Chapter 222. Nasty Synergy in the Dark Era of Swaps! Did Cyber-Stein Get His Job Stolen?
Seto Kaiba thought of this, and his expression trembled.
In the future, the KC Cup's rules can be changed.
Everyone must have 8,000 LP.
What's this 4,000 LP nonsense?
That's not enough to play at all.
Only with 8,000 LP can a Duel's game theory fully show itself.
"Hiss!
Well now!"
"So Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon became Cyber-Stein's summon target!"
"If that's really the case!"
"Its OTK potential is terrifying!"
After taking a deep breath, Joey Wheeler stared, dumbfounded, at the Duel footage in front of him.
And what he realized from it was—this build truly pushed OTK to the absolute extreme.
To hit monsters, it runs not only Dark Hole, but also Snatch Steal, Raigeki, Change of Heart, and more.
To hit the back row, it runs not only Localized Tornado, but also Heavy Storm and Harpie's Feather Duster, and so on.
Working in concert, these combos clear the opponent's monsters and back row perfectly, paving the way for Cyber-Stein.
Going first, you simply Set Mystic Tomato, or Witch of the Black Forest, or Sangan, and so on.
All of these can search Cyber-Stein.
So this is it—a high-ATK Cyber-Stein OTK.
In the GX world, when they learned its first breakout came from pairing Megamorph with Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, even Zane Truesdale could barely keep his emotions in check.
Because his Deck is a little similar to this Cyber-Stein build.
His focus is a high-ATK OTK shell.
For example, using Power Bond to bring out Cyber End Dragon at 8,000 ATK, or pairing with Megamorph to reach 8,000 ATK.
That's the core secret of his Cyber style.
And the reason he couldn't hold it in was—this is the Cyber style, but what on earth is this Cyber-Stein?
A "science" style?!
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden & Limited List Commentator: "This kind of combo—at the time, it caused quite a stir in the meta."
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden & Limited List Commentator: "With a specialized list like this, you'd run into it at least once every three matches."
"What's nasty is that, in that environment, under these combos, it was a straight-up dimensionality-reduction strike.
Across the board, a full suite of tech cards could target everything.
Doesn't that make the environment miserable?"
"And so, very quickly—very quickly.
Five days.
Just five days.
One card on the entire list was slapped with a Limit.
Megamorph.
Megamorph to 1, and in five days the engine collapsed."
"Without Megamorph, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is just 4,500 ATK.
You can't OTK.
At most you've got one or two waves of resources, and then your opponent turns around and punishes you with ease."
"Of course, grinders kept trying.
They'd dump Megamorph to the Graveyard and look for ways to retrieve it, but the success rate was too low."
"Also, because of all the OTKs, Kuriboh became a hot card back then—another check on Cyber-Stein."
"And when high-ATK fell off, new Cyber-Stein shells still emerged.
Which brings us to a certain card—Thousand-Eyes Restrict."
"As a Fusion Monster, its effect is excellent.
Effect 1: While this card is on the field, monsters other than this card can't attack, and can't change battle positions.
Effect 2: Once per turn, target 1 monster your opponent controls; equip that target to this card.
Effect 3: This card's ATK/DEF become equal to the equipped monster's, and that equipped monster can be destroyed."
"Even if it can equip only one, Cyber-Stein saw an opening.
After all, that Fusion needs Relinquished + Thousand-Eyes Idol—not easy."
"For Cyber-Stein, it's easy—equal opportunity for everything.
Pay 5,000 LP and you're set."
"So besides Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Cyber-Stein can bring out this card.
First, it locks attacks to protect Cyber-Stein; once your LP condition is met, you keep pulling monsters.
Second, 'grab one, punch one'—one card answers two threats, with battle pops baked in.
It's absolutely worth summoning."
"As for LP recovery, you can run Nimble Momonga; when it's destroyed by battle you gain 1,000 LP, and you can swarm more."
"Afterward, the Spell Scapegoat appeared—one card that blocks multiple attacks.
That made Cyber-Stein uncomfortable.
So you had to wait for other ace Fusions to arrive."
Indeed, judging by only these two Fusion Monsters, Cyber-Stein still couldn't hit its ceiling.
And by timeline, Cyber-Stein's first hit on the list certainly wasn't because of just these cards.
Duelists across all worlds grew even more curious and confused.
The earlier high-ATK OTK already rattled them, but that alone was far from enough.
They still wanted other interesting Fusion combos.
Even if Thousand-Eyes Restrict is strong—so what?
Strong is strong, but not strong enough.
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden & Limited List Commentator: "Next, let's look at other Fusion developments."
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden & Limited List Commentator: "As I said, the stronger Fusion Monsters get, the stronger Cyber-Stein gets."
"And thus, a certain monster appeared—The Last Warrior from Another Planet.
2,350 ATK, and on summon it blows up all your own monsters.
It locks both players' Normal Summons, Flip Summons, and Special Summons."
"Cyber-Stein finally had a going-first lockdown tool.
But the downside is obvious—locking yourself is basically helping your opponent.
This card has no real protection, and trying to hold the board long-term with only it, needing four Battle Phases to finish, isn't wise.
Relying on a lone card to sit on board is taboo."
"Fortunately, the Trap Last Turn was released—this Forbidden card needs no extra introduction.
Requiring you to be at 1,000 LP or less lined up perfectly with Cyber-Stein's demands."
"More importantly, a few more solid Fusion Monsters were released.
Card 1—Dark Balter the Terrible.
2,000 ATK.
When a Normal Spell is activated, you can pay 1,000 LP to negate that activation.
Also, any Effect Monster it destroys by battle has its effects negated.
A very solid going-first anti-Spell pressure piece.
At the time, the popular Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan were also targeted by this.
A great Extra Deck option."
"Card 2—Fiend Skull Dragon.
2,000 ATK.
While it's face-up, negate the effects of Flip Effect Monsters.
Also, while it's face-up, any Trap that targets this card is negated and destroyed.
The then-mainstream Jar decks were suppressed by this.
It even has a bit of built-in resistance—not bad."
"Card 3—Ryu Senshi.
2,000 ATK.
While it's face-up, when a Normal Trap is activated, you can pay 1,000 LP to negate it.
Also, while it's face-up, any Spell that targets this card is negated and destroyed.
This one saw less use—going first it doesn't do much.
Going second I'm already pushing for the OTK, so why bring it out?
So it's for specific scenarios."
"With these cards' help, Cyber-Stein finally had real power."
As expected, you still had to rely on Extra Deck Fusion Monsters.
Seeing this, veteran Duelists across the worlds all showed knowing looks.
And seeing these three cards left quite a few of them exchanging glances.
The first two were maximally targeted tech, as if K had printed these Fusions just to counter the meta.
What's disgusting is—they're a pain for normal Decks to summon, but Cyber-Stein spits them out easily.
After all, Fusion Monsters brought out by Cyber-Stein aren't treated as Fusion Summoned, which is very hard to deal with.
Yugi Muto: "Looks like I underestimated this card's power.
Paying 5,000 LP is worth it."
Jaden Yuki: "Mainly because we always Duel with 4,000 LP.
That limited how far we developed this card."
Yusei Fudo: "Agreed.
If we also Dueled with 8,000 LP, I believe this card might have shone in our era too."
Yuga: "Hahaha!
Alright, alright—I'm still most curious about what exactly put Cyber-Stein on the list the first time!"
In the chat group, opinions on Cyber-Stein were gradually shifting.
More importantly, with this Fusion-based Extra toolbox, it still didn't seem like the reason Cyber-Stein first got hit.
Which means there were other accomplices.
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden & Limited List Commentator: "With the above cards in place, let's look at other support pieces.
We have to mention some interesting exchange cards.
For example, Creature Swap—both players each choose a monster and trade control.
Mystic Box—destroy an opponent's monster, then give the opponent one of your monsters."
"Alright—here's where it gets interesting.
In 2002, Megamorph was fully Unlimited.
And the dark era arrived.
High-ATK Cyber-Stein made a comeback, and with these exchange cards, what scenario do you get?
I use Cyber-Stein's effect to Special Summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
I activate Creature Swap and give you my 700 ATK Cyber-Stein.
Then I activate Megamorph on Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
9,000 ATK crashes into your 700 ATK Cyber-Stein.
I win with ease."
"But in that environment, the era was extremely dark: peak Yata-Lock, Reversal Quiz FTK, Empty Jar, Exodia FTK, and so on.
They were all OTK Decks.
They didn't give you a chance to pass the turn back to Cyber-Stein.
So although the combo was strong, it didn't make many waves."
"Not until those cards were Limited did the environment slow down.
Only then did Cyber-Stein get a very comfy metagame.
Reasoning's release also boosted Cyber-Stein's startup."
"More interestingly, people brewed another combo: using the Counter Trap Barrel Behind the Door.
When effect damage other than battle damage would be inflicted, you redirect it to your opponent.
Okay—so I bring out Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, then Ring of Destruction pops it.
The damage that would be dealt is then redirected by that Trap to the opponent.
That was Cyber-Stein in that era."
After these explanations, veteran Duelists across all worlds felt a chill at the base of their spines.
Absurd.
Way too absurd.
After all that development, it was still high-ATK OTKs basking in the spotlight.
Especially Megamorph.
Who thought unlimiting it was a good idea?
Were they afraid Cyber-Stein couldn't OTK, so they freed Megamorph to help Cyber-Stein break through?
As for the Ring of Destruction line afterward, it's essentially a three-card combo, so it didn't attract much attention.
The assembly rate wasn't high—far lower than simply using Cyber-Stein to bring out Fusions.
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden & Limited List Commentator: "Next, a little interlude in that development era.
Who could have imagined that, in Yu-Gi-Oh!, someone would have their job stolen?
In 2002, a monster entered the public eye: Magical Scientist.
By paying 1,000 LP, you Special Summon 1 Level 6 or lower Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck.
It can't attack directly and returns to the Extra at the end of the turn, but the eligible Fusions are no joke.
More importantly, the LP cost is only 1,000.
Now look at Cyber-Stein—it needs 5,000.
By comparison, the pain is obvious.
The result was that Cyber-Stein got its job stolen.
Many Decks immediately retooled around Magical Scientist, because most of Cyber-Stein's functionality was taken.
Only the 'deal damage' function remained."
"But Magical Scientist also enabled a cannon-shell combo: pull out multiple Fusions, then, with the original Catapult Turtle that lacked a once-per-turn clause, Tribute them one by one to burn the opponent out.
That made the meta pretty disgusting back then.
Anyway, that's a tangent."
"Back to Cyber-Stein.
Later, Cyber-Stein picked up the Spell Token Thanksgiving, which answered Scapegoat.
The key piece was Shooting Star Bow - Ceal.
This Equip reduces the equipped monster's ATK by 1,000, then lets it attack directly.
Perfect.
Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon plus Megamorph is 9,000 ATK.
With Shooting Star Bow - Ceal, that's 8,000 ATK direct.
Now you can bypass monsters and OTK in one breath.
Pair it with Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce and you only lose 500 ATK but gain two attacks."
"So—do you love this Cyber-Stein OTK?"
Numb.
Utterly numb.
Love?
Love what, exactly?
Is this even a combo?
Is this an OTK line a human could think up?
After hearing how Cyber-Stein later paired with these cards, Duelists across all worlds were completely tilted.
Eight-thousand direct, plus two attacks piled on—now Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki, and the others finally understood.
This card really did grow stronger as the environment evolved.
This OTK power—it's way too violent.
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Enjoyed the story? Support me and get access to early chapters by joining my Patreon!
Find me at: Patr*eon*.com/Resium
Free members can read 10+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Paid member can read 150+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Stories Available
Honkai? No, This Is Daily Life
Hogwarts Pet Master
Pokémon: Who Let Him Leave Pallet Town!
Scrolling Yu-Gi-Oh! Shorts