Hello all, I know it’s been a while (exactly a month actually) but I’m back. Apologies for the long wait, as between life, work and focusing on the NAWCQ for Yugioh I haven’t had much time to actually write an article. On top of that, the initial way I was going to write this article ended up having to be scrapped so I had to think of a new angle to approach from. After much consideration, here we are back in the saddle.

Secret Rares, a source of much discussion and controversy from their very first release all the way to now. Were they a net positive for the game? Are we better off with them or without? Are the pull rates just too extreme? Well, let’s talk about it.

Ultimate Force SSB Vegito

Release: Union Force

Current Price Point: $45-50

Amount of Play During Release: Marginal Vegito finisher

Amount of Play Currently: Uh…what’s less than zero?

The hype when Union Force was doing pre-releases was real. What would be the SCR, what would it do? Well if we thought about it for more than two seconds the SCR was obvious, since it was the Goku Black Arc in Union Force and SSB Vegito was conspicuously absent. There was a bunch of hype when he was revealed. Ultimate seemed like a great idea, you only need one for your deck. He was also a bomb finisher. Keep in mind, at that time he really was very powerful if you could board him. Most decks would be at 3 or less Life by the time you’d play him and short of Yajirobe, you were likely dead if he touched the board. However, Vegito as a deck flamed out pretty hard and this along with it. Even if it didn’t, this card wasn’t really necessary to the deck as it was pretty random if you ever saw him and you needed to get to Turn 5 with the necessary pieces to even play him.

Over time he’s been power crept to a point, and ultimately today even if Vegito were to have a sudden renaissance, Ultimate Force wouldn’t be a part of it. Simply put there are just better things to play over him at this juncture. The fact that his price point is still $45-50 just speaks to how annoying it is to pull him rather than his effectiveness.

Hyper Evolution Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku

Release: Cross Worlds

Current Price Point: $40-45

Amount of Play During Release: Centerpiece to a really finicky OTK deck that had everyone scared.

Amount of Play Currently: Fun tech choice in Broly GT.

Now if the Ultimate Force was the card that had everyone somewhat excited for the possibilities of Secret Rares, this was the card that initially sent everyone to the hills. The sky was falling big time. It was a scary card and people believed that with Pre-Errata Mecha Frieza, it would just win instantaneously with very little counter play because Burn. I was pretty skeptical and even Bandai had come out to try and calm everyone down. But everyone was sure it’d just ruin competitive play almost immediately. Did it? Not really, the deck flamed out because it turned out basing an OTK strategy on a card that’s hard locked to 1, that can’t be searched and could end up stuck in Life was not a particularly consistent or winning strategy. The OTK deck bombed and the GT builds that remained generally did not use him and so it seemed the end.

…until recently where Hyper Evolution has gained new life thanks to Broly, the Awakened Threat. A guaranteed untap means that he can trade one life, for one of the opponent’s which was pretty good. This card isn’t the centerpiece that people tried to make it out to be, but a great “if you got it” finisher that can end the game on the spot. It’s generally more of a fun tech than anything but still has legs. Despite that, its price point is actually less than SSB Vegito. People are still sore over GT apparently.

Son Goku, the Awakened Power

Release: Tournament of Power

Current Price Point: Anywhere from $350 to the contents of your savings’ account.

Amount of Play During Release: Draw all the cards, win with TAP was a thing.

Amount of Play Currently: Play Yellow, Have Money? This is in your deck then (does anyone else keep forgetting he’s actually Green?).

Let’s be real, THIS is the reason we’re talking about Secret Rares. A SCR, already notoriously hard to pull, in an essentially short printed set? What could possibly go wrong? When he came out, I admit I was skeptical of how good he was. Just felt like we had better finishers that didn’t jump through hoops. I was…terribly, terribly wrong. Turns out sitting on your hands and feet with U7 Frieza and just drawing the deck until you win on Turn 5 is a pretty damn good strategy. It was very hard to beat, it sought not to interact with you in any way until the end game which meant that Frieza was lapping you in card advantage while you fruitlessly chipped away at his life. The only way to win was either to win before Turn 5 or the opponent simply didn’t draw him, which happened because…well, he’s still a 1-of regardless of how much draw power you have. Cell Chain only mildly kept him in check. But then the Hero Revived was released alongside very strong aggro strategies so it got burnt at both ends. It felt like the end for TAP, with the price settling (still very high, but mostly due to the limited stock of ToP).

…then they released Path to Greatness and the price literally doubled almost instantaneously. With a relatively small package, any Mono-Yellow deck could easily jam in this and have an extremely potent win condition. One that didn’t even rely on drawing the SCR because Height of Mastery was a potent enough finisher on his own merits, but obviously this was even stronger to go into. If you’re running Mono-Yellow there’s almost zero reason not to just play the package. Almost, considering the price point is a damn good reason why not to.

The card is very strong, can be used in a lot of strategies…and is also extremely expensive and in very limited quantities because of the nature of being a SCR and the set it was released in. This is the first SCR I can honestly say that decks that can run him are legitimately weaker without running it. That is not healthy for the game at all.

Distant Descendant, Son Goku Jr.

Release: Colossal Warfare

Current Price Point: Around $20-25

Amount of Play During Release: Hahaha, no.

Amount of Play Currently: Hahahahahahahahahahaha, noooooooo.

If The Awakened Power showed how bad the SCR format can be in one direction, this showed the complete opposite extreme. What happens when you have a really bad SCR that also shares set space with a better one? A problem. It’s like the designers forgot that this needed the Ultimate keyword. You either had to build around him with a crap ton of Lineage in the deck, with the very likely chance you’d never see him, or not build around him and the times you do see him run the very likely risk of whiffing. He simply wasn’t good as a card, which shows up in his price point. Path to Greatness is more expensive. This wouldn’t be such a terrible problem…if he didn’t share space with a certain someone…

Beyond Darkness Demigra

Release: Colossal Warfare

Current Price Point: $75-80

Amount of Play on Release: Meme deck fun.

Amount of Play Currently: The Generic SCR of choice

When Demigra was released, it was easy to see why he and his deck was a meme. Mono-Black didn’t really exist and certainly no deck was putting enough Black in their deck to make him worth it. If Mono-Black ever did become a thing he was going to be something to fear but initially the SCR’s for Colossal Warfare were REALLY bad, though at least Demigra had much potential. But it seemed it would never be realized.

…Then Wish Leaders were created. Hmm, 7 Black Cards in the Drop Area you say? If only there were a deck that relied on such a case happening. Demigra suddenly became most Wish Leaders’ finisher of choice because their ultimates were underwhelming whereas Demigra could almost certainly end the game being played. Its price rose up dramatically to the point it’s at now. Why not any higher? Because he’s really gravy and not immensely necessary. Just a nice piece to have when you can draw it.

Son Goku & Uub, Seeds of the Future

Release: World Martial Arts Tournament

Current Price Point: $20-25

Amount of Play on Release: Tech finisher for certain matchups.

Amount of Play Currently: Veku Ramp Closer

Talk about an ill-fated card. It looks okay, and points back to the poignant ending of DBZ. For all of that…on a really poor card. Once again it turns out having a card that’s only good if the opponent allows the condition to be met, and it’s a condition they can easily avoid…isn’t generally very good. Honestly there’s not much to say, it’s a very forgettable card in general.

EDIT: Though I am hearing that it’s seeing current play in Veku Ramp decks as a finisher, which makes sense. Don’t have to worry about the condition if you can just play it on 8 anyway. And obviously once you do get this on board it’s great.

Miraculous Fighter SS3 Gogeta

Release: Miraculous Revival

Current Price Point: $40

Amount of Play on Release: Yeah…about that.

Amount of Play Currently: Shiny Binder All-Star

Speaking of forgettable, did anyone remember this card existed? This is a card that had its entire thunder stolen by the card that’s supposed to Evolve into this. Turns out most decks can’t deal with going to 3 cards in hand during the late game anyway and this doesn’t even count as overkill since it’s generally too annoying to make full use of. An untapping 40K Crit just isn’t what it used to be…

Frieza, Army Reborn

Release: Clash of Fates

Current Price Point: $50-55

Amount of Play: Generic Red SCR of choice.

If Demigra is the Generic SCR of choice for Wish Leaders, and The Awakened Power is the Finisher of choice for wealthy Yellow Players, then this is the SCR of choice for Red decks. It’s pretty no frills, easy to fit into any Mono-Red deck because going to 2 or lower life is something that happens often in this game. It doesn’t get its own separate Release/Currently listing because it was released this year, which is close enough for me. No deck is weaker for not playing this, but it’s a good luxury for those who do own it. This is right around where I’d want SCR’s to be power and accessibility wise.

Broly, Ultimate Agent of Destruction

Release: Destroyer Kings

Current Price: $280-300 and your soul

Amount of Play: Top End Finisher for SD Broly

Onto the most recent set as of this article. This is closer to the design of the Awakened Power sadly. At first I didn’t think he was necessary, but as you play with SD Broly you’ll find out he is VERY necessary (well…until the Anniversary Box was released at least). The deck needed someway to rip through excessive hand sizes and this fits the bill. Add that to SD Broly’s excessive amount of draw and you have a winner. It’s unsurprising the price is so damn high, considering it’s attached to a Tier 1 deck. Hopefully you saved each dollar from your newspaper runs.

Arcane Absorption Majin Buu

Release: Destroyer Kings

Current Price Point: $115-120

Amount of Play: Meme OTK deck

The last SCR on today’s docket. As some may know, I was legitimately confused when this card was revealed. It seemed to be the antithesis of SCR card design. A card meant to be built around. To that end, I’m still a bit confused about the design of the card. An OTK deck was found with it, able to go off extremely early to win but it turned out to be too fragile a strategy to find real footing though people still try to force it through. The price point has tanked significantly from before due to its failings, but it’s still worth a very pretty penny.

What Can We Learn From the SCRs?

From the past, we can inform our future and how we can do SCRs better. If we assume that Goku/Uub and Goku Jr are the end of one crappy extreme, and TAP and Broly are on the other extreme, what can we do to find a happy medium? Some brief points.

Not in a damn Themed Booster set!

SCRs are hard enough to pull as it is, putting them in sets that are naturally short printed is a recipe for disaster. Since it seems that Bandai is going away from Theme Boosters anyway, this seems to be a moot point.

They shouldn’t be Build-Arounds

A deck shouldn’t only exist because of a SCR, not just for gameplay design, but we shouldn’t have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for a card just to actually play a deck.

Preferably, they should be more generic

It does say something that outside of The Awakened Power, who received “specific” support to make him somewhat generic, the most played and successful SCRs are the ones that don’t slot into specific strategies and instead are able to be used in a wide assortment of strategies, without the strategies suffering from their exclusion if you can’t afford them. This allows the cards a longer shelf life, and in turn does what Bandai intended SCRs to do in the first place. Move more product.

Final Thoughts:

Ultimately I think, when done correctly, SCRs are actually pretty healthy for the game. Gives more reason to buy product, gives decks a cool top end generally a bit more pop. But they have to be done right, and Bandai seems to struggle with the design of these cards. I hope for a better future for Secret Rares, but I don’t have a ton of faith and hope.