Destiny Heroes' Current Reign – Advanced Format

Article by Edward Sun

 

Introduction

For a very long time in the Yu-gi-oh! Trading Card Game, decks that contain Destiny Heroes (D-Heroes) have boasted power above most other decks. We saw this with Marc Glass's Shonen Jump Championship (SJC) win in Columbus. After that, forums were filled with D-Hero chatter and ways to counter Diamond Dude Turbo (DDT), Marc Glass's deck. Not too long after that, a new deck won SJC Anaheim, Demise OTK. Then, all the players began countering that deck. But, despite that entire craze about the Demise OTK, DDT was still feared up until UDE limited Magical Stone Excavation, a key card in Diamond Dude Turbo, to one copy per deck. Then, all DDT decks failed to triumph. Then, at SJC Philadelphia, Jessey Samek won with his own variant of a D-Hero deck. At the sight of this, many Yu-gi-oh! Players thought it would fail to win another tournament, as did Demist OTK. But, at SJC Minneapolis, Shane Scurry won with his Destiny-Hero Beatdown deck. Now, I have am one of those people that think Shane Scurry's deck will fall in the future, so I have come up with a new idea that includes D-Heroes, and is still rather competitive.

 

The Deck

My deck is rather fast-paced, not as fast as DDT, but not as slow as other theme-based decks. It focuses mainly on swarming the field with monsters, taking advantage of special summons. A key card, Destiny Hero – Dasher, is used repeatedly not for his ability to sacrifice one of your monsters to raise its attack to 3100, but for his excellent effect of being able to special summon a monster during your draw phase when he is in the graveyard. Before I show you the deck, I must thank Chris, from Pojo.com, for posting a deck idea that made me brainstorm a better and faster way to play D-Heroes. His idea was to create a less expensive, yet competitive, D-Hero deck. Thank you Chris!

 

Dasher Reckless Swarm

Main Deck:

1 Elemental Hero Ocean

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

3 Destiny Hero - Malicious

3 Destiny Hero - Dasher

2 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude

1 Jinzo

2 Gravekeeper's Spy

2 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger

2 Exiled Force

1 Spirit Reaper

3 Card Trooper

1 Destiny Hero – Disk Commander

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Premature Burial

3 Smashing Ground

1 Destiny Draw

2 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Creature Swap

1 Monster Gate

1 Snatch Steal

1 D-Shield

2 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Mirror Force

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Torrential Tribute

Analyzing the Deck

As you can see, my deck, "Dasher Reckless Swarm," consists of exactly forty cards and is more balanced in terms of Monster cards and Spell/Trap cards than the regular Diamond Dude Turbo deck. The deck is rather unusual, but works very well. Elemental Hero Stratos and Elemental Hero Ocean are included for their rather spectacular support capabilities for D-Heroes. Stratos allows us to search out a Dasher for the deck's main purpose, attacking aggressively with him, and then letting him go to the graveyard so that we can use his excellent effect again. Ocean, on the other hand, is for allowing us to re-use Dasher's special ability, by returning him from our graveyard back to our hand. He also allows us to re-use Stratos's special ability.

 

The three Destiny Hero – Malicious's are included because of their extreme help in bringing out Dasher and Jinzo. Once in the graveyard, we can remove Malicious from play to special summon another copy of him onto the field, not wasting our normal summon for the turn. Then, we can tribute him for Dasher or Jinzo, while at the same time maintaining field advantage. Malicious alone won't be enough tribute fodder for all three Dashers and Jinzo, so we should include more help as well. Gravekeeper's Spy's are included in the mix. They help with card advantage and stabilize field presence. With so many very useful normal spells included in our deck, the inclusion of Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude couldn't be ignored either. Also, D-Shield works rather well with him.

 

Multiple copies of Card Trooper are included because without them, Destiny Hero – Malicious wouldn't be as effective. Only Destiny Draw could send him to the graveyard without the aid of Card Trooper. With Card Trooper, we will have a chance every turn to send him to the graveyard, plus sending three cards at a time, directly from the deck. His second effect of being able to draw a card when he is sent to the graveyard could also not be ignored. We need draw power; it keeps our deck fast – paced and competitive.

 

One question arose, though: Why the inclusion of Destiny Hero – Disk Commander? He is another form of draw power, and combined with search card such as Reinforcement of the Army and Elemental Hero Stratos and cards that will bring him back like Premature Burial, he will speed up this deck even more. His low Attack and Defense scores are not a problem. We have included two Creature Swaps. He could also be tributed for Dasher.

 

Playing the Deck Correctly

To play this deck correctly, you must first familiarize yourself with the cards in the deck. Without doing this, you will constantly be confused in tense dueling situations. First of all, you have to understand the concept of the deck. The deck is meant to use and re-use the effect of Destiny Hero – Dasher to special summon cards like Jinzo and other Dashers. Of course, you must first send Dasher to the graveyard. The effects of Card Trooper, Destiny Draw, or battle can do this. It is generally easy to be destroyed in battle, because of his effect of changing to defense position after attacking. This means you must attack with him aggressively. Never equip D-Shield to him, or else you will have a great deal of trouble using his effect. D-Shield should only be used in desperate measures, on D-Hero Diamond Dude.

 

Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the concept of the deck, we have to move on to the style. This deck should be played aggressively, being aware of the opponent's spell/trap cards. Jinzo is an excellent way to attack safely, but most of the time, you won't have to tribute summon him unless you need to. Destiny Hero – Fear Monger has a remarkable effect, but it will be useless if you don't use him correctly. Never set him if you have no D-Heroes in your graveyard. I made that mistake once, and it cost me my duel.

 

Doing Well Against the Metagame

This deck will do particularly well against Gadgets, as they will use their resources on your monsters, and Dasher can be sent to the graveyard rather easily. Beware of their Hydrogeddons, though, since they will crash through your Malicious's and Fear Mongers. Gravekeeper's Spy will do fairly against them. Monarchs, on the other hand, are rather tedious to handle. Creature Swap will absolutely devastate them. Most of the time, they will force you to use Creature Swap. I have used a Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, an attack position Malicious, and a Fear Monger. They can actually turn the entire duel in your favor. Monarchs, however, will maintain field presence greater than you can, and you must be cautious about that. Don't waste your resources on their weaker cards like Gravekeeper's Spy. You must save them for their monarchs, or else you will lose miserably.

 

Against other D-Hero decks, this one should prove to be worthy. They won't be able to exploit many weaknesses, and the duel will mainly change depending on topdecked cards. Matchups against Demise OTK, though, will completely rely on topdecks and whether your opponent drew game first turn. Either they defeat you badly, or you defeat them badly.

 

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