Bushido: The Way Of The Warrior
Hello everyone! I'm currently the newest member of DA's official Article Team. It's been quite long since an article was posted there, so after many discussions with EJ, we both agreed on my making an article about a competitive and relatively new archetype, the Legendary Six Samurai. Did I say Legendary ? Oh, yes I did and I can bet that your guess is right. Today we'll be talking about a Sub-Archetype of "The Six Samurai" introduced in Storm of Ragnarok known as the True (OCG) or Legendary Six Samurai. So, without any further ado here's a list of the topics being explained below;
I. The New Cards
II. Some Old Techs
III. Deck List
IV. Deck Strategy
V. The Weaknesses
------------------------------
I. The New Cards
Apart from Shien's Squire Kagemusha of The Six Samurai is the only tuner utilized in a Legendary Six Samurai deck. His effect is not going to play an important role throughout your duel but there are some widely used cards with target effects we should mention there. In a typical Plant Deck you usually change the target of Ryko to this card instead of letting your opponent knock out one of your beatsticks already dominating the field. If you find no other use for that card, except for Synchro Summoning as quickly as possible, then you can also change target effects of cards like Dimensional Prison and Book Of Moon to protect the other guys on your team but you're most likely to Synchro quickly unless there's really something hindering you from doing so.
Kageki's first effect is similar to "Marauding Captain" and "XX-Saber Boggart Knight" effect, but meant for "The Six Samurai" Archetype. Once Normal Summoned it gives you free and instant access to a level 5 Synchro monster as long as the selected monster is the previously mentioned tuner. Even if you can't gather these two warriors together in your hand this card can Special Summon other Monsters too, just be a little patient, the next lines of the article talk about all the possible choices for Kageki's effect. For the time being, just know that Kageki survives easily if another one of these quys is active on the field by activating his second effect, piece of cake when having this swarming ability.
So, this is the card that everyone talks about at the moment, isn't it ? But why all YGO fans complain about it, saying things like about how broken its effect is ? Well, Gladiator Beast Heraklinos has done quite well mostly in tournaments of the previous format and has an effect similar to this card. However, Shi En does not require you to discard your precious cards in order to negate your opponent's spell/trap and has the "once per turn" effect, the same time. And like the above wasn't enough, Shi En is far more easy to be summoned. Instead of having three Gladiators with one of them being essentially a Laquari, Shi En is capable of hitting the field from the first turn just by playing those two cards already explained above.
I don't really have to stand next to you so as to see that big smile in your face. You have already been impressed by Shi En's power, you're looking for a way to Summon him earlier in the game and cause some serious trouble to your oppoenent and I'm giving you the right card for it. That smoke signal in the sky is Shi En's call for the second Samurai needed to partially lock your opponent. By using simple logic you can add either Kagemusha or Kageki then summon them both with Kageki's effect and tune for Shi En!
Kizan's Special Summoning from the hand requirements are almost the same as the ones that Grandmaster has, with the difference that you can have more than on of him occupying the field. Plus, if you have already swarmed a bunch of Samurais he gains a slight ATK boost allowing him to get rid of almost any level 4 or lower monster your opponent controls.
A lot of people underestimate this card and that's not because of their having a hard time spelling it. The most effective way to break the Samurai strategy is by suddenly making a Debris play granting access to Black Rose. Shi En's really can't do anything to stop it since it's a monster effect and the means of drawing into Debris don't involve the use of a combination of different spell/traps. Staples like Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute, and Mystical Space Typhoon remain potential threats for wrecking your dojo but did we forget something ? Exactly, this card negates every card effect that would destroy a card so that includes the SOLEMN twins and ROYAL OPRESSION as well.
------------------------------
II. Some Old Techs
Introductions are unnecessary to all of you, faithful Six Samurai fans but you certainly want to check this card's combos with the new stuff from STOR. To all the others who see the card for the first time, note that this card's second effect is exactly the same as the first one of Kizan. However, whenever this card is destroyed by your opponent's card effect it replaces itself by giving you an other Samurai resting in the Grave back into your hand. As a cost for this extra effect and some 300 more ATK points you can have only one Grandmaster giving orders to your team in the battlefield.
Yet another powerful addition to the cards we're going to use in our Legendary Six Samurai build. Most Samurai duelists prefer to use the second effect of that card and rarely the third (the first one is likely to be activated in a case of desperation). Swarming the field with Kageki's effect by also playing a Kagemusha gives you 4 Bushidos. After activating Gateway's effect to add probably Grandmaster, Special Summon him and go for Shi En by tuning Kageki with Kagemusha. Another 2 Six Samurais summoned so again you can use another 4 counters to add a monster like Kizan. Once you Special Summon Kizan his ATK stat goes to 2100 due to his effect and despite the advantage generated you now have greater control over the field, being able to inflict as many as 7400 points of direct damage if you waste your last 2 counters !!!
It's been like three years since the debut of SSU in Phantom Darkness and it's still useful today. With the new swarm capabilities of the Legendary ones turning this card into a Pot Of Greed can be accomplished fairly easy. SSU also stores some Bushidos for the Gateway giving you the ability to make an even better play than the one mentioned before by using Gateway alone, but everything in time...
Don't get discouraged reading this card's second effect. You are mostly going to use it in order to end a match, recycle your Kageki and Kagemusha or even Synchro Summon other powerful monsters residing in your Extra to avoid its activation by sending the monsters you picked back to the Grave. I guess this is the last card needed in order to examine the powerful combination of SSU and GOTS.
Six Samurai United Gateway of The Six Combo
This combo requires having those two Continuous Spells active on the field and finding a way of Summoning two Samurais and abuse Gateway's effect, by the time that Gateway can use Bushido Counters from other cards like United too!! Most likely you'll be summoning both of them in one turn taking advantage of Kageki or even Grandmaster and Kizan's swarming effect, adding that there is always the option to search the first one with Smoke Signal. If you play with Kageki followed up by Kagemusha you can Synchro Summon Shi En which is a Six Samurai card meaning that more Bushidos are added to your cards. So let's see how this combo works. Keep in mind that the Bushido counters will be stated after every move like this;
(B.Counters on SSU-B.Counters on GOTS)
-Activate Six Samurai United.
-Activate Gateway of The Six.
-Normal Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki.
-Activate the effect of Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki to Special Summon Kagemusha of the Six Samurai (2-4).
-Add Grandmaster of the Six Samurai from your Deck to your hand, by removing 2 Bushido Counters from each of your Spells (0-2).
-Special Summon Grandmaster of the Six Samurai (1-4).
-Tune Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki with Kagemusha of the Six Samurai to Special Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En (2-6).
-Add Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan from your Deck to your hand, by removing 4 Bushido Counters from Gateway of The Six (2-2).
-Activate Six Samurai United's effect by sending it to the Graveyard and drawing 2 cards (2 counters on GOTS).
-Special Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan (4 counters on GOTS).
(You can use the rest of the counters later or you can finish your opponent by adding another monster, obviously when you feel safe to attack with 4 monsters.)
The above combo has many different variations, this is just a usual example of a first turn play. Sword Technique was mentioned before for some reason and that is, helping the player accomplish that combo even in the mid-game when several monsters are sent to the Grave, giving also the option to use the Normal Summon of the turn. In such cases Gateway gives us the opportunity to grab monsters from the grave (hope you read carefully the effect with the 4 Bushidos) if we already don't have enough to search from our deck. Again, there are several ways of using it like Normal Summoning Kagemusha and Special Summoning Grandmaster or Kizan afterwards having access to other Synchros, but those ways do not always ensure that great card advantage.
------------------------------
III. Deck List
Monsters: 12
2 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan
3 Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
1 Hand of the Six Samurai
Spells: 20
3 Shien’s Smoke Signal
1 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Gateway of the Six
1 Giant Trunade
1 Monster Reborn
3 Six Samurai United
3 Book of Moon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Upstart Goblin
1 Dark Hole
Traps: 8
3 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Musakani Magatama
2 Double-Edged Sword Technique
Extra Deck: 15
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Flamvell Uruquizas
2 Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Scrap Archfiend
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Mist Wurm
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
Side Deck: 15
1 Mirror Force
2 Rivalry of Warlords
2 Chain Disappearnce
2 Twister
3 Puppet Plant
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Kinetic Soldier
1 Nobleman of Crossout
------------------------------
IV. Deck Strategy
Most of the previously released Six Samurai monsters were each endowed with a special power allowing you to destroy a fellow Samurai to protect the most important one in danger. The Legendaries are focused on swarming the field in order to utilize their own effects as well as the effects of the original Six Samurai. Summoning Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En is the utmost priority. By maxing out Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki and Kagemusha of the Six Samurai, the chances to do so on the first turn are exceptionally high. Don't forget that we are also running 3 copies of Smoke Signal, teching one Reinforcement of the Army and making use of Upstart Goblin which turns the deck into a 37-card one, replacing itself with another card whenever you draw into it and without stopping our Special Summons like Pot Of Duality. Simply awesome draw engine!
A lot of people would ask why my judgement dissapointed commonly used choices in almost every deck like Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute. Since Samurais don't have that many effects to quickly revive the dead warriors and simultaneously rely heavily on Shi En's soft-lock, Torrential doesn't really help here. As for Mirror Force, I found it less useful than an extra copy of Book Of Moon which stops Synchro Summons from occuring and blocks other, harmful for your Samurais, effects like Puppet Plant, Thunder King and Monarchs. Generally if you paid special attention to my comments below every card on the first chapters you would see that the kind of hand that every Samurai Duelist dreams of having early in the game contains the combination of SSU and COTS in order to draw into more cards like Solemn Warning and Book Of Moon and lock the opponent's summons.
You can test this deck after giving it an old school feel, by adding cards from STON, meaning again those classic Six Samurais. You might also try pulling off the combo with the infinite Bushido Counters involving Mizuho and Shinai by changing slightly the type to the so-called “Red and Blue”. Playtesting helped me figuring out that the above build is working really well at the moment, without much help of the Good Luck Fairy as everyone believes, so there's really no big need of taking more space and time to explain the others.
------------------------------
V. The Weaknesses
The deck's strategy's based a lot on Special Summoning a great deal of monsters in your turn. Oppression is a potential threat to shut down the combos you plan on making through the duel. However, you always have a single MST and that Musakani thing. Remember also that there's a ruling stating that if Grandmaster's summon is negated by Oppression or Solemn W/J then his effect will still activate in a new chain allowing him to target himself! In comparison with Oppression, Gozen Match gets past Musakani Magatama that's why I added Twister which is far more functional than Spell-Shattering Arrow, allowing you to get rid of it. Your opponent is likely to use more s/t with destructive effects for your backrow in his side deck like Dust Tornado, Spell-Shattering Arrow and MST but there can be considered slow and no big deal for Shi En at all.
As long as we talk about some really effective monster cards against the LSS a notable card among them immediately becomes Kinetic Soldier being able to get under the effect of Shi En, destroy your team and cause severe damage to your LP plus being summoned without much effort by your opponent's part. Using flip effects like Ryko and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo (!!) works also well against them. If those monsters attempt to spoil your strategy simply punish them by using Hand of the Six. Last but not least, Puppet Plant is the most evil card that your opponent has against you. If he's lucky enough to get it as soon as possible you can block him by turning your monster face down with BoM before Puppet Plant resolves. It does really help on Mirror Matches too, along with Chain Disappearnce.
------------------------------
At this point, my act as a quide to Shien's dojo is finally over. Hope your time was a worthy investment on reading my article. Have fun building your own deck and also dueling other people. Don't search these cards in KCVDS and don't ask when they're going to be added, that's a mystery even to the development team. In the meantime, for the duelists interested in playing with them, there is always the option of YVD...
Hello everyone! I'm currently the newest member of DA's official Article Team. It's been quite long since an article was posted there, so after many discussions with EJ, we both agreed on my making an article about a competitive and relatively new archetype, the Legendary Six Samurai. Did I say Legendary ? Oh, yes I did and I can bet that your guess is right. Today we'll be talking about a Sub-Archetype of "The Six Samurai" introduced in Storm of Ragnarok known as the True (OCG) or Legendary Six Samurai. So, without any further ado here's a list of the topics being explained below;
I. The New Cards
II. Some Old Techs
III. Deck List
IV. Deck Strategy
V. The Weaknesses
------------------------------
I. The New Cards
Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
EARTH / Warrior / Tuner / Effect / Level 2 / 400 ATK / 1800 DEF
When (exactly) 1 face-up "Six Samurai" monster you control is targeted by a Spell Card, Trap Card, Spell/Trap effect, or Effect Monster's effect, you can change the target to this face-up card on the field, instead.
Apart from Shien's Squire Kagemusha of The Six Samurai is the only tuner utilized in a Legendary Six Samurai deck. His effect is not going to play an important role throughout your duel but there are some widely used cards with target effects we should mention there. In a typical Plant Deck you usually change the target of Ryko to this card instead of letting your opponent knock out one of your beatsticks already dominating the field. If you find no other use for that card, except for Synchro Summoning as quickly as possible, then you can also change target effects of cards like Dimensional Prison and Book Of Moon to protect the other guys on your team but you're most likely to Synchro quickly unless there's really something hindering you from doing so.
Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki
WIND / Warrior / Effect / Level 3 / 200 ATK / 2000 DEF
When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Six Samurai" monster from your hand. While you control another face-up "Six Samurai" monster with a different name, this card gains 1500 ATK.
Kageki's first effect is similar to "Marauding Captain" and "XX-Saber Boggart Knight" effect, but meant for "The Six Samurai" Archetype. Once Normal Summoned it gives you free and instant access to a level 5 Synchro monster as long as the selected monster is the previously mentioned tuner. Even if you can't gather these two warriors together in your hand this card can Special Summon other Monsters too, just be a little patient, the next lines of the article talk about all the possible choices for Kageki's effect. For the time being, just know that Kageki survives easily if another one of these quys is active on the field by activating his second effect, piece of cake when having this swarming ability.
Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En
DARK / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / Level 5 / 2500 ATK / 1400 DEF
1 Warrior-Type Tuner 1 or more non-Tuner "Six Samurai" monsters Once per turn, when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, you can negate its activation and destroy it. If this face-up card on the field would be destroyed, you can destroy another face-up "Six Samurai" monster you control instead.
So, this is the card that everyone talks about at the moment, isn't it ? But why all YGO fans complain about it, saying things like about how broken its effect is ? Well, Gladiator Beast Heraklinos has done quite well mostly in tournaments of the previous format and has an effect similar to this card. However, Shi En does not require you to discard your precious cards in order to negate your opponent's spell/trap and has the "once per turn" effect, the same time. And like the above wasn't enough, Shi En is far more easy to be summoned. Instead of having three Gladiators with one of them being essentially a Laquari, Shi En is capable of hitting the field from the first turn just by playing those two cards already explained above.
Shien's Smoke Signal
Normal Spell
Add 1 Level 3 or lower "Six Samurai" monster from your Deck to your hand.
I don't really have to stand next to you so as to see that big smile in your face. You have already been impressed by Shi En's power, you're looking for a way to Summon him earlier in the game and cause some serious trouble to your oppoenent and I'm giving you the right card for it. That smoke signal in the sky is Shi En's call for the second Samurai needed to partially lock your opponent. By using simple logic you can add either Kagemusha or Kageki then summon them both with Kageki's effect and tune for Shi En!
Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan
EARTH / Warrior / Effect / Level 4 / 1800 ATK / 500 DEF
If you control a face-up "Six Samurai" monster other than "Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan", you can Special Summon this card from your hand. While you control 2 or more other face-up "Six Samurai" monsters, this card gains 300 ATK and DEF.
Kizan's Special Summoning from the hand requirements are almost the same as the ones that Grandmaster has, with the difference that you can have more than on of him occupying the field. Plus, if you have already swarmed a bunch of Samurais he gains a slight ATK boost allowing him to get rid of almost any level 4 or lower monster your opponent controls.
Musakani Magatama
Counter Trap
Activate only if you control a face-up "Six Samurai" monster when your opponent activates a Spell Card, Trap Card, or Effect Monster's effect that would destroy a card(s). Negate the card's activation and destroy it.
A lot of people underestimate this card and that's not because of their having a hard time spelling it. The most effective way to break the Samurai strategy is by suddenly making a Debris play granting access to Black Rose. Shi En's really can't do anything to stop it since it's a monster effect and the means of drawing into Debris don't involve the use of a combination of different spell/traps. Staples like Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute, and Mystical Space Typhoon remain potential threats for wrecking your dojo but did we forget something ? Exactly, this card negates every card effect that would destroy a card so that includes the SOLEMN twins and ROYAL OPRESSION as well.
------------------------------
II. Some Old Techs
Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
EARTH / Warrior / Effect / Level 5 / 2100 ATK / 800 DEF
You can only control 1 "Grandmaster of the Six Samurai" monster. 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.
Introductions are unnecessary to all of you, faithful Six Samurai fans but you certainly want to check this card's combos with the new stuff from STOR. To all the others who see the card for the first time, note that this card's second effect is exactly the same as the first one of Kizan. However, whenever this card is destroyed by your opponent's card effect it replaces itself by giving you an other Samurai resting in the Grave back into your hand. As a cost for this extra effect and some 300 more ATK points you can have only one Grandmaster giving orders to your team in the battlefield.
Gateway of the Six
Continuous Spell
Each time a "Six Samurai" monster is Normal or Special Summoned, place 2 Bushido Counters on this card. You can remove Bushido Counters from your side of the field to apply the following effects. •2 Counters: Until the End Phase of this turn, 1 face-up "Six Samurai" or "Shien" Effect Monster gains 500 ATK. •4 Counters: Add 1 "Six Samurai" monster from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand. •6 Counters: Special Summon 1 "Shien" Effect Monster from your Graveyard.
Yet another powerful addition to the cards we're going to use in our Legendary Six Samurai build. Most Samurai duelists prefer to use the second effect of that card and rarely the third (the first one is likely to be activated in a case of desperation). Swarming the field with Kageki's effect by also playing a Kagemusha gives you 4 Bushidos. After activating Gateway's effect to add probably Grandmaster, Special Summon him and go for Shi En by tuning Kageki with Kagemusha. Another 2 Six Samurais summoned so again you can use another 4 counters to add a monster like Kizan. Once you Special Summon Kizan his ATK stat goes to 2100 due to his effect and despite the advantage generated you now have greater control over the field, being able to inflict as many as 7400 points of direct damage if you waste your last 2 counters !!!
Six Samurai United
Continuous Spell
Each time a "Six Samurai" monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned, place 1 Bushido Counter on this card (max 2.) You can send this card to the Graveyard to draw 1 card for each Bushido Counter on this card.
It's been like three years since the debut of SSU in Phantom Darkness and it's still useful today. With the new swarm capabilities of the Legendary ones turning this card into a Pot Of Greed can be accomplished fairly easy. SSU also stores some Bushidos for the Gateway giving you the ability to make an even better play than the one mentioned before by using Gateway alone, but everything in time...
Double-Edged Sword Technique
Normal Trap
Select 2 "Six Samurai" monsters from your Graveyard, and Special Summon them in face-up Attack Position. Destroy them during the End Phase of this turn, and take damage equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster(s).
Don't get discouraged reading this card's second effect. You are mostly going to use it in order to end a match, recycle your Kageki and Kagemusha or even Synchro Summon other powerful monsters residing in your Extra to avoid its activation by sending the monsters you picked back to the Grave. I guess this is the last card needed in order to examine the powerful combination of SSU and GOTS.
Six Samurai United Gateway of The Six Combo
This combo requires having those two Continuous Spells active on the field and finding a way of Summoning two Samurais and abuse Gateway's effect, by the time that Gateway can use Bushido Counters from other cards like United too!! Most likely you'll be summoning both of them in one turn taking advantage of Kageki or even Grandmaster and Kizan's swarming effect, adding that there is always the option to search the first one with Smoke Signal. If you play with Kageki followed up by Kagemusha you can Synchro Summon Shi En which is a Six Samurai card meaning that more Bushidos are added to your cards. So let's see how this combo works. Keep in mind that the Bushido counters will be stated after every move like this;
(B.Counters on SSU-B.Counters on GOTS)
-Activate Six Samurai United.
-Activate Gateway of The Six.
-Normal Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki.
-Activate the effect of Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki to Special Summon Kagemusha of the Six Samurai (2-4).
-Add Grandmaster of the Six Samurai from your Deck to your hand, by removing 2 Bushido Counters from each of your Spells (0-2).
-Special Summon Grandmaster of the Six Samurai (1-4).
-Tune Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki with Kagemusha of the Six Samurai to Special Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En (2-6).
-Add Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan from your Deck to your hand, by removing 4 Bushido Counters from Gateway of The Six (2-2).
-Activate Six Samurai United's effect by sending it to the Graveyard and drawing 2 cards (2 counters on GOTS).
-Special Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan (4 counters on GOTS).
(You can use the rest of the counters later or you can finish your opponent by adding another monster, obviously when you feel safe to attack with 4 monsters.)
The above combo has many different variations, this is just a usual example of a first turn play. Sword Technique was mentioned before for some reason and that is, helping the player accomplish that combo even in the mid-game when several monsters are sent to the Grave, giving also the option to use the Normal Summon of the turn. In such cases Gateway gives us the opportunity to grab monsters from the grave (hope you read carefully the effect with the 4 Bushidos) if we already don't have enough to search from our deck. Again, there are several ways of using it like Normal Summoning Kagemusha and Special Summoning Grandmaster or Kizan afterwards having access to other Synchros, but those ways do not always ensure that great card advantage.
------------------------------
III. Deck List
Monsters: 12
2 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan
3 Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
1 Hand of the Six Samurai
Spells: 20
3 Shien’s Smoke Signal
1 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Gateway of the Six
1 Giant Trunade
1 Monster Reborn
3 Six Samurai United
3 Book of Moon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Upstart Goblin
1 Dark Hole
Traps: 8
3 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Musakani Magatama
2 Double-Edged Sword Technique
Extra Deck: 15
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Flamvell Uruquizas
2 Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Scrap Archfiend
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Mist Wurm
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
Side Deck: 15
1 Mirror Force
2 Rivalry of Warlords
2 Chain Disappearnce
2 Twister
3 Puppet Plant
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Kinetic Soldier
1 Nobleman of Crossout
------------------------------
IV. Deck Strategy
Most of the previously released Six Samurai monsters were each endowed with a special power allowing you to destroy a fellow Samurai to protect the most important one in danger. The Legendaries are focused on swarming the field in order to utilize their own effects as well as the effects of the original Six Samurai. Summoning Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En is the utmost priority. By maxing out Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki and Kagemusha of the Six Samurai, the chances to do so on the first turn are exceptionally high. Don't forget that we are also running 3 copies of Smoke Signal, teching one Reinforcement of the Army and making use of Upstart Goblin which turns the deck into a 37-card one, replacing itself with another card whenever you draw into it and without stopping our Special Summons like Pot Of Duality. Simply awesome draw engine!
A lot of people would ask why my judgement dissapointed commonly used choices in almost every deck like Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute. Since Samurais don't have that many effects to quickly revive the dead warriors and simultaneously rely heavily on Shi En's soft-lock, Torrential doesn't really help here. As for Mirror Force, I found it less useful than an extra copy of Book Of Moon which stops Synchro Summons from occuring and blocks other, harmful for your Samurais, effects like Puppet Plant, Thunder King and Monarchs. Generally if you paid special attention to my comments below every card on the first chapters you would see that the kind of hand that every Samurai Duelist dreams of having early in the game contains the combination of SSU and COTS in order to draw into more cards like Solemn Warning and Book Of Moon and lock the opponent's summons.
You can test this deck after giving it an old school feel, by adding cards from STON, meaning again those classic Six Samurais. You might also try pulling off the combo with the infinite Bushido Counters involving Mizuho and Shinai by changing slightly the type to the so-called “Red and Blue”. Playtesting helped me figuring out that the above build is working really well at the moment, without much help of the Good Luck Fairy as everyone believes, so there's really no big need of taking more space and time to explain the others.
------------------------------
V. The Weaknesses
The deck's strategy's based a lot on Special Summoning a great deal of monsters in your turn. Oppression is a potential threat to shut down the combos you plan on making through the duel. However, you always have a single MST and that Musakani thing. Remember also that there's a ruling stating that if Grandmaster's summon is negated by Oppression or Solemn W/J then his effect will still activate in a new chain allowing him to target himself! In comparison with Oppression, Gozen Match gets past Musakani Magatama that's why I added Twister which is far more functional than Spell-Shattering Arrow, allowing you to get rid of it. Your opponent is likely to use more s/t with destructive effects for your backrow in his side deck like Dust Tornado, Spell-Shattering Arrow and MST but there can be considered slow and no big deal for Shi En at all.
As long as we talk about some really effective monster cards against the LSS a notable card among them immediately becomes Kinetic Soldier being able to get under the effect of Shi En, destroy your team and cause severe damage to your LP plus being summoned without much effort by your opponent's part. Using flip effects like Ryko and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo (!!) works also well against them. If those monsters attempt to spoil your strategy simply punish them by using Hand of the Six. Last but not least, Puppet Plant is the most evil card that your opponent has against you. If he's lucky enough to get it as soon as possible you can block him by turning your monster face down with BoM before Puppet Plant resolves. It does really help on Mirror Matches too, along with Chain Disappearnce.
------------------------------
At this point, my act as a quide to Shien's dojo is finally over. Hope your time was a worthy investment on reading my article. Have fun building your own deck and also dueling other people. Don't search these cards in KCVDS and don't ask when they're going to be added, that's a mystery even to the development team. In the meantime, for the duelists interested in playing with them, there is always the option of YVD...
You rly sound like a pro.+1 rep lol