Having just read a few books about Warren Buffett and Google, I am now inspired to incorporate some discussion about stocks into this Yu-Gi-Oh! blog. With that in mind, this post will contain a monster spell, and trap card that seems to be strongly trending upwards in this format and a monster, spell, and trap card that should take a hit in value and playability.

If this feature proves popular, it may be revisited every second week or so.

Trending Upward:

Morphing Jar: Morphing Jar sort of follows the trend of COTLB. With games getting far slower and players retaining fuller hands, sneaky Morphing Jar plays that can set up +3’s and such may become a factor in the game again. Currently every deck mentioned above can splash the deck with little to no loss in efficiency.

Many decks would actually stand to gain tremendous fire power by splashing Morphing Jar. Decks like X-Sabers, Vayu Turbo, Gardna control, and even Blackwings have a lot to gain from using the versatile card advantage threat.

Charge of the Light Brigade: I think Charge of the Light Brigade has the potential to become one of the defining cards of the format. There are literally a half dozen top tier decks that can incorporate some version of a 3 COTLB/4 Lightsworn monsters/1 Solar Recharge engine.

Graveyard manipulation has become very important. Decks that revolve around some combination of Necro Gardna, Mezuki, and Burial from a Different Dimension could possibly incorporate the COTLB engine to then use Chaos Sorcerer as well. XX-Saber decks that need multiple X-Saber monsters in the graveyard to start their special summon and Raga cycles for advantage should consider splashing the engine. Gladiator Beasts, as well, can experiment with different versions of the engine to dump Bestiari to the graveyard and set up advantage recursions with Equeste (as opposed to leaving a normal 2100 attack monster on the field). Vayu Turbo can set up easy special summon scenarios by simplifying early and milling with COTLB. And Lightsworn, of course, will continue to rely on this key card of the deck-type.

It is conceivable that every single top deck in the format (other than Blackwings) could splash some version of the COTLB engine and still find day two success at a Shonen Jump Championship. This type of versatility is practically unheard of.

Skill Drain: While Skill Drain and Royal Oppression were two of the more effective counters to the metagame in this past format, Royal Oppression is left vulnerable to Breaker the Magical Warrior and a growing number of decks that refuse to special summon.

Skill Drain, on the other hand, benefits by the fact that most deck strategies players are using are extremely susceptible to Skill Drain’s effect. With Blackwings expected to grow less and less popular, smart duelists should play anti-meta Skill Drain strategies such as Drain Wings and Jeff Jones control to find premier tournament success.

Trending Downward:

Gorz, Emissary of Darkness: This card is still amazing. It creates a 2700 attack special summon that also floats due to the presence of the clone token it creates. So trending downwards in this case doesn’t mean the card will suddenly leave every main deck.

However, the card has clearly gone from a near staple in every deck to a more specialized pick. Decks like Gladiator Beasts and Blackwings will be hard pressed to fit a copy of such a low synergy card. Lightsworn decks that previously main-decked it (a bad choice in my opinion) should definitely forgo it now.

Chaos, Twilight, and Dark control builds that need access to powerful DARK monsters should and will continue using Gorz, however.

Giant Trunade: This card is rather obvious. I would urge every player who questionably main-decked this card in Blackwings and Lightsworn to reconsider.

Royal Oppression/Light-Imprisoning Mirror: This part goes hand in hand with the Skill Drain description. The viability of Royal Oppression-based control decks have fallen incredibly far. This is due to the presence of Breaker the Magical Warrior in 3’s, along with the restriction of Solemn Judgment. You can expect to see very few decks main-decking Oppression.

Smart Lightsworn players, after seeing the main-deck of their opponent, should definitely bring in multiple copies of Breaker for game 2 to counter potential Light-Imprisoning Mirrors. Since games will often be much slower, Breaker provides a huge tactical edge versus decks like Dark Necro Gardna control that suffer versus 1600 floaters.