It’s a well-known fact that if you’re a superhero, you need a city to protect. Spider-Man has New York City (though he shares it with many other heroes), Batman has GothamCity, and Superman has Metropolis. By this logic, it could be argued that the Elemental Heroes from The Lost Millennium aren’t real superheroes, because they don’t have their own city to swing, stalk, or fly through at night fighting crime as they go. That is, of course, until now. Welcome to Skyscraper!

Skyscraper (Super Rare)

Field Spell

When a monster that includes "Elemental Hero" in its card name attacks, if its ATK is lower than the ATK of the attack target, increase the ATK of the attacking monster by 1000 points during damage calculation only.

Skyscraper is one of those field spells that’s designed to help a specific subset of monsters, similar to the Gravekeepers’ Necrovalley or the Archfiends’ Pandemonium. In this case, we’re looking at giving a 1000-point ATK bonus to any Elemental Hero that decides to tangle with a monster that’s bigger than itself. It’s like getting rewarded to be the underdog!

Speaking of Underdogs . . .

This is yet another new card that will be seen this fall, starting with the premiere of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. It belongs to Jaden Yuki, underdog duelist extraordinaire and main protagonist of the new series. We see it first when Jaden uses it to boost his Elemental Hero Flame Wingman over Professor Chronos’s Ancient Gear Golem to pass his entry exam into Duel Academia. Skyscraper is a definite step towards putting Elemental Hero decks into the spotlight.

In Sealed Pack, Skyscraper’s usefulness depends entirely on how many Elemental Heroes you have. It would definitely be insane if it was in The Lost Millennium, but the number of new Heroes in Cybernetic Revolution has yet to be seen. Now, if you were doing a “GX Draft” using two packs of The Lost Millennium and one pack of Cybernetic Revolution, Skyscraper would definitely be something to look out for if you had drafted some Heroes early on. I shouldn’t need to tell you how good a repeatable ATK boost is in Sealed Pack or Booster Draft, but I would like to point out that Sparkman with the boost from Skyscraper is enough to take out Millennium Scorpion even after it’s destroyed a monster.

As usual, Constructed is where Skyscraper will really make its presence felt. Elemental Hero decks have needed something to help them out against the Chaos decks that are running rampant in the tournament environment. Neither Elemental Hero Flame Wingman or Elemental Hero Thunder Giant have enough ATK to take out Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, and Jinzo can take them both on. The Heroes needed something to make them big, scary, and worth playing, and Skyscraper might just be it. Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, when combined with Skyscraper, has enough ATK to take down Black Luster Soldier and deal 3000 points of damage while you’re at it.

The worth of Skyscraper will be determined based on two things. First, its value to the tournament scene will vary with the quantity and quality of Elemental Hero support in this set and any upcoming sets. Second, its impact will be based on how many people decide to give the Elemental Heroes a try. After all, a card can’t have any impact unless someone is willing to play it.

Well, that does it for my last Cybernetic Revolution preview. Keep on coming back this week to catch all the previews leading up to this weekend’s Sneak Preview event. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu