by It’s time to shine in this Archetype Spotlight for one of my personal favorite archetypes: Cyber Angels! These angels of the battlefield are a closely knit group of Ritual Monsters that help clear your opponent’s resources, bolster your own Field, and act as card searchers for your deck, and even add protection from in your Graveyard! Let’s take a look!
Overview
The Cyber Angel archetype primarily consists of Light attribute Fairy-type Ritual Monsters, with a couple effect monsters mixed in, too. In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime series, Alexis Rhodes skillfully used Cyber Angel cards, along with other non-archetype monsters like Cyber Blader, Cyber Tutubon, and Cyber Tutu, against her opponents. While those monsters have “Cyber” in their name, they are not directly a part of the Cyber Angel archetype, but worth mentioning, because of their connection to Alexis.
The archetype focuses on breaking your opponent’s board, recycling your own resources, and protecting and boosting your Ritual Monsters on the Field.
Monster cards
There are two non-Ritual monsters that are part of the Cyber Angel family: Cyber Petit Angel and Cyber Egg Angel. Though these cards are not treated as “Cyber Angel” cards, their effects are directly connected to the archetype, as you will see. Both of these cards are Level 2 Light Fairy monsters, and both of them are searchers! These two cards can be great openers if your starting hand isn’t all that you had hoped for.
Cyber Petit Angel allows you to add one Cyber Angel Ritual Monster or one Machine Angel Ritual from your deck to your hand. Cyber Egg Angel, on the other hand, allows you to search for one “Machine Angel” Spell card or one Ritual Sanctuary from your deck to your hand. Of the two cards, Cyber Petit Angel sees more general play, as it can search either your Cyber Angel Ritual Monsters or Ritual Spell, while Cyber Egg Angel can only search your spells. Even if Ritual Sanctuary is decent support for this archetype, it is generally more beneficial to search out your other cards with Cyber Petit Angel.
Looking at the Ritual Monsters, Cyber Angel Idaten and Cyber Angel Beten are the main engines for the archetype. Cyber Angel Idaten has a searching effect and an attack boosting effect! If she is Ritual Summoned, she allows you to add one Ritual Spell Card from your Deck or GY to your hand. If she is tributed, she boosts the ATK of all Ritual Monsters you control by 1000! Both are great effects! With her, you can recycle your Ritual Spells and give your monsters a significant ATK boost!
Cyber Angel Benten has an on-field effect that allows you to deal extra damage to your opponent’s Life Points whenever she destroys an opponent’s monster by battle. At 1800 ATK, she can defeat a lot of lower-leveled minions, but not quite strong enough on her own to threaten your opponent’s stronger monsters (Idaten can help with that, though!). The effect Benten is used more for, however, is her second effect: if she is tributed, you can add one Light Fairy monster from your deck to your hand. These cards each help you gain additional resources as well as helping strengthen your Field. Since they are both Lv. 6, they are often tributed to bring the other out. These girls help you gather resources and allow you to extend into further plays.
Next up we have the two Lv. 8 Ritual Monsters: Cyber Angel Izana and Cyber Angel Dakini. Izana has three useful effects. Her initial effect, upon being Ritual Summoned, forces your opponent to send one Spell or Trap they control to the GY. The really cool part about this effect is that it is a non-targeting, non-destruction effect. This means it can potentially remove cards from the Field that cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects, like Shining Sarcophagus or Necrovalley protected by Gravekeeper’s Supernaturalist. Cyber Angel Izana’s battle effect allows her to attack multiple opponent monsters in the same Battle Phase. And the third effect offers great protection for your Ritual Monsters, as she can shuffle one of your Ritual Monsters from your GY to your deck to negate an opponent’s card effect that targets one of your Cyber Angel monsters. Card removal, extra attacks, and protection!
Cyber Angel Dakini also has three effects! Like Izana, when Dakini is Ritual Summoned, she forces your opponent to send one of their cards to the GY, but a Monster this time, not a Spell or Trap. Cyber Angel Dakini’s removal effect is also a non-targeting, non-destruction effect, so it can work to remove monsters from the Field that cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects, like Lunalight Leo Dancer. While on the Field, Dakini also grants all of your Ritual Monsters with the ability to inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent. Finally, during your End Phase, Cyber Angel Dakini allows you to add one Ritual Monster or one Machine Angel Ritual from your GY to your hand, giving you more resources for the next turn.
The Cyber Angel archetype even has a Lv. 10 Ritual Monster: Cyber Angel Vrash! This battle angel can wreak havoc on opponents who use a lot of Extra Deck monsters. When she is summoned, you can deal 1000 damage to your opponent for each monster they control that was summoned from the Extra Deck, and if you do, she can attack twice during that turn’s Battle Phase! She even has a protection effect! Similar to Izana’s effect, Vrash can protect you from any card that would destroy a card on the field by shuffling a Ritual Monster from your GY into your deck (you can even stop your opponent from destroying their own cards, too!). To cap it all off, Cyber Angel Vrash has 3000 ATK and 2000 DEF. Not bad!
The last Cyber Angel Ritual Monster on the list is the Lv. 5 Cyber Angel Natasha. This monster is primarily a protection card, as she allows you to negate any attack against your Ritual Monsters, including herself! And this is not limited to once per turn. The other fun effect of Cyber Angel Natasha is that she can steal your opponent’s monsters! If Natasha is in your GY, you can banish one other Cyber Angel monster from your GY, and if you do, you can Special Summon Natasha from your GY and then take control of one of your opponent’s monsters! Natasha may not see as much play as Cyber Angel Idaten or Cyber Angel Benten, but Natasha still has a pretty cool effect that can really come in handy!
Spell/Trap Cards
There are currently no Cyber Angel Trap cards, but there are few Spell Cards that add some extra consistency and power to the archetype. There are two archetypal Ritual Spells, and three support spells.
The two Cyber Angel Ritual Spells are Machine Angel Ritual and Machine Angel Absolute Ritual. In addition to its Ritual mechanic effect, Machine Angel Ritual also protects your Light monsters while in your GY. If your Light monster would be destroyed by battle or an effect, you can banish this card from your GY to prevent that from happening. Just an added protection feature.
Machine Angel Absolute Ritual is oddly a more restricting, yet still flexible alternative to it’s counterpart. With Absolute Ritual, you have to use monsters with Levels that EXACTLY add up the Lv. of the Ritual Monster you want to summon. However, with Machine Angel Absolute Ritual, you also have the option of using Fairy or/and Warrior monsters in your GY as materials for the Ritual.
Among the other Cyber Angel spells, we have Merciful Machine Angel, a card that allows you to draw cards; Magnificent Machine Angel, which boosts the ATK and power of your Light Fairy monster; and Incarnated Machine Angel, a Continuous Spell that protects your angels from Battle Destruction, and also acts as Ritual Summoning engine. Perhaps the best part about all three of these spells, is that they require you to tribute one of your Cyber Angel Ritual Monsters to use it. This requirement lets you continuously tribute Cyber Angel Idaten and Cyber Angel Benten, triggering their effects.
Even though Cyber Angel is a somewhat small archetype, it is still a very well-designed, thoughtful, and unique set of cards. These fighting fairies once battled their way into the meta, but have fallen off over the years as the game advanced and other, more veritable archetypes were added to the game. But, Idaten and Benten still see a lot of play in modern Ritual decks thanks to their brilliant design as not only Cyber Angels, but also non-archetype Ritual support.
If you are interested in building a Cyber Angel deck, Dueling Nexus has everything you need to get started! Just visit Dueling Nexus and create a free account and get started!
Others cards that synergize with Cyber Angels: Honest, Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, Miracle Raven (OCG), Ritual Sanctuary, and Preparation of Rites.
Fun Facts!
- Many of the Cyber Angel Ritual Monsters are based on Buddhist figures or ideas.
- Cyber Angel Izana is the only Cyber Angel that did not appear in the anime.
- Cyber Angel Natasha was originally named “Nasateiya,” but it was changed for the TCG to avoid any religious connotations with Hinduism.
- Merciful Machine Angel is directly inspired by Graceful Charity.