Yusei, Yusei, YUSEI...

Give him a break, Konami...or at least market him right.

For the uninformed, Yusei is the main character of YGO: 5D's. His main card is "Stardust Dragon," a card that is both good in the game and appealing because it's a turbo-charged (*SHOT*) Blue-Eyes White Dragon. All of Yusei's cards will make it into sets, but only one is worth 9.99 USD as a Super Rare.

That's the lowest foil rarity you can give a card, in case you were wondering.

What gives, Konami? You used to be the best at reprinting cards from the anime. You made so many Dark Magicians, Blue-Eyes, and Red-Eyes that people almost got sick of them. There were tins with those cards, and they were readily available in character-themed starter/structure decks. Now that the main character's biggest monster is actually useful*, Konami is straying from its usual "print the hell out of it" formula.

Don't believe me? Look up "Stardust Dragon" on eBay. I'll be patient.

...

Did you do it? NO? Whaddya mean, you went and got a soda instead?! Go look up that dragon. NOW.

...

If you did look it up, you would notice one thing right off the bat: Stardust Dragon itself is pretty expensive. Its forms (/Buster (Assault Mode) and Savior (Majestic) Star Dragon) are a lot cheaper. The next mini-tin will have a Trap card called "Stardust Road," which, upon activation, summons a free Stardust Dragon from your Extra deck. Stardust is everywhere; perhaps it's all that remains in Konami's collective brain.

Konami is, obviously, trying to juice this dragon hard. A little too hard. They have all but forgotten that you need a Stardust Dragon to use, or make the most out of, these cards. Printing the support cards and forms ad nauseam warrants printing more of the base card- in this case, Stardust Dragon.

But they aren't doing it. WHY THE HELL NOT?

Konami seems to have a chronic phobia of releasing useful cards at sane rarities (at least in areas outside of Japan**). This coincides with their past unwillingness to print many character cards in any rarity without foil, which has since been remedied. Stardust is a playble character card; no easy Stardust for us.

That needs to be fixed ASAP. It will fix the rich-poor imbalance that has always been in the game and put money in Konami's pocket. Can they not see that this is win-win?

More importantly, can they not see that there are other characters with useful deck types waiting to be marketed? I personally know a Crow fangirl, and Black Feathers are a useful deck. The same could be said for Aki's Plant cards. Jack Atlas has a 3000-ATK monster with almost as many forms as Stardust and a decent effect. I'm sure there are other characters who have perfectly usable themes that, at the very least, merit a Duelist Pack. Even in Japan, Yusei is the only character that gets his own pack; that's not cool. People would pay big money for a pack with a Rare Black Rose Dragon or Armor Master. Yusei is not the only character on the planet; if he was, I'm sure 5D's would not have the fanbase that it has.

You have the playability factor. You have the character appeal. Successfully Synchro Summon them for the ultimate marketing combo and you will win, Konami.

*No offense meant to Dark Magician, Red-Eyes, or Blue-Eyes fans. They are all useful in their own decks. Stardust just so happens to have an effect that allows it to fit into almost every deck on the planet.

**Stardust Dragon was released in the Japanese Yusei Duelist Pack 1 as a normal (silver-letter) Rare. The Japanese Duelist Packs are usually done right; the Johan pack, for instance, had a silver-letter Rare Value, which was a staple in ANY Crystal Beast deck at the time. The rarity issue concerning character cards is also absent in the Asian game; the original Kaiba structure had 3 different Blue-Eyes White Dragons as commons, as well as a common BEUD and Crush Card Virus. You can stop salivating now.

(As for WHY this gap happened, I could get into the sticky mire that calls itself internet forum 'discussion,' but that's worth a post in and of itself.)