I really think every Six Samurai deck in this format should be running a pair of Gold Sarcophagus regardless of the build. With Reinforcement of the Army limited to one the deck relies heavily on Grandmaster of the Six Samurai. Searching him out with Gold Sarcophagus is really the best option the deck has right now. I'd much rather wait two turns and set up some defense to keep me in the game than rely on drawing into Grandmaster.

I'm going to stick with the Oppression build for the time being to see how it goes. I'm not a huge fan of Solidarity but I'll keep it in the back of my mind.

I'm making a huge leap here but Gateway to Dark World let you Special Summon a Dark World monster from your Graveyard, it would be a HUGE help to the deck if Gateway of the Six Samurai let you Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Six Samurai monster from your deck. That may border on broken so maybe it will also be from your Graveyard, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Gate way of the six

Spell: Continuous

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.


so lets discuss. what do we think of this card.

The main appeal of the card to me is the ability to add a six samurai to your hand. We now have a way to bring Grandmaster to the hand. If you have 2 Gateways on the field, you're getting a samurai each turn. If I'm reading the effect correctly, I'm guessing you can also use the tokens from Six Samurai United if you really need to.

I'm gonna try running 2 in my deck once I get them. If it works out well, I'll try 3.

If this is the case, then this deck just got expanded strategy wise. No more mindless summoning and beating down. now you gotta manage counters to get the effects you want.

I'm gonna overhaul my deck to include 3. it may seem like pushing it, but i think 3 will work in the right build. you'll see my build in a little bit

Hey how's you six samurai build holding up against lightsworn and blackwings? I went a little differently than you did but i'm beating a lot of top tier decks with my samurai and my build is much different from yours. But i think that's good. I think there's not just one sure way to win with six samurai there's multiple ways that are just as consistent as the last. I love it, I hope your deck is working as well as mine is. If the release of this new card is as good as it is sounding six samurai will once again be top tier. if you want take a look at my six samurai's and tell me what you think.

I posted this on another thread but thought it would also be useful here:

I've been on my honeymoon for the last 10 days so I really haven't been keeping up with Yu-Gi-Oh at all, but the effect that I've seen for Gateway of the Six Samurai is exactly what the deck's been missing. Now that Reasoning is forever stuck at one copy per deck the Six Samurai have needed to focus on Grandmaster of the Six Samurai to make the deck work. Gateway of the Six Samurai allows them to reliably search out Grandmaster.

The key to this card is playing it at the right time. Just like Six Samurai United, which I probably won't use more of one copy in my build to fend off bad hands and draws, you play this card when you can use it's counters in the same turn so you get something out of it before it's destroyed. Two copies of Gateway combined with a Six Samurai easily searches you out Grandmaster which will then give you four more counters and either another search or two 500 attack boosts.

The classic Six Samurai United play of dropping United and then Normal Summoning a Samurai and then dropping Grandmaster will now net you a search instead of two cards, allowing you to play mind games with your opponent. Searching out Hand of the Six Samurai will make them think twice about what they play next turn.

All in all I think this is really solid support that the deck needed to have a chance at being competitive again. I for one am glad that Konami didn't bend and give the Six Samurai a Tuner, now the deck retains it's own identity.

Congrats on the hooneymoon. I haven't kept up with yugioh myself since I started playing xbox live and realizing games cost less in the long run and give you more to do. I'm interested in six sam again. Although I really dislike the boost costing 2 counters, I really like that GM is searchable. I also love the fact that cunning of the six sam has a lot more purpose now. I would definitely run at least 2 united though, just because being able to possibly search and draw 2 in the same turn is very effective. Ofcourse I haven't tested that theory at all so whether the argument holds any ground is beyond me.

Thanks it was a blast, I wish we could have stayed longer.

You do get two counters per summon, so that makes the cost a lot more manageable.

I'm thinking about running one copy of Cunning since I've always had a soft spot for the card, I have a rough build in my head that I'll add to this thread when I finish fleshing it out.

I'll start my post by adding a link to my deck:
http://www.ccgrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=511032

I've been testing this deck with 3 united, 3 Gateways, and 2 cunnings. IT WORKS.
Cunning does something that was also needed for this deck. It turns bad hands into good or managable ones.

lets use this example. your starting hand consist of:
1 Spirit of the SS
1 Gateway
1 Cunning
2 Random Traps

Pull 1 Shogun.

I think you guys know the play i'm getting at with this hand, but in any case, Cunning can turn one summon into 2, which is needed for Gateway and United to get their effects at their maximum. This card has literally become a key card in builds now, as it is defensive AND technical.

I want you to look at the deck and offer your thoughts Den. Right now I'm juggling six scrolls with MBAAS but other than that, i'm very safe with this deck.

I updated the initial post with the build I'm going to start testing out Gateway of the Six in. I'll also post it here for reference. I'm starting with a ratio of 3:1:1 for Gateway, United and Cunning to try and reduce my chances of dead hands. We'll see how that works out and if I need to adjust those numbers.

I'm also trying out Card Guard to protect my Gateways when they are on the field so I can get a little more use out of them. Other than that I think the choices I've made here are pretty straight forward.

Monsters
2 Great Shogun Shien
1 Enishi, Shien's Chancellor
3 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
3 The Six Samurai - Zanji
2 The Six Samurai - Yaichi
2 The Six Samurai - Irou
1 The Six Samurai - Kamon
2 Hand of the Six Samurai
2 Spirit of the Six Samurai
1 Card Guard

Spells
3 Gateway of the Six
1 Six Samurai United
1 Cunning of the Six Samurai
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Reasoning
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Book of Moon
1 My Body As A Shield

Traps
2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Double Edged-Sword Technique
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force

i can say right now your build looks to be solid. I wanna jump up and say "NOOOO!!!" every time i see a discard card, but I forget that you have cards that need to be fed into the graveyard to work.

I gotta look up Card Guard and see what it does. I cant really judge that. you know I'll be be back with more suggestions and questions.

I just grabbed a play set of Gateway of the Six so I should be able to start testing out this build really soon. I may also be able to start attending locals more regularly for the first time in forever which would be cool.

Thats funny. I am just now able to start attending my locals regularly too. Except I am going with Zombies, Gladiators and a deck I code name T.E.T.R.I.S. (Total Eradication Through Really Inexpensive Stuff).

How has Gateway been working for you? A friend on mine is huge on Six Sams and wants a playset but doesn't know if they are worth the money.

And Card Gaurd is a interesting but very good choice. I like the idea of having a Six Sam immune to destruction up to twice. Maybe a little slow, but who am I to say? I still run Il Blud despite him being increadibly slow.

My Gateway's haven't shown up yet so I haven't done too much play testing. From what I've seen so far the deck might need something else to set up Gateway, there are a couple of scenarios that you are trying to play out so you can activated the search effect of Gateway the turn you drop it onto the field:

1. The classic Six Samurai United play of dropping Gateway some random Six Samurai followed by Grandmaster. This sets you up for another summon next turn and gives you a way to mess with your opponent's mind.
2. Dropping two copies of Gateway on the field and then summoning a Samurai. This will automatically give you four tokens, allow you to search for Grandmaster, and summon him so you can net four more tokens and another search.
3. Commiting more cards by playing Gateway, summoning a Samurai and then using Cunning of the Six Samurai or Ultimate Offering. Obviously there are pros and cons to both of those. Cunning requires a Samurai in the Graveyard (similar to the Zombie Master ruling) and Ultimate Offering needs to be on the field for a turn and you need another Six Samurai in your hand.

The first two options are automatically built into the deck, the trick is going to be finding the best ratios for the third option to make the deck more consistent. Right now I'm leaning towards Cunning of the Six Samurai.

I like cunning as well. Last time I played six sam was right when GM hit gold rare but what is the reason that people don't like the warrior returning alive? Wouldn't GM being a little more consistent warrant at least one tWRA? I don't know, again I haven't played the deck type in a while.