Transcode Talker – #MAGO-EN136
2+ Effect Monsters
While this card is co-linked, it and its co-linked monsters gain 500 ATK, also your opponent cannot target any of them with card effects. You can target 1 Link-3 or lower Cyberse Link Monster in your GY, except “Transcode Talker”; Special Summon it to your zone this card points to. You cannot Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, except Cyberse monsters. You can only use this effect of “Transcode Talker” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: January 16th, 2025
Rating: 3.58
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Transcode Talker is our Cyberse Throwback Thursday choice this week for the Maliss archetype. Surprised we aren’t looking back on the scourge of the game for a good amount of time: Firewall Dragon. This card is used far more in the OCG than TCG likely because of the differing ban lists and card pool.
Link 3 needing at least two Effect Monsters, Transcode Talker can boost itself and whoever is co-linked with it by 500ATK and offer protection against card effects. It’s good that it offers protection as the 500ATK boost wasn’t much of a reason to co-link. Special Summon a Cyberse Link Monster in your grave and Special Summon it to a zone Transcode Talker points to, locking you into Cyberse for the turn. You are likely summoning nothing else so this won’t hold you back. It doesn’t negate the effect(s) of the Cyberse Link Monster it summons, giving you more options to fire off upon its summon. From here you can go into Firewall Dragon or any Link 4 or above, but this could be used to get back a Splash Mage to get another Cyberse Monster Special Summon from the grave. I:P comes to mind as a preventative measure against your opponent next turn.
In terms of Maliss, Transcode Talker can bring back a Maliss Link Monster for you to Special Summon back and use for fodder for any of the Maliss Trap Cards or to add more ATK power to the field. If you happen to have had your effect(s) negated this turn, Transcode Talker gives you another chance to use them. At its worst, you are getting a Link 3 Cyberse back to the field to do whatever your want with.
Is it the best Cyberse monster? No. Is it the best Cyberse monster for this archetype? No. What Transcode Talker does it help get you a monster back that may have been negated, or, if not, gets you another body on board to continue extending and it costs less to summon this than your Link 4 and above Cyberse monsters.
Advanced- 3/5 Art- 3/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Maliss are full of their own Link-3s, so Throwback Thursday this week brings us a classic Link-3 that’s been great for generic Cyberse goodstuff: Transcode Talker.
Transcode Talker is a Link-3 EARTH Cyberse with 2300 ATK and arrows pointing Up, Right, and Down. Solid ATK on a Link-3, EARTH is decent, Cyberse is rich in support, and the arrows are fine if you wanted to try to Extra Link. The materials are any 2+ Effect Monsters, which is shockingly generic for a card mainly meant to hep Cyberse strategies. While this card is co-linked, it and its co-linked monsters gain 500 ATK and the opponent cannot target any of them with card effects, so some decent protection and a nice little ATK boost to make this 2800 ATK, not to mention the boost also going to whatever it is co-linked to. You can target any Link-3 or lower Cyberse monster in your graveyard and Special Summon it to a zone this card points to, but you cannot Special Summon the turn you use this effect, except for Cyberse monsters. It’s been a lynchpin for Cyberse strategies to revive your Links that you use as material to summon bigger Link Monsters. Its easy to use Splash Mage to help get into this and then use this to revive the Splash Mage to continue climbing. It also gets back Link-3s you might use to combo that you want back on your field like Decode Talker Heatsoul as well. HOPT on this revival effect, cause of course. It’s still funny to think this was a Starter Deck card, since most of those don’t age well while this did. I don’t know if it’s needed in Maliss, but it’s great for most other Cyberse Decks, mainly the Cyberse pile itself like Code Talkers or @Ignisters, so play 1 of this in those strategies.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 3.5/5 One of the stranger Code Talker designs, tbh.
Mighty
Vee
If you ever see a Cyberse Link deck, chances are it’ll have one or both of these two monsters: Splash Mage, and today’s Throwback Thursday card, Transcode Talker. Transcode is a Link 3 EARTH Cyberse Link monster, coming with up, down, and right Link arrows– decent arrows in general, but they’re mostly meant to help Extra Link in Code Talker proper. It takes any two or more Effect monsters, so it’s very easy to summon, though you’d be hard-pressed to find a good reason to summon it outside of Cyberse decks. Like all standard Code Talker monsters, it has 2300 attack to synergize with Code Talker support.
As long as Transcode is Co-Linked , it and its Co-Linked monsters get a boost of 500 attack and get targeting protection as well. This is meant to help build an army of high-attack Code Talkers as an endboard, and in the Heatsoul Control build of Code Talker, you would Co-Link Transcode with Decode Talker Heatsoul to give Heatsoul a delicious 3300 attack. This effect is nice in Code Talker, but the real reason anyone plays Transcode is its hard once per turn effect, letting you Special Summon any Link 3 or lower Cyberse monster from your Graveyard except another Transcode, at the cost of locking you into Cyberse monsters the entire turn. Considering that you can easily climb into it with Splash Mage, you can imagine that it’s a staple in almost every Cyberse Link deck– you can bring back whatever monster suits your Link Climbing needs. At the bare minimum, you can summon a Link 4 monster like Accesscode Talker to push for OTK or even revive another Code Talker to help Extra Link. Ironically, Maliss is one of the few Cyberse decks that hasn’t been playing Transcode in the TCG, because our combo lines use Haggard Lizardose, which Transcode locks you out of. Oops! That said, OCG lists do play Transcode since the presence of Rad Roach and Fuwalos make longer combos a liability, so Transcode can easily revive the Maliss Link monsters as either extenders or for endboard presence. Other than that, Transcode is a staple to consider for pretty much any Cyberse Link deck.
+Powerful revival effect when paired with other Cyberse support
+Decent protection and stat boost as long as it’s Co-Linked
-Very strict lock makes it only usable in Cyberse decks
-Can only revive Link monsters
Advanced: 3.75/5
Art: 4/5 The shoulders make it look more Gundam-ish compared to the other Code Talkers.
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