MW: The Return Of Droplet And Impactful Techs For The Future?

As we move into a format past the release of the Blue-Eyes White Destiny Structure Deck, powerful staples like Forbidden Droplet have come back from the depths to claim more boards.

When we move into new formats, players rotate around what techs and staples are the best for the current end boards of the top Deck and cards like Forbidden Droplet hits home to be a great out for many of them. Let’s also talk about upcoming techs for future and current Decks and see what the impact of the announcement of Battle of Legends: Monster Mayhem holds for a certain Primite card.

 

Selective negation is amazing going into this new format post Blue-Eyes White Destiny and Forbidden Droplet has made huge impacts in the game once again. As many Decks are ending on 1-3 monsters on the field, Forbidden Droplet has been capable of taking care of those options. By sending cards in your hand or under your control to the GY, you can negate monsters your opponent controls at your choosing. Your opponent also cannot respond to this card with cards with the same original type (Monster/Spell/Trap) as the cards you sent to the GY and the ATK of those monsters you choose become halved. This card can stop the effects of cards like Ryzeal Detonator, A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow, or Maliss <Q> White Binder from hindering your plays as you pushback against your opponent’s boards.

This card has seen many prints from its original print in Rise of the Duelist to 25th Anniversary: Rarity Collection. Each copy is above $7 for a board impacting and sought-after card.

 

With Regenesis Archfiend confirmed as the next Premiere Promo for Alliance Insight, Doomdog Octhros is a great card to keep an eye on. This Common from Crossed Souls has seen a couple prints over the past years but it is useful if you are running Salamangreat Almiraj. If this card is sent from the field to the GY, you add 1 Level 8 Fiend monster from your Deck to your hand, which is a perfect way to add Regenesis Archfiend. This gives the Deck a Normal Summon starter to help get into your Regenesis engine. Being a 3-of for itself, having more copies of it is better since it adds more consistency to the Deck. Even Dark Spirit’s Mastery helps out as well since it’s more ways to get to your Archfiend.

Even with 3 Common prints from Crossed Souls, 2016 Mega-Tins Mega Pack and Speed Duel: Battle City Finals, each copy is less than 25 cents each but it is worthwhile to test it out if you are interested in running a pure Regenesis Deck.

 

The Bystial package has seen tons of play over the past 2 years and there are currently no reprints in sight for any of them. Currently, the main Bystials everyone runs are Bystial Druiswurm, Bystial Magnamhut, and Bystial Baldrake. Some lists also play the bigger package with The Bystial Lebellion, Branded Regained, and Bystial Saronir. With their main utility of banishing LIGHT and DARK monsters to Summon themselves from the hand, it is great for extending your plays or preventing plays from your opponent. They also become Quick Effects if your opponent controls a monster, which is amazing against Decks like Maliss or even Blue-Eyes. We’ve been playing them since Darkwing Blast in 2022 and they have shown their power with Bystial Magnamhut being Limited formats ago.

Even though all the Bystial monsters have 2 accessible printings, in the case of Bystial Druiswurm, each copy from the Super Rare from Darkwing Blast and Prismatic Secret Rare from the 25th Anniversary Mega Tins have hit above the $26-28 mark from $20 back in January. While Bystial Baldrake has a Common print that is around 50 cents, the Ultra Rares from Battles of Legend: Monstrous Revenge are up to $4.50 when it was just $1 back in January as well. Time finally caught up to these cards and let’s hope we see them in Quarter Century Stampede.

 

With the announcement of Battles of Legend: Monster Mayhem, Primite Lordly Lode has plummeted hard in its price. With the reprint slated for June 13, 2025, the card will still have its demand for people who want to play Decks like Blue-Eyes, Ryzeal, or rogue options like Bystial Primite. Being able to use this engine in any Deck you want is great because it gives Decks access to things they never had before. Ryzeal can utilize it to Special Summon a Harpie Lady for Harpie’s Feather Storm, or for the Bystial version, you can Summon a free Level 4 Dragon to go into Striker Dragon or Spirit with Eyes of Blue to help Link into Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres.

After the announced reprint, Primite Lordly Lode dropped from its $80-85 price tag all the way to $50-55, now it has crept back up to $65. This is a major drop after an announcement even if players still have demand for this sought-after engine.

 

Pharaonic Advent has been eyed by the player base as an option for the new Odion Support in Maze of the Masters even if the support hasn’t been revealed yet. As a card that is supposed to work with Ishizu’s EARTH Fairy cards from Magnificent Mavens and Marik’s cards from Legendary Duelists: Rage of Ra, it will also support Odion’s Deck since he possesses Embodiment of Apophis, which is a Reptile. Along with working with three of the Ishtar family Decks, it works with Odion the best since his cards are based around Continuous Traps, as this card gains 300 ATK for each on the field and GYs. If you Tribute a monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand and while it’s face-up, you can Tribute a Fairy, Fiend, or Reptile monster to add 1 Continuous Trap from your Deck to your hand, with the downside of not being able to Special Summon monsters for the rest of the turn. This makes it a useful way to get another Continuous Trap to the field with Silhouhatte Rabbit.

Even though this card is less than 25 cents per copy, it received a Super Rare from Photon Hypernova and an Ultra Rare from the 25th Anniversary Tin: Dueling Mirror. A cheap pickup for highly anticipated support.

It has been a little time since I’ve covered Metaltronus from the first article when it was $2.75-3 to a previous article where it went to $7 a copy. This card has made huge waves across the TCG and OCG as many have been using it to out the end board for Ryzeal and Maliss. Players have been putting a copy of Ryzeal Detonator and keeping the Mereologic Aggregator in their Decks to out the opponent’s Ryzeal Detonator and a used up Maliss <Q> White Binder or Red Ransom to either break a board or to stop the opponent from gaining advantage or banishing cards from either GY. 

This card has hit higher numbers going up to $9-10 a single copy over the course of the past month from just less than $1 from 6 months ago.

 

Peeking behind the curtains to the OCG, some players have been using copies of Made to Order Mermaid Outfit Outfitter in their Side Decks. By targeting 1 card in your opponent’s GY, you can banish it then add 1 card from your Deck with the same name as the banished card. This allows you to get copies of hand traps to pass your turn with being able to add cards that allow you to start your combos if you play in a mirror match like Blue-Eyes, or just being able to banish problematic cards your opponent could use on their turn. Overall, it is a small tech but depending on the matchup, it can go the distance and turn the tides of the Duel.

Only from Photon Hypernova, it has been seeing a lot of sales recently while it still sits around 20 cents a copy. This card can see future use if we head into a 2 Deck format, and might be a possible option for when players get ready to head to the Paris World Championship this year.

 

As players are excited for the Yummy theme, many have once again turned to the Sky Striker package as a single Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! or Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones and a discard is the full Yummy combo since all your Synchro monsters can use a Link-1 monster you control as a Level 1 Tuner. Sky Striker Ace – Kagari fills the role perfectly as your Link-1 with the Hornet Drones Token as your other Level 1 monster. These two cards have seen many waves of hype over the past 4 months so far from being used in Maliss and now Yummy and possible future support because of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Chronicles support themes from it. It is a win-win for Decks who need extra monsters to do additional things, but it could be a possible lose-lose if Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones gets banned from how much utility it allows players to have with the card.

With Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones having two copies total with a Super Rare from Dark Saviors and a Common from the 2019 Mega Tins, both have gone up in price around the $3.50-4 range from its low of around $1 months prior. With Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! having many prints over the past 7 years, its lowest copies are around $1.25-1.50 from Magnificent Mavens and the 2019 Mega Tins up and through $7 for its alternate art in Battles of Legend: Monstrous Revenge around $7.50-8 a copy. This card will slowly go up more over time unless we see a reprint for it soon to release alongside Yu-Gi-Oh! The Chronicles.

 

Finally, we will be looking at a card that recently received a reprint in the latest OTS Tournament Pack 27, Mereologic Aggregator. This card has seen multiple tops as something great to send with Ext Ryzeal or Ultimate Slayer. It is also used with Metaltronus to disrupt the Maliss board, since it has the ability to break boards the easiest. Whenever it is sent to the GY, you target 1 card on the field to negate that card’s effects until the end of the turn, which is extremely powerful because of how many ways you can get it to the GY in today’s metagame.

Even with the new Common print from the OTS pack, the original Super Rares from Darkwing Blast will hit up to $4-5 a single copy for this card to run multiples in your Extra Deck if you have space.

 

As we close out this week, it has been interesting to see what has been happening and what players have been looking at as we prepare for Maze of the Masters. Next week, we will be looking at the top imports from Maze of the Masters and how much the game will change going into this next format.