I had a lot of fun at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Extravaganza! I played in the Bounty Tournament, and I got to be the first person in the United States to play with the new Legendary Six Samurai cards at an event! The big draw of the new Six Samurai Deck is the Synchro Monster Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En. Shi En, along with the other new monsters from Storm of Ragnarok that let you Special Summon add speed and durability that older Six Samurai Decks lacked. With more ways to Summon and more ways to negate or get rid of your opponent’s cards, the new Legendary Six Samurai Deck can take on any Deck!

Here are the things I really like about the new Six Samurai.

• The new Synchro Monster has an effect that negates Spells/Traps!
• Kageki can bring out Shi En instantly with its effect if you Special summon the new Tuner Kagemusha of the Six Samurai.
• Legendary Six Samurai – Enishi is REALLY good! It can beat any monster!
• Shien’s Smoke Signal can search a level 3 or lower Six Samurai (like Kageki and Kagemusha).
• Gateway of the Six and Six Samurai United are the two Spell Cards that give you a huge advantage and adds to the Deck’s stability and ability to set up combos.
• Musakani Magatama, a Counter Trap, is another great addition that can negate Spells, Traps and Effect Monster’s effects that destroy things… without any cost!

I received the Deck the day before the tournament and was told not to worry, that this Deck could beat any Decks currently being played. After a quick demonstration, I was convinced this was true. The basic strategy is simple; get Shi En on the field before your opponent can do anything using Kageki and Kagemusha. If you have these two monsters in your starting hand, you have the upper hand, barring Effect Veiler. Here’s how you do it: Summon Kageki (Level 3) first, then with Kageki’s effect, Special Summon Kagemusha (level 2 Tuner) to Synchro Summon Shi-En (Level 5).

In addition to that, if you have the 2 support Spells – Gateway of the Six or Six Samurai United, you will get Bushido Counter(s) every time a Six Sumurai is Normal or Special Summoned. You can then use their effects to draw more cards, or search for monsters that can Special Summon themselves, like Kizan or Grandmaster of the Six Samurai. They will add more Counters on the Spells to search for more Six Samurai monsters. But the deck is powerful enough even without these Spells. Here’s how I did.

Round 1 VS Plant Synchro

I just did what I was told: get Shi-En on the field as early as possible. None of the random rulings affected me much in either Duel. My opponent claimed that one rule stopped him from playing Gorz and Effect Veiler – both cards I was told to be careful of – when we were told to shuffle our hands back to the Deck and draw 5 cards. I don’t think either card would have mattered. When I had a line of Six Samurais on my side of the field almost ready to Summon Shi-En, my opponent managed to Summon Black Rose Dragon and activated its effect. But I negated it and destroyed Black Rose Dragon with my Counter Trap, Musakani Magatama. That pretty much ended the first Duel. The second Duel went really fast and wasn’t very notable. I won the first Match.

Round 2 VS Gravekeepers

So, at this point I am quite convinced the Deck really was extremely powerful. I’m getting arrogant (and careless) thinking I would win anyways even if I made a few mistakes, so I kind of stopped paying attention to my opponent… and the changing rules! In my second turn I was ready to attack with my Shi-En and Kizan, but I forgot that the rule was that I had to shout “Yu-Gi-Oh!!!!” before I could go to the Battle Phase. My opponent said I had to skip my Battle Phase, which I later learned wasn’t true! Instead of arguing it, I just didn’t attack that turn, which really ended up hurting me.

My opponent did some combo with Gravekeeper’s Spy to bring out Gravekeeper’s Visionary, and Necrovalley kept appearing and disappearing… Honestly, I was not paying close attention at this point to what the opponent was doing. And for some reason I don’t remember, I lost the first Duel. Still, I am not concerned at all.

Then I won the second Duel quite fast. I am still feeling cocky. By the third Duel I stopped bothering with keeping score because I just do 8000 damage at once when I win. All I remember from this Duel is that my starting hand was not very good, with Traps and Spells I couldn’t use. Oh well. I wasn’t concerned.

However, about 10 minutes into the third Duel I found myself in trouble. I used up the few monsters I drew too quickly because I thought the game would end fast, while my opponent had a few monsters on his side already. I wound up Summoning a bunch of big monsters anyways and was going to take over, but then a ruling hit that switched the ATK and DEF of all monsters, which made all my Six Samurai monsters weaker than my opponent’s Spies!  In the end, there was no come back for me and I lost. I guess I was supposed to learn a lesson here? “Pay attention and do your best even if you think you have the best Deck.”

Round 3 VS ——

I realized that I hadn’t used Gateway of the Six or Six Samurai United yet. I was hoping I’d get a better starting hand in my third round so I could demonstrate. Unfortunately, I guess my opponent was too scared to show up (I can’t imagine why!) so I won by default.

The Bounty Tournament was a successful event. Everyone seemed to enjoy the random rules that were turning the tables on everyone – they were fun! I was glad I could give players a glimpse of what the new Samurai Deck is capable of.  It’s easy to learn how to play, so even new players and casual Duelists can learn fast, and because it’s so powerful you can compete right away, even with Decks like Blackwings and Lightsworn! There are other fun Six Samurai cards from STOR that weren’t included in my Deck that I wish I had the chance to play. I guess it just means there is a whole lot of room for you to explore and customize! Anyways, I had a lot of fun, and I’m really looking forward to playing in something like this again.