Last week we gave our readers the opportunity to win one of five brand new Elemental Hero Neos tins by writing to us about why they want a Neos tin. The response was overwhelming, and reading through each and every entry was an adventure in itself. Entries ranged from fascinating decks utilizing Neos to acrostic poems, pleas for aid from one side of a fraternal conflict, arbitrary insults, letters bemoaning a lack of funds, wilderness survival guides, and even a couple of songs! In the end, these five entries below won out over all the rest, and the entrants will each receive their very own Elemental Hero Neos tin!

First up is Charles Santy from Boulder City, Nevada. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:

“I have two older brothers who love the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG almost as much as I do, but I am the only one who uses Elemental Heroes. I am one of the few Elemental Hero players in the area, and having one of these cards would make my deck very distinguished. The very first Elemental Hero I ever got (and my favorite) is Elemental Hero Bladedge. I got him at the Elemental Energy Sneak Preview, the first I ever attended, and the one that started my path as a Hero duelist. Currently, I play with a regular Fusion-based Elemental Hero deck. However with the new Elemental Hero Neos, I could assemble a HERO Flash deck to obliterate my opponents and give Hero duelists pride and respect.

I run a Yu-Gi-Oh! club at our local library and that is where I play for the most part. All the duelists in the area were very happy when I started it earlier this year and they are still happy coming to it every week. My program is one of the best that the library runs. The children’s librarian is always ecstatic at the number of people showing up every week, especially since I don’t make a profit or anything from it and I do it for free, just because I love to play.

So the reason I think I would deserve an Elemental Hero Neos tin is
because of how much I love everything about Yu-Gi-Oh!, and the things I do
for others, trying to help those around me as much as I can.”

Charles is quite admirable for his dedication to the game and to his local community. I’ve heard all kinds of stories about how players have been cut off from the rest of the community due to a lack of places to meet up and play with other duelists, but I’ve heard very few stories about people who step up to the challenge and make a difference in their home town. Keep up the great work, Charles, and enjoy your tin!

It’s always good to be recognized for a job well done, and that’s exactly what our next winner intends to do with his new tin. Meet Cameron Robinson, a high school teacher from Jacksonville, Florida, with a classroom full of kids with a penchant for dueling. Here’s what Cameron had to say:

“I don't have a great creative decklist. I don't have a great reason to want to own a tin. After all, I'm an adult who has a job and can buy what I need. What I do have is a desire to reach kids. I teach high school and there are a lot of kids who play Yu-Gi Oh! I would like the tin to give away as a prize. I'd like to give the tin to a student who helps the school in some way. Most of the kids are pretty good and make decent grades, but they haven't given of themselves to help others. So, I'd like to use the tin as an encouragement for them to help the school. Thank you for your consideration.

Cameron Robinson”

Our next winner is Joshua Graham from Scarborough, Ontario. After reading all of the entries for the contest, it was clear that a vast majority of them featured the entrants’ take on an Elemental Hero deck using Neos. Joshua, however, has focused not so much on Elemental Hero support as he has normal monster support. Check out his deck and what he had to say about it:

“After UDE’s announcement of Elemental Hero Neos as the final tin, I was excited. I loved using Elemental Hero Neos during the Power of the Duelist Sneak Preview in my area, but I thought it deserved a higher rarity. I really would like this tin, not only because tins are a great way to have really fun sealed deck games with friends who also bought the tin, but because Elemental Hero Neos is a cool monster from the T.V. show. I don’t really like fusing monsters, but I will show a way to make Elemental Hero Neos even stronger! Not through Fusion but through a way to make it a hard and consistent threat to your opponent.

Monsters: 20
3 Elemental Hero Neos
1 Majestic Mech - Goryu
2 Majestic Mech - Ohka
2 Newdoria
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Sangan
2 Vorse Raider
2 Gemini Elf
2 Insect Knight
2 Archfiend Soldier
1 Goblin Attack Force

Spells: 15
2 Non-Spellcasting Area
1 Two-Man Cell Battle
1 Heavy Storm
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Graceful Charity
1 Premature Burial
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Confiscation
2 Mausoleum of the Emperor
2 O - Oversoul
2 E - Emergency Call

Traps: 7
2 Skill Drain
2 Final Attack Orders
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute


This deck uses a combination of spell and trap support for normal monsters and
cards that bring Elemental Hero Neos to the field. It establishes an early game through either Mystic Tomato or your normal monsters, and works its way through. Unlike most decks using Skill Drain, mine isn’t too dependant on drawing it quickly, rather using it as a backup to Elemental Hero Neos, as needed. The deck isn’t too hard to build, but is rather fun. Give it a shot.

—Joshua Graham”

Looking through all the deck entries allowed us to separate them into two main groups. First, there were the decks that sought to use Contact Fusion to bring out any of the new Neos fusions from Power of the Duelist. The other main group consisted of HERO Flash!!-based decks. Unfortunately, most decks in each group looked more or less exactly the same as every other deck in that group. We were almost ready to give up on finding a winner in either of these categories when we happened upon Logan Ashby’s take on the HERO Flash!! deck. It’s certainly rare to see a HERO Flash!! deck with only one of the four required spells in it, but Logan has managed to pull it off quite spectacularly in his entry. Have a look at what he came up with:

“Hello, my name is Logan and this is my entry for Metagame.com's Elemental Hero Neos Tin Giveaway.

The reason that I want an Elemental Hero Neos tin is so I can use it to finish the deck that I am currently working on. As of right now I haven't completed the deck because there are a few bugs to work out of it first. Here is the deck list at the moment:

Monsters: 21

3 Elemental Hero Neos

3 Elemental Hero Avian

3 Elemental Hero Burstinatrix

3 Elemental Hero Clayman

3 Elemental Hero Sparkman

3 Magical Merchant

3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude

Spells: 16

3 HERO Flash!!

3 O - Oversoul

1 Graceful Charity

3 Heart of the Underdog

3 A Feather of the Phoenix

1 Giant Trunade

2 Mausoleum of the Emperor

Traps: 3

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Ultimate Offering

The concept behind this deck is to get Elemental Hero Neos on the field by any means necessary. At the moment, I have three ways to get Neos onto the field without any tributing: Mausoleum of the Emperor, O - Oversoul, and HERO Flash!!. If I can get my hands on Diamond Dude, A Feather of the Phoenix, and HERO Flash!!, I can use A Feather of the Phoenix to set HERO Flash on top of my deck so I can activate its effect with Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude. Then on my next turn, I activate the effect of HERO Flash!! and bring out Elemental Hero Neos so I can attack my opponent directly. If you have another Elemental Hero Neos in your hand, you can summon it with Mausoleum of the Emperor; if you have an O - Oversoul you can bring one from your graveyard to the field to cause massive damage all at once!

Thank you for reading and I hope you consider my entry!

Logan Ashby”

If you consider building a Diamond Dude/HERO Flash!! deck to be taking the road less traveled, then you could say that our final winner blazed a path of his own through three miles of solid rock before stopping at a computer to send his entry. Matthew Heiss from Prospect, Connecticut, knocked all our socks off with an entry that brought the history of the game into a new medium: music. Here is Matthew’s winning entry, “The Ballad of the Neos Man.”

“’The Ballad of the Neos Man’

“It came across some years ago
Across the seas of green
The gift—a game—was loved by all
Or most at least, I mean

“It started slow—oh, very slow
And later, very fast
There were some broken problems there
In darkness of the past

“A black crow and a scientist
A soldier, feather, pot
A serpent and a dragon and
A thunderbolt (why not?)

“Ideas are banned and more arise
But these are scarcely new
Without originality
These new ideas are few

“With this last set of new ideas
All hope has not been missed
The Neos man will save us all
And guide us through the mist

“The Neos man, within a tin
The one thing that we need.
A Hero versatile and true
Whose guidance we shall heed

“The Neos man will save us all
Ideas grow one by one.
The Neos man will save us all
And I am at last done

—Matthew Heiss”

As a final note, when conducting a contest like this, you tend to latch on to entries that you personally enjoy as you read through everything. Unfortunately, sometimes those entries just don’t make the cut. Regardless, I’d like to extend an honorable mention to Joseph Kellogg for his brilliant Elemental Hero Neos Tin Wilderness Survival Guide. It’s comforting to know that if I ever become stranded in the frozen forests of Siberia with nothing but the clothes on my back and a tin, I’ve got a shot at surviving. Maybe not much of one, but I’d say my survival rate would be at least equal to the chance of ending up in that situation in the first place.

That’ll wrap it up for Metagame.com’s Elemental Hero Neos Tin Giveaway! Congratulations to all the winners, and, until next time, play hard, play fair, and, most importantly, have fun!