MW: The Blue-Eyes Resurgence: Interesting Techs And Meta Shifts

Blue-Eyes had made a shining impact on the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! with the new Structure Deck releasing this past weekend. Let’s dive into the light to see what has been going on this week.

With Blue-Eyes White Destiny, many cards have been catching players’ eyes as tech options for different parts for the Deck. From the Level 1 LIGHT Tuner Mirror Resonator being searchable in the Deck for a pivot into the Fiendsmith engine, to Synchro Rumble being an all exclusive card to search off of Crimson Dragon during your combo, or even Jack-In-The-Hand because of the many Level 1 monsters you run. Blue-Eyes has been making players go out of their way to try everything under the sun for this new support as people scrambled fast for their Primite cards at the last minute.

As we dive into this bunch, let’s first talk about Mirror Resonator. As everyone wants to try Fiendsmith in the Deck, they have been looking at this Level 1 LIGHT Tuner. It is searchable off of many things in the Deck like Sage with Eyes of Blue and Wishes for Eyes of Blue, then you can use the additional Normal Summon off of Mausoleum of White to help go into Fiendsmith’s Requiem. It can be useful going second as well since if your opponent controls a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, and you do not, you can Special Summon Mirror Resonator from your hand thanks to its own effect, but it gets banished when it leaves the field. This is useful as it gets you a monster on the field if you are running Super Starslayer TY-PHON – Sky Crisis to counter your opponent if you have nothing left or go to the Fiendsmith engine to force your opponent to use hand traps or other interruptions they don’t wish to use.

Even if this card hasn’t caught on much, Mirror Resonator, for either of its copies, are anywhere from 25 cents to 75 cents, depending if you pick up the Common from Duelist Pack: Dimensional Guardians, or the Super Rare from High-Speed Riders.

With the amount of Level 1 monsters Blue-Eyes runs, Jack-In-The-Hand is an option some have looked at. With this card, you reveal 3 Level 1 monsters with different names from your Deck, your opponent chooses and adds 1 to their hand, you add 1 to your hand, and the third card gets shuffled into the Deck. It helps to get to Sage with Eyes of Blue or Maiden of White while your opponent could get the revealed Effect Veiler. This card has seen play before in decks like Floowandereeze and Lyrilusc to do the same plays to gain advantage in the early game to finish strong at the end.

While this card is only a Common, each copy is 15 cents a copy. It is a nice card to have just in case of the future if it is needed for other Level 1 Decks as well.

Since Blue-Eyes is running Crimson Dragon for their combo paths, many have been playing the 1-of Synchro Rumble. It is a way to Summon back Tuners, or Level 7 or 8 Dragon Synchro Monsters from the GY. In addition, if a Level 7 or 8 Dragon Synchro Monster or Crimson Dragon would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card instead. It is a great utility piece for Blue-Eyes as it can Summon back cards like Maiden of White to get True Light from your GY or Deck if you need it, or Summon back any Tuner to go into your Synchro Monsters to extend your plays.

Even with this card’s single print from Age of Overlord, it has hit the $3-4 mark for being a Super Rare card. It has its benefits for Blue-Eyes Decks or any Synchro Deck that utilizes Crimson Dragon.

Although Mausoleum of White is in Blue-Eyes White Destiny, people have been wanting to max the rarity of their Decks, so they have been going after the Ultra Rare copy of this card from Legendary Collection Kaiba. This card is a 1-of in the Deck because you can add it or place it from your Deck with Spirit with Eyes of Blue. Mausoleum of White allows you to get an additional Normal Summon of a Level 1 LIGHT Tuner and its capability to send any Normal Monster from your hand or Deck to the GY just by targeting a monster on the field. It’s amazing when paired with cards like True Light as you can reborn your sent Blue-Eyes White Dragon, as this will trigger your Maiden of White’s effect in your GY to Summon herself back to the field to go into a Level 9 Synchro Monster or Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon.

Ultra Rare copies of Mausoleum of White from Legendary Collection Kaiba are sitting around $13-14 from only $1-2 a copy, while all over Common and Rare copies of the card sit just under 30 cents, so if you want to bling out your Deck, there is a slight price to pay.

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As Blue-Eyes White Destiny is now fully released, let’s take another look at Primite Lordly Lode. I have been keeping an eye on this card because of Blue-Eyes Primite and it shows how players are wanting to play it. When it was first covered, it was sitting around $50 a copy. Since then, it has gone up. With the hype from Supreme Darkness and Blue-Eyes White Destiny passed, this card single handedly went up even more as it is a main 3-of for any Primite engine.

When this card was covered weeks ago, it was moving around from $40-50, while nowadays it is hitting record numbers from $85 to $90 a copy.

Xtra HERO Infernal Devicer has been showing an uptick of sales over the past few weeks as players have been trying to make the new Evil HERO support work. It is a Link-2 Link Monster that allows you to reveal a HERO Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck to add up to 2 of the Fusion Materials listed on it, but after you activated this effect, you are locked into HERO monsters, which isn’t a downside in a HERO Deck. This card’s main use is to add Elemental HERO Neos to the hand by revealing Evil HERO Neos Lord, then to later fuse it away with another Elemental HERO monster like Elemental HERO Stratos into Elemental HERO Flame Wingman – Infernal Rage to search Favorite Contact.

This card hasn’t seen a reprint since Battle of Legends: Chapter 1 as the Secret Rare version from this set sits around $5-7 from $5 while the original Ultra Rare from Duel Overload is up from $3 to now anywhere to $5 to $9.

On the oceanfront, Deep Sea Prima Donna has been recently seen in Atlantean Mermail Decks as a way to Special Summon Level 4 or lower WATER monsters from your Deck. This has been used to Summon Barrier Statue of the Torrent from the Deck by targeting a banished card from your opponent’s banishment and you can also shuffle away a banished card into the Deck. This is extremely effective if you use Deep Sea Minstrel to banish a card from your opponent’s hand. Barrier Statue of the Torrent, like its counterparts, are always waiting for something to utilize them like how Floowandereeze used Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds to stop your opponent from Special Summoning anything but WIND monsters, whereas Torrent locks both players into only Summoning WATER monsters.

Amidst its two prints, Deep Sea Prima Donna‘s Common from the 2021 Tin of Ancient Battles is around 50 cents while the Ultra Rare from Eternity Code are around $5 a copy from $1.50.

With the recent light of the next Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Stories, Invoked will be the next Deck to be looking at. Aleister the Invoker has been targeted for a buyout even though it’ll be in Quarter Century Stampede. It is the main card of the Deck and its main focus is having to use it as Fusion Material for all your Invoked Fusion Monsters. Along with the OCG Stories involvement, many have been wanting to use it as a budget option for Blue-Eyes if they cannot afford the Primite engine that has shown how great it is.

Currently with 3 printings, soon to be 4 with Quarter Century Stampede, it has hit higher numbers because of its fresh buyout status. For the Shadow in Valhalla Secret Rares and the Fusion Enforcer Super Rares, it is now as low as $15, while for its Maximum Gold alternate art is around $10 a copy.

People were a little upset that I didn’t cover Crystron in a previous article of “The Best Cards From Supreme Darkness And Returning Techs!”. So today, let’s talk about a couple of them after the impact of Supreme Darkness and returning to them from the “New Techs and Upcoming Meta Trends!” article. Crystron Sulfefnir, Crystron Citree, and Crystron Quariongandrax are the three main cards that still need a reprint from the bunch, all surpassing their previous prices that were mentioned. Crystron Citree is a 3-of for the Deck for many of your combos as during your opponent’s Main Phase or Battle Phase, you can target 1 non-Tuner in your GY, in this case will be Crystron Sulfefnir, and Special Summon it, but its effects are negated and you immediately Synchro Summon into a Machine Synchro Monster, being F.A. Dawn Dragster for a Spell or Trap negation by reducing its Level by 2. Along with the addition of Crystron Tristaros, you can Summon another copy of Crystron Cirtree from your Deck to use Tristaros. Then using the Tristaros, Citree, and Dawn Dragster after you used the Spell/Trap Negation effect to go into Crystron Quariongandrax.

Comparing the prices of these cards since January 8th is shocking as since only very few Crystron cards have had a reprint. Crystron Sulfefnir has moved up to $6.50 a copy from $5  as this card cemented itself as a 3-ofs for the Deck, while Crytron Citree was sitting above $17 a copy to its new price of $23-24, and finally Crystron Quariongandrax is still about $17 a copy over as you never need more than 1 of each.

Finally with players clamoring that a new Forbidden and Limited list is near or a reprint is coming, Fiendsmith Engraver has been going down in price. The once $100 card has shifted down in its price as players move away from playing Fiendsmith for the time being, going back to Decks like Pure Ryzeal or Bystial Maliss. Until players know what will be happening with this engine, it’ll slowly go down more as new options have come about to play at the end of this format going into the next season.

Currently, Fiendsmith Engraver is sitting around $55 to $60 a copy from its $100 price tag back in July 2024. We will see what fate the Fiendsmith cards will have in the next month or two, and I am wondering if it will change how we play the engine when that time comes.

As players are adjusting to the new format with the addition of the Blue-Eyes White Destiny Structure Deck, many new Decks have been shining through the cracks over the past weeks. I cannot wait to see what Maze of the Masters brings to the format along with Quarter Century Stampede lowering the price ceiling once again to the format.