Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Brings Back 5 Classic Booster Sets and All Your Childhood Nostalgia

2023 is the 25th anniversary of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, and to celebrate Konami has brought back five classic and nostalgic booster sets from yesteryear: Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon, Metal Raiders, Spell Ruler, Pharaoh’s Servants, and Invasion of Chaos. These five sets were originally released from 2002 to 2004, and if you were playing and/or collecting Yu-Gi-Oh! cards during this time you will remember opening packs from each, chasing individual cards like Dark Magician, Jinzo, Blue Eyes White Dragon, Gate Guardian, Summoned Skull, and Exodia. 

Konami recently sent us each of the five booster sets, giving us the opportunity to relive the glory years of our childhood. Opening the same packs we feverishly opened two decades ago was a nuclear, nostalgic blast from the past and some of the most fun we’ve had all year. Below, you can everything you need to know about these new releases and why we recommend indulging in that new pack smell at least one more time. 

What’s In the Box?

• 24 Packs Per Booster Box
• 9 Cards Per Pack — $4.49 per pack
• Each Booster Pack has a guarantee of 1 Rare card and 8 Commons, with a chance of getting a Super Rare, Ultra Rare, or Secret Rare foil card. If you purchase a whole Booster Box, you are guaranteed 1 Secret Rare, 2 Ultra Rares, and 4 Super Rares.  

The New and the Old

In terms of monetary value, these five sets don’t offer as much as some other sets releasing this year. The cards contained within have now been reprinted several times and very few of them can be used at the competitive level. As a result, each of the five sets offer less monetary value compared to many of the brand new sets, and it’s unlikely you will make your money back. However, cards like Jinzo, Blue Eyes White Dragon, Gate Guardian, and a few others have retained considerable value, if you can pull them. That said, where the sets don’t offer the most monetary value, the nostalgia value they offer is unrivaled. It doesn’t get more nostalgic than these cards that the whole world chased two decades ago.

Speaking of pull rates, nothing has changed minus the rate of which Secret Rares appear. With the original sets, a Secret Rare would typically be pulled at a rate of every other Booster Box. Now, one is seemingly guaranteed every Booster Box. This is the only meaningful change though. Compared to newer sets, you have have less of a chance of pulling a holo because a holo is not guaranteed every pack. 

Beyond this tweak, nothing much has changed. These are the original cards as you remember them. There are some slight changes here and there that bring the cards to the modern standards, but these changes are by and large very subtle and easy to miss.

Are They Worth It?

If you were collecting Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in the early and mid 2000s, these five Booster Sets should come with a nostalgia warning. Opening newer sets with their fancier rarities, friendlier holo rate, and more playable cards is great, but it can’t recreate the feeling of opening these packs. 9-year-old us would have spent all of our birthday money on these sets. Fast-forward and nothing has changed. 

If these sets weren’t a part of your childhood, there is inherently less appeal but there is still the same chase for the premium cards like there is anytime you open a Yu-Gi-Oh! pack, and in this case, some of these premium cards are the series’ most iconic and collectible cards. The only complaint we have is we wish Konami gave at least one card in each set the new Quarter Century Secret Rare treatment it introduced this year. This would have taken the release of these five sets to the next level, but even without this addition these are a very easy recommend for all Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, especially the nostalgic ones. 

The following products were provided by Konami: Blue Eyes White Dragon Booster Box, Metal Raiders Booster Box, Spell Ruler Booster Box, Pharaoh’s Servants Booster Box, and Invasion of Chaos Booster Box.