It’s been almost a week since the release of Alliance Insight. While this set hasn't long hit store shelves, it's nevertheless worth looking at what's selling on the secondary market.
While this list isn't able to tell us everything about this set's best cards, there are still clues about early performance that it's well worth paying attention to.
5. Gordian Slicer
As we'll be seeing a lot in this list, the price of Gordian Slicer has technically crashed hard. Originally, this card was listed at prices of around $46 to $50 on TCGplayer before release. Once Alliance Insight became officially available, however, supply flooded the market, bringing the price down. This is absolutely nothing new in Yu-Gi-Oh! or the wider TCG markets. Pre-sale prices are typically astronomically high and have very little to do with the card's actual strength. Thankfully, instead of gawping at the expected price crash, we can pay attention to the immense number of sales that have happened recently. On the first day that Alliance Insight was available, over 700 copies of Gordian Slicer were sold on TCGplayer. While this immense sales spike was rather short-lived, sales have continued, showing Gordian Slicer to be a rather popular card. This isn't a surprise, given that it's just an excellent board breaker. Even if it does require cards being sent to the banish zone, there are archetypes that care about this, so that isn't a major problem. To make things even better, Gordian Slicer can get through a lot of protection in the game, allowing it to get the job done rather consistently. With this in mind, it's no wonder there was such a rush to buy copies early on.
4. Regenesis Archfiend (Quarter Century Secrete Rare - QCSR)
Taking the next spot is the combo starter for most Regenesis plays. While not currently in the spotlight for competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! the Regenesis archetype has been touted by many players to be an excellent canvas for deck building.
The QCSR of Regenesis Archfiend was given a pre-sale value of about $72. While copies exchanged hands here and there, the second-hand market value kept falling. Now it’s sitting at a more reasonable $42 average.
As the combo starter and main recursion tool for the archetype, a full playset can gouge a hole through your savings.
For those interested in picking up their own copies, we’d like to point to the Secret Rare (SR) variant of Regenesis Archfiend. This particular copy of Regenesis Archfiend is floating around a $12 price average, making it the more accessible version.
3. Snake-Eyes Vengeance Dragon (Quarter Century Secret Rare - QCSR)
Snake-Eyes Vengeance Dragon commanded a hefty $72 average for pre-sale value. Thankfully, this didn’t last long as the release date curbed this to a $40 median.
So far, the card has been steady in its price since then. There may be a few pluses or minuses depending on the seller. As far as we can see, this card’s value is being held up mostly by its QCSR status.
It’s a solid card in itself. It can be used in Azamina/White Forest decks as a good combo extender, fueling a lot of conditions the archetype monsters need/want for their effects.
Snake-Eyes Vengeance Dragon also has a decent destruction effect that can be utilized in a very flexible manner for the archetype. Both of these abilities are at quick effect speed, no less.
Seeing as it’s an extra deck monster, it appears most players don’t mind splurging a little for that flair.
If you’re on a budget, however, you can look for copies of the Ultra Rare (UR). It’s currently sitting at a $2 average.
Surprisingly, the UR version of Snake-Eyes Vengeance Dragon had over 900 copies sold over at TCGplayer on the day of release for Alliance Insight. If anything, this shows how much of a solid tool this card is for its archetype.
2. Dark Magician Girl the Magician's Apprentice
Once again, nostalgia shows why it’s always a powerful factor when it comes to influencing the second-hand market.
Following the pattern of all pre-sale values, Dark Magician Girl the Magician's Apprentice had a $45 average price tag the week leading up to the release of Alliance Insight. Come the day of release and it went down to about $13.
As usual, once the price fell to a more reasonable level, players quickly began snapping up copies. On May 2nd, over 500 copies of this card were sold on TCGplayer.
As part of the Shining Sarcophagus archetype -and we’re using that word loosely here- Dark Magician Girl the Magician's Apprentice can be considered as another consistency tool for its team.
Normally, the Shining Sarcophagus archetype tends to reserve its valuable normal summon for Gadget Trio to help ensure that a copy of the titular spell card makes its way to the hand.
With Dark Magician Girl the Magician's Apprentice joining the roster, there’s added redundancy and consistency. In case the player just needs an old-fashioned beatstick, this monster can easily ramp up.
1. Maliss P March Hare
Taking the top spot for the moment, we have Maliss P March Hare. If you've been paying attention during Alliance Insight's spoiler season, this really shouldn't be a surprise at all.
With Konami giving Maliss a consistency hit during the Forbidden/Limited list update, Malice P March Hare couldn't have come at a better time.
This card commanded the highest pre-sale value at a $90 average. Thankfully, this was cut down the day of release to about $61. Despite this rather hefty cost, over 500 copies were sold on TCGplayer.
The card’s SR status allowed it to briefly climb to a $68 demand before it started to slide down to a $50 average. At the moment, it’s a bit hard to see this card slide down lower than $40 if it does go down that far.
As another tool for Maliss to gain recursion, March Hare will definitely be played at maximum copies to keep its engine going.