Elemental HERO

The Elemental HERO series is a set of Warrior-Type monsters, with few exceptions, without a specific Attribute, most frequently used by Jaden Yuki, occasionally by Aster Phoenix in the anime of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and originally by Koyo Hibiki in the manga version. They were designed by Kazuki Takahashi, and are themed after comic-book-style superheroes. "Elemental HEROES" focus heavily upon easy 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 HEROES" 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 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 14 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", "Banner of Courage", "Solidarity", 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. "Waboku", and "Threatening Roar" are also good protection cards to consider as you can still chain them onto Spell and Trap destruction effects your opponent might activate.

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","King of the Swamp, "Elemental HERO Woodsman", "Elemental HERO Stratos","Elemental HERO Ocean", "Reinforcement of the Army", "E - Emergency Call", "Heart of the Underdog", and some monsters which can be substitutions for the Fusion Materials. You also can multiply "Elemental HEROES"' Fusion Summons by using "Miracle Fusion". A tip for Summoning Fusion Monsters without all fusion material monsters is to use these monsters as substitutes: "King of the Swamp" and "Elemental HERO Prisma".

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 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"). Also, using Stratos and Skyscraper 2 - Hero City can be a good combination if your opponent only has one or two strong monsters on the field. Every turn after Stratos has been destroyed by battle you may Special Summon him due to the effect of Skyscraper 2 and use his effect again and again. Just make sure to block any monsters with traps or spells that could attack your Life Points after Stratos has been destroyed by battle.
 * "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 Ocean" - Ocean can be used to recycle fusion material monsters or to recycle Stratos to search for all the Fusion materials you need. Having three "Reinforcement of the Army" and "E - Emergency Call" in your deck make this combo fairly easy to initiate.
 * "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.
 * "Elemental HERO Prisma" - Prisma can be another fusion substitute to fusion other "Elemental HERO" easier.

Evil HEROES
This version has fewer "Elemental HEROES" than the other variants, and is not reliant on "Miracle Fusion"; however, "Dark Fusion" and "Dark Calling" are two 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"."Evil HERO Infernal Gainer" is a nice support too because can make all your "Evil HEROES" attack twice. 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 "Burial from a Different Dimension" and "Return from the Different Dimension" that return removed monsters to the field or to the graveyard 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".

Omni HEROES
They are a set of "Elemental HERO" Fusion Monsters who have specific Attributes for their monsters to use as one of their Fusion Material Monsters. So far, there are 6 such "Elemental HEROES": "Elemental HERO Absolute Zero" (WATER), "Elemental HERO Gaia" (EARTH), "Elemental HERO Great Tornado" (WIND), "Elemental HERO The Shining" (LIGHT), "Elemental HERO Nova Master" (FIRE), and "Elemental HERO Escuridão" (DARK). One of the strengths of the deck is it's ability to use "Super Polymerization" to use your opponent's monsters as Fusion-material monsters.

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.

HERO Flash Attack
This Deck is not as good as other HERO Decks but is good for beginning duelists. This Deck focuses on the effect of "Hero Flash!!", which allows you to Special Summon 1 "Elemental HERO" Normal Monster like "Elemental HERO Neos" and allows all your "Elemental HERO" Normal Monsters to attack your opponent directly. "Hero Flash!!" only works if you can Banished "H - Heated Heart", "E - Emergency Call", "R - Righteous Justice" and "O - Oversoul".

Elemental Recycle/Elemental Destruction
The main focus of this Deck is to continuously recycle cards needed to fuse "Elemental HEROES", using mainly "Elemental HERO Stratos", "Elemental HERO Ocean", and "Elemental HERO Woodsman". Another main focus to the Deck is "Freed the Matchless General", as he can negate Spell Cards that target him making those Spells useless. He can also fetch the material monsters for you instead of having to wait and draw them. However, there may be some problems protecting "Woodsman" and "Ocean", so "Mirror Force", "A Feather of the Phoenix", "Pot of Avarice", and "Hero Spirit" are recommended. If you want even more protection, use "Destruction Jammer" or "Solemn Judgement", et cetera. A great card to use, if your Fusion Monsters get destroyed, is "Branch!", so you can easily recycle your previously used Elemental HEROES. Using "Branch!" and "Skyscraper 2 - Hero City" you can potentially Special Summon Elemental HEROES to reuse them twice per turn. Then comes the destruction part. Many of the better Fusions to use in this Deck are: "Elemental HERO Darkbright", "Elemental HERO Absolute Zero", and "Elemental HERO Wildedge". Ridding the field of monsters may sound easy, but you should first destroy the backfield using Stratos or "R - Righteous Justice", etc. to open up their monsters. The last Fusion recommended is "Elemental HERO Terra Firma". Use "Terra Firma" in combination with "Absolute Zero", while he cleans the opponent's monsters, you can potentially deal 5000 directly. Plus you could use "Branch!" to get "Woodsman" or "Ocean" back to rinse and repeat. 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. And lastly, in case that doesn't help, you could also use "Mist Body" to protect the essential monsters. This is probably the most effective choice for any Elemental HERO Deck.

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". You can also use "Elemental HERO Darkbright's" Fusion Materials (Sparkman and Necroshade) to summon "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.

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. "Hero Mask" and "Foolish Burial" can also accomplish the same. 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". You can utilize 2 copies of "Supervise" on "Elemental HERO Neos Alius" combined with "Wrath of Neos" to revive 2 copies of "Elemental HERO Neos" in the Graveyard after "Wrath of Neos" has nuked the field.

Elemental Synchro
This Deck mainly relies on a mix of "Elemental HEROES" and a bit of a Yusei-themed Deck with "Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste" and "Elemental HERO Shining Flare Wingman" (or "Elemental HERO Shining Phoenix Enforcer"). Use a strategy to discard 2-3 "Elemental HERO Necroshade"'s to get "Elemental HERO Neos" and "Elemental HERO Bladedge" out to swarm your field with "Majestic Star Dragon" (or "Majestic Red Dragon" if you use "Red Dragon Archfiend"). "Rose, Warrior of Revenge" and "Torapart" are commonly used as a tuner because of it's search-ability with "Reinforcements of the Army". The main synchro used is "Colossal Fighter". Also, you can use "Chaos End Master's" effect to summon "Elemental HERO Necroshade" for a quick tune for "Stardust Dragon", "Red Dragon Archfiend" or "Colossal Fighter" and get "Elemental HERO Necroshade" into the graveyard to summon a potential "Elemental HERO Bladedge" the next turn. You can also use "Synchro Fusionist" to search for "Polymerization", "Super Polymerization", "Miracle Fusion", "Miracle Synchro Fusion", "Future Fusion", and "Parallel World Fusion".

Vanilla HEROES
This Deck's main goal is to use "Enchanting Fitting Room" to Special Summon "Elemental HERO Avian", "Elemental HERO Burstinatrix", and other low level Normal Monsters of various attributes, including "Tune Warrior" (Which lets you use Synchro Monsters) in order to generate Fusion Material Monsters for use with "Miracle Fusion" and/or "Dark Calling", in order to easily fill your side of the field with powerful Fusion Monsters, without losing any real advantage (when compared to using "Polymerization"). Cards like "Elemental HERO Prisma" and "Magical Merchant" support this Deck well.

Weakness
"Elemental HEROES", being strong in the long run, lack the beginning strength. The monster card "Kinetic Soldier's" effect causes it's attack to be increased by 2000 when it battles with a Warrior-Type monsters, and thus is a great choice as a counter. Since most "Elemental HERO" Decks heavily relies on fusions to remain in the game long enough to bring "Elemental HERO 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 Elemental HERO Deck. The trap card "Non-Fusion Area," for example, is nothing short of crippling to most Elemental HERO Decks. "De-Fusion" will stop Fusion Monsters because the fusion material isn't in your graveyard, you are able to return the Fusion Monsters without summoning the fusion material monsters. While you see the listed weaknesses in "Elemental HEROES", Fusion Summoning is also considered as a Special Summon, anything such as "Royal Oppression" which can negate the Special Summon of a monster, can show the downfall of this Deck. Being and thinking too situational can give you a bad start such as good field and hand control.

Trivia

 * In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, "Elemental HERO Phoenix Enforcer" and "Elemental HERO Shining Phoenix Enforcer" are the only "Elemental HEROES" that Aster Phoenix has, and Jaden Yuki doesn't have.
 * There are no DARK-Attribute "Elemental HERO" in OCG/TCG and anime or WATER-Attribute "Elemental HERO" Normal Monsters so far.