The 300th YCSs are a wrap, but the market continues on from the aftermath.
The massive 300th YCS in Richmond, Virginia; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Dortmund, Germany, this weekend finished this past Sunday, and multiple champions have been crowned. Today, we will be looking at some of the top cards and techs that were seen this weekend. Before we get into this article, I would like to congratulate Kamal Crooks-Valdez, Diego Ganzerli, and Esteban Jesus Mena Campos, the champions of the Advanced YCS, and Allen Cai and Konrad Müller, who won the Genesys Proto-YCS. So with that said, let’s dive into this week’s Market Watch.
Spotlight Cards from the YCS
From the main Advanced YCS, Vanquish Soul K9 managed to win 2 of the 3 events from Guadalajara and Dortmund, respectively, while Radiant Typhoon Yummy Tri-Brigade won it at Richmond, causing VSK9 to lose a 3-for-3 win at the end of the 300th YCS events. With Radiant Typhoon receiving new support that made it into a top contender in the meta, players have been shown the strength of Radiant Typhoon Krosea, as it is one of the key monsters in the Deck. Krosea is an important card to the Radiant Typhoon strategy because if a Quick-Play Spell Card is activated, you can Special Summon Krosea from your hand after it resolves. It then would lead Krosea to be able to add any other Radiant Typhoon card, or a copy of Mystical Space Typhoon, from your Deck and/or GY to your hand when it is Normal or Special Summoned, but you are locked into Summoning WIND monsters for the rest of the turn. Either way, Radiant Typhoon has well over 18 total tops from this past weekend, cementing it into being a competent Deck to watch out for.
It isn’t a Market Watch article without the mention of Vanquish Soul once again. And in the spotlight is Vanquish Soul Jiaolong, as it has been some time since the last mention. The Limitation of VS Hollie Sue hurt the amount of the Level 5s the Deck ran, but with Stake Your Soul! and VS Razen returning back to 3 copies per Deck, the number of ways to get to the card and the amount of FIRE Attribute monsters have gone up! This is because VS Jiaolong relies on how many FIRE monsters are in your hand, so you can either reveal 1 FIRE monster to change the battle position of 1 monster on the field or reveal 2 FIRE monsters to add any VS card from your Deck to your hand, which is absolutely amazing for searching up a copy of VS Hollie Sue if needed. The great thing about Jiaolong is that if you reveal a card(s) in your hand to activate a VS card or effect, you can Special Summon Jiaolong from your hand, which grants you an additional Level 5 or a free Link Material on your field.
Maliss is still in it… to win it? It saw multiple tops this weekend, with a total of 13 players on the strategy that made Top 64 from Richmond and Dortmund and the Top 32 from Guadalajara. Maliss P March Hare has been rising in price due to no reprint in sight, but also with how well Maliss has been performing over the past week. With the recent banning of Maliss Q White Binder, it put a damper on the grind game of being able to reset the Maliss Trap Cards from your GY, banishing up to 3 cards from the GY(s), and drawing you 1 card when Special Summoned back from being banished at the cost of 900 LP. Players have figured that the ban was only a flesh wound to the Deck, where Maliss P Dormouse is still Limited and Maliss in Underground is still Semi-Limited, letting the Deck access follow-up plays for the next turn. It’s been interesting watching the Deck develop over the past year, as it is completely different from what it was well over 6 months ago, from near full power to the monster it has become today. Players like Shunping Xu managed to take it all at a Regional recently, going 9-0 at New Haven, Connecticut, and focusing on cards like Allure of Darkness for additional consistency, Transcode Talker for faster ways to OTK and help assist the final board for the opponent’s turn, Dimensional Prison in the Side Deck for Branded Dracotail, and even both a copy of Rivalry of Warlords and Gozen Match for many of the current Decks wanting to use multiple Types and Attributes. Still being at 3, March Hare still brings a lot into the Maliss Deck as it can banish any of your Maliss names from your hand or GY to Special Summon itself from the hand, and when it is banished itself, you can target 1 Maliss monster that is banished, including itself, to add it back to your hand. This can help trigger many of your Maliss names when they are banished to Special Summon themselves for ways to proceed in any combo route.
Being the star from Burst Protocol, Fallen of the White Dragon has been keeping a stable price since its release and after the 300th YCS. This card has changed many Decks as they are now all allowed to run a Branded Engine in some way without Branded Fusion itself thanks to this card and Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon. While this card is in your hand, you can reveal and send 1 monster that mentions Fallen of the Albaz from your Extra Deck to your GY to Special Summon Fallen of the White Dragon from your hand. Then on its Normal or Special Summon, you can Special Summon 1 Ecclesia monster from your hand, Deck, or GY to access a copy of Incredible Ecclesia or revive Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon from your GY after it was Synchro Summoned properly.
Overall, the Decks to beat are now well known, and there are plenty of cards to watch out for from each of them. From Dimension Shifter in both Vanquish Soul K9 and Maliss @Ignister, The Fallen & The Virtuous for additional face-up removal in Radiant Typhoon and Branded Dracotail, and plenty of other cards in other strategies.
The Techs with the Surprise Factor!
The first stop is Diabell, Queen of the White Forest, as it is the latest tech in Yummy Decks post the February Forbidden & Limited List update. She is extremely powerful in the Deck as if you use a Tuner Synchro Monster for this card’s Synchro Summon, you can target and add 1 Spell/Trap from your GY to your hand, which is extremely useful for recycling 1-of Floodgates or other cards like Yummy Surprise, Forbidden Droplet, or Piri Reis Map for follow-ups on your next turn. The other important effect from this card is when your opponent activates a card or effect, you can send 1 Spell/Trap from your hand or field to the GY to Special Summon from your Extra Deck, GY, or banishment any Level 7 or lower Synchro Tuner Monster. By using this card, you can access your Yummy Synchro Monsters from the GY to return them to the Extra Deck if your opponent activates a card or effect. You can also access Zalen the Shackled Dragon in order to use its effect in response to another card or effect activation to negate the first effect or the second effect in the Chain and destroy that card. Diabell even lets you access other cards for Off-Turn Synchro Summoning on the opponent’s turn.
The card that dominated this weekend was The Fallen & The Virtuous from the self-titled CHRONICLES DECK: The Fallen & The Virtuous Structure Deck. This single card was all over the place in many Decks from Dracotail, Branded, and Radiant Typhoon to even Decks like Lunalight, Mitsurugi, Kewl Tune, and Elfnotes. This card has become a well-rounded staple in most Decks due to the release of Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon, giving you more cards to send from this card and being able to recycle Albion the Branded Dragon for another use. More thanks to Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon, as it can allow The Fallen & The Virtuous to be a form of GY disruption, as it can target and revive any monster from the GYs, which can be detrimental against many current Decks. This card has paved the way into the new format as one of the go-to techs for many players to combat Dracotail Flame and other targeting-like effects that would prevent other effects from taking place.
A new development has been made known where Radiant Typhoon Yummy as a Deck concept has worked extremely well as the new double-engine Deck like Mitsurugi Yummy before it. Some players have decided to run a heavier Tri-Brigade engine with a copy of everyone’s favorite silly lore character, Tri-Brigade Springans Kitt. This card is absolutely insane in the Deck as if you control a Springans or Tri-Brigade monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if it is sent to the GY, you can Special Summon a Tri-Brigade monster, Springans monster, a Fallen of Albaz, or a monster that mentions it from your GY. This is great when paired with any Tri-Brigade name like Nervall or Fraktall, as you can either search for it for a free extender or send it to revive any Tri-Brigade name for additional Link Material. The main use for this is to Link away the copy of Nervall to search for Fraktall, then use the Fraktall to send the copy of Tri-Brigade Springans Kitt from the Deck to revive the copy of Nervall from your GY. This sets up a Link-1 Monster, through Linkuriboh or Salamangreat Almiraj, and a Level 1 Monster with Tri-Brigade Nervall, so you can access any of the Yummy Synchro Monsters, especially Cupsy★Yummy Way. You can also banish the copy of Kitt and Fraktall, using Nervall’s effect, to Special Summon a copy of Ancient Warriors Oath – Double Dragon Lords for another form of interruption during the opponent’s turn.
Finally, we will be looking at the newest Forbidden card in the series, Forbidden Crown. This card was hyped extremely well at its reveal, and many thought it would be a staple for every Deck to use. But knowing how things always go, it gets printed as a Secret Rare that is slightly difficult to pull out of a pool of 10 Secret Rares. But the odd thing about it is that only 6 known lists, as of writing this article, were running the card as either a Main Deck tech or running it in the Side Deck for specific matchups. It’s a very interesting and polarizing card in the metagame, as Crown prevents the monster you apply the effects to from having its effects negated, cannot attack, cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect, is unaffected by activated card effects (except its own), and cannot be Tributed or used as a material for a Fusion Synchro, Xyz, or Link Summon. All this makes it fantastic against Decks like Yummy if used on Yummy★Snatchy.
This weekend was extremely interesting to watch and see how the format has developed in such a short time. The next time the format will change is when the TCG receives the Legendary Modern Decks 2026 in March, almost a full month away, to see how the new Sky Striker cards do when they are imported and what other surprises and reprints appear from the product itself.
Edited and co-written by Angryjon
