Raye and crew is part of the unfortunate club that suffers for the sins of the "Tear Zero" meta. All the anti-GY techs and new cards absolutely destroy any Sky Striker strategy since GY manipulation is the best way to counter Tearlaments. Bystial, Ishizu, all hard counter our favorite mech pilot Raye since they easily manipulate the GY, rendering her powerless and defenseless.
The Mystic Mine ban from the recent banlist proved to be the final nail in the coffin for competitive Sky Striker, losing their strong tool to slow down the meta which moves incredibly fast - way too fast for even Sky Striker cards to catch up.
HOWEVER, adversity forces dedicated Sky Striker players to let go of their crutches holding them back from truly skilled gameplay (I personally think Mystic Mine was a crutch :3) and it allows for some creativity to shine forth!
After a lot of brainstorming, Runick Sky Striker is the best idea I can come up with! Combining Sky Striker's control + resource generation with Runick's make for a extremely potent grindy deck! Since Sky Striker and Runick excel in a long grind game of resources, a combination of both of their strategies push each other to competitive viability! (I'm not coping I swear lmao)
Borrowing some ideas from earlier Runick Sky Striker lists established online, I made and tested my own list that best fits the current meta.
This deck is a variant of my earlier Runick strategy, "A Beginner's Guide to Naturia Runick," feel free to check it out for the full guide!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
There are no straightforward combos with Runick Sky Striker. Your gameplan is hand dependent, and your win condition solely is out-resourcing your opponent with your Runick Fountain's +3 draw and Sky Striker's Engage and Multirole. If played properly and correctly, you should be able to control your opponent to death, and even deck them out.
Sky Striker's usual win condition of OTKing with Accesscode Talker or Linkage is usually unavailable with Runick, since the strategy skips your battle-phase, so your games generally tend to be a long-winded game of control and resources - one where Runick and Striker excels in.
The general set-up is establish Runick Fountain coupled with Multirole and Engage in rotation. With Runick Fountain, Multirole and Engage cycling every turn, you should be drawing 5 cards (3 with fountain and 2 with engage), recycling GY Sky Striker spells, and slowly but surely decking out your opponent until they surrender!
Start by summoning Hugin with any Runick quick-play spell. Get your +1-3 draw with Runick Fountain, then somehow summon the appropriate Sky Striker Ace in your Extra Monster Zone. If you have Linkage, you can use your Runick monster to summon a Sky Striker Ace (usually Kagari or Shizuku).
Set-up Multirole as well, since it effectively recycles your Sky Striker GY spells everyturn.
Although not ideal, you can also go for a purely milling strategy using Runick Allure. That card absolutely slaughters opponent's decks since Runick Sky Striker uses many quick play spells per turn. During testing, I found Allure to be a "win-more" card, and it didn't really contribute much to the gamestate/win condition of resources. The opponent would surrender knowing they will run out of resources much earlier than they would actually deck out due to Runick Allure. That's why I put Runick Allure and Munin in the side-deck.
GENERAL TIPS
- If your opponent attempts to negate/remove Hugin with a targeting effect (ex. Imperm or Veiler), you can use Linkage to dodge the negate and summon a Sky Striker Ace.
- Before recycling your Runick spells in your GY with Runick Fountain's draw effect, try to use your Sky Striker cards first since the GY is packed with spells - turning on your additional Sky Striker effects.
- Sky Striker Eagle Booster works wonders for this deck - it allows you to dodge OTKs, renders your monster nigh invincible in the Extra Monster Zone for a turn, allows you to dodge negation - etc. Remember, it can be also used to protect your Runick monsters!
- Remember that Runick Fountain can draw cards during your turn AND your opponent's turn! You can theoretically draw 6 cards before it's your turn again (given you have proper GY and hand set-up)! Remember to keep the GY and hand in mind when you use Runick spells.
- Ishizu shufflers effectively shut down Runick Fountain's draw effect since it targets Runick spells in GY to shuffle back into your deck. Try to clear your opponent's GY shufflers with cards like Sky Striker Shark Cannon before attempting to activate Fountain's effect!
- Runick spells skip only 1 Battle Phase - the Battle Phase is still an option for finishing off your opponent's life points. If your opponent has no more resources and you can attack for game, you can still enter the battle phase after you've skipped one earlier to finish off your opponent!
- Decks that counter Tearlaments are usually also bad match-ups for this deck - like Floowandereeze and Dracoslayers (the variant that turbos out Necrovalley). Be sure to side appropriately for those match-ups. Luckily, this deck naturally outs anti-GY floodgates like Macro Cosmos, Necrovalley and Dimension Fissure with Runick and Sky Striker spells.
CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
I WILL USE SKY STRIKER EVERY FORMAT!!! Even when Raye isn't competitively viable anymore, I WILL FIND A WAY TO PLAY SKY STRIKER!!!
I know I'm coping hard (Lets face it, this deck is still a fragile "glass cannon"), but this deck is fairly terrifying when it gets going, using two quick play toolboxes to counter every threat my opponent comes up with. Need to negate a monster on the field? -> Widow Anchor and Freezing Curses! Need to destroy a card on the field? -> Afterburners and Flashing Fire! Need to protect your own card? -> Eagle Booster and Slumber!
I also find it thematically cool that instead of Sky Striker fighting for you, you're actually fighting ALONGSIDE Raye, since Runick implies you're the warrior on the field battling your opponent. So cool! Time to live out your favourite Elder Scrolls/DOOMSLAYER fantasy!
If you have any questions feel free to ask them below! Remember, Raye is Bae! (Even when the meta sucks for her)
GLHF Duelists!
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