We left off yesterday having concocted a clear and precise strategy for winning with Satellarknights, courtesy of Stellarknight Triverr, Satellarknight Alsahm, and the well known Satellarknight Altair + Satellarknight Deneb combo. If you missed it, the gist of it is that you can deal exactly 8000 damage to your opponent by Summoning Satellarknight Alsahm 3 times, Summoning, clearing the field with, and attacking with Stellarknight Triverr twice, and adding an extra 800 damage from Gagaga Cowboy. That’s (3 * 1000) + (2 * 2100) + 800 = 8000. Today we’re going to talk about the cards you’ll want to run to make sure this happens every game.

Of the many things Satellarknight Decks are good at, their greatest strength has to be their ability to access any monster at any time. Satellarknight Deneb adds a ‘tellarknight to your hand, Satellarknight Skybridge swaps a ‘tellarknight on the field for a different one from your Deck, and Reinforcement of the Army lets you grab any of them from your Deck. But it’s not just the Deck you have total access to – you can simultaneously employ a “reverse toolbox” strategy as well, that is, send the ‘tellarknights you need to the Graveyard and constantly revive them. Satellarknight Unulkalhai gets them there and Satellarknight Altair gets them back, as do the generic Call of the Haunted and Oasis of Dragon Souls. Finally, Satellarknight Vega rounds things out by giving you an outlet to use the extra ‘tellarknights you’re adding to your hand.

Of these cards, Satellarknight Skybridge is the one likely to raise the most eyebrows. It shouldn’t, though. It’s one of the best tools in the ‘tellarknight arsenal because it doesn’t care about the ultimate fate of its target. Read the card text very carefully: “Special Summon 1 “tellarknight” monster with a different name from your Deck, and if you do, shuffle the targeted monster back into the Deck.” The effect uses “and if you do”, which, if you remember your Problem-Solving Card Text means that when this card resolves, you need to do the first thing in order to do the second but if the second thing cannot happen, you still do the first thing. This opens up numerous avenues for protecting your own plays and ending games ahead of schedule using cards like Stellarnova Alpha and Enemy Controller.

You can, for example, activate Skybridge, and when your opponent Chains with Vanity’s Emptiness, counter with Stellarnova Alpha. The net result is that you’ll draw with Alpha and still Special Summon your new monster from the Deck, and the target of Skybridge will be in a more useful location – the Graveyard – instead of back in your Deck. You can even do this in a Chain with your ‘tellarknight’s own effect and claim both the originally Summoned ‘tellarknight’s effect as well as the new one. One particular combo to note is Satellarknight Unulkalhai + Satellarknight Skybridge. You Summon Unulkalhai, activate its effect, and Chain with Skybridge. When the Chain resolves, Skybridge Summons Satellarknight Altair, and Unulkalhai sends a ‘tellarknight of your choice to the Graveyard. Now that the first Chain is over, Altair can activate to Summon the ‘tellarknight you just sent to the Graveyard.

Expanding upon that play, a hand with Skybridge, Unulkalhai, and any other ‘tellarknight can become a field of Satellarknight Altair, Satellarknight Vega, and whatever the other ‘tellarknight in your hand was, giving you 3 Xyz Materials for Stellarknight Triverr, though Stellarknight Delteros can sometimes be the correct play to max out your damage dealt and combo continuance depending on that third ‘tellarknight. While it may seem inefficient to use 3 cards to field 3 monsters, there are two things you need to remember. The first is that it doesn’t matter that you used 3 cards if you win the Duel or put it out of reach for your opponent. The second is that fielding a Stellarknight Xyz Monster is an investment in the future. When it’s destroyed, thanks to the effects of the various ‘tellarknights, you’ll basically get back whatever you put into it and will have taken out at least one of your opponent’s cards for every turn that Xyz Monster was on the field. So go wild and get after your opponent’s Life Points! There’s no penalty for winning faster than you planned.

I think it goes without saying that to take advantage of this level of aggression, you need to be running Call of the Haunted and Oasis of Dragon Souls as well as playing the one copy of Soul Charge you’re allowed. A lot of different things can happen in a Duel, and these cards not only advance your strategy, but also let you recover from setbacks. Those are the key points in making sure you can assemble and perform your combos, but we aren’t done yet! There’s still the matter of how to make sure those combos are successful, what kinds of cards to put in your Extra Deck other than the Stellarknights, and cards you can use to defend yourself successfully, all of which we’ll get to tomorrow.