Tomorrow morning, players all over the country are going to be cracking open boosters of the all new Strike of Neos set for the very first time. However, this Sneak Preview is going to be a little different from the ones you’re used to. Most players at these events just open up their packs without considering the prospect of actual Sealed Pack play, but I think that this sneak is going to be quite different in that regard. You see, unlike the previous Sneak Preview events, players are going to be allowed to use their special promo card in their sealed decks. Grandmaster of the Six Samurai is fair game for both open dueling and any flights you might enter, and that means that the decks you’ll play and play against will be a lot closer to what you might expect in an actual tournament-level deck. Over the course of the day, you’re likely to accumulate a lot of experience both playing and playing against the Six Samurai, which makes it a lot easier to see the kind of impact the new cards will have on a national scale. Make no mistake about it: the Six Samurai will have an impact on the national metagame, and anyone who tells you otherwise is living in a dream. It all starts with Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, which reads like this:

Grandmaster of the Six Samurai

Level 5

EARTH/Warrior

You can only have 1 "Grandmaster of the Six Samurai" monster on your side of the field. While you control a face-up "Six Samurai" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. When this card is destroyed by your opponent's card effect, add 1 "Six Samurai" monster from your Graveyard to your hand.

ATK 2100/DEF 800

That’s really amazing as is, but what about the rest of the cards that the Grandmaster supports? When it comes to constructed play, the most popular Samurai will definitely be Yaichi and Irou. Yaichi can destroy one set Spell or Trap card every turn, making him an ideal play against defensive cards like Sakuretsu Armor and Widespread Ruin. It’s also small enough and has a low enough level that it can sneak through Gravity Bind, Level Limit - Area B, and Messenger of Peace! Of course, it’s also possible to rid the field outright of such annoying cards with The Six Samurai - Kamon, but I suspect that Kamon is more suited for side deck than main deck usage at the moment. Still, we are talking about Warriors here, so main decking one copy of Kamon to search out with Reinforcement of the Army is not only a possibility, but a pretty good one at that.

The other popular Samurai for constructed play will likely be Irou, due to the ability he shares with cards like Mystic Swordsman LV2. Most decks these days struggle to destroy face-down monsters since the Limiting of both Magician of Faith and Nobleman of Crossout, but the Warrior type has remained strong due to its powerful monster abilities and Reinforcement of the Army. In the context of Sneak Preview duels, however, I think the Samurai that people will be happiest to see (other than the Grandmaster of course) is Zanji. With 1800 ATK, Zanji would already be a great pick in Sealed or Draft, but if you add the fact that you get to use your Grandmaster and how valuable that can be in the face of both defensive walls and offensive behemoths, Zanji should be your first pick every time. After all, some lucky individuals will pull the super rare Great Shogun Shien, and you definitely don’t want to be left without an answer to that card.

Speaking of answers to Shien, wouldn’t it be great if you could just overpower the Shogun and his subordinates in battle? With the new normal monster support cards in Strike of Neos, it’s more than possible, even in a Sealed Pack environment! Normal monster decks are all about trading fancy monster effects for more brute force and more insane spell and trap effects. This time around, normal monsters get some pretty incredible support in a variety of forms, starting with a pair of monsters that go above and beyond the previously accepted maximum ATK for monsters of their level. Dr. Vowler may not have mentioned this, but aside from the Gene-Warped Warwolf, there’s yet another normal monster in the set that redefines “huge for its level.” This one is both big enough to take down Shien and of a lower rarity (and level) making it an easier card to both find and play in the Sealed environment.

Of course, big beats aren’t the only thing normal monsters are good for. In a constructed environment, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you run into the ceremonial styling of Advanced Ritual Art and its ability to let you summon ritual monsters without significantly hurting your field presence. I’ll bet those Dark Master - Zorc cards you got from Champion Pack 2 are starting to look very good right about now. Go ahead. Give in to the desire to send Blue-Eyes White Dragon from your deck to the graveyard to summon Zorc. Then bring it back into play with Birthright! Laugh maniacally while you are doing so. It’s not just a fun card to use with Zorc either. Faithful old Blue-Eyes can also get you a Demise, King of Armageddon or Reshef the Dark Being! Any of the arms or legs of Exodia can be turned into Relinquished all while putting the piece in your graveyard for later retrieval. There are even new Ritual monsters waiting for you in the set that might help you out during your Sealed games!

Finally, Strike of Neos wouldn’t be complete without mention of the new Neo-Spacian cards. Julia introduced you to two of them—Grand Mole and Air Hummingbird—both of which have a very powerful ability. A turn 1 Air Hummingbird is likely to be the most life you’ll ever gain without spending a spell or trap, and in the proper deck (Agent of Judgment anyone?) the extra life points combined with some stall is enough to let you double up on your opponent in a very short time. Unless, of course, your opponent decides to set every card he or she gets, which isn’t necessarily a bright idea if you pack a couple of classic cards like Princess of Tsurugi.

Grand Mole on the other hand is the answer to the question, “What am I going to do about that blasted X?” where X is whatever monster your opponent controls that you just can’t seem to defeat. Grand Mole is only a rare, which means you’re sure to see lots of it in your flights and open dueling. Just be careful! Grand Mole isn’t a permanent solution to that problem monster unless there’s something else preventing the opponent from simply re-summoning his or her monster.

Take all this great stuff and throw in some excellent new Dark World cards, a dash of hot tech, and a couple pinches of Elemental Hero, and you’ve got yourself a winning set—one that you can get your hands on before its actual release, all while scoring one of the best promotional cards ever. It’s all happening this weekend at locations across the globe, so do yourself a favor and make absolutely certain that you make it to the Strike of Neos Sneak Preview nearest you. You wouldn’t want to have to get your Grandmasters on the secondary market, now would you? Just the thought of it makes me cringe.

Make sure you’re here all this weekend as Metagame.com brings you all the action live from Shonen Jump Championship Collinsville! With two new Duelist Packs and another Champion Pack available for use, who knows what innovative new decks might show up? Stay tuned to find out, and until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale