Cyberdark Impact, Preview Review

The spoiler list, provided courtesy of Baron of the awesome DMComet, for the upcoming "Cyberdark Impact" has shown that booster sets are not getting better. In fact, Cyberdark Impact may be the worst booster set released to date (including the awful Ancient Sanctuary with its copious "support" for level 3 and lower Normal Monsters). Indeed, it appears that Konami has lost track of its own card pool, as very little in Cyberdark Impact compares to or exceeds cards that we have had available for a long time. This article is a Preview Review, covering Cyberdark Impact in its entirety before its release.

Many of the cards in Cyberdark Impact are based upon interesting ideas. However, Konami has become so gun-shy of creating another Chaos Emperor Dragon, Black Luster Soldier (Envoy), or Yata-Garasu that they castrate cards before they have a chance to merit a Ban. I actually blame the institution of Bans for the overall weak quality of cards we have been getting recently (but that would merit another article!). In this article, I will discuss the each card found within Cyberdark Impact boosters, pointing out the redeemable ones as well as proposing ways Konami could have made the other cards in the set useful (if only they'd hire me into the R&D staff).
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1) Cyberdark Machines: The four namesakes of the set, Cyberdark Horn, Edge, Keel, and Dragon, are an interesting idea that suffers from monotony of stats and excessive limits on compatible cards. It is physically impossible to find room for these in a Dragon Deck that runs multiple level 3 dragons. I can envision some simple stat tweaks that would have made these cards playable, but since they have been released in Japan already, it is a lost cause. These monsters won't have any impact on the game.

[Tweak] CD Edge: LV3/Dark/Machine/0/0/Once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one level 4 or lower monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, it may attack your opponent directly. If it attacks in this manner, its ATK is halved.

[Tweak] CD Keel: LV5/Dark/Machine/500/500/Once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one level 6 or lower monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, if it destroys a monster in Battle, deal 500 damage to your opponent.

[Tweak] CD Horn: LV7/Dark/Machine/1000/1000/Once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one level 8 or lower monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, it gains Piercing.

[Tweak] CD Dragon: LV12/Dark/Machine (Fusion)/2000/2000/[CD Horn] + [CD Edge] + [CD Keel]/ A Fusion Summon of this card must use the named component monsters. When this card is successfully Fusion Summoned, once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, it may attack all of your opponent's monsters once. If it attacks in this manner, it may not attack directly in the same turn.
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2) Cyber Ogres: The three Cyber Ogre cards are some of the scant things that interest me in this set. They can do some interesting tricks with stat boosting, discarding, and special summoning that could prove to be the basis of a decent deck. The big bruiser, Cyber Ogre #2 is particularly of interest to me, as it includes a built-in Metalmorph, which is one of my all-time favorite stat-boosters.
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3) Allure Queen: When I first heard about her, I was really excited, because I thought I'd finally be getting a non-Ritual version of my old pal Relinquished. Unfortunately, Allure Queen fails in every aspect when compared to the old Ritual. First, LV3 can only suck up a level 3 or lower monster. How many of those do you ever see that aren't face-down?? Essentially, her effect will never happen unless you apply Creature Swap or something to force your opponent to control a face-up weenie. To make the Allure Queen series even worse, LV 5 & 7 can't use their effects at all unless Leveled Up from LV3. Finally, all three Allure Queens suffer from the utter lameness of not getting a stat boost from their equipped monster and not being able to equip face-downs. Horrible, horrible stuff. I'll stick with Relinquished, thanks.
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4) Dark Lucius: Another good idea that suffers from the fact that we already have a better, easier to use card that does the same thing: Dark Ruler Hades. Lucius LV 4 & 6 are irrelevant, as their stats are too horrible to mention. What good is negating the effect of a monster you destroy if you're too weak to destroy any? These guys do strike fear into the hearts of Flip Effect monsters, as Flips are almost universally weak in stats. But I don't foresee a Lucius LV8 hitting the field without a lot of luck and wasted Level Up!! cards. I'll stick with Hades and share the effect negating joy with all of my other Fiends.
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5) Stray Devil & Violent Ogre: These guys are fairly obsolete Burn. Stray Devil would combo with Bad Reaction to Simochi and Fire Princess in a LP Gain/Burn deck. Violent Ogre missed the party and has been kicked out by the recently unrestricted Reflect Bounder.
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6) Big Monsters with Small Effects: These monsters seem to be another take on the Monarchs, providing a bonus effect for Tribute Summoning a big monster. Some of them can't be Special Summoned, so level really becomes an issue.

Flame Ogre: Oooh. I make two Tributes and draw one card. For a LV7/2400 ATK... NO. If he was level 6, I'd say he was great, but as it is he's useless.

Vanity Devil: This is quite good. One Tribute for 2400 ATK and preventing ALL Special Summons.

Vanity Ruler: Once again, Goodness gets screwed. This is much worse than its Evil counterpart. Two Tributes won't happen. It has worse stats than Dark Magician and none of the accessability. Kaiser Seahorse would help, but I've tested 2-Trib decks with the Seahorse, and they are very unreliable. Sure, Vanity Ruler only prevents your opponent from Special Summoning, but it does an even better job of preventing YOU from Summoning IT!

Earth Mother Iris: Standard stats for a usable Tribute Monster, and can be Special Summoned. The effect is lame, as chains don't usually go three links. You could specifically build a deck with lots of chaining action going on, but excessive chaining only wastes cards. I suppose stuff like this card is why Konami unrestricted Emergency Provisions again (that and the Ban of Mirage of Nightmare).

Lightning Punisher: 2 Tributes with subpar stats and an effect that will seldom trigger. At least he can be Special Summoned...

Storm Shooter: Horrible stats for a level 7 monster! And the effects should have been combined into one. As it is, it's unusable.
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7) Barrier Statues: Each of these cards prevents one Attribute of monster from being Special Summoned. This would be pretty good tech... except that their stats are 1000/1000! Pathetic! It would have been better if they were 0/2000, as they could at least survive a battle. As they are, none of them are worthwhile.
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8) The Chain Gang: Iris and Punisher could fit into this category too, but they are primarily affected by their levels as far as playability is concerned. These monsters are all low-level (except Combo Master), so their effects and stats are the pillars on which they stand.

Blast Devil: His stats are okay for a level 3. He works well in any Stall-type deck, alongside Gravity Bind/Level Limit Area B or Messenger of Peace. Unfortunately, the amount of damage his effect deals is way too low. If it was 1000, I'd consider him in Burn.

Beastman Ares: It's cool that the stat boost is permanent, but with such low starting stats, he'll need to see three Chains before becoming viable.

Combo Fighter/Master: Both are fairly solid, statwise. The fact that they only need to see one chain per turn makes them fairly reliable. They will probably get to attack twice during the few turns they live.
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9) More Aliens: I'm quite pleased to see Konami continuing to release cards for an archtype in subsequent sets. I'm STILL waiting to see some new Gravekeepers! Both of these Aliens have interesting effects. Attacking directly is fun, but I don't see Vader fitting into a regular Alien Deck with lots of level 4's. Direct attackers generally only work when there are stall cards involved. Mars is very spiffy, but would have been better as a 0/2000. The Alien Cell spell provides another easy way to generate those important counters.
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10) The Rest of the Crap: These monsters are, in general, not worth looking at.

Cyber Esper: WHY did it have to say "Attack Mode?" Those two words ruined an otherwise balanced card.

Snipestalker: If it involves a coin flip or die roll, I hate it.

Queen's Bodyguards: Allure Queen is crap. This card is crap by association.

Charging Rhino: This card would be useful in a weenie/beast deck. Unfortunately, with Konami screwing up Stall cards and limiting Gravity Bind and Level Limit Area B to one each, the decktype is basically ruined. Poor Rhino showed up too late to the party.
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11) Bent Staples: Konami seems to be bent upon recreating great cards, which are now Banned, in not-so-great forms. Several old favorites have been recreated in Cyberdark Impact. How many are still playable?

Flash of Sealed Magic: Yay, it's Retarded Raigeki! It only works if your opponent is overextending big-time or if you like to abuse Ojama Trio.

Miracle Reborn: Yay, it's Moronic Monster Reborn! Since you have to use it on Chain Link 4 or later, it's basically NEVER going to happen. Most chains that long end with a Counter Trap, and since this card is conveniently a Quickplay Spell, it can't be activated after a Counter Trap.

Gust of Wind: Yay, it's Spastic Space Typhoon! There is no point in this card being a Quickplay instead of a Counter, and once again it is hurt by this fact. Just use Dust Tornado and MST.

Straight Flush: Yay, it's Feeble Feather Duster! It can be useful, as people will often unload their hand onto the field in preparation for a Morphing Jar. I don't know if the ruling states whether the Field Spell zone has to be filled as well (which would be very bad). It could be temporarily useful. Of course, once your opponent knows you're using it, they will NEVER fill their S/T zones!

Accumulated Happiness: Yay, it's Gimp of Greed! As with Miracle Reborn, the activation situation will NEVER happen. Stick with Pot of Avarice.

Vanity Call: Okay, nothing sarcastic this time. This card is like Solemn Judgement, except is destroys EVERYTHING in the chain. This would be good to use in a chain that has a Monster Effect in link 1. Also, since it is a Counter Trap, it will likely see occasional activation.
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12) Alternative Summoning: I'm all in favor of cards that provide alternative ways to summon Fusions and Rituals. Limit Lift and Instant Fusion are both interesting cards, but they REALLY suffer from not being able to attack with the monster. If the stipulation was "you cannot attack DIRECTLY with the monster," they would have been great. I've been pondering how to improve Rituals for some time and came up with the following:

[Original Card] Ultimate Ritual (j. Blood Ritual): Permanent Spell. Once per turn, by paying 500 LP per level star, you may Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster from your hand or deck. The monster summoned in this way is sent to the Graveyard at the end of the turn unless you Tribute monsters from you Field or Hand whose levels equal or exceed the summoned monster's.
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13) The Chain Game: The newly introduced chain mechanic would have been much more useful if Konami hadn't overreacted and made the effects weak or the chain number too high. As it is, if a Chain Card has a remote chance of being activated, the effect is irrelevant.

Chain Strike: 400 damage/chain link? No thanks, I'll use Secret Barrel.

Chain Healing: 500 LP? And I have to put this turd back in my deck so I can draw it again? NO.

Chain Blast: 500 damage? And I have to put this turd back in my deck so I can draw it again? NO.
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14) Other Spells: There are a few Spells in this set that defy categorization (at least with each other).

Counter Cleaner: Aside from removing pesky grease stains (remember when Hungry Burger jumped all over your stovetop?), Counter Cleaner can make Breaker sad and ruin any plans for Alien invasion. A possible side-deck card. Also a Staple in Kitchen Decks (featuring Hungry Burger and the Bistro Butcher!).

Linear Cannon: A one-off version of Catapult Turtle that does full damage instead of half? If this was Permanent, it would be great. As it is, stick with the Turtle.

Level Down!?: Hooray for continuing to support a mechanic! This is pretty spiffy, but still won't touch Horus LV8. This card is to LV as De-Fusion is to Fusions.

Receding Circuit: This would be great if not for the upkeep payment. I suppose Macrocosmos decks might find a use for it, but the LP payments are a pain in the butt. I suppose being able to "turn it off" by not paying could actually be good in some cases.

Position Change: Great. Now that monster position is an official gameplay mechanic, I'm going to have to refrain from readjusting my field as monsters die. Curse you, Konami!
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15) Other Traps: There are a few Traps in this set that defy categorization (at least with each other).

Tripwire: It's a 3-for-2. Normally, I don't worry about tiny advantage losses like that (I love Raigeki Break). Unfortunately, this card depends on your opponent placing cards in a specific way and doesn't let you select the targets.

Justibreak: I think this is one of the stars of the set. It may be designed as E-Hero (*gag* *spit*) support, but it works with ALL Normal Monsters. I can see this card spurring a resurgence of use for 1900 ATK level 4 Normal Monsters and Summoned Skull. It may even find its way into Archfiend decks that use Archfiend Soldier and Summoned Skull instead of all Effect Archfiends.

Reverse Dimension: A counter to the annoyance of the D.D. Monsters and Macrocosmos decks. Potential side-deck material.

Troy Bomb: A counter to the annoyance of people constantly stealing your monsters. I don't know the ruling on if this works when the monster is stolen but is no longer a monster (as with Relinquished and Allure Queen). Since Snatch and Change of Heart are both Banned now, this card only really works against Brain Control. Oh well...

Cyber Shadow Gardna: I hate the fact that "Gardna" is being used as a word on some cards. It is GIBBERISH! It doesn't even mean anything in Japanese (like Raigeki). Gardna is the stupidity equivalent of Trunade! GAH!!! Regardless of its stupid name, this card is fairly good. I love Trap Monsters. This one isn't quite up to par with things like Metal Reflect Slime or Stronghold, but still can serve as a defense. Unfortunately, since it can only be used during the opponent's turn and returns to its Set position, it can't serve as Tribute fodder. It's basically the Trap Monster equivalent of a Spirit Monster.

Ascending Black Horn: This is a great Counter Trap that is actually an improvement over its original. I presume the name in English will be Dark Horn of Heaven. It ditches the Tribute cost of the original in exchange for only negating Special Summons. That's okay, as there is always Trap Hole for messing up Normal Summons. The fact that it's a Counter Trap is great, as it can prevent the destroyed monster from being revived, since the monster destroyed by this card will never have been Special Summoned "correctly" before hitting the Graveyard.
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In conclusion, this is a set filled with delusions of mediocrity. The good cards are few and far between, swimming in a flood of garbage. Though there are a few shining stars, it could just be that they only look like stars among their horrid peers. This is only the second set (the first being Ancient Sanctuary) of which I voluntarily will NOT be buying a booster box (I also didn't buy boxes of LOB or MRD, as they were in such short supply on release). Congrats to Konami for working hard to destroy interest in this game!