Type 2 Samurai

[Crackdown]

A week ago, my 10-yr old went to his first FNM, attended by 30 players. He brought his Mono-white Samurai deck. We knew we would be facing some stiff competition, so we main decked Damping Matrix and Ronin War Club along with Purge and Terashi's Grasp sideboard. The concept, which I mentioned a couple of months ago, was that the Samurai and War Club have triggered abilities, not activated ones, so the DM would help to level the playing field.

The results were better than we expected as he ended 13th and lost 0-2 to only T&N.

This Friday is his next FNM and he would like to do even better. So, how do we improve upon the deck?

Samurai with Attitude

Creatures - 20

4 Devoted Retainer
4 Konda's Hatamoto
4 Kitsune Blademaster
4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
2 Nagao, Bound by Honor
2 Takeno, Samurai General

Spells - 16

4 Glorious Anthem or Konda's Banner
4 Reciprocate or Pulse of the Fields (?)
4 Damping Matrix
4 Ronin War Club

Lands - 24

23 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle

Note: I believe that the mana curve might hold a 22 or 23 land deck. Just have not played it enough to know.

Sideboard or Substitutions

4 Purge
4 Terashi's Grasp
3 Genju of the Fields
4 Pulse of the Fields

Not quite sure if this will hold against a T & N deck. Thanks everyone.

 

[jorael]

Samurai beatdown? YES!!!

The one thing that stands out is 4x Konda's hatamoto with only 4 legendary creatures. That means the hatamoto will be only 1/2 bushido 1 most of the time, not really spectacular. I'd use glorious anthem instead of the banners for that same reason.

Kentaro the smiling cat and Sensei golden tail might have useless abilities for your deck, but a 2/1 for 2 mana sounds good in a weenie deck You could also try Isamaru and 8 1/5 tails. They should be excellent for the deck! Kitsune Blademaster is als nice, as you haven't got any 3-drops yet.

For a weenie deck 20 creatures is about the minimum, I think. I would try and see if I could add some more. Probably by dropping 1 warclub and 1 damping matrix. But then again, I haven't tested (very cool interaction there by the way).

 

[Crackdown]

The deck performed fairly well last night at FNM. My ten-year old made the top 8, but lost to a Black deck running Cranial Extraction, Kokusho, Yukora/Demons and Death Cloud. It really overpowered this deck.

Before that, the deck lost to a mono-blue control deck featuring 14 counters, 4 Vedalken Shackles and Thieving Magpie! It reminds me why I hate playing against Blue Control. Takes the fun out of the game.

So, how do we change the deck to perform in this metagame, which also features T&N, Door to Nothingness and Red Decks galore? Is there any way for a Samurai deck to stare down MUC with Shackles?