Spell
NormalShien's Smoke Signal
Archetype:
Six Samurai
View:
3683
Add 1 Level 3 or lower "Six Samurai" monster from your Deck to your hand.
Shien's Smoke Signal — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 61 ± 5 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 57 · Deck: 64 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Searcher/Tutor · Secondary: Starter, Combo enabler
Why it scores here
Shien's Smoke Signal converts a single card into a Level 3 or lower "Six Samurai" monster, which is the spark the Six Samurai swarm engine needs — it is run in essentially every Six Samurai deck (100% inclusion, ~2.9 copies average) and co-occurs with the deck's key playmakers at 85-98%. Its value is entirely reliability and efficiency as a low-cost archetype search; its blank ATK/DEF earn it nothing, and its narrow target pool plus total absence of its own disruption keep it out of the top tier. With no combo samples supplied, the board it produces is a text-based inference rather than a measured outcome. It scores as a strong in-archetype enabler, not a generic staple.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 68 | Adds 1 Level 3 or lower "Six Samurai" monster from Deck to hand and is live in-archetype once drawn, though the Spell itself is not searchable by its own text (verified). |
| Combo & Conversion | 60 | A one-card search that feeds the Six Samurai swarm, but combo data is empty (0 appearances) so any full board from it is text-only inference (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 62 | Card-neutral search that upgrades hand quality by pulling exactly the monster needed; nets roughly even in raw count but is clean setup with no cost (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 20 | The card itself provides no negation, removal, or disruption; any interaction comes from the monsters it fetches (verified). |
| Material Utility | 32 | As a Normal Spell it offers no body, Level, or attribute of its own and can never be used as material, only fetch material providers (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 48 | One-shot Spell that is fully stopped by Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring or any Spell negation, mitigated only by the deck's redundant search suite (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 62 | Locked to "Six Samurai" Level 3-or-lower targets so it is unplayable outside those decks, but inside them it is a costless, unconditional 3-of with no garnet (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Searcher/Tutor + 0.3 Starter. Intrinsic ≈ 57, Deck ≈ 64, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- One-for-one archetype search that directly starts the Six Samurai swarm engine
- Near-universal inclusion: 100% in Six Samurai builds, avg 2.88 copies, 372/400 decks run the full 3
- No cost, no once-per-turn clause, and a Level 3 or lower target pool that is always available in-archetype
- Co-occurs with the deck's key pieces (Asceticism 98%, Reinforcement of the Army 96.8%, Shi En 95.2%)
Weaknesses
- Archetype-locked: only fetches Level 3 or lower "Six Samurai" monsters, useless in non-Six Samurai decks
- Provides zero disruption or removal on its own
- One-shot Spell that is fully answered by a single negate (Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Solemn, etc.)
- Cannot be searched by its own text; relies on drawing one of three copies
Counters / choke points
- Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
- Droll & Lock Bird
- Called by the Grave (as a search-adjacent disruptor against the fetched target's GY use)
- Generic Spell/Trap negation (e.g. Solemn Judgment, Imperial Order-style locks)
Best use
Searcher / Starter — open with it to fetch the swarm enabler. Decks: Six Samurai, Secret Six Samurai, Shadow Six Samurai. Suggested copies: 3.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: 'Add 1 Level 3 or lower "Six Samurai" monster from your Deck to your hand.'; Normal Spell, Six Samurai archetype, legal in TCG/OCG/Master Duel with no listed banlist restriction; 400/400 sampled decks run it in the main deck, with 372 decks at 3 copies; Provides no disruption, no body, and no material value on its own
- Observed: 100% inclusion in Six Samurai and Secret Six Samurai statistics samples at ~3 copies; Co-deck percentages: Asceticism 98%, Reinforcement of the Army 96.8%, Shi En 95.2%, Kizan 92%; Secret Six Samurai is the dominant home at 60.2% of the sample; 30 distinct archetype labels appear
- Inferred: The searched monster functions as a starter feeding the Six Samurai swarm into Synchro/Xyz end boards; A single search negation (e.g. Ash Blossom) materially slows the line, though the deck has several other starters; Narrow target pool caps splashability to decks already playing Six Samurai monsters
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no measured starter role/searched-for role breakdown to confirm the practical starter rate no dated metagame sample — meta power is null/provisional