Table of Contents
Introduction
This brief guide will discuss the dark city variant of destiny heroes. This version has notable differences from the perhaps more popular fusion build in that it does not focus on summoning big boss monsters. It is instead an anti-meta control deck which has good matchups across the board in the current metagame. It is my personal opinion that this version of destiny heroes has been overlooked. Therefore, I have decided to write this guide to encourage people to try the deck out.
The deck plays very similar to decks which abuse Bastion Misawa's field spell skills but is often not as aggressive. The Dark City D-hero variant will always use the Destiny Calling skill. This skill activates Loading... when your life points are at 3000 or below. This skill is easily triggered by cards such as Loading... , Loading... and Loading... . Dark City increases all Destiny Hero monster’s attack by 1000 in the damage step when it is battling a monster with a higher attack. This essentially means that your monsters will be able to beat over monsters with less than 2600 attack reliably. This covers key cards such as Loading... , Loading... and Loading... to name but a few. The deck typically uses three main monsters: Loading... , Loading... and Loading... . These three monsters give the deck a lot of utility from drawing cards, stalling out big monsters or swarming the field.
This short guide will discuss the core cards, tech options and matchups against the tier one to three decks and give some general gameplay tips for the deck.
Building your Dark City Deck
Core Cards
These are the cards which you should not play the deck without. However, you can substitute Cosmic Cyclone for cards such as Loading... if you do not have them. The core consists of 14 cards:
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3 × Loading... :
Drilldark serves an important function in the deck. This card lets you swarm the field on turn one and allows the deck to play really aggressively. His piercing effect is important for closing out games and forcing sub-optimal backrow usage against him. Remember that dark city will boost his attack by 1000 even when attacking a monster in defence (with a higher attack). This means that beating over a defense position Loading... will deal 2200 damage! These two effects means that Destiny HERO - Drilldark can put incredible pressure on the opponent. However, Destiny HERO - Drilldark is not an amazing card to draw on his own. Despite this, you will want to run three copies to maximize your chances of using the double summon effect on your first turn. -
3 × Loading... :
Decider has three utility effects. His first effect stops any level six or higher monsters from attacking him. This effect means that you will wall many large threats in the Metagame. This includes Loading... , Hazy Flame monsters, Loading... , Cyber Angels and Loading... to name but a few. You are pretty much guaranteed the win against Cyber Angels by summoning Destiny HERO - Drilldark and Destiny HERO - Decider.
His second effect allows you to retrieve a Destiny Hero from your Graveyard. This sets up plays for your next turn and generates card advantage. It can be used with Destiny Draw to neutralize the cost of the card. This effect can only be used once per game so make sure to time the effect well. Note that you can activate this effect without any Heroes in your graveyard. This means you can pre-emptively use the effect if you intend to tribute a Hero for Enemy Controller or if you suspect a card such as Loading... to retrieve that hero at the end of the turn.
His final effect will very rarely see use but it is worth knowing about it. Once per duel, while Destiny HERO - Decider is in the graveyard you can negate one instance of effect damage by returning him to your hand. There are only a handful of notable effect damage cards in the meta right now but it is worth knowing this effect for when they do come up. Unfortunately, this does not destroy the source of the effect damage so bear that in mind before baiting out a Loading... . -
3 × Loading... :
Celestial finalizes the monster core and has two very important effects. Firstly, when Destiny HERO - Celestial attacks you can destroy one face up spell card and inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent. This is especially relevant in the whale matchup where Destiny HERO - Celestial forces a banish as it attempts to destroy Loading... . Elsewhere, celestial will destroy other popular field spells such as Loading... , Loading... , Loading... and Loading... . It also hits other continuous spells such as Loading... .
Destiny HERO - Celestial’s second effect is one of the most powerful effects in the game. You can remove from play Destiny HERO - Celestial and one other Destiny Hero to draw two cards if you have no cards in your hand. This allows you to recover very easily if your field has been wiped by a deck like Sylvan or lets you win against grindy decks like Loading... Volcanics and Gladiator Beasts by winning the resource race. -
2-3 × Loading... :
Cosmic Cyclone is Simple, versatile, effective 1 for 1 backrow removal. This is an incredibly versatile card and in the current meta (March 2018). Cosmic Cyclone can simply remove set backrow so that your monster can effectively attack or can be used to remove matchup specific threats such as Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , Fire Formation - Gyoukku, Loading... , Ninjitsu traps and Loading... . If you are taking a pot shot at backrow this is best used in the end phase on a card the opponent set that turn where the opponent cannot chain that set card. Also note that this card does not negate so banishing in response to wall of disruption will not stop it going through. However, you may wish to chain this to spells or traps with graveyard effects to stop those occurring, for example, Loading... , Loading... and "A" - Cell Recombination Device.
One of the most important reasons to use this card is trigger our skill. For this reason I believe that at least two is the optimal count but you can use three to improve the chances of drawing it early at the cost a protection card. -
3 × Loading... :
Enemy Controller is a versatile card and serves multiple functions in the deck. Firstly, Enemy Controller can protect a monster from battle by switching the attacker to defence position which also allows us to follow this up with an attack supported by Dark City. Being a quickplay spell means we use it defensively or offensively and also means we can chain it to backrow removal or pinning. Finally, the second effect of enemy controller opens up OTK plays especially when used with Destiny HERO - Drilldark or can be used to primitively stop effects such as Loading... , Snipe Hunter and Loading... .
Key Tech Options
The core of the deck is 9 Destiny Heroes, 2 Cosmic Cyclone and 3 Enemy Controller. This gives you 6 tech slots to fill assuming you are sticking to a 20 card deck. Below I will discuss the main tech options you will be using in some detail and some other less frequently used tech cards briefly.
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0-2 × Loading... :
Sup Rush complements our low attack monsters and can be used offensively or defensively to destroy threats outside of battle. The card is also important in that it doesn’t target and is one of our only outs to a boosted Loading... and monsters above 2600 attack/defense. Being able to destroy outside of battle also allows us to remove aliens from the board without having to worry about A-Counter on our monster or getting A-counters from Loading... . Due to turn player priority, the turn player’s Super Rush Headlong will always win. Therefore, if you are attacking a defence position monster and your opponent responds with this card you can chain your own copy which destroys your opponent’s monster while also saving your own! Like Enemy Controller, this card has all the benefits of being a quickplay spell. -
0-3 × Floodgate Trap Hole}:
Floodgates main purpose is to shut down monster effects while also protecting your monster during the opponents turn when they are weak. For example, you can shut down Loading... , Snipe Hunter, Lava Golem, Cyber Angel Dakini, Loading... , Golden Flying Fish and Loading... to name but a few. It also permanently puts large monsters into defense so we can take advantage of Destiny HERO - Drilldark’s piercing effect.
I personally like running three but all successful decks so far have run zero copies. -
0-3 × Loading... :
Mirror Wall is a card that has fallen out of favour in recent months but I have included it as a core trap since it functions in a similar way to wall of disruption but has some notable advantages for this deck. Firstly, you can pay to keep Mirror Wall active to trigger Destiny Calling. Secondly, this card is better when the opponent only has one monster. Thirdly, this card can be chained to Loading... to save your monsters and prevent OTK plays. Since this sees little use it comes as a surprise to the opponent. Remember to activate this in the damage step.
This is an excellent substitute for Cosmic Cyclone if you do not have three or would rather use two. -
2 × Loading... :
In a meta with little backrow removal and swarming decks this card is one of the best options any deck can use. The current meta has a lot of decks which can swarm the field such as Red-Eyes Zombies, Aliens, Cyber Angels, Magnet Warriors, and Destiny Heroes. This is a great defensive card protecting your Destiny Heroes while they are weak in the opponents turn. -
0-1 × Loading... :
Like Floodgate Trap Hole, Curse of Anubis achieves two things. It protects your monsters while also turning opponent’s monsters to defence which allows you to follow up with attacks in your next turn. Another big bonus this card has is that it is chainable to cards like Cosmic Cyclone and Loading... . It can also be used before the battle phase to counter a suspected Loading... play. Remember that this card only hits effect monsters so some cards are immune to it. This includes Loading... , Loading... and Loading... all of which see some play. This is one of the most powerful and versatile traps in the game and you should consider using the one copy we have access to. Anubis can also open some whacky OTK plays if used offensively. You can activate this card before summoning Destiny HERO - Drilldark and threaten 2600 damage against a high attack monster!