28 March 2013

The surprise of YCS Austin – Electrum OTK

If you’re like me, then your eyes stood wide open when you read that a deck based upon Elemental HERO Electrum not only topped in YCS Austin, but also got into top 16.

Elemental HERO Who?

Elemental HERO Electrum is one of Jaden’s fusion monsters that uses all 4 elements for its fusion: Earth (Clayman), Fire (Burstinatrix), Wind (Avian) and Water (Bubbleman).

Its effect is to return all banished cards to their respective deck (and an attack boost effect, but just like Escuridao's effect, this part is not really used).

This effect is useful, because with Fusion Gate and Miracle fusion, you end up banishing a lot of HERO cards. And unlike Parallel World Fusion, this card has no further restriction (you can keep on fusion summoning if you’re able to).

How does the deck work?

your (extra) deck requires the following:

  • The 4 mentioned fusion materials of Elemental Hero Electrum (Avian, Burstinatrix, Clayman & Bubbleman).
  • 3 Fusion Gates (and 2-3 Terraforming for consistency issues).
  • 3 Chain Material.
  • 3 Elemental HERO Electrum (called A, B and C further on).
  • 3 Elemental HERO the Shining (A, B and C).
  • 1 Elemental HERO Gaia.
  • 1 Superdreadnaught Railgun Gustav Max.

The rest of the deck & extra deck is actually free to choose, but it’s best to keep it similar to other HERO decks, just to ensure you have a come-back if your opponent is able to stop your Electrum combo.

To start the combo, you need a set Chain Material ready to activate on your field and a Fusion Gate either on your field or in your hand. The rest actually doesn't matter (yes, it’s that easy).

Then proceed as follows:

  1. Activate Fusion Gate.
  2. Activate/chain the set Chain material (the effect now lingers until the end phase).
  3. Banish from your hand/deck/grave/field Elemental HERO Avian, Burstinatrix, Clayman and Bubbleman to fusion summon Elemental HERO Electrum A.
  4. The effect of Electrum A activates, returning all the banished cards back to their deck (Avian, Burst, Clay and Bubble).
  5. Repeat step 3 & 4 to get Electrum B on the field.
  6. Overlay both Electrum A and B into Gustav Max.
  7. Use the effect of Gustav Max to detach Electrum A and do 2000 effect damage.
  8. Banish Gustav Max and Electrum A (from your grave) to summon Elemental HERO Gaia (Electrum B is sent to the grave).
  9. Banish Gaia and Electrum B (from your grave) to summon Elemental HERO the Shining A.
  10. Fusion summon Electrum C and return all banished cards back to their respective decks (fusion materials to main deck, Electrum A & B, Gaia and Gustav to the extra deck).
  11. Fusion summon Electrum A again. overlay Electrum A and C to Gustav Max.
  12. Detach Electrum A and give your opponent 2000 more damage.
  13. Banish Gustav Max and Electrum A (in your grave) for E-Hero Gaia (Electrum C is sent to the grave).
  14. Banish Gaia A and Electrum C (in your grave) for E-Hero the Shining B. You now only control 2 E-Hero the Shining.
  15. Banish both Shinings A & B, for E-Hero the Shining C.
  16. Fusion summon E-Hero Electrum B, returning all banished monsters to their respective deck. (Fusion materials to main deck, Electrum A & C, Gustav, Gaia A, Shining A & B to the extra deck).
  17. Repeat steps 10-16 until you give your opponent 8000 damage.
  18. You win.

If you want the full deck, check the deck profile TheKeeko made of Robert Boyajian's deck.


"Who needs a battle phase anyway?"

Trap-free reign

Your opponent has a Mirror Force? Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute? He can forget it. Even that Solemn Warning isn't going to do you much good if your opponent goes fusion summoning this way (warning doesn't stop either Gate or Material and due to Chain material it’s useless to try use warning on Gustav Max).

The combination of Chain Material, Fusion Gate and Electrum makes it hard to put a stop to this combo once it starts off.

Can it be stopped?

No deck is unbeatable. You can use the following cards:

  • Effect Veiler: Use it on Electrum (and ONLY on Electrum). The banished heroes remain banished, their OTK strategy is gone and they have to rely on the rest of their HERO deckbuild now. You can easily replace Veiler with cards like Skill Drain, Breakthrough Skill or Fiendish Chain.
  • Rivalry of the Warlords and/or Gozen Match. Gozen match is more preferable since it blocks the entire E-HERO deck (attributes). Rivalry simply stops Gustav from appearing (types).
  • Imperial Iron Wall: Renders Fusion Gate useless. The other option is Chaos Hunter (both these cards also work against the 4-dragon deck.
  • Seven Tools of the Bandit: Stops Chain material. Since it’s a trap, it needs to be set up. Seven tools can be replaced with any card that can negate trap card activations (Shi En, Barkion, Laggia, etc.)
  • Shock Master: Choose trap cards to stop Chain Material, or spell cards to stop the first activation of Fusion Gate.
  • Itself: Yeah, the worst enemy of this deck is itself. While Clayman is a decent defender and Bubbleman has become awesome since XYZ, Avian and Burstinatrix are simply useless. And while the combo only requires Fusion Gate and Chain material, it won’t go off if you don’t have both of them. You’re going to need decent protection from the top-tier decks if you want sufficient time to get both cards ready to play.

If it’s so easy to stop it, why did it top?

Honestly? The surprise factor. Wind-ups were predicted to be "gone" and Dino Rabbit saw a decreased use in play. Due to this, people decreased the number of Veilers/Gozen matches in favor of cards stopping Mermails and Fire Fists. And yes, less Macro Rabbit also means less Macro Cosmos/Dolkka/Laggia (Macro Rabbit has a very favorable match-up vs this deck).

This YCS was the perfect time to try this deck out. Everybody played either Mermails or Fire Fists; two decks where this deck as a good match-up against.

You hear my message coming? You can play this deck at its peak now, until Hidden Arsenal 7 comes out. But once that set is legal to play, you can return this deck to the shelves. Rabbit decks will then see a return and Evilswarm Ophion simply blocks the use of all HERO fusion monsters.


"You want to summon Electrum? How cute..."

2 comments:

  1. Problem with Step 9:

    Fusion summon Electrum C and return all banished cards back to their decks (fusion materials to main deck, Electrum A, Electrum B and Gustav to the extra deck).

    Electrum A and B are still in your graveyard at this point unless you used One of them for Step 8.

    You need to Fusion summon again before Step 9 to banish both/the remaining Electrum to continue the burn combo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right. I forgot about A-Hero the Shining.
      Fixed the text, so now it should add up.

      Delete