[MW] Shine Bright Through The Abyss Of The Market

Albaz is anywhere and everywhere now.

The market has been calming down this past week as the final three YCSs are coming up soon in the coming month. 

With the new CHRONICLES STRUCTURE DECK: The Fallen & The Virtuous releasing for OTS Tournament Stores today, and with the past few weeks, it has caused a few cards to rise in price. Albion the Sanctifire Dragon is one of the major offenders, as it is the be-all and end-all final Fusion form for the Story of White Lore, being a Fusion of both Fallen of Albaz and Incredible Ecclesia, the Virtuous. While this card wasn’t reprinted in the Chronicle Deck, it’s extremely powerful that it should’ve been reprinted. Requiring Fallen of Albaz and a LIGHT Spellcaster monster makes it so Albion is extremely easy to Fusion Summon, thanks to multiple LIGHT Spellcasters being run in Branded from Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous, and Guiding Quem, the Virtuous. The main reason every Branded Despia Deck runs Albion is for its ability to quickly target 2 monsters in any GY(s) and Special Summon 1 to each field, which allows you to Special Summon plenty of cards that lock the opponent out of the game. This is one of the reasons cards like Gimmick Puppet Nightmare and Ido the Supreme Magical Force saw massive play in Branded Decks. Be aware that this Quick Effect can only be used during the opponent’s turn, so cards like Artifact Mjollnir will not work.

Along with Sanctifire Dragon, Bystial Dis Pater has swiped off the North American market, with both the Cyberstorm Access Ultra Rare and 25th Anniversary Tin: Dueling Mirrors Secret Rare copies nearly gone. With Dis Pater being the Big Bad Evil Guy’s dragonic form in the Story of White Lore, it’s a shame that we haven’t seen a new accessible or lower rarity reprint for this card. With it being semi-generic and having 1 Tuner plus 1 or more non-Tuner Dragon monsters as its materials, this powerful 3500 ATK Synchro Monster can target and Special Summon any banished LIGHT or DARK monster that can help extend your plays or solidify your end boards with adding more interruption to it. This is because when your opponent activates a monster effect, you can quickly target 1 banished card and shuffle it into the Deck to destroy that monster, or if you shuffle it into your opponent’s Deck, the effects of that monster are negated instead.

To finish off the trio, Despian Luluwalilith has also gone up in price as she still sees play in Decks like Azamina White Forest and Centur-Ion and has also become a common tech nowadays in Dracotail Decks that utilize Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous. Even though she requires a Level 4 Tuner and 1 or more non-Tuner monsters, she is almost completely generic for any deck that can utilize this powerful Synchro Monster. When a card leaves the Extra Deck, you can, once per turn, make all monsters you currently control gain 500 ATK, then you can negate the effects of 1 face-up card on the field until the end of the turn, which could be a determination point for a match. Then during the End Phase, if she was sent to the GY that turn, you can Special Summon 1 LIGHT Spellcaster from your hand or Deck whose ATK equals its own DEF. This is extremely useful, as she allows you to access a second copy of Blazing Cartesia from your Deck for follow-up Fusion plays during your next turn.

It’s quite interesting that these three haven’t seen a reprint since 2024, and their quantities are extremely low on the North American market, but hopefully there is a product they are put in to help cross-promote with the CHRONICLES STRUCTURE DECK: The Fallen & The Virtuous Deck.

Next up, Earthbound Prisoner Stone Sweeper has been in a crossfire, as plenty have picked up cards for Earthbound and Red Dragon Decks in anticipation of Blazing Dominion’s cover theme possibly supporting Everyone’s King, Jack Atlas. Even then, this card can be extremely useful in Decks like Killer Tune (YGOrganization Translation), as it can discard itself to search for any Level 3 or Lower Fiend Tuner from your Deck, but it locks you into Fusion and Synchro Monsters for the rest of the turn. You can search out Killer Tune Reco (YGOrganization Translation) to net advantage, since when she is Summoned, she can add any Killer Tune monster from your Deck or GY to your hand to forward your Synchro plays.

From only being in the Maze of Millennia set from 2024, even missing out on a reprint in the 2024 and 2025 Mega Tins, this card has been rising up on both the NA and EU markets as quantities start to dwindle slowly, and we will hopefully see what fate this card has in the future.

Players have been picking up Exosister cards since they received two amazing support cards in Burst Protocol. On the first of the two stops we have with Exosister, Exosister Martha is a major part of the Deck for many, as if you control no monsters or only Xyz Monsters, she can Special Summon herself from your hand, and if you do, you can Special Summon a copy of Exosister Elis from your Deck, while locking you into only being able to Special Summon Exosister monsters for that turn. She shares the effect that all Main Deck Exosister monsters have the moment a card leaves the GY, which lets you Xyz Summon 1 Exosister Xyz Monster by using that face-up Exosister card as material. This can help to Xyz Summon more monsters as material for Exosisters Magnifica during the opponent’s turn. As a refresher, the new Exosister Karmael (YGOrganization Translation) comes with a great replacement effect that changes your opponent’s activated effect to “Add 1 card from your opponent’s GY to their hand,” and Exosister Bat Mater (YGOrganization Translation) is an amazing starter that adds 2 Exosister monsters from the Deck to the hand, then makes you discard 1 card.

With Exosister being a fan favorite Deck, it makes sense that players want to pick up cards for this, as it could potentially return to being a meta call or an actual meta Deck once again.

Golden Cloud Beast – Malong has been a great Synchro Tuner that has seen plenty of play in the Genesys Format as many have been utilizing it with Ultimate Slayer. Paired with Slayer, it adds another form of removal to the opponent’s board, as if this card is sent to the GY, you target 1 face-up card your opponent controls and return it to the hand. Removing any Synchro Monster on the field and an additional face-up card on the field on top of that are extremely important for tempo and breaking the opponent’s board. Even in the current TCG format, it’s great against the Synchro Snack Cat Deck, Yummy, to be sent off of Slayer, or used with Dogmatika Punishment for nearly the same effect as multiple forms of removal.

With not moving much on the EU market, the Ultra Rare copies for North America have been going up in price with how important this card is for Genesys and the current TCG format.

Finally, for this week, Gravekeeper’s Inscription has been slowly creeping back into the game in plenty of Yummy Side Decks as a way to counter Dracotail and many Decks that rely on GY effects. At the start of Main Phase 1, you can apply 1 of the following effects until the end of your turn: “Neither player can activate card effects in the GY,” “Neither player can banish from the GY,” or “Neither player can Special Summon from the GYs.” Two of these options shut down Dracotail effectively, as they want to activate their Dracotail Main Deck monster effects from the GY and Special Summon from the GY with Secreterion Dragon, Dracotail Arthalion, and Dragon Tail Gulamel. Even against Decks like K9, it can be useful, as they won’t be able to Special Summon K9-ØØ Lupis from the GY or stop them from using K9-66b Lantern effect from Special Summoning a K9 monster from the GY.

Overall, Gravekeeper’s Inscription is still a useful tech for many Decks that can utilize it fully if they don’t rely on the GY and can make room for it in their side decks.

Even with this week being slow, as Burst Protocol is releasing in the OCG and not many regionals are going on this weekend, it’ll start picking up once again when results from the OCG start appearing and the next YCS season starts up on November 8th-9th at YCS Pittsburgh in three weeks.

Edited and co-written by Angryjon