It’s the same thing here. When us writer types first saw Herald of Orange Light and started to dissect it from the perspective of competitive play, our second thought was, "Wait, this thing is kind of hard to Synchro summon with." Our first thought, naturally, was, "Holy crap, a monster that negates Gladiator Beast Gyzarus from my hand is amazing." But we had a legitimate concern: since Herald of Orange Light requires the discard of another Fairy-type monster to negate an effect, it needs to be run in a dedicated Fairy deck. But such decks have little to no access to level-6 monsters, meaning that the level-2 Herald would have a tough time getting you to Stardust Dragon or any other level-8 Synchro. Fairies have several worthwhile level-5 and level-7 monsters, but neither of those helped you Synchro summon with this particular Tuner.

In reality we just weren’t seeing the forest for the trees. You certainly don’t have to use Herald of Orange Light for a Synchro summon, and in fact, you usually won’t want to: negating a monster effect to control the game is just better in most situations. Instead, the fact that Herald of Orange Light happens to be a Tuner is just a tremendous bonus. Granted, it’s a better bonus than I first thought, but the real reason to play this card is, well . . .

It’s that last point that we need to focus on. Sure, Solemn Judgment can stop the summon of any monster that could possibly threaten you, but huge life point costs aside, Solemn can be a pretty flimsy card. Dust Tornado is being played in more and more decks specifically to destroy Solemn Judgment, while some strategies have preemptive tricks built right into their core theme. Lightsworn frequently precede Judgment Dragon with Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress: she makes pretty short work of Solemn Judgment, or anything else that might stop the Dragon. Charge of the Light Brigade makes it even easier to get to her. Gladiator Beasts have Gladiator Beast Bestiari; Monarchs have Mobius the Frost Monarch, Raiza the Storm Monarch, and Caius the Shadow Monarch; and even Dark decks can get in on the shtick with innovative picks like Greenkappa.

Yeah, that’s right. Greenkappa. You too can wreck your opponent’s Solemn Judgment and the spell or trap it was protecting with a card that 80 percent of the dueling population doesn’t even remember.

What does all this preemptive potential mean to our discussion? It means that anything that can use Herald of Orange Light has a unique capability: an unstoppable answer to every big threat in this format. That’s a big boost for anything that can run this card consistently.

That means one obvious candidate, and one that’s a bit more under the radar. The first choice is obviously Counter Fairies. This deck is already focused on negating your opponent’s moves, so Herald’s effect is a perfect fit. Sure, the deck already packed Solemn Judgment and Divine Wrath, but neither could be played from your hand. In addition, your opponent can always see how many potential copies of Wrath or Solemn you have at your disposal: it’s a simple matter of counting the cards in your back row and assuming the worst-case scenario. The problem with that is one any Counter Fairy duelist is familiar with—that scenario where you have three negation cards set, but your opponent has that fourth effect that wins the game after you’ve spent all your cards.

The fact that Herald of Orange Light hides in your hand means that not only is it protected from Dust Tornado and all the rest, it’s also just flat-out unpredictable. It lends a dose of obfuscation to a deck that already used the same tactic to great success. Honest always kept a Counter Fairy duelist’s opponent on his or her toes, but now they’ll have to worry about one more potential X-factor. That’s invaluable, because Gladiator Beasts and Zombies are both getting very good at the "I’ll just throw effects at you until you’re out of set cards" strategy.

Finding space for Herald of Orange Light requires some sacrifice, but it’s well worth it. You don’t want to drop Fairy monsters—Bountiful Artemis and Honest are too important to your central strategy, while three copies of Harvest Angel of Wisdom gives you a grand total of nine Fairies with which to fuel Herald’s effect. With the Heralds themselves included, that’s twelve Fairies total—about the number I’d want if I aimed to play this card effectively. Working off a current version of the seminal deck Jerome played at Shonen Jump Championship Saint Louis, it’s easy to cut Freed the Brave Wanderer down to two, drop D. D. Warrior Lady, and nix Smashing Ground to get the three card slots you need. There are options, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble picking the ones that are right for you. All of the cards I’d personally drop provided monster removal, but so do the Heralds, so it evens out nicely. I’d opt to keep Sangan myself, since it can search out Heralds.

Did I mention you can search Herald of Orange Light with Sangan? You can. Yannick Dubeau’s Counter Fools deck could even search it out with Shining Angel or Nova Summoner. That wouldn’t get Herald to your hand, but it would set you up for a Synchro summon.

Counter Fairies not exactly your thing? You can play Herald of Orange Light in a deck built around Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen as well—something I’ve been meaning to build for weeks. I keep stumbling across ideas that make the concept look more and more viable. The basic gist is to run Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen with a bunch of big Fairies like Darklord Zerato and Guardian Angel Joan, special summoning one for free each turn thanks to Valhalla’s effect.

In a strategy like that, Herald of Orange Light gives you something to do with extra copies of big Fairies that you don’t have an immediate use for, helping you deal with dead cards while also keeping your one big beatstick safe from monster effects that would destroy it. It’s not a fully-developed idea yet (at least not in my mind), but I’m convinced there’s a deck there, and Herald of Orange Light is definitely an important piece of the puzzle.

Counter Fairies are jam-packed with level 4s. They usually run nothing higher, so Stardust Dragon won’t usually be an option: you’d need a very specific set of monsters to Synchro summon Stardust, specifically Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Herald of Orange Light, and another level 4 to complete the trifecta. That’s a tall order—it’s doable, but I can’t imagine it being worthwhile all that often. In fact, if you’ve got that much field presence, the only way I can imagine investing it in a single Synchro monster would be to break up a clogged field with Red Archfiend Dragon. That’s actually not a bad idea, it just won’t come up all that often.

The real play to make is the simplest of the bunch: Synchro summoning with a level 4 and Herald of Orange Light for Goyo Guardian. The Guardian is dangerous in any deck that can get it out, but it’s especially deadly here, simply because all of your negation tricks make it very easy to force through attacks to steal monsters. The one major challenge time and again for Counter Fairy duelists is the deck’s often-anemic ATK numbers. Jerome made a lot of progress with that problem when he decided to play Freed the Brave Wanderer and Harvest Angel, but with Zombies slinging disposable monsters around and Elemental Hero Neos Alius popping up everywhere, it’s getting harder to dominate with those ATK numbers.

Luckily, 2800 ATK is just as high as it’s ever been: there’s northing short of Gladiator Beast Heraklinos or Judgment Dragon that can top it. Synchro summoning Goyo Guardian and then using your counter traps to keep it on the field is often game for two reasons: the monsters you steal with Goyo’s effect quickly create a snowballing offensive force, and beyond that, your opponent just won’t be able to put any pressure on you with something that big standing in the way.

The Valhalla deck has even more options. It may not run Bountiful Artemis, but it’s got plenty of level 4’s it doesn’t mind giving up: extra copies of Hecatrice once you’ve already got Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen on the field are perfect fodder to let you Synchro summon Goyo Guardian.

Stardust Dragon and its level 8 cohorts are much more of a reality here than they are in the Counter Fairy deck, too. Majestic Mech - Ohka has a lot of synergy with this particular strategy. It functions as a big Fairy to special summon with Valhalla’s effect, and if you bring it out that way, it’ll stick around past the end of your turn. At the same time though, you can normal summon it without tribute or Valhalla in times of dire need. That keeps the deck flexible.

Granted, if you do special summon Ohka you can then normal summon Herald of Orange Light immediately and pull a Synchro summon. That means Stardust Dragon and Red Archfiend Dragon, but remember that we’re talking about Ohka here: a Light monster. Yup! That means Avenging Knight Parshath is an option as well, giving you the perfect game-winning play if your opponent decides to turtle up in the face of your enormous Fairies.

Synthetic Seraphim may be a stretch, but my point is this: Herald of Orange Light is an amazing card that bolsters existing strategies, and makes others possible for the first time. It’s the perfect pick given the direction of the current format, and in skilled hands it’ll win games on a regular basis—games that would have been lost otherwise.