Tellarknight In-Depth Guide

Tellarknight Lyran

Lyran is part of the new support and is by far the best Tellarknight monster to open with. She is a much-needed extender that also searches a Tellarknight spell. She helps you set up your combos as well as play through disruptions.

There is a significant ruleset difference between TCG and OCG (and MD). While in TCG, you would be able to chain Lyran to your other Tellarknight, activating its on-summon effect, chainblocking either Lyran's summon or the effect of the other Tellarknight. In OCG and Master Duel, you pass priority to your opponent after declaring the effect of the Tellarknight you normal summon, before being able to activate Lyran. While this may seem like a downside, it can actually be a positive aspect, since the other Tellarknights can act as bait for potential hand traps. Searching the spell is usually the most important effect to resolve at the start of your combos.

Most combos end with a Lyran in hand, which is part of your strong follow-up.

Satellarknight Deneb

Deneb is the main searcher of the archetype, adding any Tellarknight monster from the deck. Depending on the situation, you may either search Loading... , which is able to revive Deneb or another Tellarknight during the following turn to loop XYZ summons, reinforcing your follow-up plays even further, or can search any other Tellarknight needed for your specific combo line.

While this card is very good, none of its search targets can do anything on their own, unless you have another card in hand to summon them, meaning that playing three copies of Deneb may occasionally brick you.

Satellarknight Altair

Altair is a key combo piece able to special summon a Tellarknight monster from your GY. During your combos, you're usually summoning Loading... , to link away and extend your plays. However, you will also often end your turn with another Altair in hand, giving you amazing follow-up plays when combined with Lyran in hand.

Note: The monster is summoned in Defense position, and after resolving this effect, you can only declare an attack with Tellarknight monsters. Be very careful if you are trying to push for game!

Satellarknight Vega

Vega may not be the best Satellarknight monster, but you need to play her not only for some combo lines that require having her in your deck but also to increase your possibility to consistently get two monsters on the field for an XYZ summon. Builds with only 1x Vega are possible, but for now, the optimal count is two copies.

Satellarknight Unukalhai

Unukalhai is a very interesting monster that sends a Tellarknight card from the deck to the GY. Among all Tellarknight cards, only Loading... has a GY effect and it is your most frequent target for this effect. However, Unukalhai has some versatility since you can also send a spell card to be retrieved later. This play is especially effective whenever you're playing around or under Loading... . Unukalhai is the best Satellarknight to open alongside a Lyran, so you may want to play a third copy, but yet again, there is the chance you brick by opening with too many Unukalhais.

Satellarknight Sirius

On summon, Sirius is able to target 5 Tellarknights in the GY, shuffle all of them into the GY, and draw a card, acting a bit like an in-archetype Pot of Avarice. Although it is not the best Tellarknight to open with, it is usually possible to special summon it from the deck at the end of our combos to recycle all the pieces used up and get a free draw.

Note: The draw only happens if all the five monsters are successfully shuffled, meaning that cards like Loading... could stop it.

Tellarknight Altairan

Another new card, this Altair retrain can summon himself from the GY if you special summon a Tellar and can, on summon, destroy cards on the field equal to the number of LIGHT or DARK XYZ monsters you control. You're usually sending this to the GY with the effect of Loading... , and it is better to draw him instead of Altairan. You don't need more than a single copy, although playing 2 is understandable when cards like Bystials are very popular.

On its own, Altairan is an extender, an interaction on the opponent's turn, and even provides additional follow-up, making it a great card overall.

Constellar Tellarknights

A new amazing continuous spell able to summon a Tellar from the hand or GY on activation and to rank-up or down a Tellar XYZ to another Tellar XYZ with a different rank. The most frequent play is to summon Loading... on top of your Rank 4 XYZ to rank it down with the spell effect and either start link climbing with Loading... or turn skip with a 7 mat Ptolemaeus.

This card is fantastic, and hard opening it may help you play through hand traps, although opening too many spells with no Tellarknight monsters to summon can lead to a terrible hand, so pick your ratios keeping that in mind.

Satellarknight Skybridge

A very versatile card that lets us return a Tellarknight into the deck to summon another from the deck. This card allows us to dodge negates like Loading... or Loading... , and it can even be used to push for game during the Battle Phase. By replacing a Tellarknight monster on the field with any Tellarknight from the deck, Skybridge also gives us a slight consistency boost, increasing the chances we can get to a Rank 4 XYZ starting from a hand with Skybridge and a monster like Loading... .

This card also has great synergy with Loading... , which can send an Altairan to the GY to summon by using Skybridge. This card can also be part of your endboard, giving you access to an Altairan pop even after being hit by something like Loading... . Two copies are usually the best amount, but playing a single one is acceptable when the deck space is tight because of external engines like Zefra.

Note: As long as the summoned monster stays on the field, you can only special summon Tellarknight monsters. Don't forget it!

Tellarknight Genesis

Genesis is a situational card that lets you non-target destroy a number of spell/trap cards EXACTLY equal to the number of Tellarknight cards you have in play. Having a searchable spell/trap removal can be very good according to the meta, but it can be slightly clunky in practice. It can also pop a Scythe, saving an Altairan pop. It should only be played when the meta calls for it.

Stellarnova Alpha

Easily one of the best Counter-Traps in the game. At the cost of sending a Tellarknight monster from the field to the GY, you have an omni-negate with a DRAW on top of it. This card is insane. The cost can even be turned into a benefit by triggering the floating effect of cards like Loading... to summon more Tellarknights and possibly search a follow-up with the effect of Loading... . You are negating any card, drawing, and setting up your follow-up.

This card's fatal flaw, however, is that it simply isn't a Tellarknight card. We can't search it, meaning that it can't be a reliable part of our endboard while still being a brick going 2nd.

Tellarknight Constellar Caduceus

Caduceus is our new Rank 4 XYZ monster, and it is an amazing card. Its first effect can retrieve up to 2 Tellar cards from the GY (1 Tellarknight and 1 Constellar), which, combined with an effect like Sirius, provides Tellarknights with the ability to grind indefinitely, even against decks like Labrynth.

The second effect allows us to banish a Tellar from the hand or deck to copy the effect it would activate on summon. This is a very versatile effect as we don't have a single standard copy target, although Lyran, Unukalhai, Sheratan, and to an extent, Deneb are more frequently copied than the other Tellars. The reason why this card would ever be made by more than 2 materials is exclusively for turn skip purposes.

Note: Even when copying an effect to add from the deck, the effect itself is still considered to "copy" and not to "add," meaning that it can't be negated by Loading... or similar hand traps.

Stellarknight Delteros

Delteros is an amazing card for our combos thanks to its non-once per turn floating effect to summon a Tellarknight from the deck, making it amazing for link-climbing since it can be recycled multiple times. Many YouTube combos resort to self-destroying Delteros with its own effect, but that play is inconsistent as it loses to a single Loading... . Instead, you want to link Delteros away to summon something like Loading... who can chainblock your summon from the deck, protecting the combo. Despite being a crucial card, you don't need to play more than a single copy as it can be recycled by Loading... at the end of your combos.

Tellarknight Ptolemaeus

At long last, she finally has returned. Ptolemaeus is able to quick-effect detach 3 materials to Rank-Up into a non-number Rank 5 XYZ or detach 7 to skip an opponent's turn, essentially acting as an FTK. The main way to use this card is to have it as a part of your endboard, so that on the opponent's turn it can rank up into an XYZ that is good for the specific matchup while also triggering a Loading... in the GY to come back and pop cards on the field.

The third effect allows her to absorb a Stellarknight from the extra deck during each End Phase, enabling its first effect even when summoned with only two monsters. Reminder: this effect mentions a STELLARknight specifically, meaning that some Tellarknight XYZ like Loading... can't be attached to her.

Stellarknight Constellar Diamond

Diamond is an interesting card that by lore exists to counter the Shaddolls, and its effect truly reflects that.

This card is able to win on its own against many matchups like Branded or Tearlaments and can come up in many situations. Chaining the rank-up effect to a card that would be stopped by Diamond like Loading... or Loading... can be especially nasty.

Additionally, this card can also simply be used as an extra material to fuel up a Zeus play. It is very solid, but you don't need more than one copy. Something like Loading... comes up more often than a second Diamond if an additional Ptolemaeus fodder is required.

Stellarknight Triverr

Triverr used to be the main boss monster of the archetype back in 2015. It provides a powerful non-target non-destruction board wipe and a valuable hand rip, with a floating effect that also needs to be respected. Right now, Triverr isn't as relevant as it used to be, but it can clutch some games going 2nd. Unless your Extra Deck is really tight, you should play this card.

Triverr can set up some great grind games and can be recycled each turn to continuously deplete your opponent's resources, but the xenolock is very harsh and needs to be kept in consideration.

Darktellarknight Batlamyus

Our only DARK monster, Batlamyus has three main uses:

First of all, it has great synergy with Loading... since it turns everything into a DARK monster that can be negated. Secondly, it allows you to summon an XYZ like Loading... by only investing two monsters on the field instead of three, facilitating slightly board wipes when going 2nd. Additionally, Batlamyus can be used to summon Loading... during the first turn.

Thirdly, it can summon Triverr as a quick effect if you have 7 different Tellarknight names in your GY, enabling a powerful interruption. This is surprisingly easy to accomplish during your combos, but doing so means giving up on the Sirius recycle and draw which can be more valuable. The quick effect also has applications during the Battle Phase for easy OTKs but this is hardly ever relevant.

Overall, Batlamyus is a complex card that serves its purpose but is occasionally cut off to make room for key monsters in some Tellarknight decks, though it's generally recommended to have it.

Constellar Ptolemy M7

Not much to say here, we play this on top of Caduceus so that the continuous spell can turn him into a Delteros or a 7mat Ptolemaeus. We can also summon Ptolemy on top of Diamond to get even more materials, giving us an easy 4 mat Zeus or potentially even a 6 material one. There can be situations where you hard make Ptolemy with the spell effect to recover a powerful hand trap from the GY, it is rarely the optimal play but it can be.

Constellar Pleiades

A very solid rank-up option for Loading... , Pleiades provides a solid interaction that, unlike Loading... , is always useful regardless of the matchup.