A time-honored tradition in the Internet community in the weeks before the release of a new set is trying to evaluate the set’s impact on Constructed play long before anyone has the cards in hand. For Enemy of Justice, everyone was trying to guess the overall impact of two main groups of cards. One of them was the Macro Cosmos/Grand Convergence duo that I previewed a couple of weeks ago. The other was the set of Destiny Heroes (one of which Julia previewed right before the Sneak Preview).

Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude really fascinates me, primarily because of one little ruling that was issued alongside it—specifically, the one allowing it to use the effects of spell cards that no sane player would ever play . . . without meeting the activation requirements or paying the costs. Diamond Dude is certainly the standout of the bunch, but I must say that I’m also quite fascinated by the other Destiny Heroes as well. Destiny Hero - Doom Lord bears a distinct similarity to the powerhouse that is Chaos Sorcerer, and Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster seems like a great finisher for a Destiny Hero-based deck. The weakest link of the team is probably Captain Tenacious, but even then, you can create a situation in which the rest of your monsters are safe from attack, since a swing on Tenacious is the only attack that will dent your board. This week, my goal is to blast someone with Megaton Magical Cannon without actually removing ten spell counters from my field to do it.

Monsters: 20

3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude

3 Destiny Hero - Doom Lord

3 Destiny Hero - Captain Tenacious

1 Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster

3 Mystic Tomato

2 Big Eye

1 Sangan

1 Tsukuyomi

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

2 Magician of Faith

Spells: 14

1 Confiscation

1 Lightning Vortex

1 Graceful Charity

1 Heavy Storm

1 Brain Control

2 Mega Ton Magical Cannon

2 Back to Square One

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Last Will

2 A Feather of the Phoenix

1 Premature Burial

Traps: 7

1 Magic Cylinder

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

3 D - Shield

This deck focuses on using Destiny Hero monsters to disrupt your opponent until you can either clear the field with Mega Ton Magical Cannon or special summon Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster (it doesn’t matter how) and rush the opponent with tiny dudes. The cool thing about the Destiny Heroes is that their effects are all about manipulating the future. A duelist who’s good at planning ahead should feel right at home with their powerful effects.

Take Doom Lord, for example. The card lets you remove any opposing monster from the game as long as you’re willing to give up attacking for the turn: kind of like a souped-up, level 4, Dark/Warrior Chaos Sorcerer. The catch, of course, is that the monster comes back during your second standby phase after you activate the effect. It’s like sending the monster two turns into the future: it basically gives you a couple of free turns to figure out how to deal with that specific monster, though you’ll still have to put up with anything else that your opponent can throw at you in the meantime. The smart player will make the most of the opportunity in order to prepare the perfect counter-strike for when the monster in question returns. (Or, since it returns on your turn, you could just remove it again, if need be.)

Of course, you’ll want to have Diamond Dude working at the same time to help you find the answers you need to win the game. You definitely want to activate Diamond Dude’s effect as early and as often as you possibly can. Every time you reveal a normal spell with its effect, you’ve effectively drawn an extra card. Sure, you can’t use that card right away, but to make up for it, you get to bypass any and all costs and conditions placed on it. This allows you to use Mega Ton Magical Cannon without worrying about silly things like spell counters.

The main problem with this strategy is the randomness of the deck. It’s entirely possible to draw these cards at the wrong time or activate Diamond Dude when a non-spell that you need is on top of the deck. To deal with this, I added Big Eye and Tsukuyomi to help arrange my draws the way I’d like them to appear. In theory, I want my normal draw to be a monster or trap, and then I want to reveal one of the thirteen normal spells in the deck with Diamond Dude. If I have a clear shot (or something close to it), I’ll make an attack or two. Otherwise, it’s usually best to just pass until I’m ready to win the game.

Speaking of winning the game, the ideal set-up going into the last few turns of the game involves all three of your little Destiny Heroes on the field, one of them being a defense position Captain Tenacious sporting a D - Shield. With this set-up, your opponent should only be able to muster one monster at a time, so whichever one of your Heroes the opponent hits will just come back on your turn, thanks to Captain Tenacious.

At that point, you have some options for how to win the game. The first one is to find a way to special summon Dreadmaster and beat down the opponent during your untouchable turn. Another is to loop Mega Ton Magical Cannon with A Feather of the Phoenix to keep your opponent’s field clear for a couple turns of direct attacking. A third (and more difficult) alternative is to clear the opponent’s field and special summon Dreadmaster in the same turn. Regardless of which method you choose, you need to get to your ideal set-up first, so let’s work on how to achieve that.

Since this deck runs primarily off of Mystic Tomato, it’s essential to keep that card in the game. Thus, you should always play it face-up to avoid Nobleman of Crossout. A good opening move involves summoning Mystic Tomato, setting a card, and watching what happens. If you have Confiscation in your opening hand when going first, you’re already on the track to victory. Choose the rest of your opening based on that.

Another valid (but less useful) opening move is to set Big Eye and another face-down card, then end. Barring an extremely aggressive start from your opponent, that Big Eye will probably be around on your next turn to help you fix your draws while keeping up field presence. The first Destiny Hero you want to put on the field is Diamond Dude, and when you do you’ll want to immediately activate its ability if possible. Once Diamond Dude is established (preferably by the effect of a Mystic Tomato), you should drop Captain Tenacious next. That’s the monster you want to give that D - Shield to, and you’ll probably have a chance during your opponent’s next turn, since it’s the obvious attack target for him or her. Remember, Captain Tenacious can’t use its ability to revive itself, so keeping it on the field is vital.

Finally, you ought to follow up with a Doom Lord to help keep problem monsters off the field while you sift through the deck with Diamond Dude. Apparently Smashing Ground is starting to fall out of favor with some players, so your opponent will likely rely on attacks and Zaborg to destroy your monsters. Attacks aren’t a problem as long as you can limit the opponent to one attack per turn, which leaves Zaborg as the number one threat to your set-up. Unfortunately, this particular build can’t deal with Zaborg very effectively, so teching it against the Monarch Control/Macro Monarch matchup is an obvious first modification. Since there are no tributes involved in playing this deck, Mask of Restrict immediately comes to mind.

Once you’ve got all three Heroes on the field, you want to keep your opponent off balance until you can reveal Mega Ton Magical Cannon with Diamond Dude. Once you do, your opponent has one more turn to deal with you before you wipe his or her field clean with the Cannon. Of course, to do it, he or she will probably have to commit the rest of his or her resources to the board, and if you can survive the onslaught, you’ll likely win the game when the Cannon goes off and forces the opponent into topdeck mode.

If you’ve chosen the Dreadmaster route to victory, you need  to get it into the graveyard somehow, probably by paying the discard cost of A Feather of the Phoenix or Back to Square One. It’s likely that you’ll get a copy of one of those cards in your opening hand, so you might as well make the most of it. When you’re ready to make the winning move, clear out whatever monsters the opponent has (without using Doom Lord) and then special summon Dreadmaster. This has to involve Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, or Captain Tenacious, due to the fact that Mystic Tomato cannot summon monsters from the deck with an ATK strength of more than 1500. Of course, the Captain Tenacious route is tougher, so it’s best to hold on to Call or Premature rather than play it immediately if you choose this option.

Overall, the Destiny Heroes are an extremely challenging group of monsters to play with, but with the added risk comes the great reward of controlling games in ways never thought possible. It’s also a lot of fun, and it’s perfect for taking to your local Hobby League. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu

NEXT WEEK: The purpose of Strike Ninja is to be on the field all the time . . . except when something is trying to destroy it.