[MW] Time Will Never Stop For Genesys Format

Ride in with mysteries from the Genesys Format!

Taking a break from the TCG side of things, this week we will dive into some of the things going on with the Genesys Format and some speculation too about what players might be using in the format to surprise players this weekend.

Solemn Scolding’s price has been going wild recently, being a powerful staple for the Genesys Format, and it’s only worth 5 points. If it’s your only Set Spell/Trap Card on your field, you can pay 3000 LP, and you can activate it to stop a monster(s) from being Summoned, or a Spell/Trap or monster effect from being activated. Although its LP cost is rather high, it can be super impactful, as it is 2 Points cheaper than the original Solemn Judgment, so you can have a few extra points of wiggle room if needed. It has seen play mostly in Decks like Generaider and Exosister at 1 to 2 copies in their Side Decks. Even outside of Genesys, Scolding was seen in a list in the Rochester Regional’s Winner List by Chandler Scott, who was piloting Domain Monarch, added in with a copy of Solemn Judgment.

Onomat has become a rising star in Genesys Format, and it has caused a plethora of Number monsters to rise in price, like Number 99: Utopic Dragon. Being a total of 0 points, this boss monster is a key piece in a tiny amount of Onomat strategies, as you can Xyz Summon it by using any Utopia monster you control by discarding 1 Rank-Up-Magic Spell Card. Once per turn, you can target 1 Number monster in your GY and Special Summon it in Defense Position, but its effects are negated. This is great to have an additional Xyz on the field in order to Xyz Summon cards like Eclipse Twins or Number F0: Utopic Future Zexal. Finally, this card can protect itself when it is targeted by a monster effect by detaching 1 material from it to negate that monster’s activation and destroy that monster. Hopefully in 2026, we see a reprint of this card to go alongside the new Gagaga cards that are going to be released in the OCG’s Premium Pack 2026 that could be imported later in the New Year.

The last time both of these cards saw a reprint was in 2015 from the 2015-Mega Tin Mega Pack, and it is shocking to see that both have gone so long without a reprint. Hopefully in 2026, we see a reprint for both of these cards.

On to a market oddity, we are going to look at both Valkyrie Brunhilde and Ride of the Valkyries. These two cards have never seen a reprint since their release in Shadows in Valhalla in 2018 and have had plenty of sales over the past few weeks. One of the main reasons is that they both were probably short printed along with Mischief of the Time Goddess. For Brunhilde, she is unaffected by your opponent’s Spell effects and gains 500 ATK for each monster they control, which is a great benefit for their main OTK strategy. The upside with her is that when your opponent declares an attack, you can have this card lose 1000 DEF and make Valkyries unable to be destroyed by battle that turn. This is great for surviving against other Decks that love the Battle Phase. Maybe some players are testing out Valkyries in Genesys Format privately to steal the spotlight for any of the upcoming invitationals.

Now onto Ride of the Valkyries! This card lets you Special Summon any number of Valkyrie monsters from your hand with different names, and if you Special Summon 3 or more monsters, you take no battle damage until the end of the next turn, but the downside is that at the End Phase of the turn you activated the card, all monsters you control get shuffled into the Deck. The other amazing thing with Ride of the Valkyries is that you can banish it from your GY to search for a copy of Mischief of the Time Goddess to OTK your opponent with little to no ease.

Finally, just to throw it in, let’s talk about Mischief of the Time Goddess, a signature card used by Zigfried von Schroeder from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime. This card cannot be used as Chain Link 2 or higher, and neither player can respond to it. You can activate this card at the end of your Battle Phase if all monsters you control are Valkyrie monsters. You then send this card to the GY and immediately skip to the start of the Battle Phase of your next turn. This single card is the main source of the Valkyrie OTKs, as you can conduct your Battle Phase twice. Could it just be a coincidence that these cards are all going up due to a new format, or is it just because players want to have these cards in the collection, as they are a symbol of heavy nostalgia from the show?

All three of these cards have only ever seen 1 print in their span of being released, so hopefully in the future, there will be more Valkyrie support to justify reprinting these cards. 

Super Quantmania has shown up in Genesys Format, as it has been seeing play all over the place recently. This has caused both Super Quantum Blue Layer and Super Quantal Mech Beast Grampulse to shoot up in price, as Blue Layer is a staple 3-of and Grampulse can be found being run at 1-2 copies per list. Super Quantum Blue Layer is an important starter for the Deck as it can search for any Super Quant card on its Normal or Special Summon, and then if Blue Layer is sent to the GY, you can target up to 3 Super Quant cards in the GY and shuffle them into the Deck. Giving consistency and recursion is great for the grind games that the Deck can put out, but it’s also great for resummoning Super Quantal Mech King Great Magnus and the other Xyzs of the Deck throughout the game.

While Super Quantal Mech Beast Grampulse is great for the removal effect, which allows you to target and destroy 1 Spell/Trap on the field by detaching 1 material, this effect is amplified when you have Blue Layer as an Xyz Material. Even though this card cannot attack if it has no Xyz Materials, its other effect is perfect for reattaching materials to it, as once per turn, you can attach 1 Super Quant monster from your hand or field to it as material. This way, you can use the Spell/Trap removal effect again if needed.

Both of these cards have seen two total prints over the past few years, and with the recent hype from Genesys Format and the Deck being extremely worth it after the new support from Duelist’s Advance, a majority of these cards definitely deserve a reprint with how popular the Super Quant theme is.

Finally, let’s look at Lancea, Ancestral Dragon of the Ice Mountain, one of the main boss monsters in Ice Barriers. Now Ice Barrier as a whole has been seeing frequent play with how few points the Deck currently has. As of this article, it is a total of 13 Points due to Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier being the only card in the whole Deck to have any type of Point Restriction. Lancea is an extremely strong Extra Deck monster, as it takes a WATER Tuner and 1 or more non-Tuners, while twice per turn (but once per Chain), if the opponent Special Summons a monster(s), you can Special Summon 1 Ice Barrier monster from your hand, Deck, Extra Deck, or GY, and then you can change any Attack Position monster the opponent controls to Defense Position. Then if a Synchro Summoned Lancea in its owner’s control leaves the field by the opponent, you can Special Summon any Ice Barrier Synchro Monster from the Extra Deck, and this is treated as a Synchro Summon. This is great for bringing out Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, in order to banish 1 card from the opponent’s hand, field, and GY, or you can Special Summon Trishula, Zero Dragon of the Ice Barrier, which can banish up to 3 cards your opponent controls.

Only being from Battles of Legend: Terminal Revenge, this card’s price has been rising up over the months and has peaked again since May of this year. This is a card to keep an eye on, as it could go higher from here.

Genesys has been slowly cooling off from the hype as players are heading back to the main side of the game or even back to Time Wizard/Time Travel formats, but having an additional option available for the players is always great, and seeing what many have been doing to combat the point adjustments that the TCG has done so far is amazing to see. The next time we will see the next Genesys Invitational is this weekend at YCS Bologna, and hopefully it will be exciting to watch if any of the matches are put on the feature livestream.

Edited and co-written by Angryjon