Hero Rulers in Yu-Gi-Oh!

On September 1st, 2013, there was a deck that was officially killed off by the ban-hammer. A fan favorite, even: Heroes. Heores (be it Evil, Destiny, Elemental, etc.) died due to their main man, Stratos, going. Stratos was the only reason the deck still had a pulse, let alone saw people playing it. Heroes, for the longest time, was just a for-fun deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! anyway, due to more powerful decks stepping up.

And on January 1st, 2014 in the TCG world of Yu-Gi-Oh! (so basically everywhere except like Japan and a few other Asian nations), there another deck, unanimously, died in the community. Dragon Rulers were slain and I rejoiced for days.



Yet now, in the January 2014 format where I still struggle with Evilswarms, I find myself faced with something. A rare moment of inspiration. And it starts, with the two decks I once thought dead.

The Dragon Rulers in a deck all by themselves provide nothing more but greatly increased potential, that much is obvious. They are broken cards when en mass, but, when not, they are pretty cool cards to play with. Not to mention they troll your opponent for days.

Anyway, I was just thinking today and remembered that the old name for Dragon Rulers was "Elemental Dragons." Funny, I thought, sort of like "Elemental Heroes."

Now back at home I have a small for-fun deck that centers around Dragons with some E-Heroes splashed in just for the heck of it, to provide some Fusion fun. But it got me to thinking. Elemental Hero fusions, at least the commonly played ones, will usually require "One Elemental Hero + (insert Attribute here)" such as The Shining, Absolute Zero, Great Tornado, etc.

Absolute Zero = E-Hero plus Water
Great Tornado = E-Hero plus Wind
Gaia = E-Hero plus Earth
Nova Master = E-Hero plus Fire

Wait, wait wait. Water? Tidal. Wind? Tempest. Earth? Redox. Fire? Blaster.

The Dragon Rulers...they could be used with Elemental Heroes! This could unite the dead decks and create something truly awesome!

I had to act fast, and I had to think fast. What benefits could there be? There was a lot of unrecognized potential at first. Most Hero variations revolve around Fusion Gate, which means banished monsters and that usually only helps out cards like The Shining and Voltic. Great, but, how do Dragon Rulers fit in?

Beautifully. See, if you don't know (if you don't know and you play Yu-Gi-Oh! you need to re-evaluate your stance in the game, these things are freaking everywhere still somehow), Dragon Rulers get their third effect when they are banished, allowing you to grab one (insert Attribute here) Dragon monster from your deck to your hand.

Knowing this, I looked at the generic Elemental Hero skeleton: 3 Neos Alius, 3 Voltic, and usually 3 Bubbleman, plus maybe a Prisma for funsies. Obviously the Dragon Rulers I had to play in totality. That took care of monsters, but regarding spells, there was Miracle Fusion, Mask Change, Fusion Gate, and Super Polymerization. Mask Change, I knew, was going to clog in both the Main Deck and in the Extra Deck. But Fusion Gate and Miracle Fusion brought greatness to the table, it brought me a way to capitalize on both the great E-Hero cards and on the Dragon Rulers.

First, Fusion Gate and Miracle Fusion banish the Fusion material monsters in order to Fusion summon. Already that works perfectly with Dragon Rulers, since it allows me to snag a new monster, so it's essentially cost-free since I get a card back. But that's not all. Elemental Hero The Shining gains Attack Points for each Elemental Hero that is banished. Fantastic.

Fusion Gate, though, has a broken element to it. You can Fusion Summon as many times as you want. So if you have an Elemental Hero on board and a new Dragon in your hand, you can Fusion Summon again. I didn't realize it at first, but there are huge advantages to this through Elemental Hero Absolute Zero. You want to try and summon him out first, he's the key to the deck essentially functioning.

In testing, Absolute Zero proved to be the MVP (I'm still testing, but, for now he's the main card I go after every time). You want to bring him out with an E-Hero and Tidal. That way, you have a 2500 ATK monster with a stupid awesome effect and you get Tidal's effect off, allowing you to get yet another water-Dragon monster. Personally, I play Blizzard Dragon because it is level 4 and allows me to go into Exciton Knight when I need to. You shouldn't need to that much, for a reason I am about to explain.

With Fusion Gate still on board and with Absolute Zero still there, you have another big play to make. You fusion summon Absolute Zero with the new water monster in your hand to make a second Absolute Zero. This, due to Absolute Zero's effect, clears your opponent's field of all its monsters. And in a format where, now, few people are playing attack-negating cards to compensate for combo pieces, this is huge. If you can wipe clean your opponent's field of it's Baby Raccoons and leave just the Xyz, you've got a good chance of doing serious damage.

And even after that play is over, if they destroy Absolute Zero with monsters on their field, you not only blow up their field but now have an Elemental Hero susceptible to a Miracle Fusion in the Graveyard, meaning you can potentially go into your third Absolute Zero or any of your other Elemental Heroes if need be.

I did this play a lot and absolutely smashed Blackwings, a deck that historically has given me problems. It was brutal, but I was having so much fun. The problem is that this Deck is kind of like UCF, it plays to it's competition. I haven't played Fire Fist or Mermail, but, I'm willing to bet I could go toe-to-toe with those Decks with my Hero Rulers (it's what I call them for fun). But I just played a deck that was a Maximilian Pegasus variant and struggled. It didn't make much sense, but I didn't really care, because I was having a blast dueling. And that's what matters.

Of course, the decks is with flaws. Most of your opening hands may be without an Elemental Hero, or if you do have one, the rest of your cards may be like Fusion Gate, Royal Decree (yeah, I only run three Royal Decrees to keep space tight and have my explosive Spells and monsters ready), and two Miracle Fusions. Not too great to play with, but, it's happened before and I've won. So yeah.

The decks that slaughter mine are, of course, Evilswarms (I HATE Ophion so much), I lost to a stupid stall/ burn deck because of a Magic Cylinder on the last turn, and any Deck that mains Imperial Iron Wall (to stop Fusion Gate and Miracle Fusion from letting me Fusion Summon/ Special Summon). Also if you have a Relinquished, a Big Eye, or anything that can snatch your monster, you're essentially screwed because that means you have to reset all your plays with the probability of most of your cards being banished with no return (since Return from the Different Dimension has been banned as of January).

Yet like I said, the deck is adaptable. When it needs to be slow and set up plays, it can be. When it needs to plow through itself in order to get critical monsters on the field, it can. Really all it comes down to is: 1. Do you have a Dragon Ruler in your hand/ on your field? 2. Do you have an Elemental Hero in your hand/ on your field? 3. Do you have Fusion Gate ready as a Field Spell?

If you answer yes to those questions, then my friend, welcome. To the return of the dead decks:
Hero Rulers!

See you next time!