HEROs are, like Frogs before them, a revisionist part of Edison format. Destiny HEROs were competitively played since their inception in 2007, but the rest of the squad wouldn’t start seeing play until later in 2010. HERO variants would consistently put up good results through 2012 or so, and periodically pop up every now and then as they get more support.

First off, a brief bit about nomenclature. In Edison format, the HERO archetype consists of Elemental HEROs, Destiny HEROs, and Evil HEROs. They’re a big deal in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Elemental are the signature archetype of the protagonist, Destiny are used by his main rival, and Evil are used by the protag when he goes evil for a bit? I think? GX is odd. But anyway, originally these cards were named Elemental Hero[footnote]Or Destiny, or Evil[/footnote], no capitalization. Cards that referred to the archetype were at this point restricted to their own lane; we had Elemental Hero support, Destiny Hero support, but nothing for both at the same time. Until:

Stratos is an insane card, and got limited almost immediately after he was printed.[footnote]Fun aside: Stratos was first printed in the TCG as a Shonen Jump promo card. These were cards you got mailed to you as a bonus for subscribing to Shonen Jump, and their tournament legality status was “if you have it you can play it” rather than being tied to a specific date. This was to account for irregularities in the postal system. The upshot is, Stratos was meant to ship the weekend of a big tournament, and naturally some people got theirs a day or two earlier. There were simply not enough Stratoses to go around for every player at the event, but the ones who could source 3 copies were allowed to play all 3, and dominate. Shortly after Stratos would be limited. But if you had some luck, you once could crush a tournament with a card your opponent couldn’t access even if they wanted to.[/footnote] You’ll note that he can grab both Elemental AND Destiny Heroes. The thing is, that wasn’t technically an accurate translation of his effect. In Japanese, Stratos added 1 “H E R O” monster, which was a common phrase amongst the Ｅ・ＨＥＲＯ and Ｄ－ＨＥＲＯ monsters in Japanese. So when Evil Hero (or Ｅ－ＨＥＲＯ) monsters were added, Stratos was future proofed in Japan, but in TCG territories needed an errata to specifically add Evil Heroes to the list. The English card couldn’t just say “Hero” because that’s a very common English word that had already been used on a bunch of non-HERO cards. But when Masked Heroes[footnote]Ｍ・ＨＥＲＯ[/footnote] were introduced in 2011, Konami of America threw in the towel, and officially renamed all true “Hero” monsters to “HERO” monsters. And now you know the rest of the story.

Anyway getting back on track, Stratos is very good. He can grab whatever HERO you want from your deck, has good stats on top of that, and even has a neat backrow destruction effect that goes off every so often. He’s a party starter and completely non-negotiable for any HERO engine.

Elemental HEROes as an archetype are mainly focused on fusion summoning. Ever since 2005 they’ve had Miracle Fusion, a really powerful fusion spell. By letting you use material from your Graveyard, you can go 1-1 in terms of card advantage when playing Miracle (since you’re spending one card from your hand, the Miracle Fusion, to gain 1 card to your field from the Extra Deck). However, this bad boy flew under the radar for many years, simply because the original E Hero fusions weren’t all that great, and required specific materials that themselves weren’t good cards. That would all change, with:

Absolute Zero (and to a lesser extent Gaia) completely reframed the entire Elemental HERO archetype. Their generic and flexible costs[footnote]And note that Abs Zero is even more flexible, requiring simply a HERO rather than specifically an Elemental HERO[/footnote] meant that you suddenly had a lot more possibilities. This flexibility is what lets HEROes be good, and it’s specifically what lets them pair so well with Frogs.

Plus, beyond flexible requirements Absolute Zero is a powerhouse. High ATK that can go even higher, and if you manage to remove him he’ll take all your monsters as a parting gift.

Neos Alius is a Gemini monster, a strange type that are normal monsters at first, but can be “resummoned” while on the field to gain their effects. Neos’ effect is booty butt, you never use it. But he’s got a good statline, and the simple fact that he is a Gemini gives you access to some really good support.

Gemini Spark is incredibly efficient removal, letting you throw your Neos Alius at whatever problem card your opponent has AND draw another card as a bonus. Then you can grab your Neos back with Hero Blast (since, being a Gemini, he counts as a Normal Monster while in the GY) and destroy another card while you’re at it. This is a brutal package that grinds your opponent down if it gets rolling.

Evil HEROes get to join this party too. Infernal Prodigy can help you explode for big plays, especially since HERO decks often run Caius, who appreciates the tribute fodder. You can also try and draw a card and stay in theme with Malicious Edge. That card is a surprise at first blush, since it would seem to be far too low power to hang in Edison format. But as it turns out piercing damage is surprisingly good in this format, and thanks to Stratos you can just run the one copy and grab it when you need it.

E Call (alongside Reinforcement of the Army, covered previously as part of the DARK engine) gives you plenty of chances to see your Stratos and get the HERO train rolling. Sometimes you’ll also use it to just go directly for whatever Stratos would have gotten. An important bit of consistency, considering that you can only run 1 Stratos.

Ocean is not a great card. That effect is theoretically a useful advantage engine, but Ocean’s body is so small that it’s unlikely to survive a whole turn to get it off even once. But what Ocean is is WATER. And having a searchable WATER to set up Absolute Zero is pretty useful.

We end today with our only Destiny HERO of the evening. Destiny HEROes saw a lot of contemporaneous competitive play from the very start. So much, in fact, that by the time we get to Edison the whole archetype is in shambles thanks to the banlist. Mali here is at 2, which makes him a lot riskier because if you draw both your copies suddenly you’ve got 2 very dead cards in hand. Still, a level 6 on demand special summon is pretty useful for synchro plays, and the free special summon can also set up tribute summons. Mali doesn’t see the play he used to, but he still finds a home in Edison reasonably often.

We’ve gone over lots of good main deck cards, and even plenty of Extra Deck cards. But next time, we’re looking at Yu-Gi-Oh’s third and final deck: the Side Deck. See you then.