The deck is essentially a natural extension of Cyber-Stein strategies. While Stein is good, it’s better when it’s accompanied by Limiter Removal: that concept took Calvin Tsang all the way to a National Championship win in June. Though once you’re running Limiter Removal you’ve essentially got the main reason to be playing Machines already in your deck. From there you’re probably already running 2-3 copies of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and you might be using Jinzo. It’s a short leap to just add in a few more cards that can become game-enders with Limiter Removal, and in Foster’s case, that means Reflect Bounder, Cannon Soldier, and Ancient Gear Beast.

I’ll take a look at Reflect Bounder first, because it’s probably the monster choice that some readers might be the most critical about. On one hand, it’s a monster that virtually any other, even Sheep tokens and small-time flip effects like Magician of Faith and Magical Merchant, can take out unassisted. In previous formats, that factor was enough to keep Reflect Bounder off the tables. In fact, it was enough to see the card bumped from its previously-Limited status when the Forbidden and Limited lists were reviewed last year. That 1700 damage that Reflect Bounder would usually dish out when it was attacked wasn’t a big deal when Thousand-Eyes Restrict and the trinity ruled the format.

Things have changed. With Cyber-Stein now running rampant in every deck from here to high hades, life points matter far more than they ever have in the past. 1700 LP can be the difference between losing to Stein or surviving, and it can also mean the difference between drawing Stein for the win or drawing it as a vanilla 700 ATK Machine. That kind of effect can’t be ignored, and it’s why Reflect Bounder made the cut into this deck.

Cannon Soldier pulls incredibly fast wins out of unexpected situations. “I can do a lot with it in this deck,” Foster explained. “It can pull off fast wins, and it’s great with Enemy Controller. I can take one of their monsters, attack with it and Soldier, then tribute off (their monster before giving it back.)”  Cannon Soldier turns monsters into raw burn power, converting one type of offensive potential into another. Sometimes that means you can burn your way into a win when the opponent controls the field. More frequently though, Cannon Soldier’s effect becomes a follow-up to a big attack that, on its own, just couldn’t quite finish off the opponent. It combos with Last Will, it’s searchable by Sangan, and it takes down Chaos Sorcerer, Mobius the Frost Monarch, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, or Cyber Dragon with Limiter Removal before tributing itself off in main phase 2 to dodge Limiter’s destruction.

The final Machine in the mix is perhaps the best. When I asked Foster what the star card of the day was, he just pointed to Ancient Gear Beast and said, “That guy!”  It’s big on both attack and defense. It negates flip effects and well, just about any other effect like it was Mecha-Dark Balter. And when it strikes, there’s nothing you can do about it. No Sakuretsu Armor, no Mirror Force, no Book of Moon, or anything else. You just get hit, hard. While that might not be a huge threat on its own, when Ancient Gear Beast is swinging direct for 4000 damage instead of 2000 thanks to Limiter Removal, it packs a whallop.

Currently Chris Foster is 4-0. Jason Zigander, running a similar deck with different individual card selections, is also undefeated, while his Nexus teammate Frank Debrito is 3-1. It’s interesting to see this deck succeed: monsters like Ancient Gear Beast had been written off by many duelists, myself included, due to their size inferiority in the face of Cyber Dragon. Duelists like Foster are actively proving me wrong, and the format is better off for it. Will the deck Top 8? It seems like a long shot, and with six rounds to go it’s impossible to make a call. Still, the deck’s undefeated status bodes well, if not for the format, then for the hopes of duelists who are willing to step up and try and beat the mainstream odds-on favorite.