This week, we’ll examine Elemental Hero Bubbleman and Wroughtweiler on the monster side, and Bubble Shuffle and Spark Blaster on the support side.

Chemist by day, Elemental Hero by night, Bubbleman’s bubble-formula can be altered to handle any situation. He is always ready to defend his allies.

When the Elemental Heroes have reached their limits and all hope seems lost, their newest ally, Elemental Hero Bubbleman, arrives to lend a helping hand.

“If this is the only card in your hand, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. When this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or Special Summoned successfully, if there are no other cards on your side of the field and in your hand, you can draw 2 cards from your Deck.”

When you’ve used up every resource in your hand and all that remains is Elemental Hero Bubbleman, you can special summon it during your main phase. This effect is fairly simple, so we’ll focus our examination on its card-drawing effect.

Elemental Hero Bubbleman’s effect has specific timing restrictions that control when you can use its effect. If Bubbleman is the only card in your hand and you have no cards on your side of the field, you won’t have any trouble with the timing of its effect. However, you’ll run into problems if Bubbleman is special summoned during the middle of a chain.

As an example, if your opponent used her Mystic Tomato to attack your attack position Mother Grizzly, both monsters would be destroyed. Due to the rules regarding simultaneous activations, your Mother Grizzly would special summon a monster before your opponent’s Mystic Tomato special summons a monster. If you choose Elemental Hero Bubbleman, you would not be able to use its effect, because your opponent still needs to resolve the effect of her Mystic Tomato.

You should keep in mind that the odds of this happening are quite slim—so don’t let that stop you from using Elemental Hero Bubbleman. Normally, players will use its effect by special summoning it from their hand when they have no other cards, making the effect more of a sure thing.

But the opponent does have another trick that he or she can use to interfere with the effect. When Elemental Hero Bubbleman’s effect resolves, it checks to make sure you have no other cards on the field and no cards in your hand. If either of these conditions are no longer true, the effect will fail. This can be accomplished by using cards like Conscription or Ojama Trio to put a card into your hand or put cards onto your side of the field.

Next we have Wroughtweiler, the cybernetic canine ally of the Elemental Heroes.

“When this card is destroyed as a result of battle and sent to the Graveyard, add from your Graveyard to your hand 1 card that includes "Elemental Hero" in its card name, and 1 "Polymerization".”

When Wroughtweiler is destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, its effect requires two separate targets, and each must exist in your graveyard for the effect to work: one card with “Elemental Hero” in its name and one copy of Polymerization. If you’re missing either piece, Wroughtweiler’s effect will not activate.

You can choose an Elemental Hero fusion monster with the effect. If you do so, the fusion monster will return to your fusion deck instead of being placed into your hand.

“My adhesion-bubbles will make short of work of him! But just in case . . . I think I’ll call for backup.”—Elemental Hero Bubbleman

Cybernetic Revolution introduced a new ability for the Elemental Heroes, and that’s access to technology. Elemental Hero Bubbleman and Elemental Hero Sparkman were each given a special weapon to help them in their fight against villainy. We’ll begin our examination by looking at Bubble Shuffle.

“You can only activate this card when there is a face-up "Elemental Hero Bubbleman" on the field. Change 1 "Elemental Hero Bubbleman" in face-up Attack Position on your side of the field and 1 monster in face-up Attack Position on your opponent's side of the field to Defense Position. Tribute the "Elemental Hero Bubbleman" that was changed to Defense Position and Special Summon 1 monster from your hand that includes "Elemental Hero" in its card name.”

That’s quite a bit of text, isn’t it? I’ll make it easier by breaking down the effect into its pieces.

First, you can only activate Bubble Shuffle while you have a face-up attack position Elemental Hero Bubbleman on your side of the field. You must also have a monster in your hand with “Elemental Hero” in its card name, and your opponent must have at least one face-up, attack position monster on his or her side of the field. With this many restrictions on Bubble Shuffle’s effect, you’ll need to watch your timing carefully.

When the condition have been met, activate Bubble Shuffle and choose two targets: one face-up, attack position Elemental Hero Bubbleman on your side of the field and one face-up, attack position monster on your opponent’s side of the field. From here, the opponent is given the chance to respond.

If he or she can manage to turn either monster to defense position, or remove either monster from the field before the effect resolves, the effect will do nothing. He or she can accomplish this with cards like Desert Sunlight or Compulsory Evacuation Device.

If the opponent is unable to stop the effect or ruin its conditions, the effect will resolve normally. Each targeted monster is turned to defense position, and we move on to the final part. Conclude the effect by tributing the Elemental Hero Bubbleman that you shifted to defense position, then special summon a monster with “Elemental Hero” in its name from your hand onto the field.

Since it’s a quick-play spell card, it’s possible to use this effect during your opponent’s battle phase to disrupt his or her battle plans. Or, you can use it during your own turn to force your opponent’s strongest monster into defense position and replace Elemental Hero Bubbleman with another Elemental Hero. Remember that the level of the selected Elemental Hero is not important, because this is a special summon and therefore doesn’t require any other tributes.

Why I am telling you this? Well . . . you’ll find out when you attend the Elemental Energy Sneak Preview.

Our last card for the week is Spark Blaster, Elemental Hero Sparkman’s personal sidearm.

“You can only equip this card to "Elemental Hero Sparkman". During the Main Phase of your turn, you can change the battle position of 1 face-up monster. After you use this effect 3 times, destroy this card.”

When using Spark Blaster, it’s helpful to place three counters onto it to show how many uses it has left. Each time you use the effect, remove one of the counters. Once you pull that last counter off, you’ll know that it’s time to destroy the Spark Blaster.

You can only use the effect of Spark Blaster during your main phase, but it’s perfectly fine to use it on the same turn that you equip it to Elemental Hero Sparkman. You can even use its effect three times in the same turn, if you like. You’ll know what’s best for you after you spend some time practicing.

Each time you activate the effect of Spark Blaster, you must choose one face-up monster as the target. Because Spark Blaster is an equip spell card, it must remain face-up on the field until the effect has resolved, or it will do nothing. If your opponent can destroy it with Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado before its effect resolves, he or she will save that monster from shifting its battle position. Likewise, if you remove it from the field with a card like Emergency Provisions, the effect will disappear.

Spark Blaster helps Elemental Hero Sparkman alter the battle position of monsters in order to make them more vulnerable, or in some cases, strengthen them. If your opponent is using Berserk Gorilla, your Spark Blaster could quickly put it into its vulnerable defense position. Spirit Reaper will also be no match against Spark Blaster, as it’ll be destroyed by its own effect. You could also use monsters like Elemental Hero Clayman to attack your opponent and then use the effect of Spark Blaster to turn it into defense position, keeping it from being an easy target during your opponent’s turn.

This concludes our discussion of the Elemental Heroes. Be sure to attend the Elemental Energy Sneak Preview and check out what new powers the Elemental Heroes have in store for you, and also pick up a copy of Exchange of the Spirit!

Send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com.