Striker Expansion - Engage!
Konami's latest Speed Duel Main Box, Striker Expansion has entered the arena, bringing a lot of whiplash along with it. Bringing along support for a variety of old decks that needed them. T.G. gets its boosters throttled with the addition of Loading... , 2 new Extra Decks Monster AND a fantastic skill to make them almost never brick. Evil Eye, Dream Mirrors, and Gladiator Beasts get even more new cards, coming off as an extension from their latest Deck Build Box. The Selection Pack exclusives Loading... and Loading... finally become more easily accessible without money. And a few more bits of support for Gouki, Stardust/Synchron, and Cyberse Decks. Oh, and did I mention we got ANOTHER HANDTRAP?
A deck most people weren't expecting to ever come into Duel Links (unless you look at leaks), Sky Striker, make their debut in this set. Striker is, no doubt, one of the most popular and well known Non-Anime Archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh, mainly due to 2 things: It's historical reign of terror being one of the best decks of all time, and the cute anime girl in Loading... and her forms. But as we all know, decks that were historically amazing in the TCG/OCG are pretty 50/50 when it comes to Duel Links. They're either complete utter terrors like Orcust and Salamangreat, or they're just... fine, like Shaddolls and Kozmo. The question is, how will Strikers fair in this format?
"Oh my God, yes, I love Sky Striker, I would die for Loading... . This support card is going to change my life and it's going to be the best card ever."
- Joshua Schmidt, YGO World Champion
Quick Lore/Background of the archetype: I'm not gonna sugar coat it, here's the entire Sky Striker Manga for you to read online. I ain't reading allat 😂
Sky Striker, is a Control Deck that aims to generate advantage, dismantle boards, and snowball in power through the sheer amount of grind game they have in their archetype. But that's just every other control deck, right? Well, Striker's main gimmick is that the deck revolves entirely around its Pilot, Loading... , and using her weapons/tools and abilities (the Spell Cards) perfectly to achieve a winning game state. The deck is focused on Spell cards, as almost all the cards in the Archetype are Spells. Each spell providing effects that gain you massive advantage over the opponent, whether it be through destroying their boards, or just by drawing you a lot of cards. Most importantly, the spells can become overloaded, gaining additional effects if you use them with 3 or more Spells in your GY! Making the deck very explosive if you can manage to hit this threshold as soon as possible.
But be careful! The Spells can only be used if you DON'T have a Monster in the Main Monster Zones, meaning that the monster you control have to be in the Extra Monster Zone for the game. With the proper decisions and tactics made, the deck is easily able to overcome and overwhelm any Deck it faces off against.
For convenience sake, I'll be calling the Link Monsters "Aces" in this guide.
The one and only currently available striker, Raye!
The most important card of the deck. Raye is currently the only way you get access to your Aces. With her effects, she can basically invalidate your opponent's backrow and interactions. Her quick-effect to tag out perfectly dodges cards like Loading... or Loading... , while giving you access to your Extra Deck Aces. Oh? Your opponent removes the Sky Striker Link you summoned instead? Cool, because Raye can revive herself from the GY if a Striker Link you control gets removed by battle or an opponent's card effect! Although the quick-effect is once per turn, you can just Link Summon an Ace normally once Raye comes back to the Field. Most notably, you'll most likely be using the quick-effect once more on your opponent's turn when they destroy the initial Ace to summon either a Loading... for card advantage or a Loading... for more safety in the Battle Phase.
Unfortunately, this does make the deck vulnerable to a card such as Loading... or an opposing Loading... , as Raye in the GY becomes a pretty big weakspot for the deck.
The currently only obtainable Ace, Shizuku!
The most useful ace, a strong monster for resource generation. Shizuku adds a Sky Striker Spell from your Deck to Hand with a different name from ones currently in your GY during the End Phase of the turn it is summoned. you will always be ending on this turn 1, as it will be a crucial tool in order to have access to Engage on your next turn. There will also be some scenarios where you'll summon Shizuku during the opponent's turn over Kaina, and that does also trigger her effect to add a card. Also, always remember that Shizuku has to be on field if you want to search during the End Phase.
Shizuku has a strong Field Effect as well, reducing the ATK/DEF of your opponent's monsters by 100 for every spell in your GY. This will be a cheat code letting you survive some games that you shouldn't be surviving in. The later the game goes on, the more devastating this will be.
The Skill Locked Cards
Quick segway to the skill, since the next most important card of the deck is locked behind it.
