Draco Striker Write-Up
Monsters - 5
1 Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter
2 Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior
2 Sky Striker Ace - Raye

Spells - 29
2 Disciples of the True Dracophoenix
3 Dragonic Diagram
1 Set Rotation
3 Sky Striker Airspace - Area Zero
1 Sky Striker Mecha - Eagle Booster
1 Sky Striker Mecha - Hornet Drones
3 Sky Striker Mecha - Shark Cannon
1 Sky Striker Mecha - Widow Anchor
1 Sky Striker Mecha Modules - Multirole
1 Sky Striker Mecharmory - Hercules Base
3 Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage!
1 Sky Striker Maneuver - Jamming Waves!
3 Pot of Desires
1 Terraforming
2 True Draco Heritage
1 Upstart Goblin
1 Reinforcement of the Army

Traps - 6
3 There Can Be Only One
3 True Draco Apocalypse

Extra Deck - 15
1 Barricadeborg Blocker
1 Borrelsword Dragon
1 Clara & Rushka, the Ventriloduo
1 Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star
1 Hiita the Fire Charmer, Ablaze
1 Knightmare Phoenix
1 Topologic Bomber Dragon
1 Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior
2 Sky Striker Ace - Hayate
1 Sky Striker Ace - Kagari
1 Sky Striker Ace - Kaina
3 Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku

Side Deck - 15
3 Artifact Lancea
3 Cosmic Cyclone
3 Dark Ruler No More
3 Forbidden Chalice
3 System Down

Deck Notes -

General rule-
Please use Raye's quick effect to turn into Kagari when you can, using it to cut off the option for them to Shark Cannon it back is super relevant and its a good habit to get into considering most decks of the format are using Shark cannon/Engage.


No Hand Traps-

I don't think they're impactful enough. Ash is the only one I think I'd consider because it's broad and strong enough in terms of 1-1 trading (Ash on return is a lot better than most other hand traps Game 1). D.D. Crow also needs preemptive use to achieve anything which doesn't seem like it's achieving much against current Orcust. Crow’s extra utility against other matchups doesn't really make it worth it because all of the things it's hitting aren't real issues where you're happy to play down 1 card.

No Nibiru in the Main or Side-
I don't think this is a card you need to utilize. People are actively playing around it and its impact is significantly less when people are aware of its existence. People just sequence cards differently and Nibiru becomes a non-issue.

No called by the grave- if I could acceptably go over 40 I do think I'd consider it, more Shark Cannons aren't bad in an Orcust fueled metagame. Called by solely for Hand Traps isn't an approach I want to take, I don't think Hand Traps are harming you enough to be using called by the grave.

Exclusion of the Spellbook engine:

I think these cards are strictly weaker when playing against boards. Spellbook Magician of Prophecy interacts more with IP Masquerena than I'd like, same with stuff like Infinite Impermanence and the occasional Effect Veiler (Paulo played 3 Veiler in Salamangreat over a few events so it's definitely existing in some capacity). Losing a normal summon can also be detrimental when being forced to use that summon for Raye, in testing the cards seemed less than ideal and it felt ridiculous to not include Pot of Desires in its place. Pot of Desires with Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring as the only true card that can interact with it seemed like a no brainer inclusion. Your deck contains good enough amounts of standalone cards that the cards you banish don't generally mean too much and there are some games where your hand is good enough that you don't even need to activate the Pot of Desires, you can just play out your hand and throw away Pot of Desires to either draw into a card like There Can Only Be One. Post side you can use Desires as another way to see Artifact Lancea deeper into a turn for their follow up to be super minimal. Pot of Desires interactions post side also come up when it comes to your match-ups against decks summoning Thunder Dragon Colossus, the Spellbook engine isn't particularly good but Pot of Desires has the ability to help you dig for Dark Ruler No More or Forbidden Chalice where Magician/Secrets can't even be activated and are generally auto side outs.

General:
There Can Only Be One is probably the most oppressive Floodgate that you can utilize in this deck, I want to max it G1 then side it out whenever it's less than amazing. It's just too good to not have the option to play with it as many games as possible.

Jamming Waves over Afterburners:
Jamming Waves is one of my favorite cards in this deck, there are little interactions with your own cards that come up that make it an auto include for me. Destroying a set True Draco Apocalypse to destroy multiple monsters or destroying a set Heritage/Disciples to put a third spell in grave, force a destruction then pop a spell/trap comes up way too often with hands that aren't pairing your True Draco cards with a monster or Dragonic Diagram.

Hercules Base I have been against more and more but I think it's applications game 1 when you're whittling down your opponents options makes it a main deck staple. There have been too many games against Orcust where it allows me to continue pressuring the opponent after I've broken a board or found myself utilizing multiple Shark Cannons to keep them at bay. Having the option to shuffle back the power cards like Kagari and at times Multirole make it the perfect card in grindy games vs control decks too.

While I do think going second post side is reasonable, I don't think it’s a strategy I generally want to employ blind. Your deck has so many powerful going first cards that are amazing when Twin Twisters isn't in the main deck of most strategies this format. I know against Orcust just finding a Shark Cannon and an Apocalypse/Tribute option is more than enough. Against the control decks you just have to change your ideals mid game, you're looking to gain value from every card. Subsequently, you also want to make sure they aren't on even/more cards than you; thankfully this deck does a good enough job of being able to switch roles from being oppressive vs decks like Orcust where we don't want them to play because the wider they go, the more free cards they'll generate, to being able to switch to a deck that aims to find efficient trades in the long term and just winning because your card economy is better.

No True Kings Return- I had played around with the idea but playing a very minimal true draco engine proved to be better. Return needs to be paired with a tribute where as Apocalypse can be paired with a spell to turn into backrow or monster removal (using the spell you pop to destroy Apocalypse)

Extra Deck Notes-

Barricadeborg has some pretty solid utility and can be amazing in simplified games where you just have two monsters to float a card like Diagram or Multirole back into your hand. I think its an auto-include for me.

Side Deck Notes-

I think this deck has a very strong matchup against most of the slower decks, True Draco cards inherently trade up vs all of the slower "trap" decks. Not to mention against pure True Draco you're just able to resolve cards like Engage, break their board then use their fallen draco cards to allow your Heritage to give you more draws. Thats a big reason why I opted for more side cards to cover the decks where games feel more out of my control.


3 Artifact Lancea

I think this is super standard, It's the go to side card for any of the combo Thunder decks/Orcust. I don't think I'd be using this card against Pure Thunder given that it's so easy for them to just spit out a Colossus under Lancea I'd rather a more versatile card like Chalice.

3 Cosmic Cyclone

I don't side this against Orcust, your main deck does enough against that deck to force Babel off the field and your side cards help whittle away their resources so once you break their board their follow up is minimal and you just snowball advantage. With that being said, I tend to only find this card going in against decks like Pure Striker/Altergeist/Pure Draco/Subterror, I dont think its particularly good against Salamangreat, even going second you have enough engine cards that can force out cards like Rage/Roar with little recourse to your actual turn.

3 Dark Ruler No More

The standard side card for decks that generate boards/summon Colossus or both. not too much for me to explain, Colossus is very hard for this deck to deal with.

3 Forbidden Chalice

I wanted a card that functioned like Impermanence against Thunder but I was able to draw while I had cards on the field. Chalice was the midground and it has random applications against other Oppressive monsters and other True Draco decks (including the mirror) which can be very relevant given how difficult it is to play around cards like Dinomight/Ignis on your turn without giving them a free card.

3 System Down

I think this is a no brainer post side vs Orcust; going second It's just the card that achieves the most when they've established a board and they dont tend to setup Crescendo so this resolves quite frequently. This answering Gizmek is also super relevant as Gizmek’s constant recursion tends to be annoying when you're already facing down a board, it just catches all.


Why no cards like Super Polymerization/Evenly Matched-

I think engine cards (whether it be True Draco/Sky Striker) tend to be better fits vs the decks Evenly Matched would be going in against, I think this deck can also do a good enough job of picking second without actually siding "going second" cards like Evenly.

Super Polymerization is something I considered but it seems as if against pure they're actively playing around Nibiru enough for you to never really be able to resolve Super Polymerization without it being strictly worse than a standalone card like Forbidden Chalice. It also doesn't actively do anything against the boards that the Thunder Combo decks are producing, especially after they take away 1-2 cards through Levianeer/Diabolos. I don't see myself ever wanting to side it against Orcust given how they've gravitated to just summoning I:P and maybe finding 1 additional monster to turn into a Link Monster, them still having access to cards like Gizmek/Dingirsu+Cymbal make Super Polymerization pretty lackluster. Against Salamangreat resolving it can be a blowout but that deck in its current form isn't doing anything too oppressive that this deck can’t handle with its engine cards (Sky Striker cards have a field day with Salamangreat).


Side Plan-

Orcust going first-
Side In
3 Lancea

For
1 Jamming waves
1 Ignis
1 Hercules Base


Orcust going second-
Side In
3 Lancea
3 System Down


For
2 Pot of Desires
1 Jamming waves
1 Eagle Booster
1 Hercules Base
1 Area Zero


My biggest issue with siding for Orcust going second is finding additional cards that aren't particularly good at helping playing vs a board. I default to a card like Desires because I think the other cards in my deck are good enough and we're playing with 6 cards as opposed to 5 where seeing the additional card is crucial to setting up or seeing a card like Lancea. We're also adding 3 more cards in going second over going first meaning we have 3 additional cards we can see as our 6th that actively do something compared to Desires which isn't a guarantee.

Thunder Dragon Pure-
Going first-
Keep your deck the same

Going Second-
Side In
3 Chalice
3 Dark Ruler

For
1 Jamming Waves
1 Rota
2 Shark Cannon
1 Terraforming
1 Area Zero

Shark Cannon is a lot weaker and we've defaulted to taking out copies of searcher cards, this is a matchup that doesn't really exist as much as it did before so hopefully it doesn't come up too often as I think it's very dependent on your opponent playing a specific way or you seeing side cards which is quite unfortunate.

Combo Thunder (Levianeers etc) -
Going 1st
Side In
3 Lancea

For
1 Jamming Waves
1 Ignis Heat
1 Hercules Base

Going 2nd
Side In
3 Lancea
3 Dark Ruler

For
1 Eagle Booster
1 Hercules Base
3 There can only be One
1 Desires

There Can Only Be One is strictly worse when they can actively make boards that don’t get hit by it. This matchup is also generally non-existent and follows the same approach as how to tackle pure, it's not represented enough to side heavy for it but it's scary enough that 3-6 spots can be found with some overlapping side cards for other matchups.


Sky Striker - Sky Striker Draco - Pure Draco
Pick second post side when given the opportunity.

Siding the following games 2/3 every single time.
Cosmic for there can only be one

Your mesh of engine cards gives you a very strong ability to break boards while also continuing to oppress your opponent. Going first you can't really do this against other control decks, let alone control decks that are also utilizing powerful True Draco cards/Sky Striker cards.
If you're ever forced to go first, then your game plan against the decks should be as follows:

For Pure Draco-
Aiming to setup with double Engage in your hand is usually idea, you want them to play all of their cards and then you play with your stacked hand of double Engage, hopefully with 3 spells in grave. Committing Draco spell/traps to the field or trying to draw off cards like Heritage turn 1 while setting up cards can be awkward because of your opponent’s heritage. Don't feel bad if your play involves passing as they usually can't kill you.

For Pure Striker-
If they seem like they might side Evenly Matched against you, then be cautious and setup as minimal as possible. You'll find a general trend vs certain decks to just be setting up double Engage when they let you go first to avoid getting blown out by their going second side cards. They can't usually kill you so a passive approach and finding big turns to either otk them or break their board is very good. Even letting them keep cards on the field like Area Zero so you can't get Evenly Matched when they let you go first can be the difference maker in this matchup.

For the mirror match-
The same approach as both of the above matchups, but with the added dimension of not being to ever truly being able to commit cards to the field unless they're already actively doing so. Setting cosmic turn 1 is a mistake because it will likely have to be activated straight away in most instances and your game drags out long enough where you can probably benefit more from them committing the first cards. The threat of Evenly can be a scary one but only against decks that can be super threatening in the boards they make after they resolve Evenly and decks like this generally don't do that.

Altergeist-
Side In:
3 Cosmic Cyclone

For
2 Shark cannon
1 Pot of desires

This is to cover going first or second.

Subterror-
Pick second.

Side Out:
3 There can only be One
2 Shark Cannon
1 Pot of Desires

For

3 Cosmic Cyclone
3 Forbidden Chalice

This matchup only becomes an issue when you let Subterror Guru snowball into multiple searches, Chalice and using your own engine cards usually mitigates this issue.

Salamangreat
Going first-
Keep your deck the same.

Going second-
I think there’s an argument for Forbidden Chalice but I do think your main deck has a very good matchup against Salamangreat for you to keep your deck the same regardless.

Dweller doesn't hurt the striker portion of your deck and Rage can be forced out by the Draco portion, in-between all of this you can accumulate draws from Engage/Heritage and aim to strip their graveyard with Shark Cannon.


Pendulum Magician-
going first-
Side In:
3 Cosmic Cyclone

For
1 Hercules Base
1 Jamming Waves
1 Ignis Heat

Going second-
Side In:

3 Forbidden Chalice
3 Dark Ruler No More

For
1 Hercules Base
1 Pot of Desires
1 Eagle Booster
3 There can only be One


I feel as if this matchup is the same as combo Thunder; very low representation and can be beaten with your standard main deck. Post side you're just aiming to have more cards that interact with their board without taking away from your cards that help pick them apart.