Introduction
A while back, I spoke about a number of cards that would most likely never get a release in the TCG. They would remain in the OCG forever with no chance of an English release. They may have been collaboration cards like the Potato Chips and Monster Strike promos, where rights issues prevented it. There may have been artwork related reasons like “Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal”. Or they were weird and unique cards such as the VB3 Character Cards or Command Duel Use cards. Perhaps they were only available at very specific tournaments, like the Normal Monster versions of Ritual Monsters. There was also the mystery of “Shuttleroid”.
The chances of these cards gaining a release was slim to none. Some, like the Counter cards, I wonder why that was the case that they didn’t want them released. However, it looks like the TCG Konami branch have no interest in bringing these cards in.
There’s a few more talking points and grey areas I’d like to discuss. This is an addendum to that previous two-part article. Various bits of miscellanea I think bares bringing up. Things that may or may not fit into the existing categories that I went over before. There are many questions to ask. Parts of this addendum may not age well if any of those questions get answered. Still, it’s good to speculate based on previous information and research to see if there’s any precedents. It is recommended to read my previous two OCG parts parts about OCG exclusives first.
Power Pros Collaboration
Here’s a very recent OCG release. Released on the 18th of January 2022, are the new Power Pros collaboration cards. These were released in a similar format to the previously discussed Monster Strike collaboration cards. You could play certain missions in the mobile game, then take evidence of that to specific stores to receive these promos. Like before, there is a random chance in the pack of getting them in different rarities. Either Common or Normal Parallel Rare, slightly different to Common or Millennium Rare from last time’s distribution.
Like before with the “Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon” alternate artwork, we have an alternate artwork again. This time, the “Dark Magician” in the style of the game. Then an original monster, this one being “Power Pro Lady Sisters”. This card also happens to be an overt reference to “Harpie Lady Sisters”, though not a ‘Harpie’ card.
So surely like the previous collaboration set, these will remain OCG only forever. Well, it’s more of a grey area this time. Unlike last time, the Power Pros game is owned by Konami. If Konami have the rights to these, then there should be much less legality and rights issues when distributing them. Plenty of other Konami game cards have been released prior, such as the ‘Gradius’ and ‘itsu’ cards. More importantly, the card “Ultimate Baseball Kid” is a reference to the Power Pros games themselves!
Speculating about a release
With all this, there’s less standing in the way of an international release of these cards. With it being a very recent release, it’s probably way too soon to make any judgements. Still, I’d like to speculate about it. “Ultimate Baseball Kid” can stand alone without knowing the reference. Unlike that, “Power Pro Lady Sisters” is more of an obvious part of Power Pros. This franchise has had international releases occasionally, but on a smaller scale and it’s much focused specifically in Japan and most of it has been only a domestic release.
Because of that, I think Konami doesn’t feel like they have any real reason to want to bother releasing them. Maybe I’m wrong and they will, as there’s less red tape, but it’s for a specific promotion in Japanese stores. I don’t think it would occur to them to bother. Maybe they would be okay with the “Dark Magician” artwork and could just say it’s stylized or something. Right now, I’m leaning towards these staying OCG only. The TCG may not care about some Normal Monsters relating to a mostly Japanese only baseball video game franchise. Or maybe they will. Lets see these baseball playing harpies as the next Starlight Rare.
Rush Stuff
Let’s spend a bit of time talking about Rush Duels. They were left off the previous articles because Rush Duel as a whole has not been given an international release. Later on, we of course got the video game release internationally. Whether that translates to a proper international release of physical Rush Duel cards remains to be seen. They may feel it’s too late to release a brand new format with brand new cards required. They may feel like an international audience might not respond as well to it than the domestic one. Or they may just prefer to stick with Speed Duels. We can’t know for the sure the exact reasoning.
Let’s pretend for a moment that there’s nothing stopping Rush Duels getting a physical release for the English speaking audience. Well, there’s some cards we probably won’t get still either way. So let’s talk about the ones that’d still likely remain Japan only regardless.
Kumamon
Firstly, there’s ones where there are legality and rights issues again. Collaboration cards with other Japanese content that they have no reason to want to bring out internationally.
For the first of these, we have “Kumamon”. It was released was on April 1st 2021 with the May 2021 issue of Saikyō Jump magazine. Like the card “Nanana”, that is OCG only forever, “Kumamon” also features a mascot, specifically a government mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture for the purposes of tourism. Also featured on the artwork is the living banana from “Nanana”.
The character of “Kumamon” himself has had a cameo appearance internationally. Specifically in one of the ‘Yokai Watch’ games. So it’s not impossible if they wanted to negotiate for the rights to use them again. But would Konami’s TCG regions want to release a promo that's a specific reference to a Japanese prefecture? Plus, TVTokyo’s mascot still appears in the artwork. They’d have to remake the artwork anyway as there’s also rights issues there too. Maybe if a Level 2 WATER Pyro Normal Monster was super important for a deck, they’d have to do something about it.
And not to say that they won’t release a promo that is a specifically Japanese reference. “Amabie” got a TCG printing and its Rush version would probably too in this context.
Other Rush Duel Collaborations
This isn’t the only the collaboration that Rush Duel has done. We’ve got another Level 2 WATER Monster, in “Donpen & Donko”. It came out on the 16th of October 2021. It features mascots from a Japanese chain store brand called Don Quijote. This time, they are wearing “Dark Magician and “Dark Magician Girl” hats and holding their scepters. You could get this card when buying a pair of kids’ shoes from these stores. I can imagine adult collectors lining up to buy shoes they don’t need so they can get this. The legality issues for this will be pretty evident here. On the card itself, there’s already a copyright notice in the card text for “©Pan Pacific International Holdings Corporation” who made the mascots.
There has also been multiple collaborations with ‘Akagi Nyugyo’ Ice Cream. Buying ice cream would allow you to send off to get certain alternate arts of existing monsters such as “Sevens Road Magician” amongst others. These alt arts showed the monsters with big cartoony heads eating ice cream. Another promotion was with the Seven Eleven stores, where you could get artworks with a specific background. The monster looked the same as the usual art this time and was just the background that changed. This includes three different versions of “Kuribott”. The regular arts of the monsters exist to use. That is unlike the previous issues of being able to play these cards. It would just be the artworks that any physical English release would not want you to have.
ID Cards
Lastly, I’d like to talk about the Rush Duel ID Cards. There are two sets to discuss. Firstly, there are Amiibo Cards. The international release of the ‘Rush Duel Dawn of the Battle Royall’ video game is a digital only download on Nintendo Switch. For Japan, this got a physical release. As well as the regular promo cards, you got a pack containing one of seven random Amiibo cards.
These cards looked like ID cards for one of the seven main characters from Yugioh Sevens. Being Yuga, Luke, Gakuto (Gavin), Romin, Roa, Neil (Nail) and Asana. These cards don’t have normal Yugioh card backs and wouldn’t fit in a Yugioh sized sleeve. You could scan them into the game to get some stuff. With the digital international release of the game having been and gone, it looks like the Amiibo card release won’t happen. Not unless they somehow decide to re-release it physically later, like how Nintendo did with ‘Cadence of Hyrule’ for instance.
Another set of ID cards featuring Yugioh Sevens characters were made later. These featuring just Yuga, Luke, Gakuto and Romin. Included with the Rush Duel Disc released on December 18th 2021. A big wearable toy of the Duel Disk from Yugioh Sevens. With no dub release of Sevens, they probably wouldn’t release a Duel Disk from it internationally. Alongside the normal promos, they released these four ID cards. They are Yugioh sized cards, which makes them different from the Amiibo ones that are bigger. They have normal Yugioh card backs and they even have regular set numbers like proper cards. Still, even if Rush Duel were to get an international release, they probably wouldn't release these ID cards of characters from the show. A show that at the time of writing, is almost finished.
True Exodia
Back to regular Yugioh OCG cards discussion. I’d like to talk a bit about “True Exodia”. After the previous article, someone asked me about this card and if it would fit under this category. I responded that I wasn’t sure as it was too soon to tell. Still, it’s an interesting question worth thinking about here in the addendum. Kazuki Takashi drew this card's artwork. The card is a 20th Secret Rare rarity, known for its red name foiling. It was released as a promo in the 20th Anniversary Monster Art Box on the 20th of November 2019. This product contained a number of special Yugioh art books.
This is familiar because it reminds me of the release of “Horakhty, the Creator of Light”, another OCG exclusive card. This card, also drawn by Yugioh’s creator, was related to rare special art book. Horakhty wins you the duel automatically. Conversely, you may notice “True Exodia” is a funny card that gives your opponent the win. It wasn’t exactly the same release format. “True Exodia” is in the book itself. Horakhty is a prize from a ticket that came with the book and other means. Still, there are some similarities that seem relevant.
It’s been a number of years since Horakhty, where by now it seems unlikely they want to release it internationally. However, for “True Exodia”, it’s only been a couple of years thus far. Still, they seem to have shown no intention of doing anything with this so far either. I can’t be sure of the reasons why, but if it’s in the same category, then it may be OCG only forever too. I’m putting it here tentatively on that list, but things could change.
Jump Ryū Blue-Eyes Artwork
On a similar topic, there’s another Takashi drawn card that hasn’t received an international release. Released April 21st 2016, we have an alternative artwork of “Blue-Eyes White Dragon”. This card, in the Kaiba Corporation Ultra Rare rarity, features Seto Kaiba himself standing alongside his ace. This unique Jump promo card was released in Jump Ryū magazine Vol 8. It is a different release format to other Jump promos. Those are released with different set codes in different Jump magazines. A Yugioh DVD even came included.
It has been some time since this alternate artwork of Blue-Eyes was released. Like before, there doesn’t seem to be any intentions to find a place for it internationally. It’s a popular card with a popular character. It’s not like it wouldn’t be lucrative for them to do so. Again, it seems to be another Kazuki Takahashi drawn card that for some reason won’t come out. Not impossible and things could change, but very unlikely for now.
Telephone Card
There’s one more thing drawn by Kazuki Takashi to talk about this time. One that is firmly in the OCG forever camp that wasn't mentioned last time. This is because it’s a weird one that isn’t really a standard looking card. But this is an addendum, so here it is now. Released all the way back on September 25th 1999, this is the ‘jump novel lottery prize card’. Featuring Yugi, Kaiba and Blue-Eyes, this card is a telephone card rather than a regular card. The shape is slightly different. It’s even got little punch-marks at the bottom of it. The general layout kind of looks like an old OCG Normal Monster card with the ATK and DEF box. Though it’s not entirely the same.
This was a prize in a lottery, which also included items such as stereos and CD players. As a collectible, this card is incredibly rare and expensive now. This odd product is obviously not going to get a release outside of the context its in.
More Counter Cards
For the last main section, I want to provide some updates regarding the Counter Cards section from last time. The TCG seems to have no desire to release cards that function as Counters rather than Tokens. Before this included the regular Counter as well as Spell, Predap, Wedge and Black Feather Counter cards. Now we have some updates to that.
Overlay Universe
First, there is the matter of the of the Overlay Universe Structure Deck. This Structure Deck did not get a TCG release. The cards instead mostly being spread across Brothers of Legend packs. This meant a couple extra inclusions didn’t make the cut. First, there is the ‘Emperor’s Key’ card. This card says it is playable as both a Counter card and a Token card. They could release it to just say Token, but perhaps they see it as primarily a Counter card. Therefore, I think it will join the others in that list of Counter cards without a release.
While not a Counter card, we are on the subject of Overlay Universe. The “Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL” card is also included in this deck and not released with the others in the TCG. This XYZ bordered one is a unique non-game card. The closest comparison I can think of are the Duelist Kingdom non-game cards. However, those aren’t entirely the same and did get an international release. Its Attribute is Light, but its type is “Kattobingu”, Yuma’s catchphrase. With no Structure Deck to include this, there’s no other product the TCG has around right now to fit it into. A release isn’t impossible, but since it’s not a game card, the TCG may have no reason to include it. My expectation is that this will remain OCG only.
Alba Strike
Before starting, I’d like to talk about the difference between a regular Token card and a named Token card. A regular Token card has its title just be “Token”. It generally will only have the regular Token information in its card text, regardless of artwork. A named one will have its name be a specific Token monster, such as “Jurraegg Token” and contain the stats of that Token in question. While you can apply it as any Token, its generally expected you’d use it for what it's meant for, avoiding confusion. The OCG only Counter Cards are all named uniquely except the one that is just named "Counter".
The Alba Strike Structure Deck in the OCG (Albaz Strike in the TCG) has released a number of these. They came as either Super Rare or Secret Rare. These are like the ‘Emperor’s Key’ in that they are primarily Counters, but also mentioned as Tokens. These are all named specifically as “Albaz the Shrouded”, “Ecclesia the Exiled”, “Tri-Brigade”, “The Two Virtuous” and “Aluber of the Wicked Dogma”. This makes them individual cards in the OCG. This is rather than simply being called “Counter” or “Token”. They also have a line of lore text in the card text box.
Will they appear in the TCG the same way?
The release for the TCG Albaz Strike Structure, mentions including these arts in special Token cards. No mention of the word Counter, as the TCG doesn’t seem to include those cards. Therefore the release of the TCG ones will just be Tokens, with the Counter versions remaining OCG only.
The TCG Structure Deck isn’t out yet at the time of writing. That means we don’t know if they will keep their names or be simply 'Token'. We also don’t know if they will keep the lore text, but that seems more likely at the moment. If they don’t have names, then the named versions will also be OCG only, with the TCG ones just simply being “Token” cards. They would be cards with the same art, but essentially named as different cards. A somewhat similar case is the “Emissary of Darkness Token”. The OCG has had named Token releases of that whereas the TCG Token card with the same artwork is unnamed. The question of the Albaz Strike Tokens will be answered when the TCG release happens soon.
Edit: Subsequently, these cards did show up in the TCG in the Albaz Structure Deck with their names in tact, albeit slightly changed for some of them. Surprisingly enough, they also have mentions of being Counters in their text, making them the first TCG releases to do this. Therefore, this particular set of Token/Counters are not OCG Only Forever cards and set a new precedent, where Counters may no longer have been forgotten by the TCG. It's unknown at the moment if that will change for other previously discussed Counter cards.
Some other notes on Tokens
The OCG releases Token Packs as in-store items every so often. There have been four Token Pack volumes thus far. The cards inside come as either Rare or Ultra Rare. Unnamed Tokens comprise most of the cards in this pack. These feature characters from the different Yugioh anime. They tend to have a quote from the character on the card text in addition to standard Token text. There doesn’t seem to have been any indication of an international release for these Tokens with that style.
The OCG has had many named and unnamed Token releases. The TCG has released only a selection of those. Many of them, the TCG just haven’t got round to making a product that contains them. Though there’s no reason why they can’t appear at some point. However, the Token Pack Volume character ones seem to be unlikely.
Conclusion
The worlds of the TCG and OCG Yugioh regions can sometimes be very different. There’s a lot of weird and unique stuff. Most of this stuff from one is either unlikely or impossible to show up in the other. With now whole formats like Speed and Rush Duel kept in only one part of the franchise. While I’ve mostly focused on the OCG only stuff, there’s also TCG only stuff too. The Speed Duel ‘Skill’ cards are one such thing, with over 70 of those. There are others, including prize cards like “Get Your Game On!” and some old Match Winner Prize Cards like “Meteo the Matchless” that technically only have a TCG printing. Though most of the exclusive stuff is evidently on the OCG side of things.
We could also discuss the Yugioh ‘Pre-History’ card sets that predate the OCG itself in Japan and will never see international release. People are aware of the Bandai version of the game, but there’s also the DM1/Battle and Breed Collectors cards, the Yugioh Top Gum cards, the Meiji Super 3D cards and other such miscellaneous objects from the early world of Yugioh in 1999 and before.
Before we wrap up, a quick update to a previous article. The ‘ZEXAL Shout’ cards were given reprints in the “No. Complete File -Piece of Memories-” OCG product. They got an Ultra Rare foiling this time. However, even with another printing, they remain OCG only cards.
Lingering questions
There’s a lot of questions and uncertainty for ones collection if something will show up or not. I wouldn’t expect something like that telephone card to ever show up again. Nor would I expect a “Nanana” or “Potato & Chips” to appear, at least not with the artwork shown. But then we have less obvious ones where we can’t be sure. Will “True Exodia” ever show up? Will they bother to release the “Power Pro Lady Sisters” in an international region? It seems that time will tell, but it’s not looking like it will happen. We can’t entirely state the reasoning of those who run the TCG divisions, but it’s fun to analyze and guess.
I hope you’ve enjoyed another look at some of the odd inclusions the Yugioh franchise has. Things that you may not necessarily be seeing any time soon under regular circumstances.
