Six Samurai Guide

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, Loading... .

However, they failed to make any real impact in the meta due to their inconsistency from a lack of searchers, and slow speed against the once popular Cyber Angels. To further capitalise 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 in the form of Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... , it still wasn’t enough to warrant a spot on any competitive Tier List. This is because the archetype was (and still is as of February 2019) missing their best support in the form of the Legendary Six Samurai.

Although Six Samurai are still missing key support cards to make their own archetype flourish in Duel Links, the addition of Loading... in the Secrets of the Ancients Box and Akiza Izinski’s What Grows in the Graveyard skill allowed Six Samurai to adapt to the current meta by enabling consistent and powerful Synchro summoning.

The remainder of this guide will be explaining how to optimally play Six Samurai in the current format (February 2019), their future potential, and match-ups against popular decks in ranked and tier lists.

Synchro Six Samurai

The Synchro Six Samurai variant has seen the most success at seeing players in the Duel Links Meta discord reach King of Games and the occasional tournament win. To play this version, the deck relies on using Loading... and Akiza Izinski’s What Grows in the Graveyard skill to synchro summon either Loading... , or Loading... . The latter is combined with Loading... to enable his effect to search for a Six Samurai monster with a different attribute to what’s currently face-up on your side of the field. Typically, Kizaru’s effect would be used to search for Loading... . Hand of the Six Samurai allows you to tribute a face-up Six Samurai monster to destroy any monster on the field, dealing with powerful monsters such as Loading... . The rest of the deck uses general spells (e.g. Loading... ) and traps (e.g. Loading... , Loading... , or Loading... ) to ensure you can achieve the decks goals with protection and little interruption.

Skills

• What Grows in the Graveyard

This skill is obtained by duelling against Legendary Duelists (AI or multi-player) while playing as Akiza Izinski. It adds Loading... to your graveyard at the beginning of the duel, allowing Loading... to add it to the field when he’s normal summoned, enabling the synchro summoning mechanic for the deck to function.

Core Cards

- 3x Loading... Junk Synchron is the main reason this deck works so well. Paired with What Grows in the Graveyard, it allows you to synchro summon Loading... to enable Loading... , or Armades to bypass battle traps and monster effects. You ideally need 3 copies of Junk Synchron before playing this deck.

- 3x Loading... Kizaru pairs very well with X-Saber Wayne, as X-Saber Wayne enables Kizaru to search for Loading... (or any other Six Samurai monster with a different attribute to the monster’s face-up on your side of the field). In addition to his search effect, his 1,900 ATK points forces Destiny Hero players to use Masked Change to deal with him.

- 2x Loading... One of the best Six Samurai monsters in Duel Links, Hand of the Six Samurai will reliably deal with high ATK monsters by tributing another Six Samurai monster. She can be added to the hand by utilising Kizaru’s search effect.

- 2x Loading... Grandmaster of the Six Samurai is a very good card to use in a meta where destruction effects from e.g. Koa’ki Meiru Maximus are commonplace. Once he’s destroyed by card effect, you can add any Six Samurai monster from the graveyard to your hand (including himself). He also pairs well with Kizaru, as his 2,100 ATK points combined with Kizaru’s 1,900 ATK points, can lead to OTK’s. Lastly, Loading... and Loading... can aid in synchro summoning Junk Destroyer (primarily used for niche situations).

- 1x Loading... X-Saber Wayne’s sole function in the deck is to enable Kizaru to search for Hand of the Six Samurai. In addition to this, X-Saber Wayne’s 2,100 ATK points and Kizaru’s 1,900 ATK points can lead to OTK’s.

- 2x Loading... One of the best synchro monsters in Duel Links, Armades can easily be summoned by Junk Synchron and Dark Verger. Armades is necessary at 2-3 copies due to the reliability of summoning it, and it’ll help you deal with powerful monsters/traps such as Loading... and Loading... .