Saving the Stars: Extra and Side Deck Choices

Long time readers of this blog may have noticed the recent scarcity of large tournament reports.   Scheduling has been one reason for this hiatus.  Unfortunately, Konami did not consult me before announcing their regional dates.  I also admit to becoming a little disenchanted with the game during the fall.  The newer archetypes power crept their way over our old friends.  All of us were forced to adapt or lose.  Sadly, age has a way of making the former hard and the latter familiar. 

My faith and fortunes have been slowly reversed by the Satellarknights, which is why so much time is dedicated to the archetype.  Though becoming YCS champion is a bit of a stretch, I have gained enough confidence to march proudly into the South Carolina and show them young ‘uns and thing or two. If all goes well, I will take the stars into the second day. 

Last week, I described a more traditional build and a faster “trap-light” build.  My current build is actually an amalgam of both.  This week, I will give my choices for the extra and side deck.      

Extra Deck: Here is the list of cards that I am currently playing

• Diamond x 1: The card’s title sounds like a “Name Game” reject.  Nevertheless, it’s a Tellar player’s answer to two legs of the golden triangle.  Now, if they would only make one of these things for earth monsters.
• Triverr x 2: This card is the deck’s lifeguard who says “Everyone out of the pool”.  Given the continued problems with destruction, he’s worth two slots.
• Delteros x 1: This card’s 2500 attack has always made it an asset to the deck.  The card’s stock has risen with the Diamond revolution.
• Castel x 2: Double Castel has become rather standard in rank four toolbox decks.  It’s not netdecking – it’s smart.
• Diamond Dire Wolf x 1: Detaching and tributing itself is a common but rather awful move.  It’s in simply because it has some synergy with Castel. 
• Ragnazero x 2: My current build focuses on summoning rank four XYZ’s on turn one.  The main reason for doing so is this card’s effectiveness against Qlips.
• Gandiva x 1: The rationale for this card is similar to Ragnazero, except that it used match-ups against BA and other Tellar players.
• Excalibur x 1: This cards 4000 attack gives Tellars a fighting chance against Qlipharts.  It’s so important that I have considered running two. 
• Heartland Draco x 1: This card is taking the place of a second Excalibur.  It gets over Killer and allows Flying “C” to stay on the field. 
• Abyss Dweller x 1: Shutting down graveyard effects is key against BA.  Often times you only need to do it once.
• Exciton x 1: Using this card is like making a deal with a loan shark.  You know it will be expensive, but you’re desperate.
• Cowboy x 1: The 800 burn can keep your opponent from activating Solemn Warning, Skill Drain, or Scout. 

Honorable Mention: Here are cards that didn’t quite make the cut.

• Cairngorgon, Antiluminescent Knight: Every time a carrier returns one of my monsters, I wish I played this card.  It also gets over Majesty’s Fiend.  Currently, it’s in the side because it can’t get over Dante.  Nevertheless, it’s the closest to getting put back into play.
• Daiguisto Emeral: The main reason I may add this card back is its ability to recycle XYZ monsters. A second Abyss Dweller could come in handy. However, if I have the time for such a play, I usually don’t need to. 
• Silent Honor Ark: One day I woke up and realized I never used this card.  It was hard to believe since it has been a stable in my rank four builds since its release.  Slowly but surely, the little musketeer has defeated the .. uh … whatever it is.
• Starliege Paladynamo: Why did I take this out?  This is a good card but other cards do slightly more.  For example, Castel is probably a better choice.   
• Constellar Omega: The trend towards fewer traps has made this card less useful. More importantly, it loses to Dante each time.
• Bujintei Tsukuyomi: This is a popular card among Tellar players. It's another that may be back in before the YCS.
• Rhapsody in Beserk: Very few of the current decks are crippled by removing two cards.  The equipping effect is a nice boost but it means getting at least one other XYZ monster on board.  This has become a difficult task even for Tellars.
• Crazy Box: This card would have to have a 4000 attack to be viable.   
• Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon: It’s not bad but I would rather have Excalibur. 

As I have mentioned before, side deck cards work best at three.  However, making such a side deck can be a challenge. Here’s my version of the perfect side deck.

Side Deck: Here are the cards I am currently playing:

• De-Fusion x 3: This card gets a boost with the rise of Dark Law. 
• Shadow Imprisoning Mirror x 3:  This continuous trap fits into the overall strategy of my build. 
• Mask of Restrict x 3: Just when I thought I got a handle on Qlips, they got better. This card is my latest strategic attempt to slow them down.  Without tributing, the deck becomes mostly an 1800 attack point spam deck.
• Fairy Wind x 3: This is still the most effective card against Qlipharts.
• Flying “C” x 3:  As the meta speeds up, hand traps become more valuable.  I think this card is the most useful against the mirror match and BA.

Honorable Mentions

• Burial from a Different Dimension: I am seriously considering putting this card in for the Hero match-up.  However, it is limited and my odds for drawing into it are too low.
• Maxx “C”: I have tried both roachs and currently prefer the flying kind. Maxx C is not so effective if you have nothing to draw into that will stop the game.
• Fire and Ice Hands: This is a popular choice in the OCG.  However, I found that Carrier would simply put it back in your hand. 
• Spell Shattering: This is a good card and it gets around Night Beam. However, it won’t stop Skill Drain.
• System Down: By the time you plus off this card, the duel is over.
• Dark Hole: Most of the meta seems to care little about destruction.
• Creature Swap: This card was in my side deck for most of the fall and early winter.  I dropped it for E Con when decks put out too many monsters to make the card viable.  Now all I have to do is make sure I don’t play noble knights.
• Magnum Shield: I still like this card’s ability to add muscle to nearly all of my monsters.  One of these days, I will combine this card with Hidden Armory. 

Slightly less Honorable Mentions:

Forbidden Chalice, Forbidding Lance, Breakthrough Skill, Skill Prisoner, Stygian Dirge, Rivalry, Mind Crush, and others have all been in my side deck for at least a duel or two.  All have their place though I think you will find these to be less helpful. 

In only two more weeks, I will take six other intrepid doolists to the shores of South Carolina.  Report to follow!  

Here is the current list: 

3 Satellarknight Deneb 

3 Satellarknight Altair 
3 Satellarknight Unukalhai
1 Satellarknight Vega
1 Satellarknight Alsahm
1 Satellarknight Rigel
2 Photon Thrasher
2 Honest

3 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Satellar Skybridge

2 Enemy Controller

1 Snatch Steal

1 Foolish Burial

1 Raigeki

3 Stellarnova Alpha

3 Call of the Haunted

2 Oasis

2 Vanity’s Emptiness

2 Skill Prisoner

Saving the Stars: The Future of Satellarknights

I have had more success with Satellarknights than with any other deck.  This weekend, I won 10 packs and pulled a Virgil – not bad for a knight’s work.  Still, my faith in the deck is pretty limited.  Let’s be clear: Doolists taking this deck into a major tournament are going with an underdog.  

I'm going to spend two weeks with my head in the stars.  This week's post will focus on the main deck.  Next week, I will look at extra and side deck choices.   

Tell Tale Problems

While Tellarknights shine in their ability to search and recur, they have few significant drawbacks.  First, they run a ponderous number of traps.  Meanwhile, Shaddoll’s and Qlipharts are moving on to near trapless editions.  Even Burning Abyss decks are shedding traps as demonstrated by Jake Phinney’s six-trap wonder deck at ARG Orlando.   

While powerful, traps are inherently slow cards that are great at preventing problems.  Seeing red when you’re going first is a wonderful experience.  However, they do a poor job of getting you out of jams.  Bottomless is a fine card but not when there is a scrap yard’s worth of Qlips on the field. 

Qliphart rising has also ushered in the great age of set card destruction.  Some Qlip players in Orlando were playing triple MST and triple Night Beam.  This type of one-for-one destruction hurts Tellar players greatly since a significant portion of their card advantage comes from COTH and Oasis. Compare this mechanic to Shaddoll and BA players whose advantage comes from sending cards to the graveyard. If this trend weren’t enough, enter Denko Sekka who can single-handedly shut down 40% of your deck. 

The second problem is the deck’s reliance on normal summoning.  This idea has quickly evolved from sophisticated concept to bandied buzzword.  Of the major meta decks, Tellars are burdened the most with this criticism, which is ironic since Tellars are also the first archetype to get their effects regardless of the manner in which they are summoned.  From a mechanic standpoint, their effects are completely independent from normal summoning. However, this term really refers to the ease of special summoning.  Compared to Harpies and Samurais, Tellars are not so normal summon dependent. However, the label is well deserved for a deck whose set up is 3 turns longer than the rest of the meta. 

The third problem is their vulnerability to destruction.  Creating a wall of Satellarknights takes planning and several turns.  Knock it down with Dark Hole and the Tellar doolist will have to start all over again. This experience is dramatically different in for the BA player.  Activating Dark Hole can give them card advantage.  Now that Dark Hole is at two, I fear our little walls will be knocked into dust. 

Mini Makeover

For those of you who still wish to reach for the stars, here are a few principles that I try to incorporate into my builds:

Honest is essential.  I am happy to tell any purist to get over their righteous indignation and play the card.  If Qlipharts can main Limiter Removal, we can play two Honests.  In fact, I will sometimes “accidently” reveal my Honest while shuffling in order to enhance my bluffs.  I’ve had opposing doolists book a lone Alsahm in order to play around a potential Honest.

Bait out the destruction.  My trap lineup is a bit different.  With the exception of Nova, they are all continuous*.  They are not reactive with the possible exception of Emptiness.  Furthermore, they usually require a response.  This is why I dropped Fiendish Chain for Battleguard Rage. I can put a 2800 point monster on the field without special summoning leading most Shaddoll players to burn a MST to stop it.  I’m fine with that play since the goal is to protect COTH and eventually reuse it with Triverr. Of course, the card is not without risk, since popping the monster will leave you at a neg 1.  Nevertheless, it's time for a little out of the box thinking.

Limit the dead cards.  This deck does not have the liberty to brick.  Drawing Altair without cards in the graveyard gives you an Axe Raider. This is why I play Foolish Burial.  Between the COTHs, Oases, and Altiers, Foolish is never dead.

Don’t forget Thrasher.  Photon Thrasher is really a pumped up Vega.  Sure, you can’t summon him when you have board presence, but that’s not the time you need help.  I have found him most useful in getting rid of a defense position Burning Abyss monster.  By doing so, Fire Lake is often dead and I can proceed with the rest of my set up.  He also swings easily over Dinko Sukka.

3 Satellarknight Deneb 

3 Satellarknight Altair

3 Satellarknight Unukalhai

1 Satellarknight Vega

1 Satellarknight Alsahm

2 Photon Thrasher

2 Honest

3 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Satellar Skybridge (or Forbidden Lance)

1 Snatch Steal

1 Foolish Burial

3 Magic Planter

3 Stellarnova Alpha

3 Call of the Haunted

2 Oasis

3 Vanity’s Emptiness

2 Battleguard Rage

*Hence,  Magic Planter is nearly always live - at least until Dark Law comes out.

Maxi Makeover

For the most part, the fixes given above are not particularly radical.  We are still a long ways from the 6 trap deck.  Here is my attempt to build of such a Satellar Deck:   

3 Satellarknight Deneb

3 Satellarknight Altair

2 Satellarknight Unukalhai

2 Satellarknight Vega

2 Satellarknight Alsahm

1 Satellarknight Procyon

2 Photon Thrasher

2 Honest

3 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

3 Satellar Skybridge

1 Snatch Steal

1 Magnum Shield

2 Hidden Armory

1 Soul Charge

3 Enemy Controller

1 Raigeki

3 Stellarnova Alpha

3 Call of the Haunted

This deck still requires some tweaking.  I am not sure if triple E Con and Skybridge are a good idea.  Forbidden Lance and Chalice may be reasonable alternatives.  That said, this deck feels like a Satellar deck that is trying to be a Shaddoll deck.  While Diamond has blown some life into the price of Deneb, I remain rather pessimistic about this archetype as a whole. 

Nevertheless, the stars have been good to me and for that reason I will continue to play it.

For those of you who aren’t astronomers by trade, here’s a pronunciation guide:

Altair: AL - tair

Alsahm: AL - sahm

Betelgeuse: BET-el-jooz

Deneb: DEN-ebb

Procyon: PRO-see-on

Rigel: RYE-jel

Sirius: SEER-ee-us

Unukalhai: uh-NOO-kul-lye

Vega: VEY-ga

Can Monarch's Be Successful?

Caius, the Shadow Monarch, is one of the most aesthetically pleasing monsters in the game.  The black and purple color scheme, his iridescent globe, and formidable armor all buttress his allure of darkness.  Unfortunately, like Hanzo, he’s a good card in a rather mediocre lot.  

The Problems

The main flaw in the Monarch strategy is their summoning mechanic.  Tribute summoning is equivalent to a – 1 special summon.  When compared to  XYZ and synchro summoning, the Monarch effects are pretty weak.  To make matters worse, the other forms of summons usually come with pluses.  Consider Geargiarmor --> Accelerator (+1) --> Gear Gigant (0) --> Ancient Gear Box (+1) --> Arsenal (+2).   Caius is a + 0 at best.

Monarchs also fall victim to clumpy hands.  The graph below gives the chances of opening with at least three or four tribute summon monsters.   Most monarch players run about eight such monsters giving them an 8.2% chance of opening with at least three of them.  Not only are these cards dead, they are robbing the doolist of drawing something better.  You could run fewer level six monsters, but then there is a greater than 23.6% of not drawing any of them.  Pot of Duality helps if you don’t mind using a card that says, “My deck needs a crutch.”

The Fixes

Intrepid Monarch players have attempted to overcome these deficits.  Here is my take on those fixes.

Macro Monarchs: I mention this deck for nostalgic reasons. For those that weren’t around, this deck used Scout Plane as tribute fodder.  It’s essentially dead, but can you imagine where the Monarchs would be if there were three Macro Cosmos and three Dimensional Fissures?  If Konami wanted to support the archetype they could give us a Macro Cosmos like card that forbid you from summoning from the extra deck. 

Frognarchs: This deck avoids the - 1 summon by counting on Treeborn Frog to hop out of the graveyard during your standby phase.  You can play it with a whole pond full of frogs (e.g. Swap, Ronintoadin, Dupe, etc) or with just Treeborn and Mathematician. While arguably the best Monarch deck today, it has some significant drawbacks.  First, drawing into Treeborn is pretty dead unless you have the rest of the frogs.  Second, graveyard-hate is on the rise.  Debunk, Soul Drain, and DD Crow are all poison darts.  Still, it’s a lot of fun and the cards are pretty cheap. 

Tricknarchs: This is the Ghostrick variant that happily seems to forget that card advantage is a valued in Yugioh.  Like the frog variants, one can play with only Jackfrost or with a house full of ghosts and demons.  While the deck bleeds cards, Jack’s effect is pretty nimble because it doesn’t target.  However, the Ghostricks lose out to Debunk and Nobleman of Crossout.  The deck can be redeemed, a bit, by playing Allure of Darkness and Card Car.  Like the frogs, the tricks are generally cheap and fun to play. 

Anti-Meta Monarchs:  This deck is less about the means of summoning and more about the summoned.  I suspect the renewed interest in Monarchs has little to do with the new “Monarch” cards and more to do with Majesty’s Fiend.  This card, along with Vanity’s Fiend and Jinzo, gains advantage by creating dead hands for the opponent.  Congratulations – now both doolists can experience the frustration of having dead hands.

Garbagenarchs: This is my moniker for the Monarch deck with a little bit of everything.  Fire and Ice Hands offer a Tengu-like presence that can be used for tribute fodder.  The problem is that you have taken a very good card and made it weaker by negating its effect.  Soul Exchange stops your battle phase and most of the newer Monarch cards won’t let you play Treeborn.  March of the Monarchs is only useful in Anti-Meta Monarchs.  Return let’s you search but you need to tribute summon twice to gain any advantage.   Storm Forth is clearly the best and it should take the place of everyone’s Soul Exchange.  The only new card that intrigues me is Escalation of the Monarchs.  It does little for card advantage but it does get around cards like Nobleman of Crossout. 

The Answer

If I were a Konami King for a day, I would have them introduce Monarch’s Squire, a level one effect monster.  This card lets you tribute summon from the hand in addition to its Treeborn Frog-like graveyard resurrection.  It does not create Geargia-like advantage but it also lets you use the other Monarch cards. 

EFFECT: This card is not affected by other Fiend monsters. You can send this card from your hand to the graveyard  as 1 of the tributes for a Tribute Summon.  During your Standby Phase, if this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card. Activate this card only if you have no cards in your Extra Deck

 Ah well … one can dream.