Which begged the question: why didn’t people just play an actual Destiny Hero deck? The problem was that while the support was good enough to splash into almost any deck, Destiny Heroes had no real win condition themselves. Diamond Dude Turbo was the closest thing we saw to a competitive, dedicated Destiny Hero deck, but even that strategy was more of a Destiny Hero-supported Dark Magician of Chaos combo deck. What the Destiny Heroes needed was a card like Gladiator Beast Heraklinos. They needed a monster that could be brought out to win games.

Introducing Destiny End Dragoon:

Destiny End Dragoon
Warrior / Fusion / Effect
Level 10 / Dark
3000/3000
Fusion Materials: Destiny Hero - Plasma + Destiny Hero - Dogma

The fusion summon of Destiny End Dragon can only be conducted with the above fusion materials. Once each turn, you can destroy an opponent’s monster and deal damage to your opponent equal to its ATK. If you do, you cannot enter your battle phase this turn. In your standby phase, you can special summon this card from your graveyard by removing a "Destiny Hero" in your graveyard from play.

The last line of text is what will make your eyes light up. If you’re working to get the Dragoon out, you’ll have to be playing a dedicated Destiny Hero build because Destiny End Dragoon can only be Fusion summoned with the specific Fusion materials on the card: you’ll have to be playing Destiny Hero - Plasma and Destiny Hero - Dogma. You’ll want to Fusion summon this monster properly as well in order to capitalize on his revival effect—you can’t use that revival effect if you only special summoned Dragoon. Luckily for you both of the Destiny Heroes which Dragoon requires are level 8, which means a deck built around it can use both Destiny Draw and Trade-In. The result is a fast deck that can put the Fusion material monsters to good use both before and after the Fusion summon of Destiny End Dragoon.

The coolest thing is that Destiny End Dragoon’s effect can turn extra copies of Fusion materials into more Destiny End Dragoons. The reason Fusion-based decks aren’t usually competitive is because so much work must go into properly Fusion summoning the monster. If that monster is then taken off the field, all your work goes down the drain and you have to start over. In the case of Destiny End Dragoon you really only have to get him out once. After that you can special summon the Dragoon every turn if he’s destroyed, so long as you have the Destiny Hero cards to remove for him.

Once you’ve special summoned Destiny End Dragoon, your opponent is going to have one heck of a time trying to deal with him. Not much gets by 3000 ATK and DEF these days, and even Dark Armed Dragon is going to eventually fall to the Dragoon. With almost nobody playing hand disruption anymore and your deck already requiring a dedication to Destiny Heroes, you’ll probably never run out of Heroes to remove. Since Macro Cosmos decks are at an all-time low, you don’t really have to worry about the Dragoon being removed from play. D.D. Crow will be your biggest hurdle, but because the Dragoon’s effect can be activated any time during your standby phase, solving this problem may be as simple as playing Burial from a Different Dimension to return Dragoon to your graveyard (you could bring removed-from-play Destiny Heroes back at the same time to fuel him). We’ll need to see how the rulings work out. Chances are you’ve got more draw power than the opponent too, so if this trick does indeed work, you’ll see Burials as often as your opponent sees Crows.

Future Fusion is going to be your best combo piece for this deck. If you can bring the Dragoon out with Future Fusion it will have been Fusion summoned properly, which means that even after his destruction (normally or through the destruction of Future Fusion), you can still special summon him during your standby phase. Future Fusion is sadly Limited, but once again you’re playing a deck that has a lot of draw power. Ideally you’ll hit Future Fusion quickly—otherwise you’ll have to find different ways to Fusion summon the Dragoon.

Before you go searching through your shoeboxes to see if there’s any cool Fusion support to use with the Dragoon, let me point out one you probably don’t remember. Chain Material made no waves upon its release, and since it was in a set that made a seemingly unstoppable combo deck, players didn’t pay much attention to a Fusion support card that was difficult to really understand. Here’s what Chain Material does:

Chain Material
Trap Card

Any time you Fusion Summon a monster this turn, you can remove from play, from your side of the field, Deck, hand or Graveyard, Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on the Fusion Monster Card, and use them as Fusion Material Monsters. You cannot attack during the turn this card is activated. If you used this effect for a Fusion Summon, the Summoned Fusion Monster(s) is destroyed during the End Phase.

What this means is that if you activate Chain Material, during that turn only, you can use monsters in your deck and graveyard as Fusion materials in addition to monsters in your hand and on your side of the field. Those monsters are removed from play instead, you can’t attack, and the Fusion is destroyed at the end of the turn. Many players—myself included—thought, "Why would I ever want to do that?" You’ll have to play a card like Polymerization after flipping Chain Material. Sure the total cost is reduced to only two cards to special summon a Fusion monster, but you can’t really use it and it’s destroyed at the end of the turn.

I’m assuming you just re-read the Dragoon, and yes, all the drawbacks of Chain Material don’t really matter in this particular case. Not attacking isn’t a big deal because you can just use the Dragoon’s monster destruction effect instead. There’s no face-up condition attached to the Dragoon’s ability either, so as long as your opponent has something on the field, you can destroy it. Dragoon being destroyed during the end phase isn’t terrible either. Don’t forget you’ve properly summoned the Dragoon, which means you can special summon him next turn by removing a Destiny Hero monster.

You have a few options in deciding how you want to properly Fusion summon the Dragoon. Polymerization and Fusion Gate are both viable methods. Fusion Sage and Terraforming can search those respective cards from your deck as well, so consistency in drawing a Fusion spell isn’t going to be a problem. You could also play nifty cards like Wroughtweiler or Fusion Recovery to return Polymerization to your hand. This will allow you to put multiple Chain Material cards to use and play two or even three Destiny End Dragoon cards per duel. Wroughtweiler can be particularly devastating, returning Elemental Hero Stratos to your hand to add an 1800 ATK beater and, through Stratos, another Destiny Hero to your hand. Remember that you’re already playing Burial from a Different Dimension and Chain Material can remove materials from the graveyard. Running out of Fusion materials shouldn’t be a problem either.

The big question is, "Can Destiny End Dragoon be competitive?" In my opinion, if you can keep yourself safe with cards like Threatening Roar and Enemy Controller, then Fusion summoning Destiny End Dragoon can be a totally viable route to victory. Enemy Controller can even be used as a win condition. After surviving a turn where your opponent attempted to win the game, you could special summon the Dragoon, tribute him to Enemy Controller to steal an opponent’s Dark Armed Dragon, special summon the Dragoon again, destroy your opponent’s field with Dark Armed, and attack for the win. Remember, you’re still playing Dark Destiny Heroes, so you can feel free to use your own copies of Dark Armed Dragon and Allure of Darkness in this deck.

If any card makes a Fusion summon deck competitive, it will be Destiny End Dragoon. If you’re going to a Light of Destruction Sneak Preview next week, keep an eye out for this one.

—Matt Peddle