[Card Review Article] Card Sneak-a-Peek: Herald of Perfection

Card Sneak-a-Peek: Herald of Perfection

The first ever YCS had brought many new decks to surface. From the dreaded Infernities, rising Sabers, recently-popular Froggynarch, and the sleeper-hit Herald of Perfection! That's right, the new card, Herald of Perfection, definitely made an impactful play! One deck that abused it finished in the Top 8. So, what makes this card strong? You'll find out soon




Herald of Perfection is really terrifying because of one reason, its effect. While this monster is face-up on the field, it can negate ANY kinds of Spell, Trap, or even Monster effect that your opponent throws at you. You can think of this monster like Light and Darkness Dragon, albeit with better effect and works differently. So long as you control this monster, your opponent can only hope in removing him through battle. But there's a catch:



That's right, in order to abuse its effect, you have to send 1 card from your hand to your Graveyard and it also must be a Fairy-Type monster! This means it's not splashable in many decks, unlike LaDD. It works only in a Fairy deck, and a dedicated one. On the other hand, you must also carefully choose when to activate its effect. Since its ability to negate is limited to how many Fairy monster you have in your hand, you must not recklessly negate any effect. Is it going to threaten your Herald? Is it going to give my opponent a +1? Questions like these must be considered.

Herald of Perfection is by no means invicible though. As I have said before, he is still destroyable by battle. But don't you worry too much, look at its stats:



At 2800 DEF, Your opponent would have a hard time to destroy it by battle without any support from effect, provided you Special Summon it in defense position. That leaves only 2900 or 3000 beatstick to beat it physically. That means you have to be aware of monster with inherent summon which has high ATK. One particular monster that's good for an example is Judgment Dragon. While its nice effect is still negate-able, it still has 3000 ATK. Also, you need to be aware of Synchro monster. Although Herald of Perfection limit your opponent's play much, it won't prevent your opponent from Synchro Summoning. Special Summon Cyber Dragon + Normal Summon any lvl-3 Tuner = Red Dragon Archfiend, which can overcome its 2800 DEF.

Ritualist - Dawn of the Herald

Herald of Perfection is a Ritual Monster. That means it should have its own Ritual Spell right?




Following the trend of ritual spell cards in recent release, Dawn of the Herald can be removed from the Graveyard (immediately after it's used) to use its "secondary" effect, which is to get back 1 monster that you use as a tribute. This means you can summon Herald of Perfection without losing much hand advantage! If it's a Fairy monster, it also benefits much for Herald because you can use it for another Fairy fodder! One thing to note is because of Dawn of the Herald secondary effect, it's logically better to use 6* monster to use as a tribute. That way, when you use its secondary effect, you return the same tributed monster, which is the only one you tribute! It's as if you don't tribute any monsters at all to summon Herald of Perfection o.O

Fodder Provider - Tethys, the Goddess of Light

Now, what's the next issue in using Herald of Perfection effectively? It's fairy fodder. To use Herald of Perfection, you must avoid the situation where you have no cards in hand, which will make you no longer able to use its effect. That means you need to have Fairy monster available in your hand most of the time. So, how can we do to easily provide more Fairy fodder for Herald of Perfection?




The best solution is by having Tethys, the Goddess of Light in the field. She is the best draw-engine for Fairy Deck since everytime you draw a Fairy-type monster, you are allowed to draw again! In a pure Fairy deck, that means you are always guaranteed to at least draw 1 S/T every turn. More importantly, you also have chance to refill your hand with more Fairy monsters. This is great because it's allowing Herald of Perfection to negate more effects! You also don't need to worry much about her survivability because she has 2400 ATK, enough to defend herself from most monsters. She's also protected from effects because of Herald of Perfection. That's why a pair of Herald of Perfection and Tethys will make a dangerous combination that will be really hard to break.

Ace Lock - Archlord Kristya

The combination of the Herald and Tethys is deadly and hard to break, but not impossible to. A clever synchro summon or the surprise hitter like JD can break it without much effort. But those methods still revolve in one thing that cannot be negated by Herald of Perfection, Special Summon. (Un)Fortunately, there is a Fairy monster that we all know can help with that, eh?




You can say that Archlord Kristya is a real godsend for Herald user. Why? Cause Kristya + Herald of Perfection pretty much locks almost every thing your opponent can do. The hole in protecting Herald (Special Summoning high-ATK monster) is pretty much covered by Kristya because it prevents Special Summon! One other important reason in using Archlord Kristya is because of a simple reason, it has high ATK. Having Herald of Perfection to negate many effects is nice but it's not a game-ender. You generally don't want to have Herald in ATK position because its ATK left nothing to be desired. While Tethys, with her 2400 ATK, is also a good alternative to win. Archlord Kristya is a lot better. He has higher ATK, pretty easy to summon because you have many methods to control your Graveyard, and it also provides a very good defense against Special Summoned monster. That's why I called it an Ace Lock.

The Great Searcher - Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands

All of the above strategies center around one card, which is the main topic of this article, Herald of Perfection. Without it, what you play is just like a basic Fairy deck without any grandeur protection. To make matter worse, because it's a ritual monster, you also need Dawn of the Herald to summon it. But also because of that very same reason, there is a great card that can search either Herald of Perfection or Dawn of the Herald!




Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands is a great searcher. It can search either Herald of Perfection or Dawn of the Herald, whatever missing in your hand. But what makes it even greater is because you can use its search function immediately after it's Summoned, that makes summoning Herald of Perfection is fast and easy thing to do. One other fact about this card that's awesome is it's Fairy-Type monster. That means it still has usefulness even after Herald of Perfection is on the field already, for fairy fodder or for another fairy to draw in Tethys Engine!

If we are the opponent...

If for example, we are the opponent's shoe, what can we do to counter Herald of Perfection?

Against Light and Darkness Dragon, we can activate a card effect repeatedly (like using Treeborn Frog) to reduce it to harmless dragon. But unfortunately Herald of Perfection is not a mandatory effect. Therefore, the time when to use its effect is choosable. In other case, two cards can be activated in a chain without having Light and Darkness Dragon negate both (remember, it can only negate once in a chain!). But, Herald of Perfection is, again, works differently. It can negate more than once in a chain because its effect is multi-triggered quick effect. This solution is out of question then. So, what can we do to remove Herald?

It's a matter of ruling. Herald of Perfection is a quick effect, therefore, it has Spell Speed 2. It's really important to know because that way, Herald of Perfection cannot negate any effect with Spell Speed 3. It is then destroyable by Divine Wrath or Gladiator War Chariot. That's why when this card is out in KCVDS, it's better to include at least 1 Divine Wrath in side deck in case you are against it

Other cards that will immensely help against Herald of Perfection are of course the infamous Skill Drain and Royal Oppression. With Royal Oppression, you can stop Herald of Perfection from being summoned in the first place. You can also chain Skill Drain to the activation of Dawn of the Herald so that when Herald hit the field, it doesn't have a chance to use its effect since Skill Drain has been activated already. But, there are two things that need to be considered in using both of them to oppose Herald of Perfection. First, it's not entirely usable in many decks since they can also kill your deck. You are not gonna use Royal Oppression in Quickdandy Warriors for example. Second, unlike Divine Wrath, you must have Skill Drain or Royal Oppression before Herald of Perfection hits the field. Consider the previous two reasons when you consider what to side against Herald deck.

I hope you enjoy my 2nd "rambling" as much as I enjoy writing it^^ Any comment/fix will be appreciated :D

~ CaptainChrno

Wow, Better than i expected (:, I loved it.. i really did xD. Herald of perfection will play such a big role in fairy decks imo. Thanks for writing Chrno . Enjoyed reading it :D

Awesome article bro,it was really interesting,Fairies are getting more support lately,which is good . Keep it up with the good work =3.

And another way to destroy this Herald is having a DD deck,with macro/dimensional fissure

Oh yeah,question.....
With the example above,
If RDA attack Def pos Herald,after damage calculation,RDA eff will activated,at that time,can we activate Herald eff before it got destroyed by battle???
Or Herald destroyed first?

Thanks.....
I know it should be in question room,but it's still on topic right

awesome, ill need that in my Archlord Kristya deck. Nice job man!

Thanx for the appreciation everyone :D

@Exoduz
Anyway, I'll be sure to update about Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos, thanx for the info^^

EDIT: the RDA question has been answered correctly below, so yeah, I remove my answer

Last edited by CaptainChrno on Sat Jun 05, 2010 4:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

nice article about another annoying card^^ overall the article was a little short but good^^ keep it up

ps: for the first time I don't want seto to add the missing cards xD I enjoy the format as it is atm :D

CaptainChrno wrote:

Thanx for the appreciation everyone :D

@Exoduz
My theory, yes you can. RDA activates after damage calculation, that means Herald is not sent to the Graveyard yet Anyway, I'll be sure to update about Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos, thanx for the info^^

The Monster is already destroyed, so ur opponent cannot activate Herald effect.

RDA has 3000 ATK, Herald has 2800 DEF. Herald is destroyed before RDA's effect even activates. He cannot activate his effect because he's destroyed.

Nice article 9/10

thnx for the article. i actually experience a duel with a herald-fairy deck and i lost so i know the power of it.