Project HERO [Update]

I had not been updating my E HERO deck in months, and I'm currently very very busy to play test on DN due to assignments and stuff. But, I did found some time just now (I woke up at 2:30 am thinking it was 5, took my shower and coffee, waiting for my dad to wake up, went into his room, and saw the time, feeling fucked up) and updated my decklist to the current meta. My first thought was to have a card in main deck that would do good against Inzektor and Machina Gadget, one that would stop them in their tracks effectively, it didn't took long as that card is glued into my side deck since the beginning of time, naturally, that card is Skill Drain.

monster(8):

3 E HERO Neos Allius
2 E HERO Bubbleman
1 E HERO Airman
1 E HERO Ocean
1 E HERO Forestman

spell (18):

3 E Emergency Call
3 Pot of Duality
3 Miracle Fusion
3 Gemini Spark
2 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Future Fusion
1 Polymerization

trap (14):

3 HERO Blast
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Skill Drain
2 Dark Bribe
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment

extra (15):

3 E HERO The Shining
2 E HERO Absolute ZERO
1 E HERO The GREAT Tornado
1 E HERO Gaia
1 E HERO Escuridao
1 E HERO Nova Master
1 E HERO The Earth
2 Blade Armor Ninja
1 H-C Excalibur
1 No39 Hope
1 NoC39 Hope Ray

I've played a game with this build just now and found it fairly consistent, being the hybrid of my normal HERO build, Bubble Beat and HERO Beat. The one card I find iffy in here would be Future Fusion, its good for setting up HERO Blast plays but I find it dead without Blast in the opening hand, and even if I have Blast, its normally too obvious. Simply put, good players can easily play around it. Maybe I would replace it with a Book of Moon or something.

Forestman and Ocean are 2 cards people would never play in their deck, but those 2 are cards I would never take out of my deck. With Skill Drain out, Forest is still a 2000 wall; without Skill Drain, your opponent has to make sure they can get pass your backrow to them, since come standby phase, they will gain you massive advantages. Or maybe this is just my ego speaking, since I like these cards.

I would really like to find room for the 3rd MST, being my favorite card this format. I would want MST to be in my opening 6 every game (if my opponent is not Chaos Dragons), but now, I couldn't really fit a 3rd one in here. Also, I like to play a pair of Dark Bribe in here, ever since I saw Joe Giorlando's Long Beach Top 4 HERO beat deck. I do feel that it is still the best card there is in the game (next to Judgment) to keep Skill Drain on the board. Unlike cards like Fake Trap, it is NOT situation and can be chain to a Solemn and Lance, which are cards your opponent normally plays to stop your Gemini Sparks. Like I've said in my previous blog posts, HERO'ss greatest asset lies in Gemini Spark, play it right and you will win, if your opponent somehow stops it, your in a minus 1 all of a sudden, and in a control deck, thats bad.

Compulse is a card I never like to be in here, its good and I know this, but it feels so cheap, it feels like eating some food you bought at a road side stall in a fancy Spanish restaurant. But, I do realize that they're aren't many good traps at the moment due to Inzektor domination, those that can't be chained are instantly drop out of the selection list. Since the deck doesn't play Card-car D, I can't play Phoenix Wing Wind Blast without it being dead half of the time.

3 copies of HERO Blast may be overkill, but I tend to never pull into them when I play 2 copies. Player preference I guess, but I don't think anyone would deny the pure control HERO Blast lets you gain. Then again, I main deck a copy of Future Fusion, so that can help me get Allius into the grave fast enough. But, depending on the results of my testings, the Future Fusion may be my 3rd MST or Book of Moon, so by then, maybe I'll cut down on the HERO Blast.

For the extra deck, I'm not sure if I want to go with 2 Ninja; 2 Excalibur or one of them each and a Gemknight Pearl. Maybe I'll just go completely random and have a Stardust (for Road) or Chimeratech Fortress (for the gadget matchup). Maybe I'll take out the CNo39 for something else, but nothing crosses my mind at the moment. With the new Heroic Champions coming out and not to mention the all awesomeness Gagaga Gunman, the argument above might be completely irrelevant soon enough.

For the side deck, its not done yet, as I have yet to play test all the top tier with the current build, but there are some cards I would consider staples in here.

(1) Thunder King Rai-Oh - What HERO deck doesn't play Thunder King if your not running triple Bubbleman. Thunder King is extremely good against Dino Rabbit and Hieratics (all of its variants). Just putting this card on the board turn 1 against these 2 decks and your in an extremely good position. The Hieratic player's only out would be Dark Hole, or maybe a Tragoedia//Gorz. Rabbit might have more outs, like Forbidden Lance to push over the Thunder King, but your backrow is in no way inferior to theirs, so feel free to start a backrow war with them. I would at least have 2 copies of Thunder Kings in here, depending on the meta shift, the 3rd copy might even see some plays.

(2) Cyber Dragon - While most people would no longer consider CyDra as a side deck staple, I feel the card is still extremely viable in an E HERO side. Machina Gadget is a very very tough deck to beat if you couldn't establish field control very early in the game. Cyber Dragon solves this problem for you. Its also good against rogue decks as an additional beater. Some might prefer Barboros for its 3000 atk points, I would stick with CyDra for this format. The only time Barboros and CyDra would be good, is when you have Skill Drain up on the board (to a lesser extend on CyDra, but ideally), but the only deck that could get pass CyDra with a Skill Drain would be Dark World and a mirror match, none of the other decks could do so. If your going against a Mirror or Dark World, I doubt you would still side in your CyDra//Barbo, and I think you would side out the Skill Drains for something better. Also, CyDra is a better Torrential bait, as you still get your normal summon afterwards.

Conclusion for CyDra vs Barbo would be, while Barboros is bigger, it doesn't really matter in our META game. CyDra is very much better in the Machina Gadget matchup. Although its only 1 match up, I do think this would make an impact in the long run. Maybe you would consider Barbo for it is still bigger than REDMD in Chaos Dragons, but I do think there're better cards. As of now, I'm not sure how many copies of CyDra I would side (if I'm siding them at all), it all kinda depends on how big the Gadget population grow.

(3) DD Crow - The card kinda die out due to the preference towards Macro Cosmos, the only decks that would run this are those who can't play Cosmos. HEROs are a deck that can't really play Cosmos. They don't die to Cosmos, but they can't work with them either. Crow is a huge card against DWs, the deck's worst matchup. Crow can somewhat stop Inzektors early game, although I do feel the main deck is more than enough to guarantee a game 1 win most of the time. Crow also stops random matchups like Junk Doppel and Infernities. Its a simple one-for-one, which this deck enjoys, so I consider it a good contender for a side deck slot in here. Like CyDra, I'm not sure if I would be playing this, but if I do, I would only play this at 2; not any other number, its 0 or 2.

(4) Forbidden Lance - One of the more important cards in the format, especially useful in Mirror Matches. I can never find room for this card in a HERO's main deck, similarly, I can never find space for it in the side deck. But, that doesn't mean I do not acknowledge this card's power, its just that I can never find room for it. I'm not sure how many copies of this card I can play, but its one of those cards that would instantly be in the side when an empty slot pops out. Extremely good in a HEROs side against mirror and other slower match ups. Any one-for-ones that potentially becomes a plus 1 when played right is always welcome in my side deck.

(5) Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimension Prison - 2 extremely good cards that were forced out of the format by Inzektors. Both of these are good against any match up that isn't Inzektor. I can't think of anything else to say about these 2, and you shouldn't be unfamiliar with them either.