In one more week, the BT9 will be officially distributed for Japan and Asia region, and today Bandai has revealed all the cards and its 18 parallel arts. Looking at these cards remind us the same quality as BT8-New Hero set, because the best arts do not belong to secret rare cards.
Here I would like to list them into the ranking in my opinion and the price prediction for them. Do let me know if you have different idea.
The Least Favourite: GrandisKuwagamon and Grademon
Insect-type Digimon has never been players or collectors or Digimon fans favourite even if they are in top tier meta. This card's art is illustrated by Tonamikanji, the artist who always shows the most clean and clear image for the Digimon's body. His best arts so far, in my opinion, are all the Sitermon AA arts and the BT7 Flamemon. But for this BT9 GrandisKuwagamon AA, there is nothing special and unique for the art, I predict this card would be the cheapest AA in BT9 set.
[BT9-064] Grademon is also drawn by Tonamikanji. We rarely see the LV5 black Digimon AA art that bring the pleasant to our eyes, because of its black color for the inherited effect area that is hard to match with the overall theme of the card. I feel this card's art is very normal and it doesn't look like an AA art. Beside, Grademon is not a famous Digimon, he will only support the Alphamon deck in BT9.
I don't think it is hard to own one of it (cheap), and the normal AA like this would have a higher pull rate in a carton.
Alphamon and Raguelmon
Alphamon and Raguelmon are both illustrated by Tonamikanji. The art for Raguelmon has a good mix in color of purple and orange while the Alphamon brings us the same feeling when we look at Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode (.illustrated by Sasasi).
These cards are not going to be expensive in the market as our prediction, because Raguelmon deck is not going to be in top-tier and Alphamon, even though he has many fans, but players would prefer the BT6 SEC Alphamon for this BT9 meta instead of BT9 Alphamon, less demand causes cheaper the price.
Rookie AA cards: Good for collection
Meicoomon and Jellymon are nice to collect, but Agumon X and Gabumon X will have the same price as BT6 Agumon Gabumon AA art in the early meta, it means they are not cheap.
Takase is famous and well known for drawing Rookie AA for Digimon Card Game. You can check out in your binder for the whole rookie series in BT7 set and other set. Both Meicoomon and Jellymon in BT9 are cute and adorable. The Meicoomon would be useful for Raguel deck while Jellymon may be not so useful in BT9 meta, but I would be happy to have 1 of her in my binder.
Both Agumon and Gabumon X are illustrated by Tonamikanji. These are going to be expensive because WarGreymonX and MetalGarurumonX are going to be tier-1 in BT9 meta.
As'Maria series of X-antibody
As'Maria is one of my favourite artist in DTCG. He is the original creator of the light of X-antibody so we are not surprised that he draw many X-antibody AA arts for this set
All of As'Maria arts in this set gives the romance feel, LOLx, they are mix in pink as the main theme of the art. Many players don't like Magnamon because he looks too thin in this pose and somehow the normal art looks more powerful.
For the pricing, the WargreymonX and MetalGaruruX will be expensive because we predict them would be tier-1 in BT9 meta. The Gaioumon and MagnamonX may be less expensive, but not so cheap compared to other AA cards, because … well, they are As'Maria arts.
Secret Rare AA: A Bit Dissapointed.
Alphamon: Ouryuken mode and Dexmon AA arts are both illustrated by Sasasi, the artist that draw almost all the Secret Rare AA cards so far. But I am a bit disappointed for what he provides us in BT9 set.
There is not so much different between the normal art and the parallel art of Dexmon, same theme same color even though 2 different artists drew them.
The Alphamon: Ouryuken mode, the last card revealed, have brought my disappointment to the lowest. I am not the fan of the art that the Digimon weapon takes almost half space of the art. Not only that, this art is not classic, not elegant and underwhelming.
Even though these arts are not my favourite but they are secret rare, and they are also the hidden potential in BT9 meta that may bring us many creative decks, especially Dexmon. Their prices may not be around $100 or something, and SEC AA is somehow easier to pull compared to some other SR AA cards, so they are still affordable.
DexDorugoramon is also illustrated by Sasasi, he is not an SEC but I think he will be expensive as well. People will need 4 copies of DexDorugora if they want to max-bling Dex deck.
My most-wanted in the list: Naochika Morishita arts
I always love NaochikaMorishita arts, since the BT2 SEC AA Beelzemon and Blackwargreymon.
His arts can somehow show the feeling and trait of that Digimon. We can feel Ordinemon sadness, darkness and pain in that image, and a Omegamon Merciful Mode looks glorious with the white wings, like some angels descending from the digital sky. I think these 2 card will be relatively hard to pull from BT9 set.
For now we don't see many decks use Omnimon Merciful Mode, or rather we don't know how to use him yet. He may not be popular in this meta or a deck would put maximum 1 or 2 copies of him for the tech. It is the same with Ordinemon. People would hunt them for their arts instead, and Omnimon Merciful Mode is very popular too.