As we near the Alliance Insight format, many things have been changing on the market and in the minds of players and with great timing with the announcement of Justice Hunters!
With the game shifting as players ready themselves for the new format, many cards have been spiking due to hype from the new Sky Striker Anime OVA to Duelist’s Advance finally being released in the OCG. Let us take a look into what players have been looking at going into the May 2025 format.
First off… let’s get the Sky Striker hype out of the way. Sky Striker Mobilize – Linkage! and Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! have both been going up in price due to the OVA and Master Duel hype. Both have been targeted for their Quarter Century Secret Rare versions, as Engage! can search any card in the Sky Striker theme and then grants you an optional draw provided you have 3 or more Spells in your GY. This allows you to access either your Sky Striker Mobilize – Linkage! or other powerful cards like Sky Striker Mecha – Widow Anchor.
Meanwhile, Linkage! allows you to send 1 other card you control to the GY to Special Summon any Sky Striker Ace monster from your Extra Deck to the Extra Monster Zone. Both cards are a key point in the Deck for the added consistency and a way to go into any of your Sky Striker Link Monsters when you need them. Another bonus of Linkage! is that if you have both a LIGHT and DARK Sky Striker Ace monster on your field and/or GY, the Summoned monster gains 1000 ATK, which could turn the tide if you Summoned either a Sky Striker Ace – Shizuku or Sky Striker Ace – Kagari.
As Sky Strikers are back in the spotlight thanks to Konami, they have hit a new wave of hype for the players, as many of their cards, along with the above-mentioned ones, are being picked up like crazy. Let’s hope they made room in Battles of Legend: Monster Mayhem for a few of these cards!
Along with the mention of both Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! and Linkage!, we have Sky Striker Ace – Kagari in the spotlight as well. It is one of the two original Sky Striker Link-1s to not receive a Quarter Century Secret Rare, which honestly is mind-blowing. Being the main Link Monster for the Deck, it can recover any Sky Striker Spell from your GY to your hand while it also gains 100 ATK for each Spell in your GY, which can help it attack over certain monsters with little to no ease, as most Sky Striker Decks are built with a ton of Spells.
Sadly, with the 25th Anniversary ending, many cards never received a QCR, and Sky Striker Ace – Kagari was one of them… Even with its Ultimate Rare Print from the OTS Pack 8, it still remains the highest rarity amongst her copies.
We welcome back S:P Little Knight to the articles, as it has been a little bit since it was last covered, and… the card is still absolutely amazing. Not only is it being played in almost every Deck in the game, but when it comes to Maliss in particular, they are using it as a combo piece before the new @Ignister and Maliss support in Alliance Insight. This card is still one of the best generic Extra Deck monsters in the game, with it being able to banish any card on the field or GY if you used a monster from the Extra Deck to Link Summon it. In addition, if your opponent activates a card or effect, S:P can target and temporarily banish 2 monsters on the field, including a monster you control. This allows you to dodge cards like Nibiru, the Primal Being, or other cards like Infinite Impermanence and Effect Veiler.
This card will always be a staple for a majority of players for their Extra Deck, as we can see with the price as fewer and fewer copies are up for grabs as time goes on.
With Fiendsmith being a top engine in the game, a few decks still are able to use A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow. It has been played in Decks like Maliss if they are on the Fiendsmith engine or Memento, which is a Deck with their own Fiend monsters like Mementotlan Goblin and Mementotlan Ghattic. By discarding 1 card from your hand, you can either destroy a monster your opponent controls or temporarily banish itself to Special Summon any LIGHT or DARK Monster from your GY. This is, in fact, one of the many reasons why Knightmare Gryphon was forbidden on the April 2025 list. Being able to reborn any LIGHT or DARK monster can be terrifying, as you can bring back cards like S:P Little Knight for its powerful banishing ability or even Accesscode Talker to break your opponent’s field and attack to end the game.
Even with a decline of this card seeing play, it is still potent in its ability to stop the opponent if they have few resources left for their turn, and summoning back anything that is LIGHT or DARK is still great. We will see when the time comes if this card becomes more of an issue or not.
Primite Drillbeam has had a ton of hype behind it, with some players trying out 3 copies now in their Decks with the new Primite Support coming in Duelist’s Advance. By revealing a Primite card or a Normal Monster from your hand, except Drillbeam, you can target a card on the field to negate its effects, and then you get to banish that target. The best part is that if you control a Normal Monster or a Level 5 or higher Primite monster, except a Token, you don’t need to reveal a card to use Drillbeam. And while you control a Primite monster (either Primite Dragon Ether Beryl or the new Primite Dragon Nether Berzelius), you can set this card from your GY to your field, which is a great way to recur this card and have it back in rotation.
As new Primite support comes out, the older cards will slowly rise once again, like Primite Lordly Lode being back around its $60 mark once again.
The dangerous duo is back, and they are hunting to banish cards on the field and cards in the Extra Deck, said duo being Kashtira Fenrir and Kashtira Unicorn. Both can activate their effects when they attack or after your opponent activates a monster effect. Fenrir can target 1 face-up card your opponent controls and banish it face-down. This can be crucial as it can banish face-up Continuous Spells/Traps, Field Spells, or even important monsters on the opponent’s field.
As for Unicorn, it can banish 1 card from the opponent’s Extra Deck face-down. Both of these cards can be issues for the opponent, as removing certain cards from the field or Extra Deck can be crucial if they hit an important 1-of like Maliss <Q> White Binder or Red Random, or the newly Limited Ryzeal Detonator. They also sport impressive stat statlines, with both Fenrir and Unicorn having 2400 ATK and 2500 ATK, respectively.
Both of these cards have seen play over the past week or two in some Decks like Crystron for additional Level 7 bodies on the field or in its actual strategy with Kashtira Fiendsmith utilizing two powerful engines into a single Deck.
Dominus Impulse has skyrocketed with how much power Maliss holds now going into the Alliance Insight format. Being a 3-of for any Deck like Maliss and Atlantean Mermail, this card still holds strong as being able to stop an effect that includes Special Summoning is great for stopping cards like Nibiru, the Primal Being, or being used against any other card during your opponent’s turn. Being able to activate this card from your hand while your opponent controls a card is absolutely amazing, as it becomes a literal Hand Trap. This card will be at the forefront for every Maliss Deck going into the Alliance Insight format, as the Deck is full of DARK, FIRE, and WATER monsters. Even setting this card is great, since if you do not activate it from your hand, you can still use all Attributes for the rest of the Duel.
Dominus Impulse itself is a powerful Trap Card that has justified its position in the game; let’s hope it’ll be the star of the show, along with Dominus Purge, for the 2025 Mega Tins.
Triple Tactics Thrust and Triple Tactics Talent once again have seen their quantities on the market decrease as we near a new format where they are going to be used the most. Triple Tactics Thrust shows its power more and more by being able to set any Normal Spell/Trap card from your Deck, but if your opponent controls a monster, you can add that Normal Spell/Trap to your hand instead. You can activate this card during a turn your opponent activated a monster effect if they intended to shotgun cards like Mulcharmy Fuwalos, Purulia, or Meowls as a way to punish their opponent or to respond to an effect of yours with a monster effect like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring or Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion.
With Triple Tactics Talent going to 1, it is still played in everything as a powerful 1-of along with Crossout Designator and Called by the Grave. Having multiple powerful 1-of spells in the game can cause problems if we look back throughout the past, as we’ve seen the power triangles before. Being the one that has 2 Forbidden and 1 Limited card put together into one single card, it deserved its status to be Limited. After all, its options are to let you draw 2 cards, shuffle 1 card from your opponent’s hand into the deck, or take control of an opponent’s monster. These are 3 extremely powerful effects, as all your opponent has to do is use a monster effect during the Main Phase.
Both cards being a staple in almost every deck is crazy just for the power they hold from Thrust to Talents, as they can sway games heavily now, especially if your opponent doesn’t have the counters for them.
Going up in play percentage, Super Starslayer TY-PHON – Sky Crisis’ price for all of its copies after Quarter Century Stampede has finally started to rise… slowly! This card is useful as a last resort if you end up breaking your opponent’s full board and they still have one last card on the field. You can Xyz Summon this card by using the highest ATK monster you control if your opponent Special Summoned monsters from their Extra Deck more than twice during their turn or your turn. Summoning it this way, however, brings in the downside of preventing you from Normal or Special Summoning more monsters for the rest of the turn. While you do control this Xyz Summoned card, neither player can activate the effect of monsters with 3000 or more ATK, which can turn off some of the most powerful boss monsters or other cards like Nibiru, the Primal Being. You can also detach 1 material from it to return any monster on the field back into the hand.
Super Starslayer TY-PHON – Sky Crisis has become an infamous Xyz Monster since its release, as it can be summoned if your opponent fails to set up a powerful endboard but could also hurt you if it is the only option you have left to try and push through what your opponent set up. It’s a card that is all 50/50 to see if you will win the game or not.
Becoming the best Hand Trap in the game, Infinite Impermanence has become a rising star to pair with the Dominus Traps. As you can use Impermanence first and then later use a Dominus Trap to get the additional effect to destroy the card you negated since you now have a Trap Card in your GY. Infinite Impermanence, on the other hand, has been a great Trap Card since its release back in Flames of Destruction, as if you control no cards, you can activate it from your hand to target 1 monster your opponent controls and negate its effects. But if you activate this card while it was set, it negates the effects of all Spells/Traps in that card’s column, which is a great way to punish Decks since you can set it in a Spell/Trap Column that your opponent has a Continuous Trap on so you can have a way to negate a monster and negate that Spell/Trap for the turn.
This card has always been powerful, and players have finally decided to capitalize on it more over the past year since it doesn’t allow your opponent to use either Triple Tactics Thrust or Triple Tactics Talent, as it isn’t a monster effect. Even with its many reprints, the card’s price just keeps going up with the popularity of this card.
With K9 hype in full swing as Justice Hunters was announced for a release on August 1st. Players have been preparing early for the deck by nabbing a copy of N.As.H. Knight from Legendary Duelists: Duels from the Deep. This card hasn’t received a reprint yet, but it is a useful part of the K9 engine, as on your opponent’s first turn, you can detach 2 materials from it to attach a Number Xyz Monster with a number between “101” and “107” in its name from your Extra Deck to it. By doing so, you can then attach 1 other face-up monster on the field to N.As.H. Knight as material. This is allowed to happen because of K9 – #17 Izuna (YGOrganization Translation) and K9 – #ØØ Lupus (YGOrganization Translation). What this engine allows you to do is make Rank 5 monsters on your opponent’s turn, like N.As.H. Knight, or their archetypal Xyz Monsters, like K9 – #17 “Ripper” (YGOrganization Translation), to negate a monster effect in your opponent’s hand or GY by detaching a material, or K9 – #ØØ “Hound” (YGOrganization Translation) for its Standby Phase effect to target and banish 1 card on the field by detaching a material as well.
With this card’s lone printing making it harder to obtain, some do hope they reprint it in Justice Hunters when the TCG releases this product, as the clock is ticking as to where the set will drop.
Finally, one of the best techs going into the Alliance Insight format is The Black Goat Laughs. It has been a while since we covered this card, as it will now be paired with Triple Tactics Thrust to be set from the deck as a way to stop your opponent from either Special Summoning a monster or using the effect of a different monster. By declaring 1 Monster Card name, you shut off all players from Special Summoning monsters with the original name of that monster, except from the GY, which can halt certain combos that your opponent could do. Also, by banishing the Trap from the GY and declaring 1 Monster Card name afterwards, neither player can activate the effects of monsters on the field with that original name. This is extremely useful during the Maliss Mirror Match, as you can use your Link Monster’s effects first on your opponent’s turn as a way to react to how they are playing their turn and then activate Black Goat to stop your opponent from going into that specific monster.
With it only being from Phantom Nightmare, this card will show its power coming up soon as we await what we will see at YCS Providence, Rhode Island.
Speaking of which, next week, as that YCS will be the first premiere YCS Event that we will see Alliance Insight legal in (from May 2nd to the 4th), this will be the event that will cause players to test their hearts out to show what Deck will be on top and what other Decks will be left in the dust. My prediction for the winner will be Maliss @Ignister, as it will show the power and the skill it holds.
Edited and co-written by Angryjon
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Meowls doubled in price on cardmarket