I have some updates on this. I finally managed to put together all the cards for this deck, and started testing it against my decks. Its amazing how much that can change a deck. I did manage to get the Samurai deck to stand up to my other decks, which I never thought was possible. I just didn't think they had the juice for that. I had to take a lot of the flavor out to do it.
I started out with a few changes from the last version I posted. I was testing it against my decks, So I knew the deck had to be faster. I added four Devoted Retainers and dropped the 2 Godos and the 2 Kondas. The 6-7 mana guys were just too big, and I needed some more help early. I don't like 1/1s without a strong ability, but the Devoted Retainers are at least decent for board control, and there really isn't much other choice. I traded the Houndmasters for Kitsune Blademasters, I think they're strongerI also replaced the 3 Call to Glories with 3 Masako the Humorless. She can be played as an instant, and she stays put. I wanted to try that. I also added 2 plains, and removed 1 mountain. The deck I started testing looked like this:
Creatures
4 Devoted Retainer
3 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
4 Konda's Hatamoto
2 Sensei Golden Tails
3 Masako the Humorless
3 Kitsune Blademaster
4 Brothers Yamizaki
2 Nagao, Bound by Honor
2 Takeno, Samurai General
Spells
3 Empyrial Plate
3 Konda's Banner
1 Tenza, Godo's Maul
3 Orim's Thunder
3 Wrath of God
Land
11 Plains
6 Mountains
2 Eiganjo Castle
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Plateau
First off, I noticed this deck was slow and not very agressive. I also noticed that this deck wasn't holding cards in hand like my white weenie deck does, so I chucked the Empyrial Plates for 3 Swords to Plowshares. I kept testing, and found I really wasn't getting much use out of the other Equipment, so Konda's Banner and Tenza had to go, and were replaced by a fourth STP, and 1 each of Kitsune Blademaster, Sensei Golden Tails, and Samurai of the Pale Curtain. The deck was starting to work better, and the games were really telling me to go more aggressive. I had gotten that far without ever getting much utility out of Masako, so she was out. Nagao was a bomb though, so my third one of him had to go in. Also a star card in the deck was Wrath of God. I subbed out the 3 Masakos, an Orim's Thunder, one Devoted Retainer, and went back to 2 Sensei Golden Tails, and added 4 Ronin Houndmaster and a third Nagao for more violence, and added 1 Balance, one of my all time favorite cards. Finally, I was finding less and less use for red mana, and more and more for white, so I dropped another mountain for another plains. Here is the final deck with some comments on the cards.
First off, I found no trouble with the Legendaries in this. Sensei Golden Tails I never had a problem with running 3, the Brothers are made to be 4 per deck. Holding 3 isn't an issue since after having two in play, killing off one of them becomes priority #1. Nagao has a target on him too, and combined with how much he tears things up, running 3 isn't an issue.
Creatures (30)
3 Devoted Retainer--Not much bite, but good for early board control, if nothing else
4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain--Wish there was another 2/2 Bushido, these guys are nasty
4 Konda's Hatamoto--One of the stars. 2 Sensei Golden Tails and the 4 Brothers can usually trigger him enough. Bushido 1 makes him 2/3 which is decent for board control if he doesn't have company
2 Sensei Golden Tails--Triggers the Hatamoto, his main purpose. The Bushido tokens are nice too, since they really do stack.
4 Kitsune Blademaster--These things do not get blocked, ever.
4 Brothers Yamazaki--All the times these were underwhelming alone really is made up for for the few times they both are there. 2 damage becomes 8 in an instant.
4 Ronin Houndmaster--These made the deck a lot more violent. 2/2 Bushido remains tough to block, and you don't see these guys coming
3 Nagao, Bound by Honor--I somehow missed noticing that he triggers himself and attacks as a 4/4 with Bushido 1. I think I could actually call this card the star of the deck.
2 Takeno, Samurai General--I like having a nice bomb to drop at six mana. This is it.
Spells-(10)
4 Swords to Plowshares--Aggro needs to clear the way
2 Orim's Thunder--Some decks(especially mine) don't run artifacts/enchantments, so I went down to 2. Otherwise this card should be in EVERY SINGLE W/R deck.
3 Wrath of God--Is this card ever bad? If I fall behind, I can hide behind bushido and start keeping creatures in hand, and play a game of chicken over when to pop this
1 Balance--One of the most broken cards ever. Cheap to find, cheap to cast.
Land (23)
12 Plains--This deck craves white mana...
5 Mountains--...and seems to be able to wait for red
2 Eiganjo Castle--This card is a royal pain early with Sensei and the Brothers. I never seem to regret having this card in play.
2 Plateau--I actually have 2.
2 Battlefield Forge--best non Plateau R/W land.
This deck in games no longer resembles the original deck. The original was slow and passive, while this one is very very agressive and attacks all out. I originally thought Samurai would do well with a patient deck that built up force. I found playing them that this just doesn't seem to work. That being said, the deck seemed to do better the more cheap Samurai I threw in it. I've gone just about all Aggro, and the deck seems to work better than it has any right to. The key to the deck strangely enough is Bushido. The whole deck revolves around it. My Samurai in a fight are more than a match for my opponent's creatures, giving me the advantage in attacking or blocking. 30 Creatures and attacking most every turn seems to work. I lost a lot of the flavor of the original deck in the tuning, and the deck seems rather generic with few tricks and not much of the feel of a tribe deck, but I guess that's the price of winning. I can only hope Betrayers and Fumiko the Lowblood can change all of that. I can still go back to the original build for multiplayer games.
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