Ghost Rare is certainly a fan favorite rarity, released all the way back in the GX era. TAEV is where these elusive and shiny cards came to life, after all!
A few years later down the line, they have made brief comebacks in side sets, such as Rage or Ra or Ghosts From the past.
Today, we'll be taking a look at all the Ghost Rares from GX and 5Ds and analyzing their merits competitively! Welcome to the second installment of Renren's Rarity Research!
Check out the list of Ghosts here!
Six Shining Spirits
There's a handful of Ghost Rares out there, 46 in total. To make things more streamlined, we'll be separating them by their eras. For now, let's check out the Ghost/Gold Rares that were released in Haunted Mine!
Purple Slayer
Barkion starts us off well, being the counterpart to Naturia Beast. This classy dragon is able to shred through Trap cards like no tomorrow by protecting its user, as long as you had ammo in your GY to spare.
Especially in 2014 and beforehand, it managed to do some decent work defending against a bunch of the commonly played purple cards in that era. Nowadays it is not played as much, but it remains a fine card should the need to stop traps arise. EARTH-based decks can use it in a pinch, and it thrives in slower formats.
It actually had some showings in a couple of Virtual World lists, even winning the German Remote Duel Invitational Qualifier a while back. Barkion can let you play through trap cards as you ladder up for your boss monsters. VW is also able to pay the costs for the negation, as they can manipulate banished cards without a sweat.
The Mascot
One of the game's poster children also received a Gold/Ghost Rare in Haunted Mine. Blue-Eyes is the most expensive one out of the six. As for relevance, BEWD had its time in the spotlight every now and again and is arguably the most marketable thing in the game. Not super competitive, but it has its moments.
Looming Threat
Gorz is an iconic and revolutionary card for the game's history, which makes his Ghost Rare quite special in a way. Ever since his inception, he has warped the concept of battling and attack order altogether.
Should your opponent fail to account for him, he lands and brings a pretty strong token to boot. These two can swing the tempo of the game back in your favor, especially in slower formats.
Duelists still attack from the lowest ATK to the highest, as the ever-looming threat of Gorz is ingrained in their memories.
Poised for Perfection
Herald of Perfection is another infamous Ritual monster, released way back around the 5Ds era in The Shining Darkness. Still, this card remains a force to be reckoned with and has aged very well.
It first made its debut in several topping Herald Hyperion lists, being a threat that's easy to summon. Advanced Ritual Art tied the deck together, as it ran multiple Normal monsters anyway thanks to Venus. Not only that, Hyperion allowed you to clear threats so you could establish Perfection against boards, and protected your Agent plays. Quite the win-win!
Later on, Star Seraph Ritual builds in 2016 also popped up and made use of Herald to great effect. Cyber Angel Benten + Dawn of the Herald abuse was
prominent as well.
Lastly, before Benten's limitation, certain Drytron builds experimented with Pre-Preparation of Rites plus Dawn and Herald for some okay results. All in all, a strong Ritual monster that's not to be underestimated. It can negate entire plays without a sweat if not prepared for.
Classic Removal
Since its debut in Spell Ruler, Mystical Space Typhoon became a prominent figure in Spell / Trap removal. The versatility it brought was a big reason for its success and limitation. While still a fine card, right now it faces stiff competition from its successors. Cosmic Cyclone is the new hotness in town, as it is a lot harder to recover banished resources and helps a ton vs Eldlich.
Twin Twisters is another option should you want to clear backrow on a quickplay. Still, there are certain decks that can play it to a decent degree such as Sky Striker, so not all is lost for this classic tool.
No Price too Great
Solemn Judgment is arguably one of the best Trap cards ever printed. Ever since its debut in Metal Raiders, there is no card that's as generic as this one that fills its role.
It has jumped around the banlist, first getting itself banned as the game sped up considerably to where Judgment stopping a key play was game-breaking. This was prominent around the time Tele-DAD was running around, as blocking the summon of DAD or shielding Oppression was just that good.
Right now it's more of a side card, but it's an extremely good one at that. If going first, this trap protects you from blowout cards like there's no tomorrow. Judgment is able to blank cards such as Red Reboot, Lightning Storm, and Dark Ruler No More out of the water. It also fits decently for all kinds of strategies, be it combo or control.
Generation Next
Truthful
Honest is a pretty famous card, giving duelists a lot of wins thanks to its powerful effect during the Damage Step, It has been played since release in a bunch of different LIGHT Decks that can all use its talents well. Lightsworns, Herald, Agents, Kozmos, and so on.
Honest's last showings were in 2018, where it has racked up a good amount of tops under Trickstars before Corobane was out. Trickstars were all LIGHT and strong tools but had problems against high ATK monsters.
Misprinted Duo
To be completely honest, these cards are not very good at all. They're clunky boss monsters that take way too much effort to summon than they are actually worth.
Despite that, the pair is infamous for their misprints in the GX era which command a high price tag. Rainbow Dragon's Ghost had a version where it was the picture of Chaos Neos, and Chaos Neos's Ghost had a version where it had Rainbow Dragon's name.
Hilarity aside, a wild coincidence for sure.
The Worthy One
Rainbow Dragon is a terrible card, but it just so happens to be a Fusion Material to one of the best Fusion monsters of all time. Rainbow Neos is an absolute unit and a half, packing a sky-high attack stat and three powerful effects.
For the very small price of sending a monster, it can wipe the entire field of monsters your opponent controls. The same goes for their Spells / Traps if you sent a backrow card. GY wiping is a rare effect to come by as well and Rainbow Neos is able to freely use it too.
Neos Fusion's release in Savage Strike has led to the card being much easier to bring out overall, giving you easy access at the cost of running some bricks in the deck. While Dark Dragoon may be the more popular of the two as of now, Rainbow Neos is no slouch and can put in some work if needed. The spell's protection effect also comes up in a pinch when you're breaking boards with it.
Getting to this card usually involves one of two ways. The first method is hard drawing it, which is doable by maxing out on the Spell card. You are free to summon other monsters the turn, just make sure Neos Fusion will be your last.
The second way is by using Predaplant Verte Anaconda, as Neos Fusion is a "Fusion" spell card. This is also good as Verte acts as free fodder for the first effect.
No matter how you get to this card, it's a fun time overall and can wreck unprepared foes!
Signer Dragons
The Good Ace
Stardust Dragon was a revolutionary Synchro monster released in the TDGS and was the flagship start of the 5Ds era. Easily accessible level, generic materials, and pretty strong effect made it relevant for years to come, even way past its inception.
Not only that, it looks absolutely incredible as a Ghost Rare. Stardust still sees occasional use every now and again as the format shifts. This is especially true in times where destruction effects are more rampant.
Its evolutions Shooting Star Dragon and Majestic Star Dragon have also received Ghost rares. SSD was a nice offensive tool and was a great plan B for Quasar-focused strategies. MSD never took off but has powerful effects in a vacuum and the Dawn of Majesty support will make it a whole lot more playable. Arriving Miracle and Wish-Converging Dragon in particular.
1/3
The RDA monsters also have a couple of Ghost Rares to their name, however only one of them is all that great. Red Dragon Archfiend/Assault Mode is a little too explosive for its own good and is not preferred compared to Stardust. Majestic Red Dragon is sadly a poor card too.
However, not all is lost, as Scarlight is an amazing Synchro Monster, offering mass removal, emergency burn for game (or time), and a beefy body to boot. Not only that, it can help nuke the board then climb into Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss for even nastier setups. Treating itself as the original is also key, as certain cards require it to do so.
1/3 is better than nothing, as they say.
World Engulfing Flames
Black Rose is pretty short and simple, nuke the field and go home. This card was a staple Level 7 Synchro monster for the longest time, thanks to its power and ease of access. It remained a cornerstone for years on end, before eventually fading out. Despite that, this rose can still bloom and put up a fight and has had scarce showings every now and again.
2020's Synchro Eldlich in particular, as should Halqifibrax's first effect get negated, they can unleash Black Rose during their opponent's turn instead. Halq tags out into Formula to get a free draw, then synchros with a Golden Land trap to wipe the field!
Quite a timeless card deserving of its ghost rarity, for sure.
Combo Enabler
Ancient Fairy Dragon is banned, and it's easy to see why after taking a closer look. With proper play, it was a degenerate combo enabler that was exploited for years on end.
The effects were relevant in decks that wanted to abuse multiple non-hard once-per-turn Field spells to their advantage. SPYRALs with Resort, F.A. with their fields, Dinosaurs with Diagram and Lost World, Trickstars with Light Stage, and so on. ABC also liked getting additional Union Hangars and having a way to bring out the pieces.
A beautiful and deserving Ghost Rar, albeit highly unlikely that it's coming back without an errata.
Equips Galore!
Power Tool Dragon is definitely a funky card as it wasn't all that great when it initially came out. Later as time went on and as more powerful equips joined the picture, it managed to make a name for itself.
It really hit its stride in Dark Warrior strategies aiming to spam Equips with Isolde, or the eventual Infernoble deck thanks to their bevy of powerful spells.
Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon made it easy to summon thanks to tuners like O-Lion or Coltwing in the picture. Deskbot 001 as well!
The card's a good Ghost Rare all things considered.
The Other Auxiliaries
As cool as they are, the other 5Ds Ghosts are easy to explain in just a sentence or two.
Black-Winged Dragon is not very good and isn't really viable for any play at all.
Star Eater was a strong generic Synchro monster for its time and was able to hit hard and play hard, making sure it got off its attacks.
Junk Berserker was a decent pick and had niches in making sure cards like Ryko, Snowman Eater and Nimble Hamster didn't get off their effects. It helped that Quickdraw + Dandylion gave you an easy way to summon the card. It has definitely aged poorly though.
Odin is cute with the Link monster, but that's about it. It's fine if you're a big fan of the Aesir monsters.
Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste has its merits as a Super Poly target every now and then. It trucks certain decks like Buster Blader, easily beating the lock.
Conclusion
That's all for now folks! Ghost Rares are indeed very pretty and varied in terms of quality. Which one of these is your favorite? I hope you're able to join us next time as we take a look at the rest of the Ghosts we've left out, as there's still a lot to talk about!
