About the Author

Hi! I’m Emma. When I first started playing Duel Links in December 2017, the one deck type that really grabbed my attention was The Six Samurai. I really liked the idea of an archetype that focused entirely on using team work to win the duel, so I decided I’d focus my attention on trying to build the best deck lists with the cards at my disposal. Ever since then, I have achieved over 35 Six Samurai King of Games runs, I’ve achieved most of my King of Games, Giveaway Tournaments, Giveaway Tournament success, and Meta Weekly successes with Six Samurai. With the introduction out of the way, I’d like to now provide an overview of the archetype.

Overview

In December 2017, Duel Links added the popular Six Samurai archetype to the Blade of Spirits box. Blade of Spirits included The Six Samurai archetype with their boss monster, Great Shogun Shien. Unfortunately, the deck didn’t perform very well because they were lacking cards that ensured fast and consistent strategies.

To further capitalize on Six Samurai’s popularity, the Secret Six Samurai support cards were eventually added to the Crusader Battlegrounds box in May 2018. While Crusader Battlegrounds did include much needed support to Six Samurai, it wasn’t enough to warrant a spot on any competitive tier list due to the nature of bricking with using (while also needing) 3 copies of Grandmaster of the Six Samurai.

However, the Warriors Unite box includes the highly popular Legendary Six Samurai, the third and final variant of the Six Samurai archetype, alongside their true boss monster Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.

The purpose of this guide is to discuss the 3 different types of Six Samurai, their spell cards, trap cards, synergy between cards, skills to play with the deck, strengths/weaknesses, potential matchups, and my general thoughts on the archetype. Without further ado, here’s the original Six Samurai monster line-up.

The Six Samurai

The original Six Samurai are a passive control deck that features a unique mechanic that allows you to choose to destroy a Six Samurai monster face-up on the field instead of the intended target, highlighting the theme of using teamwork to win a duel. These monsters include:

- The Six Samurai - Zanji

• Strengths:
  • Destruction effect doesn’t target
  • 4* level synergises with Fuma to summon Shi En
  • Works well with the Holy Guard skill
• Weaknesses:
  • Effect is risky in Duel Links due to 4,000 LP, so you’ll have to be sure the monster you’re attacking is worth the LP cost

- The Six Samurai - Irou

• Strengths:
  • Counter flip-effect monsters due to destroying the card while it’s face-down,
  • Synergises with popular staples such as: Paleozoic Canadia and Floodgate Trap Hole
• Weaknesses:
  • Its effect is situational, so you won’t always find use from this card

- The Six Samurai - Nisashi

• Strengths:
  • Synergises with Cunning of the Six Samurai for potentially 4+ attacks in 1 turn
  • 4* level helps summon Shi En with Fuma
• Weaknesses:
  • Unless you can clear the field of monsters before attacking, its effect isn’t worth using due to its relatively low 1,400 ATK points

- The Six Samurai - Yariza

• Strengths:
  • Bypasses monsters with higher stats than its own
  • Bypasses continuous traps such as Amazoness Onslaught
• Weaknesses:
  • Low stats rarely justify its existence in a main deck

- The Six Samurai - Yaichi

• Strengths:
  • Great in meta’s where control decks become common
  • Becomes a priority target against battle-trap reliant decks
• Weaknesses:
  • Can’t attack after the effect is used
  • The targeted face-down spell/trap can be flipped face-up to prevent it being destroyed

- The Six Samurai - Kamon

• Strengths:
  • Can help you beat Amazoness decks by destroying their only copy of Onslaught
• Weaknesses:
  • Effect is very situational
  • Can’t attack after using his effect

In summary, most of the original Six Samurai monster cards are slow, outdated, and struggle to find a spot in a main deck due to niche and/or pointless effects. However, you’ll still find use for Zanji due to his versatile effect and synergy with summoning Shi En alongside Fuma.

Now that the original Six Samurai have been discussed, I’ll go through the Legendary Six Samurai monsters.

Legendary Six Samurai

The Legendary Six Samurai monster cards completely changed the playstyle of the Six Samurai archetype from a passive control deck, to an aggressive swarming deck with monsters allowing you to enable Six Samurai effects much quicker and reliably than the previous incarnation of monsters. In addition to a faster playstyle, the Legendary Six Samurai archetype introduced their true and strongest boss monster; Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. With an introduction completed, here are the Legendary Six Samurai monsters:

- Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

• Strengths:
  • Having a free spell/trap negation at no cost is very difficult for most decks to deal with
  • Ability to destroy a different Six Samurai monster to keep it on the field
  • Many ways to easily summon him
  • Synergises with the Beatdown skill
• Weaknesses:
  • Stats are weaker most boss monsters currently in the game

- Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan

• Strengths:
  • Synergises with just about every Six Samurai monster
  • Essentially a free special summon
  • More reliable than Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
  • Synergises well with Fuma to summon Shi En quickly
  • Ensures Six Samurai monsters can enable their effects
  • Enables Six Samurai United to draw 2 cards
• Weaknesses:
  • Earth attribute means it can’t be searched by Kizaru (unless flipped face-down)

- Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki

• Strengths:
  • Ensures Six Samurai monsters can use their effects
  • Secondary effect reduces risk of summoning him in attack
  • Allows you to draw 2 cards with Six Samurai United
• Weaknesses:
  • Only synergises with level 2 Six Samurai monsters for Shi En
  • If his normal summon is disrupted, a potential Kizaru special summon will miss the timing

- Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho

• Strengths:
  • Ability to target and destroy any card your opponent controls
  • Amazing synergy with Shinai
  • Easy to generate Bushido counters for Six Samurai United and Shien’s Dojo
• Weaknesses:
  • Ability is once per-turn
  • Relatively low stats for the current meta
  • Some cards such as Laval Stennon are protected from targeted effects

- Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai

• Strengths:
  • Easy to special summon with Mizuho
  • Helps generate Bushido counters for Six Samurai United/Shien’s Dojo
  • Versatile effect adds any Six Samurai monster from the graveyard when used as a tribute
• Weaknesses:
  • Low ATK points makes him vulnerable to the current meta
  • Rarely used alongside Shi En

- Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi

• Strengths:
  • Adding high level monsters back to the hand is potentially game-winning
  • Light attribute makes him easy to search with Kizaru
  • Good ATK points
• Weaknesses:
  • Effect can occasionally be slow to use
  • Time to setup the graveyard can be difficult at times
  • Effect is linear/predictable to play around

In summary, where the original Six Samurai monsters failed to make an impact, the Legendary Six Samurai more than made up for it. You’ll be able to build decks around all of the monsters due to their versatile effects and synergy with other Six Samurai cards. However, you’ll almost always want to have as many copies of Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan as possible due to his ability to enable every other Six Samurai monster and/or combo.

With the Legendary Six Samurai monsters covered, we’ll now move on to the final set of monsters, the Secret Six Samurai.

Secret Six Samurai

The last set of Six Samurai monsters to be added to the trading card game (although second to be added to Duel Links) are the Secret Six Samurai. They offer a new-found form of graveyard protection by banishing themselves to prevent single-target destruction effects. In addition to this, the Secret Six Samurai were known for introducing Six Samurai’s first ever contact fusion monster. With the introduction out of the way, here are the Secret Six Samurai monster cards:

- Secret Six Samurai - Rihan

• Strengths:
  • Provides complete protection from the graveyard from effects and/or battle
  • Can be summoned if your monsters have been flipped face-down
  • Helps you deal with monster effects triggering from battle/destruction effects
  • Synergises with the Beatdown skill
• Weaknesses:
  • 3 different attributes on the field quite difficult to achieve
  • In addition to the difficulty in summoning Rihan, the effect is also difficult to justify
  • Poor stats for the 3 cards used to summon it

- Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru

• Strengths:
  • Searches for any monster with a different attribute to what’s face-up on your side of the field (including earth if flipped face-down)
  • Good stats for 4* monster
  • Synergises with summoning Shi En alongside Fuma
• Weaknesses:
  • Effect can be disrupted if special summoned on chain-link 2 or higher
  • Earth attribute shared alongside Kizan and Grandmaster, making them difficult to search
  • Needs to be special summoned to utilise its effect

- Secret Six Samurai - Genba

• Strengths:
  • Allows you to re-use effects such as Enishi or Hatsume
  • Helps restore monsters banished against cards such as Amazoness Onslaught
  • Synergises with Kageki to summon Shi En
• Weaknesses:
  • Effect is niche/slow to use
  • Only really synergises with Kageki
  • Fuma has better use/versatility

- Secret Six Samurai - Doji

• Strengths:
  • Fills up your graveyard to enable monsters such as Enishi and Hatsume
  • Helps decks using Cunning of the Six Samurai
  • Dark attribute is easy to search for Kizaru
  • Synergy with Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, Kizan, and Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai to add cards to the graveyard
• Weaknesses:
  • Only works in decks where the effects are best used with the graveyard
  • Six Samurai are strongest with a field presence, so graveyard-reliant effects don’t benefit the archetype too much

- Secret Six Samurai - Hatsume

• Strengths:
  • Incredible card to use in the late game
  • Can revive any Six Samurai monster from the graveyard (including Shi En)
  • Becomes priority target when there’s multiple Six Samurai monsters in the graveyard
  • Extends combos by ensuring a +2 field presence
• Weaknesses:
  • You never want her to be in your opening hand
  • Useless card if interrupted by popular staples such as Paleozoic Canadia or Floodgate Trap Hole
  • Low stats means she doesn’t want to be on the field for long

- Secret Six Samurai - Fuma

• Strengths:
  • Allows you to summon Shi En and most 5* synchro monsters when paired with a 4* Six Samurai monster
  • Synergises with the better Six Samurai to summon Shi En
  • Special summons any Six Samurai monster from the deck, including Grandmaster
  • 1,800 Def stats forces e.g. Heroes to use Mask Change to deal with it
  • Arguably a core Six Samurai card
• Weaknesses:
  • Search effect can be negated if destroyed by Ancient Gear monsters or Armades
  • Can’t special summon another copy of itself from the deck

In summary, the Secret Six Samurai are hit and miss. While the graveyard protection they all offer is incredibly useful against destruction effects, the Secret Six Samurai themselves aren’t always great.

However, Fuma and Kizaru are incredible cards that synergise well with most (if not all) Six Samurai decks. Fuma is by far the best tuner to help summon Shi En, and his special summon any Six Samurai monster from the deck effect is incredible. Kizaru is the best way to search for Six Samurai monsters in Duel Links, in addition to having good ATK points for a 4* monster. Lastly, Hatsume is an excellent card to use in any Six Samurai deck if you’re undecided on your last potential monster choice due to her revival effect.

Having covered all 3 of the Six Samurai monster cards, I’ll now cover their supporting monster cards.

Six Samurai Support Cards

Although we’ve covered the full Six Samurai monster line-up, there’s even more monster cards that can further help the archetype in duel links. Whether this involves cards involving Bushido counters, or even indirect support from the Shien archetype, they’ll all be covered here. That said, here are the Six Samurai support monsters:

- Hand of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Can help you deal with high ATK monsters such as Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon
  • Effect can be used multiple times per turn
• Weaknesses:
  • Monsters with target immunity counter her completely
  • Relatively weak ATK points in the current meta

- Enishi, Shien's Chancellor

• Strengths:
  • Helps deal with high ATK monsters
  • Can be special summoned as a follow-up after clearing board
  • Easier to summon with Secret Six Samurai - Doji adding monsters to the graveyard
• Weaknesses:
  • Easy to destroy in the current meta
  • Effect can only be used once per-turn
  • Can’t attack if the effect is used
  • No synergy with Six Samurai monsters due to the name difference

- Shien's Footsoldier

• Strengths:
  • Essentially a monster card version of Shien’s Smoke Signal (level 3 Six Samurai searcher)
• Weaknesses:
  • Slow to use
  • Effect is difficult to activate the current meta with battle-reliant effects easily bypassed or negated

- Shien's Squire

• Strengths:
  • Offers battle protection for a full turn
  • Potential side deck card
• Weaknesses:
  • Easily countered by Ancient Gear decks and Armades
  • Adding it to a Six Samurai deck causes consistency issues
  • Better using actual Six Samurai monsters instead
  • Doesn’t protect from effect destruction

- Kagemusha of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Amazing synergy with Kageki to summon Shi En quickly
  • Offers protection against spell/trap cards that target
  • Synergy with Grandmaster of the Six Samurai to synchro summon Level 7 targets
• Weaknesses:
  • Fuma is the better overall tuner due to its versatility and multiple effects
  • Redirecting 1 spell/trap card isn’t too good in the current meta

- Spirit of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • 500 ATK/Def boost for a selected monster can be good
  • The ability to draw cards when equipped to a monster is incredible
• Weaknesses:
  • Union monsters are hugely outdated and easy to disrupt
  • Destroyed if popular cards such as Paleozoic Canadia flip the equipped monster face-down
  • Better off using more reliable means of achieving battle superiority

- Chamberlain of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Reasonable Def points
  • Can be special summoned through Unexpected Dai
  • Pairs well with Genba for Shi En summons
• Weaknesses:
  • 2,000 Def is easy to get over by the majority of meta decks
  • Lacks any real synergy outside of using Unexpected Dai as a special summon mechanic

- Shien's Daredevil

• Strengths:
  • Can be useful for adding counters to Shien’s Dojo or Six Samurai United
• Weaknesses:
  • There’s no real purpose to this card since you’ll be better off using Six Samurai monster summons to generate Bushido counters

- Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Pairs extremely well with Fuma for a quick Shi En summon
  • Allows you to reliably summon Great Shogun Shien as it’s a +2 monster card
  • Reasonable Def points
  • Can help summon Rihan with its secondary effect
• Weaknesses:
  • Relatively niche card in Six Samurai decks
  • Only works with Secret Six Samurai (1/3 of the main monster cards)

- Great Shogun Shien

• Strengths:
  • Heavily counters decks that rely on using multiple spells/traps per-turn e.g. Spellbooks
  • Difficult to destroy when there are other Six Samurai monsters on the field to tribute for protection
  • Easy to summon due to the Legendary Six Samurai swarming cards
  • Synergises well with the Beatdown skill
• Weaknesses:
  • Can occasionally result in bricks especially with multiple copies in the deck
  • Doesn’t synergise well with the actual Six Samurai monsters due to the name difference

- Elder of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Essentially a weaker version of Cyber Dragon
  • Synergises with Kagemusha and Genba to summon Shi En
  • Can help generate Bushido counters for Six Samurai United and Shien’s Dojo
• Weaknesses:
  • Poor synergy with most Six Samurai decks
  • Very weak ATK/Def stats

- Grandmaster of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Provides Six Samurai decks access to 6* (Fuma) and 7* (Kagemusha and Genba) synchro monsters such as Black Rose Dragon
  • Free special summon if a Six Samurai monster is on the field
  • Synergy with the Beatdown skill
  • Offers versatile protection to the priority Six Samurai monsters
  • Enables Six Samurai monster effects
  • Amazing destruction effect allowing you to re-add any Six Samurai monster from the graveyard to the hand (including itself)
• Weaknesses:
  • Can occasionally cause bricks (especially if using 2+ copies)
  • Can only control 1 copy of him on the field
  • Doesn’t assist with summoning Shi En

In summary, most of these cards are either slow, outdated, easily countered, or have an unreasonable cost to using their effects. The existence of Ancient Gears and Armades, Keeper of Boundaries renders the Shien soldiers useless, while the Union monster Spirit of the Six Samurai is easily removed by Paleozoic Canadia. However, Hand of the Six Samurai is a great card to use due to her ability to destroy as many monsters as you like in a turn, Great Shogun Shien is an incredible card that severely hurts spell/trap reliant decks such as Spellbooks, and Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai should be a valid budget option for summoning Shi En.

Having covered all the Six Samurai monsters in Duel Links, I’ll now move on to the spell cards.

Six Samurai Spell Cards

Due to Six Samurai being a deck primarily focused on monster cards, their spell card number is relatively limited. In addition to this, the current Six Samurai spell cards primarily exist to further extend your combos and swarming potential, highlighting the importance of having 2+ monsters on the field. That said, here are the Six Samurai spell cards:

- Shien's Dojo

• Strengths:
  • Extremely useful card that pairs well with Fuma due to its 1* level
  • Allows you to special any Six Samurai from the deck, including the 5* Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
  • Difficult to justify not including it in a main Six Samurai decklist
• Weaknesses:
  • Disrupted by cards such as Cosmic Cyclone, Galaxy Cyclone, or Unending Nightmare

- Asceticism of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Enables a powerful deck strategy that focuses on summoning Shi En and Enishi in 1-2 turns
  • Allows you to ensure your board has 2+ monsters
  • Has specific pairings with different Six Samurai monsters
  • Pairs with the Ties that Bind skill to alter the ATK for better synergy
  • Allows you to summon Shi En if e.g. Spirit of the Six Samurai and Asceticism is used to summon Kageki from the deck
• Weaknesses:
  • Without Ties that Binds, its use can be fairly limited at times

- Six Samurai United

• Strengths:
  • Drawing a potential 2 cards in a 20-card deck is really powerful
  • Easy to use now that Kizan, Kageki, and Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai are in Duel Links
  • Necessary in just about every Six Samurai decklist
• Weaknesses:
  • Can be disrupted by cards such as Cosmic Cyclone and Unending Nightmare
  • Occasionally causes bricks if you don’t open with a monster

- Shien's Castle of Mist

• Strengths:
  • 500 ATK decrease could be useful in some decks
• Weaknesses:
  • Almost never a good idea to use this card
  • Severely outdated
  • Easy to remove
  • Current meta doesn’t really care about -500 ATK

- Six Scrolls of the Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Fun OTK card in decks focusing on Great Shogun Shien
• Weaknesses:
  • Rarely worth using due to its cost
  • Dead card if you don’t have the correct setup

- Secret Skills of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Synergises well with Hatsume, Rihan, and Enishi’s banish effect
  • Can be paired with Monster Reborn Reborn to revive a monster of your choice
• Weaknesses:
  • Almost always a dead card to use
  • Only synergises with very specific monsters

- Temple of the Six

• Strengths:
  • Can potentially be okay with control decks
• Weaknesses:
  • Incredibly slow effect
  • Easy to remove from the field
  • Outdated in almost every way
  • Better off using other cards

- Legendary Ebon Steed

• Strengths:
  • Offers full one-off protection from destruction
• Weaknesses:
  • Poor ATK/DEF boost
  • Equip cards are prone to destruction due to Paleozoic Canadia
  • Never worth using in your main deck

- Cunning of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Amazing card in OTK Six Samurai decklists
  • Synergises extremely well with Doji
  • Allows “soft” once-per turn monsters to re-use their effects
  • Synergises well with Kizaru for searching other monsters
• Weaknesses:
  • Dead card unless it has the proper setup
  • Typically suited it only OTK Six Samurai decklists

- Six Strike - Triple Impact

• Strengths:
  • Potential to blow-up an entire set of cards
  • Non-targeted destruction is always powerful
  • Easier to use with Kizan, Kageki, and Grandmaster in Duel Links
• Weaknesses:
  • Difficult to setup
  • Situational card at best
  • You’ll typically be in a winning position before using it anyway

In summary, most of the Six Samurai spell cards aren’t very powerful. As stated, they either have highly specific effect requirements or they’re too slow/outdated to use in a main deck. However, Shien’s Dojo and Six Samurai United should be used in just about every Six Samurai decklist because of their versatile nature, deck thinning capabilities, and special summon/search potential. Lastly, the Ties that Bind skill should see regular play with Asceticism due to its ability to alter the ATK points of monsters and special summon the monster you need.

With the Six Samurai spell cards out of the way, I’ll now move on to their trap cards.

Six Samurai Trap Cards

As with the Six Samurai spell cards, their trap cards are relatively hit and miss. This is due to the fact most of them have unrealistic conditions, low value for their use in a deck, or high cost to using them. Also, the Six Samurai trap card effects are somewhat similar, so choosing which of them to use should be obvious at the end of the summary. With the introduction out of the way, here are the Six Samurai trap cards:

- Swiftstrike Armor

• Strengths:
  • Allows you to conduct a normal summon after the drawn monster has been special summoned
  • Pairs well with Kizaru to search for another monster to normal summon
• Weaknesses:
  • Effect is too situational to pull off
  • Better ways to special summon Six Samurai monsters
  • Too slow in the current meta

- Return of the Six Samurai

• Strengths:
  • Amazing synergy with Fuma to special summon e.g. Kizaru from your deck if this card is used at the end of your opponent’s turn
  • Essentially an archetypal Powerful Rebirth
  • Can revive any Six Samurai from the Graveyard
• Weaknesses:
  • The monster either must be destroyed at the end of the turn or you need to banish a Secret Six Samurai from the graveyard to keep it alive
  • Powerful Rebirth is simply the better card

- Shien's Scheme

• Strengths:
  • Can provide a sudden board presence for your opponent to deal with
  • Can enable Kizaru to search for another monster
• Weaknesses:
  • Almost never works
  • Too situational to use
  • Relies on having 3 resources to work

- Swift Samurai Storm!

• Strengths:
  • Essentially a full Ties that Bind if it works
• Weaknesses:
  • 300+ ATK until the end of a turn is weak in the current meta
  • If the ATK boost was permanent, it would be much better

- Musakani Magatama

• Strengths:
  • Preventing e.g. Galaxy Cyclone is meta relevant
  • Amazing card with Endless Trap Hell
  • Potential to be in many Six Samurai side decks
• Weaknesses:
  • Only negates/protects against destruction effects

- Breakthrough!

• Strengths:
  • Allows you to attack over high ATK monsters such as Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon and Koa’ki Meiru Maximus
• Weaknesses:
  • Highly situational activation requirement
  • In 3 card format, attacking directly after destroying a monster is probably going to happen anyway

- Backs to the Wall

• Strengths:
  • Incredibly powerful comeback potential
  • Essentially a triple Return of the Six Samurai without the destruction cost
  • Enables Kizaru to search if the attributes are still available in the deck
  • Fun “last resort” card to use
• Weaknesses:
  • Massively risky cost to using this card
  • Not as impactful when you’ll only be reviving 3 monsters (compared to 5 in the trading card game)
  • Alternatives are less costly

- Double-Edged Sword Technique

• Strengths:
  • Allows you to have a comeback by reviving the necessary monsters
  • Essentially 2 copies of Return of the Six Samurai in card
  • Pairs well with Mizuho and Hand of the Six Samurai
• Weaknesses:
  • Need to make use of the revived monsters or you’ll lose a huge amount of life points (especially harmful in the 4,000 LP pool in duel links)

- Six Style - Dual Wield

• Strengths:
  • Adding cards back to the hand (rather than destroying them) can occasionally be devastating
  • Pairs extremely well with Shi En for strong field control
  • Amazing to use if you’re unable to follow-up with 2 monsters on the field
  • Incredibly powerful if you use it at the end of your opponent’s turn
• Weaknesses:
  • Only 1 Six Samurai monster can be on the field for this to activate

- Six Strike - Thunder Blast

• Strengths:
  • Versatile effect can be useful for multiple situations
  • Ability to generate Bushido counters can be easy due to Kizan and Grandmaster
• Weaknesses:
  • Bushido counters typically want to be used for the better cards Shien’s Dojo or Six Samurai United
  • Can be slow to play

In summary, Six Samurai trap cards are either really powerful or equally useless. Shien’s Scheme and Swiftstrike Armour show how outdated they are due to their lack of synergy in just about any Six Samurai decklist. In contrast to their lack of synergy, Double-Edged Sword Technique, Six Style Dual-Wield, and Backs to the Wall (in that order) should see some play in current Six Samurai decklists.

Having discussed all 3 types of Six Samurai cards, I’ll now move on to tech cards that could potentially see play in Six Samurai decklists.

Tech Cards

As Six Samurai are one of the most versatile and adaptable decks in Duel Links, you’ll find that you should be able to be innovate with your deck creations. Whether that involves using general staples or adding cards that aren’t directly related to Six Samurai, this section of the guide will be used to identify some of the better tech cards. Without further ado, here are some potential cards that have synergy with Six Samurai decks:

- Powerful Rebirth

• Due to the popularity of Lava Golem, revival cards like Powerful Rebirth can be used to avoid overextending before your opponent’s turn. Additionally, Powerful Rebirth provides Six Samurai decks with access to higher LVL synchro monsters due to the LVL manipulation from this card. Lastly, it has amazing synergy with the Beatdown skill when paired with 4* Six Samurai monsters due to its ability to increase their LVL to 5

- World Legacy Clash

• Due to its excellent synergy with Six Style Dual Wield from its ability to protect your monsters in battle while having 1 monster on the field, World Legacy Clash is a viable tech card for Six Samurai decks

- Blade Armor Ninja

• Blade Armor Ninja is a rank 4 Xyz monster that has the effect to allow itself to attack twice during the battle phase. Because of this effect in combination with the The Tie that Binds skill, Blade Armor Ninja can allow your monster lineup to become even more deadly in the battle phase, especially when paired with Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.

- Sphere Kuriboh

• Sphere Kuriboh is undoubtably the best hand-trap in Duel Links due to its versatility and potential for comebacks on your next turn. Consider adding copies of this card to provide Shi En with additional protection against monsters with higher ATK stats than his

- Vermillion Dragon Mech

• Similarly to Giganticastle, this card is a strong tech option due to its ability to be summoned with Fuma and an opponent’s Lava Golem. However, while Giganticastle is best used for its ATK stats, Vermillion Dragon Mech has the additional effect of banishing tuner monsters such as Fuma to destroy your opponent’s cards

- Paleozoic Canadia

• Everyone knows how good this card is right now, seeing as it’s one of the most played trap cards in Duel Links. While the card itself is already great, it can be used alongside Grandmaster of the Six Samurai or Great Shogun Shien for tribute summons (if you brick).

- X-Saber Wayne

• This card could be potentially used due to its synergy with Kizaru. When X-Saber Wayne special summons Kizaru, he can search for another Six Samurai monster from the deck with a different attribute.

- Armades, Keeper of Boundaries

• Fuma and a 4* Six Samurai monster can easily create Armades. While you’ll typically want to be summoning Shi En with that combo, Armades can be useful against boards with established cards such as Amazoness Onslaught.

- Cosmic Cyclone

• Cosmic Cyclone is one of the best spell/trap removal cards in duel links due to the fact that it banishes instead of destroying and sending the cards to the graveyard

- Heroic Champion - Excalibur

• Heroic Champion Excalibur is a rank 4 Xyz Monster that can be made with any combination of Level 4 Six Samurai monsters. The effect of Excalibur allows its own ATK points to become 4,000, effectively dealing with just about any monster in Duel Links. Because of this effect, Excalibur solves Six Samurai’s primary weakness of relatively low ATK values, thus making Excalibur a very powerful card in a Six Samurai extra deck.

- Abyss Dweller

• Abyss Dweller is a rank 4 Xyz Monster that has the effect to detach an Xyz Material to negate the card effects in your opponent’s graveyard until the end of that turn. Despite its low ATK and DEF points, this effect can be very powerful against decks such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, where preventing the effect of The White Stone of Ancients from activating in the graveyard can be deadly against them. Consider using this card at 1 copy.

- United We Stand

• United We Stand has amazing synergy with Six Samurai due to their ability to quickly fill up your board with 3 monsters. By equipping this card to Shi En, you can increase his attack points to 4,900, making him an immediate threat to your opponent’s monsters.

- Number 70: Malevolent Sin

• Maleovent Sin is a rank 4 XYZ monster that has the ability to banish a monster your opponent controls until the end of your opponent’s next standby phase. Because of this effect and its respectable 2,400 ATK points (in addition to its ATK increase effect after battling), Maleovent Sin is an excellent tech choice in any Six Samurai extra deck.

- Forbidden Lance

• Forbidden Lance has seen an increase in use due to the popularity of cards like Dark Magical Circle which can banish your Six Samurai monster when Dark Magician is summoned to the field. Additionally, Forbidden Lance can be an effective card against popular staples such as Paleozoic Canadia and Floodgate Trap Hole as it can allow you to summon Shi En with fewer disruptions.

- Fiendish Chain

• Fiendish Chain is an amazing trap card that not only negates your opponent’s monster effect, but it can prevent it from attacking while it is on the field. If you have access to this card, it is an amazing tech option to include in your deck

- Floodgate Trap Hole

• Floodgate Trap Hole has been in Duel Links for a very long time and will continue to see play due to its non-targeting ability to permanently flip your opponent’s monster into face-down defense. Consider using this card in your deck to deal with problematic monsters such as Invoked Cocytus, Lunalight Sabre Dancer, and the Superheavy Samurai tuner + synchro monsters.

- Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

• Due to Enishi being semi-limited, sending your opponent’s monsters back to the hand is no longer as common as it used to be. However, Brionac essentially does the same role Enishi did except you now can return spell and trap cards back to the hand as well, enabling fast comebacks and OTK’s. Consider using this at 1 copy.

- HTS Psyhemuth

• HTS Psyhemuth is an incredibly extra deck monster to have when using Grandmaster of the Six Samurai in your deck. Psyhemuth is primarily used to deal with powerful monsters that cannot be targeted with effects or that are difficult to destroy in battle such as Invoked Cocytus, Lunalight Sabre Dancer, and Dark Cavalry. Consider adding 1 copy of this card to your extra deck.

- Super Team Buddy Force Unite!

• Super Team Buddy Force Unite! Is an amazing trap card that allows you to special summon a monster from your hand or graveyard if the same monster type is currently face-up on the field. You can use this card to special summon cards like Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru from the hand during your opponent’s turn to then search for either Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi or Secret Six Samurai - Fuma to OTK your opponent or summon Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En on your next turn.

- Necrovalley

• Necrovalley is an incredibly powerful tech card that can completely counter decks that rely on the graveyard such as Thunder Dragons, Crystrons, and Shiranui. Although using this can backfire as it prevents the Secret Six Samurai monsters from protecting Shi En from the graveyard, it is still worth considering if you find yourself struggling against the previously mentioned decks.

- Power of the Guardians

• Power of the Guardians is a viable tech card for Six Samurai as it mitigates Shi En’s low ATK stats and helps him reliably deal with powerful boss monsters. Additionally, it provides extra destruction protection every time Shi En is involved in a battle with another monsters.

- Karma Cut

• Karma Cut is an excellent trap card that has good synergy with Fuma, Kizaru, and Return of the Six Samurai by enabling their special summon and search abilities. Not only is it good for enabling your monsters, but the ability to banish your opponent’s monsters enables incredible disruptive abilities outside of the usual Dual Wield plays.

- Zubaba General

• Zubaba General is a rank 4 XYZ monster which can easily be created with level 4 Six Samurai monsters such as Kizan, Kizaru, Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai, and Enishi. This card is an excellent extra deck monster to include as it can help deal with powerful monsters such as Invoked Cocytus when equipped with e.g. Kizaru for a total ATK value of 3,900.

- Number 39: Utopia

• Number 39: Utopia is a rank 4 XYZ monster that can be easily summoned with Six Samurai by combining e.g. Kizan and Kizaru. When summoned, Utopia can provide the deck some defensive capabilities by detaching 1 of the XYZ materials to the graveyard to negate an attack.

- Evilswarm Ouroboros - Evilswarm Ouroboros is a rank 4 XYZ monster that requires 4 level 4 monsters to summon it. Although the requirement to summon it is high, it has 3 versatile effects that allow you to affect your opponent’s hand, field, or graveyard.

Having discussed some of the potential tech cards for Six Samurai, I’ll now move on to their best skill choices.

As I mentioned previously, Six Samurai are one of the most versatile and adaptable decks in Duel Links. Naturally, this means they’ll be able to make use of many available skills. However, I’ll be focusing on the skill choices that benefit Six Samurai the most.

• Beatdown

As Shi En’s ATK points are 2,500, he will generally struggle against some of the meta monsters. However, Beatdown increases the ATK of every 5* monster times the number of 5* on your side of the field. Essentially, Shi En and Grandmaster of the Six Samurai will increase its ATK to 3,100 and 2,700 respectively, helping him deal with stronger monsters. Here is a replay demonstrating this:

• The Tie that Binds

Not only is The Tie that Binds applicable to almost any deck in Duel Links, it has multiple benefits for Six Samurai. Firstly, The Tie that Binds allows your Six Samurai monsters to become more threatening during the battle phase. An example of this can be shown when combining the ATK values of Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru to deal 3,600 damage. However, when using The Tie that Binds, those combined ATK values reach 4,000 damage, allowing you to win the duel.

The final point is that when combining The Tie that Binds with Asceticism of the Six Samurai, you can special summon unintended Six Samurai monsters from the deck due to the increase in ATK points. For example, Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan could only special summon The Six Samurai - Zanji when using Asceticism. However, if you use The Tie that Binds to increase Kizan’s ATK points to 1,900, it will give you the ability to special summon Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru from the deck, allowing you to search for a Six Samurai monster and having the opportunity to create a rank 4 Xyz monster.

• ZEXAL - Xyz Evolution

Zexal - Xyz Evolution is a skill that allows you to place a copy of XYZ Change Tactics on your field and recover your LP to 2,000 when your LP are at 2,000 or below at the beginning of your turn. The quickest way to trigger this skill is by using the Six Samurai revival trap known as Backs to the Wall.

Although this may not seem powerful by itself, the ease of which Six Samurai can generate level

4 monsters makes the skill fairly consistent to pull off. Once you have 2 level 4 Six Samurai monsters on the field, you can then XYZ summon Number 39: Utopia and draw a card at the cost of 500 LP. You can then summon Number C39: Utopia Ray and repeat the process. At this point, you will be able to use Utopia Ray’s effect to ideally reduce a monster’s ATK points to 0, while increasing its own ATK points to 4,000 for a quick victory.

• ZEXAL - Zexal Weapon

Zexal - XYZ Weapon is a skill that adds Number C39: Utopia Ray and allows you to add a ZW monster from outside of the deck and add it to the top of your deck, when your LP are 2,000 or lower at the beginning of the turn. Additionally, the skill allows you to summon the ZW monster with the skill, meaning this summon is not possible for your opponent to interrupt with cards or effects. Similarly to the XYZ Evolution skill, the quickest way to make use of this is by using Backs to the Wall as a means to meet the skill requirement. Additionally, by having your LP below 1,000, it will allow you to easily make Utopia Ray and defeat your opponent with its effect to increase its ATK points to 4,000.

As you’ve probably realized by now, Six Samurai have a huge number of cards to choose from to cater to an extensive range of strategies and deck themes. However, I’ll be highlighting the cards that I believe are the most valuable to any Six Samurai deck (in terms of priority):

- 3x Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan

• Simply because it’s a free special summon and it enables just about every Six Samurai card there is

- 3x Secret Six Samurai - Fuma

• Due to its synergy with every 4* Six Samurai monster to summon Shi En and its amazing special summon effect

- 1-2x Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi

• As his effect is active after the first time you summon Shi En, Enishi is a safe and reliable way of dealing with powerful monsters

- 3x Asceticism of the Six Samurai

• An entire deck has been built around this card due to its consistency of summoning Shi En and Enishi in 1-2 turns

- 2-3x Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

• Because of its ability to negate any spell/trap once per-turn, alongside its numerous levels of protection from the Secret Six Samurai cards and the ability to destroy a different Six Samurai monster if it were to be destroyed

- 1-2x Shien’s Dojo

• Because of how easy it is to special summon Fuma with this card

- 3x Six Samurai United

• Since it’s almost always going to allow you to draw +2 cards

- 1x Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru

• Since he now has multiple ways of being special summoned (Kageki, Fuma, Dojo, X-Saber Wayne, and Hatsume) to enable his search ability

- 1x Grandmaster of the Six Samurai

• As he can not only enable the Beatdown skill, but he has amazing synergy with every Six Samurai decklist

- 1-2x Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai

• Due to the semi-limit of Shien’s Dojo and Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai is an important card to use at 1-2 copies as he’ll help you quickly summon Shi En when Fuma is summoned to the field.

- 2-3x Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki

• As a more budget-friendly option of ensuring a +2 board presence with Six Samurai monsters

Having mentioned what I believe to be the core Six Samurai cards, I’ll now move on to general tips/tricks between Six Samurai cards.

Although most of this guide has attempted to explain synergy between cards, I’ve intentionally left out some of them for this section. Whether it involves lesser known ways of playing with Six Samurai cards, making the most of the Duel Links skills, or even winning the mirror match, here are some of the best synergies you’ll find between Six Samurai cards (including some recaps from A-Z):

• Asceticism of the Six Samurai has the following synergy:
  • (200 ATK) Chamberlain of the Six Samurai, Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki, Secret Six Samurai - Fuma
  • (400 ATK) Elder of the Six Samurai and Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
  • (500 ATK) Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai, Secret Six Samurai - Genba, and Spirit of the Six Samurai
  • (1,500 ATK) Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai and The Six Samurai - Kamon
  • (1,600 ATK) Hand of the Six Samurai, Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho, and Secret Six Samurai - Hatsume
  • (1,700 ATK) Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, Secret Six Samurai - Doji, and The Six Samurai - Irou
  • (1,800 ATK) Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan and The Six Samurai Zanji.

However, as previously mentioned in the guide, The Tie that Binds can be used to make further use of Asceticism e.g. Zanji + The Tie that Binds (+100) allows Asceticism to special summon Kizaru from the deck. Use the above ATK stats to calculate how to make use of The Tie that Binds.

• Backs to the Wall

  • If you combine Backs to the Wall with Life Cost 0, you’ll be able to special summon (up to) 3 Six Samurai monsters and then follow-up with free Cosmic Cyclones

• Cunning of the Six Samurai

  • Cunning of the Six Samurai doesn’t just revive your own monsters, it can revive your opponent’s Six Samurai monsters too. Focus on destroying your opponent’s e.g. Kizaru or Shi En, then revive it with Cunning of the Six Samurai to gain an even stronger advantage in the mirror match

• Double-Edged Sword Technique

  • You can use this card to re-use the synchro materials, then synchro summons another 5* synchro monster e.g. Shi En or Armades, Keeper of Boundaries

• Grandmaster of the Six Samurai

  • Consider using Grandmaster with Beatdown to aid Shi En in destroying high ATK monsters (note, Fuma can special summon Grandmaster from the deck).

• Great Shogun Shien

  • Consider using Great Shogun Shien alongside Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai and Secret Six Samurai Fuma. This will allow you to have both Shogun’s on the field simultaneously for hilarious levels of spell/trap control (although negating a spell/trap with Shi En doesn’t synergise with Shogun Shien’s once per-turn activation)

• Hand of the Six Samurai

  • When combined with Kizan, Kageki, and Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, she can potentially destroy every monster your opponent controls for an open field to attack into

• Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai

  • Use this card to help summon Rihan, due to his ability to banish a Samurai and take their attribute for one turn
  • Consider using this card if you have fewer copies of Kizan at your disposal

• Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi

  • Although Enishi can be considered slow, it can be achieved immediately after you’ve synchro summoned Shi En. You’ll normally do this by searching for him from Kizaru’s special summon effect (after Fuma has been destroyed) then adding it to the hand
  • Consider using this card alongside Secret Six Samurai - Doji as the latter can quickly add tribute fodder to the graveyard

• Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki

  • When special summoning Kizaru, you can search for any Six Samurai monster from the deck doesn’t share an attribute with the monsters currently on the field
  • When special summoning Kagemusha of the Six Samurai, it allows you to synchro summon Shi En

• Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho

  • Combine her with Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai for a viable control deck, as they can constantly generate Bushido counters and recycle monster material to go back to the hand
  • Use Cunning of the Six Samurai to use her effect multiple times in 1 turn

• Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

  • Shi En can be summoned by using a combination of Fuma and any 4* Six Samurai monster, or Genba/Kagemusha with any 3* Six Samurai monster
  • Use Cunning of the Six Samurai to negate another spell/trap in one turn
  • Return of the Six Samurai can revive this card, then banish a Secret Six Samurai from the graveyard to keep him alive
  • Generally, you don’t want to negate the first card your opponent controls since they’ll be trying to bait you to using it on the wrong card

• Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai

  • This card will add any Six Samurai monster in the graveyard when tributed. This includes Silent Swordsman, Enemy Controller, or the obvious Mizuho/Hand of the Six Samurai tribute.

• Return of the Six Samurai

  • Use this card at the end of your opponent’s turn to revive Fuma. When Fuma is destroyed by this cards effect, special summon a potential Kizaru and search for Enishi for a powerful follow-up on your turn

• Secret Six Samurai - Doji

  • Use this in combination with Kizan or Grandmaster to instantly enable Cunning of the Six Samurai
  • Use Doji to enable Enishi’s banish 2 effect
  • Use Doji to fill up the graveyard with the Six Samurai monster you need, then revive it with Hatsume

• Secret Six Samurai - Fuma

  • Use Fuma to special summon Kizaru when destroyed, then add another copy of Fuma to the hand to summon Shi En on your following turn (4* + 1* = 5* Shi En)
  • Banish Fuma from your graveyard to protect Shi En against e.g. Offerings to the Doomed, so you can save your negate in other cards instead
  • Fuma has an “if” effect, so he never misses the timing (unless his effect his negated)
  • Use Fuma in combination with Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai or Kizan to synchro summon Shi En with 2 cards
  • Special summon Fuma by using 1 counter on Shien’s Dojo

• Secret Six Samurai - Hatsume

  • Consider using Hatsume if you have less copies of Shi En in your extra deck, since she can revive him from the graveyard with her effect
  • Use Hatsume’s effect to special summon Kizaru from the graveyard

• Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru

  • Kizaru can be special summoned to enable his effect by the following cards; Secret Six Samurai Hatsume, Asceticism of the Six Samurai (with Ties that Binds), Secret Six Samurai Fuma, Cunning of the Six Samurai, Shien’s Dojo, Swiftstrike Armour, X-Saber Wayne, Return of the Six Samurai, Powerful Rebirth, Backs to the Wall, and Double-Edged Sword Technique

• Secret Six Samurai - Rihan

  • You can special summon Rihan if your monsters have been flipped-face down
  • He can be revived by Hatsume’s effect
  • He is the only Secret Six Samurai that has full graveyard protection
  • Consider running at least 1 copy of Rihan to deal with difficult cards e.g. Silent Magician or Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon

• Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai

  • You can special summon this card from your hand when you summon Fuma, and it’ll grant you instant access to synchro summon Shi En

• Shien’s Dojo

  • Use this card to special summon any Six Samurai (or Great Shogun Shien) from the deck
  • Bushido counters can be generated from your opponent’s Six Samurai monsters as well as your own

• Six Samurai United

  • Similarly to Shien’s Dojo, your opponent’s Six Samurai cards can generated Bushido counters for this card
  • Use Kizan, Grandmaster, or Kageki to instantly generate 2 Bushido counters
  • Mizuho and Shinai can special summon each other for 2 fast Bushido counters

• Six Style - Dual Wield

  • Use this card with the Balance skill to ensure Shi En is summoned on your first turn with this card set

• The Six Samurai - Zanji

  • Use Zanji alongside Shi En to deal with high ATK monsters, destroying them after he attacks
  • Consider using Zanji with the Holy Guard skill to freely attack with no risk of doing so

Having highlighted synergy between the Six Samurai cards, I’ll now move on to some deck samples.

Emma Valentine April 2021 KoG Deck

The Tie that Binds

Emma Valentine May 2021 KoG Deck

The Tie that Binds

EndS 1st Place Anytime Season #37

ZEXAL - Zexal Weapon

Side Deck:

thearguerandtheclueless May 2021 KoG Deck

The Tie that Binds

Bassaluna May 2021 KoG Deck

ZEXAL - Xyz Evolution

Yero May 2021 KoG Deck

ZEXAL - Xyz Evolution

Davide Magri 1st Place Anytime Season #37

The Tie that Binds

Side Deck:

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Blue-Eyes White Dragon is a deck that focuses on swarming the field with powerful monsters such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dragon Spirit of White, Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon, and Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon. Because of Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s ability to quickly summon 2,500 and 3,000+ ATK monsters, this matchup is difficult for Six Samurai without using tech cards and skills to either deal with their monsters or increase your ATK points. To beat Blue-Eyes White Dragon going first, you should primarily negate Cards of Consonance as it’ll allow your opponent to draw 2 cards while sending The White Stone of the Ancients to the graveyard. If your opponent summons Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, you can either banish a Secret Six Samurai monster from the graveyard to protect Shi En from the destruction effect or chain a revival trap to deflect the destruction to Fuma instead to special summon either Kizaru or Enishi from the deck. Additionally, if your opponent attempts to use Sage with Eyes of Blue to send an effect monster from the field to the GY to special summon a Blue-Eyes White Dragon monster, you can chain Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi or Karma Cut to remove the targeted monster from the field, forcing your opponent to waste their effect. To beat Blue-Eyes White Dragon going second, check if your opponent has Karma Cut by first setting a spell or trap card. If there’s a delay after doing so, it’s safe to begin summoning your monsters. If there isn’t a delay, it’s very likely your opponent has Karma Cut set and they’ll be using it as soon as you summon Secret Six Samurai - Fuma. In this scenario, it’s recommended to set Fuma and allow your opponent to either attack Fuma or destroy it with a card effect to begin generating extra card advantage to deal with the set Karma Cut. Although Six Style - Dual Wield is a very good trap card, a smarter Blue-Eyes player will know to play around it and instead focus on attacking your 1 monster instead, making Dual Wield slightly less impactful in this matchup. This can be seen in a video replay below. Lastly, it should be mentioned that a well-timed Karma Cut can be used to potentially banish up to 3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s from your opponent’s field and/or graveyard.

Spellbooks

The Spellbook matchup usually depends on which player can go first. If the Spellbook player goes first and opens with Silent Magician, it will be very difficult generating a powerful board presence as your monsters will usually be banished when they’re summoned. If you go first, you should ideally aim to summon Shi En and only negate your opponent’s Spellbook of Fate. However, you should also aim to make the most of Six Samurai’s ability to summon additional extra deck monsters such as Armades and HTS Psyhemuth to prevent Silent Magician from special summoning Silent Magician LV 8 when destroyed by battle or card effect.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon

Red-Eyes Black Dragon decks received strong support in the form of Red-Eyes Fusion alongside cards such as Black Metal Dragon. These cards allow the player to summon Red-Eyes Slash Dragon and receive an immediate equip card to negate targeted effects. To beat Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, you will ideally use Enishi’s effect as soon as Red-Eyes Slash Dragon is summoned. If this isn’t a possibility, using the Beatdown skill to help Shi En get higher ATK points on your turn can be an effective way of dealing with this card. Additionally, extra deck monsters such as HTS Psyhemuth’s banish effect is an extremely effective way to remove Red-Eyes Slash Dragon from the field without triggering its special summon effect.

Ancient Gear

Ancient Gear is a very linear and predictable deck, making this matchup straightforward. Ancient Gear’s primary means of winning duels is by using cards such as Galaxy Cyclone, De-Spell, and Double Cyclone to destroy their own Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress. This allows the player to special summon an Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon to the field. To beat Ancient Gear, you should only negate the cards that would destroy Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress. This is usually achieved by using Shi En to negate the spells, or by using Enishi to send Breaker the Magical Warrior back to the hand before he can destroy the previously mentioned cards. It should be noted that under no circumstances should you ever negate Geartown as this will trigger its effect and special summon Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon from the deck.

Subterror

Subterror is a deck that focuses on combining Subterror Final Battle with powerful flip-effect monsters Similarly to Spellbooks, the player who goes first usually has the advantage in this duel. To beat this deck, Six Samurai have a monster known as The Six Samurai Irou, which can destroy face-down monsters if there is another face-up Six Samurai monster on the field. If you have Shi En and Irou on the field simultaneously, it is extremely likely that you will win this duel. Additionally, the Beatdown skill can help your monsters achieve higher ATK points than the Subterror monster’s DEF points.

Six Samurai

The Six Samurai mirror match can be quite difficult due to the versatile nature of Six Samurai deck lists using various monsters and tech cards. However, it is best to assume your opponent is using popular cards such as Six Style Dual Wield in a ranked match. Winning the mirror match is usually dictated by which player has access to Shi En and Enishi first as this provides you with control over your opponent’s backrow and monsters. However, if you suspect your opponent has a set Dual Wield, sometimes setting Fuma and ending your turn is the correct play as Fuma will special summon e.g. Kizaru on your opponent’s battle phase.

Magnet Warriors

Magnets are a powerful deck that focuses on filling up magnet warriors in the graveyard for their boss monster Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior to clear your board with its destruction effect. To beat magnets, you ideally need to make use of Six Style - Dual Wield and Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi to send your opponent’s magnet warriors back to their hand at the end of their turn. Doing this prevents the magnet warriors from tributing themselves to special summon other magnet warriors from the deck on your turn. Furthermore, prioritise negating Magnetic Field with Shi En’s effect as this field spell can return your monsters back to the hand at the end of the damage step. Lastly, try to avoid destroying a lone Berserkion on the field as this will special summon banished magnet warriors (potentially allowing your opponent to summon another Berserkion on their turn).

Triamids

Triamids are a powerful and consistent deck that makes efficient use of Field Spells to search for their monsters, such as the powerful boss monster Triamid Sphinx. This matchup can be quite difficult and (in most cases) the player that goes first usually wins. An ideal opening hand against Triamids would be Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and Six Style - Dual Wield since you can return their monsters and backrow back to their hand at the end of their turn. Additionally, Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi is very powerful against Triamids due to his ability to return their monster back to the hand before the end of their turn. Unfortunately, due to the semi-limit to both Shien’s Dojo and Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, relying on Enishi’s effect isn’t as reliable as a strategy as it used to be. Additionally, you should prioritise negating the field spells with Shi En’s effect as they’re the core of a Triamid deck. A final point to make is if you’re using Cosmic Cyclone in your deck, you should ideally chain it to the effect of a Triamid monster as it’ll banish the card instead of allowing your opponent to activate the field spell’s graveyard effects.

Vendread

Vendread is a ritual archetype that makes strong use of the graveyard to provide the ritual monsters with additional effects. Although this matchup seems favourable, cards such as Vendread Revenants can pose a huge threat to your monsters as it’ll provide the ritual monster with the ability to banish your special summoned monsters (including Shi En). To deal with this deck, the main priority is to negate the ritual summons with Shi En’s effect. Additionally, as most Vendread decks are using the Master of Rites II skill, it exposes your opponent to a potential Six Style - Dual Wield to return both the spell and the ritual monsters back to your opponent’s hand. A final note to make is that the Beatdown skill can reliably deal with Vendread monsters when used alongside Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, increasing their ATK points to 3,100 and 2,700 respectively.

Darklords

Darklords received a huge consistency boost due to the addition of Banishment of the Darklords, allowing them to search for any Darklord card in the deck. However, Six Samurai have been notable for having a good matchup against Darklords as a result of the adaptability of tech cards. Some of these cards include Dimensional Prison, Six Style - Dual Wield, Wall of Disruption, Mirror Wall and Necrovalley to remove their monsters from the field or preventing their ability to special summon monsters from the graveyard. To beat this deck, you’ll have to either make use of the previously mentioned tech cards, or the Beatdown skill with Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En to increase your monster’s ATK points high enough to attack over the Darklord monster’s naturally high ATK/DEF points. An important point to note is that Darklord monsters can copy the effect of The Sanctified Darklord while it is in the graveyard, meaning you shouldn’t activate Enishi’s effect first. while the trap card is in the graveyard.

Desperado

Desperado is machine deck that’s primary function is to use guaranteed coin flips to enable their monster effects or the spell card Cup of Ace. As their boss monster Desperado Barrel Dragon can destroy up to 3 monsters with its effect in the battle phase, this matchup can be very difficult if you’re unfamiliar with when to use your effects. To beat Desperado, you need to ideally clear the dark-machine type monsters from the field before the battle phase. You can do this by using Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi to return the monsters back to the hand, Six Style - Dual Wield to return up to 2 cards on your opponent’s side of the field back to the hand, Karma Cut to banish the face-up machine monster from the field and graveyard, or by using Armades, Keeper of Boundaries to prevent Desperado from being special summoned after the dark-machine has been destroyed. Additional tips include negating Cup of Ace and Karma Cut with Shi En’s effect, as these are the 2 main spell/trap cards that’ll cause you the most problems in the duel. Lastly, you can also force your opponent to waste a guaranteed negate if you activate either Six Samurai United or Shien’s Dojo when your opponent has Ms. Judge on the field. When activating either of the 2 previously mentioned spells, you’ll still be able to generate Bushido Counters and continue the duel as normal.

Fortune Ladies

Fortune Ladies are a deck that focuses on summoning Fortune Lady Every as soon as possible with the spell card Fortune Lady Calling to ensure they have the monsters necessary to summon her. Fortune Lady Every can cause major issues for Six Samurai as she can revive herself at the end of your turn from the graveyard and banish your monsters during each of your opponent’s standby phase. To beat Fortune Ladies, you’ll have to rely on cards such as Six Style - Dual Wield to return the 2 synchro materials back to the hand before they can summon Every, or use Dual Wield in draw phase before Every’s effect can activate. Additionally, Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi heavily counters Fortune Lady Every by returning her back to the hand at any time. You’d ideally do this during the battle phase or your opponent’s draw phase with the toggle button set to “on”.

Magician Girls

Magician Girls are a deck that primarily focuses on sending spellcaster monster cards to the graveyard with Chocolate Magician Girl to quickly summon Quintet Magician and OTK you. Additionally, Magician Girls have effects that trigger when attacked or targeted by card effects such as Berry Magician Girl special summoning a Magician Girl from the deck or Chocolate Magician Girl halving your monster’s ATK. To beat Magician Girls, Armades, Keeper of Boundaries is the best card for this as it heavily counters them due to negating their battle effects when attacking them. Additionally, you could use Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En to return Chocolate Magician Girl back to the hand to OTK them with the 4,200 battle damage.

Invoker

Invoker is a deck type/engine that can repeatedly fusion summon powerful monsters with the extra deck due to Invocation being searchable by Aleister the Invoker. Additionally, Aleister can boost the Invoked fusion monster’s ATK/DEF points by discarding himself to the graveyard, making them difficult to deal with. For Six Samurai, this matchup can be difficult due to Invoked Cocytus being immune to targeted effects from Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and Six Style - Dual Wield and its defence points (combined with Aleister’s stat boosting) makes it difficult to destroy. To deal with this, consider using tech cards such as Floodgate Trap Hole to flip Cocytus face-down, or Power of the Guardians with Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En to generate enough ATK points to destroy Cocytus. Lastly, if going 1st, always prioritise negating Invocation with Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.

Blackwings

Blackwings are a deck that focuses on searching for monsters to synchro summon with using Black Whirlwind when a Blackwing monster is normal summoned to the field. To beat Blackwings with Six Samurai, you should ideally focus on negating Black Whirlwind with Legendary Six Samurai Shien to prevent them from synchro summoning. Additionally, Six Style - Dual Wield is an amazing counter to Blackwings as it can not only be used to prevent Black Whirlwind from searching (when chaining to its effect), but you can devastate them by returning the synchro monsters back to the hand. Lastly, Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi is an amazing counter to Blackwings as he can return their monsters back to the hand so you can follow-up with an OTK.

Dark Magician

Dark Magician is a popular deck that became very powerful due to the addition of Dark Magical Circle. The Dark Magician matchup is mostly determined by which player goes first since they’ll be able to setup their field with Dark Magical Circle, Magician Navigation, and Magician’s Rod in order to prevent you from establishing a field presence. On the contrary, if you go first with Six Samurai and open with Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and/or Six Style - Dual Wield, it’s an almost guaranteed win because you’ll prevent their use of Dark Magical Circle, and you can negate or return Magician Navigation back to the hand, preventing their ability to swarm with Dark Magician. A final recommendation is to use The Tie that Binds so Shi En can attack over Dark Magician in the battle phase, with a 100-300+ ATK boost.

Shiranui

Shiranui is a zombie deck that focuses on synchro summoning as quickly as possible primarily from the effects of Shiranui Squire and Shiranui Spectralsword. Because of this deck’s quick pace, they tend to rely on staples such as Paleozoic Canadia, Floodgate Trap Hole, Fiendish Chain, and Ballista Squad to disrupt your plays on your turn. To beat Shiranui, you should always aim to disrupt their synchro attempts with Six Style - Dual Wield as this will dramatically slow their deck down and improve your chances of winning. If you can not use Dual Wield, consider using the Tie that Binds skill to make Shi En more of a threat in the battle phase. Lastly, you should use extra deck monsters such as Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier to return their synchro monsters back to the extra deck for a quick OTK.

Cyber Dragons

Although Cyber Dragons are not a new deck, they received incredible support with Cyber Dragon Core to search for their spells and traps, Cyberload Fusion to gain quick access to their fusion monsters, Chimeratech Rampage Dragon to destroy backrow while also being effective at quickly winning duels, and Cybernetic Overflow to destroy your cards before attempting to OTK you. Thankfully, this matchup isn’t too difficult as Cyber Dragons are incredibly linear in terms of going about their win condition. They rely heavily on Cyberload Fusion and Cybernetic Overflow to win duels, both of which can easily be negated by Shi En’s effect. To beat Cyber Dragons, you should save your negation for either of those two cards, although it’s usually preferable to negate Cyberload Fusion in most cases. Additionally, most Cyber Dragon cards have weaker ATK/DEF points than Six Samurai cards, so they’re rarely a threat to you unless they open extremely well with tech cards such as Cosmic Cyclone or Concentrating Current. A final point to make is that if you suspect your opponent has Cybernetic Overflow and Cyberload Fusion set at the same time and you have just Shi En on the field, it’s best to negate the fusion card as you can banish either Fuma or Kizaru from the graveyard to protect him against the 1-destruction effect from the trap card.

Crystrons

Crystrons are a very difficult matchup for Six Samurai due to their ability to synchro summon Crystron Ametrix on your battle phase, putting your special summoned monsters into defence position. Crystrons are at their strongest when their extra deck can reliably deal with your own monsters such as Samurai Destroyer to negate the effect of Secret Six Samurai - Fuma to special summon a Six Samurai monster from your deck. Lastly, the trap card Crystron Impact can be used to negate targeted effects from cards such as Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. To beat Crystrons, use cards such as Six Style - Dual Wield to return your opponent’s tuner monsters back to the hand at the end of their turn. Additionally, consider using disruptive tech cards such as Floodgate Trap Hole and Paleozoic Canadia to slow the deck down.

Thunder Dragons

Thunder Dragons are a highly versatile deck that focuses on searching, special summoning, and recycling Thunder Dragon monsters. This eventually allows them to special summon cards like Thunder Dragonduo, Chaos Dragon Levianeer, or synchro summoning using the Lightsworn engine using Charge of the Light Brigade and Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn. Additionally, Thunder Dragons can quickly special summon the powerful monster Chaos Dragon Levianeer, a monster which can easily deal with your monsters and/or backrow. To beat Thunder Dragons, you need to ideally negate Charge of the Light Brigade or Gold Sarcophagus to prevent them from filling up the GY with Thunder Dragon monsters. Lastly, consider using the trap card Fiendish Chain to prevent Levianeer from being an instant threat to your field.

Heroes

Heroes are a deck that primarily involves the use of cards such as Vision Hero - Vyon, Mask Change, Polymerization, and Neos Fusion to quickly gain access to powerful monsters in the extra deck. Because of this, Shi En is the perfect counter due to his ability to negate their spell cards. To beat this deck, it is important to save your negation for either Mask Change, Polymerization, or Neos Fusion as heroes tend to struggle against most decks without their extra deck cards. You can therefore allow your opponent to use their backrow removal cards and chain your tech’s such as Return of the Six Samurai, saving your negation for a priority card. Additionally, the variant that focuses on summoning Elemental Hero - Brave Neos is highly susceptible to Six Style - Dual Wield as your opponent will likely be using the Neo Space!, giving you two immediate targets to return to the hand during the battle phase.

Ritual Beasts

Ritual Beasts are a combo-oriented deck that focuses on searching for their cards, contact fusion summoning, and special summoning on either player’s turn. Due to this deck’s ability to avoid targeted card effects, it can be difficult to win if you allow them to generate a strong presence on the board. To win against Ritual Beasts, you should use Six Style - Dual Wield once they have two monsters on the field after Ritual Beast Tamer Elder has used his effect to have an additional summon to prevent their access to the extra deck. If your opponent has Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda set, consider summoning Armades, Keeper of Boundaries or Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier to prevent it from special summoning a monster from the extra deck. Lastly, Ritual Beasts tend to use multiple tech cards such as Lava Golem, Sphere Kuriboh, and Herald of the Abyss, so don’t overcommit unless you’re absolutely certain you can win after clearing the board with Six Style - Dual Wield on your next turn.

Witchcrafter

Witchcrafter is a powerful deck that aims to special summon Witchcrafter Madame Verre as quickly as possible by using a combination of monster and spell effects. Madame Verre is very difficult for Six Samurai to deal with due to her high base ATK/DEF points, in addition to her effect to further increase the ATK/DEF by 1,000 points for each spell card revealed in the hand. Additionally, her ability to negate monster effects means it is difficult for Shi En to reliably deal with her without the use of tech cards. To beat Witchcrafter’s, it should be advised to tech in trap cards such as Six Style - Dual Wield and Karma Cut to remove her from the field. Karma Cut is an excellent tech card to deal with Witchcrafter’s since the majority of their deck relies on special summoning Madame Verre from the deck, hand, and graveyard. If you’re using Karma Cut, you should aim to negate Witchcrafter Patronus to prevent your opponent from re-adding the banished Madame Verre back to the deck.

Infernity

Infernity is a unique deck type that enables effects by having no cards in their hand. Once this is achieved, Infernity can begin making powerful combos with Infernity Mirage, Infernity Launcher, Infernity Archfiend. Because of this, preventing these cards from enabling the standard Infernity cards is essential for beating them. To achieve this, you should always prioritise negating Infernity Launcher with Shi En’s effect to prevent your opponent from sending cards from their hand to the graveyard and special summoning them back to the field with its effect. Additionally, Dual Wield and tech options such as Karma Cut are very powerful forms of disruption and should be used to prevent your opponent from synchro summoning with Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Beetle

Karakuri

Karakuri is a very powerful and consistent synchro deck that can quickly swarm the field with their two boss monsters Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 “Burei” and Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X “Bureido”. Because this deck can quickly gain resources due to the searching provided by Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 “Inashichi”, it is crucial that you can disrupt their synchro attempts or it can be extremely difficult to recover from this. To beat Karakuri, you should always save Shi En’s negation for spells/traps that can allow them to gain an immediate advantage over you such as Karakuri Cash Cache, Karakuri Gama Oil, and Karakuri Cash Inn. Additionally, Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, Karma Cut, and Six Style - Dual Wield are excellent forms of disruption against Karakuri that can often win you the duel because of their ability to severely slow the deck down. Furthermore, a tech card often used by Karakuri is Offerings to the Doomed and it should be noted that you don’t have to negate this card with Shi En’s effect as your Secret Six Samurai monsters can banish themselves from the graveyard to protect the monster from its single-target destruction effect. Lastly, Karakuri Cash Inn can be banished from the graveyard to change the battle position of your monsters at any point in the duel, making Six Style - Dual Wield unable to be activated. To play around this, consider using a revival trap card such as Return of the Six Samurai or Double-Edged Sword Technique to further protect Shi En while Dual Wield isn’t activatable.

Noble Knights

Noble Knights are a powerful warrior archetype that focuses on equipping its monsters with Noble Arms equip spells in order to enable their effects. Due to receiving powerful support in both a structure deck and multiple boxes, Noble Knights are very consistent despite their high deck size. However, Noble Knights tend to follow a very linear strategy and thus makes them very predictable. If you go first, you should aim to use disruptive trap cards such as Karma Cut, Paleozoic Canadia, and Floodgate Trap Hole to prevent Merlin special summoning Noble Knight Medraut from the deck. If Medraut is on the field, consider chaining one of the previously mentioned trap cards in response to the equip attempt to send the equip spell to the graveyard. If going second, your primary goal is to summon Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En to negate their equip spells and trap cards alongside setting Six Style - Dual Wield. Once your field has setup, you can enable Secret Six Samurai - Fuma or Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru to either special summon or search for Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi as his effect will heavily counter the Noble Knight monsters. An example combo of enabling Fuma’s effect would be as followed:

• Noble Knight Drystan targets Shi En with its destruction effect
• Chain Return of the Six Samurai and revive Fuma
• Deflect the destruction from Shi En to Fuma
• Activate Fuma’s effect to special summon Enishi from the deck and send Drystran back to the hand, leaving your opponent with an open field Lastly, it should be mentioned that due to Noble Knights requiring a monster and an equip spell to function, Six Style - Dual Wield is the perfect counter to their deck and will almost always win you the duel if you open this card against them.

Invoked Neos

Invoked Neos is a popular deck type that combines multiple engines by using cards such as Neos Fusion, Aleister the Invoker, and Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda. By doing so, Invoked Neos can gain setup the graveyard with Neos Fusion, OTK you with Aleister the Invoker as it’ll summon Invoked Purgatrio, and stall with Winda while special summoning Ritual Beast extra deck monsters. To beat this deck, your main method of winning is relying on Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En to negate either Neos Fusion or Invocation, using Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi to return the extra deck monsters back to the hand, or Karma Cut to banish your opponent’s extra deck monsters. Although Six Style - Dual Wield is good in this matchup, an experienced player will likely play around it and will instead wait until you run out of resources to enable its effect. An additional card to mention is Armades, Keeper of Boundaries that will negate Winda’s special summon effect when it attacks and destroys her in the battle phase. It should be recommended to keep 1 copy of Armades in your extra deck for scenarios such as this.

Harpie Ladies

Harpie Ladies are a deck that aims to consistently summon their boss monster Cyber Slash Harpie Lady by using cards such as Harpie Chaneller, Harpie Perfumer, and Elegant Egotist to generate the materials needed to summon her.

Defeating Harpie Ladies is mostly determined by the player who starts the duel 1st. If you go 1st, your ideal play to preventing Cyber Slash Harpie Lady is to use Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En to negate Elegant Egotist or Swallow’s Nest and Six Style - Dual Wield to return both Harpie Channeler and the Harpie Lady monster special summoned by its effect. Additionally, if you don’t open Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi alongside Shi En going 1st, an effective way to summon him from the deck is to combine Secret Six Samurai - Fuma and Return of the Six Samurai due to the latter card’s effect destroying Fuma at the end of the turn it is activate, allowing you to special summon either Enishi or Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru from the deck (to search for Enishi and add him to the hand). Once this is done, it’s extremely difficult for your opponent to come back from this combo.

If you go 2nd against Harpie Ladies, it can be difficult to establish a board due to Cyber Slash Harpie Lady effect to return a monster you control back to the hand after a spell or trap card has been activated. Therefore, it is highly adviseable to use generic tech options such as Karma Cut, Fiendish Chain, or Raigeki Break to deal with their boss monster, while also providing you with an opportunity to establish a field presence. Additionally, it should be noted that combining Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En with The Tie that Binds skill allows you to equal or have a higher ATK value than Cyber Slash Harpie Lady, providing you with a better overall performance in the battle phase.

Fire King

Fire King is a deck type that focuses on enabling their monster effects when they have been destroyed by either card effect or battle destruction. Fire King starts off slow in the duel, but they are very consistent at enabling their boss monster Fire King High Avatar Garunix effect due to cards such as Fire King Island and Fire King Avatar Arvata to destroy it and send it to the graveyard. Additionally, as Fire King requires time to set up their board presence and card effect loops, they have been known to use hand traps such as Kiteroid, Sphere Kuriboh, and Battlin’ Boxer Veil to protect their LP while enabling the Destiny Draw skill to search for the necessary card to begin making their combos.

Because of their monster effect negation, non-targeting multiple monster destruction removal effects, and hand traps, Fire King can be difficult to beat as the duel goes on. However, Six Samurai can deal with this deck by using a combination of tech cards and extra deck cards.

To beat Fire King, it is advisable to use trap cards such as Fiendish Chain and Karma Cut to both negate their monster effects and prevent their monsters from being special summoned from the graveyard. Additionally, extra deck cards such as Armades, Keeper of Boundaries and Heroic Champion - Excalibur are excellent at either ignoring their hand traps. In the case of Excalibur, its effect to increase its own ATK points to 4,000 will allow it to win the duel if your opponent has Battlin’ Boxer Veil in the hand. Lastly, Abyss Dweller is a strong extra deck card to use against Fire Kings as its effect will prevent the Fire King monster’s from activating their effects in the graveyard.

Additionally, you should prioritise negating both Fire King Island and Onslaught of the Fire Kings with the effect of Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. If your opponent already has Garunix on the field, you can use Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi to return it to the hand in an attempt to prevent it from returning from the graveyard (allowing it to revive itself and destroy all other monsters on the field on the next turn).

After receiving support in 3 boxes and the card trader, it’s difficult to imagine that there are in fact some Six Samurai cards that haven’t been added to Duel Links yet. In this section, I’ll be briefly discussing the unreleased Six Samurai cards and how likely they are to be added to Duel Links.

- Gateway of the Six

• Extremely powerful card allows Six Samurai to continuously add or recycle Six Samurai monsters from the deck and graveyard
• Allows you to repeatedly swarm the field with Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan and Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
• Notorious for enabling combos such as “Red Blue” featuring Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho and Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai
• Allows you to increase the ATK of any Six Samurai monster on the field

Due to its infamous status of making Six Samurai a formidable deck, it’s highly unlikely it’ll be released in Duel Links.

- Shadow of the Six Samurai - Shien

• Generates Bushido counters for Shien’s Dojo + Six Samurai United
• Enables Six Style - Dual Wield if you summon two level 4 Six Samurai monsters after using e.g. Six Samurai United
• Quick effect to detach e.g. Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru has good synergy with the revival traps
• Boosts Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki to 3,500 (3,800 with Tie that Binds) with its DMG step effect in Asceticism builds
• Its 2,500 ATK points is decent enough going 1st against some decks to prevent them from attempting a battle phase
• Boosting weaker Six Samurai monsters such as Secret Six Samurai - Fuma from 200 to 2,000+ ATK can enable OTK’s alongside it after using Dual Wield

This card is already being used by Zexal World AI, and due to the card not having an inherently powerful effect, it will likely be released in Duel Links.

- Shien's Advisor

• Allows you to prevent your opponent from attacking or special summoning type-specific monsters
• Excellent field control if summoning alongside Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En
• Effect only activates if normal summoned, making it less ideal in a Six Samurai deck

This card could be released in Duel Links due to it requiring 2 turns before you can even summon it, making it a slow card to play.

- The Six Shinobi

• Allows you to skip your opponent’s turn by activating it
• Requires 6 Six Samurai monsters with different attributes to activate it

As this card requires 6 different Six Samurai monsters, it is impossible to use in Duel Links due to the restriction of having 3 monster card zones.

- Battle Shogun of the Six Samurai

• Allows you to search for a card that stores Bushido Counters e.g. Shien’s Dojo and {Six Samurai United
• Ability to store Bushido Counters would synergise with Six Strike - Thunder Blast
• Gains 100 ATK points for each Bushido Counter on your side of the field

This card may be released if Link Summoning is added to Duel Links, especially as the card it primarily searches for in the form of Gateway of the Six will probably not be added to Duel Links.

- Shien's Smoke Signal

• Allows you to search for any LVL 3 of lower Six Samurai monster
• Increases the consistency of less popular builds using Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki, Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho, and Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai

Shien’s Smoke Signal could come to Duel Links as it would primarily exist to add consistency to the lesser used Six Samurai monster card lineup. Compared to other archetype searcher spells such as Diamond Core of Koa’ki Meiru and Banishment of the Darklords, Smoke Signal is more restrictive for how much it can enable the Six Samurai monster cards.

If it wasn’t clear by now, Six Samurai are my absolute favourite deck to play. As I mentioned in the introduction, I love the idea of using teamwork and synergy to eventually win the duel. Despite Six Samurai receiving multiple nerfs throughout years to Enishi and Dojo, I’m more than happy to continue attempting Six Samurai King of Games runs. If you’d like to see more Six Samurai content, consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel where I aim to playtest new cards in Six Samurai decks. Although Six Samurai have struggled for a long time due to a lack of support, I believe they have enough to now have a place on the Tier List. It’s difficult to say which tier that is for now, but many decks will struggle unless they prepare for Shi En’s free spell/trap negations. Finally, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments and I’d be happy to respond when I can.

• Emma Valentine <3