Historically, Superheavy Samurai has been an obscure rogue archetype possessing interesting unique gimmicks found almost nowhere else - gigantic defense position beatsticks attack while in defense position (applying DEF as ATK), the duelist is rewarded/punished for having no spells and traps in GY, and stealing your opponent's backrow to use as your own. However, with the release of Cyberstorm Access, Superheavy Samurai has evolved from a simple beatdown deck into a potent combo machine!
Twelve 1.5 card starters, a link-1 monster reborn and a non-once per turn "ROTA" grant this strategy incredible ability to create monstrous 3 to infinity negate boards, handloop for 5 cards, FTK burn for 8000+ effect damage, special summon lock - all the while backed by an omni-negate and with follow-up for next turn! The extreme consistency of this deck's starters also give Superheavy Samurai ridiculous amounts of space for staple cards - allowing for 15+ handtraps to be maindecked! This nigh-unstoppable combo juggernaut can play through interruption, multiple negates and smash through boards with the greatest of ease!
In addition to this guide for "standard" Superheavy Samurai, I plan to release guides for degenerate "FTK" versions of the strategy such as the handloop, burn and special summon lock variants of the deck. With all these strengths and relatively few weaknesses, Superheavy Samurai certainly is THE deck to win with and to deckbuild against in the post-CYAC format.
ARCHETYPES AND DECKBUILDING
This version of the deck is played pure, and no other archetypes or engines are splashed in.
There are twelve 1.5 card starters: 3 Prodigy Wakaushi, 3 Soulpiercer, 3 Motorbike and 3 Wagon. Any of these cards + a discard is FULL COMBO!
The amazing consistency granted by the starters grants this deck ridiculous amounts of room for staple cards. Spells and traps cannot be used in this deck since they lock out most of Superheavy Samurai's effects, so the staples are all monster handtraps! In this build, 17 handtraps are used.
40 cards are in the maindeck for maximum consistency and since drawing your garnet 1 ofs isn't too damaging to the combo. Any card that isn't useful in the hand can be discarded as part of the combo as well.
My personal preference is using Spell Canceller over Cyber-Stein-> Naturia Exterio. The benefit of Spell Canceller is that it makes your board immune to cards that Exterio wouldn't be able to negate, like Dark Ruler No More, Super Polymerization and Forbidden Droplet! Also, I keep time rules in mind, and losing -5000 LP for Cyber-Stein's cost may be crucial in a deck where you spend a lot of time comboing. Finally, you have 2 extra spaces in your Extra Deck since Exterio and Gear Gigant X aren't used! (Besides, I feel like a cheap asshole for using Exterio, it almost feels like cheating! I think this guy or Cyber-Stein is gonna be on the banlist soon).
In the Side Deck, 5 cards that are able to be set are available (2 Artifact Lancea, 3 Clockwork Night), to counter your opponent's potential Five-Rainbow Magician that they side in (a "mystic mine-like" floodgate, especially vs. Superheavy Samurai). 3 Garuda and 2 Eccentricks are chosen to out nasty backrow floodgates that would otherwise lock you out of your combos. 3 Gameciel are to counter the Purrely "towers" monsters, and to out Kashtira Ariseheart and Shangri-Ira that would otherwise lock your pendulum zones. Finally, Jinzo is a searchable insta-win vs. trap decks.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
Superheavy Samurai plays like full power Adamancipator, Spyral, Drytron and Dragonlink of past formats - build an unbreakable board with abusive not-once-per-turn searches to negate every single play your opponent has. You essentially a FTK board with a million negates everygame. Not only is your board nigh-unbreakable, but your hand likely has 4-6 cards, some handtraps, and some follow-up for next turn's OTK. Even if your opponent breaks your board, you can lean on your handtraps to slow down or stop your opponent.
Here are Superheavy Samurai's main combo and it's variants:
1 Wakaushi + 1 discard = Baronne (omninegate and destroy), Regulus (omninegate), Spell Canceller (can't activate spells), Saryuja (draw, extender), 4-6 cards in hand (handtraps + followup)
- Place Wakaushi in pendulum scale. Use pendulum effect to place Monk Big Benkei on scale and special summon Wakaushi to field.
- Activate Monk Big Benkei's effect to search for Motorbike.
- Discard Motorbike to search for Soulpiercer.
- Normal summon Soulpiercer. Link away Soulpiercer for Scarecrow. Soulpiercer searches for Soulpeacemaker.
- Activate Scarecrow's effect and discard 1 card to summon Soulpiercer from GY.
- Synchro summon Accel Stardust using Wakaushi + Soulpiercer.
- CL1 Accel Stardust effect to summon Motorbike from GY, CL2 Soulpiercer effect to search for Stealthy from deck, and CL3 Wakaushi effect to put it on scale.
- Synchro summon Baronne De Fleur using Accel Stardust + Motorbike.
- Activate Soulpeacemaker's effect in hand to equip it to Scarecrow. Activate Soulpeacemaker's effect tributing Scarecrow to summon Scales from deck.
- Scales effect to summon Soulpiercer from GY.
- Summon Stealthy from hand. Link away Stealthy + Soulpiercer to summon Ancient Gear Ballista.
- CL1 Ancient Gear Ballista to search for Ancient Gear Box, CL2 Soulpiercer to search Soulgaia Booster. New chain on resolution, search Infinitrack Tunneller with Ancient Gear Box's effect.
- Activate Soulgaia effect in hand to equip it to Scales. Special summon Soulgaia from the backrow with it's effect.
- XYZ summon Springans Merrymaker using Scales + Soulgaia. Overlay on top of Merrymaker Champion Sargas.
- Search Therion Regulus from deck with Champion Sargas.
- Special summon Champion Sargas from hand by equipping Soulpiercer from the GY.
- Activate Baronne's effect to destroy Soulpiercer that is equipped to Regulus. Search for Wagon from deck.
- Link away Champion Sargas + Ancient Gear Ballista for Qliphort Genius.
- Pendulum summon Ancient Gear Box, Infinitrack Tunneller and Wagon. Qliphort trigger effect searches for Spell Canceller.
- Activate Wagon's effect to change from defense to attack position to search for for Motorbike from deck (follow-up for next turn).
- Link away Ancient Gear Box + Infinitrack Tunneller + Wagon + Qliphort Genius for Saryuja. Saryuja's trigger effect draws 4 and stacks 3 from your hand back on the bottom of your deck.
- Activate Saryuja's effect to summon Spell Canceller into attack position to a zone Saryuja points to so you can increase Spell Canceller's attack by 300.
- Activate Infinitrack Tunneller's effect in GY to shuffle back 5 earth machine monsters in your GY (preferably your important 1 ofs like Stealthy, Scales, Soulgaia Booster, Soulpeacemaker and Scarecrow) to draw 2 more cards.
1 Wakaushi + 1 discard = Baronne (omninegate and destroy), Regulus (omninegate), Abyss Dweller (Anti-GY effect lingering floodgate), Apollousa (3 monster negates), 3-5 cards in hand (handtraps + followup)
- Complete steps 1-17 in the regular combo.
- Pendulum summon Ancient Gear Box, Infinitrack Tunneller and Wagon.
- Link away Infinitrack Tunneller + Ancient Gear Ballista + Champion Sargas for Apollousa.
- Activate Wagon's effect to change is from defense to attack position. Wagon's trigger effect searches for Soulpiercer from deck (follow-up for next turn).
- XYZ summon Abyss Dweller using Ancient Gear Box and Wagon.
- Activate Infinitrack Tunneller's effect in GY to shuffle back 5 earth machine monsters in your GY (preferably your important 1 ofs like Stealthy, Scales, Soulgaia Booster, Soulpeacemaker and Scarecrow) to draw 2 more cards.
1 Wakaushi + 1 level 3 tuner + any monster + 1 discard = Baronne (omninegate + destroy), Regulus (omninegate), Savage Dragon (omninegate), Apollousa (3 monster negates), 2-4 cards in hand (handtraps + followup)
- Complete steps 1-15 in the regular combo.
Link away Champion Sargas + Ancient Gear Ballista for Qliphort Genius.
- Pendulum summon level 3 tuner, Ancient Gear Box, Infinitrack Tunneller, and Any Monster.
- Link away Ancient Gear Box + Qliphort Genius + Any Monster for Apollousa.
- Synchro summon Savage Dragon using Infinitrack Tunneller + level 3 tuner. Equip from GY Qliphort Genius to Savage Dragon.
- Special summon Champion Sargas from hand by equipping Soulpiercer from the GY.
- Activate Baronne's effect to destroy Soulpiercer that is equipped to Regulus. Search for Motorbike from deck.
- Activate Infinitrack Tunneler's effect in GY to shuffle back 5 earth machine monsters in your GY (preferably your important 1 ofs like Stealthy, Scales, Soulgaia Booster, Soulpeacemaker and Scarecrow) to draw 2 more cards.
With just 1.5 cards, the usual combo ends on 2 omninegates (Baronne and Regulus), an anti-spell floodgate (Spell Canceller), 4-6 cards in hand (3 from starting hand, 1 from Saryuja's excavate, 1 Soulpiercer as follow-up for next turn and 2 from Infinitrack Tunneler's draw 2) and pendulum scales 1-8. Your opponent would need very specific cards to break a board/hand of this calibre, and next turn you'll have plenty of gas left for an OTK!
If you don't feel like locking your opponent out of spells, you can make Apollousa instead of Saryuja coupled with an Abyss Dweller or Savage Dragon! The endboards for this deck are flexible and can adapt to specific matchups since modern Superheavy Samurai is now an incredible archetype that allows for the duelist to access their extra deck toolbox with ease.
Even if your opponent manages to out your entire board, you should have a plethora of handtraps on hand to interrupt and stop your opponent.
Going second, the 17 handtraps in the deck SHOULD slow down your opponent enough so that the Superheavy duelist can crack their board. To break an opponent's board the pilot has the options to go for either the usual Superheavy Samurai endboard (which naturally picks apart boards during combo) or for a 4 material Zeus with fieldwipes by summoning two level 4s -> Springans line.
GENERAL TIPS
- Unfortunately, high impact handtraps like Droll & Lockbird and Dimension Shifter completely stop the turn for Superheavy Samurai. When that happens, make Bagooska to stall out your opponent until the time is right.
- Certain cards like Anti-Spell Fragrance, Five-Rainbow Magician, Ariseheart and Shangri-Ira's zone locks render most of the deck completely useless. It is very important to side in the deck proper cards and know which match-up you're in since so many cards singlehandedly stop the entire strategy. After Kashtira, Superheavy Samurai is arguably the strongest deck in the meta, and therefore heavily sided against.
- In a Superheavy Samurai mirror match, it is better to play Abyss Dweller + Apollousa rather than Spell Canceller. Abyss Dweller stops the 4+ searches that a Superheavy player would do with Soulpiercer.
- Spell Canceller under Saryuja is 2100 ATK. Any opponent would be hard pressed to out Spell Canceller with merely a normal summon'd monster's attack. However, cards like Kashtira Fenrir and the Bystials beat down the floodgate very easily. Protect your Spell Canceller by preventing your opponent from fielding a high attack monster!
- When facing a trap deck, side out Spell Canceller and replace it with Jinzo. Jinzo is an insta-win in trap match-ups!
- Superheavy's greatest nemesis, Mystic Mine, may be banned but a similar card, Five-Rainbow Magician still lurks in people's side decks! If your opponent is allowed to resolve its floodgate effect, it locks you out of all monster effects which is disastrous! Be sure to side in Clockwork Night and Artifact Lancea when you suspect your opponent is using Five-Rainbow Magician.
- Clockwork Night in your sidedeck hardcounters decks that specifically in-archetype typing to play such as Mathmech (Cyberse) and Dragonlink (Dragons).
CONCLUDING REMARKS
With a non-once per turn search that is Soulpiercer, Superheavy Samurai just needed cards that increased consistency so that it can resolve that effect to search again and again. That support has been granted in Cyberstorm Access and now, a janky casual beatdown deck with funny gimmicks is actual a real meta heavyweight (pun intended)! This Superheavy Earth Machine pile has received another incredible wave of support, further enhancing the old tools that Earth Machine was blessed with in the past.
This critical mass of Earth Machine support plus Soulpiercer's multiple searches coupled with generic Synchro, XYZ and Link boss monsters create a very competent combo juggernaut. This rising star's newfound fame in the post-CYAC is also customizable to several playstyles! Want to play standard and end on 6 negates? Want to FTK your opponent with 8000 burn? Want to lock your opponent out of special summoning with Gimmick Puppet Nightmare? Want to Handloop your opponent for 3 cards while ending on several negates? Post-CYAC Superheavy Samurai can do it! I'll be sure to explore the other playstyles and make guides on the degenerate ways to pilot Superheavy Samurai as well! Until then...
GLHF Duelists!
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