Hello again! I’d like to thank all of you who wrote in, since I’ve had a blast looking at your decks and hearing from all the people around the world who read my column. I’ve seen some really creative stuff over the past few weeks, and I like it.
Today we look at a deck from Maryland . . . let’s see what Naveen S. has to say about his Six Samurai deck.
I was hoping you could help me with my Six Samurai deck. Its main focus is to swarm the field with Samurai and inflict a massive amount of damage. To ensure I can destroy face-down monsters, I use three copies of Irou along with two Nobleman of Crossout cards. For spell and trap destruction, I use three copies of Yaichi along with the usual Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Breaker the Magical Warrior. And I run three copies of Zanji to ensure the monsters I want destroyed are destroyed. The deck’s main problem is that it can’t get out Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Great Shogun Shien fast enough. It is also having problems with Zombies due to their high draw power and their ability to ram a Ryu Kokki into my monsters to destroy them.
Thank you for helping!
—Naveen S.
Maryland
Naveen’s deck seems to be having the same problems that a lot of Six Samurai builds have. The popularity of Zombies (particularly Ryu Kokki) in the average North American metagame is a dilemma for other aggressive decks. Since many decks are currently tuned to beat the aggressive Zombie matchup, Six Samurai will have to deal with other players running a lot of defensive traps like Sakuretsu Armor on top of trying to beat the Zombie juggernaut, which can go from 0 to 6000 damage in a single turn. The incredible draw power is also a problem. How do you address such a situation? We’ll find out. Let’s take a look at the list:
Samurai Swarmers—40 cards
Monsters: 18
2 Great Shogun Shien
3 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
2 Cyber Dragon
3 The Six Samurai - Zanji
3 The Six Samurai - Irou
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
3 The Six Samurai - Yaichi
1 Card Trooper
Spells: 15
3 The Warrior Returning Alive
2 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Double Summon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 My Body as a Shield
Traps: 7
3 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Sakuretsu Armor
An interesting build. This time around, I’ll be focusing solely on helping Naveen deal with the problematic matchups he has rather than alter the main strategy of the deck too much.
The primary concern is the Zombie matchup, which can be explosive in very extreme ways. Naveen has the basic defenses against rush down pat—Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, and Lightning Vortex all act as field clearers that can turn overextension from the opponent into quite a sour mistake on his or her part. His trap lineup is not so great for fighting Zombies due to the life points he will be tossing out with every activation of Solemn Judgment, but only so much can be done there.
His monster and spell sections will be altered so that he can get Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Great Shogun Shien out more easily—he is at 40 cards, so the deck is as slim as it can be. The first change I am making is to cut one copy of The Six Samurai - Yaichi from the deck for The Six Samurai - Kamon. This is simple logic—Reinforcement of the Army will be able to search him out, along with your other Samurai, allowing you to take out set defensive traps like Sakuretsu Armor and Mirror Force, or other important back-row targets like Swords of Revealing Light and Premature Burial, face-down Mystical Space Typhoon . . . or Card of Safe Return, perhaps. The amount of face-down monster hate in this deck is simply too much for my tastes, especially with no Book of Moon present. I’m going to cut a copy of The Six Samurai - Irou from our list, and add Morphing Jar. Now I have to consider whether or not to work in Book of Moon. Before that, though . . . Double Summon.
The card is nice in a rush deck, but I don’t feel it is better for the main strategy than more aggressive removal or speed. For example, we could add Giant Rat and an associated toolbox to the list, which would be less situational and allow for some secondary (or perhaps tertiary) foci of the build. Giant Rat and Exiled Force with some other Earth monsters could do good things for the deck, especially with two or three other targets already present. The trouble is that one of those targets is Morphing Jar, and to do the job right we’d have to add at least two copies of Giant Rat and one Exiled Force. The benefit is that Exiled Force would add much more utility to both Reinforcement of the Army and The Warrior Returning Alive, and the deck will gain from the extra speed by allowing Naveen to draw into the unsearchable dynamic duo of Great Shogun Shien and Grandmaster of the Six Samurai. I think it’s worth the effort to cut both copies of Double Summon and add two Giant Rat cards and one Exiled Force. We are now at 41 cards.
Two other cards on the list I find outright curious. The first is Swords of Revealing Light, which doesn’t seem welcome in an aggressive deck. While you could increase its viability by adding, say, Des Lacooda or Golem Sentry that would entirely change the theme of the deck. It might be worth it to keep some defense, however, in the form of the aforementioned Book of Moon. The second is My Body as a Shield, which I see as a conflict with Solemn Judgment. I would rather assist this deck in removing potential aggressive threats from the field, or more specifically beating face against Zombies. There are a few choices out there, but considering what Zombies do, I think it’s time to bring out Magical Arm Shield. Not that it was collecting dust anyway. I’m sure you all like the thought of ramming Il Blud into Ryu Kokki. I do, anyway. Sakuretsu Armor and My Body as a Shield get cut for double trouble with Magical Arm Shield.
A quick recap of changes . . .
Cut:
-1 The Six Samurai - Yaichi
-1 The Six Samurai - Irou
-2 Double Summon
-1 Swords of Revealing Light
-1 Sakuretsu Armor
-1 My Body as a Shield
Added:
+1 The Six Samurai - Kamon
+1 Morphing Jar
+2 Giant Rat
+1 Exiled Force
+1 Book of Moon
+2 Magical Arm Shield
This updated list has no severe change in strategy from the old one, except now it may have an easier time getting out its heavy hitters due to the increased speed of the deck, and it has a few technical changes that help it dismantle opposing strategies. Also, now it’s running on love, which is the only thing that beats Zombies (besides Bruce Campbell and a boomstick). You will occasionally need removal, and you will have it thanks to Exiled Force, plus you have increased speed thanks to Giant Rat (which will also make opposing Creature Swap plays much less impressive), Morphing Jar, and Reinforcement of the Army. You have more versatility, you have more speed, and you have an incredible trick against the evil Zombie empire. Fight on for justice!
Samurai Swarmers—41 cards
Monsters: 21
2 Great Shogun Shien
3 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
2 Cyber Dragon
3 The Six Samurai - Zanji
2 The Six Samurai - Irou
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 The Six Samurai - Yaichi
1 The Six Samurai - Kamon
2 Giant Rat
1 Exiled Force
1 Morphing Jar
1 Card Trooper
Spells: 12
3 The Warrior Returning Alive
2 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Heavy Storm
1 Book of Moon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
1 Lightning Vortex
Traps: 8
3 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Magical Arm Shield
Until next time, duelists, I’m Matthew Murphy.