Stats                : Elemental Hero Bladedge is a big Level 7 Earth/Warrior.  Being Level 7 means it has to be pretty amazing or have some good tricks to get it into play sans Tribute.  Being an Earth/Warrior lets it tap into some very solid support: only Dark/Light Monsters have better Attribute support (and some may argue against due to assorted bans) while no Type has more support, let alone more useful-to-broken support, than Warriors.

 

Of course he (just guessing the gender as it could be a Samus Aran kind of thing) is an Elemental Hero and thus has access to all their support.  The quick rundown of what can be of use to him (though not necessarily useful) is as follows:

 

• Bubble Shuffle – Quick-Play Spell.  It requires Elemental Hero Bubbleman and an opposing Monster both in face-up ATK mode, plus another Elemental Hero in hand to activate.  It shifts them both in play Monsters to DEF Position and then Tributes the Bubbleman to Special Summon the Elemental Hero in hand.

• Elemental Hero Necroshade – Effect/Monster.  Once while it’s in the Graveyard, you can normal Summon one Elemental Hero without Tribute from your hand.  More on it this Friday.

• Elemental Hero Wildedge – Fusion/Effect Monster.  The Fusion of Wildheart and Bladedge.  Fusion Summon only.  Can attack all of your opponent’s Monsters.

• Hero Barrier – Normal Trap. If you have a face-up Elemental Hero in play, you can activate this and negate one attack from an opponent’s Monster.

• Hero Heart – Normal Spell.  You select an Elemental Hero you control, halve the attack, and during the Battle Phase, it can attack twice.  Note that it halves the ATK at the activation: adding an Equip card will provide the full bonus.

• Miracle Fusion – Normal Spell.  It is tomorrow’s CotD, so you can read up on this alternative to Polymerization then.

• Skyscraper – Field Spell.  When an Elemental Hero attacks a Monster with whose ATK is higher than the Elemental Hero’s ATK, raise said Elemental Hero’s ATK by 1000 during the damage step.  More on this later in the week.

• Wroughtweiler – Effect/Monster.  When it’s sent to the Graveyard as a result of Battle, you can reclaim one card with Elemental Hero in its name, and a Polymerization.

 

Well discuss which, if any, of those are useful in the Uses and Combinations section.

 

Elemental Hero Bladedge has a 2600 ATK, which is not going to help it too much, given its Level; yes, most Monsters that regularly see play are weaker, but are also a lower Level.  1800 will at least make it so they have to use a real beatstick to kill him if he’s in DEF mode, but is likewise sub-par.

 

Effect(s)            : Let’s see if the effect can save this card.  In a word: no.  I love trample, but on this big a Monster, without any other effect, it’s far from useful.  Yes, if you actually can get Elemental Hero Bladedge into play, there’s a good chance you will force them onto the DEF… but the problem is it won’t last too long, nor gain you that much advantage.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : This card does have a use, but it’s kinda limited.  Basically, you pack on in an Elemental Hero deck that uses yesterday’s CotD, Elemental Hero Wildheart and their Fusion, Elemental Hero Wildedge.  Just one, mind you: thanks to Polymerization and Miracle Fusion, that should be plenty.

 

If you insist on focusing on getting it into play, you can make use of Bubble Shuffle (which needs Elemental Hero Bubbleman) and/or Elemental Hero Necroshade to get him into play with less effort, in which case he is alright.  The problem is that neither of these two cards is very effective, leaving just the standard “dump and revive” option or perhaps Return from the Different Dimension or Centrifugal Field.

 

There is more, though.  As you can see, if you’re determined, it’s possible to get him into play fairly often.  And hey, you may not even need that many copies of it.  That almost sounds good.  Here’s the other downside: Elemental Hero Wildedge is also rather disappointing.  It can attack each of your opponent’s Monsters on their side of the field once each turn.  That means one attack for each of their Monsters.  If they have no Monsters, you can just use a Normal attack.  You basically “lose” your Normal attack when you use the effect.  That is to say, you can clear their field of Monsters (barring protective effects or just really big stats) by attacking them all with Elemental Hero Wildedge, but you won’t then be able to attack with him directly.  Another Monster can, but not him.  More over, it doesn’t make much sense given the components: one guy has Trample, another Trap Immunity.  The two together would have been lovely, but alas that isn’t the case.  Yes, you could add a Big Bang Shot or something to give Elemental Hero Wildedge Trample, but even before then, we had a better option.  Asura Priest may be a mere 1700 ATK Light/Fairy and a Spirit Monster, but in the end it just seems to do that same job better.  You still end up with -1 card advantage unless you destroy at least two Monsters… and you would probably try not to Summon it otherwise, so that’s not a huge deal.  But compared to a Fusion where one piece is pretty cool and the other is an underpowered two-Tribute, Asura Priest is definitely better.  And of course, we have many, many Trample options, out performing Elemental Hero Bladedge itself.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5 – Just not worth it.

 

Advanced        : 2.5/5 – This is for a dedicated Elemental Hero deck only!  It should be running a few Elemental Hero Wildheart anyway, so this is little more than “TecH” to allow for one more Fusion that can take advantage of the Support.  It also can be nice if the opponent is trying to hide behind Spirit Reaper.

 

Limited                        : 4/5 – Finally, a place where it can shine.  Elemental Hero Bladedge is the biggest Monster you can Normal Summon in the set, at least in terms of ATK.  About the only thing it needs to worry about is someone actually getting Infernal Incinerator or (more reasonable) The Creator.  That’s not to say there aren’t any other strong Monsters in the set, or good Spells or Traps… just that there aren’t anywhere near enough for this card not to become a dominant force.  The opponent won’t even be safe setting Monsters to block their LP, thanks to the Trample.

 

Summary

Elemental Hero Bladedge looks like he could be a beast in Limited, but otherwise, is a pretty sub-par Monster: too big for its stats/effect, even with the support that exists for it.