Crossed Souls is bringing us the new Zefra monsters, 2 each for 5 different groups of monsters, but they aren’t the only new cards for those Decks! Every Deck that’s getting Zefra monsters is also getting a new heavy hitter. For ‘tellarknights, that means a brand new Xyz Monster that can rewrite its own biology or tear through time itself!

Usually, the Satellarknights are the regular ‘tellarknight monsters, while the Stellarknights are the Xyz Monsters. Tellarknight Ptolemaeus is neither, since it is so very different from anything the Stellarknights have had before.

First, Ptolemaeus’s Xyz Materials are 2 or more Level 4 monsters. That means, unlike Stellarknight Xyz Monsters before it, you can play Ptolemaeus with just two monsters! We haven’t even gotten to Ptolemaeus’s effects yet, but this is already a huge deal for one reason: Stellarknight Constellar Diamond. Now any Deck, ‘tellarknight or otherwise, can play Diamond via Ptolemaeus, investing only two monsters overall!

To start with, during each player’s End Phases, you can attach a Stellarknight from your Extra Deck to Ptolemaeus as an Xyz Material. Your Extra Deck should be stocked with plenty of copies of Stellarknight Delteros, Stellarknight Triverr, and Stellarknight Constellar Diamond, plus you’ll likely see Stellarknight Zefraxciton face-up in your Extra Deck too. All of these together should leave Ptolemaeus well stocked to use its effects.

And what effects they are! Ptolemaeus’s first effect completely changes the standard ‘tellarknight Extra Deck! By detaching three Xyz Materials during either player’s turn, you can use Ptolemaeus as an Xyz Material for a new Summon, of any Xyz Monster one rank higher than Ptolemaeus (other than a Number monster)! That basically means you can play any Rank 5 Xyz Monster – from simple stuff like Constellar Pleiades, to the ones with trickier Summon requirements like Crimson Knight Vampire Bram. Since this effect is a Quick Effect, you can even use it on your opponent’s turn, or in response to an effect. If you’re so inclined, you can leave Ptolemaeus in Defense Position and keep piling on new Xyz Materials in each End Phase, then finally upgrade it to move those Xyz Materials to something new.

If you can protect Ptolemaeus for a couple turns, you’ll be able to use its incredibly powerful Ignition Effect. By detaching seven Xyz Materials from it, Ptolemaeus will make your opponent skip their next turn! A free turn is likely enough to win the game outright, especially when you’ve got ‘tellarknights throwing down Xyz Monsters like crazy. The beauty of this effect is that it incredibly cool, but not necessary for Ptolemaeus to be a great card. If you want to try going for it, you can put Ptolemaeus in Defense Position, building up Xyz Materials each turn and forcing your opponent to deal with it. If they can’t, great! They’re skipping a turn. If they can deal with it, you’ll just use Ptolemaeus’s Quick Effect and bring in something like Constellar Pleiades to continue messing with their plans instead. Constellar Pleiades with a pile of Xyz Materials often does the trick.

Tellarknight Ptolemaeus is a truly great card, but that’s not all ‘tellarknight Decks will pick up from Crossed Souls! When CROS launches, the ‘tellarknights will be able to do even more of what they already want to do, in some exciting new ways, thanks to their new Satellarknight and Stellarknight Zefra crossover monsters. If you haven’t read up on the Zefra yet, you can do so here. We’ll be focusing specifically on the Satellarknight Zefrathuban and Stellarknight Zefraxciton today.

Like all of the Zefra, Satellarknight Zefrathuban and Stellarknight Zefraxciton keep you from Pendulum Summoning anything other than their personal theme monsters and Zefra monsters. Most current ‘tellarknight Decks wouldn’t plan to use anything else anyway, but you do need to remember this if you plan to make any kind of Zefra crossover Deck. With Zefrathuban and Zefraxciton having Pendulum Scales of 1 and 7 respectively, you can Pendulum Summon any ‘tellarknight there is! With Pendulum Monsters in the mix, you can throw down a ton of stuff from your hand, like a huge version of Satellarknight Vega. It’ll be easy to put together the right Pendulum Scales, since you’ve got Satellarknight Deneb, Reinforcement of the Army, and Oracle of Zefra to grab whatever you need.

Satellarknight Zefrathuban is, like the other Satellarknights, a Level 4 LIGHT Warrior. If you Normal, Flip, or Pendulum Summon Zefrathuban you can target one of your other ‘tellarknight or Zefra cards in the Monster or Pendulum Zones, and one of your opponent’s face-up cards, and both cards will be destroyed! One thing ‘tellarknights have always lacked is a way to destroy your opponent’s cards outside of Stellarnova Alpha, and Zefrathuban gives that option while using spare monsters from Call of the Haunted or Satellarknight Altair. You can also destroy one of your Zefra in the Pendulum Zone, since they’ll go to the Extra Deck to be Pendulum Summoned later.

Stellarknight Zefraxciton is also a LIGHT Level 4 monster, but this one remains a Fiend-type from back when it was still Evilswarm Exciton Knight. Zefraxciton raises the bar for your Main Deck monsters’ ATK, clocking in at 1900, and its effect is exactly like Zefrathuban’s, but for face-down cards instead! Between Zefrathuban and Zefraxciton, no card is safe. And remember, as a Stellarknight you’ll be able to attach Zefraxciton from your Extra Deck to Tellarknight Ptolemaeus to charge it up!

If you wanted to get crazier, you can start to mix in the other Zefra too! That would give you more cards for Zefrathuban and Zefraxciton to reliably activate their effects and more monsters for you to Pendulum Summon. Plus, there are even some cool effects like Ritual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi to reuse your other Pendulum Monsters, or Zefraxa, Flame Beast of the Nekroz to combo with Zefrathuban and Zefraxciton’s destruction effects. You can even use Zefraxi, Treasure of the Yang Zing to add Synchro Summoning to your arsenal! The more Zefra you play, the easier it is to use Zefra Divine Strike – a Counter Trap that banishes a Zefra from the Extra Deck to negate any Spell, Trap, or monster effect! Between that and Stellarnova Alpha, your Deck will have a ton of stopping power.

A new Xyz Monster and the brand new Zefra monsters are totally changing the way ‘tellarknights and plenty of other strategies are played! You’ll find these new cards and more in Crossed Souls, and the Sneak Peeks are going to be on May 9th/10th!