The Pulse
The Pulse: Pokemon Stayed Cleanest as One Piece Narrowed the Gap
W22 did not overturn the trust hierarchy. Pokemon still looked easiest to trust, but One Piece showed the most meaningful improvement beneath the headline winners. MTG stayed constructive without carrying the same second-layer punch as W21, Yu-Gi-Oh remained active but fragmented, and Lorcana stayed the clearest caution lane.
Week 22 did not replace the market hierarchy. It asked whether any market did enough beneath the winners to materially close the gap on Pokemon.
That is what made the week useful. Pokemon still looked like the cleanest place to trust the tape, but One Piece became harder to dismiss because more of the active floor improved underneath the headline names. MTG stayed constructive without carrying the same second-layer force it had a week earlier, Yu-Gi-Oh remained active but fragmented, and Lorcana still worked better as a caution lane than as a central read.
Where W22 Stayed Trustworthy - and Where It Still Split
No new market took the crown, but one of them did close the gap.
Week 22 was not a reset. It was a better test of whether any market could materially improve beneath its winners without pretending the whole floor had turned clean.
Still the cleanest tape
Premium anchors
Mega Greninja ex / top-end Mega Evolution names
Active floor
N's Zekrom / Bulbasaur / Mega Charizard X ex
Even with real losers still in play, this remained the broadest confirmation on the board.
N's Zekrom
N's Zekrom
$9.69 price | +15.15% 1-month change | 4,722 recent transactions
Bulbasaur
Bulbasaur
$37.86 price | +24.89% 1-month change | 3,357 recent transactions
Stronger underneath, still not clean
Premium anchors
Electrical Luna / higher-end winners
Active floor
Gecko Moria / Borsalino / Zoro / Rebecca
This was the market that improved the most without actually earning a clean-floor verdict.
Electrical Luna
Electrical Luna
$7.38 price | +176.65% 1-month change | 2,466 recent transactions
Gecko Moria
Gecko Moria
$7.98 price | +19.71% 1-month change | 2,156 recent transactions
Borsalino
Borsalino
$23.48 price | -8.62% 1-month change | 4,910 recent transactions
Constructive, but less distinctive
Premium anchors
Stronger staples / selective premium names
Active floor
Germination Practicum / Decorum Dissertation / Flow State
The tape remained healthy enough to matter, but it no longer owned the clear second-layer story.
Germination Practicum
Germination Practicum
$11.92 price | +13.55% 1-month change | 1,763 recent transactions
Flow State
Flow State
$3.67 price | -17.24% 1-month change | 3,080 recent transactions
Active but fragmented
Premium anchors
Mixed
Active floor
Mulcharmy Fuwalos / The Fallen & The Virtuous / Clown Crew Flair
The lane remained busy enough to matter, but still looked too split to call stable.
Mulcharmy Fuwalos
Mulcharmy Fuwalos
$8.49 price | +22.64% 1-month change | 2,830 recent transactions
Clown Crew Flair
Clown Crew Flair
$1.65 price | -30.96% 1-month change | 2,088 recent transactions
Still split below the winners
Premium anchors
Akood Et Emuti / headline winners
Active floor
Woody / Jessie / lower-tier weakness
A few strong names still were not enough to repair the lower-participation tape.
Akood Et Emuti
Akood Et Emuti
$6.90 price | +152.48% 1-month change | 860 recent transactions
Jessie - Lively Cowgirl
Jessie - Lively Cowgirl
$2.38 price | -58.35% 1-month change | 1,147 recent transactions
The comparison panel is built from a selected W22 slate. It is meant to clarify market hierarchy, not to stand in for full-market coverage.
Pokemon stayed the easiest market to trust
Pokemon still gave the cleanest answer because the move remained broad above and below the headline cards. Tier A finished 48 up against 8 down with 1 flat card, while Tier B ran 120 up against 23 down. That is not a flawless market, but it is still the strongest confirmation structure on the board.
The best proof again sat closer to the active floor than the trophy end. N's Zekrom gained 15.15 percent with 4,722 tracked transactions. Bulbasaur added 24.89 percent with 3,357 transactions. Even Mega Charizard X ex kept real participation behind the move. The weak spots matter too, especially Meowth ex falling 48.04 percent with 11,527 tracked transactions, but they did not break the broader read the way they would have in a weaker tape.
One Piece narrowed the gap without turning fully clean
The biggest W22 shift came from One Piece. Tier B finished 76 up against 38 down, which is a meaningful improvement underneath the winners compared with W21. Electrical Luna stayed one of the loudest active movers on the board, up 176.65 percent with 2,466 tracked transactions, and Gecko Moria added another positive lane with 2,156 transactions behind it.
One Piece narrowed the gap beneath the winners, but that is not the same as a fully clean floor. Borsalino still fell 8.62 percent with 4,910 tracked transactions. Roronoa Zoro (EB04-007) was down 13.64 percent with 4,604 transactions, and Rebecca dropped 32.57 percent with 4,059 transactions. That makes One Piece harder to dismiss than it was a week ago, but it still leaves too much visible weakness to call the tape broadly clean.
MTG stayed constructive, but lost some distinctiveness
MTG remained constructive, but it no longer felt as distinctive as it did in W21. Tier A still looked healthy, and cards like Germination Practicum plus Decorum Dissertation kept real participation on the positive side. That is enough to keep MTG in the weekly read as a fundamentally healthy lane.
What changed is that the middle no longer stood out in the same way. Flow State fell 17.24 percent with 3,080 tracked transactions. Cauldron of Essence slipped again with 3,041 transactions, and Erode remained active while lower. The tape stayed constructive, but the second-layer read softened enough that MTG no longer owns the clearest supporting role behind Pokemon.
Yu-Gi-Oh stayed active enough to matter
Yu-Gi-Oh still belonged in the weekly read because the market stayed active enough to matter. Mulcharmy Fuwalos gained 22.64 percent with 2,830 tracked transactions, Sky Striker Ace = Zero added 15.71 percent with 2,680 transactions, and The Fallen & The Virtuous climbed 43.66 percent with 1,713 transactions. That is enough activity to keep the lane visible.
It still did not become stable. Clown Crew Flair fell 30.96 percent with 2,088 tracked transactions, and several other active lower-tier names stayed deeply negative. The right way to read Yu-Gi-Oh here is not as a breakout thesis. It is as a market that stayed busy enough to watch while remaining too fragmented to trust in the same way as Pokemon.
Lorcana remained the clearest caution lane
Lorcana stayed the clearest caution example because the lower tier still did not repair itself. Tier B finished 31 up against 55 down even while the top end produced a few compelling winners. That is still not the shape of a market that looks healthy beneath the most attractive names.
Akood Et Emuti gained 152.48 percent, but Woody - Jungle Guide fell 21.54 percent with 1,307 tracked transactions and Jessie - Lively Cowgirl was down 58.35 percent with 1,147 transactions. That keeps Lorcana in the same role it had before: not irrelevant, but still the strongest reminder that headline winners alone are not enough.
What to carry forward
W22 did not give us a new clean leader. It showed which market actually narrowed the gap beneath Pokemon and which ones still did not.
Pokemon remained the easiest tape to trust. One Piece became harder to dismiss without becoming fully clean. MTG stayed healthy but less distinctive. Yu-Gi-Oh remained active but fragmented, and Lorcana stayed the clearest caution lane. That is the part of the weekly read worth carrying forward.
Evidence & Method
TrendApe tracks verified TCGplayer transaction history across each market to separate top-end grails from the cards that absorb most of the weekly activity. The goal is not to reward the noisiest chart. It is to show where buyer support still looks real, where the floor remains unstable, and where the hierarchy of trust actually shifts from one week to the next.
- Source
- TrendApe W22 enriched tiered market memory (TCGplayer)
- Window
- 2026-05-19 to 2026-05-25
- Volume
- Five-market selected slate using repo-grounded W22 enrichment observations.
- Method
- Selected cross-TCG weekly slate using repo-grounded W22 enrichment observations.
- Caveat
- Selected weekly slate, not full-market coverage.
What to Remember
"W22 did not give us a new clean leader. It showed which market actually narrowed the gap beneath Pokemon and which ones still did not."
Pokemon stayed cleanest, One Piece improved without fully turning clean, and the rest of the field still split too much to force a new hierarchy.