Anyone who even remotely enjoys role-playing games is aware of how terrifyingly powerful dragons are. Whether they’re blasting your party into oblivion, doing likewise to a group of enemies, or just burning down the countryside, dragons are probably the fiercest mythical creatures around. One would be hard-pressed to make them more powerful or terrifying, but lo and behold, someone managed to do it. Take your basic dragon. Now replace nearly all of its organic components with futuristic cyber-technology and give it the ability to increase its own strength by devouring the life energy of its less metallic brethren. The result is certainly not the kind of creature I would want to encounter in a dark alley, that’s for sure. It is, however, an accurate description of the new Cyberdark monsters from Cyberdark Impact.

Decks based around the Cyberdark monsters are actually pretty nasty if you think about it, because they’re fully capable of dishing out a continuous stream of 2100+ ATK monsters without ever needing to tribute anything. In addition, they generally have access to no less than five of the most powerful Fusion monsters in the game, all of which can be brought out without ever playing a Polymerization. Add in the fact that any Fusion you make will likely win you the game if you play your cards right, and you’ve got a recipe for success. The question then becomes which Fusion spells you want to play. I’ll talk about that later. For now, let’s take a look at a sample decklist I came up with while looking through my preview swag.

“Ultimate Upgrade—Dragon.1”

Monsters: 22

3 Cyber Dragon

2 Cyberdark Edge

3 Cyberdark Horn

2 Cyberdark Keel

2 Cyber Phoenix

3 Masked Dragon

3 Gray Wing

1 Twin-Headed Behemoth

1 Sangan

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Jinzo

Spells: 11

1 Graceful Charity

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Limiter Removal

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Book of Moon

1 Future Fusion

2 Overload Fusion

2 Enemy Controller

Traps: 8

2 Compulsory Evacuation Device

2 Dust Tornado

2 Widespread Ruin

1 Mirror Force

1 Ring of Destruction

Fusions: 7

2 Cyberdark Dragon

2 Chimeratech Overdragon

1 Cyber End Dragon

1 Cyber Twin Dragon

1 Five-Headed Dragon

It’s pretty fair to say that Cyberdark Horn is the best of the Cyberdark monsters, with Cyberdark Edge being a close second. Monsters that can deal piercing damage are a great way to keep pushing the momentum of the game in your favor. After all, if every attack on your Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive or Apprentice Magician hits for 1000+ damage, a replaced card here and an Old Vindictive Magician there aren’t likely to stabilize your position fast enough to avoid a loss. With this in mind, it really boggles my mind that more piercing cards don’t see play. Airknight Parshath is a much better card than Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, as is Exarion Universe. Yet neither of them are seeing any play right now. I can see the argument against Airknight Parshath, but I think Cyber Dragon is a lot easier to stop than most people realize. There’s just no excuse for the lack of Exarion Universe cards though. It can act as an aggressive weapon or a defensive shield (depending on the role you need it to play), and it only becomes more brilliant when you play it in a deck with more of its Beast and Beast-Warrior companions. Jason can tell you all about that.

Cyberdark Edge, on the other hand, racks up 1000+ damage a turn regardless of whether or not your opponent has a monster you can attack through. This comes in handy when the opponent is hiding behind a pair of Gravekeeper’s Spy cards while trying to draw into a Monarch. It’s also good for when you suspect your opponent has an Apprentice Magician down and you’d prefer that he or she not use its search effect. Finally, the oddly named Cyberdark Keel can help you keep up the pressure as well, even if it ends up losing its equipped monster. You can squeeze another 300 damage out of it every time it destroys a monster, regardless of position. That makes Cyberdark Keel your number one candidate for attacking over an attack-position monster, such as Breaker the Magical Warrior or Cyber Dragon. The monster line-up is carefully picked so that any equipped Cyberdark monster will be able to take out an opposing Cyber Dragon, but Keel is still the go-to guy in those situations. Ramming a minimally equipped Keel into Cyber Dragon destroys the Cyber Dragon while leaving your own monster intact. It also deals 300 damage that you wouldn’t otherwise have dealt. If you have anything bigger than a Gray Wing attached to that Keel, it keeps its equip and deals more than 300 while taking out the Dragon. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself.

Finally, all the Cyberdark monsters are Machines, which lends them a few extra support cards. Cyber Phoenix is great in a Machine deck as refuge from the ever-popular Ring of Destruction and Sakuretsu Armor. It also stymies Enemy Controller and Book of Moon, giving your Cyberdark cards immunity from nearly every common attack-blocking card. Just watch out for those clever people packing Widespread Ruin, and I shouldn’t need to warn you about the dangers of Mirror Force. They can also take advantage of Limiter Removal to win the game in one massive swing just like any other Machine deck. It’s just that this Machine deck has the added bonus of having Machines that deal piercing damage and direct damage. Cyberdark Edge under the influence of Limiter Removal deals its full pre-Limiter ATK to the opponent and Cyberdark Horn becomes more powerful than Cyber End Dragon. Players who enjoy catching the conservative train to Turtle Town just love it when someone busts them in the face for upwards of 5000 damage. That’s usually enough to win the game outright since highly conservative players have no problem absorbing a couple thousand points of early damage in order to “maintain advantage.” It doesn’t work so well when those “couple thousand” points are immediately followed by a massive direct/piercing beating, now does it? Just keep in mind that equipped Cyberdark cards aren’t immune to the destruction part of the effect of Limiter Removal, and you’ll be all right.

The Dragons chosen for this deck are there because they’re the biggest level 3 or lower Dragons currently available in the game. Masked Dragon, in addition to being the second-largest level 3 Dragon, is also a great way to dig for your Twin-Headed Behemoth, and Gray Wing will help you to perform that massive, game-winning swing you’ve always dreamed about. Now, you only have one Twin-Headed Behemoth, so it’s only fair to make the most of it, right? Compulsory Evacuation Device is a great card on both offense and defense in this deck. It can remove a potential threat from the board for a turn and can even do so in response to an effect like Mystical Space Typhoon. Alternatively, it can be used to return a Cyberdark monster that has lost its equip to your hand so you can normal summon it again. This allows you to keep putting your Twin-Headed Behemoth back onto your Cyberdark monsters, making them 2300 ATK level 4 powerhouses. Good deal. At this point, I expect that with the increased presence of Cyber Phoenix at the SJC level, Widespread Ruin is probably going to start flat-out replacing Sakuretsu Armor in many decks. While Ruin can sometimes be turned against its user by a well-placed Enemy Controller, it’s less likely in a deck running Cyber Phoenix as well, so I’m not too worried about this happening. Even if I don’t have Cyber Phoenix, the relative chances of an opponent having the exact cards required to counter my card are rather slim.

Finally, I’d like to talk about my choices of Fusion cards. I’ve already said that this deck intends to win by a “massive swing to the face,” so I’ve included ways to maximize that possibility. I need Dragons in the graveyard for my Cyberdark monsters to work, so I can’t afford to remove them for Pot of Avarice (or more importantly, Dragon’s Mirror). I’ve included Five-Headed Dragon so that I can put Dragons directly into the graveyard via Future Fusion . . . which is, in a word, incredible. There’s really no other way to describe it. I considered Power Bond for a time, but a 2000-base ATK Cyberdark Dragon really isn’t enough to justify spending the monsters that I’m supposed to be winning the game with. I’d much rather remove them from the game after they’ve served their purpose, so that’s one vote for Overload Fusion over Power Bond. Finally, since this deck plays Cyber Dragon and a bunch of other Machine-type monsters, Chimeratech Overdragon would be another great way to end games, and we all know that Overload Fusion is the easiest and most consistent way to bring Overdragon to the table. That said, I’m running two Overload Fusion cards and no Power Bond cards. If you like Power Bond, go for it, but I’d much rather save it for a deck purely based on Cyber Dragon Fusions like the one Shawn Kelly played at Arlington.

If you managed to snag a lot of Cyberdark monsters before they hit the secondary market, consider yourself lucky. They’re sure to jump in price once they start seeing regular play on Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, so I’d recommend getting them sooner rather than later. Once you do, make sure to give this deck a try. Cyberdark cards are a lot fiercer than many would give them credit for. I’ll see you over in The School of Duel, and until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu

NEXT WEEK: Next week’s deck is sure to give those pesky Monarchs a hard time.