It’s been no secret that whenever a Yu-Gi-Oh regional or national tournament concludes, there is always this level of curiosity about the breakdown of the tournament. Who won the tournament? What archetype did they use? And these questions would sometimes be followed by a shrug as someone rattles off a list of the best-performing decks for the current season. But sometimes, from out of nowhere, a rogue deck comes in and steals the spotlight.
For the benefit of those new to Yu-Gi-Oh or to Trading Card Games (TCGs) in general, a rogue deck is usually defined as a deck that bucks the current trend of the metagame for any particular card game. This was the case with the Yu-Gi-Oh Championship Series (YCS) held in Birmingham, England last weekend, with a rogue deck managing to take home the glory.
Piloted by Dinh-Kha Bui from Germany, the Fire King archetype managed to navigate the diverse and dangerous waters presented by his opponents. On a particular note, this was not a Fire King deck that included a partner archetype such as Snake-Eyes or Fiendsmith, two archetypes that have already proven their viability in the competitive scene. According to the data compiled by YGOProDeck, this was a ‘pure’ version of the Fire King archetype.
Adding to the curiosity of the development was the ratio of archetype/deck representation of the top sixty-four players. If you were to look back at past YCS events like the one held in Orlando, Florida earlier in the month, there is usually a large concentration of players running the same archetype in one form or another.
Not so much this time as we see quite a diverse selection. Of course, we have the current favorites in the forms of Ryzeal and Maliss, two archetypes that had a combined representation total of 75% during YCS Orlando’s top sixty-four. But we can also see a smattering of other archetypes from all over the game, from Bystial to Tenpai to Mermail to name a few. This was probably the most diverse YCS top sixty-four cut in a while that had an attendance population in the thousands.
And with the results of the tournament presented for the wider world to see, we come to the eventuality of the ever-shifting market trend. Fire King Ulcanix, one of the archetype’s best cards to use, sees its market price going at an upward trend. Released in the Rage of the Abyss expansion set at the tail end of 2024, the Quarter Century Secret version of this card was sitting at a market median price of about $25 at the start of February. Now, it’s currently being sold at prices of about $60. As a core component of the Fire King deck, even the more common Secret Rare version of Ulcanix doubled from its modest $10 asking price to $20.
With the results of YCS Birmingham released and with the rising popularity of Fire King Ulcanix in the market, will this become a new trend in the coming months as we move closer to the 2025 World Championship in August? There are back and forths over on Reddit that point to Dinh-Kha Bui himself being the heaviest factor in the deck’s success as a whole. Both as a pilot and deck theory crafter, there seems to be a consensus that another person would be hard-pressed to emulate this level of success. If anything, YCS Birmingham has reminded the community of one of Yu-Gi-Oh’s oldest lessons. If there is a will, then there is hope (for victory). Or if you want to take a humorous tone, there is no such thing as a pathetic card.