nuke List.
Archetypal Card Preparations
Players are getting ready for the new Unchained support from Magnificent Maestros, and shockingly, both Unchained Twins - Aruha and Unchained Soul of Rage didn’t see a reprint. Firstly, we will look at Unchained Twins - Aruha as it’s a 1-of or 2-of in most lists, as you can target a card you control, destroy that target, and then Special Summon this card from your hand, but you’re locked into Fiend monsters for the rest of the turn. This helps trigger any of your Set Unchained Spells or Traps, which can Special Summon an Unchained monster from your Deck. Then if Aruha is destroyed by a card effect while on the field, you can Special Summon 1 Unchained monster from your hand or Deck, which is perfect for accessing the new Unchained Oni monsters, Unchained Zealot - Kamra, or Unchained Soul of Sharvara.
Even though Unchained Soul of Rage saw a Rarity Collection reprint in 2024, it's been well over 2 years since it was released, and they are really sparse in local areas if there aren’t bulk boxes or collections to look through. This important Link-2 needs 2 monsters, including an Unchained Soul monster, as its Link Materials, and during the opponent’s Main Phase, you can target 1 Special Summoned monster they control and Link Summon 1 DARK Link Monster using it and this card. This card can be used to Link Summon S:P Little Knight, I:P Masquerena, W:P Fancy Ball, Unchained Soul of Anguish, or the new Unchained Soul of Abominable Rage. And if this card is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can target and add 1 Fiend monster from your GY to your hand. Maybe we could see a reprint of this card at the start of 2027, but who knows. Maybe that Rarity Collection reprint was enough.
On the cartoonish sides of the meta, Toon Briefcase was skipped for a reprint in both Magnificent Maestros and Ultimate Tournament Pack 2, even though it's a good piece of removal. If your opponent Special Summons a monster(s), while you control a Toon monster, you can shuffle that monster(s) back into the opponent’s Deck. This is extremely powerful against a Pendulum Summon, but also if the opponent is using their monsters for a Link-3 or higher, it could be devastating if they have no other resources to Link Summon.
The Ryzeal cards have been gaining steam as players prepare for Ryzeal Toons this week, and Ice Ryzeal is the one card that is being eyed the most. Even with this card being Semi-Limited currently, it's the saving grace of the Ryzeal Deck, as upon its Normal Summon, you can Special Summon any other Ryzeal monster from your Deck, while also not locking you into anything. But if you Special Summon this card from your hand by sending 1 card from your hand or field to your GY, you can only Special Summon Rank 4 Xyz Monsters for the rest of the turn. With Toons relying on different strategies from Tri-Brigade to Ryzeal, it will be hard to gauge where they will place initially and up to YCS Santiago, Chile, at the end of this month.
Finally, players are so hyped for new Borrel/Rokket support from Magnificent Maestros that even Rokket Loader isn’t safe from a buyout, as on this card’s Normal or Special Summon, you can add a Level 7 DARK Dragon from your Deck to your hand. But you can only Special Summon DARK monsters from your Extra Deck for the rest of the turn, which is fine because Rokket is fully DARK anyways. While this card is in your GY, you can banish it to target 1 face-up monster on the field and change its Attribute to DARK till the End Phase. Paired with cards like Rokket Barrage and Absourouter Dragon, this card allows additional consistency for the Dragon Link strategy, since if a Link Monster activates its effect to target the Rokket Barrage, you can destroy it to then Special Summon up to 1 Rokket monster from your hand, Deck, GY, and banishment, which can put Rokket Loader back into rotation from your banishment or straight from your Deck to add any Level 7 DARK Dragon from your Deck to your hand.
The next major event that is coming up is YCS Santiago, Chile (November 26th to the 29th), which is post-Magnificent Maestros, and so much can change in the next couple weeks. There are plenty of sets releasing in the next few months for reprints from Glorious Victors, Maze of Machines, and the new HERO Force Structure Deck that was just announced. Hopefully soon, cards from 2025 and early this year get their chance to shine with a new reprint for more accessibility to the players.
Edited and co-written by Angryjon (Here’s to 100 more)