Hello Yugioh duelists. My name is Oscar Armeria and I’m the latest YCS winner, which was held in Guadalajara, Mexico. Since I’m new here, I would appreciate any comments you can make after reading this.
So, let’s just skip ahead to the question that everyone wants to know: What was my tech for the deck I used, Six Samurai, and what are the main reasons why I decided to run it in a tournament of the level of importance that a YCS has? I must mention that the deck I used is based on the Mexican build, which was used by both, Alejandro Reyes (2011 Mexican National Champion) and Uriel Mendoza (Central American Continental Finalist).
The first time I thought of Six Samurai as a strong deck for the format was at the second Regional (January 7th) held in Morelia, the city where I live. Dino-Rabbit was everywhere and obviously it was considered the most dangerous deck at the moment (I used to run a Synchrocentric deck, but I didn't feel comfortable using it against so many Laggias and Dolkkas), so I decided to try a new deck to stop Dino-Rabbit, which lead me to Six Samurai, as they are capable of having an opening field that even Rabbit can’t control. I got 5th place, after beating 4 of those aggressive Rabbits. My experience on that Regional made my theory possible, so I was ready to take it to the next level, Guadalajara, where Inzektors and Wind-Ups would be joining Dino-Rabbit on the top of this game according to the majority of players.
We all know how Inzektor and Wind-Ups work now, so I immediately started imagining of ways to stop them, being all of them possible to run in a Six Samurai deck, at least in my opinion. So I had my deck built, I’ll explain the key cards after the list.
So all the possibilities came to this final deck:
Monsters (18)
2 Elder of the Six Samurai
2 Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan
2 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
3 Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
1 Hand of the Six Samurai
1 Legendary Six Samurai – Enishi
3 Maxx “C”
1 Effect Veiler
Spells (15)
3 Six Samurai United
3 Shien’s Dojo
1 Gateway of the Six
3 Asceticism of the Six Samurai
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Shien’s Smoke Signal
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon
Traps (7)
1 Double-Edged Sword Technique
1 Trap Dustshoot
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Fiendish Chain
Extra Deck
1 Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Naturia Landoise
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Orient Dragon
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Ally of Justice Decisive Armor
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
Side Deck
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
2 Puppet Plant
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dimensional Prison
3 Rivalry of Warlords
Most of the cards in this build are obvious, so I’m just going to talk about my favorite and most important cards, which make this build different from others… I’m also convinced that you are by far, most interested about the build than the preliminary rounds of the event. So here are some of the key cards:
Legendary Six Samurai – Enishi
This, is without a doubt is my favorite and most useful card in my deck. If used wisely, this sometimes underrated monster can give you a “perfect control” against any deck out there, from Synchrocentric to Inzektors, as it completely shuts down your opponent’s combos.
Maxx “C”
Obvious choice in a lot of the actual top decks, but not so exploited by a deck like Six Samurai. If you think about it, Six Samurais will get an advantage here, not only by stopping your opponent from special summoning, but also swapping your Maxx “C” for more useful cards. It’s like playing Upstart Goblin with the possible plus you get when your opponent has to special summon another monster (Rabbit turning into a Laggia for example).
Effect Veiler
I mained it thinking about stopping Wind-Ups together with Maxx “C”, maining it meant I would be running 4 hand traps, something I felt extremely useful for the format. Also, it stops the infamous Inzektor combo and was perfect against Tour Guide (which is played in almost every deck).
Fiendish Chain
My second favorite card after Enishi. As you can see, I didn’t play defensive traps (BTH, prisons) in my main deck, I didn’t even wanted to test CED, as I feel it is not as aggressive as Fiendish Chain. This trap became one of the most hated not only by Inzektors and Wind-Ups, but all decks, as it stops almost every used monster and can even save you from a direct attack. Definitely, Fiendish Chain is the best trap card today.
Ally of Justice Decisive Armor
Easy to summon. Completely destroys Agents.
Wind-Up Zenmaines
Easy to summon too. It lets you improvise to get rid of any dangerous card you may find on your way.
Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
Best card against Inzektor decks. It lets you set other cards without worrying about the Dragonfly-Hornet thing. It doesn’t interfere with your deck, as you can always summon a Naturia Beast instead of a Shi En. As a plus it works against other surprise dark decks.
Bottomless – Prison
What I did here is just something not everyone expects, turning my combo-focused build to a kind of antimeta one. This is one of the main reasons why side deck against me didn’t work too well.
Rivalry of Warlords
Simply the best side deck card that a Six Samurai deck can run. I wasn’t completely sure about this, but I followed the advice that the 2011 Continental Finalist gave me, it proved to be the best card against Wind-Ups, Synchrocentric and a whole other bunch of decks. Excellent choice for Six Samurai players.
After explaining all those cards, I gotta tell you, this tournament was not easy at all, I played against 1 Lightsworn deck, 4 Wind-Ups, 2 Inzektors, 1 TG and 2 Agents. I got a 7-2 record on the first day of the YCS, this put me 25th for the second day, which was top 32.
Here’s a brief report of my games from top 32:
Top 32
Diego Barrera (DW)
Second time against him (2011 National), his deck exploited cards that let him see my hand, then control from there. This combined with Skill Drain and Deck devastation virus, made this match the hardest of all YCS. It took so long to define a winner; I got it inside the last four turns by having 500 LP more than him.
Excellent strategy for a Darkworld deck, I was really surprised after the game.
2-1
Top 16
Miguel Rios (Wind-Up)
Second time against him too (1st Morelia Regional). OTK with Kizans for duel 1. He took 4 of my cards on second duel’s first turn. I won it with a Monster Reborn and a Gateway on 3rd duel
2-1
Top 8
Barrett Keys (Wind-Up)
He is a really nice guy. He sent 4 of my cards to graveyard on first turn, nothing much to do there. Second duel was decided by a OTK after negating one of his important monster effects. Third duel was so closed until I got the marvelous Rivalry, I waited until he was just about to summon Zenmaity, he Solemned my Rivalry, but I had my own Solemn already set, from there I was just attacking with my Shi En for game.
2-1
Top 4
Saul Elizondo (Inzektor)
A nice person. This was one of the most exciting matches I got to play last weekend, really good plays were performed by both. For third duel he Foolished his Gorz, so I knew he had Monter Reborn, he used it and tried to attack my monsters, but Enishi did his Job. I attacked his Hornet and waited for a better play, as I didn’t have anything for the obvious in-hand Gorz. For my next turn, I drew ROTA, so I decided to attack directly, he summoned Gorz, then I used ROTA for Kagemusha and summoned a Trishula with my Enishi and Kageki on field. I banished Gorz, Hornet and 1 card from his hand. Finally I won.
2-1
Finals
Bruno Valle (Dino-Rabbit)
One of my friends from my city, so it was all for Morelia, something that was even surprising for us. But thanks to that, I was so relaxed and played for the title against a good friend.
First Duel: I started, used an United and got nothing good from it, so I only had a Hand and a Grandmaster, he summoned TGU and I discarded Maxx “C” so he only summoned Sangan and ended after setting cards, in my next turn, I used another united and got a second Maxx “C” from it attacked Tour Guide and ended, after some turns, he managed to destroy all my monsters and attacked me with a Sangan, Zenmaines and Dinosaur to get me to only 100 LP, I had gateway from the summon of Zenmaines that same turn so I was ready to go for it all, I summoned Elder, then Grandmaster, and searched kagemusha with Dojo, summoned kizan and synchro for Trishula, I removed Sangan and nothing else important (he had no hand), then I summoned a Brionac and searched 2 Monsters with Gateway, used Brionac’s effect on dino and Zenamines and attacked for game.
For the second duel he had a very bad hand, he summones Rai-Oh and ended, I killed it with a Grandmaster and ended. He summoned TGU and I used Maxx “C” so he ended, I started a OTK which he tried to stop with a Torrential, but I had a Double-Edged ready to do the job, Summoned Shi En, Grandmaster and Kizan to attack for game.
2-0
To conclude, I must say this is by far the best tournament I’ve ever been, not only because I won, but also because I met a lot of nice people. Also I was able to prove Six Samurais should still be considered a good deck. I hope you took the time to read this all, so you can understand the reason why I chose this deck. So my last advice is: Don’t give up on a deck, if it has the potential, then work on finding the way to adapt it to the actual format, prepare yourself, and don’t ever forget about having fun while dueling. Thanks for reading.
YCS Guadalajara Winner – Oscar Armeria Zavala
Latest posts by Oscar Armeria Zavala (see all)
- Winning YCS Guadalajara - February 8, 2012
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