“You cannot escape from destiny . . .”

Every good hero needs some strategies and utilities in order to prevail, even if that strategy is as simple as “I smash you” and the utilities involve “anything I can get my hands on.” Aster’s Destiny Heroes have quite a few tactics and utilities in their arsenal that any Destiny Hero fan will find helpful.

From the power of the D - Chain to the careful tactics of D - Spirit, the Destiny Heroes have much to offer any duelist willing to accept their discipline. We’ve covered the newest additions to the Destiny Hero team and now we will examine how these new tactics and utilities assist the new and old members of the team.

We begin with D - Spirit, an immediate call for help when faced with danger.

“If there are no face-up ‘Destiny Hero’ monsters on your side of the field, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower ‘Destiny Hero’ monster from your hand.”

Why call upon a Fake Hero, when the D - Spirit can call upon a Destiny Hero to truly fight at your side? D - Spirit can only be activated if you have no face-up Destiny Hero monsters on your side of the field, and, when the effect is resolved, you select a level 4 or lower Destiny Hero from your hand and special summon it onto your side of the field.

Pretty simple, right? Well, the effect does have one catch: you need to make sure your field is free of Destiny Hero monsters until it is resolved. If you use another card like Call of the Haunted to bring out a Destiny Hero before the effect of D - Spirit can resolve, it will fail entirely. Make sure you plan accordingly.

Fortunately, D - Spirit doesn’t care what other monsters you have on the field as long as you have an open space available for the Destiny Hero you plan to special summon. You can even have a set Destiny Hero without it interfering with the effect. Face-down Destiny Heroes are an unknown and don’t factor in unless they get flipped face up somehow.

Reasons for using D - Spirit may not be immediately apparent until you consider what it allows you to do. For starters, it lets you special summon a monster from your hand and accelerate your monster count for the turn. You can use this additional monster to help fill out the tributes you need for Destiny Hero - Dasher or Destiny Hero - Double Dude, but Destiny Hero - Dogma will benefit the most. With D - Spirit you can special summon an extra Destiny Hero, making it easier to pull together the three monsters you need for the powerful Dogma. Sure, you could also use Ultimate Offering, but why rely on a single limited card when you can have multiple cards helping you to achieve your ends?

The Destiny Heroes have two new weapons of considerable power: Cyclone Blade and D - Chain.

Cyclone Blade is an equip spell card that you “Equip only to a ‘Destiny Hero’ monster. If the equipped monster attacks, destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card on the field at the end of the Damage Step.”

Since the effect of Cyclone Blade depends upon your attack reaching the damage step, anything that stops the attack during the battle step will prevent the effect from activating. Beyond that, you only need your monster to survive the battle. Monsters destroyed in battle are cleared from the field before the end of the damage step, taking any equipped cards with them. The effects of equip cards normally disappear when the equip card leaves the field, and Cyclone Blade is no exception.

Cyclone Blade isn’t meant to be used by itself. Since the effect of this card is mandatory, it can be forced to destroy itself if no other spell or trap cards are present on the field. You can avoid this by not declaring an attack with the equipped monster. When the effect succeeds, your opponent’s ability to respond is severely limited because the selection and destruction of a spell or trap card occurs during the damage step when many of these types of cards cannot be activated. It offers no further effects beyond this, but the threat of destroying your opponent’s spell or trap cards (in addition to any damage resulting from your monster’s attack) can be pretty serious.

D - Chain is a bit slower to equip, but the strength it offers is quite useful.

“After activation, this card is treated as an Equip Card, and equip it to a ‘Destiny Hero’ monster on your side of the field. The equipped monster gains 500 ATK. When the equipped monster destroys a monster your opponent controls by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict 500 damage to your opponent.”

Like other trap cards with the equipping ability, D - Chain remains a trap card even while equipped to your Destiny Hero and will be affected by effects that manipulate traps. Unlike most other equip cards, however, D - Chain can put the surprise on your opponent during the damage step.

With D - Chain, it is your intention to boost the ATK of a Destiny Hero and make it strong enough to destroy your opponent’s monster in battle. Doing so triggers its second ability to inflict 500 damage to your opponent. The Destiny Hero monsters already have a supported goal of reducing your opponent’s life points outside of battle, thanks to Destiny Hero - Dogma, so it makes sense to include further means to that end.

D - Chain cards can be combined together onto the same Destiny Hero, boosting its ATK even further while still retaining the damage-inflicting effect of each card. An extra 1000-1500 points of ATK and effect damage may be all you need to win your duel.

With Destiny Mirage, destruction is only a technicality.

“Activate only when a ‘Destiny Hero’ monster on your side of the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by your opponent's card effect. Special Summon to your side of the field all ‘Destiny Hero’ monsters that were destroyed and sent to the Graveyard this turn.”

Destiny Mirage is best saved for situations that result in the loss of multiple Destiny Heroes. The events of the activated turn dictate which monsters will be special summoned, so in order to maximize its potential you need to recognize which monsters will come back and which monsters will not.

Only one of your Destiny Heroes needs to be destroyed by your opponent’s card effect—the one that triggers the Destiny Mirage. The others can be destroyed by card effects or by battle (whichever happened to occur), and still be special summoned by your Destiny Mirage. These monsters must all have been destroyed during the same turn, however, so any Destiny Heroes you lost in a previous turn will not be included.

Destiny Mirage can be activated even if your opponent’s card effect causes you to lose multiple Destiny Hero monsters at the same time (through an effect like Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force). It can also be activated during either player’s turn, as long as you do not try to use it during the damage step.

These interactions can be rather confusing, so we’ll dissect it with an example.

Aster has run into some trouble. Jaden’s monsters have destroyed his Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude, Destiny Hero - Doom Lord, and Mystic Tomato in battle. Fortunately, he was able to special summon a Destiny Hero - Defender from the Tomato’s effect, so he isn’t completely without monsters. Jaden knows he will have trouble getting past Destiny Hero - Defender if he lets it remain, so he uses Smashing Ground to destroy it. This action allows Aster to activate his face-down Destiny Mirage. He examines his graveyard and verifies the Destiny Hero monsters that have been destroyed during this turn: Diamond Dude, Doom Lord, and Defender. He special summons all three monsters onto his side of the field. This duel isn’t over yet.

Aster had lost three Destiny Hero monsters through means of destruction during Jaden’s turn, but the one he needed to trigger the Destiny Mirage did not get destroyed until Jaden’s second main phase. If Jaden had chosen to allow Destiny Hero - Defender to remain on the field, Aster would not have been able to use his Destiny Mirage at all.

Destiny Mirage works very well to support the higher-level Destiny Heroes—Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster and Destiny Hero - Dasher—but it is not able to special summon Dogma or Double Dude because both of these monsters have conditions that prevent it. To make matters worse, if either of these monsters is destroyed, you will not be able to activate Destiny Mirage because the effect functions with an all-or-nothing behavior like that of De-Fusion. Most of the time this will not be a problem, so don’t let it discourage you from taking advantage of Destiny Mirage in the many varied situations in which it does work.

Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com