Monday, December 8, 2014

Djinn and Juice

Hey there YGO Community,

We did it, we broke 2500 views. And I can't thank you guys enough. You guys/gals make it all worth it. The support I get from y'all far exceeds the hate. And if you've been part of the YGO Community for any real amount of time, you know how much hate, salt, and shade gets thrown around constantly. Without you all, I'd be talking to the walls about what cards to buy. Or worse, talking my friends' ears off. But that's enough. I know I say it a lot, but you guys rock.

1. The Current Trend
With people continuing to prepare for the drop of Nekroz and the hype around the BA Ritual Monster, there are two cards that are going through the roof. They are Djinn Releaser of Rituals and Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands.
Djinn is a rare that when used to make a Ritual Monster, your opponent can't Special Summon. Emptiness is a pretty strong card I guess. Not to mention it's a Level 3 Fiend, so it's Tour Guide-able. That's pretty good if I do say so myself. The card is averaging $9 on TCGPlayer with unlimited copies available for $5+.
Manju has been a staple in Ritual decks since their inception and up until now, they've been pretty cheap. Now the cheapest copy is $5+ on TCGPlayer with DT copies fetching $20+. I'm a seller at $20. Actually, I was a seller at $15, when I moved all of mine. The card is legitimately good, as most tutor cards are, and it shows a lot of promise in Nekroz. But unless you love having the most expensive copies of cards in your deck and plan on playing the deck, I'd stay away from the DT versions.

2. Speculation Targets
This week I'm going to talk briefly about two cards that I consider fine targets to pick up.
A. Mirror of the Ice Barrier
When I first decided on this card, it was $2, two days later, they're $2.50.
Let's start with the good:
It's fairly cheap currently as it's a common.
It's from the legendary Starstrike Blast set, you know the never reprinted set?
It has applications against the boogie man (Nekroz).
Now for the bad:
It's a common that isn't the blow-out against every deck that Vanity's Emptiness is.

I think that at $2.50 though, this card has a lot of potential as a gainer if for no other reason than hype.

B. Royal Command
For those of you who don't know, Royal Command is getting an Errata in AP06 so that its text will match that of its OCG counterpart. Why is that relevant you ask? Because it now negates all effects of Flip monsters, including their effects in grave. For example: the card now stops the Shaddoll “sent to the graveyard by a card effect" effect. That seems really strong if you ask me. I think that if you're going to get yours, now is the time. Ultras are already $9, but commons and rares are still available for $1-3. I like this card if Shaddolls ever become the best deck again. It's another floodgate that they have to answer.

3. What to Dump
It was brought to my attention that the Inzektor Exa-Beetles that I wrote about a few weeks back did in fact spike. I think that if you're not going to play them you should move them to someone who will for a nice little profit.

Shoutout to Jeff Walker for letting me know about the spike.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle

Monday, December 1, 2014

(Night Beam)er, Benz, or Bentley

Hey there YGO Community,

I didn't post last week because of ORAS and the Philly Regional. But I'm back this week with your YGO finance fix. Philly was great. I got to see so many friends, eat great food, meet a couple of fans, and make a few potential business connections. More importantly than that, my brother, Jon Blank got 7th with BA. I'm not here to write a tournament report though, so let's get to it.

1. The Current Trend
In the last article I wrote, I said Denko Sekka was one event away from going up. Well, that happened last week. They are now roughly $25 after reaching $30 for a few days. I still think this card is a good investment. And how could we forget Majesty's Fiend hitting $45 before settling right around $35? I predicted the card to hit $50 at the NAWCQ, I was right that it would increase in value, just four months later. I still kind of count it as a win.

2. Speculation Targets
The card I want to talk about this week is, you guessed it, Night Beam. This card has always been worth $5+ and has been a strong sidedeck card since its release. But now it's beginning to be played in some quantities in the maindeck. If Dust Tornado is good enough to be played, I think the normal spell that doesn't let them chain to its activation is probably playable. The card is still relatively cheap with BP03 copies available for roughly $3, while Ultras can be picked up for $5 and Ulti's for $9. If this card continues to be played, I could see this card reaching the $15 that it used to be if not hitting $20-25.

3. What to Dump
This section continues to be the weakest part of the article. It's just that except for Forbidden/Limited List predictions, I don't really see anything I'd want to run a fire sale on.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle

P.S. Thanks to my close friend Richard “Panda" Perez for today's topic. If you want a shout out, submit possible topics and if I use it, you'll get your name in my article.