Satellarknight Fragrance

Currently, Nekroz is the most powerful deck: It dominated YCS Tacoma. Now, there are two options: Play Nekroz and configure your deck to beat Nekroz, or play another deck and configure it to beat Nekroz, while surviving against the other powerful decks of the format.

Satellarknights were not present in the Top 32 at YCS Tacoma. I have a soft spot for this deck, so I was thinking of how this deck could stand up to Nekroz on a consistent basis. Sure enough, I found the answer… For all those budget players, I present: Satellarknight Fragrance

3 deneb, 3 altair, 2 vega, 1 unukalhai, 1 kagetokage

3 upstart goblin, 3 rota, 3 magic planter, 2 MST, 1 snatch steal, 1 raigeki

3 call of the haunted, 3 emptiness, 3 stellarnova alpha, 3 anti-spell fragrance, 1 oasis of dragon souls, 2 fiendish chain, 2 dimensional prison

2 triverr, 2 delteros, 2 diamond, 2 castel, 1 abyss dweller, 1 dark rebellion xyz dragon, 1 gagaga cowboy, 1 rhapsody in berserk, 1 exciton knight, 1 cairnorgan, 2 more empty spots

Anti-Spell Fragrance is the tech of today’s deck. Here’s how this individual card fairs against the current meta:

-          Nekroz: They have to set their ritual spells a turn. That can definitely shut them down.

-          Qliphorts: They can’t put Pendulum monsters in Pendulum zones. Any other crucial spells like Saqlifice have to wait a turn.

-          Burning Abyss: Unfortunately, it doesn’t hurt this deck too much. They do play spells, but their spells can wait a turn, in most cases.

-          Shaddolls: They play a lot of spells, and much like Nekroz, this will slow them down.

-          Satellarknights: Like Burning Abyss, it won’t hurt too much, but it can be annoying to the opponent.

This deck may also be a little more consistent than other Satellarknight decks, thanks to Magic Planter. For those who don’t know, you send a continuous trap to the graveyard to draw 2 cards. This is good when you want to remove Emptiness, or any floating continuous trap. This deck also plays a fair amount of traps, which is quite necessary in this particular deck.

Satellarknights isn’t a deck that requires a ton of thought, but there are some nasty combos.

-          You get a first turn anti-spell fragrance active, and the opponent sets most of their hand (presumably because they have a bunch of spells). An annoying play is making a Triverr. It will bounce all of those cards, and Fragrance. That way, you can immediately active Fragrance when the turn ends, and the opponent will probably lose another turn. This could be coined as the “Triverr/Fragrance Soft-Lock”.

-          You use Magic Planter on your own Anti-Spell Fragrance to use spells you just drew, like Snatch Steal, Raigeki or something as simple as ROTA to accelerate your play.

This deck has a few inherent negatives, obviously. Drawing the Fragrance late game might be too late. Going first is optimal, and going second isn’t as optimal. What’s nice about this, though, is a lot of decks are choosing to go second, which could work in this deck’s favour. As well, Satellarknights always struggled when bricking: Too many monsters, or not enough monsters, or no Deneb.

When Diamond was released in Secrets of Eternity, Satellarknights regained a spot as a Tier 1 deck, in my opinion. It was even able to win ARG Forth Worth, which is an accomplishment. However, Nekroz seemed to wash away the deck (no pun intended). I feel Anti-Spell Fragrance is an answer, as well as good side-deck choices to follow-up.

Let me know what you thank, and let me know what similar ideas you have. I will test out the deck against the current meta decks and hopefully generate some positive results. Thanks for reading!