Cards with the word “Cyber” in their name tend to throw me off. I’m always picturing them as totally different monsters than they actually are. When I first heard of Cyber-Stein, I imagined something that looked like like Pot of Greed with a lid and a handle. (I lived in Germany for three years—stop laughing at me!) Then I saw a picture of the card, and stared at it blankly for a few seconds before realizing, “Oh, like Franken-stein!” The same thing happened with Cyber Blader. In my head, I was picturing something along the lines of Blade Knight, but with a bit more chrome. But no, it’s a pretty girl on skates. Go figure.

Anyway, today I’m going to think of amusing and painful things that you can do to your opponent with Cyber Blader, and I’ll start off by telling you what it does.

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Cyber Blader

Warrior/Fusion/Effect monster, Earth attribute, Level 7 2100 ATK/800 DEF

Etoile Cyber + Blade Skater

A fusion summon of this monster can only be conducted with the above fusion material monsters. While your opponent has exactly 1 monster, this card is not destroyed as a result of battle. While your opponent has exactly 2 monsters, double the ATK of this card. While your opponent has only 3 monsters, negate the effects of your opponent’s spell cards, trap cards, and effect monsters.

The ideal place for this card is in Field Control decks, where you can determine what effect Cyber Blader gets by controlling the monsters on your opponent’s side of the field. Just randomly throwing Cyber Blader onto the field and leaving it all up to fate isn’t the best way to play it. If you want to include it in your deck, you need to build in ways to give you control over what your opponent is summoning.

First off, decide which of Cyber Blader’s effects you want to use, and go from there. Let’s take a look at each effect and see what it can do for us.

If your opponent has one monster on the field, the most obvious benefit here is to use Cyber Blader as a Cyber Dragon killer. They’re matched at 2100 ATK, and the “not destroyed in battle” effect will keep Cyber Blader on the field while it dispatches Cyber Dragon. If your opponent special summons Cyber Dragon and doesn’t normal summon another monster, you’re in good shape.

Now, let’s look at what we can do if your opponent has two monsters on the field. Even if your opponent does normal summon another monster after special summoning Cyber Dragon, as long as it’s just the two of them, Cyber Dragon is still probably screwed, because Cyber Blader will have 4200 ATK. That’s even better, because now you’re going to dish out some damage!

There are all kinds of rotten things you can do when there are two monsters on the field. You know what I’d like to see? Big Bang Shot on Cyber Blader on my side, and Spirit Reaper on my opponent’s side. Windstorm of Equata or Final Attack Orders would be a nice addition as well that can maximize the smiting power. Giant Trunade is a good choice if you’re focusing on the two-monster effect, because you don’t want to run into Sakuretsu Armor when you’re playing this aggressively.

If your opponent has three monsters on the field, it’s the right time for a lock! No spells, no traps, no monster effects—so take it a step further. Curtis Schultz, Metagame’s self-avowed Ojama fan, can’t wait to try this card with Ojama Trio and Spatial or Ground Collapse. Summon a monster? Nope. Activate a trap card? Denied! How about a spell card? Shunned! Sorry, you’re stuck with three sneering Ojama tokens while Curtis burns away your life points and won’t let you do anything to stop him.

Wow, what a sadistic duelist. You’d better watch out for Curtis. If you want to lock your opponent down, consider throwing in Mask of Restrict, which is seeing a return to play in side decks anyways. Creature Swap could give your opponent a difficult-to-deal with monster, and don’t forget about Scapegoat. Let them activate it, destroy one, play Ground Collapse, and they’ve practically locked themselves. Then go right ahead and burn, baby, burn.

There are plenty of cards available that can help you manipulate the field, like Shallow Grave, Asura Priest, Ground Collapse, Mask of Restrict and so forth, in addition to the usual monster removal cards like Dark Hole and Smashing Ground. Sometimes you might want to prevent your opponent from summoning, and other times you’ll want to force him or her to summon, depending on which effect you want to get from your Cyber Blader. You need to be in charge of the game to get the best use out of the card.

Now that you know what you want to do with it, all you need to do is figure out how you’re going to get it on the field. The restriction of Metamorphosis makes it a bit harder to easily bring out fusion monsters, but you can trade in Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast to get out Cyber Blader. If you want to run Etoile Cyber or Blade Skater in your deck, you could fall back on Earth The Hex-Sealed Fusion to special summon Cyber Blader, or you can do it the old fashioned way with the correct fusion material monsters and Polymerization or Fusion Gate.

Whichever way you choose to get it out, it will cost you some resources, so you’ll want to keep it on the field once it’s there. That popular piece of monster removal, Smashing Ground, isn’t likely to hurt Cyber Blader unless it’s the only card on your field, because Cyber Blader has such a low DEF. In contrast, Book of Moon and Enemy Controller will hurt Cyber Blader, because it has such a low DEF. Using Lockdown Burn against three ineffective monsters will usually keep you safe, since that will rob your opponent of most of his or her options to get rid of the card.

If you’re watching Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, you’ll see this card when Alexis Rhodes takes the dueling stage, as it’s one of her most powerful monsters. Decks in that show focus on themes and synergy, two strategic elements that have gotten a push forward in the new Advanced format. There’s never been a better time to see a finely-crafted theme deck get ahead, and the format, recent expansions, and playable Structure decks are all pulling together to prove it.