You Missed the Boat.
New Valhalla Cluster was an experiment that had okay ideas, but bad execution. By that I mean they wanted to give us all the rulers up front, and then make them customizable by adding a Rune Deck. This way the rulers could evolve over time and with each new set. In theory, this sounds like a cool idea. And it could have been.
The main issue that got in the way though was that the starter decks were printed and dropped with the first set of the Cluster, New Dawn Rises, and then……… nothing. These decks were not reprinted to my knowledge, and if they were there weren’t many. How do I know? Because I can get all 4 or 5 starter decks from any other cluster for around the price of one SDV deck, except maybe the Wind one. Lapis cluster is a close though, but you can get the starters in the form of singles for under $200, so same thing.
The Starters
| Set | Abr | TCG L | TCG H | Ebay L | Ebay H | Amz L | Amz H | Avg |
| New Valhalla Entry Set Light | SDV1 | 99.99 | 99.99 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| New Valhalla Entry Set Fire | SDV2 | 175 | 175 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 175.00 |
| New Valhalla Entry Set Water | SDV3 | 185.00 | 185.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 185.00 |
| New Valhalla Entry Set Wind | SDV4 | 79.99 | 79.99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 79.99 |
| New Valhalla Entry Set Darkness | SDV5 | 140.00 | 140.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 140.00 |
This lack of availability really set the game back a bit as well. The new cluster was met with some excitement. It was new. The Runes, the rulers all available from the start, and kind of a new setting made it a nice change from the bloated sets of Reiya cluster that had a lot of filler. It was a descent start to a new set.2
When it comes to if you want to grab these up and sit on them, I will say they are worth it. They are some of the rarest mass-produced items in the game. If you can get any of the decks at 20% below the average listed above, then I give them a B+. If you pay the average, I’d give it a C. Because there is likely not going to be any reprints of these or any revisiting the Rune mechanic, the likelihood of these going down in value is almost nil.
DO NOT open though, because all of the cards were reprinted in DBV, except the rulers and master runes, and as singles they will not equal the value of the sealed deck. Though some cards are worth a few bucks, most are not.
The Sets
| Set | Abr | TCG L | TCG H | Ebay L | Ebay H | Amz L | Amz H | Avg |
| New Dawn Rises | NDR | 58.75 | 99.34 | 65 | 80 | 58.13 | 92.19 | 113.36 |
| The Strangers of New Valhalla | SNV | 80.00 | 89.95 | 91.92 | 119.99 | 72.75 | 96.95 | 91.93 |
| Awakening of the Ancients | AOA | 50 | 64.64 | 50 | 71.99 | 63.95 | 80.94 | 63.59 |
| The Decisive Battle of Valhalla | DBV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 350.00 |
Welcome to the Runic land.
New Dawn Rises is a fun little set and has the blue machines, like Lancelot, the Glass Knight (NDR-048) and Viviane, the Mechanical Fairy (NDR-060), but also the odd ball stuff like Mimi tribe. It’s a fun set, but when it comes to the cluster, it is the meh. It does, however, have the 2nd highest value. This is likely because they had to print the starters to release at the same time. Not printing a set into oblivion is a good thing. It was more likely that with 6 products being produced at the same time, and the decks being different than all the former ones, that it may have had some difficulties.
I would give this set a C- at the average price. Being a dealer, the Cluster where I sell the least singles from is New Valhalla, well the first 3 sets that is. At $50 a box or less that grade might sneak up to a B-.
The Strangers of New Valhalla is a bit weird as well. We get more runes, and rune/chants. This is one thing I think may have added to the meh feeling that a lot of players have for this cluster. The Rune deck rules are a bit off. You can have Runes in your deck if it matches the color identity of your ruler. BUT, rune/chants do not have to match. And you can have a total of 4 copies of the rune/chant between Rune deck, main deck, and sideboard. We could talk about siding rulers and master runes, but I think you get the idea.
Strangers at average price is a C-, if you can grab it at half that, then you might be getting a deal.
Awakening of the Ancients is the third set and the cheapest at the time of this writing. I think this might be due to it being the last set under the original company. This is speculation, because after it came out, Eye Spy took over the game. There was a lot of this set printed, so it is the cheapest of the cluster right now. It also seems to be the weakest as far as power level.
At $40 a box or so I would say you are getting a deal. At average, it might be a B-. Being a set that was printed more than the rest, but not quite to the levels of MOA or CFC make it have a lot of potential.
Now for the usual money set that each cluster seems to have. There are no listed boxes of DBV on any of the platforms. In fact, I had to use the Market Price from TCGPlayer as the mark. I can say that $350 is a solid price, as I moved a box at that price less than 3 months ago.
This set is good and bad. It’s good as in it was actually printed. After Eye Spy took over, there were discussions of skipping NV4. Calmer minds prevailed though, and we got it. But what we got though was a mixed bag.
Normally, power creep is a slow process. Well, not here. DBV is basically reprints of all the cards from the starter, except Rulers and Master Runes mixed with a lot of overpowered cards. Kaguya, Sealed God of the Moon (DBV-095), Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092), Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009), you get the idea. The other thing that was bad for players was that Eye Spy started there new printing policy. Print to pre-Order and DONE!!!
Thing is, no one knew this on the customer side. I was one myself. I thought I would just grab some boxes at the local shop. But no one seemed to have any. So, it was massively under printed. With the rarity of the set and the power level this is a product that screams to be held onto. Aside from original Valhalla boxes (English version) there are no other boxes worth more.
If you can nab a box for like $200, I would give it an A-. Even at $300 it’s a B.
And with that we can call it done for all the sets to this point. I know I still have to review ADW and ROL, that will be coming, but I like to give it some time to see what the market is doing.
Sorry for the delay in articles, I have started a game store and that has kept me busy for a while. That will likely be the focus of a few articles coming up, but first I will touch on Growing the Community and even discuss OG Valhalla a bit since there really is no real info on it.
But until then, have fun and sling cards.
Dan Rowland
Top Scrub
Owner CCGPrime.com
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