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 briefly by Aster Phoenix in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. They were designed by Kazuki Takahashi personally.

It is alleged that the Elemental Heroes draw inspiration from American super heroes, although the cards appearing in the manga generally resemble Japanese super heroes. They are mostly fused in order to summon more powerful monsters. The "Elemental Hero" Fusion Monsters are generally very strong, and are used for gaining the upper hand on an opponent.

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, if not the most supported. 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".

Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters are now much more limited compared to their initial release. Previously, there was no limit on the number of monsters that could be stored in the Fusion Deck, but as of August 2008, with the renaming of Fusion Deck to Extra Deck, you are now limited to a maximum of 15 cards in the Extra Deck. Elemental Hero Deck users must now be very selective about which monsters they plan to Fusion Summon, instead of simply including all possible Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters in their Extra Deck, especially since there are over 15 different Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters to choose from.

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.

Some of the newer Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters that have been released in the OCG, such as Elemental Hero Gaia and Elemental Hero Absolute Zero, don't have specific Fusion Material Monsters, rather, the Fusion Material Monsters for these cards are 1 Elemental Hero, Destiny Hero, or Evil Hero monster, and 1 other monster with the same Attribute as that Fusion Monster.

A fact about the heroes is that most if not almost all have the word man at the end of their name in the OCG, possibly a refference to American super heroes usally having man at the end of their names.