Justice Hunters is in full swing, and so have prices on the market.
Apologies for this releasing a tad late but let’s start by getting deeper into the new format, players have been going all over finding cards to utilize in their lists to counteract many of the top decks. Along with having Enneacraft fully revealed and Killer Tune having 1 card remaining, let’s take a look at what has been happening this week on the market.
As Justice Hunters bring Dracotail to the front of the format, many players have been hitting up multiple Shaddoll cards for their builds, with Shaddoll Fusion being one of the main ones that they have been siding in for Game 2 if they are going 2nd. This is so they can Fusion Summon El Shaddoll Grysta as a way to stop their opponent from Special Summoning any monsters. This is because Grysta lets them negate the summon of their opponent’s monster(s) and destroy them, but they must have at least 1 Shaddoll card in their hand to activate the effect, and after they’ve destroyed those monsters, they send 1 Shaddoll card from their hand to the GY.
But if they manage to clear the board with Super Polymerization or Dracotail Arthalion, they can use Shaddoll Fusion to Fusion Summon El Shaddoll Winda to stop their opponent from Special Summoning more than once per turn. Winda’s Quarter Century Alt Art was hit up and bought out for the sole reason of being one of the best floodgates against decks like Yummy, Vanquish Soul K9, and virtually many other decks in this format, as it cannot be destroyed by their opponent’s card effects. But against Vanquish Soul K9, you do have to have some caution, as in some lists they opt in to run a copy of Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju, since they have to be prepared for certain unaffected monsters.
The main options players have been using in their decks are Shaddoll Dragon (to target and destroy 1 Spell/Trap on the field), Shaddoll Beast (to draw 1 card), Shaddoll Squamata (to send any other Shaddoll card from the Deck to the GY), or Shaddoll Hedgehog (to search for 1 Shaddoll monster from their Deck). Each serves their own purpose, while a couple see more play than the others. While a majority of these cards are at 1 copy per list, some players have decided to use 3 copies of Shaddoll Beast in their lists, since drawing 1 card can always feel great.
Meanwhile, a card like Shaddoll Dragon could be useful going into the future since many utilize the card in other decks. It’s a great option for Blind 2nd builds using the Shaddoll Engine to destroy any unwanted Spell/Trap Cards on the field, most notably like what Gem-Knights did at the North America World Championship Qualifiers. This can deal with cards like Vanquish Soul, Start!, Mementomictlan, Yummyusment★Acroquey, or Yummyusment☆Mignon.
With the Shaddoll engine fully entering the meta once again, this makes for a skillful format to see if players side the correct cards for each strategy currently.
With Vanquish Soul K9 lists trying to find a way to sculpt their hands to make sure they have an EARTH, FIRE, and DARK monster, some have been utilizing the draw effect of Saryuja Skull Dread. To break down Saryuja, it gains effects based on the number of Link Materials used for its Link Summon. If 2 or more were used, it gains the following: “If a Monster is Normal or Special Summoned to a zone this card points to: That monster(s) gains 300 ATK/DEF.” This is great for being able to attack over high ATK monsters. For 3 or more: “Once per turn, during your Main Phase: You can Special Summon 1 monster from your hand.” This can be used to Special Summon cards like Mind on Air to reveal your opponent’s full hand or any Vanquish Soul monster to get additional value and to help with ending the game. And finally, if you used 4 materials: “When this card is Link Summoned: You can draw 4 cards, then place 3 cards from your hand on the bottom of your Deck in any order.” It’s this effect that lets you sculpt your hand for your opponent’s turn.
With its last printing in Duel Devastator, who knows when this card will see a reprint in the future, but let’s hope it is soon before something that can break it comes along.
With K9 Crystron popping up, topping events, and even winning 2 regionals, Scrap Recycler has gone up in price. This is because you can utilize the K9 engine in a way to allow you to Xyz Summon Infinitrack River Stormer, which was covered a couple weeks ago, as a means to bridge into a copy of Scrap Recycler before your Normal Summon for the turn. This can allow you to send a copy of Crystron Smeiger, Sulfador, or Thystvern to the GY to start any of the Crystron combos you have lined up.
With new advancements being made to older Decks, it is great to see something like Crystron can still pack a punch in today’s meta.
We can officially welcome Kashtira Fenrir back into the meta as a great generic card that many Decks can utilize for free removal of face-up cards. It is seen mostly in Dracotail lists, as it can search for an additional copy of itself while allowing you to have more materials in hand to use for Fusion Summoning Dracotail Arthalion, and for its effect, which lets you target cards on the field/GY up to the number of materials you used in hand and return them to the hand. Being able to banish any card on the field face-down can be crucial in multiple matchups if it is a point of interaction or a card that can be useful for the opponent during the combo. Going first, it is extremely useful against the K9 engine, as if they use K9-17 Izuna to Special Summon herself, you can banish that Izuna, and all they will have left is a K9-ØØ Lupis in the GY to try to utilize.
With its last reprint in the 25th Anniversary Tin: Dueling Heroes Mega Pack, players wanted to see this card, like many other cards, get a QCR print in any of the Rarity Collections, but with this card stabilizing more for all 3 of its copies, with quantities only ever getting lower.
When looking around at listings, I notice that all copies of Solemn Judgment have less than 100 listings. It’s mainly a great Counter Trap at the cost of half of your LP for the current format, since plenty of Decks rely on putting their resources into a certain monster from Maliss <Q> White Binder, Maliss <Q> Red Ransom, Yummy★Snatchy, or even K9-17 “Ripper”. Negating the activation of Spell/Trap Cards can be amazing as well to stop certain power cards like Forbidden Droplet (provided they don’t send a Trap Card), Dark Ruler No More, Triple Tactics Thrust, Lightning Storm, or Harpie’s Feather Duster. Being a card that can deal with multiple problems, with a high cost of paying half your LP, it is well worth it to pair with an additional Solemn card from Solemn Strike or Warning.
Being a massive “No Button” on so many pieces of the metagame has its advantages and disadvantages, but having multiple points of interaction can do numbers against any opponent.
To get ahead of the game for Killer Tune, Ringowurm, the Dragon Guarding the Hundred Apples, is a wonderful Tuner for the Deck. Since Killer Tune can utilize their own Main Deck monsters from the hand for their Synchro Summons, Ringowurm can slot in easily, as it is a Level 2 Tune. Then, you can banish it from your GY the turn you Synchro Summoned to Special Summon 1 Level 2 Hundred Apple Token, which allows you to Synchro Summon Killer Tune Synchro Monsters or other Synchro Monsters such as Herald of the Arc Light for an omni-negate. You can even Synchro Summon Martial Metal Marcher, which allows you to get an additional Synchro Tuner for Crystron Quariongandrax.
Seeing this card finding a new home after Swordsoul is great, as Killer Tune will be able to capitalize with this card more than any previous Synchro Deck that has been released.
Many things have been going on over the past week, from multiple buyouts to multiple new techs reintroduced into the game, and we will see how this will affect the YCS over in Vancouver, British Columbia, this weekend. So best of luck to all players participating this weekend. For my prediction of what Deck will win, I have a strong feeling either Dracotail or Yummy will be the Deck to beat going into this event.
Edited and co-written by Angryjon
