We've all seen it. The most engage-ing Forbidden and Limited list in a while. Elpy and Drident hit the Graveyard. Miscellaneousaurus and Striker Dragon got cut down, and the almighty Engage has been freed (among other things). We can probably all agree that the Engage unban made the biggest waves - what with all the waifu-lovers and just Sky Striker fans in general out there. But perhaps something that is being unheeded is the release of Salamangreat Miragestallio. Today we're going to turn back the clock and take a closer look at a former fan-favorite and behemoth of the competitive scene, its old tools, and the damage it could potentially inflict in the current meta.
Salamangreat Miragestallio - What does it do?
Okay, for those of you who have forgotten - we're going to go over it. Miragestallio, much like Elpy, summons a Salamangreat monster from the deck. The most obvious implication, I'd like to think, is glaring - Gazelle. Yes, that would be correct, but we mustn't forget all the other cool things you could do! Jack Jaguar is another prime target to tutor out, being an extender AND a recycler of your monsters in the grave. Bringing Falco out can also get you nifty plays with recurring your spells / traps in the grave - we'll get to some of them later.
So Stallio's a fiery Elpy in horse form, right? "Is that it?," you might ask. Well, absolutely not! One of the cooler things about Stallio is the fact that it can return one monster on the field to the hand! This will be available for use when an XYZ-summoned Stallio is used for the link summon of a Salamangreat monster.
Stallio Turbo Cards
Now that we're all caught up with our fiery mount, let's look at the cards used to summon him (outside of the archetypal monsters)!
Backup Secretary was a mainstay for most Salamangreat decks back in the day. It's a cyberse, a level 3, and can practically summon itself out for free! She can also be useful as a discard for Flame Bufferlo!
Speaking of discard fodder, there's probably none better than Sea Archiver! This little seahorse acts as an extender by summoning itself from hand or grave whenever a monster is summoned to a link monster's pointer! That means it doesn't matter whether you send it to the grave for Bufferlo or Cynet Mining. You'd still be able to get full value out of it! Oh, and yes, if your opponent summons to a link pointer on his/her turn, you can summon Archiver that turn too!
Crusadia Reclusia is another unironically cool card for Salamangreat! Being able to force interruptions with its destruction effect could make it clutch when going 2nd. And it's also a fire! Only gripe you'll have with this is it's not a cyberse so you can't pitch it off of Bufferlo.
Psychic Wheeleder is just another generically good level 3 extender. Not much else to say, really. You could opt to play Psychic Trackers to go with it (and maybe Hyper Psychic Riser, too, if you're feeling spicy).
The level 3 dangers Tsuchinoko and Jackalope are both limited now so do with that what you will. And keep in mind that it introduces more randomness in your deck!
Other Salamangreat Tech Choices
Kaijus are a decent side deck choice for Salamangreat - they always have been. You can get rid of one of their monsters, and just Stallio bounce that kaiju back into your hand! It can be any kaiju, really, but Dogoran stands out. Being a fire monster definitely will come up, since you can recur it from your graveyard with Sunlight Wolf!
With Stallio back, Salamangreat once again has an easy way to bring out Salamangreat Parro. You can tribute it to gain 2000 LP! That could very well win you game 3's when you're close to time and are going 1st. This catches people off guard since they usually want to ash the Gazelle that you get off of Stallio!
We can still expect Shaddolls to be around, since they didn't really have anything hit. Prohibit Snake can help you get rid of Winda, especially in Lady Debug builds!
Who says combo decks can't run floodgates? Gozen Match fits perfectly into the deck! Whether you play a combo-heavy variant or a more control-oriented one, Gozen can slip right into your deck! Rivalry of Warlords deserves a mention, too, if you opt to play several attributes (Debug, Archiver, Backup Sec, etc).
Ever heard that Phantazmay is a +1? Well in Salamangreat it could be a +2! When you go first (and not need your field spell), you could get this out on your opponent's turn and have the field spell as a free put back!
Old Trick as a Budget Pick
We've all seen the Update - Transcode - Accesscode killshot. But the prices have shot up on Accesscode, and we're still waiting on a reprint. Is there a cheaper OTK option for Salamangreat?
An old combo used Gazelle to send Fusion of Fire to the graveyard. Stallio will then summon out the Falco, which will set the Fusion of Fire to the field! The good thing is, it's a normal spell, so you can activate it the turn that it was set. You can then find a way to get to a re-linked Heatleo which you will then use to change an opponent's monster's ATK to either 500 (Balelynx) or 0 (Veiler / Ash Blossom)! Finally you're going to use Fusion of Fire to make Violet Chimera with Heatleo and usually Jack Jaguar, to get Chimera's ATK go up to 4800+! Its effect to double its ATK during damage calculation when going up against a monster whose current ATK is different from its original ATK will make sure that you have game with just the Chimera!
Can Salamangreat Compete in Today's Meta?
This is news to some, but not to our Soulburning duelists! Yes, it can. Salamangreat is notorious for being one of the earlier decks to have space for anywhere from 9 to 15 hand traps! Having a lot of ways to interact with your opponent, plus a nearly 100% consistent way to get your engine going (by virtue of an extra deck monster) is extremely good for any deck! In addition to that, the Salamangreat engine gets you to actual interruptions. And what interruptions are those? A card that can destroy 1-2 (or 3-4 in mid to late-game scenarios) cards, plus a counter-trap omni-negate. In addition to that, the engine is extremely recursive! You will more than likely always have follow-up once you get going!
Salamangreat, while having a myriad of level 3 monsters to turbo out Stallio, also has a good level 4 engine going. Falco, Jack Jaguar, Fowl, and Parallel eXceed make it extremely easy to bring out a rank 4! This can only bode well, especially since Bagooska and Abyss Dweller are both extremely good in the meta today!
Conclusion
Salamangreat has not really vanished off the face of the earth since the Stallio ban. That's partly due to the release of Accesscode. Having easy access to such a blowout OTK combo can definitely catch people off guard and get you some quick wins.
Now we get Miragestallio to make turn 1 boards more consistent, while still having the same amount of firepower that the deck already had! This is all while not having to worry about where to summon XYZ monsters!
All in all, I definitely believe Salamangreat will be able to represent the 2019 TOSS format and give a little shakeup to the format we have now. It's going to be interesting to see where it goes from here!
