With the arrival of World Superstars, we will also witness the arrival of the Superstar of the Heroic Champions! This monster gets more powerful depending on the number of Xyz Materials it has, eventually becoming an unstoppable force of destruction! It’s Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad!

Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad has the potential to be the most powerful of the Heroic Champions, and amongst the most powerful of all Xyz Monsters! Rhongomyniad is Rank 4, and it can be Summoned with 2 to 5 Level 4 Warrior-Type monsters. The more monsters you use, the more effects Rhongomyniad comes with – but beware! Rhongomyniad is drained of its power every turn, losing an Xyz Material in each of your opponent’s End Phases. If you want to give it lots of effects, you’ll have to start off with lots of Xyz Materials.

So, what kind of effects does Rhongomyniad have? There are five different effects, and each of them gets stacked on top of the others as you go.

-With at least 1 Xyz Material, Rhongomyniad can’t be destroyed in battle. That will help keep it around with its 1500 ATK and DEF.

-With at least 2 Xyz Materiala, Rhongomyniad gains 1500 ATK and DEF! That shoots it up to 3000 for each! You should be able to wipe out any opposing monster now, but just in case, it’s still immune to battle destruction.

-With three Xyz Materials, you won’t have to worry about losing Rhongomyniad to card effects either. Any of them. It’s completely unaffected by all other cards, and combined with the immunity to battle, Rhongomyniad is effectively invincible.

-If you get to four or more Xyz Materials your opponent can’t Normal or Special Summon at all! Without any Summons, they’ll be hard-pressed to deal with your 3000 ATK monster who shrugs off any battle or card effect.

-And if you managed to get the full 5 Xyz Materials on to Rhongomyniad, you also get to destroy all cards your opponent controls! Combined with the rest of the effects you’ll be getting, resolving this effect will most likely ice the Duel for you!

So, while Summoning Rhongomyniad with just a couple of Xyz Materials is still pretty decent, you really want to be playing him with as many Xyz Materials as possible. Some of the other World Superstars cards should help with that!

Heroic Challenger – Assault Halberd can be Special Summoned from your hand if you control no monsters while your opponent has at least one. That makes it a great way to get started on an Xyz Summon of Rhongomyniad, the other Heroic Champions, or something like Blade Armor Ninja. Besides his Special Summon ability, Assault Halberd deals piercing damage to Defense Position monsters. That helps with his final effect, which lets you add any “Heroic” card from your Deck to your hand any time Assault Halberd deals battle damage. So, if you don’t need him for an Xyz Summon, Assault Halberd still helps put together big plays by searching them out from the Deck. In particular, this is a great way to get more copies of Heroic Challenger – Double Lance to your hand.

Next up, it’s Heroic Challenger – Thousand Blades. Thousand Blades comes packing two great effects to keep your field stocked with Warriors for Xyz Summons. If it’s in Attack Position, you can discard a “Heroic” card from your hand to Special Summon any “Heroic” monster from your Deck! Doing this will turn Thousand Blades to Defense Position (no big deal if you Xyz Summon!) and also limits you to only “Heroic” monsters’ Special Summons for the rest of the turn. If you have enough cards to discard, you can have one copy of Thousand Blades get another, which can Special Summon yet another monster.

Thousand Blades has a second effect, and this one is entirely cost-free! If you take any damage from any source, you can Special Summon Thousand Blades from your Graveyard in Attack Position! You can only use this effect of Thousand Blades once each turn (sorry, no Thousand Blades loops). This effect is nice for soaking up damage from direct attacks, or you can save it for your opponent’s last attack, keeping Thousand Blades on the field for your own turn. If you do start your turn with Thousand Blades on the field and have enough “Heroic” cards in hand, it’s not inconceivable to go from having just Thousand Blades on the field to having 2 copies of Thousand Blades, Heroic Challenger – Extra Sword, and a pair of Heroic Challenger – Double Lance on the board, letting you Xyz Summon a 4000 ATK Number 86 – Rhongomyniad that will wipe your opponent’s board and win you the game across this turn and the next!

This works, despite Rhongomyniad’s immunity to other card effects, because the “gain 1000 ATK” effect is an effect that’s added to Rhongomyniad’s already extensive list of effects, and his own effects are the only ones that affect him.

Many of the existing Heroic Challengers are great ways to Summon Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad, especially when paired with Assault Halberd and Thousand Blades. Heroic Challenger – Double Lance is the obvious choice of course, but you can also use Heroic Challenger – Ambush Soldier for two monsters – try bringing it out in your opponent’s End Phase with Reinforce Truth to easily trigger its effect. And finally, don’t forget that Soul Charge can instantly give you all the monsters you need at once!

New Heroic Challengers give the Heroic Deck even more options and consistency, and a potent new Xyz Monster give them an awesome power play! You can find these new Heroic cards in World Superstars, arriving April 17!