Notes & Combos

Hello to those reading this!

I am happy to say that I reached Master I with Sky Strikers! I am especially ecstatic since they were brutalized last season, so intensely I switched to Maliss. Dark times.

Overview

-Philosophy/Theory:

It is the same style for Striker as my Master V decklist-- going 1st, hand-trap build, and establish reign in game state with perpetual searching and disruption to pave the way for lethal. Fortunately, the deck can OTK often. I had a lot of fun playing a blind 2nd build, but I found that I faced one too many unstoppable boards, so I reverted back to hand-trap Striker.

-Hand-Traps:

Same as last time! Droll and Lock Bird has varied effectiveness, but very strong against opposing Sky Striker, Mitsurugi variants, Lunalight, White Forest, Onomat, Ryzeal, etc. Ghost Belle can serve multiple functions, such as stopping a Yummy revival, Dracotail trap, Called By, and other graveyard recursion effects. Imperm is a placeholder, but it has served me well. Maxx C and Ash are self-explanatory. Drawing into these whether in the grind game or going 1st is always going to support you, and helps address to decks with problematic power spells such as Dracotail and Mitsurugi.

-Miscellaneous Spells:

Standard for the most part! The Triple Tactics package is very good to punish your opponent from hand-trapping your cards, and Thrust especially can set Dimensional Barrier which can end games by itself. Be wary for Mitsurugi variant decks, though, as they often pivot from one summoning mechanic to the other. Droplet is great for dodging targeting negation and negating untargetable cards. Super Polymerization was formerly not ran, but I wanted to test it out for Yummy and Dracotail, and it was handy.

-Sky Striker Core:

Somewhat standard. No Multirole, Shark Cannon, Afterburners, Jamming Waves, and Area Zero, but I did not miss them that much (maybe except Cannon). Kaina can be helpful for Lemnisgate OTKs, but I generally did not need it for this climb. After the banlist, you could certainly run one of those in favor of Maxx C. Cyanos is another viable option, too.

-Conclusion:

Overall, very smooth climb! I did not derank 7 times like last season, if at all. This deck is very fun and rewarding to learn, albeit thought-intensive. Sincerest gratitude to Floowooly and the Duel Dungeon Discord! They inspired me to learn this deck, and I do not regret it one bit! Thank you for reading!