Konami is kicking off 2023 with a bang, revealing today its upcoming slate of releases for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME during January and February 2023.
Two new booster sets – Amazing Defenders (1/20) and Photon Hypernova (2/10) – the Dark Magician Girl Accessories (2/10), and a long-awaited highlight of the fan-favorite Traptrix theme with Structure Deck: Beware of Traptrix (2/24) are all bringing in the new year for the iconic TCG.
NEW STRATEGIES, NEW POWERS, AND NEW ALLIANCES APPEAR NEXT YEAR IN THE Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME!
Hawthorne, Calif. (January 17, 2023) – The New Year is here, and fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) are about to discover hundreds of new cards, as well as countless new Decks to explore! This Winter, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KONAMI) is proud to present four exciting releases: groundbreaking new booster sets, ready-to-play Structure Decks, and a new line of stunning accessories!
It all begins with booster sets! Amazing Defenders is the first Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG release of the year, with 3 never-before-seen monster themes and 15 Collector’s Rare variant cards for you to chase. Then it’s on to Photon Hypernova, an explosive collection of 100 all-new cards with incredible new cards and loads of boss monsters for tournament favorites like “Kashtira”, “Chaos”, “Tri-Brigade”, and “Tearlaments”. Old-school Duel fans will find irresistible new strategies in 2023’s first ready-to-play release, Structure Deck: Beware of Traptrix. And if you’ve got a soft spot for one of Dueling’s most famous magician girls, you’ll want to pick up the new Dark Magician Girl Accessories collection! It’s going to be a huge year for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, and it all kicks off this month.
First up, Amazing Defenders kicks off 2023’s slate of booster releases, arriving on January 20 with 3 all-new monster themes. The new “Rescue-ACE” monsters revolve around Rescue-ACE Turbulence, a massive boss monster with 3000 Attack Points. You can search it from your Deck with a pint-sized Level 1 “Rescue-ACE” monster, then Special Summon it by banishing 2 more “Rescue-ACE” cards from your Graveyard. Once Turbulence hits the field, it has a once-per-turn effect that lets you Set up to 4 “Rescue-ACE” Quick-Play Spells and Normal Traps from your Deck – there’s no cost, and no strings attached. The four cards you Set have a variety of effects, including reviving a monster from the Graveyard; add a “Rescue-ACE” to your hand; negating the effect of an Effect Monster and keeping it from attacking; or destroying a monster outright. And if you keep the Level 1 monster on the field, all those effects get powerful bonuses! And guess what? Your opponent can’t attack the Level 1 monster if you control another “Rescue-ACE” monster. It’s an absolute truckload of free value.
Amazing Defenders also introduces the adorable new monster Purrely! A Level 1 LIGHT Fairy-type monster with just 100 ATK and 100 DEF, Purrely can excavate your Deck to dig for “Purrely” Spell and Trap Cards. Reveal a Quick-Play “Purrely” Spell from your hand, and you can use Purrely as Xyz Material to Special Summon one of 3 new Rank 2 Xyz Monsters. Depending on which Quick-Play Spell you reveal, you’ll Summon a LIGHT, EARTH, or WATER Xyz Monster. They each have unique effects, searching “Purrely” cards from the Deck, pilfering cards from the Graveyard, or negating opposing monster effects. But each one can also snag your “Purrely” Quick-Play Spells after you activate them, attaching them as Xyz Materials to power more effects.
Stack up 5 Xyz Materials and you can use your Rank 2 to Xyz Summon Purrely‘s advanced forms: massive Rank 7 monsters with mysterious powers! And those “Purrely” Quick-Play Spells? They’re pretty good on their own, Special Summoning Purrely, protecting your cards, and gaining you Life Points. They even grant your Xyz Monsters additional effects once you attach them as Xyz Materials!
Finally, the third new strategy in Amazing Defenders is the Ritual Monster theme, “Mikanko”. Masters of Equip Spells, the “Mikanko” specialize in deflecting damage back at your opponent. They’re championed by the Level 6 LIGHT Fairy Ritual Monster Ohime the Manifested Mikanko: with 0 ATK and 0 DEF, it can’t be destroyed by battle, and your opponent takes any damage you’d normally absorb when it battles. When Ohime’s in your hand you can reveal it in your Main Phase to add a “Mikanko” card from your Deck to your hand, then discard a card in return. As a Quick Effect, you can equip an Equip Spell from your Graveyard to a monster on the field for free, while Ohime is on the field. Since that’s a Quick Effect, you can use it on either player’s turn to respond to your opponent’s moves.
The Mikanko support card lineup features plenty of Equip Spells. They Special Summon monsters, restrict your opponent’s moves, and give you control of your opponent’s cards! The Mikanko Ritual Spell Summons Ohime the Manifested Mikanko, but it also has a brutal effect that destroys opposing cards, up to the number of different Equip Spells in your Graveyard. Then your opponent takes 1000 damage for each card destroyed! Combined with more Mikanko Spell and Trap Cards that help you put monsters and Equip Spells onto the field, this strategy strikes fast and hard in ways your opponent won’t expect.
Amazing Defenders introduces 36 new cards, but you’ll also find 24 reprints of past cards that help these new themes flourish. 15 cards in the set also appear as popular Collector’s Rare variants, including tournament favorites of the past and present like Card Trooper, Gizmek Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher, and Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights!
Prepared to be amazed, as Amazing Defenders debuts in stores on January 20. The complete Amazing Defenders booster set consists of 60 cards: 35 Rares, 15 Super Rares, and 10 Ultra Rares. A selection of 15 cards in the set are also available as Collector’s Rare variants. Each booster pack contains 7 cards: 1 Foil card and 6 Rares. MSRP: $4.49 per 7-card pack.
Then on February 10, we have the first 100-card core booster set of 2023! Photon Hypernova starts things off with a bang, bringing brand-new cards for Kite Tenjo’s “Photon” and “Galaxy” themes! Prepare yourself for a “Chaos” comeback, as “Chaos” monsters unite in a singular strategy featuring brand-new Synchro Monsters. And get ready, because the “Kashtira” cards from last year’s Darkwing Blast booster set are back and better than ever, ready to challenge the strongest Decks in tournaments today!
Fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon can Xyz Summon the new Rank 4 Galaxy Photon Dragon, boosting your other LIGHT monsters by 500 ATK, tweaking your monsters’ Levels for more Xyz Summons, and searching out Photon and Galaxy cards straight from your Deck! Ready to attack? Summon out Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon from Legendary Duelists: Season 2 and use it as Xyz Material for the new Number C62: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon. With 4000 Attack Points and an effect that boosts its ATK by thousands more, it shrugs off your opponent’s monster effects and can attack up to 3 monsters during the Battle Phase.
In the early days of Dueling, monsters like Chaos Sorcerer and Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End were some of the most powerful cards in competition. Flash forward, and their legacy continues with monsters like Chaos Dragon Levianeer. But now the “Chaos” name enters a new era! Tune your LIGHT and DARK monsters to Synchro Summon new “Chaos” Synchro Monsters: the first, a Level 6 powerhouse that can reach 3000 ATK, recycle your banished cards, and Special Summon itself from the Graveyard; and the second, a Level 8 that becomes a 4500 ATK behemoth, attacking and banishing all of your opponent’s monsters in a single turn!
And competitive Duelists take note: the “Kashtira” finally arrive in full force! The stunning Kashtira Arise-Heart emerges to dominate your Duels: any card that would be sent to the Graveyard while it’s on the field is banished instead, bringing Tearlaments monsters to their knees! Then, once per Chain, whenever a card is banished, Kashtira Arise-Heart takes a banished card as an Xyz Material. Detach 3 materials from Kashtira Arise-Heart to target a card and banish it face-down, removing it from the Duel entirely. And that’s not all! A trio of new Kashtira monsters make it easier to Special Summon the Level 7 materials you’ll need. One new Kashtira Spell adds even more Summoning Power, and another new Kashtira Spell threatens your opponent with unpredictable damage and negates their monster effects.
If that wasn’t enough, Photon Hypernova delivers new legacy support for countless fan-favorite themes, plus new boss monsters for “Tri-Brigade”, “Generaider”, “Springan”, “Icejade”, “Vaylantz”, “Gishki”, “Dogmatika”, and even “Great Moth” Decks! Harness the power of a new Fusion Monster that uses Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous as a Fusion material, and add a Spell Card to your arsenal that can access any Normal Spell or Trap in your Deck!
Photon Hypernova explodes into stores on February 10! The complete Photon Hypernova booster set includes 100 new cards: 50 Commons, 26 Super Rares, 14 Ultra Rares, and 10 Secret Rares. Each 9-card pack contains 1 Foil card and 8 Commons. MSRP: $4.49 per 9-card pack.
But that’s not all for February 10. On that same day the curtain rises on an all-new show, featuring none other than one of Dueling’s most iconic characters: Dark Magician Girl! She’s played assistant to the ultimate wizard for more than 2 decades, but now she’s your personal protector, guarding your cards from dings, dents, and dirt in the Dark Magician Girl Accessories collection. Featuring Dark Magician Girl‘s signature blue, pink, and gold color scheme, plus new artwork from the Dark Magician Girl found in the 2022 Tin of the Pharaoh’s Gods, Dark Magician Girl Accessories will keep you Dueling in style.
You won’t need a Magic Cylinder to deflect damage from your Deck, when your cards are shielded in Dark Magician Girl Card Sleeves! Each pack of 50 comes ready to protect your Deck from the rigors of regular play. Once you’re sleeved up, grab your very own Mystic Box: carry your entire Main, Side, and Extra Decks in the Dark Magician Girl Card Case, holding up to 70 sleeved cards. It’s adorned with colorful black-backed line art featuring Dark Magician Girl on the sides, and you can keep the contents organized with a matching card divider. The Dark Magician Girl Sleeves and Dark Magician Girl Card Case are the perfect Magicians’ Combination!
The showstopping centerpiece of the collection is the Dark Magician Girl Game Mat. The lady of the hour sits center stage in full color, flanked by 2-line art portraits in a dramatic blue, pink, and gold gradient on black. Zip your cards across the field in graceful flourishes and protect them from less-than-magical surfaces with this full-sized soft Game Mat, just like the ones awarded as prizes in KONAMI-sanctioned events. And when the show is done and it’s time to trade, you can keep, carry, and display your collection in the Dark Magician Girl 9-Pocket Duelist Portfolio. Securely store up to 180 cards in anti-slip side-loading pockets and keep your cards from pulling a disappearing act.
The Dark Magician Girl Accessories are unveiled alongside Photon Hypernova on February 10. The full collection includes the Dark Magician Girl Card Case, MSRP $4.99; the Dark Magician Girl Game Mat, MSRP $16.99; the Dark Magician Girl 9-Pocket Duelist Portfolio, MSRP $9.99; and Dark Magician Girl Card Sleeves, MSRP $4.99 per pack of 50.
And on February 24, a fan-favorite theme is finally getting serious! The “Traptrix” are a family of Plant and Insect-type monsters, all sharing the EARTH Attribute, first appearing almost 10 years ago in the Judgment of the Light booster set! Over the years, they found new allies one by one, in releases like Primal Origin, Code of the Duelist, and even last year’s Lightning Overdrive. But now they’ll get more than half a dozen new cards all at once, in Structure Deck: Beware of Traptrix.
The “Traptrix” monsters revolve around looking for, activating, and reusing Normal Trap cards, specifically “Hole” Traps like Bottomless Trap Hole and Gravedigger’s Trap Hole. They’re also really good at Special Summoning each other, and many of their best monsters have powerful abilities that trigger when you Normal or Special Summon them. Structure Deck: Beware of Traptrix is chock full of classic “Traptrix” cards like Traptrix Myrmeleo, Traptrix Dionaea, and Traptrix Sera, and the new cards help grow the seeds those cards planted years ago.
You can Special Summon the new Level 4 Insect-type “Traptrix” straight from your hand anytime you control another “Traptrix” monster. It’s a great way to make quick Xyz Summons and Link Summons, but while it’s on the field it also protects Set cards in your Spell and Trap Card Zone from being destroyed. It’s matched by a new Level 4 Plant-type “Traptrix”: when you Special Summon it, you can banish an opposing monster, but when you Normal Summon it, you’ll search the new “Traptrix” Field Spell from your Deck!
That Field Spell is like a permanent Double Summon: every turn, you can Normal Summon a “Traptrix” monster in addition to your regular Normal Summon or Set. That’s awesome for assembling your Xyz Summons and Link Summons…or just for swarming the field when you want to close your carnivorous jaws on your opponent. The Field Spell also protects each of your Plants and Insects from destruction by battle once per turn, and it lets you banish any monster you control to tag in another “Traptrix” from your hand or Graveyard. It’s great for triggering those powerful Special Summon effects. And that’s not the only new Spell Card: “Traptrix” gets a “draw 2” Spell that lets you discard a Level 4 Insect or Plant, or a Normal Trap, to draw 2 cards. Once it’s in your Graveyard, you can banish it to recycle a banished card back to the bottom of your Deck. Dig for the cards you want to draw, and place key cards in the Graveyard to fuel your other effects.
A great example would be a new Link 3 Link Monster boosts all of your “Traptrix” by 1000 ATK while you have at least one Normal Trap in your Graveyard. Once per turn, it can also negate all the effects of your opponent’s face-up cards! Banish a Normal Trap from your Graveyard and you can destroy 1 of those face-up cards as well. Meanwhile, a new Rank 4 Xyz Monster joins Traptrix Allomerus and Traptrix Rafflesia! This new Rank 4 Plant has 2500 ATK, and it searches “Traptrix” monsters from your Deck. Then, when your opponent’s monster is sent to the Graveyard or banished by a card effect – perhaps by a “Hole” Trap? – this new Xyz Monster snags it to use it as Xyz Material. It’s unaffected by Trap effects, and it ignores the activated effects of any other monster with the same Type as any of its materials as well!
“Traptrix” fans will also find a brand-new “Hole” Normal Trap. You can activate it on any turn your opponent Special Summons a monster, and from there you target an opposing monster with 2000 or more ATK: you’ll destroy that monster, and if you have a “Hole” Normal Trap in your Graveyard you’ll get to banish a monster from your opponent’s Graveyard too. You’ll also find some classic powerhouse Trap Cards in this Structure Deck, including Artifact Sanctum and Evenly Matched! And since “Traptrix” rules the back row, you’ll even find Harpie’s Feather Duster to demolish your opponent’s defenses.
Structure Deck: Beware of Traptrix swarms and sprouts into stores on February 24. Each Structure Deck includes 40 Common cards, 3 Super Rares, 5 Ultra Rares, and 1 Double-sided Deluxe Game Mat/Dueling Guide. MSRP: $11.99 per box.
For more information on KONAMI’s extensive Organized Play programs, including opportunities for aspiring Duelists to learn how to play, go to www.yugioh-card.com/en/events.
