Introduction to Elemental HERO: Rush!
Introduction
Hello, my name is DELELELE WHOOP , I started playing Duel Links when the Guardians of Rock box was released, later I started playing Rush since its release and I got 6th Place in the first Goha Rush Festival with Warriors. I have helped people in the community with building decks and improving their gameplay, I want to see the Rush community grow bigger and I decided to write the first rush deck guide about one of the most iconic archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh! history, HERO.
Hello, I'm Voltalon , 2024's WCS runner-up, avid Rush Duel player of both Duel Links and OCG in the online community. Resources such as these are a rarity for most card games, even more so for Rush Duel in Duel Links. As such, I had been writing on Medium about the game. That being said, it's easier to help and encourage someone else to write, and I was very eager when approached to assist in writing some portions. There are a lot of things in Rush Duel that are taken for granted, and I hope that articles like these can shed light on some of the finer details of the game.
HERO was first introduced with the Go Rush World Release, where they got the Hero's Stage structure and the Hero Rush Rising skill. Unfortunately, Yuo Goha and Metarion Script arrived a week later, and Loading... gatekeeped them out of the meta. Their second support wave came in Blazing Chemicalization, giving birth to the Gaia Hero variation. However, the pre-nerfed Chivalrous Celerity skill also gave birth to the Gaia Metarion variation, a Tier 0 deck, so once again Hero got gatekept out of the meta (KazareneKae managed to get 15th place in Goha Rush Festival March 2025 with Gaia Hero). Flash of Shining Flare and the Loading... bundle brought a ton of support for HERO, pushing them into the spotlight. Without further ado, let's discuss about the deck.
Deckbuild
In this section, I will cover every card that the deck can play and the different options that can be used while building a HERO deck.
HERO Skills
Hero Rush Rising is an archive skill that was released along with the Go Rush World. The skill adds Loading... from the deck or graveyard by sending a card from the field to the graveyard and reducing 600 ATK/DEF from an opponent's monster. Although the skill feels outdated compared to other skills that was released with it, the skill has some interesting advantages, like sending your fusion from the field to the graveyard for the debuff or putting the good cards that were placed to the bottom of the deck by Loading... back to rotation thanks to the shuffle.
Debuting in The Distant Neo Space Mini Box, Neos Contact Draw boosts the Contact Fusion gimmick of HEROs, giving birth to a different (but currently weaker) playstyle. The skill discards up to two cards (Loading... , Loading... , Loading... ) and draws the same amount of cards, then if Neos in the Graveyard you can add Loading... from either Deck or Graveyard to the hand.
Rising HERO
Rising HERO is Rush's exclusive HERO sub-archetype. Currently we have 3 Rising HERO monsters in the game; Argent, Tantalum and Manaccaniter.
Loading... is a great searcher for the deck, excavating 4 cards and adding up to two normal monsters as material on the monster we revealed for the requirement. Most of the time you will attempt to add Loading... or Loading... but depending on your graveyard setup you can attempt to search Loading... or Loading... instead.
Loading... is a decent card, milling a card to boost itself to 2900 ATK and then if you control a warrior fusion monster you can return 1 face-up Level 8 or lower monster from your opponent's field to their hand. Paired with Loading... , this combination can quickly threat for lethal damage, however the new support enables stronger turns early on and a lot of decks can bring a Level 9 or higher monster to the field, making Tantalum a suboptimal choice. If a format revolves around Level 8 and lower monsters, Tantalum can find itself again in HERO decks (even with more than 1 copy), but for now 0-1 copies is the best option.
Loading... is a recycler for Argent and Tantalum from the graveyard by returning a card from the hand to the bottom of the deck. Unfortunately, Manaccaniter belongs in the same category as Tantalum, a suboptimal choice. Typically, if you use X Tantalum you would like to use X+1 Manaccaniter, but if you don't play Tantalum there is no reason to play Manaccaniter, since Loading... can do the same with the additional choice of reviving Avian.