Jesse’s deck is a mix of solid ideas, and a few that I’m a little skeptical of. For instance, I love the idea of running Prime Material Dragon in a deck that can do so much with its monsters. The Six Samurai are all about keeping monsters on the field and using them as the basis for most of their moves, so anything that keeps monsters around is a good thing. Prime Material Dragon is a great card in lots of matchups right now, and it’s going to ensure that Jesse has the security he needs to go all-out and beat big decks like Teleport Dark Armed and Gladiator Beasts—decks that would otherwise blow him away with monster effects. We’re going to build on Prime Material Dragon and make it easier to play.

At the same time though, I’m really not keen on all of those equip spells, nor do I like the idea of playing Royal Decree and My Body as a Shield instead of Solemn Judgment and other supporting traps. Nobleman of Extermination is cute, but it’s just not as versatile as a playset of Solemn—there’s a reason why it’s been run in virtually every successful Samurai build. By cutting the equip spells and the sub-par Decree line, we’ll free up space to make the deck more consistent and more aggressively varied.

So let’s start with some cuts! First up, Mage Power, United We Stand, and the copies of Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu are all going to be removed. Royal Decree, Nobleman of Extermination, and My Body as a Shield will also get yanked, freeing up a lot of card space.

Splashing some tech into the main deck is usually a winning move, but I’m concerned about the number of reactive cards Jesse’s playing. I love Prime Material Dragon here, but the reality is that we need more Samurai—they’re the basis of the deck, and running more of them will accomplish a lot. Special summoning Grandmaster of the Six Samurai or Enishi will be easier and drawing a second Samurai to turn on another’s effects will happen more often. We’ll even have access to a broader range of abilities because we’ll be running Samurai that Jesse wasn’t playing.

With that in mind, Prime Material stays but D.D. Crow gets shunted to the side deck. While Crows are great against Gladiator Beasts, they’re not very good against Lightsworn with Charge of the Light Brigade, and though they can remove Destiny Hero - Malicious they tend to be a dead card in a lot of Teleport Dark Armed matchups.

Next, I’ll remove one copy of The Six Samurai - Zanji and Breaker the Magical Warrior. We don’t need three copies of Zanji in an environment where we have extra cards to search him out, and Breaker just isn’t that important in a deck packing so much negation, especially when we’ve got Yaichi to do Breaker’s job.

Finally, Lightning Vortex gets kicked to the side deck, and Torrential Tribute gets removed entirely. This deck should be swarming like crazy, meaning that you’ll usually have more monsters on the field than your opponent. Why on earth would you want to run Torrential here? It’s an awesome card, but it doesn’t belong in this deck.

With nineteen cards removed we’ve got a lot of room to work with! That’s all good, because I have a lot of ideas. They start with another copy of Hand of the Six Samurai.

I’ve been very impressed with this card since the first time I saw it. It’s a field-clearing powerhouse that can take down whatever your Samurai aren’t big enough to eliminate on their own, giving answers to Gladiator Beast Heraklinos and big Synchros. But while it’s a great monster in simple scenarios, it’s the combo potential that makes it so amazing. Activate The Six Samurai - Yaichi’s ability to destroy a spell or trap card, then tribute him off to destroy a monster too—he wasn’t going to be attacking anyway, and you’ll destroy two cards for your one. Tribute Grandmaster of the Six Samurai to free up any dead copies you had in your hand, and blow away a monster in the process. Hand of the Six Samurai streamlines the Samurai strategy and rounds off a lot of their sharp edges, so a second copy is great.

I’d actually run three, if not for the fact that triple Reinforcement of the Army means I don’t have to. Jesse’s build ran just a pair of Reinforcement, but three seems like an absolute must—this is a toolbox deck, so a third Reinforcement makes it faster, deadlier, and more consistent.

Two copies of Spirit of the Six Samurai bring a potent addition to the deck that Jesse wasn’t even using, retaining his theme of boosted ATK values but doing it with Samurai monsters, not equips. Adding two copies of Spirit will give us a higher Samurai count overall, and that’s going to pay off down the line as we add more themed cards to the deck. The first is Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor. We’ll go from one copy of Enishi to two, so we’ll have even more main-decked answers to big threats.

Card Trooper and Morphing Jar will get more Samurai into the graveyard, while also providing valuable effects. Trooper’s boosted ATK (along with its ability to replace itself) will make it easier to over-extend and swing over big monsters, while Morphing Jar will help us get to important cards like Grandmaster.

With three copies of Reinforcement of the Army to search them out, two Jutte Fighter cards become a great choice. Grandmaster of the Six Samurai isn’t very useful paired with a level-2 Tuner, but any level 4 will let you get out Goyo Guardian. Pair Jutte Fighter with Spirit of the Six Samurai, Hand, or Yaichi to unleash Magical Android in a pinch, or send either Enishi or Prime Material to the graveyard to bring down a level-8 Synchro like Stardust Dragon. Without Reasoning this might seem like a tall order, but don’t worry—I’ve got a plan for that.

In the meantime, adding the one copy of Reasoning we can have seems like a pretty good idea, doesn’t it? We’re running two level-6 monsters that are valid hits for Reasoning, three level-5 monsters, five at level-4, six at level-3, and even three at level-2 (we may not want to special summon Morphing Jar, but catching a Jutte Fighter can be pretty back-breaking).

Another copy of Six Samurai United is another no-brainer, even without a second and third Reasoning. Let’s be clear—Six Samurai United is often Pot of Greed. Even when it isn’t, it’ll easily replace itself with another card, functioning like Upstart Goblin. In a deck where your win percentage is often decided by how often you drew Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, that’s huge. A third copy of United is a must.

From there, we move on to the trap lineup. I stripped Jesse’s deck of every trap card he was running, so we’ve got a clean slate and eight card slots to fill. The first three are obvious: Solemn Judgment. Three Bottomless Trap Hole cards will also serve the dual purpose of defense and keeping monsters off the field to ensure direct attacks and fast victories. That leaves me with two open slots.

The coup de grace for this deck is going to be Double-Edged Sword Technique. While it was devastating in previous formats, it never saw competitive play because it was also terribly inconsistent. The "splash-back" damage from its effect can be a big problem, and the only way to mitigate it used to be to bring back Spirit of the Six Samurai. A copy of Spirit that’s been converted to its spell form won’t be destroyed by the Technique, and a monster that was brought back with the Technique’s effect that you equip with the Spirit will survive Technique’s destruction. It was a cool trick, but even if you ran three copies of Spirit it wasn’t consistent.

Hand of the Six Samurai changes all that. Bring back two Samurai with Double-Edged Sword Technique, and as long as one of them was Hand (or you already had Hand on the field), you stand a good chance of tributing both to destroy two monsters. You’ll dodge all the damage, too. This turns Double-Edged Sword Technique into a finisher card capable of summoning two big beatsticks, a set-up for Spirit of the Six Samurai, or a quick two-for-one. Bring back Yaichi and Hand together, and you can actually destroy three cards by expending just one.

Double-Edged Sword Technique will also get you tribute bait for Prime Material Dragon, and fodder for a Synchro summon. Card Trooper and Morphing Jar will help ensure that you have at least two Samurai in the graveyard, and it all comes together very nicely. Here’s a recap of the changes I made . . .

-2 D.D. Crow
-2 Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu
-1 The Six Samurai - Zanji
-1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
-2 Nobleman of Extermination
-1 Lightning Vortex
-2 My Body as a Shield
-3 Mage Power
-1 United We Stand
-3 Royal Decree
-1 Torrential Tribute

+1 Hand of the Six Samurai
+2 Spirit of the Six Samurai
+1 Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor

Don’t forget, we’re going to need an Extra deck too, and Colossal Fighter is going to be especially good with so many Warriors running around. We might not have the specific cards needed to bring out Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, Nitro Warrior, Junk Warrior, or Avenging Knight Parshath, but some of your opponents will. Since Brain Control and Monster Reborn can get you those monsters on rare occasions (and since we might as well use up all the space allowed in the Extra deck) we’ll run a copy of each. Here’s what I’d recommend:

+ An Entire Extra deck:
+2 Stardust Dragon
+2 Red Dragon Archfiend
+2 Goyo Guardian
+2 Colossal Fighter
+2 Thought Ruler Archfiend
+1 Magical Android
+1 Junk Warrior
+1 Nitro Warrior
+1 Avenging Knight Parshath
+1 Gladiator Beast Gyzarus

Extra Deck:
2 Stardust Dragon
2 Red Dragon Archfiend
2 Goyo Guardian
2 Colossal Fighter
2 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Magical Android
1 Junk Warrior
1 Nitro Warrior
1 Avenging Knight Parshath
1 Gladiator Beast Gyzarus

Warriors were the original toolbox strategy, and this deck brings them back to their roots. Eight of the deck’s monsters have potent monster destruction effects, while others offer spell and trap disruption, negation, swarm, or even card draw and ATK bonuses. If the deck you’re used to seeing is "Sack Samurai" with Reasoning, Cyber Dragon, and Great Shogun Shien, be aware that this is a totally different beast. It’s a field-dominating control machine that’s very good at getting to the cards it needs, while destroying or drawing extra cards on a relatively nonchalant basis. It definitely has the potential to explode in big offensive pushes, but that’s not the focus, and we’re not relying on it to win.

You want to establish your dominance on the field as early as possible—that means summoning The Six Samurai - Zanji or Grandmaster of the Six Samurai on turn 1. If you can’t do that, then setting Morphing Jar or summoning Card Trooper and activating its effect are both acceptable. Early plays with Solemn Judgment or Bottomless Trap Hole can pay off, so bear that in mind. You can set up a lot of infrastructure on turn 1 thanks to Six Samurai United, but remember not to leave yourself too open to an early game Gyzarus or Goyo Guardian. You really don’t want to lose Grandmaster to your opponent’s side of the field.

Certain cards should be held until they’re needed, and your opponent is less likely to have answers. Prime Material Dragon is best in a simplified game, so don’t be afraid to make trades in battle early on. Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor should be held until it can take down a monster your opponent was relying on, so don’t feel obligated to play him early just to chalk up some damage or a quick piece of card advantage. These two cards actually work very well together, since Enishi can destroy a monster with his effect and then be immediately tributed for Prime Material Dragon, ensuring an attack that turn. The same move works with Jutte Fighter instead of Prime Material.

Remember to balance your two most demanding cards—if you remove two Samurai to bring out Enishi, you may not have two more for Double-Edged Sword Technique. If you have a choice between making a mid-game play with Sword Technique or Enishi, you should virtually always choose the Sword Technique. That way you sequence your plays so that you can follow up with Enishi, instead of summoning him and then being left with a dead trap card. Since Sword Technique is best played as part of a combo this is a natural fit—unless you’re going to win, you don’t want to play it in a very simplified game where you won’t have any way to get rid of the monsters you summoned.

Make sure not to waste Reinforcement of the Army, either. More than half of this deck’s monsters get nailed by Crush Card Virus, and the Virus can’t hit Reinforcement. Hold onto it until you’re ready to play the monster you’re going to fetch. That guideline should be obvious, but it’s easy to forget sometimes.

If you’re a Samurai fan who was sad to lose Reasoning, rest assured that your favorite deck is far from gone. Samurais have evolved—going from a lucksacking combo deck to something far superior—and you may be surprised at how good they’ve become.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer