#4 - Leviair the Sea Dragon (By Debris)

We've looked at Tour Guide from the Underworld, so you KNOW that this card is the only reason why Tour Guide costs 450 a playset. Leviair the Sea Dragon is, when used with Tour Guide from the Underworld or Rescue Rabbit, one of the few reasons our format is different than Japan's.

Leviair the Sea Dragon
Xyz Monster Card
WIND / Aqua / ATK-1800 / DEF-1600
2 Level 3 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 banished Level 4 or lower monster; Special Summon that target to your side of the field.

It's easy to see why this card is (IMO) the BEST Xyz Monster out right now. This card is only getting better as time goes on. This card will be in even more demand after Photon Shockwave, and guess why? Rescue Rabbit. There, I said it, there are people out there who are going to take hundreds of dollars to invest in a set of Rescue Rabbit, A set of Tour Guide from the Underworld, and at least two of these. This card is ridiculously broken when combo'd with Rescue Rabbit, mainly for these reasons.

• The Rabbit Laggia deck often runs many cards that can RFG Rabbit, such as Gold Sarcophagus. This means Leviair will almost always have a target.
• If Rabbit RFG's itself, there's a Laggia or Dolkka right there. That's pretty amazing, but now with Leviair, you can repeat that next turn, another Rank 4 with a Leviair on the field!
• With that Laggia and Dolkka on your side of the field, the chances of Leviair surviving are greater than you think! That means you can use Rabbit AGAIN! THAT'S THREE LAGGIA FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!!!

And let's not forget about Dark World. The deck was massively underrepresented at the most recent YCS, and therefore everything in the deck is crashing. This is ridiculous, and everything will shoot up again at the next YCS. If you have Holo Dark World stuff, no need to panic sell right now. Dark Smog will help the deck ALOT against the Plant and Agent matchup, the hardest one right now. One of these cards that seems to be crashing right now is Leviair. It's only $30 for an Ulti, that's crazy!

The reason why people choose to get rid of their Leviairs is because they don't have any Tour Guides to go with them. Let me leave you with this thought. Which will get reprinted first? When Tour Guide is reprinted, what is the main card everybody will now need in their deck? Could this card rise up to $50 from this? Think about it.

Trade for Ultras at 25 and Ultis at 30 until you at least have enough for yourself and then some
This investment is: SAFE, because chances are Tour Guide will be reprinted before this thing, driving up the price by a crazy amount.

One Man's Trash is another Man's Profit #1 (By Debris)

The cheap cards I'm looking at today are Snake Rain, Elegant Egotist, and Dark Calling
Snake Rain
Normal Spell Card
Discard 1 card. Select 4 Reptile-Type monsters from your Deck and send them to the Graveyard.

Eew, Reptiles? No, don't be ignorant. As a whole TYPE, it's crazy to assume they won't either get a good archtype to themselves or just more support later. 4 Foolish Burials at once is actually pretty broken, even more once you realize you can run 3. Right now this card is only a deck thinner or an instant Dark Armed Dragon, but with future monsters and Offering to the Snake Deity, this card has a lot of potential.

Elegant Egotist
Normal Spell Card
You can only activate this card when there are 1 or more face-up "Harpie Lady" on the field. Special Summon 1 "Harpie Lady" or "Harpie Lady Sisters" from your hand or your Deck.

Konami has hinted multiple times that Harpies will be getting more support, and right now, this card is one of the best Harpie cards available. It's an instant summoning or any other Harpie in your deck, which is amazing however you look at it. Also, if Harpies DO get support, it would likely be as another monster that is treated as Lady or Lady Sisters from the deck.

Dark Calling
Normal Spell Card
Remove from play, from your hand or your Graveyard, the Fusion Material Monsters listed on a Fusion Monster Card that can only be summoned with "Dark Fusion", and Special Summon that monster from your Fusion Deck. (This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon with "Dark Fusion".)

This card is Miracle Fusion for Evil HERO Dark Gaia. That's pretty big right there, especially as we get more and more good Fiend and Rock monsters. Dark Gaia OTKs have a load of potential, and it will just take time and more cards for the deck to be broken.

Special Post - Taking the Most BROKEN cards from bad themes

If you ask me what's on my wants list right now, it's all:

• Cards I don't have for my deck yet (Maxx C, Librarian, etc.)
• Cards that are amazing for decks getting lots of support
• Turbo Pack Holos
• Good Cards from decks that are Tier 3 or less

Wait, why would I want those last ones? If cards are bad, then they're bad and will stay that way, right?
WROOOOOOOOOOOONG
Look at most of the past top tier themes. Dark World, look at how expensive holo DWs are. Gravekeeper's got Recruiter and were one of the best decks for a while, Royal Tribute became a $8+ common the same day. These are all just Number 2 of my list in advance. As long as you have a little spare money, you might as well make some of these long-term investments into cards that are considered Jank right now. Stay tuned for an article about some of these "crap" cards you should put a little money into.

#3 - Tour Guide from the Underworld (By Debris)

It pains me to say it, but if there was ONE card I could invest in right now and make the most money it would just happen to be the most expensive one. Tour Guide from the Underworld is a ridiculously broken card that is worth $140-150 a pop, and just keeps on rising. Tour Guide from the Underworld is great in every deck for many things. It can instantly search a Sangan to the field, it can turn itself into an instant 2500 beater (3000 in Japan), it can be splashed in decks reliant on LIGHT monsters to allow running of Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and it can turn itself into an instant Leviair the Sea Dragon, its most notable application.

Tour Guide from the Underworld
Effect Monster Card
DARK / Fiend / ATK-1000 / DEF-600
When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 3 monster from your hand or Deck. Its effects are negated, and it cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster.

This card and Reborn Tengu are pretty much both the only reasons the OCG is different than the TCG, and they make so much of an impact that some decks become so much more powerful than others it's unbearable. This card allows for 1 turn Leviairs, something the OCG can't do. When you look at it this way, imagine what decks would be even more broken if they could instantly summon one of their banished cards.

Rescue Rabbit decks can now instantly summon their Rabbit back to the field, allowing for a maximum of 2 reuses out of one Rabbit, but chances are you've won the game after the initial activation and the second one. Combo'd with some other TCG exclusives like Wind-Up Zenmaines and Evolzar Dolkka, and this deck has the chance to become seriously dangerous. Rescue Rabbit requiring people to run Normal monsters hinders it much more than Tour Guide's requirement of more Tour Guides or Sangan.

Dark World decks become crazy with this card. Absolutely crazy. If you thought they were amazing before, wait until after you see the deck with Tour Guide. Look at it this way, the deck was amazing and debatably the top of Tier 1 in Japan, and they just got better. I know this is all obvious, but here are the main ways this card helps the deck:

• Naturia Beast being summoned first turn usually absolutely destroys Dark Worlds. With Tour Guide, you can instantly get out an even bigger beater than it to run it over.
• Tour Guide is an instant search for Broww, Huntsman of Dark World, so if you draw Tour Guide you can instantly use that Grapha in grave and plus.
• Leviair the Sea Dragon is invaluable in this deck. The amount this deck banishes because of The Gates of Dark World is amazing, and Leviair can just get them back for more damage, Xyzing, or Grapha.

This card will only get more expensive with the release of the Dark World structure deck and Photon Shockwave, so if you want to get your copies, you should get them fast. Tour Guide still has quite a few months of life before its inevitable and spectacular reprint, so that thing will be rising until the day the reprint is announced.

Buy / Trade for all you can at the lowest you can find, try to get yours for about $420 for the set.
This investment is: NOT SAFE, because Konami loves reprinting cards with such a significant amount of demand, so the time rule might not apply to this card much longer. Get them for your deck and sell them while they are rising, it will really be a test of predicting skills

Special Post - How to start up a Binder (By Debris)

Alright, so you're new to this game and have little in your binder AND pockets. How can you possibly start up a binder with such little to give? To be honest, it's really hard. You aren't going to magically wake up one day after investing $5 with $100 in your pocket. The truth is, trading is a little like the growth of Science. At first, it starts off real slow, but then gains exponentially faster. The more cards you have, the faster you're going to make profit. I'll talk more about this in one of the next articles. Anyways, to the point, here are some of my "Methods to Profit"


1.) How to get around Konami reprinting EVERYTHING

Right now, one could say that Konami has gone crazy with the reprints. As a player of the game, I love this, but as an investor, it requires thinking to get around. Here's Konami's seemingly golden rule:
You're safe for a year, and then you're fair game.
What I do to get around this is trying to keep my binder almost entirely in the:

• Turbo Pack holos, (never really lose value unless a "Lumina-LC02" event happens, OR this was before an easy to get reprint was announced, like Doomcaliber Knight)
• Bling cards (make sure these are Mint Condition because the market for these is for the people who care if their cardboard is shiny. Again, they never lose value unless a "Lumina-LC02" event happens)
• Desired cards from the new set. KEEP IN MIND that for the first 2 months after a set is released, all the good cards are overpriced, (or in rare cases, underpriced) so wait for 2 months, then you have 10 months before you have to worry about a reprint! If it takes this long, you're doing it wrong. I typically stick stuff on Ebay if it sits in mind binder for 2 months or more.

2.) The single BEST product for instantly getting Trade-Bait

Go to any single Legendary Collection 2 Opening on Youtube, and on average you're seeing 3-4 $5+ cards pulled. These are amazingly tradable and also cards that will shoot up in value over time, they are perfect short-term AND long-term investments. Not just this, but every time you open one of these things you get E-HERO Great Tornado, Parallel World Fusion, Darklord Superbia, Darklord Asmodeus, AND a ton of N00B Bait (God Promos and a Binder). If you're looking at instantly getting trade-bait, Legendary Collection 2 will always give you something that people will want. Worst case scenario you sell me the Promo packs for $5 *wink*.


3.) Know your Area

I can not stress this enough. If you know what people in your area want, you might not even have to resort to online trading, and that is AMAZING for business. For example, my area is filled with BKs, Rich people, Competitive Players, and other Juicers. A lot of these BKs got into Storm of Ragnarok, so my Thors, Lokis, and Odins all became very tradable, unlike online. Competitive players love those cards from the new sets, so much so that they are often willing to juice themselves for them. Leviair sells like Hotcakes over there. It's difficult to trade with other juicers, you just have to know your values and catch them where they don't. All of the kinds of players I mentioned love cash. Cash speaks above cards in all but a few instances. If your collection is 40-60% liquid assets, you're in a good situation.

If you have any questions, just comment below! Next Article will probably be about the sad and true answer to "What is the SINGLE BEST card to invest in right now?".

UPDATE

There is no theme any more. An article on any Short-Term or Long-Term investment is good for everyone

 - Debris

#2 - Rekindling (By Debris)

The FIRE attribute had long been overlooked by Konami, but since then it has a few broken cards that really define what FIRE is, not a slow burn away at your life points, but a small flicker that spreads quickly until it is uncontrollable. With the new Laval theme and a few amazing cards from Flamvells, this deck is going to be very competitive. The shiny one we can actually invest in right now is a broken card called Rekindling.

Rekindling
Normal Spell Card
Special Summon from your Graveyard as many FIRE monsters as possible with 200 DEF. During the End Phase, remove from play all monsters that were Special Summoned by this effect.

If there's one thing we don't need to have a conversation about, it's the question if this card is broken. In fact, it's even more broken after you look at the cards Tender of the Laval Volcano, Sweltering Heat Transmission Field, and there are many other cards in the deck that are amazing as well but don't necessarily combo with Rekindling, such as Laval Cannoneer, Laval the Greater, Blazing Dust Explosion, Flamvell Firedog and Flamvell Counter. Sending your monsters to the Graveyard and then abusing them while they're there is the entire point of the deck. One combo absolutely breaks this card, if you don't know it then here you are:

1.) Activate Sweltering Heat Transmission Field, sending one Laval monster with 200 DEF (Laval Magma Cannoneer or Laval Lancelord) and Tender of the Laval Volcano to the Graveyard

*IMPORTANT NOTE* Do NOT send two Tender of the Laval Volcano to the Graveyard during this step or send TotLV to the Graveyard first. This will cause 1 of the TotLV to miss its timing, ruining your combo *

2.) Use Tender of the Laval Volcano's effect to send another one to the Graveyard

3.) Repeat Step #2.

4.) Repeat Step #2 but since you've used up all your TotLVs, send another 200 DEF Laval (Laval Lancelord or Laval Magma Cannoneer) to the Graveyard.

5.) Activate Rekindling for a full field (this is where you win the game)

At this point you can get a different field based on what your non-TotLVs were.

IF Laval Magma Cannoneer

• 1 Rank 1 Xyz Monster and 1 Rank 4 Xyz Monster
• 1 Level 9 Synchro (and if they ever release a Rank 1 with 2 materials you can get that too)
• 1 Level 5 Synchro and 1 Level 6 Synchro (or 2 Level 5 Synchros, but you want more plusses off that Librarian you summoned)

IF Laval Lancelord

• 1 Level 7 Synchro and 1 Level 8 Synchro (or 2 Level 7 Synchros)
• 1 Rank 1 Xyz Monster (and if they ever release a Rank 6 you can get that too)

So as you can see, Laval Magma Cannoneer opens many new options, but isn't that great outside of the combo. Time will tell which is better.

So now that you know all about these cards, you can see Rekindling's place in the meta. Though originally common, Rekindling also comes as a Turbo Pack HOLO. Not only that, but it's pretty cheap for a Turbo Pack HOLO too! This makes the card very easy to reccomend, as Turbo HOLOS only drop in price due to 1.) the Banlist or 2.) a "Lumina-LC02 Incident".

Buy / Trade for your first Playset at $12 or less, and obtain all others you can find for around $10
This investment is: SAFE, due to its Turbo Pack HOLO status these are easy to recommend as Turbo HOLOs rarely lose price. Just get rid of these before the next banlist comes out due to a very likely chance of being destroyed with a hammer.

#1 - Wind-Up Factory (By Debris)

So far, Wind-Ups have received a great amount of support in every ZeXal set so far. They make card advantage really easily, and Rank 5s even easier that than. Right now, the only thing holding these cards back is their lack of speed, they typically need to minus or pray their monster doesn't die during their opponent's Battle Phase in order to get out the Xyz. They also could use a more reliable way to reuse their effects, but that won't take much at all.

Anyways, after they get these few really good cards, the deck has a few Holos you can look to. The current Rank 5s will get outclassed by Volcasaurus, Wind-Up Juggler isn't that great, Wind-Up Zenmaister is crap, but then we arrive at an amazing card that, TBH, is one of the main reasons why they actually have potential. This card is Wind-Up Factory.

Wind-Up Factory
Continuous Spell Card
Once per turn, if the effect of a "Wind-Up" monster is activated: You can add 1 Level 4 or lower "Wind-Up" monster from your deck to your hand.

As you can see, this card is amazing. It reminds everyone a lot of Black Whirlwind and for good reason. The real difference this card will make once broken is that it will be at 3. This card could also possibly be searched by a hypothetical Wind-Up searcher card, and this card can activate during the opponent's turn with Wind-Up Rabbit (this guy is probably the next best investment, any takers for this article?). Yea, remember when Black Whirlwind was at 3? Lotsa fun. Now imagine if Black Whirlwind had been SUPER. It would have easily been a $15+ card, but seeing Dark Strike Fighter at the time leads us to believe that it could have easily been more. All we need are 1-2 more cards to break this deck, and this card will skyrocket past $3 if it does so.

Buy / Trade for all copies of this card at $3 or less. 
This investment is: SAFE, because it really can't drop much lower than it is right now

What this blog is for

This blog is a compilation of opinions from people on Pojo on what you cardboard you should spend cash on. To submit articles, post them on the [Official Thread] Profitting, and Deals Discussion Thread in Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Collecting section or just PM them to me on my Pojo account, Debris. I would like for the articles to go pretty in depth, at least 2 Paragraphs per article

CURRENT PROJECT - What cards to invest for, in anticipation for OCG reveal of Order of Chaos.
- Debris