Bolt SpiderPlenty of shifts on the market have been happening over the past week due to constant meta shifts. From Typhoon being a great tech against Angelechy to Pile Decks finally resorting to the Dragunity Lord himself, and even Dragon Ruler showing up more within Genesys. So much change has been happening recently, so let’s dive into this week's Market Watch and see what all is happening.
Entering the New Meta
Before getting into all the new techs and cards coming back into the meta, the first card we will talk about is Kuriboh - Multiply! Recently, I’ve found a new respect for this card against the Angelechy matchup when they plan to attack with an ATK-boosted Assault Blackwing - Kusanagi the Gathering Storm, just for you to use its effect to either add to your hand or Special Summon from your Deck or GY 1 monster with 300 ATK/200 DEF to then change that monster’s ATK to 0, thus making their efforts to win the game slim. This effect can be activated when your opponent activates a monster effect on the field or during damage calculation when your opponent declares an attack. You can even Special Summon this card from your hand in response to an opponent’s activated monster effect or an attack declaration. This card is also a “Soft once-per-turn” per copy, and this allows you to Special Summon all 3 copies from your Deck or GY to then search for a copy of Griffoh in order to access your Light and Darkness Ritual engine.
With Angelechy becoming the best Deck in the room, it has plenty of counters, where players have opted into Main Decking copies of Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, while also siding 3 copies of Typhoon as a way to destroy certain Angelechy cards amongst their Spells/Traps to interrupt their plays. Typhoon can target a Spell/Trap on the field and destroy it, but if your opponent controls 2 or more Spells/Traps, you can activate it from your hand. This is perfect when they activate Angelechy Problem to Special Summon Angelechy Enlisted and then place Angelechy Bastion in their Spell/Trap Zone in order to try and trigger its effect. This is a perfect spot to use Typhoon, denying your opponent from placing another Extra Deck Angelechy monster in their Spell/Trap Zone.
Speaking about Angelechy, many players have adapted to run a copy of Centur-Ion Legatia in their Extra Deck for the fact that any monster with 2000 or less ATK they control cannot be destroyed by battle. Along with this, if this card is Special Summoned, it lets them draw 1 card, and then they can destroy 1 monster their opponent controls with the highest ATK. Being a 3500 ATK beatstick that also protects your Angelechy Enlisted from battle and being a well-rounded Synchro Monster, the price spike it has had over the past weeks has been crazy to watch.
Dominus Spark has returned back into the meta due to Angelechy running 9 of them total, even up to 12 with Songs of the Dominators, which lets you tutor other Dominus Traps. But Spark has been a powerful card for Angelechy, Orcust, and Maliss within the recent months. Targeting and banishing a monster your opponent controls is really strong, especially since you can activate this card from your hand during the turn your opponent activated a monster effect in the hand or GY. If you don’t have a Trap Card in your GY, the opponent can Special Summon 1 monster from their hand upon this card's resolution. The other downside of this card is you are locked out of EARTH, WATER, FIRE, and WIND monster effects for the rest of the Duel, but that is fine for all LIGHT and DARK Decks.
The time has finally come for Dragunity Lord - Georgius to enter the meta as a way to shut off the GY of the opponents. Thanks to Crystron Halqifibrax Prism being a Link-3 and its ability to Special Summon a Tuner from your Extra Deck, nearly every Deck that runs the Medius the Pure engine can access these cards. By using both Crystron Halqifibrax Prism and the Summoned Synchro Tuner Dragunity Knight - Luin from your Extra Deck, you can Link Summon this card. Upon this card’s Link Summon, you can Special Summon 1 Level 5 or higher Dragunity monster from your Extra Deck or GY, that being Dragunity Knight - Areadbhair, while Dragunity Knight - Luin equips itself from your GY to Georgius as Chain Link 2. While Georgius is equipped with a Dragunity card, your opponent cannot activate any effects of monsters in the GY, and when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap or effect, you can send 1 Equip Spell you control to the GY to negate that card. In addition to all this, Areadbhair can negate an opponent’s monster effect by banishing a Dragunity monster from your GY.
Right now is an interesting time for innovation and a different feel for the format, as every Deck's power level has been lowered dramatically. Within the next few weeks, we will have the release of Magnificent Maestros, which adds new cards for Witchcrafter, Toon, and Unchained. It will also add plenty of strong generic cards to the metagame, especially after the TCG has banned 34 cards for the future health of the game.
The Advent of the Future
The future is bright with many possibilities from Genesys and the Advanced format, and it's shining tons upon Dragon Ruler for the Genesys format. With Blaster, Redox, Tempest, and Tidal all becoming 0 points on the recent list from 5 points a piece, Spectral, Dragon Ruler of Flickers has seen a price increase due to more options being available for building the Deck itself. Spectral is one of the newer cards for the strategy, which was released back in 2025, as it can discard itself and a Dragon or LIGHT monster to add 2 Dragon Ruler monsters from your Deck to your hand, or you can banish it and a Dragon or LIGHT monster from your GY to target and Special Summon a copy of Chasma, Dragon Ruler of Auroras from your GY. This lets you revive the Xyz counterpart to your field to help access Disaster, Dragon Ruler of All Apocalypses if needed, or gain advantage with searching for additional Dragon Ruler monsters for shared Attributes with Dragonmaid, or additional materials for the Dracotail version.
Destiny HERO players are trying everything out under the sun, and this has caused Masked HERO Furnace, a 1-of for the Masked HERO engine, to rise in its price even more than it was months ago. Furnace is a powerful card, as you can reveal it to either add Mask Change or Polymerization from your Deck to your hand, then you discard 1 card. The discard could be super useful if you drew a copy of Malicious, which can banish itself from the GY to Special Summon another copy of itself from your Deck. Even though this effect locks you into Special Summoning HERO monsters for the rest of the turn, this is fine, as your full Extra Deck is made up of HEROes. While this card is in your hand or GY, and you Special Summon a non-FIRE HERO Fusion Monster, you can Special Summon Furnace, but it's banished when it leaves the field. Despite this, it’s still additional material for the Link Summon of Xtra HERO Cross Crusader, or the Fusion Summon of Contrast HERO Chaos.
The Rikka support from Immortal Phoenix has taken its place, and it has made the Deck even better than before, but Snowdrop the Rikka Fairy, has yet to see a reprint ever since its release in 2020, causing this card to see a buyout once again. While in the hand, you can Tribute 1 Plant monster to Special Summon her and another Plant monster from your hand, but it locks you into Plant monsters, which is fine since Rikka is a Plant Deck to begin with. While on the field, you can target a Plant monster you control, and all Plants you currently control become that monster’s Level until the end of the turn. This is perfect for accessing multiple Rank 4s or Rank 8s, but just being a monster that can Summon herself and another Plant can lead into many Link-2 monsters as well, like Aromaseraphy Jasmine.
Finally, the legion of the undead is rising from the graves as we inch closer to the new Zenet theme, while also seeing some play in Tearlament and Pumpking Phantom Knights strategies over the past month. The Undying Legion is a Rank 7 monster that can either be Xyz Summoned if you use 2 Level 7 monsters or if you use a Rank 6 Zombie Xyz Monster you control instead, like Pilgrim Reaper or Wollow, Founder of the Drudge Dragons, while also transferring its materials to the legion. During the opponent’s Main Phase, you can detach 2 materials from this card, or just 1 if one of the materials is an Xyz Monster, to then target 1 Attack Position monster your opponent controls, or a monster in their GY, and attach it to this card. This makes it a great way to snipe monsters who are activating their effect in the GY to Special Summon themselves or to use the targeting effect to remove the targeted monster, so it would resolve without effect. This card has been a centerpiece for a few strategies for this specific reason.
The next couple of weeks before Magnificent Maestros will be interesting to watch over as things change into another new meta. Swinging like a pendulum back and forth, players are still skeptical about the game and what it is now, but within a week, we will have YCS Orlando, Florida, to see the major impact of what the massive 43-card Forbidden & Limited List update really did to the format. But with no major events this weekend, for all of those who are going to regionals this weekend, I wish you all the best of luck, and may the best Duelist win.
Edited and co-written by Angryjon