The market has turned dark, and the cards that players once fought over are falling in price. Players have stopped buying, started selling, or moved on to formats like Genesys and Time Wizard, and the result is a week of Market Watch where the usual suspects are dropping rather than rising. Let’s look at what has changed and why.
Angelechy’s Long March
Angelechy has been the format to watch for weeks. Players are building decks around it, and that demand has pushed Angelechy Opening to e4 up over several weeks. The card activates directly from hand during the Standby Phase of the opponent’s first turn, placing an Angelechy Field Spell face-up and summoning a Level 2 or 7 monster from the Extra Deck, then placing another Angelechy monster as a Continuous Spell. The restriction is that you can only Synchro Summon until the end of your next turn, but most builds run Synchro anyway.
The chain goes further. Angelechy Enlisted gets summoned to the field, Angelechy Bastion gets placed as a Spell, and Bastion then places a copy of Angelechy Shatranga to the Spell/Trap Zone. Shatranga adds an Angelechy Trap from Deck or GY to hand, setting up the next play. Beyond the Brave is coming soon, and Angelechy fans are preparing for the next wave.
Dark Grepher’s Long Wait
Dark Grepher has been rising in price for months because it hasn’t been reprinted in ages. The last reprint was in 2018’s Dark Saviors, over eight years ago. That history shows in the price, and players are still paying for it.
The card summons itself from hand by discarding a Level 5 or higher DARK monster, and you can also discard a second DARK monster to send any DARK monster from Deck to GY. The classic combo involves discarding Dark Magician of Chaos or Destiny HERO – Malicious to summon Grepher, then discarding a third DARK monster to send Plaguespreader Zombie to the GY. Banishing your Malicious lets you get exactly three DARK monsters in the GY, which triggers the legendary Dark Armed Dragon.
Armed Dragon then destroys cards by banishing DARK monsters from the GY, and that fuels Dimension Fusion, which makes both players Special Summon as many banished monsters as possible at the cost of 2000 LP. The combo removes threats and ends the game quickly.
Salamangreat’s New Support
Salamangreat is getting more support in Immortal Phoenix, and Salamangreat Circle is the best consistency piece in the theme. It searches any Salamangreat monster from Deck or targets a Salamangreat Link Monster to make it unaffected by monster effects that turn, except its own, provided you used a monster with the same name as its Link Material.
Circle has been the standard Reinforcement of the Army for the theme, letting you find Salamangreat Gazelle or the new Salamangreat Markhor. Markhor, Normal or Special Summoned, adds one Salamangreat Spell/Trap from Deck or GY to hand, recycling Circle back to hand for follow-up plays if needed.
Dark Magician’s New Cards
The new Dark Magician support has players putting Magician’s Rod into Light and Darkness Ritual Pile Decks. Multiple Common and Super Rare prints of Rod have risen in price because the card accesses any Spell/Trap that mentions Dark Magician in its text.
That means you can search for Dark Magical Curtain, The Gaze of Timaeus, or Dark Magical Circle. Getting to Curtain is especially useful because it Special Summons a DARK Spellcaster from hand or Deck, and also lets the opponent Special Summon a DARK Spellcaster as well.
A recent EU Exclusive Demo Progression Set reprinted many wanted Dark Magician cards, including Magicians’ Souls and Magician’s Rod. Players are hoping that set gets ported to other regions within the TCG.
Falling Prices Everywhere
Black Chaos has been the first card to drop. It places a Continuous Trap that mentions Light and Darkness Ritual from Deck or GY to the field, but can only be summoned from hand by shuffling a Warrior or Spellcaster Ritual monster from hand or GY into the Deck.
While on the field, the card is unaffected by your opponent’s attacks or effects.
What Comes Next
The hope is that some of these cards get reprinted soon to improve access. Salamangreat Circle is a natural fit for a future Tournament Pack, while Dark Grepher is harder to reprint because it already comes foiled.
For the rest, players either wait for an early reprint set for the TCG or next year’s Mega Tin or adjacent replacement.
The State Of The Game
The market is falling, and the players are frustrated. Pile Decks and Link Combos are running the meta, and players are moving away from Yu-Gi-Oh! altogether, taking their interest to Genesys and Time Wizard formats instead. The cards that once drove the market are now falling in price, and the week’s Market Watch shows exactly where the pressure is landing.
The pattern is simple: demand drives price, and when demand drops, prices fall fast. Angelechy is still climbing because it keeps getting new support, but Black Chaos has no new support and nowhere to go but down. The Dark Magician reprint in the Demo set shows that older cards still matter, but the lack of wider reprinting for older cards like Grepher means those prices keep climbing until something happens.
Here’s how the situation breaks down:
- Angelechy continues to climb with new support arriving.
- Black Chaos has dropped first with no new support on the horizon.
- Dark Grepher remains expensive due to lack of reprinting.
- Salamangreat Circle could see a reprint in a future Tournament Pack.
- Dark Magician cards rose after the Demo Progression Set reprint.
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