HEROs (Master Duel)

Hi, Grayewick the Fusionist, and I think I'm probably (and by "probably", I mean most definitely) am already late for this one, but since I really love Fusion decks, I gotta do it. Here's my take on HEROs for Master Duel.

"Why play this deck?"

Do you love GX? Do you think Jaden is cool af? Do you hecking love HERO's?

But no, seriously, as expensive as this deck is, this is probably one of the most coin flip decks that I've played ever. If it pops off, it pops the fuck off, and I mean it. If it gets interrupted enough, it falls fucking hard flat on the floor, face first. It's so strange because as oppressive as this deck can be offensively, it's also very fragile, since only a select few of their boss monsters have relevant protection, and their combo lines are so prone to interruptions and negations.

The Main Deck:

• The HEROs - The heart, soul, meat, potatoes, bread, and butter of the deck. You literally can't play a HERO deck without HERO cards. Starting with the starters, then the half-starters/extenders.

1. Elemental HERO Stratos - The progenitor of every archetypal searcher nowadays. Upon its Normal or Special Summon, searches a "HERO" monster, which includes himself. It also misses timing when used as Fusion Material with Elemental HERO Solid Soldier, fun fact, which is why I've decided to cut him. I figured that out when I was deliberately finding a way to intentionally make Stratos miss timing when I realized that he has a "When... You can" effect.


2. Vision HERO Faris - Your second primary starter, although it costs a discard of a "HERO" monster for its Special Summon, which isn't really a big deal, most of the time. You summon him to place a Vision HERO Increase to your S/T Zone for purposes to be discussed soon.


3. Vision HERO Increase - Not a primary starter nor an extender, but he's a vital part of your Faris line, and the reason why I run two despite it being a hard brick, is that drawing a one of Increase hurts significantly more than drawing one out of two of your Increases, because the former scenario essentially turns off your Special Summon starter/extender in Faris, in which you play three of. I understand the logic behind playing only 1 Increase, but that could also mean three to four dead cards, which mean you don't want to have in your hand or Deck, especially if you don't have a way to fuse. It's good to have situational cards that is there when you need them but in testing HEROs, one of the combo decks that are heavily prone to interruption, I've learned that you always want the cards that you have access to, to do something when you have them.


4. Vision HERO Vyon - Your least ideal starter and most important extender. Ideally you wouldn't really wanna start with him, but when push comes to shove, there's still a possible line with him.


5. Elemental HERO Shadow Mist - For now, she's just a one of searcher as the primary target for Vyon to search a "HERO" monster, but as further support gets released in MD, there will be a line that allows you to search a "Change" Quick-Play Spell, most likely Mask Change, essentially allowing you to only play it at one safely.


6. Elemental HERO Liquid Soldier - I'm playing this because of Sunrise, and Normal Summoning him does come up, especially in bad hands. Plus, there's no reason not to have the usually free +1.


7. Destiny HERO - Malicious - You want this dude out of your hand if you drew it and into the GY as soon as possible, both for Fusion Summoning and Link Climbing.


8. Destiny HERO - Denier - Great extender that recycles your copies of Malicious.


9. Evil HERO Adusted Gold - Allows you to summon Evil HERO Malicious Bane, one of your better boss monsters, by searching Dark Calling.

Hand traps are x2 Ash, x2 Veiler, x1 Nibiru, & x2 Imperm, with Nibiru only being used for the purposes of Crossout Designator, usually.

Non-Staple Spells

• A Hero Lives - Emergency Teleport for HEROs, at a very cheap cost of just half of your LP. It's a great Ash bait, and it's not once per turn in case it gets negated.
• Fusion Destiny - DPE is legal, and despite this deck being able to make him without this Spell anyway, you'd still better have it than not.
• Mask Change - Your only access to your Masked HERO Fusion Monsters. As of now, it's still unsearchable, that's why I chose to play two of it. Three is fine if you feel like it.
• Dark Calling - Your only access to Evil HERO Malicious Bane.
• Miracle Fusion - Your target off of Sunrise, usually how you'd wanna trigger Liquid Soldier to make Absolute Zero.


The Extra Deck

• EVIL HERO Malicious Bane - Your only boss monster that has a protection against anything, against destruction by battle or card effect in particular. Has a once per turn monster board wipe, and can also scale up his ATK upon doing so.
• Vision HERO Adoration & Vision HERO Trinity - The former is just a generic Fusion monster that you can easily make for the grind, and the latter is there to make OTKs easier, if it wasn't easy enough. None of them are mandatory, but I'd cut Trinity over Adoration if I have to.
• Masked HERO Acid, Masked HERO Dark Law, & Masked HERO Blast - Your Mask Change targets. You'll usually make Acid with Absolute Zero to nuke both your opponent's monsters and back row, Dark Law with either Malicious or Shadow Mist to act as a one-sided Macro Cosmos, and Blast with Stratos to cut down high ATK but targetable monsters and as a Quick-Play back row removal.
• Elemental HERO Great Tornado, Elemental HERO The Shining,  Elemental HERO Absolute Zero, & Elemental HERO Sunrise - The Omni-HEROs. Great Tornado to cut down all of your monster's ATK/DEF to half, The Shining as a late game beatstick and can also recover banished "Elemental HERO" monsters when sent from the field to the GY, Absolute Zero to act as a board wipe as discussed earlier, and Sunrise to facilitate either set-up or extension through Miracle Fusion. He also boosts the ATK of all your monsters and can pop a card upon attack declaration involving another HERO monster you control. All mandatory, except for Great Tornado.
• Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer - I don't think he needs more introduction or in-depth analysis. Just hover if you still feel like reading.
• Xtra HERO Dread Decimator, Xtra HERO Wonder Driver, & Xtra HERO Cross Crusader - Your only Link Monsters. Cross Crusader is your primary searcher, you almost always want to go into him first, or at least as soon as you've already set up Malicious in the GY, Wonder Driver is your most important combo piece, and Dread Decimator boosts the ATK of all HERO monsters he points to, including himself, and can deal piercing.


Final Thoughts:

I mean, it's HEROs. They're like the Salamangreat of Fusion Summoning, and by that I meant they can easily Fusion/Link Climb and lose hard to Nibiru, but unlike Salads, they can easily close out games when given a chance to do so. Although I'm not gonna lie, it kind of gave me a sense of analysis paralysis when it comes to which "HERO" deck do I want to build at first. Overall, it's a protagonist deck, like Dark Magician, Synchrons, Utopia, Odd-Eyes, and Code Talkers. Its performance is as expected, and its price astronomical. From the core to the hand traps and staples, much like Dinos but more archetype specific, I wouldn't really recommend building this, unless you really don't have anything else to build in Master Duel and only want to have fun. As per usual, if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to express them down in the comments and I'll respond to them as soon as I possibly can.