Revival Of The Six Samurai

Yes, I really am giving you two posts that aren't over a whole week apart. Consider yourselves lucky. So, today was locals. Yeah, I too was surprised that I actually ended up going since it has been about a month since I last went.

I was keen to try my hand at a couple of battle pack boosters but they had managed to sell out of a whole CASE of the stuff. No biggie really, but I can't believe that it could go so quickly. But now, on to the tournament report. There were even more people there that I had never met before, so I didn't catch many names. Sorry if this post is again about Six Samurais but at least it's not a deck/card analysis of them this time right?

Deck Used: At this point, it's pretty obvious that it's Six Samurai lol

Match 1: Sorry didn't catch your name w/ Chaos Dragon (teched Monk, The Fabled Rubyruda and Galaxy-Eyes)
* Duel 1 - I had no idea what he was running but I had a decent hand so I decided to hit first and setup quickly. Turned out to be a good idea once Shi En and Enishi locked the board down not even two turns later.
* Duel 2 -I drew alright in terms of my Samurai line-up, but it wasn't good enough to go alone. So I let him have his second turn. After that, I drew into a Bottomless and let him have at it. I had a sub-par field in terms of monsters with only a Kizan and Grandmaster at one point. However the bottomless bought me a turn by banishing Light Pulsar and after drawing and setting mirror force when he had not even 3 cards in hand, it was all over.
OO

Match 2: William w/ Gravekeepers
Quick shout out to Will, he managed to place 7th in the recent Nats just gone by so well done to him. Quite an achievement.
* Duel 1 - Samurai flooded the field thanks to Dojo and the special summon powers the Samurais possess. Enishi helped clean up. Naturia Beast stopped all his plays cold.
* Duel 2 - Samurai gave me another great hand and it only got better. I tried to tread really carefully since I knew he would have sided heavily and well. Also he had Dualitied into Torrential. With 2 Dojo, United and Kizan in my opening hand facing his facedown monster, I played them all to get the counters going and set Fiendish Chain and Warning. The next turn Warning dealt with the flipped up Spy. I then drew some other removal card for my turn before using United to draw one. It was Gateway. I left my turn there, Fiendish chain stopped whatever he was trying to do and it was mine again. I summoned Kagemusha and he Torrentialed but that made no difference with gateway on 4, and both Dojos on two. After a flurry of special summons, my field was Hand, 2 Kizans, Shi En and Grandmaster. Hand destroyed the facedown just in case it was a Snowman or something else dangerous. And the other four guys all went in for the otk after I called Gorz with Prohibition, just in case. He revealed his had to have had 2 Fossil Dynas in it. He didn't want to set it because of his facedown Torrential but it cost him big. On an entirely random note, I don't know why it took people so long to accept playing Dojo was a great idea. I played 2 even when Gateway was at 3, because as ridiculous as Gateway was in terms of advantage, Dojo put the thing straight onto the field for you.
OO

By this point I was only 1 of 2 who had won all their games.
Match 3: Sorry I never got your name w/ Inzektors
* Duel 1 - I drew really well again. I can't remember what synchro I put down but it was a decent field. Actually it was most likely Naturia Beast from memory. With 2 Warnings over two turns to deal with Centipede and a desperate potential Hornet onto Hornet play, I took this decisively. I was going to activate Prohibition (super-awesome tech) after and call Hornet anyway though.
* Duel 2 - I smelt a set sangan so I left it while I tried to draw into better stuff. On either turn 2 or 3 I exploded with a Dojo and in-hand Samurais to again put Enishi down next to Shi En (again lol) which has to be the most broken play ever. I also had 2 Kizans or something like that, so after boosting Shi En to 3000atk another otk appeared, with Sangan not being able to give him anything to search that would have saved him. Sorta felt bad because this match honestly took no time at all. This also surprised me greatly, because I was really worried about Inzektors the most.
OO

Match 4: Tyson w/ Windups
* Duel 1 - We started and I drew a very non-offensive hand with a ton of backrows (Solemn and Warning), so I slowly put them out turn after turn. I tried to Kageki and Kagemusha with a Dojo up, but a Book of Moon foiled my plans. Solemn Judgement stopped his Heavy Storm, and his attempt at a Zenmaioh was stopped thanks to Warning. So next turn I flipped up Kageki and synched into Shi En anyway and I brought out a Hand as a bit of backup. The turning point occurred after I had a Shi En up and we were both down to few cards. He summoned Tour Guide to which I Fiendish Chained. He activated a Seven Tools which I did not see coming, but thankfully I had a Magatama to deal with that and the next turn I had it in the bag. But then the round had to restart and everyone was re-paired which REALLY sucked.
O-

Match 4 (take 2): Chris (the one who played Bubblebeat last time) w/ Dino Rabbits
I thought this would be a difficult match and boy was I correct.
* Duel 1 - I started which was fortunate. I had a hand that wasn't doing very much and I didn't know what he was playing so I just set Fiendish Chain. He opened Rabbit into Laggia which I tried to Chain, but a Lance dealt with that. He then set a backrow. I Heavy stormed the field which he didn't negate. I summoned activated Gateway, summoned Enishi but just to be sure, he negated its summon, which made my in-hand Grandmaster very sad. I was saving my Hand and Grandmaster for later though. That was of course, until he top-decked another Rabbit next turn, going into pair of Sabersaurus and that right there was game anyway. Never mind how I would have tried to get around another Laggia.
* Duel 2 - On turn 1 I drew absolutely amazingly with a Kagemusha, double Ascetism and Gateway. So naturally I decided to go all out and lock him out of the game sooner rather than later. Naturia Beast, Utopia and Grandmaster held him off for a while but he had drawn a mediocre hand, so my traps were able to stop his two or so major summons. Shi En came down for a bit of protection against traps but he had nothing, while a Kizan and Kagemusha combined to make Brionac (what's this white card) to bounce his last card and finish it up.
* Duel 3 - On turn 1 I made a Naturia Beast and Utopia again to try and stop him cold. I was also rather confident thanks to having both Book Of Moon and Bottomless set. His Tour Guide made Leviathan Dragon which I let though so I could save my traps for the Dinos. Leviathan attacked an Utopia defended. Turn 2 I made a Shi En, crashed my Utopia into Leviathan and ended. He set and passed. I attacked a facedown vanilla and he put Gorz down on my Shi En's attack. I set Mirror Force and ended. He put Gorz to attack position, leaving the token in defence. Mirror Force got rid of Gorz and from this point on I just tried to build up an offence, stopping another exceed play with Black Horn along the way. I couldn't get rid of the token for ages because it was too big but he couldn't push because he didn't have many playable monsters, and couldn't use anything under Naturia Beast's effect. A Sabersaurus never screwed me over when I forgot that I couldn't use either Shi En or Beast's effect during the damage step (massive duh) when Lance was played. Shi En tried to use Kageki to save himself but his Fiendish Chain said no to that. I had no response so he died. Sadface :( My field was Kageki, Beast, Book, Bottomless against his Sabersaurus and Gorz Token still in defense. I top-decked a RoTA and nearly cried. My deck had honestly answered my calls all day and even done better than than. Haven't opened the nuts this many times. It's never drawn this well for a whole day before. Let alone such quality opposing decks. He had no in hand cards, so I naturally searched Enishi and he was able to bounce the Gorz token thanks to Kageki still being on the field. Beast ran over Sabersaurus, and Kageki and Enishi finished off his last 800lp that I'd been trying to put through for like 7 turns at least.
XOO

So yeah, I actually ended up winning locals for the first time which was pretty kewl since I really just went there to play again with everyone more than anything. Got the new Turbo Pack 8 and 2 packs of Galactic Overlord. Pulled shit out of both which didn't surprise me because I only packsack really good foils from OCG packs for some reason. Don't ask me why. Managed to pick up another ultra Malicious for collection, along with a Mystic Piper, Kinka-Byo (yeah, bet you can't get what I'm trying to make), Hanzo, Maestroke, Duality, Shi En for someone else, 2 Binders for mates back in Brunei, and even more stuff. Really was a productive day. No one had Battle Pack Tour Guides for sale so stuff it, I'm just going to buy some for myself online.

As for the decklist itself, Hand proved to be really good again as always, but Naturia Beast was great. Shi En getting lured out is gay and as long as you have a couple of traps to back Beast with, it proves to be a very effective lock. Can't wait till I get the Gandiva to totally screw Rabbits over with. Also more protection against Wind-ups is never a bad thing. Didnt't need Roach today against Chaos Dragons and the like which surprised me. However, the MVP of the day was definitely Enishi. No card tells your opponent it's over like him. Black Horn's raw power against Dino-Rabbit was surprising. Definitely gonna be siding it in a bit more against them. Yes I did draw really retardedly today, but it's got to happen sometimes, right? Especially with Samurai. You know the story.

Prohibtion proved useful but I usually was going to win anyway when I had it. But it was great to be able to know that if I had any doubts about what could happen to my field and place in the duel, I could call the card that was most likely going to cause me problems. And say that I didn't have game in those situations, Prohibition would have put me in a much stronger position than I would have been. I usually sided these out in game two which might seem counter-intuitive. However, once you know what you're playing against while still in Duel 1, Prohibition can stop whatever you want it to stop at that specific point in time, so it's never dead. It gets around the common problem of, for example, running something like Bottomless in your main, playing against Inzektors and in Duel 1 realising that you've got two dead cards in your deck or whatever. In Duel 2, I sided the Prohibitions out for something more effective, like Bottomless, D-Prisons and Black Horn of Heaven for Chaos Dragons and Dino Rabbit, and you can do whatever you want for other matchups. It's really flexible. And I love flexible cards. More utility with such a fragile deck is much appreciated. Also I fear Inzketors quite a bit when playing this deck, so this really is the best counter in my opinion that can also double as a lock for some other card if I've got the traps to deal with Centipede and Dragonfly. So give a few of these techs a go if you're playing Samurai, and even if you're not, still consider them for sure.

Thanks for reading guys, till next time, this is DEFER signing out. Have a good weekend.

Abyss Rising Exceeds - Look Out For Them

Hello all, and I've only got one exam left to go which is on Monday night. I leave to return to Brunei on the Wednesday straight after that but of course I'll still be blogging.

Shadow of the Six Samurai - Shien

First up is Shadow of the Six Samurai - Shien. Konami has revealed its effect to target monsters with an attack lower than 2000, and to then boost its original attack to 2000. So essentially, the monster that benefits the most out of this is obviously Kageki, as he still ends up on a sweet 3500 thanks to his massive boost. That's still good enough to take out whatever monster you may be up against. However, it sadly means that there is no protection for Shi En or Shadow himself, which sorta sucks. Of course Shi En can still boot another samurai off the field to keep him from dying, but it means that with only a couple of monsters, he can be run over rather easily, just as before, which is disappointing. Because you have to make Utopia in this situation, you can't push as much as you'd want to just so you can have the defence to survive, should everything go wrong.

Playtesting with my samurais yesterday, I noticed the number of times that the two extra counters that Shadow would have put on the field would have been so handy for either ridiculous gateway spamming, or to get Dojo up to four counters so that I could then bring out LSS - Enishi and win. Also, my current build seems to get alot more use out of Leviair than before. I think I just get to use LSS - Enishi more often which means that Leviair actually has a target. Hence, it can grab a banished Kageki, and if your field is also graced with a Shadow, then that means that you have an OTK because he can put Kageki at 3500, while he himself goes in for 2500, and Leviair for 1800. Shadow would likely have been summoned by overlaying LSS - Enishi and Kizan in this situation.

However, the combo that went off the most when I decided to draw the nuts without Gateway joining in the fun usually ended up in having a Naturia Beast, backed with a trap or two, while sitting alongside LSS - Enishi and a Kizan. And the coolest thing was that for this exact situation and tons of others, Samurai now have more support than ever before. And thanks to the new set Abyss Rising, here's why:

Gandiva

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Heroic_Champion_-_Gandiva
2 Level 4 Warrior-Type monsters
Once per turn, when a Level 4 or lower monster(s) is Special Summoned to your opponent's side of the field: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroy that monster(s).

Its effect has yet to be confirmed, but I doubt that it'll change to be honest. Its stats are rather solid but not especially high. Of course, his effect is what draws him apart from the other Rank 4 monsters that you could be playing. As I talked about in my last post regarding Shadow, Samurais suffer from potentially getting blown out when they all hit the field, and then a bigger attacker comes down that they cant get rid of quickly enough. Gandiva solves this problem really well, even if his niche effect is rather situational. With his effect, he has the ability to completely shut down the Dino Rabbit deck if you can setup faster than they can. Also it stops Wind-ups instantly if that means anything anymore. In Dino Rabbit, both Rescue Rabbit and Tourguide can do nothing at all. That leaves them with their Guaibas and Vanillas to take you down. However, their attack manipulation cards (Chalice and Lance) are useless if you've got Naturia Beast face-up. So in this situation you've got a very simple lock up.

In most cases, this option is gonna be better than making Shi En, trying to protect him and hoping for the best because they can easily bait his effect out. And furthermore, relying on having a live trap set just to ensure you stay on the field is not the best way to go. The above combo with Gandiva is excellent because it doesn't need traps to keep it going, and if you do, well you've won. Swap Gandiva out for Roach to take on the Chaos Dragon matchup, and you're still good to go. So now you have a toolbox of different strategies depending on the situation that you're facing.

Gagaga Gunman

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gagaga_Gunman
2 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; activate 1 of these effects based on this card's battle position. ● Attack Position: This turn, during the Damage Step, if this card attacks an opponent's monster, it gains 1000 ATK, and the attack target loses 500 ATK. ● Defense Position: Inflict 800 damage to your opponent.

Now here's another guy with an interesting effect. He can get over anything with less than 3000atk which is very handy to have. Now decks other than those that play warriors have an Excaliber-esque exceed to use. Also, his defence is rather solid. And the choice to be able to deal a bit of burn when required should never be overlooked.


Aside from all the other Mermail stuff and what not, Tannhäuser Gate looks like fun, letting you hit higher ranked exceeds, while Abysstrom possess quite a bit of raw power that someone might be smart enough to figure out how to use it more than effectively. Heraldics look alright so far but there isn't much to go off at the moment. I like the art on Number 9: Canopy Star - Dyson Sphere, but I doubt it'll do much in terms of being actually played. There's still a few more exceeds to be revealed as of yet, and I'll talk about them when they come out if they're good enough to be talked about. I won't likely do much analysis, if any at all, on Mermails because I've seen at least two other blogs that I read go quite in depth over them, so just check my recommended blog list every once in a while to see if anyone puts anything regarding them up. The set currently has lots of gaps as it is, so there is a chance that it could get alot better.


Sorry if this post was more directed towards how they provided opportunities for Samurai to get better, but this is what came to my head as their best use so far from a personal point of view. Of course, the September Banlist is closer than the release of this set in the TCG, so whether these points will be as relevant in the future has yet to be seen.

I've also picked up my first few MTG cards, being Sun Titan because he rocks the shit, and a few other cards like Splinterfright for this deck that I plan to make if the money necessary to do so appears from the sky sometime in the next month. I'm keen to enjoy Magic as I did in January earlier this year. Except this time, with my own deck, teched out in the way I'd like it to be. Should be good.


Till next time, this is DEFER signing out.