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).

"By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!"

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..."

Using Monster Reborn (and other revival cards)

After frequently running into people on DuelingNetwork who have issues with Monster Reborn (and other revival cards), I decided to write an article about the card.

About Monster Reborn

Most of you know how Monster Reborn works (I hope). You target 1 monster card in either player’s graveyard and (unless negated or countered) you can special summon the target (either in attack or defense).

But what several people have issues with, is what targets you can pick and what targets you cannot.

Legal targets

The following targets are perfectly legal:

• Any normal monster (no matter what level).
• Any effect monster without summoning conditions (no matter what level).
• Any Lv. 5 or higher effect monster without summoning conditions.
• Any effect monster with multiple summoning conditions. This includes normal or tribute summons (Cyber Dragon, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Lightpulsar Dragon, etc…).
• Any Synchro or XYZ monster that was summoned correctly & successfully.
• And a few others, which I’ll describe in detail…

Other legal targets – Semi nomi monsters that were summoned correctly

Semi-nomi? That stands for “Special Summon only monsters”. Those monsters have the following effect:

• Pre-problem solving card text: this card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card can only be Special Summoned etc…
• Post-problem solving card text: Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must first be Special Summoned etc...

The monsters that have either of these card lines can only be special summoned by the description showed in their text (like how you banish 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK attribute for Chaos Sorcerer) and do NOT have any restriction on further summons (they do NOT have “and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways”).

So, if the monster was summoned successfully and sent to the grave or banished area afterwards (yes, even when banished from the game), you can special summon that monster afterwards.

Which monsters fall under this category? Check the following list: List of special summon only monsters.

Note: Ritual monsters are the perfect example of semi-nomi monsters.

Yes, Yes and No. Only Lighray Sorcerer cannot be revived after a correct summon.

Illegal targets 1 – Cannot be special summoned (by other ways)

So which targets can you NOT pick? Well, most of the times, it’s said in the card text.

Does your card have one of the following lines?

• Cannot be special summoned.
• Cannot be special summoned from the grave.
• Must be special summoned by X and cannot be special summoned by other ways (a.k.a. nomi monsters).
• Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways (like most HERO fusion monsters).

Then you CANNOT target it for monster Reborn. Easy, no?

No, no and no. Sucks to be you guys. None of you can be revived.

Illegal targets 2 – God says NO!

Did your opponent use Solemn Warning, Solemn Judgment or another card effect that negates your special summon? Then you cannot revive the following targets:

• Cards from the extra deck (fusions, xyz, synchro’s)
• Semi-nomi monsters (see Other legal targets)
• Cards mentioned in “Illegal targets 1”

Illegal targets 3 - (Specific) cards that were sent to the grave

Monsters can be sent/discarded to the graveyard from either the deck, hand or even from the extra deck (Gale Dogra, Dragunity Knight Trident,…).

The monsters described in "Illegal Targets 2" cannot be revived if they were sent/discarded to the graveyard.

"I just sent your Zenmaity to the grave.
U mad bro?"

Illegal targets 4 – Monsters summoned in the wrong way

You think you can't summon monsters in a wrong way? In some cases, you actually can.

There are certain cards out there that allow you to summon a monster from the extra deck without meeting the right requirements (a fusion summon, xyz summon or synchro summon).

However, since you did not meet the right requirements, you cannot target them for Monster Reborn (or other revival cards).

These cards effects are the following:

• Starlight Road (Stardust Dragon)
• Shooting Quasar Dragon (Shooting Star Dragon)
• Miracle Contact (only applies on Elemental HERO Neos Knight)
• Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor (Blackwing synchro’s)
• Psychic Feel Zone (psychic synchro’s)
• Bahamut Shark (Rank 3 or lower water attribute XYZ)
• The Hex-Sealed Fusions (Earth/Dark/Light Fusions)
• Synchro Change
• Summoner of Illusions
• Super Roboyarou / Super Robolady (their effect to summon the other one)
• Metamorphosis (Traditional only)
• Cyber-Stein (Traditional only)
• Magical Scientist (Traditional only)
• Temple of the Kings (Traditional only)

Note: Keep an eye on the monsters summoned through these card effects, because it’s easy to forget how they were summoned when they’re sent to the grave.

New & upcoming XYZ! Beware his effect!

Legal or illegal targets?: Fusion monsters

Fusion monsters have been around since the beginning and have appeared in many forms.

Depending on what fusion monster you get on the field (successfully), you might or might not be able to bring it back to life afterwards:

Fusion type	Yes/No	Why (not)?
Oldschool Fusions	YES	If the summon condition just reads: Monster A + Monster B, then there’s no reason why you could not bring it back. Even if the card says that a fusion summon can only be done with the mentioned Fusion Material Monsters, that doesn’t stop a revival afterwards.
Fusions with the line “This monster can only be Special Summoned by Fusion Summon” (with no further conditions)	YES!	This is pre-problem solving card text and will be corrected in a reprint as “Must first be Fusion summoned”. The new text is already visible on the Gem-Knight Fusions.
Fusion monsters with the line “cannot be Special Summoned by other ways	NO!	The text says so itself. The HERO fusions fall under this category.
Neos TAG fusions	YES!	The ONLY exception on the Elemental HERO’s are the Neos “Tag” fusions, whose fusion materials are returned to the deck instead of the graveyard. They do not have the restriction the “normal” E-Hero Fusions have.
Gladiator Beast Tag Fusions	YES!	Same reason as with the Neos Tag fusions.
Armityle the Chaos Phantom	YES!	After being correctly summoned, he’s free to bring back anytime.
Chimeratech Fortress Dragon	YES!	Though he’s going to be useless, since his effect only works when fusion summoned.
The VWXYZ fusions	YES!	All VWXYZ monster are free to return, except XYZ Dragon Cannon. The last one has the specific line "This card cannot be special summoned from the graveyard".
Incorrect fusion summons	NO!	See “Illegal targets 4” for explanation.

Final notes

A: I tried to be as complete as possible. If I missed anything (or interpreted something wrong), please let me know and I’ll correct it.

B: Black Luster Soldier – EOTB may get a reprint in Legendary collection 3 with the problem solving card text (god, let’s hope so). Let’s hope the issues on reviving him are buried with that reprint.

C: This text is written from the point of view of Monster Reborn. This also applies to other revival cards, whether or not they can be used in advanced format (Call of the Haunted, Premature Burial,…).

Forgive me for the long post, but I wanted a complete guide, so a long explanation is the automatic result of this. I hope it helps you out.

Until next time, V out.