Upon receiving Cyber Phoenix to preview, I couldn’t help but be excited. As a Fire/Machine type, it had the chance to support both themes by filling a huge void in their archetypes. Fire decks have never had any self-replacing monster like Newdoria, Spirit Reaper, Exiled Force, or Sangan to search with their nifty UFO Turtle. Instead, the Turtle was forced to search out cards like Solar Flare Dragon and Raging Flame Sprite.

But while Cyber Phoenix has indeed provided life support to the Fire theme, it’s even more important to the new-age Machine deck. Extremely popular in its heyday (when Mechanicalchaser was the most powerful level 4 monster in the game), the different “Redline” builds (so named for appearance of the feature card Limiter Removal) that sprouted up put Machines on the map. But recent developments, such as the limiting of Limiter Removal and the emergence of certain pieces of tech, has made it difficult for the Machine deck to continue.

The main problem has historically been the lack of solid normal summons. When the first wave of 1900 ATK monsters began to arrive, Machine users could feel their field presence shrinking immediately. Suddenly, cards like X-Head Cannon, Reflect Bounder, and Mechanicalchaser could simply be run over at an opponent’s whim. With no access to any sort of tough-to-stop monsters, Machine decks have had to live and (mostly) die by the battle phase.

With a few tweaks and the addition of Cyber Phoenix, Machines should be able to recapture some of their former glory. And with Limiter Removal still looming over the duel with its huge win condition, we can augment the natural burn of Machine decks. It’s time to push the red line once again.

Creating Advantage Through the Machine Deck

There are always incentives to running a base of identical subtypes for your monster line. Warriors give you Reinforcement of the Army and The Warrior Returning Alive. Zombies give Pyramid Turtle and Book of Life. Machines, while weaker than the aforementioned types, offer some solid support cards. Limiter Removal and Cyber Phoenix provide great incentive for using an all-Machine base.

Analysis of hand counts and resource advantage are not needed in this build. Take a look at the different Machine cards out there: Jinzo, Reflect Bounder, Cannon Soldier, Cyber Dragon, Blowback Dragon, Limiter Removal, Cyber-Stein, and the like. They are all aggressive engines of destruction, providing natural burn tendencies, overextensions, and rapid blitzkriegs that can often culminate in a swift victory.

By providing a base of spell and trap support along the lines of  and Ceasefire, the savvy duelist can support the natural aggro tendencies built in with the Machine subtype quite easily. Attack swiftly, nullify defenses, and push for game: that’s the idea.

Build: Machine Theme

General Synergies and Goals:

1) Cyber Phoenix supports the heavy hitters.

2) Rapid offenses and overextensions enabled by Jinzo and Limiter Removal.

Pivotal Cards:

1) Synergetic cards that bolster field presence while saving for the big push.

Constructing the Monster Lineup for the Machine Deck

We can organize the monster group into themed support and general support.

Themed Support:

3 Cyber Phoenix

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Jinzo

3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

2 Reflect Bounder

1 Blowback Dragon

First, you can see the powerful ability of the deck to see many cards. Because both Dekoichi and Cyber Phoenix allow you to draw a card, there’ll be lots of deck thinning and plenty of cards seen each duel. Since Dekoichi sets up quite nicely for Blowback Dragon and Jinzo summons (while filling the removed zone with 4200 damage upon getting hit with Nobleman of Crossout), it’s too good to ignore.

Reflect Bounder makes it difficult for your opponent to attack in the later stages of the game. In fact, it may single-handedly block huge Return from the Different Dimension pushes at the end game as well. Your opponent will need over 3400 life points to be effective, since Reflect is good for 1700 damage. Couple this with natural life point losses during the duel, Limiter Removal, and a few spells or traps that support the strategy, and you have a powerhouse.

General Support:

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 Magician of Faith

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

3 Chaos Sorcerer

With five Light monster slots served up before even going into the general support, it becomes quite easy to fit three copies of Chaos Sorcerer into the deck. Since this loads the removed zone, pushes a faster tempo, and allows you to overextend the field, it works quite well in this deck. The other Light monsters all fill the theme quite nicely.

The Spell and Trap Support for our Shiny, Metallic Machine of Destruction

Again, I’m going to start with spell and trap staples and fill the rest out with themed support.

Spell Staples:

1 Confiscation

1 Graceful Charity

1 Premature Burial

1 Snatch Steal

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

Themed Spell Support:

1 Limiter Removal: This is the primary win condition of the deck. It will generally push through an additional 3000-4000 points of damage in the turn. It works in the damage step, meaning that you can wait to activate it and spring a nasty surprise on your opponent. Because of its abilities, you can use it defensively. An innocuous 1400 ATK Dekoichi can suddenly double in strength, taking down a monster like Zaborg with it.

2 Enemy Controller: This versatile spell card works extremely well near the end game by converting into a healthy amount of damage.

1 Scapegoat: This is essential to carving out some field presence. Scapegoat is also a near-staple now because of the presence of Creature Swap in numerous decks, and it’s well supported here by the two copies of Controller.

1 Wave-Motion Cannon: This works great with Solemn Judgment, makes an excellent part of an offensive burn build, and puts immense pressure on your opponent to step up the tempo.

Trap Staples:

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Mirror Force

Themed Trap Support:

2 Return from the Different Dimension: Another huge potential win condition, Return works great in conjunction with triple Dekoichi and Sorcerer. In conjunction with Limiter, it can work out to 12,000 points of potential damage pushed out in a single turn.

2 Solemn Judgment: Extremely powerful against the Chaos Return matchup, Solemn Judgment prevents numerous hurtful cards from seeing play.

1 Ceasefire: This option protects a number of your solid monsters from being removed with Crossout. It also loads up to 2000 or more damage in the removed zone, in conjunction with Return. It’s just too good to ignore.

Expected Matchup with the Best Decks in the Format

It’s quite clear that cards like Blowback Dragon and Reflect Bounder are slightly inferior to the main parts of Chaos Return’s arsenal. After all, since they’re Light and Dark types, they’d be splashed in, right?

The question, then, is whether the gains received from running the Machine deck (namely the synergy with Cyber Phoenix and Limiter Removal) outweigh the slight losses. By running a semi-burn-based strategy, we can actually offset the disadvantage of Reflect Bounder (its lower ATK value) by creating a fast game state where advantage is not as important.

Typical turns might involve something like summoning Cyber Dragon and another monster (using Nobleman of Crossout), and pushing through large chunks of damage. Chaos Sorcerer can nullify threats and rebuild your presence on the field, and eventually your opponents will be placed in difficult situations that they can’t easily get out of. At the danger zone where the opponent’s life points drift under 3000 or so, numerous cards in the arsenal can take him or her out. Ceasefire, Wave Motion Cannon, Return, battle damage, Reflect Bounder, and other such cards turn expensive costs like Brain Control, Premature Burial, and Confiscation into huge liabilities.

Because Solemn Judgment protects monsters while paving the way for massive overextensions, the Machine deck should flourish. If you have Cyber Phoenix and Jinzo on the field, your opponent has only one defense out in his or her entire arsenal.

New Grounds Verdict: This deck is simple and clean.