Photo Credit: Ricarda Reicher

HISTORY OF CYBER DRAGON
Cyber Dragon made its debut in 2005 and the game has not been the same since. At 2100 ATK, it was able to run over just about everything. Moreover, you did not even have to waste a Normal Summon to drop it. It even had an attribute perfect for Chaos support and a Type that allowed for Limiter Removal pushes. Finally, at 1600 DEF, it gave the omnipresent Tsukuyomi a tough time.

Peter can even remember a discussion about its Summoning condition at his local card shop, like it was yesterday, “Can you Special Summon Cyber Dragon, even if your opponent controls two monsters?“

Cyber Dragon and its Fusions were capable of huge OTKs using Overload Fusion and also through Cyber-Stein (often Summoned via Last Will) using Cyber Twin Dragon to vanish Players all over the world. However, since then, it has been a rather quiet time for Cyber Dragon. The only notable exceptions are when Chimeratech Fortress Dragon allows it to shine against Machine-type decks and when Turn One Wind-Up Zenmaines was common place.

PRESENT DAY
That was until they decided to create a Structure Deck for Cyber Dragon – with new themed support for the Fusion Deck and old friends like Cyber Twin Dragon!

What we have seen so far, the standard first turn play is to Summon Cyber Dragon Core, which allows you to search Cyber Network. With Cyber Network, you can banish Cyber Dragon Drei from your Deck to protect your Cyber Dragon Core on the field. After you have survived three turns with this strategy, Cyber Network turns into a weak version of Return from the Different Dimension; unfortunately, you cannot attack that turn.

Cyber Dragon Core is also useful in the graveyard. If you don’t control a monster and your opponent does then you can remove it from your graveyard to special summon a Cyber Dragon from your deck. This can help you to gain back board presence for free.

The new XYZ in this deck is Cyber Dragon Nova. The easiest way to XYZ Summon it is by using Cyber Dragon and Instant Fusion to Special Summon Cyber Saurus. You could also use Cyber Dragon with any Cyber Dragon Drei. Either way, using Cyber Dragon as an XYZ material should not be a deterrent because you can use Nova’s effect to Special Summon it from the grave back into play! If Novas’s respectable 2100 ATK is not big enough for you, you can double up with its effect to fearsome 4200 ATK. Moreover, if you attack with Cyber Dragon first, then banish it, Nova jumps up to a life threatening 6300 damage total! If that is not enough, if Nova is sent to the graveyard by an opponent’s card effect, you get to Special Summon a Machine-type Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck – Free Cyber End Dragon says, „Hello!“.

Aside from the exciting XYZ, there are some new support cards. Cyber Repair Plant acts as the Reinforcement of the Army of this Deck, which can even be searched by Cyber Dragon Core. Finally, Evolution Burst helps to get rid of any problem cards for you.

There are also some neat combinations with Machine Duplication. As long as Cyber Dragon Core is on the field it’s considered as Cyber Dragon which means that you can special summon 2 Cyber Dragons. If you want to run more targets for Machine Duplication and Cyber Repair Plant then you can also play Cyber Valley for a lot of draw power.

But we haven’t mentioned the best card for the deck. Let’s play DNA Surgery and call Machine to make every Cyber Dragon card in our deck to a potential Dark Hole with the help of Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. This is just one example what you can do with it and it will also help you in matchups like Fire Fist or Spellbook.

If you want to go for an all-in strategy then you can run Power Bond to fuse two Cyber Dragons into Cyber Twin Dragon with 5600 ATK but how do we get there? We will flip our DNA Surgery and special summon our Cyber Dragon from the hand and clear the board with Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. Then we can normal summon our Cyber Dragon Core and search Cyber Repair Plant which we will activate immediately to search a “real” Cyber Dragon to the hand. Now we have two Cyber Dragons for Power Bond and that should seal the deal ;)

In other words, if you have a Cyber Dragon Core and a Power Bond in the mid-game then there’s a good chance that you can win the duel in this turn. You only need to remember how to get your Cyber Twin Dragon onto the field.

CONCLUSION
After a playing around with this deck, we don’t feel that it will have the same impact that Cyber Dragon did when it debut in Cybernetic Revolution all of those years ago. If we had a well functioning decklist, at this time, we would share it. For now, only time will tell if Cyber Dragon themed decks can keep up with top decks like Fire Fist, Mermail, and Hieratic.

One card to watch out in the future will be Cybernetic Fusion Support which will help you to OTK more easily and it’s also searchable with Cyber Dragon Core. Currently it’s only released in the OCG and we hope that this card will get to us soon.

About The Authors:

Claudio Kirchmair is the President of United Gosus and has been a member since 2008. For more information on Claudio check out his member profile.

Peter Gross is the Vice-President, Players of United Gosus and has been a member since 2013. For more information on Peter check out his member profile.