Magic Cylinder is one of those cards that was originally hyped a lot, fell out of favor, and now has people excited again.  For me, it’s one of the default “burn cards” I include in every deck… unless I have something better.  That may sound strange, but this is one of those cards that will win you a few games.  It doesn’t belong in every deck, but if you don’t have a good burn card (or good Trampler) then this is something you should really consider.

 

It doesn’t have to be in the Main Deck to mess with your opponent: as long as you use it one duel, the fear is there.  It won’t seem like much the first duel or early game, the less LP your opponent has the more of a concern it is.

 

On its own, it does swing a game in terms of LP equal to twice the attacker’s ATK score (you don’t take damage you should have and they take the amount you would have most of the time) in addition to preventing any effects from direct attacks or LP damage.

 

Here’s where I actually start typing a new paragraph: for some reason, people think that all Cyber Stein players are total n00bs and scrubs.  Yes, Stein is a tempting deck for a new player, since it doesn’t take as much skill to win and since you are depending on luck, it can get you farther in a tournament than you deserve.  Still, a highly skilled player wouldn’t benefit from it since they’d be winning those games on skill anyway, and running a luck based deck then lowers their odds of winning, since they lose games due to the luck-based nature of the deck that they would have won with a more skill oriented deck.  I can only assume that this is why people forget that even some high level players, when they are at big name tournaments they probably aren’t good enough to win, should consider it.  I don’t like OTK, but since Konami isn’t doing anything about it… abuse it till they learn they need to be three steps ahead of these kinds of combos.  Like a competent TCG maker.

 

Anyway, Stein normally clears the field, Chimera probably will too or else chain a Return to get a Jinzo into play and both can do some other nasty tricks too.  From what I can tell, good Stein decks pack some chainable LP gain.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1/5-There’s just too much removal.

 

Advanced: 3.5/5-It’s a good card, and it can end games.  However, it is entirely dependant upon your opponent and if it doesn’t end the game then it only delays an opponent by a turn or so.  That can still be enough though.  If you want anti-OTK, there are better choices.  Use Cylinder for the right reasons.