Elemental HERO

The Elemental Hero series are a set of Warrior-Type monsters, with few exceptions, without a specific Attribute, most frequently used by Jaden Yuki and only twice by Aster Phoenix in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. They were designed by Kazuki Takahashi personally, and are themed after comic-book-style superheroes. Elemental Heroes focus heavily upon Fusion Summoning. Most of the primary Elemental Heroes can be fused with one another, allowing for an enormous amount of flexibility and quick power in a dedicated deck.

The Elemental Heroes are also supported by many Spell and Trap Cards, and they can be easily used in combination, besides their fusions, granting the player a myriad of strategies. In order to gain access to the desired Fusion monster for the situation that calls for it, Fusion Substitute Material Monsters and searching options are vital in a good Elemental Hero deck.

The Elemental Heroes are one of the most supported Archetypes in the OCG & TCG. Most of the individual non-fusion Elemental Heros have at least one support card specific to that monster. They can be further supplemented by common Warrior Support Cards such as "Reinforcement of the Army".

The maximum limit of monsters that can be stored in the Extra Deck, previously known as the Fusion Deck, is 15. You are allowed to have as many fusion/synchro monsters you want in the Extra Deck as long as it doesn't exceed the maximum limit of 15 Cards.

The most supported single Elemental Hero monster is "Elemental Hero Neos". It is the only Elemental Hero monster, and possibly the only monster in the game, to be the Fusion Material Monster for 13 different Fusion Monsters. However, the majority of those happen to be with Neo-Spacians, a sub-archetype that is nearly as well-supported as traditional Elemental Heroes are.

Playing Style
Some of "Elemental Heroes" have low ATK, so to support their ATK, you need "The A. Forces" and/or "Skyscraper" to boost the ATK of your "Elemental Hero" monsters. You may need "Wall of Revealing Light" or "Elemental Absorber" to protect your monsters from attacks.

An "Elemental Hero" Deck is focused to the fusion summon in order to get the more powerful monsters with the special abilities. So, "Polymerization" is one of the most essential cards for this Deck. If you want to get Polymerization or Fusion Materials quickly, you may need "Fusion Sage", "Elemental Hero Woodsman", "Elemental Hero Stratos", "Reinforcement of the Army", "E - Emergency Call", "Heart of the Underdog", and some monsters which can be subtitutions for the Fusion Materials. You also can multiply "Elemental Heroes"' Fusion Summons by using "Miracle Fusion".

To revive your "Elemental Hero" monsters and create more Fusion Summons, you can use "Skyscraper 2 - Hero City", "O - Oversoul", "Elemental Hero Ocean", "Elemental Hero Woodsman", and "The Creator", If you want to Fusion Summon the "Elemental Heroes" without waiting for "Polymerization", "Future Fusion" or "Fusion Gate" will be the best choice. If your Elemental Heroes were sent to Graveyard, you can fuse them with "Miracle Fusion".

Though generally "Elemental Hero" monsters (excluding Fusions) are used merely for fusions and seen as weak monsters, there are a few notable Effect Heroes such as; Another Strategy is to use Fusion Substitute Monsters such as "King of the Swamp" to avoid using weaker Elemental Heroes. Another one card to put in a deck like this is "Freed the Matchless General."
 * "Elemental Hero Wildheart" - Wildheart is unaffected by all Trap Cards, meaning his attacks are difficult to prevent. Combos include Torrential Tribute after Summoning him, leaving only him on the field.
 * "Elemental Hero Stratos" - This card can be used for either fetching any Elemental, Destiny or Evil Hero monster from your deck or destroying your opponent's backfield. Basically an essential for any Hero deck("Elemental", "Destiny", or "Evil").
 * "Elemental Hero Ocean" - Ocean can be used to recycle fusion material monster or to recycle Stratos.
 * "Elemental Hero Woodsman" - Woodsman makes the use of Fusion Monsters a much simpler task by pulling "Polymerization" from the Deck or recycling it from the Graveyard.

Evil Heroes
This version has fewer Elemental Heroes than the other variants, and sometimes does not even use "Miracle Fusion"; however, "Dark Calling" is one of the deck's strong points. Unlike other versions, in which "Evil Hero Malicious Edge" will sometimes be used as tech, he is always used in this version, along with other powerful DARK monsters such as "Gorz the Emissary of Darkness", "Caius the Shadow Monarch", and "Snipe Hunter". The deck uses DARK support such as "Mystic Tomato" or "Armageddon Knight" to quickly place "The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion" in the graveyard and "Elemental Hero Prisma" to quickly place Heroes in the graveyard for fusion. Cards like "Dimension Fusion" and "Return from the Different Dimension" that return removed monsters to the field are also used, both to recycle Fusion Material Monsters and to push to finish the game. This deck has lost much face since the banning of Dimension Fusion and the limitation of Return from the Different Dimension.

Hero Beatdown
This deck focuses on four Elemental Heroes: "Wildheart", "Bladedge", "Sparkman", "Necroshade", and the five fusions between these monsters: "Elemental Hero Necroid Shaman", "Elemental Hero Darkbright", "Elemental Hero Plasma Vice", "Elemental Hero Wildedge" and "Elemental Hero Gaia". Three of these fusions get Necroshade into the Graveyard to allow Bladedge to be summoned without Tribute, and three are fusions with Bladedge itself, putting a strong monster on the field (one of which does piercing damage, another of which can attack all monsters the opponent controls.) Monster Reincarnation allows you to discard "Elemental Hero Necroshade" to get "Elemental Hero Bladedge", therefore, summon him onto the field. This is the most straightforward "brute force" Elemental Hero deck build and relatively easy to use because of the synergy between these four material monsters, but it lacks overall flexibility but cards like "Elemental Hero Stratos" and "Elemental Hero Prisma" help a lot to keep hand advantage, and they become more useful as fusion material thanks to "Elemental Hero Gaia". Also, cards like "Royal Decree", "Jinzo" and "Magic Jammer" are needed to prevent your opponent from activating any spells and/or traps. "Sakuretsu Armor" and "Mirror Force" should be used to prevent attacks and clear the field.

Elemental Recycle
The main focus of this deck is to continuously recycle cards needed to fuse E-Heroes, using mainly "Stratos", "Ocean", and "Woodsman". Though it fares well in battles of attrition, it currently lacks the explosive plays necessary for competitive decks today. If you manage to fusion summon "Elemental Hero Tempest", use its effect to make itself, "Ocean", and "Woodsman" invulnerable to attacks. You can send Heroes and "Polymerization(s)" to the graveyard for its effect, and then recover them with the other two monsters.

Knospe Beatdown
This deck is similar to the recycle deck, in that "Stratos", "Ocean", and "Woodsman" are used to summon any fusion monster. But it also takes from the Big City deck because it uses "Skyscraper 2 - Hero City" to swarm. The focus of this deck is to have Elemental Heroes that are hard to destroy, along with "Elemental Hero Knospe", to continually attack the opponent directly. Battle protection aside, you should also include cards that protect your monsters from effects like "Destruction Jammer". You can also combine this deck with "Lady Heat" strategy.

Bubbleman Burn
The Bubbleman Burn Deck is a very fast version of the Burn Deck, which uses cards like "Elemental Hero Bubbleman" and "Card of Sanctity" to draw Normal or Quick-Play Spell Cards which inflict damage. These decks are made up mostly of one-time burn cards and self-milling cards that go to the Graveyard after they are used, making "Elemental Hero Bubbleman" and "Card of Sanctity" more playable. Stall cards are not recommended, since the drawing effect of Bubbleman won't trigger if there are cards on the field. The only trap card recommended is "Magical Explosion", often used as a finisher in this deck.

Lady Heat Burn
This deck runs a lot like a Big City deck. this deck mostly revolves around getting "Elemental Hero Lady Heat" out fast and using her effect to do damage to your opponent's life points. Lady Heat can be searched out with cards like "E - Emergency Call", "Sangan", or "Elemental Hero Stratos". When she is sent to the graveyard, you can use "Skyscraper 2 - Hero City" or "Elemental Hero Ocean" to get "Elemental Hero Stratos" back. Another useful card is "Hero's Bond". The fusions are not required, but are a good option in case the whole Lady Heat strategy fails. You can also combine this deck with the "Knopse" strategy.

Chaos Heroes
With Chaos Sorcerer Elemental heroes can utilize the Twilight build, using "Elemental Hero Prisma" to send any LIGHT material monster such as "Elemental Hero Sparkman" or "Elemental Hero Neos", and then with the help of "Armageddon Knight" you can send any DARK Fusion material such as "The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion" for any Fusion material wise, or DARK Fiend-Type, most notably "Caius the Shadow Monarch" or even "Versago the Destroyer" for "Evil Hero Dark Gaia. After send enough material you can choose to summon using either "Miracle Fusion","Dark Calling" or "Chaos Sorcerer". The main weakness of this deck is when you use the Fusion material as a Chaos fodder, you tend to lose the Fusion material for later use. To solve this problem you can use "Burial from a Different Dimension", "Miracle Dig" or "Parallel World Fusion" in the OCG. Another solution is using "Elemental Hero Voltic" with its ability to special summon "Elemental heroes" that are removed from play when it inflicts battle damage. However with the 2010 March banlist Chaos sorcerer has been limited once again and therefor this deck has lost some of it's efficiency.

Neos Beatdown
This potent varient features "Wrath of Neos" to clear the field when a player runs into trouble. The deck uses Light-attribute monsters, such as: "Elemental Hero Neos"; "Elemental Hero Neos Alius" and "Elemental Hero Prisma". This means generic Light support (most notably "Honest") is very effective in the deck. The most devastating combo in the deck is to use Prisma's effect to send a copy of "Elemental Hero Neos" to the graveyard. Prisma's name is then treated as "Elemental Hero Neos" and so, he can be used with "Wrath of Neos". Afterwards, "O - Oversoul" can be played to revive the "Elemental Hero Neos" in the Graveyard, who can then attack the opponent directly. Other support cards work well in this deck like: "Elemental Hero Stratos" and "E - Emergency Call".

Weakness
Elemental Heroes, being strong in the long run, lack the beginning strength. Since most rely on fusions to remain in the game long enough to bring Neos and his fusions out, a good anti-spell deck will eliminate the activation and use of "Polymerization" and fusion spells. Also a deck with the ability to destroy Fusions, before and after summoning, will also make it easy to take down an E-Hero deck.