“Jaden, how come I don’t have any catch phrases?”

“Just wait for inspiration to hit you, Sy.”

“Okay. Hey, how about ‘Roid-Power!?’”

“ . . . Um . . . maybe you should leave the catch phrases to the professionals.”

Every time Jaden duels, we get to see another piece of his deck that we haven’t seen before. The Jaden Duelist Pack gives us access to more of these cards, which are sure to interest Elemental Hero players everywhere. This week, we examine a few to determine how they behave in a duel.

Elemental Hero Steam Healer, the fusion of Elemental Hero Burstinatrix and Elemental Hero Bubbleman, says, “This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle and sends it to the Graveyard, increase your Life Points by the ATK of the destroyed monster.”

The “Fusion summon only” restriction is nothing new, and it should be familiar to anyone who plays with the Elemental Heroes. The remainder of Steam Healer’s effect is similar to that of Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, with a slight modification. Instead of inflicting additional damage, Steam Healer will increase your life points.

When Elemental Hero Steam Healer destroys a monster in battle, check its ATK value when it’s in the graveyard. That will determine how many life points you gain from Steam Healer’s effect. For many monsters, this is not an issue, but for monsters like Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast, it can be very important. When you destroy a Fusilier Dragon while its ATK and DEF values are halved (thanks to its effect), you will net more life points, because the Dragon’s original ATK value will not be halved when it’s in the graveyard. This means you’ll gain 2800 life points.

Burst Return made its Yu-Gi-Oh! GX debut when Jaden faced a monster with the odd ability to manipulate the actions of Jaden’s male Elemental Heroes. It took Elemental Hero Burstinatrix to finally set the boys straight.

“You can only activate this card while there is a face-up "Elemental Hero Burstinatrix" on your side of the field. Return to the owner's hand(s) all monster(s) on the field that include "Elemental Hero" in their card name, except "Elemental Hero Burstinatrix".”

For your normal Elemental Heroes, like Elemental Hero Wildheart and Elemental Hero Sparkman, the effect of Burst Return will bounce them back into your hand, but Elemental Hero Fusion monsters like Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster will instead be returned to your Fusion deck. This is a standard mechanic, affecting every Fusion monster ever returned to your hand, so make sure you pay close attention to it.

The only Elemental Hero unaffected by Burst Return is Elemental Hero Burstinatrix. While the others are cleared from the field, it alone will remain (and if you have multiple copies of Elemental Hero Burstinatrix on the field, they will all remain, because they are all unaffected by Burst Return). Elemental Hero monsters on both players’ sides of the field will all return to their owner’s hands. If your opponent controls one of your Elemental Hero monsters, due to a card like Snatch Steal or Creature Swap, it will return to your hand when Burst Return is resolved.

What if you have a face down Elemental Hero Clayman? Since Clayman is face down, its name cannot be determined. This will allow it to remain behind on the field while all the face-up Elemental Heroes are returned to their owner’s hands. The same can be said of all face-down Elemental Heroes.

It’s important to note that Elemental Hero Burstinatrix only needs to be face up on the field when you activate Burst Return. If something happens to it before your Burst Return resolves, all face-up Elemental Hero monsters will still be returned to their owners’ hands.

Elemental Hero Bubbleman is certainly one of Jaden’s more versatile monsters. What began with Bubble Shuffle has only grown with two new additions: namely, Bubble Blaster and Bubble Illusion.

Bubble Blaster is an equip card that can only be equipped to Elemental Hero Bubbleman. Like Elemental Hero Sparkman with its Spark Blaster, this is Bubbleman’s personal sidearm, which no other Elemental Hero can wield.

“Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by 800 points. If the equipped monster would be destroyed as a result of battle, destroy this card instead, and make the Battle Damage to the controller of the equipped monster 0.”

Bubble Blaster gives the equipped Elemental Hero Bubbleman an extra durability that most equipped monsters don’t have, but this protection is only good against battle damage. If a card effect is responsible for destroying Bubbleman, the Bubble Blaster has no way to save it. Take Drillroid, for example. While its effect may activate when it attacks, that has nothing to do with battle damage. Battle damage is a result of damage calculation in the damage step, and with Drillroid’s effect, such a calculation simply won’t occur.

Knowing that it would face problems like this, you have another strategy with Elemental Hero Bubbleman: Bubble Illusion. “You can only activate this card while there is a face-up "Elemental Hero Bubbleman" on your side of the field. During this turn, you can activate 1 Trap Card from your hand.”

Bubble Illusion’s effect allows you to establish a temporary game state, similar to that of Makyura the Destructor. When it resolves, it establishes a condition that allows you to activate one trap card from your hand during the remainder of the turn. Normally, traps can only be activated if they’ve been set on the field for at least one turn, so this ability can be quite helpful. You can set it during your turn and then activate it during your opponent’s turn. This will allow you to activate one trap from your hand during the remainder of your opponent’s turn.

Using Bubble Illusion effectively can be tricky, however. Since it has to resolve in order to establish its condition, the trap card you plan on activating from your hand will need to be used in a completely different chain. If you miss the timing with your Bubble Illusion, it could be disastrous. Suppose I have a set Bubble Illusion on my side of the field. My opponent enters his battle phase, and attacks my Elemental Hero Bubbleman with his X-Head Cannon. I have a Sakuretsu Armor in my hand that I’d like to activate with Bubble Illusion’s help, but in order to do so, I’ll have to activate Bubble Illusion and it will have to resolve. The condition I need to establish will not be set in place until Bubble Illusion resolves. My opponent may not stop this, but it won’t matter, because after Bubble Illusion resolves, my chance to respond to my opponent’s attack will have passed. The Sakuretsu Armor will have to wait for another attack.

Let’s look at another example. It is my opponent’s standby phase and she activates Armed Dragon LV3’s effect so that she can special summon Armed Dragon LV5. I have a Bottomless Trap Hole in my hand that could destroy that pesky Dragon, and I’d like to use Bubble Illusion to let me activate it. Activating Bubble Illusion in response to the effect of Armed Dragon LV3 forms a chain.

Armed Dragon LV3 à Bubble Illusion

Bubble Illusion resolves first and establishes its condition for the turn. Next, the effect of my opponent’s Armed Dragon LV3 resolves, and Armed Dragon LV5 is special summoned to the field. Now the timing is right for Bottomless Trap Hole, and since Bubble Illusion’s condition has already been established, I can activate Bottomless Trap Hole from my hand to destroy Armed Dragon LV5.

A bit of preparation is all you need to make Bubble Illusion work effectively. You’re free to activate Bubble Illusion during any game phase except the damage step—and that includes your opponent’s main phase. This will set up the condition according to your designs, so you can have access to traps like Widespread Ruin when you need them.

Our look into the Duelist Packs will continue with the three promotional cards included in the Special Edition boxes released earlier this month. Be sure to stop by again to learn all about them!

Until next time, send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com.