Genesys Format has become a complete success in the TCG, and YCS Lima, Peru, and YCS Lille, France, concluded with Yummy Mitsurugi and Odion Primite winning their respective events. So many shifts happened in the market that I’ve lost count, so let’s dive into this week to see what all has happened and look at some important cards from this past week. 

First off, Tombkeeper (Odion) Primite won YCS Lille, France, and this caused Apophis the Serpent to be wiped off the market and shoot up in price. Originating from Maze of the Master, the Temple of the Kings archetype has made its appearance as a rogue strategy over the past months, and it has led it to be a meta call to go up against Yummy, Mitsurugi, and Dracotail in the current format. When you activate this card, it Special Summons itself as a Level 4 Normal Reptile monster with 1600 ATK and 1800 DEF, then you can Set any other Apophis Trap from your Deck, and it can be activated this turn. Lastly, when Apophis the Serpent is sent to the GY, you can add 1 Embodiment of Apophis from your Deck to your hand, which is good for a pure version of the Deck, but if you utilize additional engines like Primite, you won’t be needing it. The great thing about mixing Odion with Primite is that Primite Drillbeam will normally be live most of the time since your Apophis Traps will be Normal Monsters in the Monster Zone when you activate it to target and negate a card on the field. For the core deck of the Temple of the King’s strategy in Genesys also costs 0 points total.

Only being from Maze of the Master, many were thinking this card and a few pieces of the new support were going to be in the 2025 Mega Tins, but only time will tell when the price will go down again or it’ll receive a well-deserved reprint.

Dodododo Warrior is on many players’ radar for the Genesys Format, as the Onomat Deck is almost fully untouched, as Onomatopaira costs 33 points, Hyper Rank-Up-Magic Utopiforce costs 1 point, and Number F0: Utopic Draco Future costs 20 points. Warrior, on the other hand, is one of the best cards, as inside the Deck, it’s a free extender that becomes Level 4 when you send a Dododo monster from your Deck to your GY to Special Summon Warrior from your hand. This allows you to send Dodododwarf Gogogoglove from the Deck so you can later Special Summon it from the GY with its own effect as you control a Dododo monster. Also, when Warrior is detached as material from an Xyz Monster, it lets you add any Zubaba monster from your Deck to your hand. What are the best options for this, you might ask? You can go for either Zubababancho Gagagacoat (as it can Special Summon itself from your hand if you control a Zubaba or Gagaga monster) or Onomatokage (since it can Special Summon itself from your hand or GY if you control a Dododo, Gagaga, Gogogo, or Zubaba monster).

From Genesys to TCG, the Onomat engine is amazing for any Xyz Deck, from just being Pure to Ryzeal or DoomZ, so only time will tell when this engine will see a spike in play in the future.

Iron Thunder has taken a full frontal assault in both the TCG and Genesys formats as a somewhat replacement to Solemn Judgment being limited and costing a total of 0 points. This column mechanic card is great if the opponent plays into it, as after you negate a Spell/Trap or monster effect on the field, it destroys all cards in the same column as that destroyed card. This is great for clearing out the Extra Monster Zone or other cards on the field that are causing issues that are preventing you from closing out the game. Paying half your LP to negate a Spell/Trap or monster effect on the field is a hefty cost, but players didn’t mind that when originally using Solemn Judgment.

Even though it was just reprinted in the 2025 Mega Tins, Iron Thunder has been spiking non-stop over the past week as players have been gathering cards for upcoming events or just picking them up for replacements of the lost copies of Solemn Judgment.

New D/D/D support arrived in Doom of Dimensions, and D/D/D Marksman King Tell is nearly gone off the market. The last time that we saw King Tell receive a reprint was in the 2016 Mega Pack, and each copy is well above its worth once again. This Rank 5 monster can be Xyz Summoned by using any Rank 4 D/D/D Xyz Monster you control as material. This pairs extremely well with the new D/D/D Wise King Solomon, as it can detach a material to add any D/D card from your Deck to your hand. During any turn you take any effect damage, you can (Quick Effect): detach 1 material from King Tell, then target 1 face-up monster on the field to make it lose 1000 ATK/DEF and inflict 1000 damage to your opponent. The more important part is that if King Tell is sent from the field to the GY, you can send any D/D or Dark Contract card from your Deck to the GY. This is great for sending D/D Necro Slime there so you can Fusion Summon D/D/D Flame King Genghis. And this search effect isn’t a hard once-per-turn effect either, so if you can make it multiple times in a turn, you can send more cards to the GY.

Being last printed 9 years ago is crazy, but maybe we could see this useful Rank 5 in the next OTS Pack that releases in October, but only time will tell when it’ll see a rarity upgrade.

Dark Spirit’s Master is on my list again, as it has spiked heavily in price due to it seeing play in the Side Deck of Steven Trifunoski’s Mitsurugi Yummy list, as it is a way to search for Lava Golem from the Deck. By discarding 1 card, you can add any Level 8 Fiend monster from your Deck or GY. So even if you have a used Lava Golem, you can still recycle it after it ends up in the GY. It is useful tech since it can also be searched for with Triple Tactics Thrust, as it is a Normal Spell Card. Being able to add a copy of Lava Golem is great, as it tributes 2 monsters on your opponent’s field to Special Summon itself to their field, making it a great way to combat multiple decks, from Lunalight to the Mirror Match, to Tribute the opponent’s Yummy Synchro Monsters. It could also see a place once again in P.U.N.K. Decks as Noh-P.U.N.K. Ogre Dance is also a Level 8 Fiend monster, to allow for additional consistency.

It’s nice to see this card pop up once in a while in the metagame, as it always is a way to break the opponent’s board or a piece for a combo in any deck available.

Jurrac has been making a splash in the meta as a potential engine in Fire King. This engine is impactful, as you can destroy Jurrac Megalo with Fire King Island, Fire King High Avatar Kirin, or Fire King Avatar Arvata to send a copy of Jurrac Astero from your Extra Deck to the GY. This allows you to set up plays with Jurrac Meteor on the opponent’s turn by banishing 2 Jurrac monsters from your GY with Astero’s effect. This has caused an influx of high-rarity Jurrac Meteors to fly off the market because of the power of the engine. These cards can also be paired with Dogmatika Punishment, as Jurrac Astero has 2500 ATK, and sending it off of Ultimate Slayer to get additional Jurrac monsters in the GY to remove specific cards on the field, such as a Yummy Synchro Monster, so they lose out on their recursion in the grind game. Even though the high end (Starlight, QCR, and Duel Terminal Ultra Parallel) of Jurrac Meteor has gone up massively, there are other prints that are cheaper to pick up from recent sets.

It’s always amazing to see older Decks find new homes that can utilize ways to destroy them to gain additional advantage in the grind game.

Finally, it is time to look at a staple of the old days, Call of the Haunted. This card was a pivotal part of many decks as a way to reborn any monster from your GY to your field, such as recruiters like Shining Angel or Giant Rat to make battles awkward for your opponent, or powerful monsters like Jinzo or Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. It is full of skill for when to use it and has plenty of nostalgia for many who played the early days of the game, to those who watched the anime or read the manga and are a fan of Bonz and his strategy. (Please, I beg you, Konami. Print Zanki so we have the counterpart to Armored Zombie.) With that, there have been many sales over the past month on all copies of this card; many have been picking up past-format cards again to see if there’s anything to solve or break in other unexplored formats. 

This card’s most recent prints from Quarter Century Bonanza have been going up, along with plenty of other versions, but there are plenty of prints of this card for many to go around.

This week was crazy for Yu-Gi-Oh!, and so much has been changing for the better to bring back players to the game. I highly recommend checking out the Genesys Format, as all the cards mentioned today all work perfectly in the format itself.

Edited and co-written by “I too would like Zanki in TCGland.” Angryjon