Past, Present, and Future: Breaking the Cyberse Code

Since Link Strike, hundreds of unique Cyberse monsters and support cards have made their way into the game. Therefore, the strategies Cyberse players use have evolved considerably. It also led to the resurgence of the fan-favorite Code Talker deck as a viable meta contender in the Advanced Format. But which cards brought this deck back into the spotlight, and why are some of the oldest Cyberse monsters now in the spotlight once again?

The Missing Link

is a link monster that served as the ace monster of the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, so it's no surprise that it's a strong card. In fact, it was stronger than anyone could have imagined, enabling first-turn kills and extra linking through its link arrows. Its effects to return up to three monsters on the field to the hand and special summon any monster from your hand proved too much and led to Firewall Dragon being banned in the Advanced Format for the majority of its existence, and the Code Talker deck quickly fell out of favor alongside it.

While the card would later return to the game with an errata to its text, Cyberse players invested in other strategies that saw success in the meta. One of these was the Salamangreat deck, which has also received similar hits to its efficiency on the Official Forbidden and Limited list. Key support cards like and were staples in Cyberse decks. But they weren't enough to bring Code Talkers back out of obscurity.

Enter the Code

With the physical release of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution video game, customers received a set of three new Cyberse support cards. Among these promotional cards were and - two pieces of a new engine that directly benefitted the link summon of Code Talker monsters. But because of their exclusivity as game promos, these cards were not easily accessible until Toon Chaos almost a year later. The other cards for this engine came with the Fist of the Gadgets set just a few days after the release of the game. These included powerful cards like , which granted the player an additional normal summon and protected Code Talkers during battle. also came along, providing an "omni-negate" when the player controls a Code Talker monster.

Micro Coder is joined by and , all of which enable link summoning Code Talkers from the hand and gaining card advantage while doing so. Paired with a Cynet Codec on the field to add a Cyberse monster from the deck for every attribute of Code Talker summoned, this strategy encourages linking into your most powerful extra deck monsters&mdashsuch as or —to retrieve an incredible supply of resources. This means it is easier than ever for Code Talker decks to extra link. If your opponent was given control of a through its effect, this would become even more of a problem, as there are no available zones for them to link summon.

The addition of these new powerful Cyberse cards has allowed Code Talker strategies to massively increase their consistency and efficiency. For example, can be used to search up the field spell, , which compounds the problem of an opponent removing Iblee from their field. This happens because the Cyberse player can choose to set one of their Link monsters to 0 ATK to match Iblee, resulting in neither monster being destroyed.

Securing the Network

The future of this deck only seems to look brighter, especially with the wind-attribute extender Code Exporter and the powerful Decode Talker Heatsoul on the horizon. It remains to be seen whether Code Talkers will make their way back into the competitive spotlight, or whether they will remain at the fringe of the metagame. There are a lot of options, with the large pool of cards now available, and it will be exciting to see how people approach the deck now.

Overall, the introduction and expansion of various Cyberse strategies, along with the return of cards like has helped to make the Code Talker deck relevant again. The sheer variety of support cards for both the deck and the Cyberse type has also aided in the consistency of its combos and the efficiency of its strategies. While other Cyberse decks have come and gone, Code Talkers are slowly worming their way back into the spotlight.

What do you think about the relevancy of the Code Talker deck or Cyberse strategies in general? Should Firewall Dragon have been unbanned? Let us know in the comments below.

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