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Digging deeper finds greater discoveries.

Last week, we took a look at past format gems and techs to consider going into the future, but this week, we have more past format gems that weren’t covered, as we have an additional round of them. Along with this, the new competitive season officially started this past weekend, and it shows that both Kewl Tune and Light and Darkness Ritual have taken the lead in topping events with well over 52.12% of the format, labeling them as the Decks to beat. Let’s dive into this brand-new Market Watch and see what is happening on the market.

Additional Hidden Gems To Find

A Deck that players have been asking for nonstop is one intended for Tyrant Dragon, and plenty of copies have sold over the past month. As one of the most iconic Dragon monsters in the game, this card also saw a Blue-Eyes and Metaphys counterpart over the years, and yet, it did not receive a new upgrade for itself. The almighty Tyrant Dragon can make a second attack during each of your Battle Phases if your opponent controls a monster after its first attack. This card also negates all Trap Effects that target Tyrant Dragon itself and destroys them. But the only downside is that Special Summoning this card from your GY requires you to Tribute a Dragon monster first, which is fine, as in past formats, you normally would Special Summon this card or other Dragon monsters from your hand with a copy of King Dragun.

Another behemoth from the past happens to be Beast Machine King Barbaros Ür. This hulking 3800 ATK monster is no threat to scoff at, as it can be Special Summoned from your hand by banishing a Machine and Beast-Warrior monster from your hand, field, and/or GY. Even though it is a monster with extremely high ATK, it cannot deal any battle damage to the opponent, but if Skill Drain is involved, like in Barbaros Drain, it nullifies that very effect, so it can now deal battle damage to the opponent, making direct attacks with it brutal. In Decks like Barbaros Drain, they pressure the opponent by using higher ATK monsters that can Normal Summon themselves without tributing, like Beast King Barbaros and Fusilier Dragon, the Duel Mode Beast, or banish both of them to Special Summon Beast Machine King Barbaros Ür.

Sometimes, Number monsters aren’t treated equally, and one of the many used by Kyoji Yagumo in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL manga has yet to see a reprint, even though it is highly sought after for many Rank 10 Decks, especially Railway Trains or Ruinforce Decks. Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula is the only Spider Number monster to not see a reprint in recent years. It missed out on one in the Battles of Legend: Chapter 1 set, as both Number 77: The Seven Sins and Number 84: Pain Gainer saw a reprint within this set to help make them accessible to the players. Being the Rank 10 of the three giant Spiders, this card has plenty of uses in any Rank 10 Deck, as it makes all monsters you control gain ATK and DEF equal to the difference between your LP and your opponent’s, which can be extremely useful if you manage to survive a turn within a grind game and have a way to clap back at the opponent to win the Duel. On top of this, while this card has an Xyz Material, each time your opponent Special Summons a monster, you inflict 600 damage to your opponent, making them cautious of what they do for their next step if their LP are low. Finally, you can detach 1 material from this card to destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls that have ATK less than or equal to this card’s. Being a “Tax” Insect with an effect that can board wipe and gain ATK, I would definitely think this card is an option to run in some Decks today, especially Power Patron lists if they can find the room. It could be because it’s a hard-to-find card, since the last print was in 2016 from Premium Gold: Infinite Gold.

The last card in this section is a card that was skipped from last week, and it is Abyss-Sphere. It’s been a while since this card was covered on a Market Watch, but the price has only ever gone up since last year and still has yet to receive a reprint. Being mainly used in earlier formats like Abyss Rising and Cosmo Blazer, or even the Fire-Water format in 2014, this card is a great example of why cards need to have reprints for accessibility to players who want to play these older formats in paper play, rather than online. For Abyss-Sphere itself, it can Special Summon any Mermail monster from your Deck, but its effects are negated, and you cannot activate Spell Cards as long as it remains face-up. When this card leaves the field, the monster is destroyed, but this card gets destroyed anyway during your opponent’s next End Phase after this card is activated. Pairing this card with Mermail Abysslinde was, and still is, a powerful combo, even if it is slower by modern standards, as just letting you Special Summon any Mermail monster from your Deck on the destruction of Abysslinde could change a duel in an instant.

Hopefully one day soon, these sought-after cards will receive a reprint, as there are plenty of changes over the next few months between Magnificent Monsters, Magnificent Maestro, and even into 2027. Only time will tell, but for many players, it would be extremely appreciated for many of these older cards to return with a new shine and to help update their outdated text.

Market Spikes Waits For No One

A few weeks ago, Card of the Soul was covered in these articles, and it has seemed to only go more than up, reaching $9 and above for both common copies. Sacred Beasts have been catching on in the TCG for both Advanced and Genesys, as being able to search for either Infinity of the Sacred Beasts – Raviel, Lord of Phantasms; or Calamity of the Sacred Beasts – Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, is really good, depending on what you need for your starter, in order to search for either monsters or Spells respectively. Upon activation, this card lets you add a monster from your Deck to your hand whose ATK and DEF equal your LP. If you start a Duel while your starting LP is 8000, it searches for any monster with its ATK/DEF equal to 8000.

Sometimes I wonder why some cards go up in price, and Trishula, Zero Dragon of the Ice Barrier, is one of those times. It only has its one print from the Structure Deck: Freezing Chains and hasn’t seen a reprint since, but it could be that some players in Advanced or Genesys are trying it out in Elfnote or maybe White Forest if there is room in the Extra Deck for this tech. This card is absolutely powerful, as its Synchro Summon effect can banish up to 3 cards your opponent controls, making it great for removal. If the Synchro Summoned card in its owner’s control is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, you can Special Summon a Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, for free, with the addition of also making its ATK 3300, and finally, you can then also halve the ATK of any face-up monsters your opponent controls and negate their effects, making it a perfect way to blanket negate your opponent’s Effect Monsters.

Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring is one of many monsters that have been used by players well over the past 9 years after its release in Maximum Crisis, and now in Ultimate Tournament Pack 1, it’s one of the best-selling Ultimate Rares on the secondary market. Its ability to stop effects such as adding a card from the Deck to the hand, Special Summoning from the Deck, and sending a card from the Deck to the GY is still a massive cornerstone for many Decks that are made in the modern day and could hinder one’s game plan. Being nearly a mainstay staple since its release, it has only been seen outside of play during certain formats around the time COVID affected events when it didn’t have much of an impact and many Decks could just play around it.

This format is looking promising as Kewl Tune and Light and Darkness Ritual duke it out to see who is the best of the two, and with plenty of other playable Decks being an option, who knows what will win YCS Montreal in the next couple of weeks? To those who have regional events this weekend, I wish you all the best of luck at these events!

Edited and co-written by Angryjon