The monster lineup remains mostly the same as before, but with a few key additions. Since it’s a Quick-Play, you can Chain it to cards like Bottomless Trap Hole or Dimensional Prison to keep a monster on the field, or if your opponent tries to negate your monster’s effect with Effect Veiler, you can use Cunning to send it to the Graveyard and bring it back right away, no longer negated! Cunning’s also great in the Battle Phase, letting you attack again with a Samurai after every monster you control has already attacked, or stopping your opponent from attacking because you traded your low ATK Samurai for a much stronger Shi En. In Samurai mirror-matches this is great for taking your opponent’s Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En, but the card’s got plenty of other tricks too.
Cunning of the Six Samurai is a Quick-Play Spell Card that lets you send 1 of your Six Samurai monsters to the Graveyard to Special Summon 1 from either Graveyard. Top of the list is Book of Moon, followed by Cunning of the Six Samurai. With 2 Gateways and 3 Upstart Goblins (which Duelists mainly used to get their second Gateway after drawing the first) taken out there’s lots of space for cards that can be used in a wide variety of situations. The biggest difference between older and newer Samurai Decks is in the Spell Cards. Finally, 1 copy of Double-Edged Sword Technique would still be great to have in the Main Deck, as you can use it after Summoning your first Shi En to bring out a second one, add more counters to your Gateway if you draw it, or just Special Summon enough monsters to end the Duel with direct attacks. With Book of Moon now Limited, Bottomless Trap Hole is often the next best thing and is handy to have when you don’t draw either Magatama or Warning. Solemn Warning (now Semi-Limited) and Solemn Judgment will also help you to “lock out” your opponents after Summoning Legendary Six Samurai Shi En. Musakani Magatama is still as strong as it ever was so at least 2 copies in your main deck will be quite useful. First up are the Trap Cards which now focus mainly on stopping your opponent from Summoning monsters and using their effects. Most of the cards you used last month will still be useful now and you’ll only have to add a few others, mainly to your Spell and Trap lineup.
The good news if you’re changing up your Samurai Deck is that you don’t have to change your entire Deck to make it work. Gateway of the Six certainly helps things along, but these new Samurai decks are capable of doing well even when they don’t see the card in a Duel, unlike before where every big combo was based around it. Once that’s done they use their other Samurai to whittle away at their opponent’s monsters or Summon more Synchros (like Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier and Naturia Barkion) to end the Duel without risking everything they have on one big play like before. Instead, what many Duelists are trying now with their Samurai is to build a Deck that Summons Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En early, then protects it with Spell and Trap Cards to ensure they get a steady stream of negation. With Gateway now Limited any Duelist who tries to build a Deck in the way we’ve seen them up to now is going to have trouble getting their combos to work as they’ll see Gateway less often. The aim with these Decks was to Summon as many monsters as they could and end Duels as quickly as possible. Some Duelists even went so far as to use Upstart Goblin (to draw into Gateway as early as possible) and Double-Edged Sword Technique (to give their Gateways lots of counters and allow for second-chance Synchro Summons). If you look at the Six Samurai Decks from YCS Dallas you’ll see how they’re built to make the most of Gateway of the Six, using multiple Kizan, Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki. While many Duelists saw this change as a problem for their Six Samurai Decks, it may in fact be just what’s needed to help Duelists create an even more powerful Samurai build. Soon after, we saw Gateway of the Six become a Limited card on the new Limited and Forbidden Cards list. Thanks to the incredible combos and huge turns sparked by Gateway of the Six, Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki, Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan and Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En, it was no surprise that Six Samurai won the event. Six Samurai, boosted by the new Legendary Six Samurai monsters in Storm of Ragnarok performed a miracle at the event, barely edging out Blackwings as the most popular Deck in the event and winning the event. Storm of Ragnarok made its competitive debut at YCS Dallas and there was 1 Deck that every Duelist was talking about.