I admit, I do love me some Cyber Dragon beatings. I was running three of them the moment I got my play set, even before the Advanced format changed over to its current incarnation. It’s risky, but I love the idea of rushing my opponent with more monsters than they’re prepared for. If that occasionally costs me some card advantage (due to an unforeseen Dark Hole), then I’m ready to deal with that. Ask anybody who plays against me regularly, and they’ll vouch for the fact that I’m Captain Aggro.
However, contributor Thomas P. puts me to shame by using an aggressive strategy that I never even thought of. He takes Cyber Dragon one step further than I thought possible, and here’s how he does it.
This deck uses Ojama Trio to get the opponent’s field big enough so that I can summon Cyber Dragon, Fiend Megacyber, and another monster on the same turn. The Big Bang Shots are for pierce so I can destroy the Ojamas and do damage in battle.
I would appreciate any advice that you could give on improving my deck.
Thanks!
—Thomas P., Flint, MI
Thomas’s email was short, but it fits his premise quite well: flip Ojama Trio, summon Cyber Dragon, summon Fiend Megacyber, and then summon something else. Good stuff. Here’s his decklist.
Cyber Swarm
41 Cards
Monsters: 18
3 Cyber Dragon
3 The Fiend Megacyber
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Cyber Jar
2 D. D. Assailant
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Don Zaloog
2 Goblin Attack Force
1 Morphing Jar
1 Asura Priest
1 Sangan
1 Spirit Reaper
Spells: 16
2 Big Bang Shot
1 Book of Moon
1 Brain Control
1 Card Destruction
1 Confiscation
1 Dark Hole
1 Giant Trunade
1 Heavy Storm
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
2 Reinforcements of The Army
1 Snatch Steal
1 The Warrior Returning Alive
Traps: 7
1 Call of the Haunted
3 Ojama Trio
2 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Torrential Tribute
Lately, I’ve become a huge fan of Ojama Trio. The power to limit the opponent’s aggressive ability to grow the field is surprisingly impressive, and Ojama tokens are perfect targets for piercing attacks like those afforded by Big Bang Shot. While the deck’s ideal play is contrived and somewhat difficult to pull off, it doesn’t need to flip Ojama Trio and then drop three monsters to win—it just has the option to do so. Usually just one Cyber Dragon or Fiend with Big Bang Shot and some Ojama tokens to attack should win the game.
That said, there are some cards here that seem out of place, and removing them will really improve the deck. There are several cards that just don’t fit with the strategy of deploying Ojama tokens. Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper? Not only are these somewhat obsolete due to the new Dark World monsters, but they can’t swing through Ojama tokens. Don Zaloog could when combined with Big Bang Shot, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a point in banking on that. Lightning Vortex? While it can help you recover from a swamped field that was too packed for Ojama Trio, it’s also a dead draw once you have the Ojama tokens out, so it doesn’t seem like a great fit. The same goes for Torrential Tribute.
Cyber Jar has that factor going against it, as well as the fact that this deck just doesn’t topdeck well in the monster department. It’s going to get the short end of the stick in almost any Chaos or Warrior matchup, because all six Cyber Dragons and Fiend Megacybers are dead draws as far as Cyber Jar is concerned.
Giant Trunade would be best in the side deck. We’re going to remove it from the main deck’s lineup of spells but leave it as an option when it’s needed. I’m also going to remove The Warrior Returning Alive. With three copies of The Fiend Megacyber, I’m confident that you’ll likely never wish to recycle one, and the rest of the Warriors in this deck have a tendency to remove themselves from play instead of sitting in the graveyard. The exception to this rule is Goblin Attack Force, and I don’t see the Goblins as something that justifies the use of The Warrior Returning Alive.
That’s seven cards removed, so I’m going to add in six cards to bring the deck down to an even forty cards. While the seven cards that I took out were completely different, the additions are going to be a lot more focused. First up is Smashing Ground. I include three in basically everything nowadays, and only scale a deck back to two copies if something unforeseen arises in testing. This deck is no exception to this rule, so three copies of Smashing Ground are going to be my first addition.
Next, because this deck is running Ojama Trio, I’m going to add three copies of what is currently one of my favorite cards in the format—Gyaku-Gire Panda! It can gain 1500 ATK when you flip Ojama Trio, becoming a 2300 ATK monster even if your opponent doesn’t control any monsters of his or her own. If he or she does, it gets even larger, topping out at 3300 ATK if it’s up against a full field. Because it can naturally pierce through the hides of its defense-position enemies, it’s a great fit for this deck, and if you can ever flip Ojama Trio and summon Cyber Dragon and Fiend Megacyber, the Panda is an incredible way to finish out your trifecta.
Of course, that’s a four-card combo and it’s not likely to happen very often. But what’s great about the Panda is that it gives you another two-card combo that can expand the potential of Ojama Trio. Ojama Trio is almost useless if you don’t have a method of exploiting it, so three more cards that’ll allow it to be abused are more than welcome.
After those two quick changes, here’s a recap of the alterations that I’m recommending.
-1 Cyber Jar
-1 Spirit Reaper
-1 Don Zaloog
-1 Torrential Tribute
-1 Giant Trunade
-1 Lightning Vortex
-1 The Warrior Returning Alive
+3 Gyaku-Gire Panda
+3 Smashing Ground
Here’s the final build!
Cyber Swarm: Jason’s Fix
40 Cards
Monsters: 18
3 Cyber Dragon
3 The Fiend Megacyber
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 D. D. Assailant
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
2 Goblin Attack Force
1 Morphing Jar
1 Asura Priest
1 Sangan
3 Gyaku-Gire Panda
Spells: 16
2 Big Bang Shot
1 Book of Moon
1 Brain Control
1 Card Destruction
1 Confiscation
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
2 Reinforcements of The Army
1 Snatch Steal
3 Smashing Ground
Traps: 6
1 Call of the Haunted
3 Ojama Trio
2 Sakuretsu Armor
Ojama Trio is the key to this deck. If you score an Ojama in your opening draw, then Gyaku-Gire Panda and The Fiend Megacyber become incredibly deadly topdecks. If you already have them in your opening hand, then so much the better. If you can’t draw Ojama Trio in the early game, this deck plays a bit slowly, but it can use Cyber Dragon and Megacyber to keep its dukes up and protect itself.
It’s important to understand the difference between those two scenarios, since Ojama Trio completely changes the way that this deck is played. If you draw it, you’ll almost always want to use it immediately. Doing so clogs up the opponent’s field and opens you up for potential combos. If your opponent only controls two monsters, go ahead and try and tease him or her into wasting Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado and then chain Ojama Trio, but if it comes down to a decision between teasing out spell and trap removal or locking the opponent, never let your opponent drop that third monster. If he or she does so, you could be overrun, and Ojama Trio will become a dead card to boot.
Ojama Trio determines whether you play aggressively or reactively. If you have it, you’ll favor aggression, and if you don’t have it, you can’t rely on your draws to be good enough to go toe-to-toe with Chaos or Warriors in a test of topdecking. Remember that even if your current hand can match your opponent monster for monster, the situation could be very different in just five turns. Cyber Swarm is well equipped to hold off overwhelming odds, as most of the deck’s monsters either have huge ATK values or a remove-from-play effect that can deter an opponent from attacking. You want to take advantage of that fact by stalling whenever you can’t quickly dominate a game. Outlast the opponent, and eventually your synergies will come together.
Smashing Ground is a huge threat in this respect, since it can take out your big solitary blockers. Just remember that Goblin Attack Force has 0 DEF, and therefore it dodges Smashing Ground like something out of The Matrix.
Go ahead and picture it. It’s fun. Picture those Goblins dodging. Aren’t they cute?
With a good start, this deck can go head to head against basically anything. Against a Chaos or generic Beatdown deck, it can stall like nobody’s business and control the field until it dominates the game. Warriors can be tricky, because they have access to D. D. Assailant, D. D. Warrior Lady, and Exiled Force, so that matchup isn’t as strong as the other two. It’s far from a lost cause, though, and a single big monster can still shut down your opponent’s effect-laden horde.
If you’re a big fan of dumping your entire hand on the first two turns of a game and Warrior Swarm isn’t fast enough for you, the breakneck pace of this deck should fit you like a glove. If you’re like me, and can have patience—but you prefer not to—you’ll really enjoy playing it.
Thanks for sending it in, Thomas!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Do you have an Advanced format deck you could use some help with, or that you just want to show off to the world? Do you want to see it appear in a future Apotheosis article? Send it to me at Jason(at)metagame(dot)com and I might take a crack at it!