The Ace Monster Index: which Yu-Gi-Oh anime ace is worth the most?
Prices as of 2026-06-24. Today's prices will differ.
Each Yu-Gi-Oh anime gives its lead duelists a signature ace, from Yugi's Dark Magician to Yusaku's Decode Talker. We picked eight: six protagonists' aces plus Kaiba's Blue-Eyes and Joey's Red-Eyes. For each we took the median TCGplayer price across its priced printings. Kaiba's Blue-Eyes has the highest typical price, and the three original Duel Monsters cards take the top three.
The Ace Monster Index
Median per-printing TCGplayer USD price. Median, not average, so one vintage chase printing can't inflate it.
Bars show the typical (median) printing; the name is the duelist whose ace it is. Kaiba and Joey are not protagonists but are included because their aces are part of the original trio.
The original three lead
The three original Duel Monsters aces take the top three in this data, with Blue-Eyes well clear of the other two.
Every later ace in the index, Stardust Dragon, Utopia, Odd-Eyes, Elemental HERO Neos, Decode Talker, has a median under $9. Red-Eyes and Stardust Dragon are close, so the “original three” line is a narrow one at the bottom. We measured the prices, not why they differ.
Each ace, by the numbers
| Ace (protagonist) | Priciest printing | Top | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue-Eyes White Dragon · Kaiba | Retro Pack (Ultra Rare) | $3,000 | $45 |
| Dark Magician · Yugi | Dark Duel Stories promos (Prismatic Secret Rare) | $798 | $10 |
| Red-Eyes Black Dragon · Joey | Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon (Ultra Rare) | $920 | $9.75 |
| Stardust Dragon · Yusei | Dawn of Majesty (Starlight Rare) | $635 | $8.44 |
| Number 39: Utopia · Yuma | Battles of Legend: Armageddon (Starlight Rare) | $434 | $2.79 |
| Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon · Yuya | Duelist Alliance (Ultimate Rare) | $17 | $2.71 |
| Elemental HERO Neos · Jaden | Duel Terminal Preview Wave 2 (DT Rare Parallel) | $280 | $2.17 |
| Decode Talker · Yusaku | OTS Tournament Pack 6 (Ultimate Rare) | $25 | $1.55 |
The Top column is the single highest price YGOPRODeck shows for that card's printings. It does not say which edition or condition the price refers to, so treat it as rough, not as what a specific copy sold for.
Method & sources
- For each protagonist we took their canonical signature ace and pulled every printing on record with its per-printing TCGplayer USD price via the open YGOPRODeck API.
- Per ace we took the median across priced printings, robust to one expensive chase card. Printings with no price are excluded.
- Per-printing TCGplayer USD price, via the open YGOPRODeck API. Valued 2026-06-24. Reference estimates, not sold records; newer aces have fewer printings, so their medians rest on a thinner sample.
- TOS-clean aggregate stats. We never scrape and never invent a number, these figures are reproducible from the open API.
What this data can't tell you
- Edition and condition. YGOPRODeck keeps one price per set code and rarity, so 1st Edition and Unlimited copies are mixed.
- Graded copies, Japanese or Asian-English printings, prize cards and sealed product are not in the data.
- Printings with no price on record are dropped. For Blue-Eyes that is more than half of all its printings, so the median rests on the priced ones only.
- The choice of eight aces is ours. Later series (such as Sevens and Go Rush!!) are not included, and other fans would pick different signature cards.
- Why one ace is priced above another. We measured prices, not demand, nostalgia or print runs.
Collect this game for years and see something we missed? Tell us.
FAQ
Which Yu-Gi-Oh anime ace monster is worth the most?
In our data, Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon, by a wide margin. Across 33 priced printings the median is $45, about 28.8× the cheapest protagonist ace (Yusaku's Decode Talker, $1.55) and 73% of its printings clear $20. We rank by the median per printing, not the average, so one vintage chase card can't crown an ace.
Do the original Duel Monsters aces still hold up against the newer ones?
In this data, yes. Blue-Eyes ($45), Dark Magician ($10) and Red-Eyes ($9.75), the three original-series aces, take the top three. The best post-Duel-Monsters ace, Yusei's Stardust Dragon ($8.44), lands under $9, and the GX / Zexal / Arc-V / VRAINS aces are lower still. We measured the gap, not its cause: card age, nostalgia, how many printings each card has and which sets they came from are all possible factors we did not test. Note that Red-Eyes and Stardust Dragon are only about $1.30 apart.
How does this compare to your Blue-Eyes vs Dark Magician study?
It is consistent, which is expected because both use the same YGOPRODeck price data. In our Yu-Gi-Oh ace-tax study Blue-Eyes out-trades Dark Magician by ~4.3× and Red-Eyes by ~4.6×, the same multiples fall out here when you rank all eight protagonist aces. This study widens that head-to-head into the full franchise picture.
Where does this data come from, and is it reliable?
We pulled every printing of each ace and its per-printing TCGplayer USD price via the open YGOPRODeck API, then took the median per card (Per-printing TCGplayer USD price, via the open YGOPRODeck API, valued 2026-06-24). We exclude printings with no price on record. YGOPRODeck lists one price per set code and rarity, so it does not separate 1st Edition from Unlimited copies and does not state condition; a 1st Edition LOB copy and an Unlimited one share a single figure. These are reference estimates, not sold records, and prices move; newer aces have fewer printings, so their medians rest on a thinner sample. We never scrape and never invent a number, the figures are reproducible from the open API.
Curious what your Blue-Eyes, or any card, is worth?
Foilio values any card across Pokémon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, Lorcana and more, live prices in EUR & USD, your whole collection tracked. Free, no signup.
Cite or embed this study
Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Paste the embed on your site for the chart card + a link back, or grab the plain citation.
<a href="https://foilio.net/studies/ygo-ace-index?utm_source=share&utm_medium=study_embed&utm_campaign=viral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
<img src="https://foilio.net/studies/og?stat=%2445&label=the%20typical%20Blue-Eyes%20White%20Dragon%20printing%2C%20%231%20in%20our%20anime%20ace%20index&title=The%20Ace%20Monster%20Index%3A%20which%20Yu-Gi-Oh%20anime%20ace%20is%20worth%20the%20most%3F" alt="The Ace Monster Index: which Yu-Gi-Oh anime ace is worth the most?, Foilio" width="600" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:12px" />
</a>
<p style="font:13px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif;color:#555;margin:6px 0 0">
Source: <a href="https://foilio.net/studies/ygo-ace-index?utm_source=share&utm_medium=study_embed&utm_campaign=viral">The Ace Monster Index: which Yu-Gi-Oh anime ace is worth the most?, Foilio</a> · data CC BY 4.0
</p>Foilio (2026-06-24). The Ace Monster Index: which Yu-Gi-Oh anime ace is worth the most?. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/ygo-ace-indexThe big picture, across every game we measure: The Chase Multiple · The Price Census · The Promo Premium · The Foil Premium