Salamangreat Combo Vol. 1
At the dawn of OCG 2019.01 saw Salamangreat making a strong impact on the competitive scene.
In our three part Salamangreat Combo series, we will explore the opening combos that make this deck so great.
Volume 1 will be covering the more basic and core combos.
Combo 1: Salamangreat Gazelle
- Normal Summon Salamangreat Gazelle.
- Salamangreat Gazelle ② effect, send Salamangreat Roar from deck to graveyard.
- Salamangreat Gazelle → Salamangreat Balelynx.
- Salamangreat Balelynx ① effect, add Salamangreat Sanctuary from deck to hand.
- Activate Salamangreat Sanctuary.
- Salamangreat Balelynx → Salamangreat Balelynx (using Salamangreat Sanctuary ① effect).
- Salamangreat Roar ② effect, set itself from graveyard to Spell/Trap Zone.
This is a rather weak combo that only has a single negation and leaves no follow-up for the next turn.
This combo is generally not used unless you suspect that the opponent will One-Turn-Kill (OTK) you on the next turn and you need to put up a bit of disruption to survive.
Combo 2: Salamangreat Gazelle
- Normal Summon Salamangreat Gazelle.
- Salamangreat Gazelle ② effect, send Salamangreat Spinny from deck to graveyard.
- Salamangreat Spinny ② effect, Special Summon itself from graveyard.
- Salamangreat Gazelle + Salamangreat Spinny → Salamangreat Miragestallio.
- Salamangreat Miragestallio ① effect, detach Salamangreat Gazelle, Special Summon Salamangreat Jack Jaguar from deck.
- Salamangreat Miragestallio + Salamangreat Jack Jaguar → Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf (Left EMZ).
- Salamangreat Jack Jaguar ② effect, shuffle Salamangreat Miragestallio to deck, Special Summon itself from graveyard (2nd MMZ).
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf ① effect, add Salamangreat Gazelle from graveyard to hand.
- Salamangreat Jack Jaguar → Salamangreat Balelynx.
- Salamangreat Balelynx ① effect, add Salamangreat Sanctuary from deck to hand.
- Activate Salamangreat Sanctuary.
- Salamangreat Balelynx → Salamangreat Balelynx (using Salamangreat Sanctuary ① effect).
This is the preferred opening combo when having only a single Salamangreat Gazelle.
This combo ends with Gazelle in hand, so it cost nothing to bring out Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf, Salamangreat Balelynx and Salamangreat Sanctuary on the field. Having Salamangreat Spinny and Salamangreat Jack Jaguar in the graveyard also setup for swarming on the next turn.
The purpose of Step 12 is to put a Salamangreat Balelynx in the graveyard for its destruction substitution effect to protect your board.
Combo 3: Salamangreat Gazelle + Salamangreat Spinny
- Normal Summon Salamangreat Spinny.
- Salamangreat Spinny → Salamangreat Balelynx (Left EMZ).
- Chain 2: Salamangreat Gazelle ① effect, Special Summon itself from hand.
- Chain 1: Salamangreat Balelynx ① effect, add Salamangreat Sanctuary from deck to hand.
- Salamangreat Gazelle ② effect, send Salamangreat Roar from deck to graveyard.
- Salamangreat Spinny ② effect, Special Summon itself from graveyard.
- Salamangreat Gazelle + Salamangreat Spinny → Salamangreat Miragestallio (2nd MMZ).
- Salamangreat Miragestallio ① effect, detach Salamangreat Gazelle, Special Summon Salamangreat Jack Jaguar from deck.
- Salamangreat Balelynx + Salamangreat Jack Jaguar → Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf.
- Activate Salamangreat Sanctuary.
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf → Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf (Right EMZ) (using Salamangreat Sanctuary ① effect).
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf ② effect, add Salamangreat Roar from graveyard to hand.
- Salamangreat Jack Jaguar ② effect, shuffle Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf to deck, Special Summon itself from graveyard (4th MMZ).
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf ① effect, add Salamangreat Gazelle from graveyard to hand.
In Step 5, Salamangreat Rage can be sent to the graveyard instead of Salamangreat Roar. Then on Step 12 you would take back Salamangreat Rage. With a Reincarnation Link Summoned Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf on the field, that would allow Salamangreat Rage to destroy up to 2 cards.
This is just a single disruption in the form of Salamangreat Roar or Salamangreat Rage, but has a very good follow-up with Salamangreat Gazelle in hand, Salamangreat Spinny under Salamangreat Miragestallio, and Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf on the field.
Combo 4: Salamangreat Gazelle + Salamangreat Spinny
- Normal Summon Salamangreat Spinny.
- Salamangreat Spinny → Salamangreat Balelynx.
- Chain 2: Salamangreat Gazelle ① effect, Special Summon itself from hand.
- Chain 1: Salamangreat Balelynx ① effect, add Salamangreat Sanctuary from deck to hand.
- Salamangreat Gazelle ② effect, send Salamangreat Jack Jaguar from deck to graveyard.
- Salamangreat Spinny ② effect, Special Summon itself from graveyard.
- Salamangreat Gazelle + Salamangreat Spinny → Salamangreat Miragestallio.
- Salamangreat Miragestallio ① effect, detach Salamangreat Gazelle, Special Summon Salamangreat Falco from deck.
- Salamangreat Balelynx + Salamangreat Miragestallio → Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf.
- Activate Salamangreat Sanctuary.
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf → Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf (Left EMZ) (using Salamangreat Sanctuary ① effect).
- Salamangreat Jack Jaguar ② effect, shuffle Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf to deck, Special Summon itself from graveyard (2nd MMZ).
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf ① effect, add Salamangreat Gazelle from graveyard to hand.
- Salamangreat Falco + Salamangreat Jack Jaguar → Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir.
Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf was Reincarnation Link Summoned, but its ② effect was not used, so if you activated Salamangreat Circle to search for either Salamangreat Gazelle or Salamangreat Spinny, then Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf ② effect can be activated to take back Salamangreat Circle.
This is an alternative to Combo 3, but instead of having a Salamangreat Trap as the disruption, this uses Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir to lock down monster effects. This is especially powerful in the mirror match since it shuts down Salamangreat Gazelle, Lady Debugger and Speedroid Terrortop, the common opening piece of many Salamangreat combos.
However, Bagooska has little to no effect on Sky Striker, so Combo 3 should be used instead.
Combo 5: Salamangreat Foxy + Salamangreat Spinny
- Normal Summon Salamangreat Foxy.
- Salamangreat Foxy → Salamangreat Balelynx.
- Salamangreat Balelynx ① effect, add Salamangreat Sanctuary from deck to hand.
- Activate Salamangreat Sanctuary.
- Salamangreat Foxy ② effect, discard Salamangreat Spinny, Special Summon itself from graveyard.
- Salamangreat Spinny ② effect, Special Summon itself from graveyard.
- Salamangreat Foxy + Salamangreat Spinny → Salamangreat Miragestallio.
- Salamangreat Miragestallio ① effect, detach Salamangreat Spinny, Special Summon Salamangreat Gazelle from deck.
- Salamangreat Gazelle ② effect, send Salamangreat Roar from deck to graveyard.
- Salamangreat Balelynx + Salamangreat Miragestallio → Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf.
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf → Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf (Left EMZ) (using Salamangreat Sanctuary ① effect).
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf ② effect, add Salamangreat Roar from graveyard to hand.
- Salamangreat Gazelle → Salamangreat Balelynx (2nd MMZ).
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf ① effect, add Salamangreat Gazelle from graveyard to hand.
Similar to Combo 3, you can choose to go for either Salamangreat Trap.
This combo is for when you didn’t open with Salamangreat Gazelle, but by going into Salamangreat Miragestallio, you can still fetch Gazelle and continue with the combo.
Conclusion
These 5 are the fundamental combos for Salamangreat.
As in seen in Combo 2 – 5, these Salamangreat combos cost almost nothing as you will always get back Salamangreat Gazelle. In addition, Salamangreat Spinny,Salamangreat Jack Jaguar and/or Salamangreat Falco are also available in the graveyard, making it very easy for Salamangreat to rebuild the board on the next turn.
Stay tuned for Volume 2 and Volume 3 of the Salamangreat Combo series in the next few days.
If you enjoyed these Combo articles, do consider supporting Road of the King on Patreon. Thank you.
Combo #1 is illegal. Veilynx cannot be used as material for another Veilynx, as it’s not a Level 4 or lower Cyberse monster. Doesn’t matter if your using it with Sanctuary or not.
Salamangreat Sanctuary does allow Veilynx to be used as the material for the Reincarnation Link Summon of another Veilynx, as confirmed by this ruling in the official database.
Thank you for the tutorial, much appreciated.
Leave it to Konami to make weird and inconsistent rulings. Thanks for clearing that up.
No it is not inconsistent. It is clearly written in the text of Salamangreat Sanctuary that you can substitute the entire monster as a link material for the link summon of a new one. Card effect always go first, then game mechanics can be applied.
It can . Read the effct of field spell
Why is this deck so successfull? Constancy, Controll?
Would be nice to understand it.
BR From Germany
Mostly just that it’s very consistent and can pick apart boards easily while also being able to establish decent boards and go fairly well into a grind game due to its recycling
It’s basically just pretty good at everything, but not exceptionally good at anything except for maybe picking apart established boards.
In Combo 2, if you used Circle to add Gazelle, you can do Sunligth Wold into Sunlight Wolf in step 12 instead to get Circle back, no?
Yes, that is possible.
In this case, I might even suggest holding on to Salamangreat Sanctuary, and instead Reincarnation Link Summon Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf by using Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf + Salamangreat Veilynx.
This way you still get Veilynx in the graveyard for the destruction substitution effect.
Why on 5th Combo Salamangreat Foxy didnt destroy spell/trap(Salamangreat Field)?
the effect to destroy is optional
On the combo #3, the steps 3 and 4 is a chain blocking the veilynx? (by that i mean, my opponent cannon use ash on my veilynx, right?)
No, Trigger Effect that activates from hand have to go through the normal priority process. In this case, because the last effect (Veilynx) was activated by you, you have to pass priority to the opponent who then can respond with Ash Blossom first.
Depends on if you’re in the OCG or TCG. In the OCG, Veilynx would be able to be ashed, in the TCG, gazelle chain blocks the Veilynx from ash or ogre. The OCG and TCG handle public knowledge slightly different. In the TCG, priority goes 1. Turn player mandatory effect 2. Oppenent mandatory effects 3. Turn player optional effects 4. Oppenent optional effects. It’s kind of confusing and weird, I know, but in the TCG, Salamangreats are slightly better because of the chain blocking
In combo 2 (and others) doesn’t Spinny get banished (as per it’s special summon effect) after leaving the field in step 6 when the xyz monster it’s attached to leaves the field? Instead of ending up in the GY.
It has been explained in the Official Rulebook version 9.0, page 47: “When a monster on the field is shuffled into the Main Deck, or becomes an Xyz Material, it is no longer a card on the field, however its effects that activate when it “leaves the field” will not activate.”
Basically the moment Spinny becomes an Xyz Material, its “banish it when it leaves the field” effect will no longer apply.
combo 4 is illegal tapir is earth and mirage locks you into fire.
You have misunderstood the effect of Salamangreat Miragestallio. Miragestallio only locks in for activating monster effects, it does not restrict summoning at all.