Monday, March 19, 2012

Market Analysis & Prediction - Synchros

Since I wasn't sure on what specific card to do a Market Analysis on, I decided to shotgun it and go for Synchros in general.

For the past couple of months, many people have jokingly talked about how they never synchro anymore, or say "what are these white cards?", etc. Danny and I have often asked each other "should we just sell em off?" I think everyone hesitated due to the "you never know" factor and with none of the "money" synchros being announced for a reprint other than the European Brionac promo at that time. I'd like to go over the current status of some of these Synchros in relation to our game and the OCG and what we can expect moving forward into GAOV.

Brionac
Brionac is one of those Synchros that no matter how little a person's deck might Synchro, they usually have a copy of this guy in there. Throughout the years he has held a very consistent $30-40 value (not gonna go into DT cards). Currently you can pick this card up off eBay Buy-It-Now's for roughly $22-23. Recent Completed listings show them being purchased anywhere between $15-25. With the confirmed news that Brionac will be in the next Gold Series, I can only see it's value going down further. The DT one should retain a very respectable value.
Buy prices:
Troll: 30 for 1st ed
ARG: 18.25 for Unl (46 for DT)

Catastor
Catastor is still relatively seen in Extra decks with the combination of there being so many floater-like Level 4's and the Veiler reprint. He is still very useful for his effect against any kind of non-Dark heavy deck.
He has always hovered around the $15-20 mark and can currently be found for that on eBay. No easy-to-get reprint has been mentioned as of yet (disregarding it's Ultimate status in TU07).
Buy prices:
Troll: N/A
ARG: 10.25 for Unl (25 for Ulti)

Mist Wurm
Mist Wurm saw a recent increase in price due to the banning of Trishula. What was once a $10 card for the longest time has crawled up to the $15-18 range. In a Veiler-Chain format, I believe its usefulness is questionable. While decks such as Sams and Karakuri can go into it, it's just not the same as Trish.
Buy prices:
Troll: 14 for Unl
ARG: 13 for Unl (18 for DT)

Naturia Beast & Barkion
Initially Beast was over-shadowed by its Barkion counterpart in playability and value. I remember Barkion being pretty expensive at around $30-35 and Beast being around $20-25. Currently Completed listings for Beast show them being around $20, while Barkion is in the $15-18 range. Naturia Beast can be a very crippling card against certain Spell-heavy decks, and Sams and Karakuri can go into it with ease. In certain scenarios a protected Beast can be more devastating than a Shi En.
Buy prices:
Beast
Troll: 15 for Unl
ARG: 16.25 for 1st, 10.25 for Unl
Barkion
Troll: 12 for Unl
ARG: 13 for both editions

Black Rose
This card saw its peak when Plant Synchro was in its hayday and this card could often be found at 2 in the Extra. Like Brionac, this is also a frequent card that is seen as a 1-of regardless of Synchro'ing capabilities. Realistically two Level 3's and a Veiler isn't a far-fetched play, but I have to admit it has been ages since I've seen someone summon, let alone resolve for its effect, a BRD. There are many different rarities for this card and the last reprint we saw was the tin, so it still holds a very respectable value, with the tin one being around $13-15 on eBay Completeds.
Buy prices:
Troll: 18 for 1st ed Ultimate (only one they buy currently)
ARG: They buy all rarities, tin one @ 7.25

Scrap Dragon
This card has been a highly-desired reprint, many hoping it to be in the Collector's Tins or a SE promo, but it has always escaped the reprint. If people in the current meta only have one spot for an 8-star Synchro, and they aren't running Road, this guy is usually the one that makes it in. It currently holds its maintained value at around the $30-35 value depending on the rarity. This card, surprisingly, has yet to be announced for a reprint.
Buy prices:
Troll: 30 for Unl Ultra
ARG: 30.25 for both Ultimates, 21 for 1st Ultra, 19 for Unl

Hyper Librarian
Many people went absolutely crazy in purchasing Shonen Jump subscriptions to get this card (and make large amounts of profit) when it was announced. I myself ordered 2 subscriptions to pick up a spare for Danny. At that time, Tengu Plants abused this card with all the Synchro shenanigans that deck had. Currently, with Plants being dead and most decks not spamming Synchros like they used to, this card has lost a lot of its peak value, with it currently being in Completeds at around $18-20.
Buy prices:
Troll: N/A
ARG: 13.25

Orient Dragon
I hesitated to include this card at first, but figured I'd just press on with it since it used to have value. Upon its release, many people were excited for a non-specific 6-star Synchro-based answer to other Synchros, besides using Brionac and having to pitch a card. I ran it for quite a while (when it was relevant) and have banished many a Synchro. It used to be in the $20-25 price range, while it is now around $15-18.
Buy prices:
Troll: 14 for Unl
ARG: 10.25 for Unl, 9.25 for 1st

With that being said, what should we do with Synchros? Well the obvious answer is to take into account what your primary deck is. If you're running Samurai or Karakuri, a full Synchro suite is pretty important to have. If you're running something kinda random like Scraps, well I don't need to tell you to keep your Scrap Drags. In the "main-stream" aspect of looking at things though, my first recommendation would be to sell off extraneous copies of "money" Synchros you have. With the majority of them being so old and thus due for a reprint, it's only a matter of time. Might as well sell/trade em while they have a fairly decent value, when you rarely even Synchro, right? I recently have come to terms with me knowing I will most likely not need them and will be playing a deck that rarely synchros, like Inzektor or Heroes. I have sold all mine off except like a Librarian, and have random rares like Stardust and Armory.

Upon looking at OCG decks from relevant tourneys, here is a list of Synchros that some-what get played in their more prominent decks. There may be a few decklists that include a particular Synchro, but those can be seen as outliers. In general:
Dimension/Verz Laggia: Stardust (for Road)
Hieratic/Hieroglyph: Brionac, Black Rose, Stardust, Scrap
Inzektor: Armory, Catastor
Laval: All relevant Synchros
Heroes: Catastor, Stardust (Road), Scrap

Besides Lavals, the OCG, and even in some aspects the TCG, are gradually leaning toward all-XYZ Extra decks. Hieroglyph are getting a lot of hype with the exclusives that have been announced, and although I did include those 4 Synchros with them, I have seen a few decklists that were all-XYZ. I don't imagine this trend to revert back toward Synchros any time soon, with many people saying Konami isn't going to make any more Tuners or Synchros. Samurai will be getting their own XYZ soon, and with the structure deck coming out, people may hold on to/pick up that deck and thus their relevant Synchros. It is not something that I will be pursuing though, so I don't mind having the extra cash off the Synchros that I'm not even using anymore. If you're in a particular need of money, look at your Extra deck and ask yourself "when's the last time I brought this guy out?" If all you can come up with is "that one time I used Veiler", well it should be obvious where you can get some extra money from.

3 comments:

  1. You could always just trade them off for Magic cards. That is what I did lol.

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  2. Lol very true. Unfortunately there aren't that many people into both games atm. Or if they are all they got is jank in both games.

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