To carry on the momentum created last week by Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude, I wanted to feature yet another D-Hero in this week’s edition of New Grounds. I’m going to be taking a look at Destiny Hero - Dasher, a nifty super rare from Power of the Duelist that’s bound to turn a few heads with its handy effect. Let’s take a look at what Dasher brings to the table:

2100 ATK/1000 DEF (no more Tsukuyomi, so no problems there)

Dark/Warrior/Effect

Once per turn, by Tributing 1 monster, this card gains 1000 ATK until the end of this turn. If this card attacks, it is changed to Defense Position at the end of the Battle Phase. While this card is in the Graveyard, one time only, when you draw a Monster Card during your Draw Phase you can show it to your opponent and Special Summon it.

There are numerous points of analysis with this card. First off, it has one of the best subtype/attribute combinations in the game. Being a Warrior makes it a part of one of the most popular subtype families available. The Dark attribute also has great synergy with a number of cards, letting you build a deck featuring Strike Ninja, for instance.

Its first effect is rather simple. By tributing cards—preferably ones like Treeborn Frog, Sangan, or your opponent’s monsters (through Brain Control or Enemy Controller)—you can make Dasher big enough to swing through anything in the game short of Injection Fairy Lily. Field dominators like Monarchs, Jinzo, Dark Magician of Chaos, and Cyber Dragon all fall short of 3100 ATK. Of course this counter-balances the fact that Dasher’s stats are not too great for a tribute summon. 2100 ATK isn’t even enough to push through Cyber Dragon unboosted, and 1000 DEF will leave it vulnerable to all sorts of quick-play spells, such as Book of Moon and Enemy Controller. However, these decisions were made with a clear regard for game balance. After all, the second part of Dasher’s effect is entirely unique (we’ve never seen a card effect like this before) and absolutely fascinating.

It has the potential to effectively make your Dasher self-replacing. All you have to do is show a good, solid tribute monster for one draw phase. This objective should be easily accomplished if you plan your deck correctly. Once per copy of Dasher you have in your deck, you can show a freshly drawn monster to get a free special summon. Certain cards might not be so great with the effect, but others shine. Tributes such as Blowback Dragon, Jinzo, Dark Magician of Chaos, and even “vanilla” special summons like Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch become immensely enhanced through Dasher’s effect. Since they work wonderfully with Brain Control anyways . . . sounds like the basis for a New Grounds deck, right? I think so too.

Creating Advantage through the Dasher Concept

There are all sorts of directions we can go with such a promising card. Let me brainstorm briefly: you can use it in conjunction with triple Magical Merchant cards; you can use the field spell from the new set, Dark City; you can run a large amount of tributes in a modified form of Soul Exchange; you can play a field spell like Mystic Plasma Zone to boost its stats; you can run Deck Devastation Virus for almost a free cost . . . the list goes on and on. In fact, the most difficult part about writing this article is narrowing down the Dasher concept to a specific strategy. You can tell by my brief list (by no means finished) how versatile the card is.

The mechanic of advantage is obvious. You can tribute for Dasher, swing into a card like Cyber Dragon, and trade off. While your opponent loses Cyber Dragon and you lose Dasher, you’ll then gain a free special summon when you draw a monster. Even better, you can choose when to use the effect! If you’re in desperate need of field presence, Dasher can fill the line of defense immediately. If you’re already set and don’t want to overextend into a Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute, nobody will stop you from exercising some Dasher discretion!

I want to go down a different route from the already-established ones though. I’ve profiled Mystic Plasma Zone, Soul Control, Deck Devastation Virus, and Magical Merchant countless times. So count those out! Instead, we’re going to be playing three copies of Dasher with three copies of Brain Control. Tributing for it or its effect is much more fun when it involves your opponent’s monsters rather than your own, wouldn’t you agree?

In a nutshell, when you play Brain Control, you put your opponent in a tough spot. When you swing with his or her monster, the opponent will be unable to use a piece of defense on it without destroying his or her own card presence (his or her trap and his or her monster for your Brain Control is a terrible trade). After they take the huge chunk of damage, you tribute for Dasher! If the opponent plays spell or trap removal on Dasher, Dasher will simply give you a suitable replacement a few turns later. Working around the Brain Control/Dasher concept, we’ll fill in the other slots with synergetic support. Let’s get started with the Dasher concept.

Build: Brain Control/Dasher Concept (BCD)

General Synergies and Goals

1) Use Brain Control to steal the opponent’s monsters and tribute them to boost Dasher. It’s like you get a pseudo-Smashing Ground that also boosts a monster to swing for 3100 damage.

2) Use Brain Control to steal the opponent’s monsters to tribute for Dasher.

Pivotal Cards

1) Maharaghi

2) Brain Control/Dasher

Constructing the Monster Lineup (Yes, I said Maharaghi)

Lost in the crazed Spirit shuffle is one of the best commons ever printed. While Yata-Garasu and Tsukuyomi got all of the headlines, two Spirits with 1700 stat scores languished in obscurity, eager to show their stuff. Asura Priest has made it into the mainstream, what with the deck that Wilson Luc, Emon Ghaneian, and I created that debuted at the Chicago Shonen Jump Championship. It has a 1700 ATK score.

Maharaghi has not yet made it to the mainstream. Back in the old days a few formats back, I created a nifty little deck that focused on Archfiend’s Oath and Convulsion of Nature to generate free cards. This was not a one turn kill; it was set up to grind away at the opponent over a committed period of time. It went 7-2 at a Southern California regional (one of the tougher tournaments in the nation) and I realized immediately that main-decking two copies of the Earth Spirit (in the era of Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning) was a good call. You see, Maharaghi is one of the best tools in the game for digging into crucial combos or key cards.

In that case, the key combo was Archfiend’s Oath and Convulsion of Nature. In our case, we want to draw Dasher and Brain Control. However, in both cases, having multiple copies of one of the combo’s components is less than ideal. You don’t want two Brain Control cards with no tributes or two Convulsion of Nature cards without the Oath, do you? So playing a few copies of this Spirit will let us see more cards, which will lead to more chances to play the better cards in our deck. You’ll generally want to send almost every card in your deck down to the bottom, except Graceful Charity, Confiscation, or either Dasher or Brain Control. Now that I’m done ranting about the most underrated Spirit in the game (even Otohime has seen play, at Worlds no less!), let’s move on to the monster list. We’ll separate into three categories.

Most Underrated Spirit in the Game Support:

2 Maharaghi

Setting Up Destiny Hero - Dasher Support:

2 Destiny Hero - Dasher

2 Magical Merchant

1 Sangan

1 Treeborn Frog

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Morphing Jar

1 Magician of Faith

1 Night Assailant

3 Gravekeeper’s Spy

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

This monster line of support leads to easy tributes for Dasher and creates numerous floating opportunities as well. I am a bit ashamed, however, for lying to you. I couldn’t resist using two copies of Magical Merchant to send Treeborn Frog, Dasher, and a juicy piece of monster tech (coming up) directly to the graveyard. I’m sure you can guess what the monster is, though. We’re playing three Brain Control cards, so it probably sounds a lot like Dee-Mock.

Merchant and Morphing Jar can both send Dasher to the graveyard to trigger its effect. Cyber Dragon and Spy help us make up for the lost field presence that we incur from repeatedly summoning the Spirit monster Maharaghi. Magician of Faith and Night Assailant let us set up wonderful combinations, and serve as card-for-card trades in general.

General Support:

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Asura Priest

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

1 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

3 Blowback Dragon

1 Airknight Parshath

The twenty-four monster count gives us more pieces of general support. Breaker the Magical Warrior speaks for itself, even in this format where the Dark attribute isn’t as highly prized. Asura Priest works wonderfully well with our planned double Creature Swap, and can still dominate the field while reducing commitment to the board. Finally, Dark Magician of Chaos makes another triumphant appearance in New Grounds, as does Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. Both are obviously great with Brain Control.

We’re hoping to pull Blowback Dragon or Airknight Parshath with Dasher’s effect, by the way, but getting the tribute for them with Brain Control doesn’t hurt either.

The Spell and Trap Support for the Dasher Concept

We’ll run the full power six:

Graceful Charity

Nobleman of Crossout

Mystical Space Typhoon

Premature Burial

Confiscation

Heavy Storm

For the themed support, let’s take a closer look.

Conceptual Spell Support:

3 Brain Control: The juice of the deck. This spell will allow you to set up your plethora of tributes and helps to get Dasher onto the field.

1 Scapegoat: This card will be essential in recouping some of your lost field presence due to tributes.

2 Creature Swap: Great with the three Spirit monsters, Spies, and Merchant, Creature Swap also works with Scapegoat. This is a great card that can be searched for through Maharaghi. A deadly combination indeed.

1 Pot of Avarice: Its utility with Dasher cannot be overemphasized. It’s also a great card in its own right, and our deck should play the perfect tempo to suit it.

Trap Staples:

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Dust Tornado

All the critical traps we’ll need are included. Torrential and Ring protect against your opponent’s monsters quite well, while Mirror Force should be the late game ender. The high quantity of tribute monsters necessitates Call of the Haunted. Finally, we can throw in a single copy of Dust Tornado to ward off any pesky defenses before our big pushes.

Expected Match-Ups with the Best Decks in the Format

A brief perusal of my local regional in San Jose indicates that the California metagame, at the very least, focuses on the standard contingent of Warrior cards with either Mystic Tomato or Apprentice Magician providing field support. Exiled Force is run in pairs, which means monsters won’t be staying on the field for long.

However, any speculation about the nationwide dueling environment will have to cease until Shonen Jump Boston’s results are out! I’m looking forward to the tournament just as much as you are, and we’ll build our analysis from there. Until then, I’ll simply have to say the deck looks great conceptually. I’ll see you next week on New Grounds!