Machine King was one of the most anticipated cards of all time. It’s a fan favorite, due to its reputation, its use on the show, and its overall visual appeal—it looks cool. A lot of players had high hopes for its use in Machine-based tribal Beatdown strategies. Unfortunately for Machine King, Machine decks were already running one copy of Jinzo and one copy of Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End. In addition, the fact that Machine King required a single tribute but needed one other Machine type on the field to put him on par with Jinzo, minus Jinzo’s effect, made Machine King a sub-par card. The lack of a Dark or Light attribute didn’t help its case, either.

Luckily, Rise of Destiny has several different high-level Machine type cards that are worthy of competitive Constructed decks. In addition, with the removal of Chaos Emperor Dragon from the Advanced format, there’s more space in many Machine decklists. Sure, you could just slip in Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and that’s certainly a valid decision. Then you may want to drop Jinzo, depending on how your metagame looks. Either way, there is definitely room for the new mechanical bad boys.

Let’s take a look at the newest contender, Perfect Machine King. Perfect Machine King is a bit more difficult to get into play than its predecessor. Because it’s level 8, it will require two tributes to summon. However, Machine decks have lots of little advantages that can make it relatively easy to get tribute monsters into play. Cyber Jar can get some good fodder on the field, and because of Reflect Bounder and the threat of Limiter Removal, Machine decks can often be difficult to attack. Perfect Machine King should be considered for that reason.

What does it do? I’ve made all of you wait through three paragraphs, and I guess it’s time I gave up the info! Perfect Machine King is an Earth-attribute Machine-type with 2700 ATK and 1500 DEF. It has a pretty good ATK stat, albeit not quite enough to justify using him. Its effect is what makes it shine. Perfect Machine King gets +500 ATK for every other Machine-type monster on the field. So even with just one other Machine-type monster on the field, it’s stronger than Blue-Eyes White Dragon and can be boosted to ridiculous heights with Limiter Removal.

“But Jason, I just had to tribute two monsters, and they were Machines!” There are ways to get around that, and Magical Scientist is one of the best. You can use its effect to special summon out some Fusion monsters and then tribute those to summon Perfect Machine King. Once Perfect Machine King is on the table, you can use Magical Scientist to special summon lots of Machine-type Fusion monsters. Metal Dragon is ideal, but Cyber Saurus does well in a pinch. Or you can even do both, all in one turn. The result will be a Perfect Machine King with 4200 ATK. One Limiter Removal and it’s a walking “game over.”

It’s also worth noting that Perfect Machine King counts all Machines on the field, not just your own. You can use DNA Surgery to change all monsters in play to Machine-types, which will then give it a massive boost. To make the combo even more brutal, you can stick the opponent with Ojama tokens and then slap Fairy Meteor Crush on Perfect Machine King to punch through for a huge amount of damage. In that scenario, the odds are good that you’ll win the game on the first attack you make.

Perfect Machine King is everything that Machine King should have been. It’s tricky to get into play, but once it hits the table, its impact can’t be ignored. If you play Machines, give Perfect Machine King and some of the other new high-level Machines in Rise of Destiny a try in your deck!