Last time, I introduced you to some of the finer points of the Six Samurai deck—specifically the ones involving the exclusive Grandmaster of the Six Samurai card that you’ll receive for participating in the Strike of Neos Sneak Preview. In that article, you may have noticed that I kept referencing today’s preview card without actually telling you what it does. Actually, I was lucky to get as much information as I did, seeing as how I wasn’t allowed to reveal the effect of Great Shogun Shien until today. I know that the waiting is the hardest part, but if you read my preview of Grandmaster from last Monday you’ll notice that I did manage to drop a couple of hints as to Shien’s exact effect.

First, you’ll notice that Shien must have some kind of special summon ability to help it come into play. You know this because I suggested that you normal summon a Six Samurai card, and then special summon both Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Great Shogun Shien in the same turn. It’s also a short leap to say that Shien’s special summon ability works similarly to Grandmaster, and that the “only one on the field at a time” limitation would likely make sense if Shien was supposed to be the supreme commander of the Six Samurai. I also hinted that, if one or two words on Grandmaster were changed, performing the triple summon as indicated above would set up a lock of sorts. This suggests two things about Shien: 1) it shares the destruction-shunting power of the basic Six Samurai monsters, and 2) the effect of Shien somehow restricts your opponent’s actions. Finally, you know that Shien is a high level monster (and a good one at that) from my discussion at the end about what the Six Samurai mean for the game as a whole. If you think about it, that’s a lot of information for a few passing remarks. Sure, it isn’t going to give you the entire effect of the card or all of its statistics, but it’s really amazing how much one can learn by paying close attention to everything that’s written and not just skipping around to decklists or card texts and the like.

So, what does Great Shogun Shien do? See how this matches up with what you thought:

Great Shogun Shien

Level 7

FIRE/Warrior

If you control 2 or more “Six Samurai” monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Your opponent can activate only 1 Spell/Trap Card each turn. If this card would be destroyed, you can destroy a “Six Samurai” monster you control instead.

ATK 2500/DEF 2400

Somewhere in the world, gears are turning in someone’s head. Pieces are falling into place, and that particular someone is pointing at the computer screen while jumping up and down proclaiming, “Seriously? Oh, it’s on now!” Think about it. Your opponent can only activate one spell or trap every turn. What exactly does that mean to most decks? Well, let’s take the Chimeratech Overdragon combo decks that made up half of the Top 8 from Shonen Jump Championship Orlando. If you successfully summon Shien against a someone playing that deck, you will more than likely win the duel. Why? Well, combo decks win by playing some combination of cards all in one turn. In the case of Chimeratech, you usually need to play Future Fusion, Giant Trunade, or Heavy Storm and Overload Fusion all in one turn to win the game. With Shien out, that’s impossible. You get to pick one and only one spell to activate, and that’s it.

If you think that’s great, you should see what it does to the Gadget decks (the likes of which took 3^rd and 4^th place at Orlando). Most Gadget decks are packed with cards like Smashing Ground, Fissure, Sakuretsu Armor, Widespread Ruin, and Bottomless Trap Hole to ensure that the constant stream of diminutive little gear-heads can have an impact on the game. However, if the Gadget deck can only play one such card each turn—and that card’s destructive capability is shunted somewhere where it doesn’t matter as much—then what’s the Gadget player to do? Between the effect of Yaichi and the effect of Shien, there’s no real point in trying to stop you. The Gadget player has an average of two cards in his or her 45-card deck that can get that player out of a Yaichi/Grandmaster/Shien situation, both of which are limited to one card per deck. The biggest problem that the Six Samurai deck is likely to face at an SJC is the threat of Ojama Trio from a Chain Burn deck. Ojama Trio can stop the Triple Summon Technique dead in its tracks by leaving only two slots open for summoning. Still, a good Samurai deck will be prepared for these shenanigans and prepare accordingly.

It’s pretty clear that Shien’s overwhelming size and obstructive effect make it a huge threat, but how hard is it really to simply remove it from the field? After all, many people claim that the average lifespan of a monster on the field is one turn. How long is Great Shogun Shien’s lifespan? Essentially infinite. Take a good look at exactly how his destruction-shunting effect is worded. Any living Samurai can take any hit in place of Shien to keep it on the field. That makes all standard simple removal useless. It also makes it difficult to destroy Shien as a result of battle (assuming of course that you can even find—or make—a bigger monster). Fortunately, a few key limitations make it possible to defeat this seemingly unstoppable behemoth. First off, if all your Samurai cards are destroyed simultaneously by something like Lightning Vortex or Mirror Force, you can’t shunt all the destruction onto one Samurai and keep the rest. Once a Samurai is flagged as “to be destroyed” you can’t destroy it again while it’s still on the field. This is a lot like the example from the old rulebooks stating that if you attack and destroy a set Hane-Hane, you can’t choose Hane-Hane as the monster to return to its owner’s hand. The other limitation is that Shien’s power doesn’t work until the Shogun is in play. That means that you can negate his summon and destroy him with Black Horn of Heaven or Solemn Judgment without allowing him to save himself. You can also do it even if the counter trap would be the second spell or trap you played in that turn, since Shien was never actually in play.

Still, regardless of whether you choose to play the Six Samurai or dedicate time to deciphering ways to beat them, there’s no denying that these cards are going to make an impact. It hasn’t even been two months yet, and 2007 is already an excellent year to be a duelist! Keep checking Metagame.com to catch a glimpse of even more new Strike of Neos cards, and make sure you get to the Sneak Preview nearest you! I’ll be helping out at the Preview in Butler, PA on February 24^th, so make sure to drop by and say hello if you’re in the area! Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale