#cyber-stein

Cyber-Stein

Cyber-Stein ———————————————— Pay 5000 Life Points. Special Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck to the field in Attack Position. ———————————————— Can Be Found In: Dark Beginning 2 (DB2-EN100), Shonen Jump Championship 2004 (SJC-EN001)

Compared to almost any other card game, this one is very friendly when it comes performing One Turn Kill strategies. Since is not arround a resource system to restrict players in early turns, is easy to pull out powerful setups and big summons to overcome or even defeat the opponent right from the first turns. This might make the game unique with fast paced Duels and interesting OTK strategies to work with, but in return will require a constant maintenance of the banlist to balance both old and new cards.

"Cyber-Stein" was mainly known for two reasons: Becoming one of the most expensive cards worldwide, and the first effect capable to perform an OTK with an easy setup. By paying a huge cost of 5000 Life Points, "Cyber-Stein" allow us to Special Summon a Fusion Monster from our Extra Deck. This might seem an extreme investment to just summon something, specially since as soon we receive some damage it will become risky to depend or or completely effectless. However, with a good number of Fusion Monster with powerful effects or simply high stats, "Cyber-Stein" easily became a prominent card to perform OTKs right from our first turn.

While back in the old days "Cyber-Stein" barely had options to be in our starting hand, nowadays we have support enough to assur its arrival before our Life Points are at risk. If we work arround other Machines, "Gear Gigant X" will become our main searching option to add "Cyber-Stein" to our hand from the Deck. Others like "Mystic Tomato" and "Biofalcon" will obtain it once defeated in battle, but might become a dangerous choice as we might take damage to depend on "Cyber-Stein" afterwards. Thanks to its low stats "Cyber-Stein" gains a big number of Graveyard options to depend on, with "Limit Reverse" and "Graceful Revival" reviving it once we find a chance to use its effect, or "Junk Synchron" and "Iron Call" to use it as material for other creatures and effects.

Is no doubt that the ability of "Cyber-Stein" is dangerous for both the user and the opponent, so requires the perfect timing to be activated. The main Fusion Monster we'll summon and what made this monster popular is "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", as once equipped with "Megamorph" and taking advantage of our remaining Life Points will become a 9000 ATK monster ready to finish off the opponent right away. If the opponent is playing defensively instead we will summon "Cyber End Dragon", a monster able to deal piercing damage and with the additional support of "Limiter Removal" to assure we defeat the opponent in the process. While due its heavy cost will be preferable to aim for an OTK there are other powerful Fusion Monsters we can bring out to keep dominance during the Duel, like "Naturia Exterio" shutting down Spells and Traps or "The Last Warrior from Another Planet" forbidding any summons. Regardless of which big monster we summon this way, we can follow with "Great Maju Garzett" so steals and doubles the stats of the tributed Fusion Monster to assure we finish off the opponent with its help. If the effect's cost is still too much, we can play along "DNA Surgery" to turn "Cyber-Stein" into Psychic-Type so not only cards like "Brain Research Lab" and "Telekinetic Charging Cell" will ignore the cost but also allow us swarm the field with Fusion Monsters. Keep on mind that "Cyber-Stein" is quite defenseless outside its effect, so try to have coverage or something to get rid of it like "Crush Card Virus" before the opponent has an opportunity to take it down and probably reduce our Life Points.

"Cyber-Stein" is a powerful creature despite its quite expensive effect, giving us one of the first OTKs in the card game upon release. However times have changed since its debut, and nowadays there are many countermeasures to deal with its OTK setups. While is still highly possible to perform its classic OTK as well more recent strategies, losing 5000 Life Points is a huge investment which the opponent can easily take advantage of once many cards such as "Effect Veiler" or "Bacon Saver" takes down our goal. In resume, although "Cyber-Stein" remains banned in the TCG, is still a dangerous monster under the right management and/or scenario but far easier to deal with when compared to its glory days.

Personal Rating: A

+ Allow us to summon a Fusion Monster from the Extra Deck + High OTK potential + Well supported from early to late game

Card text: (This card is not treated as a "Cyber" card.)