At first glance, Satellarknights could be one of the least creative deck ideas that we’ve seen in years. A Rank 4 Xyz Toolbox that uses Level 4 LIGHT Warriors that look just like Constellars, plays like Battlin’ Boxers, and lacks the ability to instantly drop a game-changing monster like El-Shaddoll Winda (formerly known as Midrash) on the field? On top of that, with key cards for the deck’s OCG success like Star Seraphs missing and Number 16: Shock Master banned,what could possibly give this deck an edge in competition?

My personal build of Satellarknight is as follows. I have the deck named “NutellaTrix” on YGOPro, as I have a small Traptrix engine in my deck as well.

Main Deck Total: (40)

Monsters: (13)

Spells: (17)

Traps: (10)

Extra Deck: (15)

Side Deck: (15)

x3 Maxx “C”

x1 Dark Hole

x1 Mystical Space Typhoon

x2 Twister

x2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror

x2 Zombie World

x1 Deep Dark Trap Hole

x1 Soul Drain

x2 Black Horn of Heaven

When I went beyond my first impression of the deck and tested it out, I found the deck to be far more interesting than I could have imagined. The deck plays like the perfect blend of Battlin’ Boxer, Infernity, Geargia, and Mermail. We have the access to the LIGHT toolbox in powerful cards like Starliege Paladynamo, Constellar Omega, or even Bujintei Tsukuyomi. Because Satellarknights are Warrior-type, they also have access to the whole series of Heroic Champion Xyz monsters, including Heroic Champion Kusanagi, a monster that was previously deemed unplayable due to the fact that it required three materials to summon. However, in the case of Satellarknights, the deck’s most distinctive feature is its ability to make three-material Xyz Monsters with stunning efficiency, giving this deck access to powerful monsters like Vylon Disigma, Bujinki Amaterasu, and Evilswarm Ouroboros at minimal risk. Combine this with the new Satellarknight boss monster, Stellarknight Delteros, a monster with a powerful removal effect as well as a floating ability that allows it to immediately replace itself should it be destroyed (much like Gear Gigant X), the Extra Deck arsenal of Satellarknights is truly a force to be reckoned with.

Before we delve further into the deck’s enormous Extra Deck arsenal, let’s have a look at what makes the deck run. The deck relies on four core monsters to get going, all of which share certain features of their effects:

Every Satellarknight has an effect that activates IF it is Summoned, not WHEN. This means we don’t care if we Normal, Special, or Flip Summon them, and that none of the Satellarknight s can miss timing.

has an effect that activates IF it is Summoned, not WHEN. This means we don’t care if we Normal, Special, or Flip Summon them, and that none of the s can miss timing. Every Satellarknight’s effect cannot be used on another copy of itself. That is, Deneb cannot search another Deneb , Altair cannot revive another Altair , so on and so for.

effect cannot be used on another copy of itself. That is, cannot search another , cannot revive another , so on and so for. Each Satellarknight effect can only be activated once per turn, so we need to be careful as to which ones have been used so far.

The first, and arguably most important monster in the deck, is Satellarknight Deneb. Deneb searches out any “Satellarknight” monster upon its Summon, making it a must-play at three. Ideally, you want to be summoning Deneb every turn, including during your opponent’s turn to maximize consistency.

The second most important monster in the deck is none other than Satellarknight Altair. Some call him “Satellarknight Wolfbark” because that’s just what he does: He revives a Satellarknight in Defense Position upon Summon. This means that Altair and Deneb can generate insane amounts of card advantage together, as summoning one Altair from your hand with a Deneb in grave leaves you with two extra cards (+1 from Deneb himself, then +1 from the monster that Deneb searches). Beware of Altair’s restriction, though: You can’t attack with monsters that aren’t “tellarknights” after you use his effect for the turn. We can, however, work around this: If we Summon Altair in our Main Phase 2 or during the opponent’s turn, this restriction becomes irrelevant. We can also summon Altair in Main Phase 1, revive a Satellarknight, and simply attack with Altair before conducting the Xyz Summon into a non-“tellarknight” monster.

The third corner of our Summer Triangle is Satellarknight Vega. Vega is a themed Marauding Captain, which may not seem impressive at first, but is a crucial piece in almost all of the deck’s combos. The deck’s typical play starts by Normal Summoning Vega, Special Summoning Altair with Vega’s effect, then Special Summoning Deneb with Altair’s effect. From there, the entire Extra Deck arsenal is available to handle whatever situation is at hand.

Lastly, we have an incredibly powerful setup monster in Satellarknight Unukalhai. Unukalhai is a themed Armageddon Knight, and can send any “Satellarknight” from the Deck to the grave upon Summon. Because of the aforementioned Vega/Altair/Deneb play, it is necessary to get at least one copy of Deneb in the grave for the combo to be able to keep up with the hefty summoning cost of Stellarknight Delteros.

There’s also Satellarknight Alsahm, a monster that burns for 1000 whenever it is Summoned. It is worth running at one or even three in some builds which aim to inflict burn damage, but it doesn’t really help advance our game, as our goal is not to deplete our opponent’s Life Points as quickly as we can; our goal is to establish an insurmountable card advantage through constant searching, cycling, and destruction.

Now, I feel a necessity to fully introduce Delteros before I go over the Spell and Trap lineup, since Delteros is what ties everything together.

Stellarknight Delteros

3 Level 4 monsters

While this card has Xyz Material, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects when you Normal or Special Summon a monster(s). Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 card on the field; destroy it. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 “tellarknight” monster from your hand or Deck.

Delteros’ first effect makes himself and all other monsters immune to traps that don’t negate summons. This means that once Delteros hits the field, you can use his second effect to clear the board of Torrential Tribute, Bottomless Trap Hole, or any other summon responses that could not be activated.

Delteros’ most important effect is his second effect: He can detach an Xyz Material to destroy any card on the field. First, this means that if you use the typical Vega/Altair/Deneb combo to summon him, he immediately breaks even in card advantage once you resolve his effect once. Any more than that and you’ve gained card advantage. Secondly, he can destroy dead cards on the field such as Call of the Haunted that has lost a target, making way for powerful plays with Evilswarm Exciton Knight.

Delteros’ third effect resembles the secondary effect of Gear Gigant X: If Delteros is sent from the field to the Graveyard, it Special Summons a “tellarknight” from the hand or Deck. This effect is more powerful than it seems: If you summoned Delteros using Vega/Altair/Deneb, then you probably searched out a second copy of Altair using Deneb’s effect. Then, if Delteros is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can summon a copy of Vega from the Deck, which then summons Altair, which then summons Deneb again to set up a new Delteros. There are a number of ways to abuse this: Evilswarm Exciton Knight can destroy Delteros, only for Delteros to replace itself, or Delteros can destroy itself and replace itself with a Gagaga Cowboy to burn for game. There is no “only once per turn” restriction on this effect, so you can clear multiple copies of Delteros and go for more damage or field presence. The number of ways to take advantage of this effect is complex enough to have me humming the Bakemonogatari ending theme while testing. “’There’s Deneb, Altair, and Vega.’ You pointed out the summer triangle.”

It is somewhat of note that the “tellarknight” Xyz Monsters are “Stellarknights” and not “Satellarknights.” This has yet to be of relevance as of The New Challengers, but perhaps it will become a (celestial) factor later on.

Now, onto the “tellarknight” Quick-Play Spell: Satellarknight Skybridge.

Skybridge allows you to swap a “tellarknight” on the field for a different “tellarknight” in the Deck. It aids tremendously in setting up a Delteros, but its drawback is that in the DUEA format, it can only setup for Delteros because as long as the Special Summoned monster is face-up on the field, its controller cannot Special Summon any non-“tellarknight” monsters. When NECH hits TCG-side, Skybridge can set up for Triveil as well. You can use Unukalhai to dump a Deneb to the Graveyard, then Skybridge in an Altair to revive the Deneb. Skybridge can also be used defensively as it can protect a Satellarknight from Bottomless Trap Hole, Mirror Force, and other traps. Likewise, it can be used offensively during the Battle Phase to put more damage on board.

It should be noted that because of the way it is worded, the first “tellarknight” does not have to be on the field at resolution, meaning that you will still get your Special Summon even if your opponent manages to remove your first monster. Conversely, this means you can also chain things like Compulsory Evacuation Device, Torrential Tribute, or even cards like Compulsory Escape Device (Chain Beat style) to the activation of Skybridge to take full advantage of its effect.

Finally, onto the themed Infernity Barrier: Stellarnova Alpha.

Like Infernity Barrier, Stellarnova Alpha can negate monster effects, Spells, and Traps at the cost of sending one face-up “tellarknight” you control to the grave. While this may be a hefty cost under ordinary circumstances, Stellarnova Alpha can be used to send a monster summoned with Skybridge to the grave, once again enabling the player to Special Summon non-Tellarknights. However, Stellarnova Alpha’s true power lies in sending Stellarknight Delteros to the grave – it is inherently a +1 since Delteros and Stellarnova Alpha will both replace themselves, and the only card lost is the opponent’s.

Now I’d like to discuss my card choices for my version of the deck!

The reason I have included Myrmeleo is because the deck lacks a powerful first-turn play. A first-turn Delteros is just SHARK bait, and a first-turn Ouroboros discard is risky unless you know what deck you’re playing against. Therefore, the best first-turn play should be a passive one. One option is Unukalhai, bury, pass. Another is Deneb, search, pass. Game 1, Myrmeleo gives us a third option for a good first turn play while hiding the fact that we play Satellarknight, which might make our opponent a little more hesitant to set that Black Horn of Heaven.

Games 2 and 3, Myrmeleo really shines as an out to Light-Imprisoning Mirror as well as other floodgate cards. Satellarknights, as a whole, are extremely weak to floodgates, so we need as much removal as we can get. Having a Myrmeleo in the grave makes Soul Charge plays that much more powerful.

Soul Charge is incredibly powerful in this deck as reviving a single Altair can mean making a new Delteros. Combine this with Myrmeleo’s backrow destruction effect, and Soul Charge gets a lot of advantage for its life point cost.

Because of our small monster lineup and reliance on backrow, we are also running 3 Pots of Duality as well as 3 Upstart Goblins. In most Xyz toolboxes, Pot of Duality conflicts with the goal of toolboxing Extra Deck monsters, but Satellarknights don’t suffer from that problem as they have the ability to combo off on the opponent’s turn with cards like Skybridge and Call of the Haunted. Because of this, we can always dig to get to our Myrmeleos, Soul Charges, and Denebs.

A new addition to the Trap Hole family, Time-Space Trap Hole can prove crucial in matchups like Shaddoll, Yang Zing, Infernity, and Dragon Ruler. It becomes increasingly more powerful if your opponent relies on cards that Special Summon multiple monsters and then Xyz Summon, like with Soul Charge, Bujincarnation, or Pendulum monsters.

Ouroboros is one of the most powerful three-material Xyz monsters in the game, surpassed only by Delteros and the Forbidden Shock Master. Ouroboros can be a devastating first turn play against a combo-reliant deck, as it, like Delteros, will immediately break even in terms of card advantage when it resolves its discard effect. At 2750 ATK, Ouroboros is one of the biggest monsters in the entire deck, second only to Crazy Box. The deck’s easy access to Ouroboros is perhaps a nod to the lore of the Satellarknights, as the tellarknight monsters were created by Evilswarm Kerykeion.

Daigusto Emeral isn’t commonly found in Satellarknight decks, but I find that an inherent weakness of the deck is how quickly it runs out of gas as soon as the third Altair gets used up. With more Altairs in the Deck to cycle with Deneb, the longer we can press on in a grind game. Konami also fixes this problem in the deck with the upcoming Satellarknight Sirius in The New Challengers, but the difference between Sirius and Emeral is that you can never dead draw Emeral. While you won’t be ending a combo or making an aggressive push with Emeral, he is a good Main Phase 2 summon as well as an amazing option to summon when you Soul Charge back multiple monsters. I believe that the ability to give yourself infinite Altairs and Delteros is too good to pass up.

Chain is also uncommon in OCG Satellarknight decks, but his ability to send Deneb to grave and stack Altair or Vega to the top of the deck is certainly a strong first turn play. Opening with Vega and Deneb means you can search your Altair, then stack Vega to guarantee a Delteros on the following turn. Chain can also dump a Myrmeleo to the grave for Call of the Haunted or Soul Charge plays.

My build of Satellarknights is meant to maximize on its ability to play during the opponent’s turn and using my turn to build continuous advantage. This is evident in the use of both Duality and Upstart Goblin, as well as a number of cards that allow me to get a Satellarknight summon on the opponent’s turn. A typical first turn involves me summoning Deneb, Altair, Myrmeleo, or in some cases, Lavalval Chain to set up a powerful play to perform during either my second turn or during my opponent’s first turn. This not only plays around threats like an enemy Castel or Silent Honor ARK, but also makes it so that a Shaddoll player cannot use cards from his Deck as material for Shaddoll Fusion. I would like to mention here that I have not chosen to run the Artifact engine in this deck, as I believe this deck simply cannot afford to dead draw Artifact Moralltach. While it does aid tremendously by giving this deck a stronger defense and ability to play during the opponent’s turn, Moralltach ends up being dead weight more often than not.

I also feel the necessity to justify running only two copies of Stellarnova Alpha. Almost all winning Satellarknight decks in the OCG run three of them, so why do I opt for two? While it is an extremely powerful card, it has a very difficult condition to fulfill, and is therefore dead in multiples. Satellarknights will very rarely end a turn with more than a single “tellarknight” monster on the field, meaning that only one Stellarnova Alpha will be live. As basic Yu-Gi-Oh! theory states, “a card that you can’t use at the moment is a -1 for as long as you can’t use it.” Since the goal of my build of Satellarknights is to float and overwhelm the enemy in advantage, the risk of drawing dead copies of Stellarnova Alpha is simply too great. It is for this exact reason that I ended up cutting my copy of Traptrix Dionaea that I had been running – it was simply dead in hand for too long if Myrmeleo didn’t hit the grave, despite the fact that it worked amazingly when it did. That is not to say that you shouldn’t run three copies of Stellarnova Alpha; in fact, I strongly encourage people to prove me wrong, as if you do, then we will have gained a crucial piece of knowledge for all Satellarknight players.

The Shaddoll matchup is among the most difficult for Satellarknights, as the recyclable Shaddoll Fusion forces us to use our non-recyclable Stellarnova Alpha. On top of that, Stellarnova Alpha is unable to negate Super Polymerization, so even our floating boss monster is likely to be sucked into an El Shaddoll Construct (formerly known as Nephilim). It is mainly for the Shaddoll matchup that I have maindecked Breakthrough Skill and Time-Space Trap Hole. Games 2 and 3, I will often side in Deep Dark Trap Hole and Soul Drain to prevent the enemy from getting plays off. A Cairngorgon on the field with Soul Drain (or alternatively, Dimensional Fissure) face-up means that your opponent will have a hard time getting rid of your floodgates.

A Satellarknight player should always be aware of floodgate cards, as nearly every floodgate card in the game can stop the deck. Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos will stop Unukalhai plays, Vanity’s Emptiness will stop Altair and Vega dead in their tracks, and El Shaddoll Winda makes it excruciatingly difficult to get an Xyz monster on the field. Flying “C” has also seen increasingly high amounts of play as of the 2014 NAWCQ, and we have a limited number of outs to it, including Book of Moon, Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute, or just attacking into an opponent with Flying “C” itself. If you’re feeling really daring, you could even try siding Transmodify against Flying “C” to turn it into a Myrmeleo. (Note: I strongly advise against doing this).

I would like to conclude this article by tying in with a beautiful piece of theory from Magic: The Gathering, interpreted into Yu-Gi-Oh! terms by Samuel Pedigo. This deck should almost never have to rush to win. In other words, this deck is very rarely the aggressor role. The theory of “Who’s the Beatdown?” assigns one of two roles to both players in a card game: the one in control, and the one who needs to aggress. The one in control is in no hurry to win, as the game will result in his victory if he keeps the gamestate as it is. The aggressor, however, needs to win before the controller does, as he is on a clock of sorts. An example that the Pedigo article gave was if an X-Saber player uses Gold Sarcophagus to banish Rescue Cat, then the opponent knows that he only has two more turns before the X-Saber player will gain an tremendous advantage, and should therefore try to end the game before those two turns are up. An even more recent example: if Lightsworn Rulers end their turn and mill two Eclipse Wyverns and a Dragon Ruler, then you know you absolutely must win during your next turn because when the Lightsworn player’s turn comes around again, you are most certainly going to lose. You have to be the aggressor, or the “beatdown.”

To put this into more familiar terms, say Player A is in control of a game with a Summoned Skull on the board and no cards in hand. Player B has no cards on the field or in hand. Player A is very clearly in the role of the controller this game, even though he is technically playing an aggro deck. Player A attacks Player B with Summoned Skull, reducing Player B’s Life Points to 3000. Player B draws, sets a card in his Spell/Trap Zone, and ends his turn. Player A draws into a Beaver Warrior, and summons it in hopes of rushing down his opponent. Player B responds with Torrential Tribute! Player A is then never able to recover, and Player B begins gaining advantage turn after turn until Player A has lost. What happened in that situation? Player A mis-assigned his role. He did not need to take on the role of the aggressor, and his misjudgment cost him the game.

Now, back to Satellarknights and how this is relevant to us. If we have a Delteros on board destroying card by card every turn and gaining advantage, then we know that we’re in control. We don’t have to try and combo off again. We don’t have to get greedy and try and go for a double Delteros victory. We just have to sit on that one Delteros, attacking for 2500 a turn, destroying cards when necessary, because we know that no matter what the opponent does in this position, they’re going to have to deal with this Delteros, the monster Delteros summons to replace itself, AND all the cards that we’ve been holding onto.

However, even though Satellarknights are a control deck by nature, it is important to know when we must become the aggressor. If the opponent has opened with an El Shaddoll Winda, we know that unless we do something about it now, we’re going to just keep losing monsters and Life Points until we end up losing the game. If we’re facing Sylvans who have used Kuribandit to set up a grave full of trees and get a Soul Charge to their hand, then it’s time to get as much damage as we possibly can onto the field, and fast. This means making plays that we wouldn’t usually make if we were in control – we would aggressively attack with our smaller Satellarknights, summon back the same Satellarknight multiple times in the same turn, or using Skybridge just to get in that extra 1800 with Unukalhai, summon Honest to attack,or even in some situations, desperately making Ouroboros to try and discard that Soul Charge. While the deck certainly lacks OTK combos, it can definitely take on the role of the aggressor.

With that, I wish you a happy Duelist Alliance season. Thanks so much for reading this article to the end! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And as for the title of this article? It’s because the deck is commonly referred to as “NutellaKnights.” I just love that nickname.

Sources cited:

Mike Flores – Who’s the Beatdown? (http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/3692_Whos_The_Beatdown.html)

Samuel Pedigo – Article: Applying MtG Concepts to Yu-Gi-Oh (http://duelistgroundz.com/index.php?showtopic=161296)

OCG Decklists via XPG (ocg.xpg.jp)