Cyber Dragon is a card that seems great at first glance: as long as you have no monsters in play and your opponent has at least one, you can Special Summon this card.  Yu-Gi-Oh has long been a game where your opponent will often clear your field of monsters: we have mass removal cards that are staples and have been since they came out (Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute) and many “one for one” forms of monster removal that as a whole don’t leave us, this requirement is most apt to be something you meet.

 

Now, I said that it seems great at first glance: how could it be better?  Well, sadly I suspect some might dwell on the fact you’re “burning your hand” if you Special Summon this and then another Monster, but no I am not being that silly.  I simply mean that it goes from being a great card to broken when you consider what it does.  Precious few decks aren’t enhanced by it, which is a clear danger sign for a card.  It undermines a lot of value in this game as well: 2100 ATK is essentially the new “beatstick” threshold.  Remember Berserk Gorilla?  He fell out of favor in part because he was an Earth-Attribute monster and did not feed Chaos, but that is only part: the other is Cyber Dragon would be so apt to a) run over Berserk Gorilla, b) force Berserk Gorilla to suicide into Cyber Dragon for 100 LP loss and one card loss, or c) force a player to shift Berserk Gorilla into DEF mode so it doesn’t do “b”.  1900 ATK became less than useful because of the monkey (unless they had a good effect to go with them); now Berserk Gorilla is less useful (as would many other 2000 ATK Level 4s if they existed).  Its “stat” inflation and its getting annoying.  When this game began in the U.S. 1800 was the pinnacle of vanilla beatsticks, and 2500 of single-Tribute monsters.  For all intents and purposes, Cyber Dragon is just a Level 4 2100 with unusual drawbacks but a nifty bonus effect.  This also knocks some Tribute Monsters down a peg.  Vampire Lord at forced Berserk Gorilla to suicide into it, but with Cyber Dragon they don’t lose field presence.  Simply put if things keep growing this way, it doesn’t seem likely to stop.  Already, we are due for a 2000 ATK Level 4 Vanilla Monster if spoilers I’ve seen are accurate.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 3.75/5

 

Advanced: 4.5/5