Prologue

Cyber Dragons as an archetype contains some of the most powerful and iconic monsters in the game of Yugioh with powerful monsters such as Cyber Dragon Nova and Cyber Dragon Infinity, accessing the extra deck is essential for almost all Cyber Dragon strategies and play-style. In today’s article, we’ll discuss the strengths and values of the majority of Cyber Dragon extra deck monsters and whether or not they should be played in your Cyber Dragon deck.

Cyber Monsters

Cyber Dragon Nova

Cyber Dragon Nova is a Rank 5 XYZ monster that requires 2 Level 5 machine monsters to properly summon. As an essential piece in most Cyber Dragon decks, Cyber Dragon Nova has 3 powerful effects.

The 1^st effect special summons 1 “Cyber Dragon” in your graveyard. Because detaching is part of the cost, you can target the monster detached as long as there's already a valid target before activation.

This also has synergy with other cards in the deck as most of your monsters including Cyber Dragon Core, Herz, and Nachster all count as Cyber Dragon in the graveyard. Summoning a Herz or Nachster can help generate more advantage on the board. Summoning Nachster in the midgame can prove particularly powerful as if you already have prior monsters setup in the graveyard, Nova can potentially summon Nachster and then another 2100 ATK/DEF machine monster including another Nova, Infinity or Chimeratech Rampage Dragon.

Cyber Dragon Nova’s 2^nd effect is an ATK boosting effect which allows you to banish 1 “Cyber Dragon” from your hand or face-up from your monster zone to gain 2100 ATK until the end of the turn. As this is an ATK modification effect, this effect can be used in the damage step and catch careless opponents off guard when attacking. This effect also synergizes well with Cyber Dragon Nova’s 1^st effect to summon a “Cyber Dragon” back as you can summon a monster back with it, use its effect or attack with it and then banish it to give Nova enough attack points for an OTK. This effect can also prove especially dangerous for an opponent if you have other attack modifiers such as Cyber Dragon Sieger to boost your ATK points even further or cards such as Limiter Removal which can double Cyber Dragon Nova’s ATK to a potential 8400.

Cyber Dragon Nova’s 3^rd effect is a recovery effect that activates when Nova is sent to the graveyard by an opponent’s card effect. This effect allows you to summon a machine fusion monster and can prove useful when getting disrupted by popular meta cards such as Nibiru, the Primal Being and Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit. The most popular candidates for this effect is Chimeratech Rampage Dragon. It has a plethora of powerful effects in its own right that also support the Cyber Dragon strategy and Invoked Mechaba. Cyber Eternity Dragon can also be a good option to fall back on for defensive capability, offering forms of protection to itself and a bulky 4000 DEF. Of course, summoning big pressure cards is also possible such as Cyber End Dragon.

Overall, Cyber Dragon Nova gives a ton of value to any Cyber Dragon player, boasting 3 powerful effects that all support any Cyber Dragon strategy.

Cyber Dragon Infinity

Cyber Dragon Infinity is a Rank 6 XYZ monster and is one of the most prominent monsters in the archetype. Cyber Dragon Infinity can be summoned using 3 Level 6 LIGHT machine monsters or by XYZ Summon by using Cyber Dragon Nova as material once per turn. Because the 2^nd summoning procedure is easier, it will be the way Cyber Dragon Infinity is XYZ summoned almost all the time. Cyber Dragon Infinity has a passive effect and 2 powerful activate effects that both disrupt your opponent and help you.

Cyber Dragon Infinity’s passive effect is that it gains 200 ATK for each of it’s materials. This means that Cyber Dragon Infinity will usually sit at 2500 ATK or more to start. Cyber Dragon Infinity’s 1^st active effect synergizes with this, allowing you to target 1 face-up ATK position monster on the field and attach it as an XYZ material.

This effect is very powerful for a number of reasons. Firstly, because attaching as an XYZ material doesn’t count as leaving the field, many monsters with floating effects such as Altergeist Meluseek will not trigger. In addition to this, monsters that would usually be protected from destruction would also not be able to avoid removal. This gives Infinity a unique and powerful way to remove monsters from the field.

Secondly, Infinity also can absorb your own monsters. Although this seems counter-intuitive, it can prove useful in certain situations. For example, absorbing your own Cyber Dragon Herz to gain an extra XYZ material or absorbing the monster in your Extra Monster Zone to clear space can help advance your board state.

Cyber Dragon Infinity’s 2^nd active effect is allows it to negate effects and destroy the card. This is what Infinity is most known for and for good reason. Although there isn’t too much to analyze here, the effect synergizes with Infinity’s 1^st effect to absorb monsters as XYZ materials. You can fuel a near endless stream of negations. This also allows most Cyber Dragon players safer OTK attempts. A well-placed negate from Infinity can stop even the best counters to your strategy.

With both effects together, Cyber Dragon Infinity is a feared card in the archetype. With a card that picks up right where Cyber Dragon Nova left off, Cyber Dragon Infinity is a staple in most Cyber Dragon decks and is one of the reasons why the archetype still thrives today.

Cyber Dragon Sieger

Cyber Dragon Sieger is the archetype’s only specific Link monster. With a powerful effect that can beat over high attack monsters, it increases the OTK potential of the deck. Sieger is often played at one or more in most Cyber Dragon variants.

Cyber Dragon Sieger has a passive effect of being considered as “Cyber Dragon” while on the field or in the graveyard. This is important as it allows Sieger to synergize with many of the “Cyber Dragon” name specific support cards in the archetype. This allows Sieger to be revived by cards such as Cyber Revsystem and Cyber Dragon Nova as well as allow Cyber Dragon Vier’s trigger effect to trigger off Sieger’s summon. This effect is important as because Cyber Dragon Sieger has link arrows to the left of it, it allows you to open up another zone where you can summon monsters from the extra deck too.

Cyber Dragon Sieger’s only active effect is increase the ATK/DEF of a machine monster you control with 2100 ATK or more by 2100 until the rest of the turn. This effect can only be activated during the battle phase if Sieger itself has not declared an attack yet and also has an added stipulation that neither player will take battle damage from battles involving the monster activating this effect. Although this effect is simple by nature, it does have some powerful interactions with some of the deck. For one, Cyber Dragon Sieger can boost the ATK of one of your monsters before it attacks. This means that Cyber Dragon Sieger can add ATK to a monster and then beat over a defending monster which clears the way for your boosted monster to inflict direct damage to your opponent. Cyber Dragon Sieger can also activate it’s effect during the damage step which can either force actions your opponent would not usually want to make in order to conserve life points or save a crucial monster on their side of the field. Cyber Dragon Sieger can also activate it’s effect on either player’s turn. This makes Sieger a strong defensive card as well as it will always boost a monster to at least 4200 ATK points which can include Cyber Dragon Infinity as well as itself. This makes it difficult to clear Cyber Dragon Sieger by battle.

Although Cyber Dragon Sieger perhaps doesn’t seem as strong as Cyber Dragon Nova and Infinity, it still has a powerful role in the archetype and contributes to OTK and control strategies alike. It should be at least included as a 1 of incase a situation that calls for it arises and is a great option to run in any Cyber Dragon deck.

Cyber Eternity Dragon

Cyber Eternity Dragon is one of the newer Cyber Dragon cards and is often debated on whether or not it should be played in most decks. Eternity is a fusion monster that requires 1 Cyber Dragon monster and 2 machines in order to properly fusion summon and has targeting protection along with destruction prevention if a machine fusion monster resides in your graveyard. In addition, Eternity also has a recovery effect for if it were to be sent to the graveyard by an opponent’s card as well as an aura effect that protects your fusion monsters by banishing it from the graveyard.

Cyber Eternity Dragon is one of the more defensive cards in the Cyber Dragon arsenal. It’s protection effect gives it immunity from targeting and destruction from card effects as long as there is a machine fusion monster in your graveyard. Because it is very easy to summon Chimeratech Megafleet Dragon and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, its often very easy to get a machine fusion monster in the graveyard. Eternity’s protection effect coupled with it’s bulky 4000 DEF points makes it often difficult for opponents to destroy as they would need to use cards such as Borrelsword Dragon to beat over it if they do not have non-targeting removal in their decks. Furthermore, upon being sent to the graveyard by an opponent’s card, Eternity also summons a Cyber Dragon to the field which can be used to summon Cyber Dragon Sieger or Cyber Dragon Nachster as they count as “Cyber Dragon” while in the graveyard. With these 2 effects, Eternity is often a nuisance for opponents to deal with and can buy you valuable turns when needing to go on the defensive.

If Cyber Eternity Dragon was to however hit the field and be removed by your opponent, it also has an additional effect which can be activated by banishing it from the graveyard. By banishing Eternity from the graveyard, Eternity provides an aura-like effect which gives your fusion monsters targeting protection and destruction immunity (similar to the type of protection that Eternity had when a machine fusion monster is in the graveyard). This makes it so that a powerful Chimeratech Rampage Dragon would often be able to attack without worrying about an opponent’s disruptions which can greatly swing the tide of the game or outright kill your opponent.

Cyber Eternity Dragon is a powerful card but one that is controversial in the form that it just might not be worth dedicating a slot too in your already tight extra deck. Although Eternity is a strong defensive card, it’s often misplaced in a rather offensive deck. Furthermore, because Eternity is difficult to summon without Cyberload Fusion and because Cyberload Fusion is more often an offensive card than defensive card, it’s difficult to justify including Eternity in your deck. Regardless, Eternity still can be powerful when placed into the right scenario and can be played as a tech or defensive option.

Non-Cyber Monsters

Chimeratech Rampage Dragon

Chimeratech Rampage Dragon is a 2100 ATK fusion monsters with 2 powerful effects that can instantly swing a game in your favor or outright end it. With an effect that clears spells and traps and another that provides you with multiple attacks, Rampage is a Cyber Dragon player’s OTK dreams and it mixes multiple strong elements that any OTK player would want. With an easy summoning condition only requiring 2 Cyber Dragon monsters, cards like Cyberload Fusion and Overload Fusion can easily summon Rampage without requiring much prior setup.

Chimeratech Rampage Dragon’s 1^st effect allows you to destroy spells and traps on the field up to the number of fusion materials used to summon this card. Because the minimum number of monsters that is needed to summon Rampage is 2 and with cards like Overload Fusion and Cyberload Fusion using resources from the field, graveyard and banished zone, it isn’t usually difficult to summon Rampage with 3 or more materials if necessary. This means that Rampage will almost always force out a negating effect if your opponent wants to keep their spells and traps or would often clear them outright. Because of this, summoning Rampage creates an instant threat on the field that could spell doom for your opponent if it isn’t immediately responded to.

If that wasn’t enough for you, Chimeratech Rampage Dragon has a 2^nd effect which allows you to send up to 2 LIGHT machine monsters from your deck to the graveyard to gain the same number of attacks per battle phase of your turn. This means that Rampage will usually be able to attack 3 times in the battle phase which alone can inflict 6300 points of damage without boosts from other cards such as Cyber Dragon Sieger, Power Bond and Limiter Removal. In addition, sending LIGHT machine monsters to the graveyard is worthy enough to be an effect in of itself. With monsters such as Cyber Dragon Herz synergizing well with this effect, by sending Herz along with any other Cyber Dragon monster that is considered Cyber Dragon in the graveyard, you can essentially add any monster from your deck to your hand including vital cards such as Cyber Dragon Core and Nachster. With this effect, Rampage along with other support cards to increase it’s attack by 2100 can easily attack for 12600 points of damage in the battle phase easily enabling OTKs.

Chimeratech Rampage Dragon, for me at least embodies Foolish Burial x2, Harpies Feather Duster and Limiter Removal in a single card. It contains elements that Cyber Dragon players of every strategy would want such as OTK potential, recovery and removal. Rampage for me is an auto include in any Cyber Dragon deck that includes fusion summoning and is a great card to summon in almost any scenario.

Chimeratech Fortress Dragon / Chimeratech Megafleet Dragon

Chimeratech Fortress Dragon and Chimeratech Megafleet Dragon are the 2 main contact fusion targets that are in the archetype. With summoning requirements being a Cyber Dragon and 1+ Machine monsters and a Cyber Dragon monster and 1+ monster in the Extra Monster Zone, neither of these monsters are particularly hard to summon and help break apart your opponent’s board while building your own, these 2 Chimeratech monsters are the prime reason why Cyber Dragons are considered a board breaking archetype.

Let’s start with Chimeratech Megafleet Dragon as it is the one that will most likely be summoned more often. Megafleet’s summoning condition is a Cyber Dragon monster and a monster(s) in the Extra Monster Zone. This means by even with their effects negated, Cyber Dragon Core, Herz, Nachster, Vier and any other Cyber Dragon monster can still be used as fusion material to summon Megafleet. Furthermore, because Megafleet is summoned via contact fusion, effects that activate upon being sent to graveyard by an opponent’s card won’t activate as contact fusion does not count as being sent by an opponent’s card rather as a game mechanic. Megafleet also helps out popular monsters that are found in the Extra Monster Zone that would otherwise prove problematic for most players to deal with. Popular choices of monsters that can usually be found in the Extra Monster Zone are Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess and Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax. Perhaps being one of Cyber Dragon’s best tools, Megafleet allows you to turn a Cyber Dragon Core or Herz into a monster that not only searches/recovers you a card but also removes one of your opponent’s monsters and turns into a 2400 ATK (usually) beater. With this, Megafleet is one of the most often summoned cards in the archetype and essential to be played at 2 or 3.

Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is more of a situational card that will shine in some matchups and won’t be too powerful in others. With a summoning condition of needing specifically Cyber Dragon and 1 or more machine monsters, Fortress is often matchup specific shining in mirror matches and machine matchups but could also be viable in other matchups if used in conjunction with cards such as Jizukiru, the Star Destroying Kaiju. Fortress’s value comes from being able to single handedly dismantle machine decks such as Orcust, Trains, ABCs and Kozmos. With Fortress being able to clear a field in an instant, summoning a Cyber Dragon in this matchup often always forces a response for any machine player aware of this card. Fortress can also be used in combination with Jizukiru to remove an opponent’s problematic monster and then fuse with it so your opponent doesn’t gain a strong kaiju. Although you might summon Fortress as much as you summon Megafleet, playing 1 or even 2 in machine heavy formats will pay dividends in the long term as it’s a card that can ruin any machine player’s day.