Images courtesy of KONAMI
Quarter Century Stampede is due for release in April of 2025. The set is intended to serve as a nostalgic tour through the history of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (or TCG). It will be the last opportunity for Duelists to get their hands on Quarter Century Secret Rare cards. At YCS Birmingham several cards due to be reprinted in Quarter Century Stampede were revealed, and we’re sharing them with you today.
Many of these reprints were chosen by Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG fans. Quarter Century Stampede contains 200 “Nostalgia cards.” The results of a fan poll determined which old favorites would be included as Nostalgia Cards and given the Quarter Century Secret Rare treatment. This selection of cards contains some truly unexpected choices. Not all these cards are powerful, but they’re all certainly very memorable. Let’s take a look…
Skull Servant
To the surprise of everyone, the first card revealed was Skull Servant. This spooky skeleton is a notoriously weak Normal Monster with only 300 Attack Points and 200 Defense Points. Despite the card’s weakness, it’s a community favorite, serving as a beloved undead underdog.
Skull Servant is a part of the Wight archetype, a series of monsters who are treated as though their name is “Skull Servant” when they’re in the Graveyard. This powers up the card King of the Skull Servants whose Attack Points are equal to 1000x the number of cards named Skull Servant or King of the Skull Servants in the Graveyard.
The card’s announcement was greeted with laughter by the commentary team and the audience. This wasn’t the first time that Skull Servant has been laughed at, and it won’t be the last, so this Skeleton has clearly seized Yu-Gi-Oh! fans by the funny bone.
Buster Blader
Buster Blader is a 2600 ATK Warrior Monster that gains an additional 500 ATK for every Dragon monster controlled by the opponent and in their Graveyard. This card was famously used by Yugi to answer Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon. When both cards are in play together, Buster Blader’s ATK climbs up to 3100, making it narrowly stronger than its azure eyed rival.
In 2016, the Destruction Sword archetype sprang up around this card, detailing an unlikely and fraught friendship which formed between Buster Blader and a baby dragon – Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman. The two built up a bond, as depicted on Destruction Sword Memories, before being driven apart and fighting one another, as shown on Karma of the Destruction Swordsman. Ultimately, they fuse into Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman.
Clearly the story of this dragon-battling swordsman is far from over.
Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon
The Blue-Eyes archetype has always been incredibly popular, so it’s no surprise that Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon was voted into the set. This card is an untargetable Blue-Eyes Ritual Monster that can’t be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. This is a nice amount of protection, especially for when the card was first released. Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon can also deal doubled piercing damage to get past monsters in Defense Position. The card was released alongside the 2016 movie Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions.
As well as being printed in Quarter Century Stampede, Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon will also be included in the upcoming Blue-Eyes White Destiny Structure Deck. So Blue-Eyes may be returning to the meta any day now.
Royal Oppression
Royal Oppression allows either duelist to pay 800 Life Points to negate the Special Summoning of a monster. First released internationally in the set Legacy of Darkness back in 2003, Royal Oppression was made semi-limited in March of 2010, and limited in September of the same year. The card then became completely forbidden in 2011 and it hasn’t been unbanned since.
Even though you can’t play Royal Oppression in Advanced Constructed, the card is a staple of the Edison format which recreates what the game was like in April of 2010. Royal Oppression should be activated once its controller has set up a dominant board state, so that they can pay life to lock their opponent out of being able to Special Summon monsters to fight back.
True to its name, Royal Oppression is certainly an oppressive card.
El Shaddoll Construct
Shaddoll monsters are an archetype of Fusion Monsters from 2014 that are dedicated to punishing opponents who are too reliant on Special Summoning. They gradually eke out advantage by getting their own cards into the graveyard to enable beneficial effects.
El Shaddoll Construct is one of the most notable Shaddoll cards. It does several useful things which aid the intended Shadoll gameplan. El Shaddoll Construct dumps a Shadoll card into the Graveyard as it enters play, helping activate the useful effects of cards like Shaddoll Beast. It destroys any special summoned monsters that it battles, helping to get rid of monsters that skirted around getting negated by El Shaddoll Grysta. And it adds a Shadoll Spell or Trap from the Graveyard to the hand when it dies, helping keep the Shadoll Duelist in the game.
This terror from the Arc-V era is back and ready to punish Special Summoning strategies once again.
Incredible Ecclesia, the Virtuous
Incredible Ecclesia, the Virtuous is from the Swordsoul archetype. This card debuted in the 2022 set Magnificent Mavens, the same set which gave us the notorious Ishizu monsters.
The Swordsouls are a series of Synchro Monsters based on legendary Chinese swords. They banish their controller’s cards to enable a suite of powerful effects.
This printing features some, previously OCG exclusive, alternative art.
Ultimate Conductor Tyranno
The cards Ultimate Tyranno, and Super Conductor Tyranno were both giant threats from the GX era. Although positively ancient now, back in 2006 they were both formidable. Eleven years later Ultimate Conductor Tyranno took their big dino vibes and reimagined them with a more modern power level.
This massive mecha dino is capable of causing massive disruption. Its quick effect enables it to flip every monster controlled by the opponent into facedown Defense Position, which can be used during the opponent’s turn to throw their plans into chaos. If you flip all of their Attack Position monsters facedown, or all of their Tuners or XYZ materials, they won’t be able to come after you. The cost needed to activate this effect, destroying a monster on your side of the field or in your hand, can be turned into an upside by destroying a Babycerasaurus which will enable you to Special Summon a level 4 Dinosaur.
This terrifying Tyranno tyrannizes the opposition.
Runick Fountain
Runick Fountain is a key card in the Runick engine. Main deck Runick cards are, almost, exclusively Quick-Play Spells. The only two exceptions are Runick Fountain itself, and Runick Allure, which is a Continuous Spell that incentivizes a milling strategy. At the cost of skipping your next Battle Phase, all of the Runick Quick-Play spells offer the ability to Special Summon a Runick Fusion Monster from the Extra Deck, or their own unique effect.
Runick Fountain lets you activate Runick Quick-Play spells from your hand during your opponent’s turn, and it enables lets you put Runick spells from your graveyard onto the bottom of your deck in order to draw extra cards. Card draw effects are incredibly powerful in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, a fact demonstrated by Pot of Greed’s permanent place on the banlist. The power of the repeatable card draw that Runick Fountain offers has resulted in it becoming Semi-Limited in the TCG, and Limited in the OCG.
This unassuming Fountain will be returning again in Quarter Century Stampede.
Accesscode Talker
Accesscode Talker is the boss monster of the Code Talker archetype, which were used by Yusaka Fujiki, or “Playmaker,” the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.
Accesscode Talker is a notoriously tricky card to deal with, and remains relevant in the current meta. Opponents can’t respond when it activates its effects, and it can destroy their cards without targeting them by banishing Link Monsters from the graveyard. Not to mention that its Attack Points can climb to incredible heights, as it gains ATK equal to 1000x the Link Rating of a card used to Link summon it.
Thanks to its inclusion in Quarter Century Stampede, more players will soon have access to this Code Talker.
ABC -Dragon Buster
Duelists talking about XYZ cards back in 2003 weren’t talking about the summoning method, they were talking about X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, and Z-Metal Tank. These LIGHT Machine Monsters were around long before XYZ summoning became a part of the game. These cards can fuse without needing to use Polymerization, which was revolutionary for the time.
During the GX era V-Tiger Jet and W-Wing Catapult were printed to support the initial three merging Machines. Then, in October of 2016, Structure Deck: Seto Kaiba was released, adding A – Assault Core, B-Buster Drake, and C–Crush Wyvern to the archetype. The A-to-Z fusion cards, as they are now known, are defined by their powerful effects which can be activated by discarding a card. Perhaps someday we’ll get the entire alphabet, and have a truly unstoppable mecha dragon tank.
Aleister The Invoker
Aleister The Invoker is the centerpiece of the Invoked archetype. When he’s normal summoned, he fetches a copy of their signature fusion spell Invocation. He can then be fused with a monster of any attribute in order to form one of several Invoked Fusion Monsters. Aleister won’t be gone for long though, since Invocation can then be shuffled back into the deck from the graveyard to return Aleister from banishment to the hand, enabling him to be fused all over again.
With a new reprint of Aleister due in Quarter Century Stampede, he is once again returning to battle, ready to be fused into an Invoked monster all over again.
Salamangreat Raging Phoenix
The Salamangrates are an archetype of FIRE Cyberse Monsters used by Theodore Hamilton in Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains. Their Extra Deck Monsters have an interesting theme, as they become stronger if they’re summoned using cards that share their name as materials. This is demonstrated by Salamangreat Raging Phoenix which adds a Salamangreat monster from the deck to the hand if it’s link summoned with Salamangreat Raging Phoenix as a material. These effects provide power, but present opponents with an opportunity to disrupt the strategy as it comes together.
On top of being included in Quarter Century Stampede, game mats featuring the art of Salamandrake Raging Phoenix will be available once the set is released.
Dark Magician
The Dark Magician needs no introduction. Yugi’s original ace monster, and one of the most iconic cards in the game. This 2500 ATK DARK Spellcaster has a huge suite of support cards that have accumulated around it across the years. From Dark Magician Girl, to Magician’s Rod, to Magician of Black Chaos MAX, the Dark Magician has no shortage of tricks up his sleeve.
This new alternative artwork from Quarter Century Stampede joins a growing list of art treatments for Dark Magician. There’s such a wide selection that we even made a top 10 list discussing them.
Maxx “C”
Maxx “C” has one of the most infamously powerful card draw effects in the game. Initially printed in Storm of Ragnarok in 2011, the real power of Maxx “C” slipped under the radar, as it remained unrestricted for five years until it was finally made semi-limited in August of 2016. In 2017, it became Limited, and then forbidden in February of 2018. It has remained banned ever since.
While MAXX “C” may be gone, its legacy lives in on the form of the Mulcharmy cards, which offer similar reactive card draw effects, albeit with significantly reigned in power.
Sky Striker Ace -Raye
The Sky Strikers, along with the Sky Striker Aces, are a collection of Machine and Warrior Monsters focused on Link Summoning. They’re an impactful archetype that becomes more powerful when the graveyard is full of Sky Striker Spells.
Raye is the most prominent of the Sky Strikers, and her influence extends beyond just the card game. She’s the protagonist of the first arc of the, currently Japan exclusive, Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Stories manga. She was also recently featured in an animated trailer for the upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! CARD GAME THE CHRONICLES series.
Fallen of Albaz
Fallen of Albaz is a DARK Dragon Monster that can steal away the opponent’s monsters to be used as fusion materials without needing to use Super Polymerization.
This card works alongside the earlier revealed Incredible Ecclesia, the Virtuous. As well as Special Summoning Swordsworn cards with her effect, Incredible Ecclesia, the Virtuous can also Special Summon Fallen of Albaz.
Evidently things aren’t all bad for Albaz, and it will make a welcome addition to Quarter Century Stampede.
Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis
This powerful red plant received some of the most votes of any card to be included in Quarter Century Stampede. Like Royal Oppression, this card is forbidden in the Advanced Constructed format, but is a smash hit in Edison.
This card leapt from being Unlimited to getting completely banned in May of 2018. The reason it suddenly became a problem, after years of not causing issues, was because of the brutal combo that it forms with the 2017 card Topologic Bomber Dragon. If the controller of Phoenixian Cluster Amaryliss can dump 10 Plant Monsters into their graveyard, then they can keep destroying it with Topologic Bomber Dragon and then returning it to the field repeatedly with its own effect, inflicting 800 points of damage every time until the opponent has been burned out.
Phoenixian Cluster Amaryliss has only been printed once before, in the 2009 set Raging Battle. After an absence of 16 years, it’s no wonder that players are so eager to see this explosive plant again.
Conclusion
There we have what could certainly be described as an incredibly eclectic collection of upcoming cards for Quarter Century Stampede. Who knows what future cards could be unveiled before the set gets released? Will we see Ojamas? Neo Spacians? Kaijus? Whatever it may be, we’ll have to wait until April to find out.
Looking to begin your Yu-Gi-Oh TCG journey? Then check out our guide for how to play the game.
