]LIGHT/Hero Beat update

[right]LIGHT/Hero Beat update

Yes, finally that post I've been promising. Waking up at 3:31 PM after a 14 hour nap does wonders to stop one's tiredness. But enough about my irregular sleeping patterns, here's a post about the LIGHT/Hero Beat deck I've had for such a long time. I've been playing using this deck since Lightsworn/Zombie format via the World Championship games, and I must say I'm in love with this deck. With the remainder of the omni-Heros finally becoming TCG legal, Pot of Duality reprinted and Legendary Collection 2 on its way, I am very tempted to finally pick this deck up.

This deck has consistently impressed me over the years. It did well even during the long reign of Heavy Storm thanks to Starlight Road, which essentially herp negated the opponents derp storm. Luckily that abhorrent nightmare is out of the game. And yes, the only reason I brought that up was because of Death Aspect's recent post. I'm not normally one to disagree with him, he knows what he's talking about and I value his opinions immensely, but I just can't see Heavy Storm being good for the game. I agree with the game returning to Goat Control style, but Storm coming back just does the opposite, doing nothing but promoting OTKs. I'll save you all the grief of the entire argument for another day.

Stalling aside, onto my actual deck list. As always, the deck list will also be appended at the end of the post in text form.



Typically (for me anyway), I run a low monster count. People have questioned this in the past and still do today, but the benefits far outweigh the downsides of doing so. Ideally I want to open with 1 or 2 monsters, and I find 10 to be a solid number to do so with. It gives me the option of going full back row once I assess the risk of doing so. Naturally, any sort of deck with strong back row removal like Blackfeathers/Blackwings and Dark Worlds do pose a high threat to the deck's defensive capabilities, but fortunately enough Consecrated Light can kill two birds with one stone (no pun intended). X-Sabers seem like they could be a problem in the future, possibly warranting mained Effect Veiler.

On the topic of Veiler, I'm not terribly fond of it even with a Plant dominant meta. By biggest problem with Veiler is that it is inherently a -1 and normally retains that advantage. One could side or main it, but in all honesty I'd rather use an old favorite of mine: D.D. Crow. Crow has the capacity to break even a lot easier than Veiler, and is an equally effective (if not superior) counter to Plants.

Snowman Eater was formerly very popular in the OCG, and with good reason. It walls every level 4 or lower monster in the metagame, barring the currently nonexistent Gravekeeper's. I decided to main it after realizing that I lacked enough second turn sets. A second turn set is an excellent way to neutralize the disadvantages that come with going second, provided that your opponent didn't open with One for One. Simply set Snowman (or in some cases Alius), set some back row and end. That evens out the playing field quite nicely, even more so if you want to main Seven Tools of the Bandit. It also makes your opponent wary of attacking your face downs, letting you set bluffs. It also gives you access to Absolute Zero, which is always a good thing.

I decided to drop CyDra to 1. It's still very good despite being something so simple, and I've caught people off guard by dropping it mid game for massive Chimeratech plays. It's beefy enough to run over almost every non-synchro/exceed monster in the metagame, making it a good wall breaker. Enough decks get hurt by it to warrant it being mained, namely GBs and any sort of Machine deck. I keep a second one sided for the above decks.

Rai-Oh is good again, not much else I can say about it. Make PoDs dead, stop Trishula/Librarian, good card is good.

I dropped Miracle Fusion to 2 in favor of running a third PoD. Admittedly, there have been times when I wanted the third copy, but for consistency's sake I dropped it to 2. Miracle Fusion is pretty poor early game, so dropping it to 2 makes it less likely for me to open with it, giving me a much more stable opening hand.

I could talk about Super Polymerization a lot. In my experience as a Yu-Gi-Oh! player, never have I seen such a volatile card. It can be anything from really really bad, meh or really really good. Under normal conditions, it's a -1. Regardless of how powerful it is, lost advantage is lost advantage and I have lost games due to misplaying it. The ideal situations to use it in are: (1) As if it were Gemini Spark. In other words, wait for your monster to be targeted for an effect to break even with card advantage. (2) Fusing 2 opposing monsters. This is rare, and normally only happens in the mirror, against sams, or against some GB variants. (3) As if it were Book of Moon. If your opponent is about to synch, fuse one of the material. This is still a -1, but the follow up play will normally neutralize any advantage lost. Those are the only times Super Poly should be activated. I may be stating the obvious, but it can be tempting to flip it at the wrong time.

I'm still maining 2 BTH and 3 D Prison. That ratio has yet to fail me. It gives you some pretty shocking control power, especially considering how well the deck can support it. It's a fantastic way to punish recklessness and aggression. An inexperienced player will simply die against this deck. More experienced players are probably wiser and will make sure they have the right tools available before trying to go aggro, meaning a slightly different approach is needed when playing.

The last thing of interest that I did was drop a Hero Blast for Compulsory. Hero Blast is a fantastic card, it's like BoM but it almost always nets a +1. However, much like Miracle Fusion, it can be weak and/or dead early game. Compulsory, while less powerful, is active much sooner. It can be compared to the way Infernity mains 1 Grepher and 1 Armageddon Knight; they both do a similar job but work best at different times. I wouldn't attempt this without 3 PoD, however. To pull something like that off, there always has to be a third card to moderate the consistency of running a 1:1 ratio of cards. For Infernity it's RotA, for this deck it's PoD.

That's it for this post. I hope I didn't miss anything. Please leave comments below and rate this rather delayed post.

~Valafar123

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Monsters [10]
[1] Cyber Dragon
[3] Elemental Hero Neos Alius
[1] Elemental Hero Stratos
[1] Honest
[1] Snowman Eater
[3] Thunder King Rai-Oh

Spells [17]
[1] Book of Moon
[1] Dark Hole
[1] Future Fusion
[3] Gemini Spark
[2] Miracle Fusion
[1] Monster Reborn
[1] Reinforcement of the Army
[2] Mystical Space Typhoon
[3] Pot of Duality
[2] Super Polymerization

Traps [13]
[2] Bottomless Trap Hole
[1] Compulsory Evacuation Device
[3] Dimensional Prison
[1] Hero Blast
[1] Mirror Force
[1] Royal Oppression
[1] Solemn Judgment
[2] Solemn Warning
[1] Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck [15]
[2] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
[1] Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste
[2] Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
[1] Elemental Hero Escuridão
[2] Elemental Hero Gaia
[2] Elemental Hero Great Tornado
[2] Elemental Hero Nova Master
[3] Elemental Hero The Shining