Hey everyone!
At the time I started writing this, my final round in the Minnesota Yu-Gi-Oh! Alliance’s Online Link Evolution Tournament for May 2020 had just wrapped up with me taking the L in the final round for 2nd place. Shout-out to the ultimate winner of the whole thing, Robert, who, as you probably know by now, took the tournament by storm with an awesome Gravekeeper deck, which was probably one of the hardest counters possible for my deck, which relies heavily on Graveyard recursion. Congratulations to him for winning the whole thing and showing off how effective the old archetype can still be.
Anyways, for full disclosure, I felt like sharing the full decklist I used for this tournament. And, because I'm the keyboard equivalent of a windbag sometimes and haven't done one of these before, I figured I'd also just spill my general post-tournament thoughts out regarding this deck. Spoilers: it turned out to be way longer than I had intended at first (long enough to warrant its own blog post, as you can see.) So, if you just want the decklist, it's at the very, VERY end waiting for you. Or in that picture up above but, ya know, tiny pictures are tiny. But whether you're here for that or choose to indulge me and my inane ramblings, I cannot thank you enough for clicking on the web page. It means a lot.
Now, time for ramblings. Obviously, I brought a Salamangreat deck to this tournament but, fun fact: this almost wasn't my deck. I was initially planning on bringing my HEROs, because of course I was, but then I noticed that at some point I had gotten all the cards I needed to build a Salamangreat deck. I looked up some decklists, threw together a rough draft, got about 4 rage quits online in one day and suddenly I was stressing about what to side in this deck instead. Now I can safely say I understand why Salad is so good after all the hits it took (even in the modern online format while we live in the era of Eldlich and Adamancipators but that's a topic for another day), and that's what I'm gonna be talking about here in regards to this deck: the good, the bad and what I would change in the future.
Part 1 - Where I Think This Deck Slaps
So one of the reasons why I love this deck so much is how easily it can recur its most key cards, which is especially important because of how good most of those cards actually are.
Salamangreat Roar, for starters, is a wonderful little Infernity Barrier clone in that it negates everything short of summoning as long as you have a Salamangreat Link monster on the field, which isn't exactly hard to accomplish for the deck, and is arguably the number 1 reason why the deck is as good as it is because of how abusable it is. Of course, you can reset this thing from the GY if you successfully Reincarnation Summon (which is the act of Link Summoning a monster with another copy of itself. Thanks, Yu-Gi-Oh Wiki!) with the caveat that it banishes itself when it leaves the field but, unless something goes absolutely wrong, you won't ever have to thanks to Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf.
Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf is perhaps just as key to this deck's success as Roar is because Reincarnation Summoning this thing lets you add a Salamangreat Spell or Trap from your GY to your hand. Yep, as long as you have access to Sunlight Wolf's effect and a copy of Roar in your GY, you're pretty much always gonna have the Counter Trap at your fingertips. And, as an added bonus, if a monster is Summoned to a zone it points to, Sunlight Wolf can add a Fire monster from the Graveyard to your hand. This is great for recycling another key Salamangreat card, Gazelle (who I'll be talking about in a bit here), but another cool thing I like about it is that it doesn't stop at just Salamangreat monsters meaning if, for some reason, you don't need to get the Gazelle back from the Graveyard, you can bring back something like an Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring you had used previously. It's no wonder this card was as hyped as it was when Savage Strike was released.
Of course, the issue can sometimes be getting Roar in the GY in the first place (although obviously, if the thing is already in your hand, yippee) but that's where Salamangreat Gazelle comes in, who can send any Salamangreat card from your Main Deck to the GY upon its summon. And it is a very easy card to summon, requiring only a Salamangreat monster to hit the GY which, with how often Salamangreats use themselves as materials or even discard themselves, is bound to happen at some point. And frankly, even with it being limited to one copy per deck, thanks to Sunlight Wolf, it can still be used again and again for future plays (though you won't be able to do anything else with them for the rest of the turn when you get it back.) So one turn you might be sending Roar to the Graveyard, the next you might be sending Salamangreat Rage, another pretty decent trap not really worth mentioning here, or cards like Foxy, Jack Jaguar, or Falco to the Graveyard who have good effects while in the Graveyard.
Foxy, for instance, may be able to excavate the top 3 cards of the deck and add a Salamangreat card from there, which is nice and all, but I'm more fond of its Graveyard effect where, if there's a face-up Spell or Trap, it can Special Summon itself by discarding a Salamangreat card which, again, can trigger Gazelle. Admittedly, I wish it could use both its effects in the same turn but it's still good enough to run 3 of.
Jack Jaguar isn't a 3 of itself but still an important cog in the Salamangreat machine, being able to Special Summon itself while also making sure you never run out of cards like Sunlight Wolf by shuffling them back into the deck. I ran 2 because it was absolutely a card I wanted to discard and get in the Graveyard as soon as possible. Or, if need be, use the one copy of Foolish Burial on it. The 1800 Attack and piercing damage was nice too but obviously not at all why it was so good.
But all that recursion would be a pipedream if it weren't for two cards: Salamangreat Balelynx and Salamangreat Sanctuary. Sanctuary being the Field Spell that streamlines Reincarnation Summoning by allowing Salamangreats to use themselves as the WHOLE material, and Balelynx being an easy to bring out Link-1 monster who searches Sanctuary out from the deck, which is why you only ever need to run one copy of Sanctuary. The two go hand in hand. In addition, Balelynx also acts as another layer of, honestly, much-needed protection for the Salamangreat archetype by way of banishing itself when a Salamangreat card(s) would be destroyed, so I ran 2 of that card just for that as well. And, I gotta say, all that plus it being an adorable kitty cat makes it probably my favorite card in this deck.
In fact, the deck being so resourceful means it only needs to run one copy of Roar as well, meaning the deck itself is actually quite compactable, allowing it plenty of space to run a plethora of other cards. Cards like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and, of course, the Solemn cards, which just adds another layer of negation on top of the Roar, Rage, and Balelynx. With all these layers of protection and negation, Salamangreats, when played correctly, excel at whittling down the opponent's resources and, if not 100% defending their board, at least keeping the opponent from getting to their win condition if all goes well.
And if when it's time to close in for the kill, this deck has two big guns in particular that it likes to bring out: Salamangreat Pyro Phoenix, which basically acts like a board wipe when Reincarnation Summoned (kinda similar to Judgement Dragon) and Borreload Dragon, the latter in particular being deadly when brought out with Update Jammer who, if used as Link Material, allows the monster it brings out to attack TWICE during the Battle Phase! AND it can steal an opponent's monster when it attacks it, which is sent to the Graveyard at the End Phase. Not destroyed! Just sent! So Borreload can take your wall for himself w/o destroying it and STILL attack you directly. (Are you jelly, Borrelsword?)
So yeah, you could say playing against Salamangreats, for the most part, is a slow burn but one that can lead to an explosive end if you're not careful...
... *snicker* Sorry. I had to get at least one fire joke in there somewhere.
That's all pretty much the gist of this deck and why I love it so much, but there are other cool things about the deck I don't think anyone has the time to watch me go on about like how Will of the Salamangreat is a free Special Summon that can also turn into a Soul Charge (hence why I ran 3), how cards like Cynet Mining and Flame Bufferlo's costs become beneficial thanks to Gazelle, how Heatleo is non-destructive Spell and Trap removal that doesn't even need to be Reincarnation Summoned- Augh, see? Stop me there! This is absolutely one of my favorite decks to come out in recent times and I'm so glad it's still good today.
Good... but not unbeatable...
Part 2 - Where This Deck Doesn't Slap Quite As Hard
So some of the cards I included in my Extra Deck include Borreload Dragon (paired with Update Jammer) and Transcode Talker, the former because, among other things, he stronk, and the latter because he could Special Summon Sunlight Wolf from the grave, give it some protection from targetting and also boost its kinda low attack of 1800 to 2300. And that kind of points to a major problem with the deck - it may be able to whittle away the opponent's resources with a ton of negations... but it also can't attack for much. Pretty much all of the Salamangreats I used were rather low in terms of attacking. The highest was Pyro Phoenix at 2800, who I didn't use much because he just didn't come up as often in certain games. Usually, Salamangreats can control the board well enough for that to not be an issue but, on the off chance they can't, it's not hard to beat over them.
It's also rare that this deck pulls off an OTK because of how physically weak its monsters are. Just to give you an idea: A board that includes Transcode Talker co-linked with Pyro Phoenix and has a fresh from the grave Jack Jaguar is just 100 points away from completely KOing the opponent. And that's one of the few not-so-easy boards for Salamangreats to set up. Now, having said that, Salamangreats aren't SUPPOSED to OTK. Again, they whittle the opponent down to the point where they can finish them off. But sometimes the cards just aren't with you and your defences can only be so effective, meaning your opponent manages to break through them all. Don't get me wrong, it's usually kinda hard to do... but, as Robert was able to prove, sometimes it's not all THAT hard.
Speaking of which, while this IS more of a matchup issue, Salamangreats are super reliant on the Graveyard for most of its plays. Most decks these days are, admittedly, but it's especially true here. Cut off its access to the Graveyard or banish its key cards from there and suddenly the entire deck turns to embers. (Yeah yeah, another fire joke. I'm sorry...) It's a big part of why Gravekeepers are as effective against this deck as they were during this tournament! If Necrovalley goes up, Salamangreats are gonna have to do a merry little dance just to be able to make their plays again. And if Gravekeeper's Supernaturalist is on the field... well, I hope you sided in a Kaiju. And as an aside, as someone who also plays HEROes, I do not wanna imagine using this deck against Masked HERO Dark Law...
Part 3 - What I Would Change About My Decklist
So, again, I ended up getting second place with this deck and, after going over its highs and lows, I think this is a deck I'm definitely going to use more in the future, even in in-person tournaments.... with some minor alterations. I’m not planning on getting a playset of Lightning Storm anytime soon with how expensive just one copy of that card is but there are also some other, minor tweaks I’m planning on too. What would those tweaks be? Well, for starters, reducing a few cards by 1. Flame Bufferlo and Lady Debug are pretty decent cards to have in this deck and I'd keep them around but, even before this tournament began, I was noticing they tended to be less than useful cards from time to time. Don’t get me wrong, neither of them were bad cards, just… a bit too situational to be run as three ofs/two ofs.
I think Flame Bufferlo is the better of the two. Sure, it isn't a searcher like Lady Debug but it does draw cards and quite often - not always but seriously quite often - triggers Salamangreat Gazelle's Special Summoning effect by discarding a Salad card, basically turning its cost into momentum... I hope I'm using that term correctly. Plus, unlike Lady Debug, it was Fire Attribute so it also could be used as Link Material for more Salads than just Balelynx if it came down to it. But Flame Bufferlo's only as good as the rest of the cards in my hand. If I had no other Cyberse's or just the Gazelle, it didn't really do anything. Sure, maybe it got out a Balelynx but that's not a monster you want left out on the field if you can help it. And then there's that moment where you have two Flame Bufferlo in your hand and nothing else. Sure, you COULD potentially draw into something good to continue your turn from there or get some more protection cards like the Solemns but that's not something to rely on. And since it ate up my Normal Summon for the turn, it was more likely I would draw something that wasn't helpful in the slightest.
And then there's Lady Debug. Again, she was only as good as the cards already in my hand, I noticed, which is ironic given that she's usually guaranteed to add a card from deck to hand just by existing. The problem is, without any reliable method of Special Summoning her, she was also a card that ate up a Normal Summon. So the ideal situation with Lady Debug was I had her and something like, say, Salamangreat Spinny in my hand. Then I got to Normal Summon her, add the Gazelle off of her effect, summon Balelynx, add Sanctuary, discard the Spinny, summon Gazelle off its effect... you get the idea. But half the time, I didn't have those kinds of hands to work with for her since I didn't always have a way to discard a card and/or Special Summon anything in addition to Normal Summoning her. And honestly sometimes, even when I could, it wasn't the best play.
The Extra Deck, meanwhile, also could have used just a tiny bit of work. Now, I never did use cards like Abyss Dweller, but that's less Abyss Dweller's fault and more the decks I faced during this tournament. MAY have been helpful against Andy, admittedly, but, regardless, I wouldn't say I was wrong to add this card into the deck. It just never needed to come up. However, there is ONE card in my Extra Deck who, as much as I liked it, probably didn't need to be there: Topologic Zeroboros.
The idea behind Zeroboros was simple: it wasn't put in to lock the opponent out of summoning Link Monsters or anything, rather it was there because Salads can run Pot of Desires. With the 10 cards banished by Desires's effect, Zeroboros's Attack shot up from an already hard to beat 3000 to a nosebleed inducing 5000. And while I never used it for Zeroboros, it having generic and easy material requirements meant it could easily be brought out by Update Jammer and another Link-2 monster (Sunlightwolf, for instance) and be able to attack twice for a combined total of 10,000 potential Life Point damage.
Honestly, I'm getting excited just writing about Zeroboros... buuuut, in this deck, it's also pretty unnecessary. Especially since Borreload Dragon was also in the deck and, in most cases, is who I'd prefer to summon with Update Jammer, since it is a better form of removal by virtue of how it steals the opponent's monster and then sends them to the graveyard if the opponent somehow survives. It should also be highlighted that Borreload doesn't actually destroy said monster, it just sends it to the GY. So if there's any effect a monster might have that, say, triggers when it's destroyed specifically... well, it won't. Just another advantage, however small, that Borreload has over Zeroboros in that regard. So overall, fun idea! But it usually was just an unnecessary beat-stick and, if I could do it over again, I'd probably swap it out for something like Knightmare Cerberus or Big Moodska- er, I mean Bagooska.
Lastly, the Side Deck. I'm also sad to say that I'm not quite happy with the final cards I've chosen. Again, not pointing fingers at any cards just because I never used them but, in this case, I am regretting my decision to run Infinite Impermanence in the Side Deck. It's all fine and dandy going second, I suppose, but, now that I'm thinking about it, so is Dark Ruler No More and it does its job better in a lot of ways (preventing damage notwithstanding.) That doesn't mean Infinite Impermanence is outclassed by DRNM at all though. In fact, being a Trap Card, it can also be another form of negation, which is nice, and thus still be useful going first, something DRNM cannot claim. I guess when you get down to it, real problem with it here is it was absolutely placed in the wrong deck. It should have been a Main Deck card and should have been where the extra copies of Lady Debug, Flame Bufferlo and Jack Jaguar were. Jack Jaguar at 2 was fine and all and it let me see it more often, to be fair, but it's also perfectly serviceable at one. Overall, there was just a good number of fat in this deck that honestly could be cut in future events.
Part 4: Conclusion... Well, Except For the Decklist But Yeah
But, ya know? Even when I consider all the flaws I found in this deck and how I could have built it better, I still love it with all my soul and am extra glad I played it. It may not be the only deck I ever play in this group but this most certainly won't be the last time I use it. It's simple, yet has depth, effective, versatile, resilient... and it just looks awesome. Everything I love in a deck, basically.
It was awesome dueling with the MYA again and I'm looking forward to doing it again whenever we can. But for now, thank you all so much for the games, here below is the written decklist… and that's game! See you all next time, folks, and thanks for the fun duels!
Main Deck (40 Cards)
Monster (17 Cards):
- Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (x2)
- Flame Bufferlo (x3)
- Lady Debug (x2)
- Salamangreat Falco (x1)
- Salamangreat Foxy (x3)
- Salamangreat Gazelle (x1)
- Salamangreat Jack Jaguar (x2)
- Salamangreat Spinny (x3)
Spell (15 Cards):
- Called by the Grave (x3)
- Cynet Mining (x3)
- Foolish Burial (x1)
- Pot of Desires (x3)
- Salamangreat Circle (x1)
- Salamangreat Sanctuary (x1)
- Will of the Salamangreat (x3)
Trap (8 Cards):
- Salamangreat Rage (x1)
- Salamangreat Roar (x1)
- Solemn Judgement (x3)
- Solemn Strike (x3)
Extra Deck (15 Cards)
Xyz (1 Card):
- Abyss Dweller
Link (14 Cards):
- Borreload Dragon (x1)
- Knightmare Phoenix (x1)
- Salamangreat Balelynx (x2)
- Salamangreat Heatleo (x2)
- Salamangreat Pyro Phoenix (x2)
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf (x3)
- Topologic Zeroboros (x1)
- Transcode Talker (x1)
- Update Jammer (x1)
Side Deck (15 Cards)
Monster (6 Cards):
- Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju (x3)
- Nibiru, the Primal Being (x3)
Spell (6 Cards):
- Dark Ruler No More (x3)
- Lightning Storm (x3)
Trap (3 Cards):
- Infinite Impermanence (x3)
