Great series. Good approach to not spend too many wildcards on upgrades to these decks and just tune them up a little for beginning players or for casual play or doing quests.
Yeah, it seems silly to make an upgrade for new player decks and then spend dozens of rare/mythic wildcards. Hopefully this is a bit more useful for people! :)
I really enjoy your suggestions and thought-process on upgrading these starter decks! As for this specific deck, after playing it for some time( the upgraded version) and since it lacks a good finishing mechanism like trample ( you can even get up to 50 life at times and still because you can't finish opponent off, they manage to turn the table in late game), I've found that replacing some cards with some removal, makes a huge difference. The reinforced ronins in particular might be a good early game aggro but they become kind of a hindrance after a couple of turns, and spending the mana to channel it might slow you down from summoning an extra ability-giving creature or spending said mana for an extra artifact equip or small removal that might help a lot better. Also Tempered Solitude can be useful in 'some' cases but an effect that activates ON the attack phase can be replaced with a similar cost card that can remove a key defender and that could make all the difference in some cases( Borrowed Time, extra Kami's Flares). I don't know if any of this is helpful and I also know that you want to give respect to the tribal power of samurais with this upgrade and my suggestions kind of divert from that direction so I'd like to see your feedback on this. Again thanks for the great videos!
I was like 0-6 with this upgraded deck til I read your reply and made the changes along the lines you suggested. I get what Affinity is trying to do with this deck but like he alludes to, tribal samurai is shit right now. You can win with this deck but you have to be able to stop what the opponent is trying to do (which is clearly gonna be better than tribal samurai) so adding back Valorous Stance, putting in some Borrowed Time and even a Professional Facebreaker to give my Eater of Virtue menace has helped me get some wins. I even added a Lunar Frenzy which helped. I still have the theme from the video's upgrades, just not so linear. Thanks for the video @Affinity for MTG and all your other great ones! Tribal Samurai sucks tho! xD
@@masonw6361 yeah, since the core power of the deck is very limited, even removals and other mechanisms will only get you so far. Every strong standard deck can beat that, aggro works faster and midrange/control easily beat you in late game. I don't know how the Brother's War cards might affect the Red-White combination, but without it the only playable solution for this combination seems to be the aggro non budget decks with staple red and white cards and Sunshine Cavalier (actually very strong). Still I really like @Affinityformtg 's version of the deck as a collection thing, the Samurai tribe was done dirty by WotC!
It's hard to say right now because standard is about to rotate, so it's hard to know what will be playable after rotation, but Ignite the Forge is very close to a tier 1 deck at the moment. After that? Maybe Spellweaver, On the Hunt, and Stealthy Subterfuge? I'm not sure. Balancing Act is also very good with a little work.
Yeah, I get comments all the time from people saying their deck is different. They either change over time, or they are slightly different for everyone from the start. I'm not really sure what to do about that though, because I can't find a list of variations. The best I can do is upgrade the version that I have and hope it is still useful for everyone. 🤣
Sorry for the delayed response! You should be able to unlock all starter decks in the Starter Deck Duel event. You have to win 3 times with a deck to unlock it I believe.
@@I00duck Oooh! I didn't pay attention to which video this comment was on. This is an old deck from a previous year, so you can't unlock it anymore unfortunately.
Yeah, this was the last deck I upgraded because it was so difficult to work with. A lot of people have complained about the power level of samurai and WOTC even admitted the design was flawed. Having a tribe that wants you to fill the board with creatures and then attack with only 1 of them just feels bad. :(
Great series. Good approach to not spend too many wildcards on upgrades to these decks and just tune them up a little for beginning players or for casual play or doing quests.
Yeah, it seems silly to make an upgrade for new player decks and then spend dozens of rare/mythic wildcards. Hopefully this is a bit more useful for people! :)
I really enjoy your suggestions and thought-process on upgrading these starter decks! As for this specific deck, after playing it for some time( the upgraded version) and since it lacks a good finishing mechanism like trample ( you can even get up to 50 life at times and still because you can't finish opponent off, they manage to turn the table in late game), I've found that replacing some cards with some removal, makes a huge difference. The reinforced ronins in particular might be a good early game aggro but they become kind of a hindrance after a couple of turns, and spending the mana to channel it might slow you down from summoning an extra ability-giving creature or spending said mana for an extra artifact equip or small removal that might help a lot better. Also Tempered Solitude can be useful in 'some' cases but an effect that activates ON the attack phase can be replaced with a similar cost card that can remove a key defender and that could make all the difference in some cases( Borrowed Time, extra Kami's Flares). I don't know if any of this is helpful and I also know that you want to give respect to the tribal power of samurais with this upgrade and my suggestions kind of divert from that direction so I'd like to see your feedback on this. Again thanks for the great videos!
I was like 0-6 with this upgraded deck til I read your reply and made the changes along the lines you suggested. I get what Affinity is trying to do with this deck but like he alludes to, tribal samurai is shit right now. You can win with this deck but you have to be able to stop what the opponent is trying to do (which is clearly gonna be better than tribal samurai) so adding back Valorous Stance, putting in some Borrowed Time and even a Professional Facebreaker to give my Eater of Virtue menace has helped me get some wins. I even added a Lunar Frenzy which helped. I still have the theme from the video's upgrades, just not so linear.
Thanks for the video @Affinity for MTG and all your other great ones! Tribal Samurai sucks tho! xD
@@masonw6361 yeah, since the core power of the deck is very limited, even removals and other mechanisms will only get you so far. Every strong standard deck can beat that, aggro works faster and midrange/control easily beat you in late game. I don't know how the Brother's War cards might affect the Red-White combination, but without it the only playable solution for this combination seems to be the aggro non budget decks with staple red and white cards and Sunshine Cavalier (actually very strong). Still I really like @Affinityformtg 's version of the deck as a collection thing, the Samurai tribe was done dirty by WotC!
Thanks for making these. They are extremely well done and immensely helpful! Which of the modified starter decks do you think are the most powerful?
hello , how you rated best 3-4 new starter decks
It's hard to say right now because standard is about to rotate, so it's hard to know what will be playable after rotation, but Ignite the Forge is very close to a tier 1 deck at the moment. After that? Maybe Spellweaver, On the Hunt, and Stealthy Subterfuge? I'm not sure. Balancing Act is also very good with a little work.
Hold up, the wiki says this deck includes Thundering Raiju but there's none. They straight up lied
Yeah, I get comments all the time from people saying their deck is different. They either change over time, or they are slightly different for everyone from the start.
I'm not really sure what to do about that though, because I can't find a list of variations. The best I can do is upgrade the version that I have and hope it is still useful for everyone. 🤣
How does one get this deck?
Sorry for the delayed response! You should be able to unlock all starter decks in the Starter Deck Duel event. You have to win 3 times with a deck to unlock it I believe.
@@AffinityforMTG no ways to play this deck though :( and thank you for replying :)
@@I00duck Oooh! I didn't pay attention to which video this comment was on. This is an old deck from a previous year, so you can't unlock it anymore unfortunately.
Sword of a Samurai tribal deck
"I dont think Samurai are that good."
Welp, guess Samurai just suck in all card games... *cries*
This deck kinda sucks even after the modifications.....
I mean, seriously. It's not even fun to play.
Yeah, this was the last deck I upgraded because it was so difficult to work with. A lot of people have complained about the power level of samurai and WOTC even admitted the design was flawed. Having a tribe that wants you to fill the board with creatures and then attack with only 1 of them just feels bad. :(