With the recent release of Cyberdark Impact and Five-Headed Dragon, players can now create an interesting deck union between Machines and Dragons. Cyberdark Horn, Cyberdark Edge, Cyberdark Keel, and Cyberdark Dragon will make appearances in the future when one of the most famous duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX unleashes his power. Consider Cyberdark Impact our preview of what he can do.
This week, we examine the mechanics of these new Cyberdark machines and iron out any issues in their respective effects.
Dragon Absorbers
Each of the three new Cyberdark monsters includes the following text.
“When this card is Normal Summoned, select 1 Level 3 or lower Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard and equip it to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the equipped card's ATK… If this card would be destroyed by battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead.”
Each of the three Cyberdark monsters uses a Level 3 or lower Dragon monster from your graveyard to serve two functions: ATK boost and protection. In a way, these effects are similar to the abilities of Relinquished from way back in Spell Ruler, but the initial setup is only good for one use.
The first effect is a trigger that activates when you successfully normal summon any of the three monsters. At that time you will search your graveyard and select a level 3 or lower Dragon as your target. When you resolve the effect, the selected Dragon is removed from your graveyard and equipped to your Cyberdark monster as an equip spell card. Your Cyberdark monster’s ATK then increases according the printed ATK value of the Dragon. Any effects the absorbed Dragon has won’t really do anything while equipped to your Cyberdark monster, acting only as a reference for the ATK increase.
Beyond this, your Dragon serves an additional purpose. Like Relinquished, your equipped Cyberdark monster can use the equipped Dragon as a substitute when it would be destroyed in battle. From here, the similarities end and each Cyberdark monster steps out on its own.
Cyberdark Horn has the piercing damage ability typical of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Its initial ATK isn’t very high, but it can make up for this when it absorbs the right Dragon from your graveyard. Cyberdark Keel focuses on applying additional damage after destroying a monster in battle. Absorbing a Dragon helps it to boost its ATK high enough to take on most of the commonly played level 4 monsters it can expect to encounter.
Cyberdark Edge has the ability to attack your opponent directly, but if it chooses to do so, the battle damage it inflicts is halved. With a good enough ATK increase, this will hardly be a problem. If you normal summon Cyberdark Edge and equip it with a Twin-Headed Behemoth from your graveyard, it will have a total of 2300 ATK. By using its effect to attack directly, this damage will be halved to 1150. Depending on the situation, it sometimes makes more sense to attack directly and ignore your opponent’s monsters.
If your opponent manages to remove the Dragon equipped to your Cyberdark monster, the Cyberdark monster becomes vulnerable. Its Dragon-absorbing effect is tied exclusively to a successful normal summon, so it can be useful to have a few alternate means of doing so. Careful use of cards like Compulsory Evacuation Device can return your Cyberdark monster to your hand so you can summon again and reclaim its strength.
Saving them won’t always be possible or practical. It’s good to know that losing them to your graveyard isn’t the end when you’ve got Chimeratech Overdragon’s best friend, Overload Fusion, on your side. With it, you can summon our next monster.
Cyberdark Fusion
Each of the Cyberdark monsters can feed on the power of your fallen level 3 or lower Dragons, but when fused together they can feed off any Dragon you want. Meet Cyberdark Dragon, the signature monster of Cyberdark Impact. Its text reads:
“This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. When this monster is Special Summoned, select 1 Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard and equip it to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the equipped card's ATK. This card gains 100 ATK for each Monster Card in your Graveyard. If this card would be destroyed by battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead.”
Cyberdark Dragon takes the effects of the previous three Cyberdark monsters and puts its own twist on them. It adds on its own ability to generate an ATK increase equal to 100 points for every monster in your graveyard, and it releases the level restriction placed upon the Dragon you select from your graveyard.
With the previous Cyberdark monsters we could only choose Dragons between level 1 and 3, which left us with limited options. Cyberdark Dragon allows us to open up our strategy to include the biggest Dragons we can muster. For example, by combining the Cyberdark monsters with the Armed Dragons we could construct a deck that can fuel all of our Cyberdark monsters. Armed Dragon LV3 will fit with our trio of level 4 Cyberdark monsters and the higher-level Armed Dragons will make excellent sources of raw power both on the field and as equipment for Cyberdark Dragon.
Naturally these could be combined well with Masked Dragon and Twin-Headed Behemoth, two Dragons Jason mentioned in his preview article a couple of weeks ago. Over the course of the duel, your fallen Dragons can also be merged together into the Five-Headed Dragon through the use of Dragon’s Mirror. It’s not often you can use one card to summon a 5000 ATK monstrosity.
If you happen to lose the Five-Headed Dragon, why not absorb it with Cyberdark Dragon? We just can’t let 5000 ATK go to waste.
Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@metagame.com