Destiny HERO

The Destiny Hero series are a set of DARK Attribute Warrior-Type monsters and support cards introduced by Aster Phoenix in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and in Enemy of Justice, with further support in Duelist Pack 5: Aster Phoenix and also in Phantom Darkness. Since their debut, they have been believed to be an anti-thesis to the Elemental Heroes as specific cards somewhat resemble Elemental Heroes.

The main focus of Destiny Heroes revolves around taking defensive action while increasing the user's card advantage and field presence. This is necessary to set up the summoning of Destiny Hero - Dogma and Destiny Hero - Plasma, both extremely powerful monsters that require three Tributes to be Special Summoned from the Hand. The majority of all other Destiny Heroes have low ATK and are poor offensively, but often have great utility for maintaining field presence and forms of card advantage over the opponent. For example, the first Hero monster to be Forbidden, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, has very weak ATK and DEF but lets its controller draw two cards when it is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, and Destiny Hero - Defender has such an enormously high DEF that most monsters cannot destroy it by battle.

These cards may resemble British anti-heroes and there are several references to British culture within the cards. There is an emphasis in the passage of time in most Destiny Hero card effects, as opposed to the more immediate effects of Elemental Heroes.

Naming
In the original Japanese anime, the names of the basic Destiny Heroes all begin with "D", with a few exceptions. In the same respect, the basic Destiny Heroes' names usually ended with "Guy", with a few exceptions like "Destiny Hero - Bloo-D", which became "Destiny Hero - Plasma" in the TCG. Bloo-D has the "D" at the end instead of the beginning of its name and "Dread Servant" didn't have "Guy" at the end of its names.

Although Destiny End Dragoon (a card used by Aster Phoenix in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in his duel against Chazz Princeton) does not have "Destiny Hero" in its card name, many people still consider it to be a Destiny Hero monster, and the most powerful D-monster.

Appearances
The Destiny Heroes were designed by Aster Phoenix's father. After he was killed, Aster inherited the cards, although one was stolen by The D.

The stolen card, was known as the "Ultimate D Card". Aster made it his business to find this card to avenge his father.

The "Ultimate D Card" was "Destiny Hero - Plasma", while the "Final D Card" was "Destiny End Dragoon".

Relation to other "Hero" monsters
Currently, the only Destiny Hero-related card that involves Elemental Heroes is "D - Time". However, "Elemental Hero" cards such as "Elemental Hero Stratos", "Elemental Hero Ocean", "Elemental Hero Divine Neos", "Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy", and "Hero's Bond" include "Destiny Heroes" in their support. "Elemental Hero Phoenix Enforcer" and "Elemental Hero Shining Phoenix Enforcer" can be considered pseudo-Destiny Heroes as they have only been owned and used to date by Aster Phoenix, and their Japanese name also have "Guy" at the end.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Destiny Heroes are the perfect archetype for stalling an opponent until you draw key cards you need to resolve a tight situation or to finish an opponent off. Some classic examples of Destiny Hero effects are they cannot be destroyed by battle during the turn they are Special Summoned with "Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster"'s effect, or that when "Destiny Hero - Fear Monger" is destroyed by battle, it can Special Summon a Destiny Hero monster during your next Standby Phase etc. With the Field Spell Card "Clock Tower Prison", in 4 or less turns you will be impervious to Battle Damage and when destroyed, you can Special Summon a "Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster" to swarm the field with Destiny Heroes and overtake your opponent's card advantages.

They all have 2 great weaknesses however: Their ATK points are very low and therefore a player can be easily defeated with Battle Damage if they don't have a card effect like "Clock Tower Prison" to protect themselves with. For example, "Destiny Hero - Dasher" has appropriate ATK points of 2100, but in-order to power it up, you need to tribute 1 other monster. That will make you lose Field Advantage and on the other hand, when it attacks, it must be changed to Defense Position. The other weakness is that they sometimes defend too much which an opponent will soon have drew cards to have the ability to destroy Destiny Hero defenses. For example, "Destiny Hero - Defender" has a colossal DEF of 2700, and can be Normal Summoned or Set, however its backfire effect is that during each of your opponent's Standby Phasees, they get to draw 1 card, which sooner or later have major Hand Advantage.

Destiny Heroes also have several advantages due to their weaknesses: Since they are DARK monsters and they usually have 1500 ATK or less, they can be Special Summoned through the effect of "Mystic Tomato" and "Dark General Freed". Since their card effects usually activate in the Graveyard, you can let them activate first, and then remove them from play to Special Summon "Rainbow Dark Dragon" which will give you a chance to defeat your opponent.

Basic Destiny Hero Deck
Basic Destiny Hero play revolves around stalling the opponent (using D-Shield, Destiny Hero - Defender or a 4-counter Clock Tower Prison) long enough to gain enough hand and field advantage to summon the top-level monsters,"Destiny Hero - Dogma", "Destiny Hero - Plasma" and sometimes even Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster. Foolish Burial is an important staple in this deck, to get Malicious and Dasher into the Graveyard, as is Elemental Hero Stratos. The quickest way to get the top-level cards summoned is to already have one monster on the field (usually Defender or a D-shielded monster), Special summoning another monster to the field using one of the many available effects, then Normal Summoning Elemental Hero Stratos, and using Stratos' effect to search out Dogma or Plasma before tributing all three for the top-level summon.

Destiny Hero decks, when properly used, have immense drawing power, thanks to the effects of Destiny Draw and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander. It is not uncommon to be ten or more cards ahead of your opponent thanks to this. Using Appropriate in combination with Destiny Hero - Defender's effect can allow you to draw even more cards while stalling your opponent. You could also combine Destiny Hero - Defender's effect with Greed to stall your opponent and do an additional 500 points of damage a turn. A wonderful, general use counter trap card, Dark Bribe can also be coupled with Appropriate.

Other staples important for Destiny Hero decks include Reinforcement of the Army, The Warrior Returning Alive, Dandylion, and, due to their low ATK and DARK attribute, Crush Card Virus. (Traditional Format only)

The spell card, Fires of Doomsday, may be used as tributes to special summon Plasma or Dogma.

Diamond Dude Turbo

 * Main article: Diamond Dude Turbo

Diamond Dude Turbo (DDT) is a popular Deck type, that takes advantage of "Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude's" effect. Because costs are not necessary for using Spell Cards with Diamond Dude's effect, players gain card advantage with cards such as "Destiny Draw" and "Magical Stone Excavation". Also with "Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude's" effect with "Convulsion Of Nature" you can see what spell cards that you will use.

"Destiny Hero - Dasher" and "Destiny Hero - Malicious"(, whose effects can be activated in the Graveyard,) are included, since the Deck features many discard effects also capable of sending "Malicious" and "Dasher" to the Graveyard.

"Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade" is used to remove "Destiny Heroes" and other Warrior-Type monsters in your Graveyard from play. "Dimension Fusion" would be used to Special Summon the removed monsters. Using "Diamond Dude's" effect players could get around the large cost associated with "Dimension Fusion".

With the release of Phantom Darkness players now have access to "Allure of Darkness" and "Dark Armed Dragon" which provides more ways to remove monsters from play. "Allure of Darkness" also works well with the general theme of the deck as the main focus of the deck is quickly drawing cards and overwhelming your opponent with powerful monsters. "Dark Magician of Chaos" was also a popular monster to have in the deck as it helps to bring back powerful Spell Cards. "Fires of Doomsday" can help you summon powerful monsters like "Jinzo" and "Destiny Hero - Dasher".

Currently this deck is no longer viable, since most of its key cards (namely Reasoning and Monster Gate, Dimension Fusion, and Return from the Different Dimension) were either Limited or Banned.

Perfect Circle

 * Main article: Perfect Circle

A popular type of Destiny Hero deck in tournaments is popularly known as Perfect Circle. This Deck utilizes the Destiny Heroes that can generate a lot of resource and field advantage, such as "Destiny Hero - Disk Commander" and "Destiny Hero - Malicious". Other cards that help the player getting these cards out quickly include "Reinforcement of the Army" and "Elemental Hero Stratos". "Destiny Hero - Fear Monger" is also used to help use "Destiny Hero - Disk Commander's" effect. The revived "Destiny Hero - Disk Commander" can then be Tributed to Tribute Summon any of the Monarchs or "Light and Darkness Dragon".

"Destiny Hero - Disk Commander" was Forbidden as of the 1st of September on the Forbidden and Limited Lists, thus severely damaging this Deck.

However, with the September 2009 Lists, Raiza the Storm Monarch is no longer limited, making this deck more powerful, but Malicious is still restricted to 2.

Destiny End Dragoon Decks
This Deck revolves around the card "Destiny End Dragoon" and its abilities to revive itself and inflict damage while destroying a monster. This type of deck can have many variations, from a traditional beatdown to a control deck with the Virus cards. ("Crush Card Virus", "Deck Devastation Virus" and "Eradicator Epidemic Virus").

The normal line-up of a Destiny End Dragoon Deck can give the deck a enormous draw power and deck thinning abilities, being able to use both the Destiny Hero and Allure of Darkness engines, with "Trade-In]]" being used since you will be running "Destiny Hero - Dogma" and "Destiny Hero - Plasma", most likely both at 3. Since you will be needing these to fuse into DED, you can also use Pot of Avarice to recover them, but the best option is to use "Chain Material" to make fusion summoning easier while DED effects makes the drawback nearly nonexistent. Also, with "Fusion Gate" on the field, it is possible to Fusion Summon up to three Destiny End Dragoons to the field in a single turn, at the cost of removing all the copies of its Fusion Material Monsters from your Deck. However, with enough Destiny Heros in the Graveyard, the Destiny End Dragoons will simply revive themselves and wreak havoc on your opponent next turn. Try to use "Future Fusion" to get Dragoon out quickly. If your opponent tries to return Dragoon to your hand or remove it from play, which most likely will get of it permanently, use "Destruct Potion" or "Mystik Wok" to not only save your Dragoon but gain 3000 life points. Dragoon can be resurrected from the graveyard easily, but it is harder to fusion summon him again or bring him back into play.

For more ideas on how to use/make a Destiny End Dragoon Deck, see Card Tips:Destiny End Dragoon.

Plasma Control
A Destiny Hero - Plasma control deck focuses on canceling the effects of opponents monsters to beat him/her down. In order to do this, it is recommended to put cards that allows you to quickly summon Destiny Heros. Monsters like Dandylion, Scapegoat, and Phantom Skyblaster help you accomplish this.

Another strategy in this deck is to cancel out your opponent's cards to create something similar to a Lockdown to keep Destiny Hero - Plasma on the field as long as possible. A good option would be Royal Decree or Jinzo. Spell Canceller is a way to cancel out spells but it has only 1800 ATk so it might be hard to summon, if you can, it is recommended you summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 or Naturia Beast (OCG only) so Destiny Hero - Plasma can stay on for a long time. Destiny Hero - Plasma already has a built in monster effect negation effect so you wouldn't have to worry about that.

Plasma Perfect Lockdown
A lockdown that involves Destiny Hero - Plasma is as follows: Destiny Hero - Plasma, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Secret Village of the Spellcasters. Sorcerer of Dark Magic is a spellcaster, thus fulfilling the requirement for Secret Village of the Spellcasters, and has an effect that negates traps. This leaves only monsters, which Destiny Hero - Plasma covers. This can be augmented with, after the appropriate monsters are on the field, Royal Oppression. A word to the wise, however, as spiritualism tears this, and any other lockdown combo apart. All your opponent has to do is to return Secret Village of the Spellcasters to your hand, and they've freed their spells, while locking yours. This can be devastating. I suggest Clock Tower Prison to generate tribute fodder for Plasma, and Fortune Ladies levels 1-4 for Sorcerer of Dark Magic. If you end up facing a deck that happens to be to fast too allow you to summon Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Royal Decree can be used as a substitute.

Destiny Hero - Dogma can be a bit useful in here because a deck like this usually includes many cards that can easily generate tribute fodder so this card shouldn't be hard to summon and with a massive 3400 ATK, it can destroy many cards your opponent would play and it even halves your opponent's Life Points. Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude can take advantage of cards such as Allure of Darkness and Destiny Draw and at the same time being tribute fodder.

Destinysworns
Destinysworns are ran like a normal Destiny Hero Deck except they are modified to use Lightsworns effectively. With the effective Draw Engine that Destiny Heroes have can provide multiple Lightsworns for use. The Deck itself is at risk of Decking Out in a few turns so Pot of Avarice is a must unless the player is capable of winning in few turns. Destiny Hero - Plasma and Destiny Hero - Dogma can be of use providing shields and the ability to halve the opponents Life Points. Chaos Sorcerer is a Semi-Staple in this Deck because all Destiny Heroes are DARK and all Lightsworns are LIGHT. Elemental Hero Stratos is also useful to add important Destiny Heroes to your hand or plain out use as fodder for Destiny Draw.