Honestly, look at all three Fusion monsters from Light of Destruction. Gladiator Beast Gyzarus is a game-shaping card. Destiny End Dragoon is amazing when played with Chain Material, and finally makes a dedicated Destiny Hero deck possible. Even Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem has some competitive potential. The days of Neo-Spacians that can only be summoned with NEX seem to be a thing of the past, and the entire Fusion mechanic is a lot more serious today than it was three months ago.

Fusion monsters that are actually worth summoning are just one part of the equation. Fusion monster support has also rallied in recent sets, though it didn’t really come to a head until recently. Not only have the Fusion monsters themselves gotten better, but the methods for summoning them have improved, and it took until now for people to really notice. Part of the reason behind that is the complexity of these new support cards—their benefits, and often their very effects, weren’t clear. But they’re clearing up pretty quick, so today I want to look at one of the best: Elemental Hero Prisma. I want to do it by looking at this card’s interaction with some of the best Fusion monsters in this format.

Gladiator Beast Gyzarus

Playing Elemental Hero Prisma achieves one very important goal: its effect lets you get Gladiator Beasts, namely Bestiari (but also Laquari in a pinch), into the graveyard. Sure, anything Prisma can do Bestiari can do with 200 fewer ATK points, and playing Bestiari straight to the field gives you the advantage of being able to cycle Bestiari out after it survives a battle. But by running Prisma, you can load that one all-important Gladiator Beast into your graveyard and turn Gladiator Beast Darius into a live play.

Normally, Gladiator Beast Darius isn’t worth special summoning until your opponent has already destroyed one of your Gladiator Beasts. The problem with that is two-fold. First, I don’t like a plan that depends on me losing a Gladiator Beast, either to battle or an effect. Beyond that, if you’re playing a smart opponent, he or she may refuse to attack at key points to deny you your special summoning tricks anyway. That can slow things down, keeping you from Heraklinos. In fact, without Darius’ effect the best way to bring Heraklinos to the field is to swap a Gladiator Beast with Test Tiger, bring out Gladiator Beast Secutor, and then hope to get through a lucky attack: that’s complicated and very risky.

With Prisma, all you have to do to get to Heraklinos is have one Gladiator Beast on the field and Prisma in hand. Summon Prisma, use its effect to send Bestiari to the graveyard, and convert Prisma’s name to "Gladiator Beast Bestiari." Since its name now matches that required for Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, send both Prisma and the real Gladiator Beast you controlled back to your deck to bring him out. Clear the field with his effect, make your attack, and at the end of the battle phase trade Gyzarus for Gladiator Beast Laquari and Gladiator Beast Darius.

At this point you can use Darius’ effect to special summon Bestiari from your graveyard, then trade all three for Heraklinos. This is way easier to do than bringing out Heraklinos with Secutor, and even if your attack doesn’t go through (a possibility for both Secutor and Gyzarus), you at least destroyed a card or two with Gyzarus and you’re left with a big body on the field. You also haven’t given up Test Tiger, which you usually have to do in order to use Secutor’s effect.

Alternatively, sending Bestiari to the graveyard just opens up a ton of easy Gyzarus plays. Starting with an empty field, summon Prisma and use its effect to send Bestiari to the yard. Then summon Test Tiger, and tribute it to trade Prisma for Gladiator Beast Darius. Darius will hit the field and grab Bestiari, and you can trade both for Gyzarus. This play doesn’t lead into Heraklinos (since it leaves you with no Gladiator Beast in your graveyard), but it does make dropping Gyzarus multiple turns in a row very easy. Remember, your deck will never "run out" of Prisma or Bestiari—you’re sending them back to your deck each time you bring out Gyzarus.

Elemental Hero Prisma brings Gladiator Beasts to a speed that can match Dark Armed Return and the Lightsworn, instantly making them a top deck. It also lets you drop Gyzarus over and over, and I don’t think there are many decks right now that can afford to lose two cards a turn again and again. If you’re running Gladiator Beasts without Prisma, I really think you’re missing out.

Destiny End Dragoon

Matt was definitely right in saying that the best way to get Destiny End Dragoon to the field is with Chain Material and Fusion Gate. That lets you drop up to three copies of Destiny End Dragoon in one turn, all for the cost of two measly cards—the rest will be pulled from your deck thanks to Material. But the challenge there is that both Fusion Gate and Chain Material require you to remove the Fusion materials from play, adding no Destiny Heroes to your graveyard. That means no fuel for Destiny End Dragoon’s special summon effect, which is necessary if you’re playing this combo and want to keep the Dragoon in the duel for more than one turn.

Sure, you can play up to three copies of Dragoon and then remove one to bring back the other, but ideally, you’d really like to have at least two of these bruisers going at once, and that’s where Prisma becomes so valuable. Summoning Prisma and using it as one of your Fusion materials does require you to give up a third card, but it also sends a copy of Destiny Hero - Plasma or Destiny Hero - Dogma to the graveyard. That means you’ll be able to bring back one more Dragoon on the following turn, which is a pretty great trade in my books. Just bring out all three Dragoons, and next turn you can use one copy to special summon another. Then you can resuscitate a second Dragoon with the Destiny Hero Prisma pitched.

Beyond that, Prisma can obviously help you use Fusion Gate or Polymerization in those situations where Chain Material isn’t available. In a deck playing Trade-In and Destiny Draw, along with Elemental Hero Stratos, it’s not hard to get to one of your two Fusion materials. Prisma can then act as the missing one. You’ll be giving up three cards (Prisma, the Fusion material, and a Fusion spell), but you’ll get a copy of Dragoon in return, and then you’ll claim an opposing monster with its effect. That’s a net loss of just one card (your opponent loses one and you get Dragoon), and since Prisma sends a Destiny Hero to your graveyard, that can then be used to special summon Dragoon later. It’s definitely worthwhile.

Elemental Hero Prisma makes a deck built around Destiny End Dragoon flexible and resilient, comboing perfectly with the Dragoon’s special summon ability. Again, I really consider Prisma to be a must-play for this deck.

Thanks to Machine Duplication, this thing isn’t as hard to summon as it might appear. Duplication will work with Ancient Gear and Ancient Gear Cannon, giving you two of the three Fusion materials you need to summon Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem. At that point the only remaining Fusion material you need is Ancient Gear Golem itself, which is easily mimicked by Elemental Hero Prisma.

The advantage of using Elemental Hero Prisma in this deck is similar to the advantages Destiny End Dragoon saw. By sending Ancient Gear Golem to the graveyard with Prisma you can play the reusable Fusion Gate instead of the one-shot Polymerization, and still have an Ancient Gear Golem in your graveyard to special summon when the Ultimate version is destroyed. If you were using the Gate, you’d have to remove that Golem from play—losing your chance to reclaim it later.

Sending Ancient Gear Golem to the graveyard lets the deck use Chain Material too, albeit not quite in the same way as Destiny End Dragoon did. The biggest drawback of Chain Material is that it destroys the monster you summoned through its effect. In Dragoon’s case this is mitigated by your ability to special summon the Dragoon next turn, but Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem is different. If Material destroys Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, you’ll get to special summon Ancient Gear Golem in your end phase. You can summon Prisma, send Ancient Gear Golem to the graveyard, then use a Fusion spell to bring out Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem strictly from materials you strip out of your deck. You’ll give up one or two cards, but you’ll get to special summon Ancient Gear Golem and Prisma will stay on the field. It’s a nice trick that can add speed to the strategy.

Alternatively, if you want to put in a bit more effort putting together your finishing combo, you can play Power Bond. It isn’t searchable like Fusion Gate, but it does make Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem into an 8800 ATK game-winner. In this case, playing Prisma makes it easier to get to the other unsearchable part of your combo, Ancient Gear Golem.

Being able to return your opponent’s graveyard to his or her deck is incredibly good in two major matchups this format—Lightsworn and Dark Armed Return. Both decks require graveyard thresholds to unleash their best monsters (and use some of their mid-range effects), so Rainbow Neos really delays their progress. At 4500 ATK he ends duels in two turns, and since he can clear entire fields of monsters or spells and trap cards, he makes direct attacks pretty easily.

So he’s good, and the searchability of Elemental Hero Neos (one of his two Fusion materials) makes him even better. The only issue is that his second Fusion material isn’t searchable: he requires Rainbow Dragon or Rainbow Dark Dragon in addition to Neos. Prisma solves this problem though, since the same cards the deck is already using to find Elemental Hero Neos (namely E - Emergency Call, and Reinforcement of the Army for Stratos) can also search out Prisma. The deck is far easier to use when Prisma can stand in for the Dragons.

If you do happen to draw one of the Dragons then Prisma just gets better. In that case you can use it to send extra copies of Elemental Hero Neos to the graveyard, which you can then bring back with O - Oversoul. That means an additional 2500 ATK alongside Rainbow Neos’s 4500, a total of 7000 potential damage. You can also use that copy of Neos as fodder for Rainbow Neos’s first effect, clearing the field of monsters. Even if you draw poorly and don’t have the complete combo to bring Rainbow Neos to the field, sending Neos to the graveyard and then bringing him out with O - Oversoul means you’ll have a commanding beatstick to attack with anyway.

Sanwitch

Reinforcement of the Army, E - Emergency Call, and Elemental Hero Stratos can all search Prisma from your deck. When it’s in your graveyard you can fish it out with The Warrior Returning Alive or even Elemental Hero Ocean. As a Warrior and an Elemental Hero it’s exceptionally easy to splash into darn near any deck, and when you do, you can run up to seven search cards to make it reliable. Granted, you’ll rarely (if ever) need to run what amounts to ten copies of this monster, but that level of reliability is an asset regardless.

Properly summoned Fusion monsters are becoming a very big part of the game, and it’s all happening at a relatively fast pace. Lots of duelists still aren’t really aware of this change, so if you can master this new trend you’ll have a significant advantage over your competition. Elemental Hero Prisma is the key to unlocking the power of these cards, so try it out and get ready for some spectacular results!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer