Duelist’s Advance opening week has been and gone. As a result, it's well worth going over the most popular new cards from the set. Going forward, these cards could be the new staples that are worth watching out for.
5. Lunalight Gold Leo
The first card on this list, Lunalight Gold Leo started with a pre-release average of $49; copies of Lunalight Gold Leo thankfully dropped to a more manageable $19 median on the set’s release.
This was more than likely a relief to interested buyers. Lunalight Gold Leo is the archetype’s traditional ‘Stratos’, which was only released in Duelist’s Advance. It also functions as the Lunalight one-card combo starter.
Once Gold Leo enters the field, it can easily search out any of its sister cards with a graveyard effect and immediately pitch them to where they want to go.
A player could go into Lunalight Yellow Marten to search out any in-archetype Spell or Trap card. Or you could bring out the new Lunalight Silver Hound to pull out another Lunalight body from the deck into field rotation.
With Lunalight Gold Leo facilitating such an easy start into its archetype’s play lines, buyers would undoubtedly get a full play set.
Copies of Gold Leo are currently experiencing a downward trend, with its current median at about $15, most likely due to Lunalights being a rogue strategy.
4. Medius the Pure
According to TCGplayer, Medius the Pure is the next best-selling card from Duelist's Advance.
Starting from pre-release listings, sellers were giving this card out at a very modest $10 average. This dropped to a $4 price point on the day of release for Duelist’s Advance.
Then the very next day, the average price for Medius the Pure basically doubled to $8, and over 1,500 copies had exchanged hands over at TCGplayer.
Medius follows the same story as Gold Leo. He is the archetypical ‘Stratos’ and is the one-card starter into the Artmage Fusion monsters. While Medius the Pure isn't that strong right now, players may be hedging their bets on the second wave of Artmage or Power Patron support coming in Doom of Dimensions.
If this happens, then players will be thankful if they managed to snag a full playset early for cheap.
3. Sky Striker Ace - Zero
The newest addition to the Sky Striker arsenal. This card’s Secret Rare variant had started off with pre-release values of around $45 before dropping to $16 median the day after release.
Sky Striker Ace - Zero comes in as a powerful extension piece for the Sky Striker engine. Once summoned, it can allow a player access to any of the Sky Striker spells from either deck or graveyard.
Ace - Zero also comes with a pretty resilient redundancy package as it can be tributed to bring back copies of Sky Striker Ace - Raye and Sky Striker Ace - Roze into rotation. This is on top of a targeted destruction effect.
As far as current market value goes, Sky Striker Ace - Zero's price point is being tempered by being an extra deck piece, and that it’s not exactly a staple end board piece when going first. Since extra deck slots are limited, it can be hard to parse if more than a single copy is needed
2. Artmage Academic Arcane Arts Acropolis
Artmage Academic Arcane Arts Acropolis is currently selling for a market value of $28, with an impressive number of sales having taken place.
Artmage Academic Arcane Arts Acropolis is the other half of Medius the Pure. It preserves the normal summon of the turn specifically for Medius and can trade a Spell or Trap card for Artmage main deck monster.
With Konami revealing Artmage Movement -Lineage- and Peripeteia -Turmoil- in Doom of Dimensions, the cost for tossing a card into the graveyard is pretty much balanced out.
Copies of Acropolis are a little more expensive than Medius, even if they share similar capabilities. That said, we can chalk this up to Acropolis’ Secret Rare status to Medius’ Ultra Rare.
1. Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue
Vanquish Soul has been making waves in the Official Card Game (OCG) thanks in no small part to the K9 engine.
With Justice Hunters coming in August, the rapid climb of other Vanquish Soul pieces in the second-hand market, it’s no surprise that Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue has taken the top spot of being the best-selling card for Duelist’s Advance opening week.
The day after release is where copies of Hollie Sue saw the most exchanges (507pcs). Currently, the card is sitting at a $27 market average.
As a card, Hollie Sue can pull double-duty as both a powerful extension tool and board breaker.
A search effect is already a coveted consistency tool in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Hollie Sue emphasizes this more because she special summons her target straight from the deck. This bypasses a good amount of staple hand traps like Droll & Lock Bird.
If going second, taking control of the opponent’s lowest attack stat monster bypasses more common forms of protection that aren’t omni-negates.
This card is an easy maximum play set. And thankfully, it looks like the Ultra Rare version is a lot more accessible than the Starlight Rare, which sells for $200.