The Speed Duel: Battle City Box and the Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box changed the landscape of Speed Dueling.  Two massive boxed sets, both with more than 200 Speed Duel cards, they each offered a ton of value, a great way to jump into Speed Duels, and a one-box experience to bring Yu-Gi-Oh! to your game night. Each one had great Secret Rares too – cards that were popular for historic Time Wizard formats, making them collectible and a blast to open.

Now, for the first time ever, the Speed Duel Box concept is getting a spinoff! The new Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox Mini Box arrives October 6*, loaded with new cards and new Skills for characters that made their Speed Duel debut in the Duel Academy Box. It also introduces new Yu-Gi-Oh! GX characters to Speed Duels, and sneaks in some awesome cards to shake up the competition.

For fans of the original Duel Academy Box, the Midterm Paradox Mini Box turns up the volume on everything you loved the first time around:

• Every Mini Box has 100 Speed Duel cards, lots of them new to Speed Dueling
• There are 12 all-new Skill Cards
• Discover 4 Secret Rares per box, randomized from a total set of 12

What are those Secret Rares you ask? Get ready for stunning new Secret Rare versions of fan-favorites, like Gate Guardian, Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill, and Elemental HERO Tempest! Time Wizard format Duelists will want Drillroid and Elemental HERO Bubbleman, while current competitors can find Secret Rares of A Hero Lives, Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju and more!

Speed Duels are here to stay, and the Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox Mini Box is just one of several incoming releases for Speed Duelists. Speed Duel Tournament Pack 4 launches at Official Tournament Stores on September 28*, with foil upgrades like Super Rare Breaker the Magical Warrior and Ultra Rare Mind Crush! Then in March, get ready for another full-sized boxed set bringing more than 200 cards, with the Speed Duel GX: Duelists of Shadows box.

There’s a ton of action coming your way, but for now, let’s talk about the first two characters with starring roles in the Midterm Paradox Mini Box.

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Jaden Yuki

First up, the Slifer Slacker turned Duel Academy hero is back, with new cards and new ways to Duel! Lots of classic monster cards from Jaden’s Deck make their return from the Duel Academy Box, but his Spell and Trap Cards are way different, and his new Skill Cards amp up his Fusion strategies. While Jaden’s previous Deck was all about using pairs of monsters to Fusion Summon heavy hitters like Elemental HERO Flame Wingman and Elemental HERO Thunder Giant, he’s taken his classes a little more seriously, and his Deck now features Elemental HERO Fusion Monsters that combine three, and even four Elemental HERO monsters into one!

Elemental HERO Avian, Elemental HERO Burstinatrix, Elemental HERO Clayman, and Elemental HERO Sparkman are all back for an encore, along with Elemental HERO Bubbleman, Elemental HERO Bladedge, and Elemental HERO Wildheart. Joining them is Elemental HERO Blazeman, giving you a new way to search for Polymerization. Use it to Fusion Summon any of five HERO Fusion Monsters you’ll find in Midterm Paradox, all new to Speed Duels: Elemental HERO Wild Wingman, Elemental HERO Mariner, and Elemental HERO Nova Master all take two Fusion Materials. But if you’re ready to go big, Jaden’s also got Elemental HERO Tempest and Elemental HERO Electrum!

Jaden’s Deck in the Duel Academy Box was focused on lots of cards that supported Fusions, but this time, his Spell and Trap cards are more focused on supporting HERO monsters on the field and getting them onto the table in the first place. Cards like Hero Signal and Skyscraper 2 – Hero City help keep your HERO monsters in the fight, and Jaden’s even got A Hero Lives to Special Summon whatever HERO you need, straight from your Deck. (If you’re lucky, you might even open a Secret Rare copy.)

What you won’t find are Fusion support cards from the original Duel Academy Box like Fusion Sage, Fusion Recovery, and Wroughtweiler. That’s because Jaden’s primary Skill Card has you covered for giant-sized Fusion Summons! Flip the Skill Card HEROES UNITE – FUSION!! in your Main Phase. When you do, you’ll discard a card, then Fusion Summon an Elemental HERO monster using monsters from your hand or field.

Doesn’t sound like much, right? But here’s the kicker: if you’re going for an Elemental HERO Fusion that takes three or more materials, and you’ve got two of those monsters on the field? You can use monsters from your Deck as the other Fusion Materials!

That means you can flip your Skill, discard a card, and Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Electrum with just two monsters: a grand total of one discard and two Fusion Materials, instead of Polymerization and four Fusion Materials. That’s huge, and it’s pretty sweet with Elemental HERO Tempest, too.

And that’s not all! If you’re playing the Jaden Deck straight out of the box, then HEROES UNITE – FUSION!! is the recommended Skill Card. But if you’re making your own build and you want a more flexible Skill Card, HERO World offers five different effects based on the HERO monsters you control. Once per turn, if you control at least one HERO Normal Monster or a HERO Fusion Monster, you can discard a card to activate 1 of these Skills based on the HERO monster’s attribute:

• If you’ve got an EARTH HERO, destroy an EARTH monster you control and a face-up monster your opponent controls
• If you have a WIND, blow away a face-up Spell or Trap Card
• A FIRE will let you return all face-up non-FIRE Special Summoned monsters back to their controller’s hand
• A WATER HERO will get you a free draw, and until the end of the next turn, you can activate one Normal Trap straight from your hand
• If you’ve got a LIGHT HERO, you can change the battle position of a face-up monster on the field

You can only get one of these effects per turn, but some of them are wildly powerful and the sheer range of options is massive; that mass return to hand effect from FIRE is especially awesome. You can get at these Skills just by controlling classic Normal Heroes like Elemental HERO Burstinatrix or Elemental HERO Clayman, but if you’ve got Elemental HERO Electrum you can choose from any of the first four. That’s no easy feat, but it’s a pretty awesome payoff if you can make it happen, especially if you can use the EARTH or FIRE Skills to clear the field and win your Duel!

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Syrus Truesdale

Next up, Midterm Paradoxmarks the full Speed Duel debut of Syrus Truesdale! Gyroid made a cameo in the Duel Academy Box, but now Syrus is stepping up as a featured character with not one, not two, but three unique Skill Cards. And you know what? They’re all pretty good! Before we get to the Skills, here’s what Jaden’s lil’ bro is running.

Syrus’ Deck is loaded with “roid” monsters; everything from the defensive picks like Gyroid and Rescueroid, to the supporters like Expressroid and UFOroid, and the more aggressive ones like Steamroid, Drillroid, and Stealthroid.

He backs them up with battle tricks like Weapon Change and Supercharge, and a bunch of Spell and Trap Cards that are a bit quirky, like Twister and Wonder Garage. If your opponent is running multiple copies of a powerful Spell or Trap Card, you can negate them with Emergeroid Call, sending all their copies from their Deck to their Graveyard. Syrus also has Shield Crush, which is new to Speed Duels!

Armed with Vehicroid Connection Zone, Syrus has four Fusion Monsters in his out-of-the-box sealed Deck: Steam Gyroid, Ambulance Rescueroid, Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill, and Super Vehicroid Stealth Union. Two of his three Skill Cards revolve around Fusion Summoning: The Roids are Alright flips at the start of the Duel, and it’s sort of a new take on another popular Skill Card: Bandit Keith’s Spellproof Armor. The Roids are Alright has four different effects:

• It lets you use Vehicroid Connection Zone to Fusion Summon any “roid” monster, instead of just “Vehicroids”. That’s good news for Steam Gyroid and Ambulance Rescueroid.
• You can Normal Summon or Set “roid” monsters with an original Level of 6 or lower without Tributing.
• Any non-Fusion “roid” monster that’s Level 6 or lower gains ATK equal to its Level x100 when it attacks an opposing monster.
• If you control a non-Machine monster, The Roids are Alright flips down and the fun is over.

This Skill Card makes it easier to play your Fusions, helps you get UFOroid and Rescueroid to the field, and lets you boost attackers like Truckroid and Drillroid (which could appear in your Midterm ParadoxMini Box as a Secret Rare!).

But that’s not all Syrus has going for him. Zane Truesdale had his Speed Duel debut in the Duel Academy Box, but he didn’t get one of the most famous cards fans associate him with: Power Bond. Now, you can use Syrus’ Power Bond Skill Card instead: activate it during your Main Phase, discard a card, and Fusion Summon a Machine Fusion using monsters from your hand or field.

The monster you Summon doubles its original Attack Points, but it can’t attack directly, and it explodes to damage you for a number of Life Points equal to its ATK in the End Phase…unless you win the Duel first. It’s awesome with Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill: Power Bond will boost it to a whopping 6000 ATK, and since Jumbo Drill deals piercing damage, attacking a monster with 2000 DEF or less will mean an instant Duel win.

Finally, Syrus’ Small Roid Big City Skill is entirely different; it’s got nothing to do with Fusion Summoning. Instead, you’ll flip it over and place it in your Field Spell Zone at the start of the Duel. Then, once per turn, you can target and destroy a card you control to search a “roid” monster from your Deck.

In addition, once per turn and when a “roid”  battles with another monster, Small Roid Big City lets you send a “roid”  from your Deck to the Graveyard to switch the original ATK of your battling monster in damage calculation. That can change Truckroid from 1000 ATK to 2000 ATK, helping you win battles so you can take your opponent’s cards with its effect. You can also load up your Graveyard for stuff like Expressroid or Mixeroid.

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While Jaden has two new Skill Cards and Syrus has three, there are two more featured characters in the Midterm Paradox Mini Box: classmate Bastion Misawa gets two new Skill Cards representing his strategic genius, while the Paradox Brothers get three. And there are two final Skills to explore: one for Chumley Huffington, and another with Jaden & Syrus together on one card!

We’ll cover those Skills and the cards that work with them in two more articles. The Speed Duel GX: Midterm Paradox Mini Box arrives on October 6*, so stick with us and we’ll help you study up with more sneak peeks.

*Date subject to change