What are the Hieratic Dragons?
The Hieratic Dragons are guardians of the ancient world known for annihilating all who would threaten Heliopolis. Their Hieratic Seals afforded them tremendous amounts of power and gave them the capability to Summon forth the strongest force known to ancient man: the Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis!
Thousands of years later, these dragons have been unsealed at last and will be introduced to the Dueling world when Galactic Overlord releases in a just a few weeks. Like the Infernity monsters from The Shining Darkness, the Hieratic monsters can be pretty complex, so for the next few weeks we’ll be getting you up to speed on what they can do and how they do it!
The Basics
So what can you do with the Hieratic Dragons? Put simply, whatever you want. They’re one of the most open ended groups of monsters ever released. Hieratic Decks are all about Tributing. The textbook definition of Tributing is “sending a monster you control to the Graveyard.”, but the Hieratic monsters take it one step further with abilities that let you Tribute from your hand as well, like how a Ritual Spell works. When you Tribute most Hieratic monsters (from your hand or field), you get to Summon any Dragon-Type Normal Monster from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard, but that monster’s ATK and DEF are set to 0.
Why Would You Do That?
Summoning Dragon-Type Normal Monsters that offer no offensive or defensive capabilities is more useful than you might think. The most important thing to remember is that there’s no Level cap on the monster you Summon, so you have 10 years worth of Dragon-Type Normal Monsters to choose from. You can pick your favorites, or choose them with a specific purpose in mind. Here are some of the things this ability lets you do.
–Xyz Summon whatever you want!
There are Hieratic Dragons at Levels 4 through 8. There are also Dragon-Type Normal Monsters at Levels 4 through 8. Many Hieratic Dragons can be Special Summoned by Tributing another Hieratic monster, so if you have the right Normal Monsters you can quickly Xyz Summon powerful monsters. Here’s a cool combo you can do with Hieratic monsters and a classic card from Yugi’s Deck!
Hieratic Dragon of Eset can be useful for Summoning nearly any Xyz Monster because it also has the ability to match the Levels of all your Hieratic monsters to the Level of a Dragon-Type Normal Monster you control. Tribute Summon it by Tributing another Hieratic monster, and you can Special Summon a Dragon-Type Normal Monster of any Level from your Deck. Then, use Eset’s ability to match up the Levels and Xyz Summon whatever you want!
The most powerful Hieratic Monster, the Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis is a Rank 8 Xyz Monster that lets you Tribute monsters from your hand and field to destroy an equal number of opposing cards on the field. Tribute more Hieratic Monsters for this effect and you can Summon even more Normal Monsters, and Xyz Summon again in the same turn to deliver an absolute pounding to your opponent’s Life Points!
-Use name-specific cards
Have you ever wanted to unleash Inferno Fire Blast or Burst Stream of Destruction on an unsuspecting opponent? It’s easy to do when you’re playing with Hieratic monsters, because Tributing any one of them can put Red-Eyes B. Dragon or Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the field! Of course, they can’t attack if you use those Spells, but if you use your new monster to Xyz Summon, the resulting Xyz Monster can!
The monster you see on every pack of Galactic Overlord, Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, gets an extra ability if you use Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon as one of its 3 Level 8 Xyz Materials. But how exactly are you going to get 3 Level 8 monsters and have one of them be Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon? Simple, it’s Hieratic monsters to the rescue once again!
Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit has can be Special Summoned if your opponent controls at least one monster and you don’t. Drop a second Hieratic Monster, like Hieratic Dragon of Gebeb, and you can Tribute both of them to activate Dragonic Tactics! Dragonic Tactics Special Summons a Level 8 Dragon from your Deck, like Galaxy-Eyes, and your Hieratic effects (which are mandatory, by the way) will kick in and let you Summon 2 Level 8 Normal Monsters from your Deck to go with Galaxy-Eyes. Pretty cool, right?
Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon has a cool 4500 ATK, and if your opponent has any Xyz Monsters it can absorb all of their Materials and turn them into extra attacks and ATK. And since you used Galaxy-Eyes as a Material, it’ll also negate the effect of every other face-up card on the field when you Summon it!
–“Seal” away your opponent’s cards, for free!
While two of them exist as monsters, most of the Hieratic Seals are Spells and Traps, and the most powerful among them require you to Tribute Hieratic monsters to activate them. Doing so will trigger your Hieratic monster’s effect and let you Summon a Normal Monster to replace them. You’ll be able to knock out your opponent’s cards one by one while amassing Xyz Materials for yourself! But more on that later…
OK, that’s actually pretty cool.
Incredible Xyz Monsters, great Spells and Traps, and a perfectly valid reason to play your favorite cards from classic Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hieratic Decks have it all. You can learn more about them in the weeks ahead right here on the Strategy Site, and make sure to go to your local Galactic Overlord Sneak Peek on April 28th and/or 29th for your very first chance to get your hands on these monsters!