De-Cipher this ! New Cipher Support (Written)

[Charlelot]

Hey everyone,

 

While watching the various Yu-Gi-Oh anime, some of my favorite characters are the Kaiba-esque duelists, overwhelming their opponents with a deck based around a 3000 ATK dragon. In the Arc-V era, I was particularly fond of Kite Tenjo, wielder of the very cool Cipher archetype. While the cards that were officially released by Konami supporting this series are pretty good, they are nowhere near enough to make a competitive deck. So here is my contribution for upgrading the Cipher monsters.

 

As usual, have a read and tell me what you think. In the meantime, I wish everyone happy Holidays and a wonderful 2018.

 

 

*Latest Update* 01/26/2018

 

 

[spoiler=Monster Cards:'']

Cipher Assembler

Level 8 LIGHT Machine/Effect

ATK 1500 DEF 2500

Cannot be Special Summoned except by its own effect. While you control 2 or more ‘’Cipher’’ monsters: you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except ‘’Cipher’’ monsters. During your Main Phase: you can Special Summon 1 ‘’Cipher Wing’’ from your Deck or GY. If this card is sent to the GY: you can banish it; Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower ‘’Cipher’’ monster from your GY. You can only use each effects of ‘’Cipher Assembler’’ once per turn.

 

Cipher Support Satellite

Level 4 LIGHT Machine/Effect

ATK 500 DEF 1500

You can send 1 ‘’Cipher’’ card except ‘’Cipher Support Satellite’’ from your Deck to the GY; Special Summon this card from your hand. While this card is face-up, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects in response to the Special Summon of ‘’Cipher’’ monsters. If this card is sent to the GY: you can banish it; add 1 ‘’Cipher’’ card from your GY to your hand. You can only activate this effect of ‘’Cipher Support Satellite’’ once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Spell Cards'']

Cipher Galaxy

Field Spell Card

The effects of ‘’Cipher’’ monsters you control cannot be negated. During your Main Phase: you can send 1 ‘’Cipher’’ card except ‘’Cipher Galaxy’’ from your hand or Deck to the GY, then you can target 1 ‘’Cipher’’ monster you control that has a Level; it gains 500 ATK and its Level becomes 8. When this card is destroyed and sent to the GY: you can return 1 monster on the field to its owner’s hand. Then, if you do not control a monster in the Extra Monster Zone: you can Special Summon 1 ‘’Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon’’ from your Extra Deck, and if you do, it cannot be used as an Xyz Material until your next turn. You can only use each effect of ‘’Cipher Galaxy’’ once per turn. 

 

Cipher Synthesis

Normal Spell Card

Target 2 Level 4 or lower ‘’Cipher’’ monsters in your GY that have the same name; Special Summon them in face-up defense position, and if you do, banish them during the End Phase of this turn. If you activate this effect, you cannot Special Summon any other monsters this turn except ‘’Cipher’’ monsters. If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect: you can target 1 ‘’Cipher’’ monster you control that has a Level; it becomes Level 8. You can only use each effects of ‘’Cipher Duplication’’ once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Trap Cards:'']

Cipher Augmentations

Continuous Trap Card

During either player’s turn: you can send 1 ‘’Cipher’’ card except ‘’Cipher Augmentations’’ from your hand or Deck to the GY: target 1 ‘’Cipher’’ monster you control; until the end of the turn, it gains 500 ATK and it cannot be targeted by your opponent’s cards and effects. When a Level 4 or lower ‘’Cipher’’ monster would be destroyed by battle: you can banish this face-up card instead. If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect: you can shuffle up to 3 ‘’Cipher’’ monster(s) from your GY and/or that were banished into the Deck, then draw 1 card. You can only activate each effects of ‘’Cipher Augmentations’’ once per turn.

 

De-Cipher

Counter Trap Card

When an Effect Monster’s effect is activated, if you control a face-up ‘’Cipher’’ monster: negate the activation and destroy it. If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect: you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower ‘’Cipher’’ monster from your Deck, and if you do, its effect is negated. You can only activate each effects of ‘’De-Cipher’’ once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Extra Deck:'']

Cipher Deep-Space Probe

LINK – 2 LIGHT Machine/Link/Effect

Bottom-Right, Bottom-Left

ATK 1950 DEF 1500

2 ‘’Cipher’’ monsters

When this card is Link Summoned: you can add 1 ‘’Cipher’’ monster from your Deck to your hand. During your Main Phase: you can send 1 ‘’Cipher’’ card from your Deck to the GY; ‘’Cipher’’ monsters this card is co-linked to become Level 8 until the end of the turn. If this card leaves the field: you can banish it, then target 1 ‘’Cipher’’ card from your GY; attach it to a face-up ‘’Cipher’’ Xyz monster you control as Xyz Material. You can only use each effect of ‘’Cipher Deep-Space Probe’’ once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Updated cards from the anime:'']

While these cards are not technically vital for the betterment of the archetype, they were some of Kite's signature cards in the Arc-V anime. Since I would also like to see them released by Konami, I slightly changed their effects so they would work with the cards I created.

 

For reference, here are links to their anime effects:

 

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Cipher_Biplane

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Cipher_Interference

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Cipher_Clone_Magic

 

Cipher Biplane
Level 6 LIGHT Machine/Effect
ATK 1000 DEF 2000
This card’s name becomes ‘’Cipher Wing’’ while it is face-up on the field. If a ‘’Cipher’’ monster is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn: you can target 1 ‘’Cipher’’ monster you control; it becomes Level 8. If this card is sent to the GY: you can banish it; add 1 ‘’Cipher Wing’’ from your Deck or GY to your hand.

Cipher Interference
Continuous Spell Card
If you control 2 or more ‘’Cipher’’ monsters with the same name and 1 of them battles, during damage calculation: you can make its ATK become double its current ATK until the end of the Battle Phase. If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect: double the ATK of every ‘’Cipher’’ monster you control until the end of the turn. If you activate this effect, battle damage inflicted to your opponent is halved until the end of the turn. You can only use each effect of ‘’Cipher Interference’’ once per turn.

Cipher Cloning Process (originally called Cipher Clone Magic)
Normal Trap Card
Banish 1 ‘’Cipher’’ Normal, Quick-Play or Continuous Spell Card from your Deck or GY, and if you do, immediately apply that card’s effect. If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect: you can target 1 face-up ‘’Cipher’’ monster you control; Special Summon 1 monster from your hand, Deck or GY that has the same name as the targeted monster, and if you do, it cannot attack and its effect is negated until the end of the turn. You can only use each effect of ‘’Cipher Cloning Process’’ once per turn.

[Charlelot]

Bump

[Dova]

The original Cipher cards really are lacking support, as we only have 5 main monsters, and their HOPT and scattered effects make them not so useful. Good to see some more of them!

 

Assembler strikes me as a bit strong, and perhaps a bit like the carrier of the archetype. Like, if you have 2 monsters and this card, you Summon Assembler from hand, then Summon a Cipher Wing, putting you at 4 monsters, then mill to get them all as a Level 8. If you milled Etranger, you immediately get Cipher Ascension from your Deck, allowing you to go into Cipher Dragon and Rank it up whenever you want. To be honest, without being able to go into a Link monster, you're still left with 2 Level 8s you can't do anything with, so perhaps its not so bad right now...but you have to think about what you are doing with that field presence anyway, and if you do create a Link monster, nerfing is something to think about. Biplane is decently close to its original effect, but I wish that you did more name swapping than just Cipher Wing, considering Interference had a lot more potential that way. For now, Biplane is just a decent card without it, and doesn't need it at all, and Interference still isn't worth running.

 

Galaxy provides protection and guarantees. Although part of me wishes it did Summons as well, I know that's a bit much. I do know that the last effect doesn't really work, save for your other two Spells, as targeting is part of the cost, not the actual effect of a card, and the rest of the Cipher cards have to target a monster(s) for their effects to go off, meaning you can only send Interference and Duplication. They also miss timing for their sent to the GY effects as When only goes off if the sending to the GY was the last thing to resolve, whereas right now its only the cost, so not even close. You need an If there for it to properly work. Already spoke about Interference, but Duplication would be an amazing card if we were still without Links. Right now, its just semi-decent, as all these Summoning restrictions really limit the plays one can make. A card search on mill is also pretty neat.

 

Augmentations is meh for the same reason Biplane is simply decent, and it's too slow to be of any use either in that regard or of its battle use, forcing you to wait a turn. At least you get blanket protection, so maybe at 1? De-Cipher, on the other hand, granting a mill and an ATK boost is a must-have, as its useful during either player's turn, not just your own, and recycling as a mill is again, just a bonus. Shame some of your S/T are rather weak, but you do have useful cards here and there.

 

Space Probe is bad in the context of MR4. If only you could Xyz with multiple zones, in which case this would be a nice support card, although it basically exists just to Rank-Up into normal Galaxy. I wish it did that Rank 7 a bit with some sort of effect, rather than just slapping it on. GY effect is nice, though, and a generic RUM search might also be nice to allow you to perhaps splash in some other Numbers.

 

This set is a bit hit and miss, but seems designed in the context of Arc-V rather than VRAINS. If so, there's the Legacy tag you can use to identity which topics are MR3 or not. However, the cards that work, do work, but their support isn't quite enough to boost Cipher to a decent position, especially in this new era of YGO.

 

 

[Charlelot]

So... yeah... Dova was right. This archtype looked like it was designed for the Arc-V era and had some pretty fatal flaws. So, I went back to the drawing board. Here is what I have so far. Don't hesitate to telle me what you think.