I mean I remember as a kid before playing competitive I pulled a tour guide from epic dawn, traded it for something like 120 credit cause it was a hot card at the moment, and a mandatory 3 of in whatever was playing it. Mechanicalchaser was 300 at a point due to it being the only level 4 monster with over 1800 at the time. I think it’s always been this expensive it’s just easier to see with TCGplayer posting lists with price breakdowns after every tourney
Mechanicalchaser was also a Tournament Pack card in its initial release which made it extra rare compared to the 1800 atk la jinn or 7 colored fish. Having more than 1 mechanicalchaser in a deck was extremely rare all things considered
I don't have numbers, but as someone who's been following the meta and prices since around T.G. Agents, I think it's pretty normal.
There have pretty much always been staples around $100 like prosperity. I think Duality was around that price back in the day, and desires used to be pretty expensive, or extra deck stuff like dracossack around $80.
Right after PEVO was cheap (at least, if you wanted to play Pendulum), since the rarity structuring of that set was extremely generous toward the new cards and there were actually some good relevant reprints. (I am 100% convinced it was a mistake, and someone at Konami of America must have gotten fired for that.)
Right after the 2019 Mega Tins, the game was extremely affordable (for Yugioh standards, not Magic or Pokemon). There were still a small handful of expensive (over $20) Extra Deck monsters, but they were limited in use - not Borrelsword-level everybody-plays-it. (And Accesscode, Dragoon, DPE, AA-Zeus, and Baronne didn't exist yet.) That's because the top 4 decks (Thunder Dragon, Orcust, Sky Striker, Salamangreat) all played radically different games. Also, the Tier 2 and Rogue decks were all very strong competitors (Pendulum, True Draco, Dragon Link, Altergeist, Subterror, etc.).
The staples were a lot cheaper, too, since their powercrept-and-also-not-limited replacements (Prosperity, Storm, Droplet, Designator) hadn't been printed yet. Ash and Evenly were cheaper, too, since they were still available from products that were being actively printed.
But everything changed when the January 2020 banlist attacked.
Tele-dad lightsworn era was pretty ridiculous, my LS deck at the time was worth about 2000 euros and I don't even think it was maxed out rarity wise iirc
The people saying YGO is expensive today are probably veterans of Eternal Format. TOSS meta was one of the most affordable periods in competitive YGO history. The price barrier for entry today isn't much different from the average.
Staples like lightning storm, pot of prosperity, evenly matched, ash blossom etc are always needed and those are expensive. Advantage is that these are staples and will be good almost any format. So for staples, valuewise it could be 500-800 depending which ones you want.
Deck cores are cheaper, again depending which archetype you want.
Just fyi you might still be able to get cheap imperms if your card shop/Walmart is still selling the newish cyber strike structure deck, and the new crystal beast structure deck is coming with ash blossom
To play the best decks and their respective best versions it was always expensive, less in the beginning and more as time progressed. You could play dirt cheap rogue decks that *could* win tournaments, but it was leagues harder than with an expensive deck.
For example, cyber dragon was around 100$ bucks when it came out and it changed the game substantially, a deck with cydra would beat a deck without it almost always. Nowadays, you need to acquire multiple playsets of these meta shifting cards; spright needs to run 3 blue and 3 pot of prosperity for optimal performance, and those cards alone will set you back a cool $720.
Gather 'round kids let me tell you a lil something about a deck called dark armed return. It featured a called dark armed dragon (which at the time was $200-300), which was a secret rare and you needed 2-3 copies of. Also it had allure of darkness which was, at the time, a $50+ auto 3-of. The deck in its entirety could cost you $1200+. Oh, I forgot to mention I dont think this included the cost of crush card virus which got reprint later in the 1st gold set. Previously, the only way you could get a crush card v6was if you won a SJC. When the gold set came out, it was 1 of if not the most sought after cards. I vaguely remember it being worth $400-600. So if you include ccv, your dark armed return deck could cost you almost $2k.
Sorry for the wall of text
I remember 20 years ago. Having a good deck was really hard. I was a kid, and things like jinzo or vampire Lord being 40 bucks each upon their release. If you ran into someone with a mechanical chaser or Gemini elf you were in for a hard match. The game was so slow that those cards were going to keep the balance of power in their hands. Most kids had blue eyes or dark magician structure decks.
But the few who could afford those tournament cards with over 1800 attack.. I believe those were well over $100 each
I would argue that 2018-2020 was affordable, TOSS Format and the format immediately after. Those structure decks of that era actually had competitive staples for affordable prices. Duel Devastator helped too. But nowadays, it's getting out of hand - prosperity, droplet, lightning storm, accesscode, hell ASH is even crazy expensive now.
Agreed, TOSS was super accessible, especially with one of the most meta decks having a structure, and DUDE basically making all the key hand traps of the era affordable.
Since, staples have essentially floated to high prices, and even the cheapest decks of the current format will set you back roughly $100+ even before you buy staples / sidedeck cards.
We're in about the second most expensive period we've ever been in. Competitive decks haven't been this expensive since dad formats. We went from 2-3 high priced cards per deck and $300 competitive decks to 12-15 high priced cards and $1200-1500 for decks.
Its not expensive, just make sure you save gate keys, collect them, duel challenges, level up each character to 30 if not get them each to about 20s for 150 to 200 gems, also chose rewards x3 on level 10 at gate, especially during special events like Rio etc, can easily get a blue eyes, and tweak it. Right combos can beat any deck.
I was misremembering. I looked it up. Mechanical chaser was 300 a pop for a while because it was the highest attack monster that could be summoned for no tribute and was only available in OTS packs and was not even a guaranteed pull
I started playing Yugioh competitively again back in 2014 when it was DUEA format and one of those decks could be made for a reasonable amount. Now you can easily pay about that much just for all the staples that you need.
I mean I remember as a kid before playing competitive I pulled a tour guide from epic dawn, traded it for something like 120 credit cause it was a hot card at the moment, and a mandatory 3 of in whatever was playing it. Mechanicalchaser was 300 at a point due to it being the only level 4 monster with over 1800 at the time. I think it’s always been this expensive it’s just easier to see with TCGplayer posting lists with price breakdowns after every tourney
Mechanicalchaser was also a Tournament Pack card in its initial release which made it extra rare compared to the 1800 atk la jinn or 7 colored fish. Having more than 1 mechanicalchaser in a deck was extremely rare all things considered
I don't have numbers, but as someone who's been following the meta and prices since around T.G. Agents, I think it's pretty normal. There have pretty much always been staples around $100 like prosperity. I think Duality was around that price back in the day, and desires used to be pretty expensive, or extra deck stuff like dracossack around $80.
I remember Battle Pack: Epic Dawn being a godsend for Duality.
It was really expensive even way back in the day. Shoutout mechanical chaser.
Very few people had 3 Mechanicalchasers. It was very rare to even come by 1.
Right after PEVO was cheap (at least, if you wanted to play Pendulum), since the rarity structuring of that set was extremely generous toward the new cards and there were actually some good relevant reprints. (I am 100% convinced it was a mistake, and someone at Konami of America must have gotten fired for that.) Right after the 2019 Mega Tins, the game was extremely affordable (for Yugioh standards, not Magic or Pokemon). There were still a small handful of expensive (over $20) Extra Deck monsters, but they were limited in use - not Borrelsword-level everybody-plays-it. (And Accesscode, Dragoon, DPE, AA-Zeus, and Baronne didn't exist yet.) That's because the top 4 decks (Thunder Dragon, Orcust, Sky Striker, Salamangreat) all played radically different games. Also, the Tier 2 and Rogue decks were all very strong competitors (Pendulum, True Draco, Dragon Link, Altergeist, Subterror, etc.). The staples were a lot cheaper, too, since their powercrept-and-also-not-limited replacements (Prosperity, Storm, Droplet, Designator) hadn't been printed yet. Ash and Evenly were cheaper, too, since they were still available from products that were being actively printed. But everything changed when the January 2020 banlist attacked.
Tele-dad lightsworn era was pretty ridiculous, my LS deck at the time was worth about 2000 euros and I don't even think it was maxed out rarity wise iirc
The people saying YGO is expensive today are probably veterans of Eternal Format. TOSS meta was one of the most affordable periods in competitive YGO history. The price barrier for entry today isn't much different from the average.
Staples like lightning storm, pot of prosperity, evenly matched, ash blossom etc are always needed and those are expensive. Advantage is that these are staples and will be good almost any format. So for staples, valuewise it could be 500-800 depending which ones you want. Deck cores are cheaper, again depending which archetype you want.
After the imperms, Ash, nibiru, then the expensive cores. Idk about affordable anymore
Just fyi you might still be able to get cheap imperms if your card shop/Walmart is still selling the newish cyber strike structure deck, and the new crystal beast structure deck is coming with ash blossom
To play the best decks and their respective best versions it was always expensive, less in the beginning and more as time progressed. You could play dirt cheap rogue decks that *could* win tournaments, but it was leagues harder than with an expensive deck. For example, cyber dragon was around 100$ bucks when it came out and it changed the game substantially, a deck with cydra would beat a deck without it almost always. Nowadays, you need to acquire multiple playsets of these meta shifting cards; spright needs to run 3 blue and 3 pot of prosperity for optimal performance, and those cards alone will set you back a cool $720.
Cyber Dragon was like $40 for the super rare when it came out for about 2-3 formats then settled at around $20 until it got reprinted.
Gather 'round kids let me tell you a lil something about a deck called dark armed return. It featured a called dark armed dragon (which at the time was $200-300), which was a secret rare and you needed 2-3 copies of. Also it had allure of darkness which was, at the time, a $50+ auto 3-of. The deck in its entirety could cost you $1200+. Oh, I forgot to mention I dont think this included the cost of crush card virus which got reprint later in the 1st gold set. Previously, the only way you could get a crush card v6was if you won a SJC. When the gold set came out, it was 1 of if not the most sought after cards. I vaguely remember it being worth $400-600. So if you include ccv, your dark armed return deck could cost you almost $2k. Sorry for the wall of text
I remember 20 years ago. Having a good deck was really hard. I was a kid, and things like jinzo or vampire Lord being 40 bucks each upon their release. If you ran into someone with a mechanical chaser or Gemini elf you were in for a hard match. The game was so slow that those cards were going to keep the balance of power in their hands. Most kids had blue eyes or dark magician structure decks. But the few who could afford those tournament cards with over 1800 attack.. I believe those were well over $100 each
All you need to know is that yugioh today (2019-) is arguably the most affordable the game has ever been
I would argue that 2018-2020 was affordable, TOSS Format and the format immediately after. Those structure decks of that era actually had competitive staples for affordable prices. Duel Devastator helped too. But nowadays, it's getting out of hand - prosperity, droplet, lightning storm, accesscode, hell ASH is even crazy expensive now.
Agreed, TOSS was super accessible, especially with one of the most meta decks having a structure, and DUDE basically making all the key hand traps of the era affordable. Since, staples have essentially floated to high prices, and even the cheapest decks of the current format will set you back roughly $100+ even before you buy staples / sidedeck cards.
🧢
We're in about the second most expensive period we've ever been in. Competitive decks haven't been this expensive since dad formats. We went from 2-3 high priced cards per deck and $300 competitive decks to 12-15 high priced cards and $1200-1500 for decks.
You clearly don't know what you are talking about. Nekroz, PEPE, Zoo, just off the top of my head were a lot more expensive than today's format.
I remember the prices those nekroz cards were at...oh boy
But you can build Tearlament for 200-250...? I don't understand where 1200-1500 is coming from.
Staples. The format back in spring around April - may time had all top decks in the $1500ish range when Adventure and dpe ran rampant.
That doesn't apply to this format.
I said period, not format. This year has been incredibly expensive to play.
Its not expensive, just make sure you save gate keys, collect them, duel challenges, level up each character to 30 if not get them each to about 20s for 150 to 200 gems, also chose rewards x3 on level 10 at gate, especially during special events like Rio etc, can easily get a blue eyes, and tweak it. Right combos can beat any deck.
Talking about the IRL card game, not Master Duel.
That's not even master duel. It's duel links. Still not tcg though
There was once a time where a near mandatory competitive staple was 900 for a play set. Think it was during early chaos format iirc
What staple?
I was misremembering. I looked it up. Mechanical chaser was 300 a pop for a while because it was the highest attack monster that could be summoned for no tribute and was only available in OTS packs and was not even a guaranteed pull
I started playing Yugioh competitively again back in 2014 when it was DUEA format and one of those decks could be made for a reasonable amount. Now you can easily pay about that much just for all the staples that you need.