Best way to play Herald

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Monsters (23)

3 Herald of Perfection

2 Herald of Orange Light

3 Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands

1 Archlord Kristya

3 Yamato-No-Kami

1 Dark Dust Spirit

1 Fenghuang

3 Aratama

3 Nikitama

1 Yaksha

1 Izanami

1 Rasetsu

 

Spells (10)

3 Preparation of Rights

3 Dawn of the Herald

3 Pot of Duality

1 Creature Swap

 

Traps (7)

2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

2 Vanity's Emptiness

3 Reckless Greed

 

Extra Deck (15)

1 Abyss Dweller

1 Constellar Ptolemy M7

1 Daigusto Emeral

1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight

1 Fairy Cheer Girl

1 Gagaga Cowboy

1 Gaia Dragon, The Thunder Charger

1 Gem-Knight Pearl

1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle

1 Lavalval Chain

1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

1 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK

1 Number 39: Utopia

1 Number 50: Blackship of Corn

1 Photon Strike Bounzer

 

When I say best way to play herald, context is somewhat needed. So the other variants you could be playing are Agents or Happy Herald. Happy Herald sucks for obvious reasons involving vanillas and being heavily reliant on grabbing Factories. Agents are okay sort of, but the way they summon herald kinda sucks, since they don't really play level 6s they have to, most of the time, summon a monster in order to get materials out, like summon earth and grab Jupiter, summon venus grab 3 shineballs, etc. They can also do tour guide into Djinn but again, normal summons, and that takes up space as well and is not very consistent (I mean, agents want their normal summons for their own reasons, TGU takes that away and doesn't translate into anything helpful for Agents outside of just having a rnk3 out). Also, Agents don't have a very good way of keeping fairy hand advantage unless they sack super hard and get out Tethys. Sack here being, not only do they manage to tribute summon/transmodify/??? into him, but that play wasn't stopped.

 

What I am essentially saying is most herald variants suffer from 2 big issues that a spirit variant addresses very well: There is consistency issues in the materials being used, either because the herald cards (ritual summons etc) take away from what the deck wants to be doing and relies on successful plays (in the case of agents) or the cards themselves are quite useless (happy herald), and they tend to lack consistent ways of keeping fairies in their hand (both versions, however both would like to use Tethys regardless of how sacky and gimmicky using Tethys is). Spirits uniquely create interconnected synergy that make the deck incredibly consistent compared to these versions.

 

What I mean by interconnected, I mean a lot of the cards, namely Nikitama and Aratama, yet including Yamato-No-Kami and Izanami, serve dual functions in the deck both for consistency and the actual functions of the deck. Starting with Aratama, it should be noted that Dawn of the Herald requires exact levels for its ritual summon, so its very convenient that spirits have a number of level 6 options, the 3 Kami's and the 2 nukes (that being 5). If you do not have materials needed for the ritual spell, then Aratama can search a level 6 spirit. Aratama can also grab you one extra fairy (between the nikitamas, izanami, and the water/fire spirits) per turn, so that once Herald is actually out, you can constantly supply yourself with fairies (from +1s of course).So in this way, you get consistency from searching needed level 6s for the ritual summon, and supports herald in giving you an extra fairy per turn. Nikitama also offers consistency in that it allows you to make plays with the spirit cards alone (through tribute summons, xyz summons, even plays with PWWB), and certain rnk4s matter as well. For instance, Lavalval Chain can be used with nikitama to dump a Dawn of the Herald to the graveyard so that you can add it to your hand with Preparation of Rights (essentially making a hand with Niki + Spirit + Prep much more live), or use Lavalval Chain to dump a nikitama from your deck for an extra draw. In addition, if played correctly Nikitama can be used for major pluses with Herald when it comes out, as when you negate cards during your turn, you will draw an extra card using Nikitama (assuming you summon a spirit that turn). Attack into a Geargia Armor, negate destroy and draw a card is a very strong play, and greatly helps you win the battle of attrition. Yamato-No-Kami also serves multiple functions, being used for the ritual spell, while also making nikitama live while used as an xyz material, regulate the graveyard for Kristya, or even for rnk6 plays. Its also very strong to be able to kill a monster, and pop facedowns like MST or destroy face-up's that couldn't be negated by Herald since they won't be able to stop your Yamato from killing them. Late into the game, Izanami can also function as an extra draw per turn, if you loop nikitamas (if it ever comes down to the point where you no longer want to add spirits but perhaps draw into certain cards).

 

Just some other cool things that spirits can do with herald:

-Rnk4s offer a lot of utility for the deck. As mentioned, Lavalval chain can help search Dawn of the Herald if you have preparation of Rights. In addition however, abusing Nikitama and Lavalval chain can let you grab Kristya straight from the deck, which is quite consistent to do so since your graveyard is usually well regulated with access to Daigusto Emeral, Rnk6s like M7, and Yamato-No-Kami. Another really important thing to consider is the use of Abyss Dweller, which stops potential Breakthrough Skills from getting around your Herald, and because this deck runs izanami and yaksha, it can go to 2200. Abyss Dweller is also good against the dragon and bujinn match ups.

 

-Spirits can run Reckless Greed for extra consistency, since the deck just +1s every turn with a bouncing stratos anywho, and can even + beyond that with correct nikitama plays.

 

- You can fit in more Creature Swaps or just play that card in general, which is very good against the Bujinn matchup.

 

- Spirits bounce back into the hand, so you never have to worry too much about using a fairy from your hand and then not having a fairy later.

 

 

I also think this version might have more potential than other spirit variants. Anyone who has built spirits knows that the biggest issue with them is the lack of field presence they have. What good is an infinite stratos if you just get poked every turn? Ghostricks and the hands do a good job at addressing this, but I find that Herald is the ultimate presence you can have, since unlike other engines, it actually interacts much more directly with your spirits (that is, you more directly use them), and it really doesn't allow ways to get around it (the hands can be caius'd, or just ran over while playing ghostricks). You also get to play Kristya, play more spirits than usual (Yamato-No-Kami is a really good card, but it doesn't see much play in most spirit decks since the majority of spirit decks focus on Nikitama and Aratama, and that is because most engines don't have direct synergy with spirits).

 

Another big thing to consider is that While playing Herald and spirits together, you have so much synergy with Vanity's Emptiness. This comes from two reasons, one being that while Herald is out, it is incredibly difficult to let anything get rid of emptiness. But also, because you play spirits, most of your plays are focused in the hand rather than the field, and thus it is very unlikely for one of your cards to be destroyed by battle and have emptiness to go away. This is the comparison of Spirit Heralds to other Herald decks, since if you think about agents, you aren't allowed to summon Earth or else it will be destroyed by battle. With other spirit builds, they play a lot of cards that do actually get destroyed by battle, or destroyed period (MST, dark hole, destroy by battle because the hands get destroyed or ghostricks destroyed by battle). In that sense, this is probably one of the best decks to play Vanity's Emptiness in, sans maybe a deck that uses Key Beetle or macro cosmos.