By now, I’m sure that many of you have seen the United States premier of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and no doubt players at your store have seen it as well. After watching the show and seeing the power of Jaden’s Elemental Heroes, you can bet you’ll encounter players who are trying out Jaden’s deck for Constructed play.

These players may not be prepared for what the Elemental Heroes have in store for them. Each Elemental Hero effect monster has its own special tricks that judges will need to explain to the inexperienced. The Elemental Heroes have special support cards that help to make the deck function and also provide some tricks of their own.

With the Elemental Energy Sneak Preview Weekend soon upon us, it’s a great time to take a look at the Elemental Heroes and get a firm understanding of their abilities. This week, we’ll examine Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, Elemental Hero Thunder Giant, and Hero Signal from The Lost Millennium, and we’ll also consider Skyscraper from Cybernetic Revolution to round out our first Elemental Hero discussion.

“Our greatest challenges are yet to come. But we shall not falter and we shall not fail, for we face them together!”—Elemental Hero Avian

Each of the Elemental Hero fusion monsters in The Lost Millennium begins with the following text: “This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon.”

Both Elemental Hero Flame Wingman and Elemental Hero Thunder Giant are limited to special summons through a fusion summon. This means that you’ll have to use cards like Polymerization and Fusion Gate if you want to bring these monsters into the game. Other cards that special summon monsters, like Premature Burial, are off limits.

While the special summon itself is restricted, the fusion material monsters you use in the fusion summon are not. This means you can use monsters like King of the Swamp to speed up the fusion process and quickly get your powerful Elemental Hero fusion monsters into battle.

Let’s move on to the effect of Elemental Hero Flame Wingman: “When this card destroys a monster and sends it to the Graveyard as a result of battle, inflict damage to your opponent's Life Points equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster.”

It’s important to remember that the damage that Elemental Hero Flame Wingman inflicts to your opponent’s life points is based on the destroyed monster’s ATK while that monster is in the graveyard. This means you will need to refer to the ATK value that’s printed on the destroyed card to see how much damage you will do.

Be sure to remember this when you’re facing a stronger monster. If you were to equip Axe of Despair to your opponent’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon and then play Reverse Trap, its ATK would drop to 2000. You could then attack it with your Elemental Hero Flame Wingman and easily destroy it. And, since you determine the damage based on the monster’s ATK value in the graveyard, you’ll inflict 3000 points of damage with Elemental Hero Flame Wingman’s effect!

Next, we have Elemental Hero Thunder Giant, which reads, “Discard 1 card from your hand to select and destroy 1 face-up monster on the field with an original ATK that is less than the ATK of this card. You can only use this effect once per turn, during your Main Phase.”

Elemental Hero Thunder Giant’s ATK value defaults to 2400, which gives you enough power to destroy most commonly played monsters, like Cyber Dragon, D. D. Warrior Lady, and D. D. Assailant. When determining the monster that you will target with the effect, you need to keep both of its limitations in mind.

1. The monster you target must have an original ATK that is lower than Thunder Giant’s current ATK.
2. By raising Thunder Giant’s ATK, you will be able to target stronger monsters. If its ATK is lowered, your potential targets will diminish.

If our opponent uses Shadow Spell to lower Elemental Hero Thunder Giant’s ATK by 700 points, you will only be able to use its effect to target monsters that have an original ATK value less than 1700, because Thunder Giant’s ATK has been reduced to 1700. If I equip Elemental Hero Thunder Giant with Axe of Despair, its ATK would reach 3400, allowing you to use its effect to destroy Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

When you declare your target, the selected target must still be legal when Thunder Giant’s effect resolves. If your opponent does anything to lower the ATK of Thunder Giant before its effect can resolve, it will save his or her monster from destruction. He or she could use Shadow Spell, like in the previous example, in response to Thunder Giant’s effect and swiftly ruin your plans.

However, you could also respond with your own effect, like Rising Energy, to ensure that Elemental Hero Thunder Giant’s ATK remains high enough to finish the job. The pendulum easily swings both ways. Remember that you only get one use out of the effect each turn, and you can only use it during your own turn. Make sure you choose your target carefully!

“The great beacon lit the evening sky ablaze. Villainy had returned to our city. We were needed.”—Elemental Hero Avian

When there is danger, the Hero Signal is lit, calling forth the Elemental Heroes! “You can only activate this card when a monster on your side of the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle. Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your hand or Deck that includes "Elemental Hero" in its card name.”

Usually, you cannot activate a normal trap card during the damage step, unless the trap card modifies the ATK and/or DEF of a monster, but Hero Signal is special. Hero Signal is actually activated during the damage step, after your monster is sent to the graveyard. When you resolve its effect, you’re still in the damage step, so your opponent can’t activate any trap cards (like Torrential Tribute) to destroy the monster you summon.

Sometimes the monster that was destroyed in battle has an effect that activates when you send it to the graveyard, like Pyramid Turtle or Sangan. When this happens, you can still use Hero Signal. You’ll just change things slightly by adding it onto a chain. Pyramid Turtle or Sangan begins the chain, and then it’s followed by Hero Signal.

Remember that the Elemental Hero you choose must be level 4 or lower. Right now, that isn’t a problem at all. But someday . . . well, you’ll see.

From high above the city, upon the great Skyscrapers, the Elemental Heroes keep a watchful eye. They’re always ready to bring swift justice to villainy. “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.”

The Elemental Heroes are at their strongest when they’re protecting their homes, but the effect of Skyscraper only works when your Elemental Hero is on the offensive. It won’t help when your monster is on the receiving end of an attack.

Keep in mind that Skyscraper only works with monsters that have “Elemental Hero” in their name. A monster like Wroughtwielder may be a loyal ally of the Elemental Heroes, but because it doesn’t have the words “Elemental Hero” in its name, it won’t get to benefit from Skyscraper’s effect.

The effect of Skyscraper is also only applied during damage calculation, when you determine which monster is stronger and if either monster should be destroyed by the battle. Checking to see if you should increase your Elemental Hero’s ATK is one of the last things you will do, after applying any other changes to ATK and DEF either monster gains from other effects.

Let’s begin with a simple example. Jaden’s Elemental Hero Flame Wingman attacks Dr. Crowler’s Ancient Gear Golem. With 3000 ATK, Ancient Gear Golem is more powerful than Jaden’s Flame Wingman and should destroy it, but Jaden has Skyscraper on his side. During damage calculation, it detects that Jaden’s Elemental Hero has an ATK value that’s lower than that of Dr. Crowler’s monster, so it increases the ATK of Elemental Hero Flame Wingman by 1000 points, giving it 3100 ATK. Jaden’s monster wins the battle and destroys Ancient Gear Golem.

What would happen if the opponent’s monster starts out stronger, but its ATK drops before or during the damage calculation? Let’s check out another example. When Elemental Hero Sparkman attacks your opponent’s Steamroid, its 1600 ATK is lower than Steamroid’s 1800 ATK. But during damage calculation, the effect of Steamroid lowers its ATK by 500 points, taking it down to 1300 ATK. Since Elemental Hero Sparkman’s ATK is higher than Steamroid’s ATK during damage calculation, Sparkman won’t receive the extra 1000 points from Skyscraper.

How about another example? This time, let’s look at what happens when the opponent’s monster becomes stronger. If my Elemental Hero Flame Wingman attacks my opponent’s Injection Fairy Lily, it initially has a much higher ATK value. But during the damage calculation, my opponent can use Lily’s effect to raise its ATK by 3000 points, giving it 3400 ATK. This makes Lily the stronger monster.

The effect of Skyscraper notices that my Flame Wingman’s ATK is now lower then Lily’s and thus applies its 1000 ATK increase. 3100 ATK isn’t enough to survive, but it does greatly reduce the amount of damage I would have taken.

You may have noticed that Skyscraper only increases ATK values once, and it can only give an extra 1000 points. If that amount is still insufficient, the Elemental Hero will have to find more strength on its own.

One final note about Skyscraper—it doesn’t matter what battle position the opponent’s monster is in when it’s attacked by an Elemental Hero. If you have Skyscraper out on the field and you use your Elemental Hero Sparkman to attack your opponent’s defense position Exarion Universe, Sparkman will gain the extra 1000 ATK because Exarion Universe has a higher ATK. The increase to 2600 ATK will be more than enough to overcome Exarion Universe’s 1900 DEF.

That concludes this week’s look at the Elemental Heroes. We’ll continue next week with more Elemental Hero support cards from Cybernetic Revolution, including the tricky Bubble Shuffle. Be sure not to miss it! Also, be sure to tune into Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and cheer the Elemental Heroes on to victory.

Send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com