Sky Striker Enjoyers: Help Me Pilot These Girls

[President Jyrgunkarrd]

I like this deck.

I don't understand this deck.


- Am I supposed to run the 5-6 star monsters that can special summon themselves via discarding spells? I've been running them and they seem to work okay, but I have this feeling they are not really optimal.

- The archetype looks inherent tools to just deal with face up spells / traps. Am I supposed to add non-Sky Striker spells to cover this gap? The deck doesn't seem to have much space for adding that kind of thing.

- The deck seems to lack stamina? Like... it wants me, I think, to swap out the link monsters semi-regularly... but has no inherent ability to put the link monsters back in the extra deck. Is there an established way to cover this gap, or do you just run it knowing it will eventually run out of gas?

- Do you use the HAMP? I've been using it, but it feels clunky at times.

- I am very sure I am missing how to properly use Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage! I dislike that if I use it to swap link monsters it is depleting a resource I can't regenerate, and I just can't see other good targets for it. How do you use this card?

[Unknown Samurai]

By the high level cards, do you mean the lore accurate robo family for Raye? If so, no. In my opinion all you need is 3 copies of Raye and 1 roze.

As for the Kaiju style card that works like a kaiju, that's up to you, it's a searchable kaiju but requires controlling a monster so you can't open with it, which is why I prefer regular kaijus, plus it's easier for kagari to beat over a 2200 gamaceil than a 2500 HAMP.

I just use generic spell slop, but upstart goblin, triple tactics thrusts and other board breakers like feather duster, raigeki and lighting storm are really good.

The flow for link monsters is usually to attack with hayate to drop something useful, kagari to pick it up, then shizuku to lower their monsters during their turn. Having a Kaine will help during your opponent's battle phase to help stall a bit longer. Assuming they break your board. Camilla and temperance are useful, but only in certain cases.

If you don't like HAMP, just use a normal kaiju.

Linkage is really good for combo plays, and is needed for the OTK, example: summon raye, attack, quick effect from raye, summon hayate, drop roze, linkage kagari, add back linkage, attack, linkage shizuku and attack for game.
It's also useful if someone ash's or negates a board breaker turning it into a dead card, you might as well use linkage to profit off it.

Pot of avarice is useful for recycling link monsters if a duel goes on for long enough.

Edit: oh also worth noting. I see it as a going second deck. You can go first and setup widow anchors and stuff, but there's not much to do on turn 1. So evenly matched its a pretty fun option.

[JayDee Phoenix]

Summon Raye. Get on knees and start worshiping and praying to Raye. Lose to time out. Repeat. Don't link off Raye ever otherwise you are a heretic.

[76561198954155998]

Sky Striker's main monsters typically just run 3x Raye and maybe 1-2 copies of Roze

In terms of spells, people tend to run generic spells alongside the Sky Striker spells since Kagari and Shizuku get affected by how many Spells, in GENERAL, are in the GY

HAMP is kinda meh, you're better off running just a regular Kaiju instead

[Papa Shekels]

The sages aren't really that good for the modern way to play the deck. I'd encourage you to experiment with them a bit if you want, just to see why exactly they don't fit. Cyanos is the only one I'd really recommend using because it has some good extension power.

I personally run multiples of afterburners to make it easier to deal with backrow, and in TCG I side in jamming waves for the more backrow reliant matchups as well. I would say it's a good idea to run some other backrow removal as well - you have duster, heavy storm, lightning storm, and thrust to search all of those. Thrust should be an auto-include in the deck anyway since it gets you either a board breaker or engage depending on what you need.

The deck would really benefit from an in-archetype way of recycling names, but right now it's at a point where you usually have enough. Make sure to run 3 kagari and 2-3 shizuku, and that should be enough for most matchups if you optimize your plays. However, pot of avarice is unironically a good card to have in the deck, there is a good chance to draw into even one copy of it if you manage to get your engine going and resolve multiple engage.

I would use at least one HAMP. Having a searchable kaiju is VERY useful for the deck and may be your only win condition in some matchups. Because basically everything in the deck targets and destroys, going up against something with high stats and protection can be a nightmare to deal with, and this solves the problem easily. Most people also don't play around it from my experience so if you happen to draw it, it can catch them off guard.

Linkage is one of the more complex cards in the deck, but most of the time you will be using it to either get value out of dead cards or push for damage. There are some tricky things you can do though like chain widow anchor to linkage in order to immediately send away a stolen monster for your own, or using it with kagari to dodge a targeted negate

[G3]

You guys are making me miss Raye. Going have to play the deck again for a while. Also, am I crazy for running the equip spell for recycling instead of Pot of Avarice? Being able to search it over hard drawing the card is why I use it.

[Papa Shekels]

Originally posted by G3:

You guys are making me miss Raye. Going have to play the deck again for a while. Also, am I crazy for running the equip spell for recycling instead of Pot of Avarice? Being able to search it over hard drawing the card is why I use it.

Honestly, I've looked at hercules base a few times but it never felt worth it to have something that requires multiple other cards to accomplish anything. It just has a bit too much anti-synergy with the other cards - you can't send it away with linkage because having an equip means you should already have a monster in the emz. Unless you put it on an opponent's monster, which feels like a really mixed bag. An equip that requires having no monsters in the mmz is just a bit of a silly concept imo. Avarice is a bit bricky but it feels much better to resolve and to have as a thrust target

[JayDee Phoenix]

Why isn't anyone worshipping Raye? Y'all heretics.

[Otto]

Yeah, for the most part, the sages really aren't that good. I've been running Ciela, largely because she enables extending off a cliff and activating the same copy of Engage three times in a turn (most will scoop by this point). It's not that good, but really funny (I don't have the UR mats for triple upstart, so I have three Toon Table, usually giving me a spell to discard).

As to the rest of the points: others have addressed them better than I would have, so I'd kinda be beating a dead horse. Will vouch for Avarice over Herc tho. The equip is just clunky for recovery.

[TNBXIII]

OMG I love Raye!
In all seriousness, Sky Striker is a deck that does better going second, but you need to run board breakers, similar to tenpai. You run 3 Raye no questions. I run 2 roze, but that is because I use Cyanos at 3. I use it to bait handtraps, and is an easy link 2 when not negated. HAMP is amazing to deal with monsters that cannot be outed by normal means, it is searchable and run at 1. Run multiroll at 1 to recycle spells, I run linkage at three because I can chain it to the other cards,
Sky Striker is a deck that requires a lot of practice, put in the work and you will see how fun it is.
Do not run the sages, they are bad.

[Dr. Spleen]

its definitely a deck that you need to practice until you get how it flow, run lots of board breaker like raigeki, dark hole, lightning,RODA. Hand traps, imperm because you need to block the board or it will be very hard for you to make a comback. Your finisher is mostly going to be mobilized which you need both ray and roze to be in the grave, hayato is good for putting stuff in the grave especially roze. If possible you would want widow anchor on your board as much as possible. Don't worry about resource depletion since the deck is not design for long game, you either win or you lose from resource depletion or opponents, pot of avarice is there if you really worry about resource but i never had to use it since my game usually finish before i need it.