Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters

2x Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North
3x Blackwing - Bora the Spear
3x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
3x Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
2x Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn
2x Blackwing - Pinaki the Waning Moon
3x Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame
2x Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn
1x Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite
2x Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
2x Maxx “C”


Spells

3x Allure of Darkness
3x Black Whirlwind
1x Instant Fusion
1x Mind Control
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Raigeki

Traps

1x Black Sonic
3x Icarus Attack
1x Solemn Warning
1x Vanity’s Emptiness

Extra Deck (15 Cards)

1x Abyss Dweller
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Assault Blackwing - Chidori the Rain Sprinkling
1x Assault Blackwing - Raikiri the Rain Shower
1x Blackwing - Armor Master
1x Blackwing - Nothung the Starlight
1x Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe
1x Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1x Clear Wing Synchro Dragon
1x Crimson Blader
1x Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon
1x Elder Entity Norden
1x Goyo Guardian
1x Number 11: Big Eye
1x Number 101: Silent Honor ARK

The Extra Deck is fairly similar to that of many other current Yu-Gi-Oh decks, except for a couple of major differences. Raikiri the Rain Shower is definitely a strong Blackwing monster and one of the more powerful Blackwing Synchro monsters ever created. It can wipe out your opponent's side of the field in a hurry. Once per turn, Raikiri lets you destroy up to as many cards as you control other Blackwing monsters. Being able to become a Tuner is pretty much gravy.


Like Raikiri, Chidori the Rain Sprinkling is a Level 7 Synchro Monster. Also like Raikiri, he can also become a Tuner monster, if a Blackwing monster was used as Synchro Material in his summoning. He also gains 300 ATK points for each Blackwing monster in your graveyard, and he starts with 2600 ATK. Also, when he’s destroyed, you can get a Winged Beast-type Synchro Monster in your graveyard other than Chidori, and special summon it. Sweet stuff.


Taking the spot that Armed Wing once occupied in the Extra Deck, Nothung the Starlight from Premium Gold: Return of the Bling actually does some pretty cool things. Not only does he deal 800 damage to your opponent upon being summoned, but he also causes one of your opponent’s monsters to lose 800 ATK and DEF! Also, when he’s face-up on the field, you get to Normal Summon an additional Blackwing monster each turn! This is another huge addition for Blackwings since 2015, and not sure how other players have overlooked him!


While not technically a Blackwing (he’s a Warrior), Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe, also from Return of the Bling, is definitely a nice addition to the Blackwing Extra Deck. Interestingly enough, you still need a Blackwing tuner to summon him. Here’s what he does:


You can target 1 Level 5 or higher Winged Beast-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it. During either player's turn, when your opponent activates a card or effect that targets only this card, or when your opponent targets this card for an attack: You can target 1 other "Blackwing" monster you control that would be an appropriate target; that card/effect/attack now targets the new target. You can only use each effect of "Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe" once per turn.

That’s a lot of text. Basically, once per turn, you can just get back one of your Winged Beast-type Synchro monsters into play (there aren’t any other Level 5 or higher Winged Beasts in this deck). If that wasn’t good enough, once per turn, you get to change an opponent’s attack target to another Blackwing you control. Wow.

The rest of the Extra Deck should be self-explanatory, as most of them have been played in top-level play for years.


Other Blackwing Monsters to Consider


There are a couple of other Blackwing cards that have been printed more recently that could be worked into your own Blackwing deck. They are Gofu the Vague Shadow and Assault Blackwing - Sohaya the Rain Storm.

While Blackwings didn’t Top 8 any major tournaments in 2016, they have the tools to at least be competitive once again in 2017 and beyond. With this list that finished in the top 4, there is definitely hope for that! Being my favorite archetype from my old playing days, it would be fun to see a Blackwing deck list like this make some waves. Blackwings keep getting more support over the years, too, so there’s definitely a chance that there’s another card that’s printed that puts the archetype back into Top 8 contention.

It may not be the fun "troll" deck that Toon Kingdom allows you to build, but Blackwings have the ability to pull out some very quick wins. It seems that Blackwings may once again have a chance to pull out more upset tournament victories in the future, especially  on the local game store level!

Aqua Madoor should be familiar to many Yu-Gi-Oh duelists. Originally printed in the first English set, Legend of Blue-Eyes, as a rare, Aqua Madoor has 1200 ATK and 2000 DEF. In the early days of the game, 2000 DEF was a formidable amount. This was a monster that many old-school duelists used to stall their opponent from making a successful attack until they could tribute him to bring out a more powerful monster, such as Summoned Skull or Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Even being such an old card, printed at common several times, Aqua Madoor even made an appearance in the Yu-Gi-Oh GX anime. The normal-type Spellcaster was even reprinted at Secret Rare in Legendary Collection 3: Yugi's World Mega Pack, the first ever foil printing of this card.

My first experience with Aqua Madoor was in the Starter Deck: Pegasus, my introduction to the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. I really liked to play him in face-down defense position, since opponents would often attack him blindly and take battle damage. While he's pretty underwhelming by today's standards, Aqua Madoor was a very useful monster back in the day for many duelists.

Dragons of Legend 2 isn't the only newer set to provide good Toon cards, though. With the Shining Victories set, in came a powerful new Toon monster: Red-Eyes Toon Dragon. Yu-Gi-Oh players know how busted Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon became. This is a pretty strong Red-Eyes Dragon, too, letting you Special Summon any Toon monster other than another "Red-Eyes Toon Dragon" from your hand once per turn.

 And with the Dark Illusion set, Toons keep getting better. Toon Dark Magician may be the best of the Toon monsters printed so far! The best part about this Dark Magician is that he can summon a Toon monster directly from your deck!  He also has the ability to search out a Toon Spell or Trap card from your deck, including Toon Kingdom! It also doesn't hurt that he can attack your opponent directly for 2500 !

In particular, you're going to want to get a Red-Eyes Toon Dragon. You can then use the Toon Dragon's ability to summon yet another Toon Dark Magician from your hand and repeat the process! In effect, you can combo off a bunch of summons in one turn just like the classic Six Samurai decks and many other competitive decks today.

You’d want to start with something  like this:

Monsters (16)

3x Toon Cannon Soldier
3x Toon Gemini Elf
3x Toon Masked Sorcerer
2x Toon Mermaid
2x Toon Cyber Dragon
3x Toon Dark Magician
3x Red-Eyes Toon Dragon

Spells (17)

2x Comic Hand
3x Mimicat
3x Pot of Duality
3x Toon Kingdom
3x Toon Table of Contents

Traps (6)

1x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Call of the Haunted
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Toon Briefcase

Toon Summoned Skull is a classic Toon monster that usually sees play in Toons, but Toon Cyber Dragon is a newer option you can play instead. The Cyber Dragon is probably better, though, since you can Special Summon it in the same way you could a regular Cyber Dragon.

The monster line-up doesn’t look overwhelming, but since they can all attack directly if your opponent doesn’t control a Toon, they don’t have to be overwhelming on power. Also, remember that you can just banish a card face-down if they would be destroyed. There’s enough defensive cards in the deck to deal with any major offensive threats from your opponent.

Answering Great Reader Feedback About Building a Toon Kingdom Deck

Over time, I’ve received some great reader comments about building their own Toon Kingdom decks. One reader suggestion is to use the continuous Spell card Field Barrier to protect your Toon Kingdoms. I feel this would be a good card to consider for the sideboard, especially against decks with enough firepower to continuously blow away cards in your Spell & Trap Zones.


Another reader suggestion is to use a different draw card in place of Pot of Duality. This is because you can’t Special Summon monsters in the same turn as playing Pot of Duality. However, this wouldn’t be the first Special Summon happy deck to play Duality. This is because Duality lets you choose one card from among the next three.

One suggestion is to use Upstart Goblin instead of Pot of Duality, which gifts your opponent 1000 LP to draw you a card. This isn’t my favorite option, but Upstart Goblin has been used for years with much success. There are other options, such as Jar of Greed. But since you can unleash some powerful direct attacks with Toon monsters, the life gain for your opponent may be a moot point.


Will a Toon Kingdom Deck Be Able to Win at Local Tournaments?

While this isn’t a competitively optimized list, it is a place to start your Toon Kingdom deck. You can substitute whatever Toon monsters you find most useful. Also, keep in mind you have your XYZ monsters at your disposal, something that Toons never had before. As an archetype, Toons are continuing to look a lot scarier with each new set release that includes them.

Will Toons ever again become consistent enough to actually win tournaments as they could in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh? That’s quite hard to say, considering you could end up banishing all of your Toon Kingdoms by accident. That is unlikely, though, with how many ways you have to tutor them out. Also, there's enough copies of your monsters and support cards to keep from burning through all of them.

While I don’t plan on just building Toons myself and playing Yu-Gi-Oh again, it’s been a lot of fun to watch Konami continue to give one of the original Yu-Gi-Oh deck archetypes new life. Let’s see what other tricks they have up their sleeve in the future. You never know what they’ll reprint or support next.

Updated 5/17/2017

Even some one who hasn't played Yu-Gi-Oh in a long time can see how good Coral Dragon is! His ability to discard a card and destroy 1 card your opponent control is quite powerful, even just once per turn. Even better, if he's sent from the field to the graveyard, you can draw a card. Any monster who replaces himself, in my opinion, is a good card.

I played back when Synchro monsters such as Goyo Guardian were a big deal. So I know what these Level 6 Synchro monsters can do. Indeed, the Coral Dragon is already seeing play in Water-based decks such as Atlanteans and Mermails. But because he doesn't have any specific summoning conditions, he's appeared in the Extra Decks of other archetypes as well, including Blackwings, Phantoms, and Heroes!

Coral Dragon is definitely a Synchro Monster that I would want as part of my collection. If I were to build an Atlantean or Mermail deck, this would be at the top of my list for cards to acquire.

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For those who began playing Yu-Gi-Oh around the same time I did, Buster Blader is a pretty familiar name. He existed as the perfect answer to Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the most powerful monster in the game at that time (besides the practically impossible to summon Gate Guardian.) Even though he had only 2600 ATK points to start with, with a single Dragon on your opponent's side of the field or in the Graveyard, he got a 500 point boost. 3100 ATK would beat anything without help. Against a dedicated Dragon deck, Buster Blader would just run them over.

To be fair, Buster Blader wasn't really ever a competitive card to my knowledge. Perhaps in the very old days of Yu-Gi-Oh, he was. But to me and many other players at the time, he was just a cool card to have. I'd jam him into Warrior decks or any other deck where I knew I'd be up against a Blue-Eyes or three. The Dark Beginnings printing was in fact the very Buster Blader I had for years. I eventually sold him to a vendor at some local big tournament. I don't recall for how much, but it was an oddly high sum even at the time.. It was the right decision, financially, but I miss that guy.

I did later pick up a copy of the Buster Blader from the Yu-Gi-Oh Anniversary Pack. There were a lot of cool cards in there, and I wish I hadn't sold any of them, really. I can't recall what became of the Buster Blader. I think I traded him to my brother. But he probably ended up on eBay and I probably got much less than I should have for such a rare printing of such an iconic Yu-Gi-Oh monster. But c'est la vie.

There were some other printings of Buster Blader, even at common, that passed through my possession at one point or another. But none of them was as special as that super rare holographic one from Dark Beginnings.

I had almost forgotten all about Buster Blader after all this time. But then I saw this.

Breakers of Shadows brings to us Buster Blader, the Destruction Swordmaster. Is he better than the original? Well, he actually counts as "Buster Blader" when on the field or the Graveyard.

This guy, though, can destroy an opponent's monster and equip it to himself. Once per turn, you can send a monster equipped to him to your Graveyard and destroy all monsters your opponent controls with the same type as that Monster. So not only can he hose Dragons, but any other deck that runs a bunch of creatures with the same type: Beast-Warriors, Spellcasters, Warriors, you name it.

Is this ability competitively viable? I'm honestly not sure. People are trying to build around him, though.

But that's not all. We get ANOTHER Buster Blader card in the same set. This one is a fusion monster, Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman. Is he better than Buster Blader's famous fusion with Dark Magician, the Dark Paladin?

In this case, you fuse Buster Blader with any Dragon-type Monster. He's a level 8 monster with 2800 ATK and 2500 DEF, but can't attack directly. However, he's a sort of super Buster Blader, gaining 1000 ATK for each Dragon on your opponent's side of the field or in their graveyard.

It gets better. The Dragon Destroyer also moves all Dragon type monsters your opponent has into defense position. Also, when any Dragons are in Defense position, you inflict piercing battle damage. Basically, your opponent's Dragons have to lay down and take a serious beating. This is quite flavorful and makes for a great story to tell your grand-kids about. But it's actually quite a drawback if you're not up against a dedicated Dragon duelist.

However, while the competitive ramifications of these two new cards are limited, they are pretty darn cool. There is a combination with DNA Surgery, which can make all face-up monsters on the field into Dragons. That's a possibility., especially as people play that card already as a sideboard option. You could build a deck around these guys.  Sadly, Skilled White Magician - the easiest way to Special Summon Buster Blader from the hand or deck needs the original Buster Blader to function. But the new Destruction Swordmaster can be summoned from the Graveyard using that effect. A very old spell called Emblem of Dragon Destroyer can go get either "Buster Blader" card from the graveyard, too.

Then there's these cute little things, the Destruction Sword monsters. Two of them are even Tuners. So there's actually a lot of support for this "Buster Blader" deck to work. It's actually pretty awesome. This archetype is both nostalgic and pretty synergistic.

If I were to come back and play Yu-Gi-Oh, this is probably the deck I'd play. Just for fun. Glad to see my good friend Buster Blader back in action!

Mirror Force was once an absolute staple in just about every Yu-Gi-Oh deck there was. While it still sees play today, it's no longer nearly as popular as it once was. The Dimension of Chaos set brought into play a secret rare that has an interesting - and deadly - twist on the original Mirror Force.

Blazing Mirror Force destroys all of your opponent's Attack Position monsters, just like the original, but adds a very important and potentially game-ending effect. You must take damage equal to the half of the combined original ATK points of those destroyed monsters. The best part about this, however, is that you inflict the same amount of damage to your opponent. Used strategically, not only can this turn the tables on your opponent, destroying their attack force, but it can put their own life points to a point where either you can finish them on your next turn, or even right then.

Jason Imasogie included 2 copies of Blazing Mirror Force in his 1st place Regional Winning Burning Abyss deck in Birmingham, England. It marks the first time that this card has been a part of a major tournament winning deck. Burning Abyss is a strong archetype and it's surely not the last time Blazing Mirror Force will be included in this type of deck. Unlike the original Mirror Force, however, the timing of unleashing this trap is critical. Nevertheless, having such game-ending potential is what should make a Secret Rare Trap Card, and the designers of Yu-Gi-Oh definitely got this card right.

Assault Blackwing - Raikiri the Rain Shower is an extremely powerful Synchro Monster from Yu-Gi-Oh's Dimension of Chaos set. As someone who loved playing Blackwings in my Yu-Gi-Oh playing days, this is a monster that I would have loved to have at my disposal. It's a Level 7 Synchro monster, just like the famous Blackwing Armor Master. However, this Winged Beast is far more powerful. Its very presence on the battlefield can lead to a one-turn kill (OTK) for the Blackwing player.

Unlike many Blackwing Synchro monsters, Raikiri does not require Blackwings in order to be played. However, if you happen to use a Blackwing monster as Synchro Material for Raikiri, he becomes a Tuner monster himself. While this makes him able to help players summon higher level Synchro monsters, this is hardly the best thing about Raikiri.

Once per turn, Raikiri has an effect that allows you to target a number of cards your opponent controls up to the number of other "Blackwing" monsters you control. You then can destroy those cards. With a field full of Blackwings, this means you can destroy up to 4 cards per turn. If that seems incredibly unfair, well, it is. Essentially, your opponent needs either an immediate answer to Raikiri's summoning or some way to negate the activation of his effect.

Raikiri the Rain Shower is probably the most powerful Blackwing monster ever printed. Will Raikiri propel Blackwings back into the Yu-Gi-Oh competitive spotlight?

As someone who used to be absolutely obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh, when I came across Toon Barrel Dragon, a major wave of nostalgia hit me. For those unfamiliar with Barrel Dragon, in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh, that monster could take down any card on the field - if you got 2 heads out of 3 coin flips.

In the Dimension of Chaos set, Yu-Gi-Oh finally printed the Toon version of Barrel Dragon. About time! It has the same basic stats and effect as the original Barrel Dragon, except it has the upside of being able to attack directly if you have Toon World or Toon Kingdom on the field.

Unlike some older Toon monsters, this cartoonish Barrel Dragon doesn't have the drawback of being destroyed without a "Toon World" card being on the field. It also can target any card on the field, and not just monsters, like the original Barrel Dragon. So the Toon version is, in fact, strictly better than the original.

Of course, there are so many Toon monster options today. Konami decided to go ahead and print monsters like Toon Cyber Dragon that have made the deck a bit more competitive. Yu-Gi-Oh continues to give classic monsters the Toon treatment on a regular basis now, recognizing how much people still love the archetype. Of course, Toon Kingdom is the card that brought Toons back into the Yu-Gi-Oh meta-game as a "troll" deck. I wrote a fairly extensive piece about the effect of Toon Kingdom on the competitiveness of Toon decks. It's one of the most popular Gaming articles I've ever written.

While this Barrel Dragon isn't going to cut it in today's Yu-Gi-Oh competitively, it's still a fun card to have simply for nostalgia's sake. Barrel Dragon was a card that many early Yu-Gi-Oh players hold close to their hearts.  Today, Toons are pretty much a "troll" deck, as it is. Players basically play them for the sake of being funny, although they can win some games against tournament-level decks at times from the sheer power of Toon Kingdom. The Toon Barrel Dragon may never come out of nowhere in some high-profile tournament. But he's going to be a beloved collectible card for anyone who loves Yu-Gi-Oh Toon Monsters.

The other ultra rare in the pack is  Dark Hole. Not much needs to be said about this card. It destroys all monsters on the field. It’s one of the best staples in the entire game, and having yet another ultra rare printing is pretty useful for players who love to foil out their decks.

The other common cards are as follows:

Des Volstgalph
Kuraz the Light Monarch
D.D. Warrior Lady
Sacred Crane
Amazoness Sage
Injection Fairy Lily
The A. Forces
Reinforcement of the Army
Swords of Revealing Light
Mirror Force
Call of the Haunted
Magic Cylinder
Divine Wrath

The majority of these cards have all been printed at common rarity before. Mirror Force, Call of the Haunted, and  Reinforcement of the Army are staples that we’re happy to see again. Magic Cylinder  is also a highly useful card, along with Divine Wrath, a card that may begin to see more play again with the rise of so many powerful effect monsters.

Of these 13 common cards, only 2 had never before been printed at the lowest rarity: Des Volstgalph and Kuraz the Light Monarch. Des Volstgalph‘s claim to fame was that he was once a Shonen Jump Championship Series Prize Card, and later reprinted in two different Gold Series.  Kuraz  is probably the most interesting card here, only before printed as a Light of Destruction special edition card and a Duelist League participation promo.

We’ve gone over  Stargazer Magician  and  Timegazer Magician  already in our Pendulum Summoning article. When we take a look at the next few cards, you’ll see why Pendulum Summoning might become a big deal. We’ll start with the Empowered monsters, of which there are 5, one of each Attribute, except Dark.

The last new card in the deck,  Supply Squad, is a cool Continuous Spell Card. Once per turn, if a monster or monsters you control are destroyed by battle or a card effect, you can draw a card. Card draw is always good, especially when it comes from something that often happens in a game.

To round out the spell cards we have: Lightning Vortex,  Mystical Space Typhoon,  Ego Boost,  Axe of Despair,  Lucky Iron Axe,  Monster Reincarnation,  Dark Factory of Mass Production, and  Poison of the Old Man. You can click on each card’s name to find out more about it on Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia.

For the Trap Cards:  Trap Hole,  Sakuretsu Armor,  Raigeki Break,  Dust Tornado,  Shadow Spell,  A Hero Emerges,  Soul Resurrection, Jar of Greed,  Magic Jammer, and  Seven Tools of the Bandit. Again, click the card name’s for more info.

Overall, the reprints I’m most excited to see among the Spell/Trap cards are  Mystical Space Typhoon  (which you can never have enough of),  Monster Reincarnation  (which is a good card for many decks) and  Seven Tools of the Bandit, which is a Trap card that has really been coming back into style with the banning of  Heavy Storm.

Taking a look at the deck as a whole, it introduces a bunch of new cards into the game, especially with the Summoner and Empowered monsters, plus obviously the two Pendulum monsters and the two Spell cards. The deck has some interesting synergies within it, and while the deck is not itself highly competitive, it’s a great starting place for players new to the game or returning after a long while to discover that there’s this Pendulum Summoning thing going on (like myself!)

But wait, the deck list might be finished, but there’s more! The reason they call this a Super Starter Deck is that it comes with two packs of five cards, as well! What’s in this pack? We'll review what you can get from those packs soon!

The  Space-Time Showdown Super Starter Deck introduced a new type of Summon into the game of Yu-Gi-Oh. Before we had Normal Summons, Special Summons, and Fusion Summons. Then we had Contact Fusion Summons. Next we had Synchro Summons. After that, we had Xyz Summons. Now we have Pendulum Summons, and oh boy, are they complex!

This starter deck comes with two monsters of a brand new type known as Pendulum Monsters. You play them in your deck like regular monsters, and can summon them like any other normal Effect Monster. However, in addition to the traditional monster zones, two new “pendulum” zones have been created between the extra deck and field card zone on the left and between the deck and graveyard over on the right. In these zones, they are treated as Spells and not Monsters, and have a different effect while in those zones.

There are a few other things you should know about Pendulum Monsters. First of all, when they are sent from the field from the graveyard, by combat or a card effect, even if they are face-down, they are sent to the Extra Deck face-up. Yes, the Extra Deck. It will make more sense later.

However, if they are sent from the hand, Main Deck, or Extra Deck, or have their summon or effects as a Spell Card negated they go to the graveyard like normal. Also, placing monsters in Pendulum Zones is not considered a Normal or Special Summon. You cannot discard a Pendulum monster already in a Pendulum Zone in order to play another one (like you would a Field spell card) but you can play them as often as you like as long as you have open Pendulum Zones in which to play them.

So why the heck are there are a blue zone and a red zone? As soon as you see the first of the two new Pendulum Summon cards, you’ll see why.

The cover card of the Space Time Showdown deck is  Timegazer Magician. It’s a Level 3 monster with 1200 ATK and 600 DEF. You’ll then notice that the card has two jewels: a blue side and a red side. You can choose to summon it as a regular monster, in which case, it will get its monster effect. But if you summon it into one of the two Pendulum zones you put it into, it instead becomes a spell card with a different effect. The color of the Zone decides which number is considered in what is called its “Pendulum Scale.” We’ll cover this later, but for purposes of at least the early Pendulum Monsters, these numbers are currently identical.

The Pendulum ability on this card is rather wordy. Let’s break it down.

“You must control no monsters to activate this card. If a Pendulum Monster you control attacks or is attacked, your opponent cannot activate Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step. Unless you have a “Magician” card or “Odd-Eyes” card in your other Pendulum Zone, this card’s Pendulum Scale becomes 4.”

The first part of that effect is pretty self-explanatory. It means that this card essentially becomes a continuous spell card with an ability that can only be activated when you control no monsters – that is, no monsters except for a Pendulum Monster in the opposite zone.

The effect is fairly basic: whenever a Pendulum Monster you control attacks or is attacked, your opponent can’t activate any of his/her Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step. That seems pretty helpful, especially if you control no monsters.

So this last part probably has a lot of people confused, because it certainly blew my mind. Unless you control a Pendulum monster with “Magician” or “Odd-Eyes” in its name in the opposite Pendulum Zone, this card’s Pendulum Scale becomes 4? What the heck does that mean? Well, you see the numbers under the blue and red symbols? That is the card’s Pendulum Scale.

We’ll get to exactly what that means in a minute. But let’s look at its Monster effect:

“Each turn, the first card(s) in your Pendulum Zone that would be destroyed by an opponent’s card effect are not destroyed.”

That’s a pretty handy ability. It can protect your other Pendulum cards, as they now become like Spell cards that can be removed by  Dust Tornado,  Mystical Space Typhoon, and the like.

Let’s take a look at the other Pendulum Summon card in the deck.

Stargazer Magician  is the other Pendulum Summon monster in the deck. It has a Pendulum Scale of only 1. That’s interesting. It’s also a level 5 monster, which means to Normal Summon it, you must Tribute one of your monsters, just as you would any other regular Level 5 monster. Again, you can play it as a regular monster or in a Pendulum zone. As this one has 2400 DEF, though, you may want to keep it in Defense Mode.

Let’s take a look at his Pendulum Zone spell effect:

“If a Pendulum Monster you control attacks or is attacked, your opponent cannot activate Spell Cards until the end of the Damage Step. Unless you have a “Magician” card or “Odd-Eyes” card in your other Pendulum Zone, this card’s Pendulum Scale becomes 4.”

Wait, that looks awfully familiar. It is almost identical to the other Magician except for the fact that it stops Spell cards from being activated – which most likely would be Quick-Play spells such as the Forbidden Cycle (Chalice, Dress, Lance, etc.)

So what is its Monster effect then, since we mostly likely have to Tribute Summon for it?

“Once per turn, when exactly 1 other Pendulum Monster you control (and no other cards) is returned to your hand by an opponent’s card effect (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon 1 monster from your hand with the same name as that returned to the hand.”

Notice that it says Special Summon and not Pendulum Summon. That’s still a pretty cool effect, though, if not a little niche.

Now that we’ve seen what these guys do, what do they do together?

Let’s say we get both of these out on the board at the same time in opposite Pendulum Zones. One has a scale of 8, but it becomes 4 unless the other card in the Pendulum Zone has “Magician” or “Odd-Eyes” in its name. Fortunately for the other Magician in the deck, there is also another Magician. This means that you have a 1 on one side and an 8 on the other. So what the heck does that mean?

Having both of your Pendulum Zones occupied allows what is called Pendulum Summoning. At the beginning of each card you may Pendulum Summon as many creatures as you like from your hand that are between the levels of the two Scales on the cards occupying the Pendulum Zones. This means you can summon any monster between levels 2-7 directly to the field. This sounds pretty nuts, doesn’t it? Well, believe me, it’s a lot easier said that done!

Also, there’s another very interesting thing about Pendulum Monsters that must be mentioned here. When they are destroyed, they sometimes end up in the Extra Deck face-up. The only way to get them back from there is to summon them with a Pendulum Summon again later. Don’t worry about the number of cards in your Extra Deck – as they don’t count towards your 15 card limit.

The Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia has a good breakdown of the mechanics of Pendulum Monsters, as well as  a summary of the mechanics of Pendulum Summons.

These two cards are pretty fascinating and add quite a complex new mechanic to the game of Yu-Gi-Oh. In the near future, we’ll take a look at the rest of the Super Starter Deck and see how its two Pendulum Monsters help the deck.

How to Know What Your Cards Are Worth

As a successful seller of Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards on EBay and Amazon, I know that sometimes it's frustrating to watch cards you think should sell simply not sell! So here are a few things on knowing what cards will sell vs what cards won't sell, regardless of their list price on various card seller websites.

How to Check  Current Card Prices for Yu-Gi-Oh Cards

For Yu-Gi-Oh cards, I tend to use the values that are listed on the TCGPlayer.com website. When you look up a card on TCGPlayer.com, it gives you a low value, a medium value, and a high value. Generally, the Mid (or Medium) value is the price at which most people are willing to buy a card. This value is assigned by TCGPlayer's tracking software as the median price at which most sellers are pricing that particular card.

The low value is the lowest "near-mint" price that a seller on the TCGPlayer seller network is currently listing that card for (near-mint being a card that has no noticeable defects or play-wear). There's also the market price, which is based on recent actual sale prices. The low price is the absolute minimum that I would list a card for sale. But the market price is a safe price to use if you don't mind waiting for cheaper listed copies to sell.

There's also another great price guide resource for Yu-Gi-Oh called Yu-Gi-Oh Prices. This site not only shows you various recent price listings from TCGPlayer, Amazon, and EBay, but also shows you price trends. This way you can see cards that are falling in price or rising in price.

How to Check  Current Card Prices for Pokemon Cards

For Pokemon cards, you'd likely want to use Troll and Toad. While Troll and Toad is mostly known for Magic the Gathering cards, they also sell a great many Pokemon cards, as well. TCGPlayer does sell some Pokemon cards, but not to the degree that Troll and Toad does. The list price on Troll And Toad is generally around the price you'll see cards listed for on EBay anyway. You will find that a large number of holographic cards in Pokemon tend to only sell for about $0.50 to $1 USD. However, if you go onto EBay and find that card is actually selling for around 2-3 dollars, then it's perhaps worth a shot to sell it.

On the other hand, 50 cent holos are usually better off being sold in groups of 5 or 10 as a lot, as bidding wars can ensue and end up netting you more than the lot is actually worth. If the lot sells for less than the individual Troll and Toad prices overall, as long as you make profit after fees and shipping, then you've still made out. This is simply because those holos are considered "bulk" to most people and moving them at all is a plus. All in all, Troll and Toad is the best and easiest way to see if you have a card worth $5 or more.

Checking Completed Listings and Low Buy-It-Now Prices

Once you've identified which cards are worth selling, you'll want to double check the completed listings on EBay to see what previous users have purchased that particular card for. Don't be too discouraged if the price is very much lower than you'd expect. Sometimes buy-it-now is not used, and cards can be won at auction for far lower prices than they typically retail for. This is useful information, though, because it will tell you what the market will currently bear for that particular card. Next, check what the current lowest buy-it-now prices are (price + shipping) and see how they stack up with the completed listings. Card values can fluctuate wildly at times, but generally they stay within a range.

The greatest part of looking at the completed listings is identifying what cards simply don't sell. If you see far more auctions that end without a sale than those with a sale, chances are that card isn't in particularly high demand. You may want to hold onto it and list the ones first that have the highest percentage of successful sales. It's usually pretty easy see at a glance what's selling and what isn't. Just be sure to check the auction end dates, as some cards completed listings' results will have end dates from several months ago. Chances are, if that card hasn't sold in months, it's better to hold onto it, or put it as part of a lot (more on that later!)

Now that you know a card should have a good chance of being sold, the easiest way to actually sell a card on EBay is to simply list it for the lowest price. However, that is not always the best option. By checking the completed listings, you may find that people are willing to pay a bit more for a card than the lowest price currently sits at. All you have to do is wait for the cheaper copies to sell. Also, check the feedback of the seller with the lowest price. If they have little or no feedback, or have a rating below 97%, you can feel safe listing your card for perhaps a bit more than they have it for.

What Cards Actually Sell?

This is now the toughest part of selling cards. It's easy to find a card price and list it for around that number. However, what actually sells versus what doesn't? Believe it or not, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon are somewhat similar in this regard, due to both collectible value and play-ability in competitive environments.

Collectible Value & "Rotations"

In both Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, the cards from the first few sets of each Trading Card Game tend to have a fairly high collectible value. Even Yu-Gi-Oh cards that are banned in competitive tournaments, such as Heavy Storm or Change of Heart, or older Pokemon holos from Base Set like Charizard and Blastoise, still see lots of sales occur on EBay and other sites. It's players' particular fondness for certain cards that they used to play with or collect that drives up the value of older cards.

The other cards that tend to have a lot of collectible value are what are referred to as "staples" which are cards that most competitive players in either game use in the majority of their decks. In Yu-Gi-Oh these include cards like Raigeki and Mystical Space Typhoon, which see play in most decks. Even though these cards are today heavily printed at common rarity, their original printings were not common, and as they are shiny holographic versions, they are highly sought after.

In Pokemon, however, besides cards like "Pokemon Catcher" and some Supporter cards in recent years, there are not nearly as many staples as there are in Yu-Gi-Oh. This also lends itself to the fact that in Yu-Gi-Oh, besides what is on the official tournament ban list, you can use any card ever printed in the game. However, in Pokemon, outside of casual league play, only the sets from the past couple of years are considered legal. For example, cards of the Heart Gold Soul Silver series are no longer recognized as usable cards in competitive decks. While there are many advantages to this "rotation" strategy for both competitive and sales reasons, it can leave you with a LOT of worthless cardboard.

Playability

The one major similarity in selling Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon "staples" is that when they are being played in pretty much every deck at that time, even common and uncommon cards (Trainers and Supporters in Pokemon, Spell and Trap cards in Yu-Gi-Oh) can fetch $2-3 a piece, if not more. Some staple uncommons in Pokemon can list for over $10 USD! The important thing is to recognize their value to players and collect them to sell if you're not playing to play with them and move them quickly!

The major difference in selling Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon "staples" however, is the fact that once those trainers and supporters rotate out of the Pokemon competitive scene, they become just like your Caterpie and Nidoran: bulk commons. In Yu-Gi-Oh, however, even though Lightsworn decks don't see nearly the play that they once did, staple monsters, even in common printings like Lyla and Ryko, still sell for $2-$3 a copy because of their utility in other decks. Dark World Dealings is a hot card for the Dark World deck, but because of their usefulness in other decks, such as Chaos Blackwings and Zombies, they also go for about $3 a piece. Yu-Gi-Oh "staples" retain their value far longer than Pokemon's. So if you have Pokemon staples that you're not using, it's a good idea to move them ASAP.

The Liquidity of Cardboard

At this moment, you may be asking yourself, what can I do with all of these older cards that I'm apparently stuck with? There are always bulk lots to consider, but first let's take a look at the most important concept in selling cardboard, liquidity.

There are advantages and disadvantages to dealing in either card game. The liquidity of Yu-Gi-Oh cards tends to be higher than that of Pokemon's, merely because Yu-Gi-Oh is a highly competitive game. Many players are just looking for one or two cards to finish their deck or to take it to the next level. In Pokemon, even the more competitive players are more collectors by nature. Even if you have some of the nicest looking holos from the newest set that aren't necessarily tournament playable, they likely will sell for more than you'd expect at auction.

For older sets, this is where using sites like TCGPlayer and Troll and Toad come in handy. They do the price research mostly for you. While you still need to check completed listings on Ebay to confirm that a card listed at $20 on those sites will actually sell for that when you go to list it, generally they set prices that high due to having the demand for that particular card.

The major difference between Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh from a liquidity aspect is that Yu-Gi-Oh reprints cards like crazy. Pokemon does not. In fact, usually all Pokemon does is create promo versions of certain cards (and these do have some value). With Yu-Gi-Oh, a card previously only available as ultra rare, becomes super rare, then rare, then common, especially if it's a card that sees tons of play.

One thing Konami clearly does a lot of is see what cards actually get played. Many times, if they see certain ultra rare or secret rare cards from older sets no longer seeing much competitive play, they get them reprinted as common in their structure decks or reprint sets! From a collector's standpoint, this is immensely frustrating, because they see their once very rare cards go from valuable to valueless. The good news, though, is that even as common (cards such as Dark Armed Dragon, for example) still sell, but at highly deflated prices.

Pokemon, on the other hand, has its rarer cards keep their value quite well. They don't usually reprint cards, except as promotional cards in collector's tins. They have, however, reprinted very powerful cards as Mewtwo EX as promotional cards, but they announce these reprints very soon after the set that they are released in comes out. Reprints in Yu-Gi-Oh just sort of happen at will based on whatever cards they think will see play in tandem with upcoming releases. While there are actually very good reasons as to why Konami decided to reprint certain cards for accessibility reasons, it makes selling the older cards very, very difficult.

Older Pokemon holos, though, like even a Zapdos or Blastoise, can fetch between $5-$10 easily. Holos from the increasingly rare Skyridge and Aquapolis sets can fetch between $10-$20. Simply being out of circulation for awhile increases their value, especially if you're looking for near-mint to mint copies!

This is to say, Pokemon card selling requires more patience, but the card values are far more stable, and the liquidity of selling cards of certain popular pokemon (Charizard, for example) or ultra rare card types (EX, level X, shiny, gold star, etc) remain fairly constant. While certain EX cards currently in Black and White will see a drop in value after "rotating" out of competitive play, they will still be sought after by many collectors.

Many Yu-Gi-Oh cards have been reprinted to death, however. Look at cards like Dark Necrofear that used to be extremely high-dollar cards. While Dark Necrofear has not yet hit bottom as a mere common reprint quite yet, the number of promotional printings it has had is astounding, and because it doesn't see much competitive play anymore (despite still being a pretty useful card!) older copies can sell for as low as $1! If you're lucky to have a 1st edition copy, you may eek out $3-5. However, holographic cards simply aren't worth what they used to be in Yu-Gi-Oh. They also don't sell all too well if they're not in top-tier decks.

Selling in Playsets, Bulk, and Lots

One of the most common ways to get rid of low-dollar cards is to sell them in playsets. In Yu-Gi-Oh, you can have three of any given card in a deck (unless it is restricted, limited or semi-limited on the official tournament ban list from Konami). In Pokemon, you can have a maximum four of any given card outside of basic energy cards. Granted, you can also sell playsets of high-value cards, as well, to get the most out of one sale. Listings with multiple cards in them always sell better than single cards.

I have personally found, though, that listing two or three of a card, even those that you can only legally play one of in a deck, is still a good strategy. Yes, you may not get exactly what those cards are "worth" when you consider list prices, but they are far more likely to sell. Money is always more valuable overall than pieces of cardboard, so as long as you're profiting on less liquid assets, you're ahead of the game. This is the easiest way to put lots together, and has proven profitable for myself and thousands of other sellers again and again.

There is, of course, the chance that play-set lots will sell for far lower than they would sell individually, but this is a risk you'll have to take. The best way to protect yourself from this is to NEVER start an auction at $0.99 with free shipping. I only ever use the buy-it-now option, and choose a price that's 5 to 10 percent lower than the lowest current available price (calculating for both price + shipping) and offer free shipping, If I do my research correctly, 9 times out of 10 that item will sell for either market value or about 10 to 15 percent below, a reasonable loss at which to make a sale.

There are also the bulk lots you can do, by grouping together random lots of holos, commons, and uncommons. I have personally NEVER been a fan of these "random" auctions as most of the time people just get ripped off. Some sellers that provide lots, however, will always give you your money's worth, if not more. They're not all bad, certainly, but there are plenty of shady ones out there. If you're going to do a lot, my advice is to actually list the cards in said lot, even if it's random, so that at least the buyer has an idea which cards they have a chance of receiving. Honesty is the best policy, as it is in everything. Whenever I have put up lots, I simply name the cards the winner will receive. These sell better than any other lots, and provide a way to get rid of bulk holos and rares as a value-added bonus.

There is of course, nothing wrong with selling off bulk commons and uncommons with a random rare thrown in. As long as you don't put in too many duplicates (excluding duplicates of common cards you know see play) you should get generally positive feedback. Bulk lots are the cheapest way for players to build up a collection. Just make sure they're getting a good value. If you know you've given them a good value while still leaving room for a healthy profit margin, you're all set.

Pokemon vs Yu-Gi-Oh: Which Will Sell Better?

Overall, if you know your card prices, and you know what sells, both Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh sell about the same. Pokemon you may find yourself selling in lots more often than in Yu-Gi-Oh, but there's plenty of market out there for both trading card games in singles and playsets. Just keep in mind a couple of major points.

Novelty is Money

Whenever a set is first released, cards that get super-hyped tend to sell for far higher values than they will after the set has been out for a bit and supply of singles has increased. This is one reason that a lot of card players and dealers alike attend pre-release events, to get their hands on cards that the general public can't go out and buy yet. These are your cash cow cards, and if you feel that card won't be highly sought after when the release date hits, sell high. Knowing what cards are really needed in the current competitive scene, though, is very, very important. Those are the ones that sell the most, bar none.

Top-Tier Deck Lists

One easy way to know what cards will quickly sell is by looking at winning deck lists in their respective games. Top Yu-Gi-Oh lists are everywhere, and top Pokemon lists are as well. Just by Googling top decks for Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon, you can tell what cards are seeing lots of play. Take special note of any holographic cards that see a lot of play, those are the ones that will sell the best!

Selling off a Collection

For many of you reading this, you may be looking to liquidate your collection or know someone who would like to sell off the bulk of a collection. I personally do not like the idea of selling off a collection all at once. While it's certainly doable, and plenty of people buy collections all of the time, if you do it right, selling off the more valuable singles, then selling off the bulk is probably the better way to go.

There's nothing wrong with having a bidding war over a collection (happens all the time!) but bear in mind that sorting through a collection properly enough as to get the highest sale price can take just as long as selling off singles and bulk lots. If you have binders and binders of cards that you know aren't going to sell singly for more than $2-$3 and you have only a couple of big money cards, then it's probably OK to go this way. Just remember you have to include shipping costs, as well, which can get hefty when selling a collection! Best practice is, though, to sell off the bigger cards first, then sell the rest in one big lot.

While you can always sell to gaming vendors, keep in mind that they need to turn a profit off of what they buy. Buy lists are definitely worth looking at, because if a vendor has a high buy price for something, chances are you could sell it for more on EBay! So while selling to a game store or vendor is OK, if you're selling off a whole collection, you're better off selling it yourself.

Here's one thing, however, that you need to consider in Yu-Gi-Oh VS Pokemon. In Yu-Gi-Oh, there are a lot of "junk" cards that no one wants, whereas in Pokemon, holos of even the less popular Pokemon are wanted just for collection purposes. When you're selling a collection, keep that in mind, because Yu-Gi-Oh players buy collections to boost their trade binders, whereas Pokemon players and collections buy collections to either resell or just to boost their own collections. So if you're trying to sell a whole collection in Pokemon, it may be worth just bulking the whole thing together as long as you list all of the valuable stuff in it. In Yu-Gi-Oh, players are looking to win as cheap as possible, so getting all of the value you can out of singles is the better way to go, and perhaps keep a few bait cards to sell the rest off! Just be honest, and you'll be fine.

Flipping Cards for Profit vs Liquidation

This entire article has been based on the assumption that you are looking to flip cards for profit. If you are simply looking to get rid of the "money cards" or even a whole collection, everything said here still applies, however, if you're willing to take a bit lower of a profit margin, or really just want some fair value, there are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Selling the entire collection in bulk is OK if you really need the money now and you don't want to be in it for the long haul. It's also OK if you're helping a friend out so they can get money for something else. Just bear in mind to research the prices of the bigger stuff so you KNOW you'll get a fair price, rather than just stick some arbitrary number up there (25 cents a card or something). But that's just what I suggest.

2. People can make a nice little profit as a hobby buying singles on the cheap and reselling them for a premium. Bargain hunters are all over EBay, and if you're desperate to move things, put them about 2/3 of what they usually go for, and they'll snap them right up. Keep in mind that the most liquid parts of your collection (the things every one is looking for) are what you should always look to move first. The rest of it is what collection buyers will buy up, simply to restock their binders, or simply out of looking to get a lot of cards quickly and cheap.

3. If you do decide to sell off a collection, bear in mind that people going to buy them rarely will want to pay market value for it. Yes, cards are only worth what people are willing to pay for them, but there are ways to squeeze extra dollars out of them. Bear in mind that most collections won't be full of $50-100 gems or even $20 hot sellers. If you know that your collection is full of binder filler, you can afford to take below market value for it. Just keep that in mind.

The reason that I have made this article so profit-oriented is that I simply see people selling off their cards all of the time by simply not doing their homework and using the excuse "I just want to get rid of them!" Flipping cards for profit is a great way to sustain the trading card collection hobby and there's a nice little economy built around it. Just be sure that you're get a fair deal, and keep in mind you can take a loss if you'd like, but more often than not, your cards are more valuable than you think!

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons