Reviewing Every Yu-Gi-Oh Gold Series/Premium Gold Set
Crunch$G
Time to dig up some golden goodies. Hello Pojo Readers, Crunch$G here returning with the series where I try to review every set in the game’s history and now I’ll take a break from Structure Decks and Core Sets to get to the Gold Series and Premium Gold products. Now the Gold Series is mostly known for giving reprints and being one of few ways to get Gold Rares, and Premium Gold was the same with reprints but also added new cards imported from the OCG. They were sets that at the beginning especially gave big reprints as we’ll see soon, the last Gold Series took a different approach, and Premium Gold changed the formula all together until the last one in 2016. Gold Series was a 25 card pack you got for $25 MSRP and Premium Gold gave you 3 packs of 15 cards for $15 MSRP. Gold Series gave 22 Commons and 3 Gold Rares typically and Premium Gold typically had 6 Gold Secret Rares and 9 regular Gold Rares. Now that the little details are done, let’s get into the goods in these sets.
Gold Series
Release Date: April 2nd, 2008
The first Gold Series had a simple name and was a big product for one main reason at that time, the reprint of Crush Card Virus from previously being a prize card to now finally being accessible to the whole playerbase, massive short printing aside. This was a 45 card set with 27 Commons and 18 Gold Rares, meaning you got a lot of repetition with Commons in these packs. The 27 Commons were 7 Colored Fish, Sonic Bird, Summoner of Illusions, Fire Princess, Needle Worm, 8-Claws Scorpion, Swarm of Scarabs, Swarm of Locusts, Des Lacooda, Newdoria, Old Vindictive Magician, Stealth Bird, Regenerating Mummy, Solar Flare Dragon, Rare Metal Dragon, Nightmare Penguin, Sillva, Warlord of Dark World, Doom Dozer, Offerings to the Doomed, Non-Spellcasting Area, Mist Body, Pandemonium, Needle Ceiling, Royal Command, Rivalry of Warlords, Skill Drain, and Spell Shield Type-8. The good Commons at the time for reprints were Sonic Bird since it was out of print for about 4 years and Rituals were recently popular with Demise OTK, Needle Worm as another main way to get it outside of a Tournament Pack that isn’t a massive set like Dark Revelation, Rare Metal Dragon as the only other way to get it outside of the Exclusive Pack from the movie, Doom Dozer as another card recently popular in Demise OTK at that time, Mist Body as a reprint from a McDonald’s pack, Royal Command for a more common way to get it, Rivalry of Warlords as a good reprint in hindsight, and Skill Drain for a pretty powerful card to have. The Gold Rares were the big reprints and for your 18 Gold Rares you had Jinzo to have more access to it at that time, Don Zaloog for the same reason, Breaker the Magical Warrior for a nice foil option that isn’t too expensive, and same goes for D.D. Warrior Lady, Dark Magician of Chaos during its massive rise in popularity shortly before its ban, Cyber Dragon to get a foil version of it back in circulation, Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World to have another foil option for it, Grandmaster of the Six Samurai for those that don’t want to try to pull a Secret Rare in Storm of Neos and missed the Sneak Peek, Prometheus, King of the Shadows just to have its lone printing at that time not be a main set Secret Rare, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to finally have a version of it that wasn’t the Jump Version, Chimeratech Overdragon as a foil version of another popular card for Machine OTK Decks, Swords of Revealing Light to foil out a stall card, Heavy Storm for its first foil print released to the public since Metal Raiders, and same there goes for Reinforcement of the Army, Brain Control so the only foil alternative isn’t in Dark Revelation Volume 3, Crush Card Virus as the money card in the set finally being printed outside being a Shonen Jump prize, Mirror Force getting its first reprint in 3 years and its 3rd print in total, and Torrential Tribute finally getting another foil reprint that isn’t Hobby League. Overall, this set does look like a good time capsule of what the times were like in the meta. You recently had Demise OTK and Machine OTK Decks at that time and DARK options were rising with Dark Magician of Chaos, and Crush Card Virus was one of the best cards in the game at that time since it didn’t have the errata. It gave very big reprints to the playerbase, even if it was at the expense of it being behind a $25 paywall for a pack to only get 3 of the 18 Gold Rares.
Set Rating: 10/10
Gold Series 2009
Release Date: April 21st, 2009
Well to get it out of the way, the naming isn’t really creative yet for Gold Series. This Gold Series was another big one for reprinting a Shonen Jump prize once again with Gold Sarcophagus. The set is 5 cards bigger and it all went to Commons, giving a total of 32 Commons this time. These reprints were Lekunga, Lord Poison, Rigorous Reaver, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, Mobius the Frost Monarch, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, Granmarg the Rock Monarch, Treeborn Frog, Phantom Beast Cross-Wing, Phantom Beast Wild-Horn, Phantom Beast Thunder-Pegasus, Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard, Winged Rhynos, Snipe Hunter, The Six Samurai – Yaichi, The Six Samurai – Kamon, The Six Samurai – Yariza, The Six Samurai – Nisashi, The Six Samurai – Zanji, The Six Samurai – Irou, Volcanic Shell, Elemental HERO Neos Alius, Exile of the Wicked, Warrior Elimination, Giant Trunade, Skyscraper, Shien’s Castle of Mist, Six Samurai United, Compulsory Evacuation Device, Begone, Knave!, Return of the Six Samurai, and Double-Edged Sword Technique. The good Commons were mostly Rigorous Reaver to reprint a Champion Pack Ultra, all the Monarchs and Treeborn Frog just to have for Monarch strategies, the Phantom Beasts so the lone way to get them aren’t a Video Game or the Special Edition for Force of the Breaker, Snipe Hunter since it was still a decent card at that time, all the Six Samurai cards were nice in general, Volcanic Shell was good to have, Neos Alius and Skyscraper helped for very early HERO variants, Exile of the Wicked and Warrior Elimination were good to have outside Tournament Packs, and cards like Giant Trunade and Compulsory Evacuation Device as good cards in general to have. The Gold Rares were Sangan to give the majority of the playerbase an option to foil out Sangan, Des Volstgalph to get it outside the Shonen Jump Championship and Pharaoh’s Tour, Volcanic Rocket and Royal Firestorm Guards for key Volcanic cards, Elemental HERO Captain Gold for a cheap foil for the Skyscraper HERO variants, Raiza the Storm Monarch and Caius the Shadow Monarch to bling out the best Monarchs, Necro Gardna to reprint a good card at that time, Test Tiger to help out Gladiator Beast players get access to that card easier, Dark Armed Dragon as a huge reprint outside Phantom Darkness for the first time, Prime Material Dragon for a good Dragon to have with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon being released somewhere around this time, Mind Control for a good card finally reprinted from a video game, Future Fusion for a foil option of a strong card at that time, Gold Sarcophagus for a big reprint outside the Shonen Jump Championship for the first time, Veil of Darkness just to reprint a Gladiator’s Assault Secret, Solemn Judgment to coincide with its rise in popularity at that time, Bottomless Trap Hole for its first foil print outside a Champion Pack, and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to not have to rely on a Champion Pack or pulling an Ultimate Rare to get a foil of it. Another capsule of the times here, and we still see the strong reprints from Shonen Jump Championships. This time around we had Dark Armed Dragon to have another way to get that that isn’t the difficult to pull Secret Rare in Phantom Darkness. Gold Sarcophagus is a great reprint as well since many Decks liked to use it since at that time they could afford to wait 2 turns to get the card they wanted, so it was great to not have to win a tournament to get it. Once again a strong reprint set, mostly with Gold Rares once again.
Set Rating: 10/10
Gold Series 3
Release Date: June 23rd, 2010
So nice, it’s time to do it thrice. This time around we don’t have a prize card reprint, but overall we do have strong reprints still. We still have 32 Commons and we notice several cards from Duel Terminal since Hidden Arsenal only printed half of the cards that debuted in the Duel Terminal. The list includes Mist Valley Watcher, Amazoness Archer, Amazoness Paladin, Amazoness Fighter, Amazoness Swords Woman, Amazoness Blowpiper, Amazoness Tiger, Destiny HERO – Malicious, Freya, the Spirit of Victory, Nova Summoner, Goblin Zombie, Amazoness Chain Master, Blackwing – Bora the Spear, Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn, Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North, Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame, Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow, Infernity Dwarf, Infernity Guardian, Reese the Ice Mistress, Numbing Grub of the Ice Barrier, Mist Condor, Mist Valley Windmaster, Worm Falco, Worm Gulse, Worm Hope, Destiny Draw, Black Whirlwind, Amazoness Archer, Dramatic Rescue, Magical Arm Shield, and Aegis of Gaia. The Blackwings and Infernities are notable since they were recently supported at that time in The Shining Darkness and Amazoness since they were going to get supported in Duelist Revolution. Destiny HERO – Malicious and Destiny Draw were big reprints from Duelist Pack: Aster Phoenix and Dark Legends. You got all those Duel Terminal cards that they had to put into some set. Also you had some reprints from GX Secret Rares like Freya, Nova Summoner, Goblin Zombie, and Aegis of Gaia. That’s really about it for Commons, the main stuff is the Gold Rares easily. Your Gold Rares were Vice Dragon since it was supposed to be in the Yusei Duel Disk but instead ended up in Raging Battle’s Special Edition, Exploder Dragon for a video game promo reprint, Elemental HERO Prisma to get outside the Duelist Pack tin and it was decent for options like Gladiator Beasts at that time, Dimensional Alchemist to give a foil card for one of the better cards from The Dark Emperor Deck, Judgment Dragon to have a reprint that wasn’t in Light of Destruction or the Turbo Pack Ulti, Mezuki and Plaguespreader Zombie as good reprints for Zombie Decks, Thunder King Rai-Oh to make it not exclusive to the manga promo, Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind to foil out the archetype’s best Tuner, Infernity Archfiend since it was the only Infernity in this set that was playable and it was previously only in the video game, Stardust Dragon since it was one of the best generic Synchros at that time, Blackwing Armor Master and Blackwing Armed Wing to reprint Blackwing’s best Synchros at that time, Mystical Space Typhoon for its first foil reprint in years, My Body as a Shield to foil out a popular tech, Smashing Ground to have a non-Champion Pack foil for those using it, Enemy Controller to be another first foil reprint in years, and Icarus Attack so the only foil isn’t in Dark Revelation Volume 4. Overall this is still a solid reprint set, especially for Blackwing and Infernity users, and you had good staples, just the big reprints don’t compare to CCV, Gold Sarc, or Dark Armed from previous years. Judgment Dragon was likely the biggest reprint, despite Lightsworns not being one of the best Decks around that time. It was still a very good set, the reprints are great, just not as big as the previous 2.
Set Rating: 9/10
Gold Series 4: Pyramid’s Edition
Release Date: July 1st, 2011
This was a cool Gold Series actually considering it came with playmats with Yugi and his Dark Magicians, Kaiba with Blue-Eyes and XYZ-Dragon Cannon, or if you went to a tournament you could get both Yugi and Kaiba. The 32 Commons were Millennium Shield, Pendulum Machine, The Wicked Worm Beast, Goddess with the Third Eye, Beastking of the Swamps, Versago the Destroyer, Goddess of Whim, Injection Fairy Lily, White-Horned Dragon, Toon Dark Magician Girl, Meltiel, Sage of the Sky, Radiant Jearl, Diabolos, King of the Abyss, Lich Lord, King of the Underworld, Prometheus, King of the Shadows, Mormolith, Genesis Dragon, Orichalcos Shunoros, Eternal Drought, Eradicating Aerosol, Soul Exchange, Toon World, Graceful Dice, Sage’s Stone, Recurring Nightmare, Sword of Dark Rites, Trade-In, Magic Formula, Robbin’ Goblin, Skull Dice, Xing Zhen Hu, and Deck Devastation Virus. A theme is common here with a bunch of Tournament Pack cards, Secret Rares from the GX era, promos from Jump or mangas, and a few Structure Deck cards with some other miscellaneous stuff. Nothing too big outside Deck Devastation Virus and maybe Trade-In, but it’s fine since you could get all of these in 2 packs basically. The 18 Gold Rares were Morphing Jar to finally foil out the card outside Tournament Packs, Gravekeeper’s Spy and Spirit Reaper to foil those cards out besides Champion Pack Supers, Chaos Sorcerer as the same except it was previously a Turbo Pack Ultra, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning just shortly before it finally came back to 1 after half a decade, Darklord Zerato for being a popular DARK monster from Phantom Darkness, Doomcaliber Knight for a big reprint outside being a Turbo Pack Ultra or the Shonen Jump prize, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter and Celestia, Lightsworn Angel to reprint some of the harder to get Lightsworns, Tytannial, Princess of Camellias since it was a good Plant boss at a time when Plans were somewhat popular, Summoner Monk to give a great card a foil reprint, Obelisk the Tormentor in Takahashi’s art to make that not exclusive to being a Jump promo at that time, Five-Headed Dragon to get it outside the Dinosaur’s Rage Special Set, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus as one of the last Gladiator Beasts to get a needed reprint at that time, Toon Table of Contents to foil out the best Toon card outside its first print in a Tournament Pack, Pot of Avarice since it was a good card finding its peak at that time, Royal Oppression since it was the strongest floodgate at that time, and Trap Stun to foil out the anti-Trap card that isn’t Royal Decree. Overall we once again got good reprints, but we don’t compare to previous years. Best reprint was Black Luster Soldier, and it was going to need that reprint since it was going to be legal again. Otherwise we got a lot of foil upgrades and more ways to get these cards accessible in foil. Doomcaliber Knight was also a major reprint for this set. Other than all that, it still isn’t the best Gold Series.
Set Rating: 8.5/10
Gold Series: Haunted Mine
Release Date: June 12th, 2012
The last actual Gold Series, this one gave us the biggest change as one of the Gold Rares in the pack was a Gold/Ghost Rare, which was the Gold bordering and the Ghost image. There were a limited amount of these Gold/Ghosts in the set, and I’ll get to those last. The 37 Commons in this set were Patrician of Darkness, Pyramid Turtle, Dark Scorpion Burglars, Don Zaloog, Helpoemer, Dark Scorpion – Cliff the Trap Remover, Despair from the Dark, Fear from the Dark, Dark Scorpion – Chick the Yellow, Dark Scorpion – Gorg the Strong, Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn, Ryu Kokki, Vampire Lady, Double Coston, Regenerating Mummy, Dark Mimic LV1, Dark Mimic LV3, Zombie Master, Gernia, Goblin Zombie, The Lady in Wight, Red Ogre, Bone Crusher, Book of Life, Call of the Mummy, Spellbook Organization, Mustering of the Dark Scorpions, Pyramid of Wonders, Dawn of the Herald, Physical Double, Hidden Spellbook, Embodiment of Apophis, Machine King – 3000 B.C., Tiki Curse, Tiki Soul, and Copy Knight. The big theme here was Fiends, Zombies, and Dark Scorpions alongside a few Trap Monsters. You had the 2 Spellbooks just to change their name to Spellbook right before Return of the Duelist so they didn’t have to name the archetype Book of Spell, and Dawn of the Herald is obviously because Herald of Perfection is in this set. A few fine reprints, but nothing big here. The 12 Gold Rares we had were Fabled Grimro, Master Hyperion, Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark Lord, Sephylon, the Ultimate Timelord, Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Naturia Beast, Formula Synchron, Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X “Bureido”, Number 39: Utopia, Dark Hole, Call of the Haunted, and Starlight Road. Fabled Grimro was a nice way for Fabled players to get their searcher easier, Master Hyperion and Grapha were reprints from recent Structure Decks and probably didn’t need these reprints, Sephylon was a nice Jump promo reprint, Brionac was a good generic Synchro reprint just before its ban, Naturia Beast was a good reprint especially in hindsight, Formula Synchron foiled the card out for the first time, Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X “Bureido” was good for Karakuris despite them still needing their other Synchro reprinted, Number 39: Utopia wasn’t really necessary either since it was in the 2011 and 2012 Starter Decks, Dark Hole was the first non-Turbo Pack reprint it got since coming back, Call of the Haunted was fine to get its first foil print in years, and Starlight Road since it was one of the better cards at that time to negate cards like Heavy Storm or Dark Hole. The 6 lone cards to get the Ghost/Gold printing were Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Herald of Perfection, Naturia Barkion, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Solemn Judgment. Blue-Eyes was the first Normal Monster to get the Gold and you had the same for Herald of Perfection for Rituals, MST for Spells, and Solemn Judgment for Traps. Blue-Eyes was a great Gold/Ghost choice since it was always going to be a collector’s favorite, despite probably having the most printed artwork in this set. Gorz the Emissary of Darkness was a good choice at the time since it was one of the best cards in that era. Herald of Perfection was a good choice being the best Ritual at that time. Naturia Barkion probably could of been Naturia Beast since the latter is a little better, but a good Synchro consider most the other good worthy Synchros were already Ghost Rare. MST deserved the Ghost for being one of the best Spell/Trap removal cards ever. Finally, Solemn Judgment deserved it for being one of the most versatile Traps ever. The Ghost/Golds are the main selling point of this set, so they did a decent job. Now I remember upon release this probably wasn’t a popular Gold Series. The Commons weren’t great and probably a few Gold Rares were good and it was hurt more with Brio getting banned shortly later. The Ghost/Golds are what made this set age well considering we can’t get Ghost Rares anymore and this was the lone set to guarantee a Ghost Rare in a pack. These made the value of this set really rise massively in price and these Ghost/Golds are expensive in the modern day. They carry the set after all these years just as they were intended to do on release.
Set Rating: 9/10
Premium Gold
Release Date: March 28th, 2014
We skip 2013 for the massive change from Gold Series to Premium Gold in 2014, with 10 less cards and all being Gold Rare. Not only that, but we now had 32 Gold Secret Rares in the set with the 3 Egyptian Gods that were legal for play in the original artwork and a bunch of OCG imports and then 58 Gold Rares either being Gold for the first time or being from previous Gold Series. The first 9 Gold Secret Rares in the set were from the OCG’s Premium Pack 15 and the 10th to 29th Gold Secrets were from the OCG’s Premium Pack 16 with the only other 3 Gold Secrets being Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and The Winged Dragon of Ra. The 33rd to 90th cards in this set were the Gold Rares with 33 to 50 being cards getting their first Gold print, 51 to 60 being from Gold Series, 61 to 70 being from Gold Series 2009, 71 to 80 being from Gold Series 3, and 81 to 90 being from Gold Series 4: Pyramid’s Edition. Now as mentioned the Gold Secrets were 2 a pack and the Gold Rares were 3 a pack, only you always got 1 Gold Rare getting its first Gold print and 2 Gold Rares from the previous sets. The Gold Secrets that debuted in this set were Gimmick Puppet Dreary Doll, Gimmick Puppet Magnet Doll, Chronomaly Tula Guardian, Big Belly Knight, Power Tool Mecha Dragon, Ancient Pixie Dragon, Junk Puppet, Chronomaly City Babylon, Utopia Buster, Chronomaly Gordian Knot, Gimmick Puppet Humpty Dumpty, Gimmick Puppet Shadow Feeler, Silent Wobby, Dynatherium, Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon, Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons, Blackfeather Darkrage Dragon, Number C6: Chronomaly Chaos Atlandis, Number C15: Gimmick Puppet Giant Hunter, Number C40: Gimmick Puppet Dark Strings, Number C88: Gimmick Puppet Disaster Leo, Number C9: Chaos Dyson Sphere, Number 13: Embodiment of Crime, Number 31: Embodiment of Punishment, Number 82: Heartlandraco, Tri-Edge Levia, Rank-Up-Magic Argent Chaos Force, Gagaga Academy Emergency Network, and Ghost of a Grudge. For the most part, it was nice to get the Gimmick Puppet and Chronomaly support, the Numbers were cool to have, and Argent Chaos Force was good. Dragonecro was a good card in hindsight with Zombies being able to use it with Super Poly. The best new card was easily Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons for being immune to destruction, which was a card that would of probably never been printed before Number 101 was released and later Castel becoming a thing. The cards getting their first Gold print were Dark Magician Girl, Lonefire Blossom, Honest, Effect Veiler, Gagaga Magician, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, Lightpulsar Dragon, Darkflare Dragon, Eclipse Wyvern, Crane Crane, Colossal Fighter, Number 32: Shark Drake, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King, Solar Recharge, Forbidden Chalice, Forbidden Lance, Forbidden Dress, and Fire Formation – Tenki. Overall these were okay picks with some good reprints and a few nice foil upgrades to get. The 10 cards from Gold Series were Jinzo, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Cyber Dragon, Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Chimeratech Overdragon, Swords of Revealing Light, Reinforcement of the Army, Mirror Force, and Torrential Tribute. Gold Series 2009’s cards were Des Volstgalph, Raiza the Storm Monarch, Necro Gardna, Dark Armed Dragon, Prime Material Dragon, Caius the Shadow Monarch, Mind Control, Gold Sarcophagus, Bottomless Trap Hole, and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Your Gold Series 3 reprints were Exploder Dragon, Judgment Dragon, Mezuki, Plaguespreader Zombie, Thunder King Rai-Oh, Stardust Dragon, Blackwing Armor Master, Blackwing Armed Wing, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Icarus Attack. Finally your Gold Series 4 reprints were Morphing Jar, Gravekeeper’s Spy, Spirit Reaper, Chaos Sorcerer, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Celestia, Lightsworn Angel, Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, Summoner Monk, and Trap Stun. The reprints from the previous Gold Series were actually pretty solid with them hitting some of the best reprint from those previous sets after you removed the banned cards they didn’t want to reprint for obvious reasons. Premium Gold was a fun way to bring Gold Rares back after a year with some good reprints and some fun new cards. A good start to the rebranding of this series.
Set Rating: 9/10
Premium Gold: Return of the Bling
Release Date: March 20th, 2015
The second installment of Premium Gold had a similar formula. Only 21 Gold Secrets this time with 20 being from OCG’s Premium Pack 17 and 1 being a card previously only released to the TCG in Germany. The rest of the cards were Gold Rare with the 22nd to 69th cards getting their first Gold print, 70 being from Gold Series, 71 from Gold Series 2009, 72 to 76 being from Gold Series 3, 77 to 79 being from Gold Series 4, and 80 to 91 being from Gold Series: Haunted Mine. This time around the packs came with 2 Gold Secrets, 2 Gold Rares getting their first Gold print, and 1 card from previous Gold Series. Also I’ll mention this was the Premium Gold that gave the TCG some of the early erratas of banned cards to bring them back. The Gold Secret Rares were Junk Giant, Absolute King Back Jack, Rose Lover, Rose Paladin, Ghost Charion, the Underworld Boatman, Blackwing – Kris the Crack of Dawn, Blackwing – Pinaki the Waxing Moon, Peropero Cerperus, Tristan, Knight of the Underworld, Isolde, Belle of the Underworld, Masked HERO Anki, Blackwing Tamer – Obsidian Hawk Joe, Blackwing – Nothung the Starlight, Dragocytos Corrupted Nethersoul Dragon, Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon, Cat Shark, Number 14: Greedy Sarameya, Number 21: Frozen Lady Justice, Parallel Twister, Stardust Re-Spark and Santa Claws. The best cards in this batch were the Blackwing support, Masked HERO Anki, and easily Number 95 for breaking Hieratic Rulers to the point where the Deck at full power was only legal for a week before the Dragon Rulers were banned, oh and it was also nice to get more Numbers. The Gold Rares getting their first print in the rarity are all Exodia limbs and the head, Sinister Serpent with the errata, Card Trooper, Elemental HERO Neos Alius, Dandylion, Debris Dragon, Mystical Beast of Serket, Glow-Up Bulb, Metaion, the Timelord, Bujin Yamato, Traptrix Atrax, Traptrix Myrmeleo, Traptrix Nepenthes, Mathematician, Sylvan Sagequoia, Traptrix Dionaea, Goyo Guardian, Armades, Keeper of Boundaries, Lavalval Chain, Madolche Queen Tiaramisu, Number 101: Silent Honor ARK, Downerd Magician, Raigeki, Book of Moon, Advanced Ritual Art, Foolish Burial, Charge of the Light Brigade, Rekindling, Preparation of Rites, Pot of Duality, Temple of the Kings with an errata, The Grand Spellbook Tower, Rank-Up-Magic Barian’s Force, Rank-Up-Magic Numeron Force, Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force, Sylvan Charity, Ceasefire, Ring of Destruction with the errata, Chain Disappearance, Compulsory Evacuation Device, Exchange of the Spirit with the errata, Karma Cut, Solemn Warning, and Traptrix Trap Hole Nightmare. Overall you did have some very strong reprints in here for the time alongside foiling the Traptrix archetype, giving some foil options for popular Decks, and giving the erratas that made most of these cards far worse with Ring of Destruction probably being the one with the least harsh errata. The lone Gold Series reprint was Crush Card Virus, but with an errata to make it more detrimental to use it compared to being one of the best cards ever pre-errata. The Gold Series 2009 reprint was Veil of Darkness, which I guess is fine, but could of went without this card in the set and we’d be fine. The Gold Series 3 reprints were Elemental HERO Prisma, Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind, My Body as a Shield, Smashing Ground, and Enemy Controller to get the rest of the good reprints in Gold Series 3 basically. Your Gold Series 4 reprints were Doomcaliber Knight, Five-Headed Dragon, and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus to again give some of the better reprints from that Gold Series. Finally, you get the Gold Series: Haunted Mine reprints in here with Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Master Hyperion, Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, Sephylon, the Ultimate Timelord, Herald of Perfection, Naturia Beast, Naturia Barkion, Formula Synchron, Dark Hole, Call of the Haunted, and Starlight Road. Some solid cards from the last Gold Series that needed the reprints, the previous 4 were few and far between with reprints mostly since nothing else from those sets needed reprints anymore. This is another decent installment for Premium Gold with the strongest cards being in the Gold Rares getting their first print in the rarity followed by Gold Secrets. The erratas are kind of downers, but if the OCG was going to get them, so were we I guess. A better installment from last year with more good reprints overall.
Set Rating: 9.5/10
Premium Gold: Infinite Gold
Release Date: March 18th, 2016
We end the Gold reviews on probably the best of the Gold sets, Premium Gold: Infinite Gold. This time around we mostly had cards getting printed in Gold Rare for the first time, only this time all the Gold Secrets weren’t just new cards or Egyptian Gods. The set was full of popular tournament cards at that time alongside the cards from OCG’s Premium Pack 18 and one of their Jump promos. There were 40 Gold Secret Rares and 60 Gold Rares. The Gold Secret Rares that were new were Angmarl the Fiendish Monarch, Junk Changer, Junkuriboh, Magical King Moonstar, Stardust Charge Warrior, Phantasmal Lord Ultimitl Bishbaalkin, Number 37: Hope Woven Dragon Spider Shark, Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy, Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula, Number 84: Pain Gainer, Number 77: The Seven Sins, Frost Blast of the Monarchs, Tsukumo Slash, Shining Hope Road, The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine, The Phantom Knights of Dark Gauntlets, The Phantom Knights of Tomb Shield, Dark Advance, King’s Consonance, Red Supremacy, and Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal. The best cards that were new included Stardust Charge Warrior as a generic Level 6 Synchro for draw power, Number 38 being one of the best Rank 8s since it negates Spells, the three spider Numbers that lead up to Seven Sins, The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine for a Trap to become an easy Level 4, and Beatrice as a good generic Rank 6 to replace Lavalval Chain and a card that Burning Abyss could easily use with her other summoning condition. The reprinted Gold Secrets were Fire Hand, Ice Hand, Kozmo Farmgirl, Kozmo Goodwitch, Kozmo Sliprider, Kozmo Forerunner, Kozmo Strawman, Kozmo Wickedwitch, Kozmo DOG Fighter, Kozmo Dark Destroyer, Kozmotown, Kozmo Lightsword, Horn of Heaven, Black Horn of Heaven, Treacherous Trap Hole, Deep Dark Trap Hole, Void Trap Hole, Time-Space Trap Hole, and Grand Horn of Heaven. The Hands were fine reprints despite being fallen out of favor at that time. The Kozmos were great reprints for being one of the meta archetypes at that time and having cards like Dark Destroyer and Farmgirl being super expensive before being reprinted. The Horns of Heaven were decent as Pendulums were utilizing Guiding Ariadne to search for Counter Traps and they were good options at that time, and those Trap Holes were also useful for Pendulums to have since they utilized Traptrix Rafflesia very well. The rest of the Gold Rares were Vector Pendulum, the Dracoverlord, the entire Burning Abyss archetype minus the Ritual cards, Maxx “C”, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer, Archfiend Eccentrick, Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Black Rose Dragon, Arcanite Magician, Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer, Number 11: Big Eye, Digvorzhak, King of Heavy Industry, Daigusto Emeral, Constellar Pleiades, Gagaga Cowboy, Abyss Dweller, Bahamut Shark, Lightning Chidori, Constellar Ptolemy M7, Evilswarm Ouroboros, Number 61: Volcasaurus, Norito the Moral Leader, Number 106: Giant Hand, Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer, Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon, Majester Paladin, the Ascending Dracoslayer, Reasoning, Emergency Teleport, Spell Shattering Arrow, Mask Change, Shared Ride, The Monarchs Stormforth, Mask Change II, Galaxy Cyclone, Mistaken Arrest, Draco Face-Off, Remove Brainwashing, Dark Mirror Force, Radiant Mirror Force, Fairy Wind, Breakthrough Skill, Mistake, Storming Mirror Force, and Blazing Mirror Force. It was easy to count on a single hand the bad reprints in here because everything else was outstanding. You got help to build some of the best meta Decks at that time like Burning Abyss and Pendulums not to mention Kozmos in the Gold Secret slots. Some help for Monarchs as well to foil their best card out in Stormforth. You had a bunch of good Extra Deck Monsters that many Decks used and some good Spells and Traps alongside the two main hand-traps at that time in Maxx “C” and Ghost Ogre not to mention other meta counters. This set was certainly meant for the times and it helped many cards that would be staple for years to come maintain a low price for so long since they were easy to access in this set. It was based on the current meta, so maybe it doesn’t look as good now, but this is almost like Konami reprinting let’s say Orcust, Adamancipator, Eldlich, Dinosaurs, Invoked, etc. in 2020 all in one set alongside some of the best staples at this time like Infinite Impermanence, Evenly Matched, Lightning Storm, etc. All those mentions might date this article, but you could apply that logic to whatever year it is and whatever is a staple or a meta Deck, especially considering some cards age well over time. This was also not to mention that Number 106 and Digvorzhak were reprints from YCS prize cards. This was easily one of the best sets of 2016 and began a trend of Konami trying to outdo themselves each year with sets and reprints.
Set Rating: 10/10
In Conclusion
Considering the high MSRP on these products for how little you get in theory, you’d want to get your money’s worth and typically they did a great job giving great value in Gold Series or Premium Gold sets. The biggest negative was typically how poorly the Gold Rare is perceived compared to other rarities, but that’ll be fixed in Maximum Gold since the Premium Gold Rares in those sets will look outstanding if the OCG versions are anything to go by. These were typically good buys each year all the way until they were discontinued in 2016, but again it returns in 2020 with Maximum Gold where the formula changes again, but more on that closer to that release. Even so, I’m sure that set can live up to previous Gold Series releases, which is why I wanted to do these set reviews now. Maximum Gold is going to be a pretty good product based on previous precedent. Since a lot of scores of these sets are similar, I’ll rank them individually with whatever has a little bit more to offer.
