“Forget strategy. Let’s just hit them where it hurts!”—Rampart Blaster

Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster is a fusion of Elemental Hero Clayman and Elemental Hero Burstinatrix. Its text says, “This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. While this card is in face-up Defense Position, this card can attack your opponent’s Life Points directly. In that case, apply half the ATK of this card for damage calculation.”

Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster is similar to Total Defense Shogun from Dark Beginnings 2, and it’s easy to make a comparison between them. While it’s true that both monsters are able to attack from defense position, Rampart Blaster handles its attack quite differently.

Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster doesn’t bother with your opponent’s monsters. If it’s in defense position and you want it to attack, the attack will be a direct attack to your opponent. You have no other option when you’re attacking from defense position. Due to this effect, you won’t care if your opponent has any monsters at all.

If the attack succeeds in progressing to the damage calculation step, take the card’s current ATK value, halve it, and then use this halved value to determine the damage calculation. If Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster is at its printed ATK value of 2000, you would halve it to 1000 and then use 1000 as its ATK value for the damage calculation.

Make sure to include any increases or decreases to ’s ATK value before you halve its value for damage calculation. If you equip your Rampart Blaster with Axe of Despair, increasing its ATK to 3000, it will have 1500 ATK during damage calculation while it’s attacking from defense position. The higher you can raise its ATK, the more damage you can inflict to your opponent’s life points.

Even though Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster is attacking while it’s in defense position, your opponent can still respond to the attack by using card effects, and these card effects can stop the attack. For example, if your opponent responds with Sakuretsu Armor, it will destroy your attacking Rampart Blaster.

What if your opponent uses Magic Cylinder? You know that the attack will be negated, but what will become of the damage that it inflicts to your life points? Recall that the halving of Rampart Blaster’s ATK is only performed during the damage calculation. Due to this, your Rampart Blaster will be at full strength during the battle step, when Magic Cylinder is activated. At its printed values, this will mean 2000 points of damage to your life points.

Suppose your opponent uses Enemy Controller and switches your Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster to attack position after you declare your direct attack. Your opponent also has monsters on his side of the field. What will happen then?

Since your Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster must be in defense position to attack your opponent directly and avoid his monsters, the situation will result in a replay. As with any other situation that results in a replay, you will have to decide again whether or not to attack. If you decide to continue attacking, you will have to choose to attack one of your opponent’s monsters, because you can no longer declare a direct attack.

A similar situation results when an attack position Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster declares to attack the opponent’s monster and finds itself forced into defense position in response, which can happen with cards like Windstorm of Etaqua. In this case, the replay still occurs, but now Rampart Blaster can choose only to attack directly.

If the opponent has no monsters at all and he or she uses Enemy Controller to change Rampart Blaster’s battle position, no replay will occur. With no monsters on the opponent’s side of the field, he or she will be attacked directly by your monsters, and thanks to Rampart Blaster’s effect, it can attack from both battle positions. All that would matter in this situation is the battle position of your Rampart Blaster during damage calculation, because this can affect its ATK value during damage calculation.

Next, we have Elemental Hero Tempest, Jaden’s answer to the Paradox brother’s offense. Elemental Hero Tempest is unique among the Elemental Heroes, as it requires the most fusion material monsters: Elemental Hero Avian, Elemental Hero Sparkman, and Elemental Hero Bubbleman. Its text says, “This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. By sending 1 card (except this card) from your side of the field to the Graveyard, select 1 monster on your side of the field. While this card is face-up on the field, the selected monster is not destroyed as a result of battle. (Damage calculation is applied normally.)”

Elemental Hero Tempest’s effect allows it to protect itself (or another monster on your side of the field) from being destroyed in battle, for as long as Elemental Hero Tempest remains face-up on the field. Earning this protection will cost you one card of your choice from your side of the field, but not Elemental Hero Tempest itself.

When you activate the effect, you must send one card on your side of the field to the graveyard as a cost and then choose one monster on your side of the field to be the target of the effect. Your opponent is then free to respond with his or her own card effect. If they can remove either of your cards from the field—either the chosen monster or Tempest itself—he or she will succeed in stopping the effect, because both cards must remain on the field for the effect to resolve properly.

Also, keep in mind that using a set trap or quick-play spell card to pay the cost for Elemental Hero Tempest’s effect can prevent you from using the effects of those cards. Since the card is set as a cost, it’s not possible to activate the card and form a chain, because the card is already in the graveyard when you’re given the opportunity to respond.

That’s not too bad, right? Let’s move on to something that’s more difficult.

“Bring as many as you got. I’ll take ‘em all.”—Wildedge

Elemental Hero Wildedge, the fusion of Elemental Hero Wildheart and Elemental Hero Bladedge, says, “This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. This card can attack all monsters on your opponent's side of the field once each.”

Not many monsters can clear the field quite like Elemental Hero Wildedge. During each of your battle phases, you can use it to attack each of your opponent’s monsters, paving the way for your remaining monsters to attack your opponent directly. Remember that each attack is declared separately, just like any other attack. You’re not attacking all of your opponent’s monsters simultaneously.

Elemental Hero Wildedge can only attack each of your opponent’s monsters once each. If your opponent has a Spirit Reaper in attack position, it would feel real good to smack it around a few times with Wildedge, but this is something you can’t do, because you can only attack it once with Wildedge.

What would happen if you declare a direct attack with Elemental Hero Wildedge and your opponent responds with Scapegoat, special summoning four Sheep tokens to his or her side of the field?

Due to the replay, Wildedge would have to re-decide its attack. You could then choose to attack the Sheep tokens, and due to Wildedge’s effect, you will be able to attack all four of the Sheep tokens. But now that you have attacked an opponent’s monster, your Wildedge can no longer attack your opponent directly.

Being able to attack your opponent’s monsters once each means  can take out new monsters that may have replaced monsters that it has already destroyed in battle. When your Wildedge destroys your opponent’s Mystic Tomato in battle, if he or she chooses to special summon another monster onto the field, it will be a valid target for your Wildedge’s next attack.

Next is our final card for discussion today: Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman.

Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman is the fusion of the fusion monster Elemental Hero Flame Wingman and Elemental Hero Sparkman. Its text says, “This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. Increase the ATK of this card by 300 points for each card in your Graveyard that includes "Elemental Hero" in its card name. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict damage to your opponent's Life Points equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster.”

You will notice that Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman is similar to Elemental Hero Flame Wingman. The only difference between the two card’s effects is Shining Flare Wingman’s added ability that increases its ATK by 300 points for each Elemental Hero in your graveyard.

The notable difficulty of playing Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman is the requirement of a fusion monster as one of the two fusion materials. You can avoid this by using monsters like King of the Swamp and substituting them in place of Elemental Hero Flame Wingman in the fusion. Remember that these Elemental Hero fusion monsters only care about being fusion summoned. They have no issues with the use of “fusion substitute” monsters like King of the Swamp.

You can also use Miracle Fusion to remove an Elemental Hero Flame Wingman and an Elemental Hero Sparkman in your graveyard from play to fusion summon Elemental Hero Shining Flame Wingman. You may find this to be a more cost-effective approach.

This concludes our discussion of the Elemental Energy Heroes. Be here next week for another look into the mechanics of more new cards from Elemental Energy!

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