Gateway of the Six

Now here we have a decent support card. It is a continuous Spell, which is not something that is usually worth having, as the trap versions are usually better. Anyways, you WANT this card active ASAP, which is in keeping with the Six Samurai deck. Every time a Six Samurai monster is Summoned, you can put 2 Bushido counters on it. Then, you can remove Bushido counters ON YOUR SIDE OF THE FIELD to do effects.

Removing 2 would have a Samurai or Shien monster (Tenkabito Shien is the other one) gain 500 ATK until the end of the turn. Removing 4 is the best, allowing you to search for ANY Samurai in your deck OR Graveyard. Removing 6 will Special Summon a Shien monster from your graveyard.

This card should make Samurai Tier 2 or even 1.5 again, but it hasn't, and that is because the Grandmaster is the only Samurai that Special Summons itself. So to get the search card off for the Samurai, you have to have the Grandmaster in your hand which you would be searching for with the search card... Anybody see a flaw with that?

Samurai NEED a consistent way to shove their monsters to the graveyard so that they can abuse Return of the Six and Double Edged Sword Technique. Without that, the deck will languish in mediocrity and this card will too.

Traditional-1/5
Advanced-2.5/5

Gateway of the Six ...

We reviewed this card a little while ago, and my thoughts on it haven't changed too much, despite learning a few new tricks and hints from what my fellow reviewers said ...

This is how I felt a few months ago:

"More 6 Samurai Support? … hmm … I guess … But they don’t really need this card. 6 Samurai’s run on speed, and this kinda just slows them down a bit. U need to remove Bushido counters in order to get the effects. So the first time u do it, u are instantly back at square 1 and need to rebuild the counters again. Why is that important? Cuz the longer this baby is sitting on the field, the more likely it is to get popped, and then u get nothing. Which means u have to make use of its effect as immediately and often as possible. So unless u are fortunate enough to swarm immediately when u have this – probably very early on the duel – u won’t get much utility out of it. That being said, of all the things that it CAN do for you, there are other cards in the 6 Samurai bag of tricks that they’ve been playing for years that already do most of these things for you. U want an attack boost? – Use solidarity. You’re playing all warriors anyway, right? You’ll get more attack boost, and it wont cost u any counters. U wanna fetch monsters? – U were already using Reinforcements of the Army or Warrior Returning Alive, anyway. U want to special summon? – Use Cunning. 6 Samurai United will get u extra draws …

Yeah, one might argue that this card is like all of those put together … But they’d be wrong. Most of those cards result in immediate effects. Gateway – u have to wait and build – and like I said – 6 Samurai’s are built to be quick and fast. Soon as u start waiting and building with them, u are already off the deck’s play style … and all u will get out of it is a slower version of what u should have ALREADY been getting out of the deck before this card was introduced."

And I still today feel the same way, although based on some more utility, usage, and ability to use counters from other cards besides Gateway, I'll nudge my score up a bit from last time.

Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3/5

- FREEZA

Gateway of the Six:

This card is crazy fun. It adds speed to the Six Samurai deck, and they badly need it after RotA going to one. There are some sweet tricks you can pull off with this card... it combos very nicely with Six Samurai United, as Gateway of the Six requires you to remove bushido counters from your side of the field, and both cards collect bushido counters. Having both spells on the field or doubles of Gateway, and the Hand of the Six Samurai and a Grandmaster in hand will allow you to do some wicked stuff. You can constantly summon/tribute/retrieve Grandmaster with Gateway and Hand's effect. Now if we can just get RotA back to 2... that would be terrific...

Traditional: 3.5
Advanced: 3.5