Image courtesy of KONAMI

Yu-Gi-Oh! has been celebrating its 25th anniversary for several years now. The anniversary kicked off with the release of the 25th Anniversary: Legendary Collection in April of 2023. Since then we’ve been getting a steady stream of Quarter Century Secret Rare cards. These cards have shining golden names, a special foiling treatment covering them from top to bottom, and a 25th anniversary watermark that comes into view when their text box is viewed from the right angle.

Quarter Century Secret Rares have been sprinkled through several sets over the years. This includes the recently released Quarter Century Stampede. Alliance Insight will be the final set to feature this time defying, anniversary celebrating, rarity.

Let’s say goodbye to Quarter Century Secret Rares by discussing the most valuable cards from Quarter Century Stampede, 90% of which are Quarter Century Secret Rares. As a reprint set, Quarter Century Stampede contains a plethora of iconic cards from the game’s past… and also Skull Servant. All prices listed in this article were gathered from TCG Player on 04/23/2025.

10. Maxx “C” – Quarter Century Secret Rare

While Maxx “C” might be the cheapest card on this list, it is also the most powerful. These card drawing bugs have been banned in the TCG since 2018. No modern Yu-Gi-Oh! deck could get anywhere without Special Summoning a field full of monsters. Maxx “C”  rewards players with card advantage whenever their opponent Special Summons a monster. You won’t be able to slot Maxx “C” into a contemporary deck, but this card can still help you draw your way to victory in older formats. A Quarter Century Secret Rare printing of powerful bug swarm will cost you $68.12.

9. Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous – Quarter Century Secret Rare

Fallen of Albaz is the face card of an archetype of powerful draconic Fusion monsters. Albaz’s Super Polymerization like ability to steal the opponent’s cards and use them as fusion materials allows it to function as removal, as well as a threat. Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous supports Albaz by special summoning herself into play when Albaz is either on the field or in the graveyard. This card can be fused into Granguignol the Dusk Dragon, overlapping Albaz with the Dogmatika and Despia archetypes. The Quarter Century Secret Rare printing of this card comes blaing in at $69.36.

8. Dragon Master Magia – Platinum Secret Rare

More than a decade ago, Dragon Master Knight was statistically one of the most powerful monsters in the game. Dragon Master Knight is a fusion of Black Luster Soldier, one of Yugi’s ace cards, and Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Kaiba’s boss monster. The two rivals summoned it together during their duel against Dartz where it was quickly killed off, demonstrating that it was just as impractical in the anime as it is in real life. While Dragon Master Knight was certainly conceptually cool, the card was incredibly difficult to summon and had nothing to offer beyond massive stats. The card was easy to destroy, as it had no means of protecting itself.

Dragon Master Magia is a reimagining of Dragon Master Knight but with more modern design sensibilities. It has much more lenient summoning requirements, can negate effects that try to destroy it, and splits back into a Blue-Eyes monster and one of its ritual components in the event that it’s destroyed. This is the only card on our list that’s not a Quarter Century Secret Rare. All the same, the Platinum Secret Rare Treatment of this card will set you back $71.93.

7. Called by the Grave – Quarter Century Secret Rare

Cards that get sent to the graveyard are never truly gone. You’ll need answers to graveyard effects like Fiendsmith Engraver, Rucia of the White Forest, and the Unchained cards. Called by the Grave is one of the best pieces of Graveyard hate in the game, as not only does it negate and banish a card from the graveyard, but it also negates the effect of any card with the same name that’s in play. The zombified hand that typically forms the centerpiece of this card’s art has been crammed back into its casket. Instead, we now have art featuring Live☆Twin Ki-sikil and Live☆Twin Lil-la two V-tuber Cyberse monsters, gaming together. This Quarter Century Secret Rare, featuring the new gamer-tastic art, will cost you $74.95.

6. Sky Striker Ace – Raye – Quarter Century Secret Rare

The Sky Strikers are one of the most popular archetypes in the game. Through using Link Summoning, Raye can jump into a number of different mech battle suits. Raye was later joined by another Sky Striker, Roze, and the two fight it out in the first episode of the recently released Chronicles animation. Raye’s new artwork flips her to the other side of the frame and can be bought in Quarter Century Secret Rare Treatment for $77.70.

5. Effect Veiler – Quarter Century Secret Rare

This effect-negating Tuner has been disrupting even the most carefully plotted strategies since 2010. Effect Veiler does what its name would imply, and negates the effects of your opponent’s monsters. The Quarter Century Secret Rare variant of the card flies closer to the camera than usual and swaps out their typical relaxed posture for a sort of combination hugging/shrugging pose. This new Veiler will cost you $82.71 if you want to negate effects in style.

4. Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Quarter Century Secret Rare

A card that needs no introduction. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon has been statistically the most powerful normal monster in the game for more than 25 years now. Blue-Eyes remains meta-relevant today thanks to the recent release of the Blue-Eyes White Destiny Structure deck in February. With Link, Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, and XYZ support, this card may be one of the most versatile threats in the game, despite having no effect. The Quarter Century Secret Rare printing of Blue-Eyes costs $88.73 and comes with brand new artwork. Fortunately, given how many times this card has been reprinted, there are significantly cheaper alternatives out there, some of which only cost a few cents. Whichever treatments of Blue-Eyes you end up buying, the real question is whether you’ll run a full playset of the dragon in your deck or just two copies.

3. Dark Magician Girl – Quarter Century Secret Rare

While never a meta-defining card, Dark Magician Girl has always been very popular, a fact demonstrated by the wide variety of different art treatments printed of her over the years. There is an upcoming retrain, Dark Magician Girl the Magician’s Apprentice, coming out in Alliance Insight. The new Magician’s apprentice is built to slot into Shining Sarcophagus decks though, rather than Dark Magician-based ones, so she doesn’t really work alongside her old counterpart. With all of that said a new Quarter Century Secret Rare Dark Magician Girl will cost you about $90.26.

2. Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring – Quarter Century Secret Rare

This chibi zombie may well be the game’s most iconic hand trap. Modern Yu-Gi-Oh! strategies are dependent on the abilities that allow them to search through the deck to grab key cards. These get combos going and assemble important engine pieces. Since Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring can prevent search effects from going off, they can shut opponents’ strategies down in their tracks. This new printing blossoms out at $96 putting it firmly in second place on this list.

1. Diabellstar the Black Witch – Quarter Century Secret Rare

Diabellstar the Black Witch is the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s Sinful Spoils storyline. The Sinful Spoils cards are a suite of spells and traps that support a plethora of different strategies. Diabellstar can tutor Sinful Spoils cards in the deck, giving her home in a wide variety of decks. At present, she’s still used in White Forest decks, which form a small but not insubstantial part of the meta. The number one card in our list is also the only one with a three-digit price tag, and collecting a copy of this Black Witch will cost you $119.86.

Conclusion

Yu-Gi-Oh‘s 25th anniversary may finally be coming to a close, but never fear. There are only a handful of years until we reach the 30th anniversary. That will surely come with a new 30th Anniversary Secret Rare treatment and a plethora of reprints with new artwork. For now, though, let’s take a look back on the 25(ish) years of the game we’ve seen so far, celebrated by sets like Quarter Century Stampede.