Friday, October 17, 2014

The Legion of Doom(star)

Hey YGO Community,

The support I continue to get on my article series is incredible. I'm glad you guys didn't lose interest after a few weeks. If you think of anything you'd like me to talk about or that you think I missed, let me know. You can contact me via social media on
Twitter: @SparkConfidant
Instagram: @DontKnowHow2Lose
Facebook: Lyle BigTyme Bumbaugh
Or you can leave a comment right on my article.

1. The Current Trend
Nothing really groundbreaking happened this week, save for LC5D's rarities being leaked(either correctly or incorrectly). I did notice a few prices being higher than I had anticipated this week. Artifact Sanctum is $40+ with the advent of Shaddoll Artifacts finally being recognized as the best version of the deck(I told y'all over a month ago), Satellarknight Artifacts, and 50+ Card Control.
And we all knew that copies of Skill Drain were on the rise, but I didn't know that the Ultra from Turbo Pack had reached $45. It shouldn't be terribly surprising since Yang Zing plays it in triplicate, as well as the Qliphort deck that is being released in NECH.
Other than what I write about and what people post in Facebook YGO Groups under the headline “Why is X card $Y?", it can be very hard to find out that cards are trending up in price.

2. Speculation Targets
This week I want to talk about another card from DUEA, Doomstar Magician. This card is one that people are already hesitant to move for its current price of $2.50. This card feels like a gainer to me. It has a lot going for it for both competitive and casual players:
It's Dark - Players know that traditionally, Light and Dark Attribute monsters tend to be the most powerful.
It's Level 4 - This opens up XYZ plays in almost every archetype.
It's a Spellcaster - Casual players love any card that reminds them of the Dark Magician and Yugi.
It works against Pendulum Summoning - It kills one of their Pendulum Zones, rendering it impossible to perform a Pendulum Summon.
It replaces it's cost - You have to discard a card, but it replaces itself. It's fine even it it's used only as a reverse looter effect.
It's an anti-meta card - Cards that fight against new mechanics often prove themselves incredibly valuable.
I don't know that this card will be $20, but this card has a lot going for it and I will be ready if it is.

3. What to Dump
This is always the weakest part of my articles, I know. But I really have no idea what I'd be trying to dump this week. Just the stuff I've been telling you to dump for weeks.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Catching a Cold Wave

Hey there YGO Community,

I got sick at the Frederick Regional on Sunday, so I haven't been able to write anything until today. That's why today's article didn't go up on Monday like usual. I had one weird interaction at the Regional that I want to talk about today, after the financial advice, obviously.

1. The Current Trend
Billy Brake's 60 Card Control list was spoiled this week, causing The Beginning of the End to shoot up to over $10 before settling at $8+. Now, I've played my fair share of this card before, both when I first started playing again and this past winter when I played Jeff Jones's REDRUM deck, so I know just how good this card can be. Cheap card advantage is always good, but I don't think this particular card is quite good enough to warrant the lofty price tag. I'll talk about it more in What to Dump.

2. Speculation Targets
I've recently been picking up the original versions of cards that have been or will be reprinted in the near future. People always think that a reprint will kill the price of their card, so they dump it immediately for a fraction of its original price, only to need the card a month down the road. It happens like clockwork, the reprint is announced and people dump their cards with the intent of picking them back up later for what they think will be a lower price. That's fine, but players tend to want the original printing of cards more than the reprint unless they're on a strict budget. I've been targeting the original versions of cards that were reprinted in the Mega Tins(ARK, Exciton, Dracossack, Mistake, Dichotomy, etc) that were worth $15+ prior to the reprint. The market is currently flooded with the cards and they're still holding some amount of value. Think about this: Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack was a $50+ card prior to the Mega Tins and is currently worth right about $25 with tin versions fetching $15-20. I can't help but feel like Dracossack is too good to never be played again, and when it is, its price will shoot back up, the same thing goes for any of the other cards that I've mentioned. I'll address future reprints affecting prices in next week's article.

3. What to Dump
The Beginning of the End. Billy Brake made a very good meta choice with his 60 Card Control deck. Now, everyone and their mother is jumping on the deck. Neat. Time to plus from this herd mentality. Dump your copies to them or to the internet for a quick profit before the card goes back down to $2-3 where it belongs.

Now I want to talk about an interaction I had at Frederick Regional this past Sunday. Now, I'm a pretty recognizable guy. I'm 6'2, almost 300 lbs, and I'm pretty well-known in the NY-VA region as far as TCG tournaments go. But Sunday, I was trading and hanging out with a group of friends when a player approached me and wanted to trade. I told him I was a little busy at the moment and I'd get to him as soon as I was able. I didn't want to blow the guy off or tell him to F-O, but I was legitimately busy. He must think pretty highly of himself as a trader, probably considering himself a Shark, so he told me that “My time is worth money, I can't stand in line to work with you". Before I tell you all what I told the guy, I'd like to clarify that I do not consider myself a “Shark", I'm above that. A friend jokingly referred to me as an “Apex Predator" after watching the movie, Chronicle and we all had a laugh, but the more I thought about it, the more it fit. My friends and I prey upon the self-proclaimed “Sharks" and work with the actual vendors, meaning that nothing preys on us, making us, by definition, Apex Predators. Anyway, back to the story; I tell the guy “If your time is worth money, then any trade you make with me is going to be a poor investment". He looks offended and leaves. He probably had a nice book with decent cards, but he didn't get to trade with me because of his attitude. Moral of the story is that if you wanna trade with people and potentially make a profit, don't be an asshole and especially don't talk down to people. I guess that goes for life in general though. Let me know what you think. And as always,

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle

Monday, October 6, 2014

Knocking on Heaven's Horn

Hello YGO Community,

This week has been awesome and I even had my first fan add me on Facebook. I'll be at the Frederick Regional on Sunday, October 12. If you're there and you're a fan or you have some advice or a request for a topic, or you just want to say hi, feel free to. I'm pretty recognizable, I'll be the tall, bearded guy in a backwards baseball cap and some sort of button-down shirt. But without further ado, let's get into this week's article.

1. The Current Trend
This week was the first one under the new Limited/Forbidden list, so obviously some prices were still crazy high (Raigeki and Glow-Up Bulb) while just about everything else stayed the same. All the cards in the Big Three stayed right where they were and those decks continued to do as well as they had been.

2. Speculation Targets
I wanna talk about the card Black Horn of Heaven. This card was THE CARD of Geargia format, so you obviously know what it does. The card kind of died this format due to the fact that it can't stop Shaddoll Fusion and if you do stop Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, he gets his effect. But there is this mechanic called Pendulum Summoning that you might have heard about and they happen to be Inherent Summons, the same kind that Black Horn stops. “But Lyle, Black Horn says 'a monster.' I'll only stop one of them and the others will live." False. Until recently, I thought the same thing, but then I read in the Judge Forum that since Inherent Summons could only happen one at a time when Black Horn was printed, it says “a monster", not “one monster". It was ruled that it would stop the entire Pendulum Summon. At least until they release a new printing or errata for the card. That's pretty good if you ask me. And with the exception of Ultimate Rare copies, the average price for them across the board is $7-10 in a format in which they're not played. Remember how high they got when they were a 3-of in nearly every 55? Even if they do errata the card, the card won't go down in price. And if there's ever another XYZ-centric format, the card is guaranteed to go back through the roof. Have I ever steered you wrong before?

3. What to Dump
I personally think people should be moving all their extra copies of Raigeki right now. They're still fetching a good price and people are still buying them. You don't want to be stuck with 20 copies when the price goes down. Personally, the only copies I'd want to own would be LOB 1/e or RP01 Ultra.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle