The Six Samurai Deck

A Six Samurai Deck focuses on getting two or more Six Samurai monsters on the field at a time so as to use their effects. Any card with "Six Samurai" in its card name is considered a "Six Samurai" monster.

=Combos= The Six Samurai Deck relies on swarming the field. A very good but uncommon combo is summoning 4 monsters in one turn. At the beginning of the turn activate Double Summon and summon two Six Samurai monsters to the field, then special summon Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, then special summon Great Shogun Shien. Also using "Book of Moon" with "The Six Samurai - Irou" can allows you to destroy an opponent's powerful monster as well as eliminate any annoying or troublesome effects that monster might have. Another very good but uncommon combo is to equip "The Six Samurai - Zanji" with "Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce" or "Mist Body", This allows Zanji to attack multiple times without fear of being destroyed by battle and lets him easily clear out your opponents monsters as long as there is another Six Samurai monster on your field with a different name.

Another good combo with the Six Samurai Deck is that of "Inferno Reckless Summon", this works very well with "Swiftstrike Armor", this allows you to get many effect's of in one turn, and the best thing is although the Six Samurai's are naturally fairly weak strength wise, you may special summon in defense position so you are untouched. "Marauding Captain" can also be used with "Inferno Reckless Summon" and also provides more field advantage as well as Warrior protection.

As mentioned above, The Six Samurai excel and are strongest when in group's of either small or large number's. So a handy combo to know is that of "Ultimate Offering" which allows the player to have another normal summon per turn for the cost of 500 life points, what is great about this is the fact you can activate it during you're opponents battle phase which compliments the Six Samurai's: "If this card would be destroyed, you can destroy another "Six Samurai" monster you control instead." To save a valuable asset to you're strategy.

=Strengths= The Six Samurai can be very good at swarming if you start with the right hand. You can get three monsters on the field in one turn by summoning a Six Samurai then Special Summoning "Grandmaster of the Six Samurai", followed by "Great Shogun Shien". They are also quite versatile when it comes to Monster, Spell and Trap Card destruction. With these effects, Six Samurai monsters can help the player maintain Field Advantage. Most of them have an effect where, if one would be destroyed, they can send another Six Samurai to the Graveyard instead. All Level 5 or higher cards in a Six Samurai deck can be [[Special Summoned by their own effect(s).

They are also able to take advantage of standard Warrior support cards, such as "Reinforcement of the Army" and "The Warrior Returning Alive", in addition to their own support cards. "Reasoning", "Reckless Greed", "My Body as a Shield and "Solemn Judgment" also work extremely well with a Six Samurai deck.

=Weaknesses= The Six Samurai can sometimes have a problem with consistency. If the player doesn't start off with a good hand, he or she will often run into problems mid-to-late game. They are also very vulnerable to mass destruction because they are unable to shield themselves when all of them would be destroyed via a card effect. This problem, however, can be alleviated when dealing with certain mass destruction cards (such as "Mirror Force") by switching one or more Six Samurai into defense mode. Since "Mirror Force" only destroys attack position monsters, your Six Samurai monsters being destroyed can use the ones in defense mode to "negate" their destruction. Cards like "Ready for Intercepting" are good for this kind of situation as they can help you keep vital Six Samurai monsters on your field.

They are also quite vulnerable when on the field by themselves. The commitment of multiple Samurai to the field can also drain the hand quickly, although the release of "Six Samurai United" and "Spirit of the Six Samurai" have helped to alleviate this problem.

They also can have a weakness to any deck that can outswarm them, like Blackwings which are one of the most popular decks. They also have a weakness versus Anti-Meta, which runs heavily to negate Special Summons. "Double Summon" and "Ultimate Offering" are good cards to deal with this problem since they can help you swarm the field while bypassing any negation of Special Summons.

Using "Reload", "Magical Mallet", or even "Card Destruction" can help you get rid of a useless hand and draw more Six Samurai monsters. The latter also allows you to regain a fresh new hand, destroy an opponents hand, and put Six Samurai in the graveyard in order to revive them with "Cunning of the Six Samurai" or the other various Six Samurai revival cards, or to use them to Special Summon "Enishi, Shien's Chancellor". "Swords of Revealing Light" can also be used to help you stall until you get more powerful or more useful Six Samurai cards and it gives you the opportunity to swarm the field without fear of an opponent's attack.

The Six Samurai have suffered greatly from the last couple of banlists. "Reinforcement of the Army's" Limiting hurt the deck's consistency. The Six Samurai deck is still playable, but has to rely more heavily on a good starting hand and better deck construction. This makes competitive playability difficult, but still possible if the deck is put together correctly. However the deck has support for this problem, the insane amount of card acceleration from "Spirit of the Six Samurai" and "Six Samurai United" sure you don't get the card's you want but the amount of cards you draw simply give's you a chance to draw what you need/want.

=Elemental Samurai= Since each of the Six Samurai possess one of the attributes (Dark, Light, Water, Wind, Fire, Earth), They can be used in conjunction with certain cards that take advantage of having many attributes. Cards like "Elemental Absorber", "Elemental Burst", and "Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan"; which benefit from having multiple attributes on the field, can be used to either stall the opponent or wipe out their field. "Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan" helps to increase the draw power of this deck, but has specific destruction targets (Monsters, Spell/Trap, Hand) whereas "Elemental Burst" completely destroys everything on the opponents field. Also, Since this deck possesses every attribute, you can virtually control the field with "Elemental Absorber", however this reduces your hand further and makes the Six Samurai you remove from play useless without cards like "Burial from a Different Dimension" or "Necroface". It works well against single attribute decks like Blackwings and Lightsworns and can completely stop your opponent's attacks while only giving up one Six Samurai. Combining "Elemental Absorber" with "DNA Transplant' however will only require you to discard one Six Samurai and will completely stop your opponent from attacking. Due to the necessity and the ability to swarm with The Six Samurai, these elemental cards can be easier to use and can alleviate most of The Six Samurai's weaknesses while devastating the opponent at the same time.

=Recommended Cards=

Monsters

 * Grandmaster of the Six Samurai x3
 * Great Shogun Shien x3
 * The Six Samurai - Yaichi x2
 * The Six Samurai - Zanji x2
 * The Six Samurai - Irou x2
 * The Six Samurai - Nisashi x2
 * Spirit of the Six Samurai x2
 * Hand of the Six Samurai x2
 * The Six Samurai - Kamon x2

Spells

 * Cunning of the Six Samurai x2
 * Six Samurai United x3
 * Monster Reborn
 * The A. Forces x3
 * Reasoning
 * Double Summon
 * lighting Vortex
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Heavy Storm

Traps

 * Return of the Six Samurai
 * Bottomless Trap Hole
 * Mirror Force
 * Swiftstrike Armor
 * Ultimate Offering
 * Solemn Judgment
 * Threatening Roar