Legendary Six Samurai

Legendary Six Samurai, known in Japan as the The Six Warmasters, are a Sub-Archetype of The Six Samurai introduced in Storm of Ragnarok. They are improved versions of the Six Samurai. This sub-Archetype has supporting effects as well as the effects of the original Six Samurai. Much like the originally released Six Samurai monsters, there is one for every Attribute, except Divine.

Play Style
The Legendary Six Samurais' effects revolve mainly around swarming your side of the field and eventually lead to the Synchro Summon of Shi En. You can normal summon Kageki and summon another Six Samurai from your hand, usually Kagemusha of the Six Samurai (then synchro to Shi En). Kizan can be summoned while you control a face-up Six Samurai monster. Mizuho while you control a Shinai, and Shinai while you control a Mizuho. With two copies of Gateway of the Six (currently impossible with it being limited to 1) on the field you can Special Summon a Shinai and then Special Summon two Mizuhos(this puts six counters on Gateway of the Six) to start off the Red/Blue combo - Tribute Shinai using Mizuho to destroy Mizuho, use Shinai to return Mizuho to your hand then remove four counters from Gateway of the Six to add Shinai to your hand, Special Summon Shinai then Special Summon Mizuho and repeat; one copy of Gateway of the Six (the one you are removing the counters from to return Shinai to your hand) will go up-and-down between having 2 and 6 counters, while the other Gateway of the Six will continue to accumulate as many counters as you want simply by repeating the summoning loop. This infinite Bushido Counter loop can also be achieved with one copy of Gateway of the Six along with one copy of any other card that gains a Bushido Counter(s) when a Six Samurai is summoned, such as Six Samurai United, so that you can spawn more counters than the loop requires for each loop you do.

Other great support cards are Shien's Smoke Signal, Reckless Greed and Upstart Goblin. They help you to have Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai and Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho at the same time in the hand.

This deck has taken a hit in the September 2011 banlist due to the limiting of Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and Shien's Smoke Signal, meaning that first turn Shien plays aren't as consistent. To solve this a new deck using Asceticism of the Six Samurai and Elder of the Six Samurai has been created to continue to create Shien with the consistency the deck is known for.

Weaknesses
Even though the Legendary Six Samurais are a powerful Archetype, they also have weaknesses:

Gozen Match: It works like Rivalry of Warlords, but in attribute. The monsters of the Legendary Six Samurai have different attributes, and they generally require another copy of the Legendary Six Samurai on the field in order to have effect. Also it gets past Musakani Magatama, so Gozen Match is good choice. The problem is that not many decks can play it without self-contradiction. Blackwings and Gravekeeper's are two of the main decks in the metagame, and contain mostly consistent type and attribute, so expect this to be played often against Six Samurai.

Royal Oppression: Legendary Six Samurai can be special summoned when there is another on field, and this starts most of the combos. Therefore, this card stops the special summons, and stops the combo. But Grandmaster of Six Samurai can still do a loop to bypass it. Since the September 2011 banlist this card is forbidden is advanced format, meaning it is not needed to be considered as a threat.

Spell Shattering Arrow: Mainly to destroy the permanent spell cards like Gateway of the Six. It does stop the loop combos, and it only serves it’s purpose if you destroy more than one. But you can use Dust Tornado instead and it is certainly better in many aspects.

Thunder King Rai-Oh: It stops opponents from adding cards to hand. Raw attack power of 1900 is sufficient to take down most of the Six Samurai Monsters. You stop Synchro summoning, adding of cards to their hand, and a powerful beatstick.

Kinetic Soldier: It can beat everything in a Legendary Six Samurai deck which includes Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. But with the release of Shien's Tactician in Extreme Victory, this card is not a major threat anymore.

Chain Disappearance: Used to counter Kagemusha of the Six Samurai and Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki, though sometimes situational.

Divine Wrath: This card will get rid of almost any Samurai that poses a threat to your cards. Discarding one card from your hand is a fairly better price to pay rather than the devastation of your side of the field.

Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell: Samurais are overdependent when it comes to Spell Cards.The price is a bit high, but it's usually worth it.

Puppet Plant: Used to control any monster your opponent has, plus you can use them for a Synchro Summon.

The Golden Apples: A fairly usable card. It will recover your Life Points from an assault from the Samurais and it will summon a token that will have the attack of the damage that was dealt to you, thus probably making it tie the strongest monster on the field in attack value (if you wait to activate it on the strongest monster's attack) or be able to take two attacks (if you don't wait) without loss of lifepoints as the end result.

Prohibition: Samurai Decks have a lot of repeated cards, so by choosing the right ones, you can finish off your opponent before they destroys this card.

Gorz the Emissary of Darkness: A more practical card than The Golden Apples due to the possibility of Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho and Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai's support; Gorz also boasts slightly more attack power than Great Shogun Shien and Shi En.

=Deck Types=

Monster Cards

 * Shien's Squire
 * Spirit of the Six Samurai
 * Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
 * Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
 * Hand of the Six Samurai
 * Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki
 * Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan
 * Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho
 * Shien's Advisor

Spell Cards

 * Six Samurai United
 * Gateway of the Six
 * Shien's Dojo
 * Reinforcement of the Army
 * Shien's Smoke Signal
 * Asceticism of the Six Samurai
 * The Warrior Returning Alive

Trap Cards

 * Musakani Magatama
 * Double-Edged Sword Technique
 * Solemn Warning

Extra Deck

 * Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En
 * Scarred Warrior
 * Naturia Beast
 * Naturia Barkion
 * Naturia Landoise
 * Number 39: Utopia
 * Any Level 9 Synchro Monsters

Side Deck

 * The Six Samurai - Yaichi
 * Shien's Advisor
 * Rivalry of Warlords
 * Great Shogun Shien

Trivia
It appears that these characters are younger versions of Six Samurai, as evidenced by their appearance, stats, abilities, and/or names. It would appear that this original Six, the Legendary Six Samurai Archetype, reigned supreme until they either died or grew old. "Kizan", going with the fact that he appears to resemble the grandmaster, formed a new group of Six Samurai, while "Shien", who is the Synchro Monster of the group, would rise to become shogun, and "Enishi" would become chancellor after defeating the grandmaster in a fight. In addition, "Shinai's" deceased spirit would possess his armor, "Mizuho" would serve as "Hand of the Six Samurai", "Kageki" would become the new group's Chamberlain and "Kagemusha" became the Shogun's body double.