Is Silver Samurai worth it after his series drop? Find out here!
Silver Samurai was downgraded to Series 3 on Tuesday, June 4th, 2024. We will point out how best to use him and how he can help you depending on which decks you face.
How can Silver Samurai help you?
I think the best way to conceptualize Silver Samurai’s role is as a piece of interaction for an archetype that often has trouble squeezing interaction into its 12 cards. Whereas other decks can throw a Red Guardian in to help deal with Tribunal decks or a Shang Chi to battle Shuri/Taskmaster or Knull destroy, discard lists must be pretty tight along synergistic lines to function properly. Discard has historically struggled against Professor X. Silver Samurai, or Gambit on occasion, provides a touch of interaction while still being actively useful in executing your primary discard strategy.
What is Silver Samurai good against?
In metas where Iron Man is especially prevalent like when Tribunal is especially strong or if bounce decks begin to sneak in Iron Man, Silver Samurai can help you win games and cubes. Other particularly important targets are Professor X, Sage, Werewolf by Night, Arnim Zola, Taskmaster, Blob, Cerebro, Mystique, Hobgoblin, and White Tiger. Those aren't always on top of the meta, but each of them has spent time as a key piece of a top-tier deck. Silver Samurai is quite meta-dependent and hops in and out of my discard lists as the meta fluctuates. At the time of writing, Professor X is everywhere, Sage is a strong card on the rise, Werewolf recently received a buff, and Cerebro is quite strong. It's a pretty good time for the shiny swordsman.
There are a few targets that, while good hits, you're unlikely to take out in time since Samurai awkwardly costs 4 energy, like Wong, Mr. Negative, Angela, Thena, and Jubilee, so bear in mind that he's best against cards that are played out late.
Silver Samurai decks to annoy your opponents
Silver Thena
The brainchild of Samurai aficionado BEWD, this Samurai Bounce deck knocks your opponent off track while putting out solid power. I highly recommend taking this for a spin. You can also try Sasquatch in here instead of Nico, Iceman, or Shang (if you feel your pocket meta doesn't need Shang).
Swarm & Attack
Swarm ensures that we always have enough ammo in hand to supply Silver Samurai and Gambit.
Knight Rider
This list combines Ghost Rider and Samurai or Blade to get something impactful onto the board unexpectedly. Map out your plays so you don't end up with a 0-power Ebony Blade.
Discard Duplicate
Use Zola to double up on either Daken or Dracula, or just machine gun your opponent’s board or hand with Gambit or Samurai.
Blinkmurai
This deck utilizes Samurai to shore up a couple of tough matchups while binning Dracula or Jubilee to bring them back later with Hela. This deck is consistent since Blinking any of your 4-drops helps you dig deep enough to get Hela most of the time if you haven't drawn her by turn 6. Remember cheeky lines like Blinking something into Death or emptying your hand for a strong Dracula hit.
SS 5
This mill deck eschews Yondu, which ends up helping your opponent as often as not, and instead aims to deplete both hand and deck, leaving your opponent with few options. The information advantage of this deck is its strong point.
Silver & Grey
Technically, there is some very light synergy between Jean Grey and hand disruption cards like Samurai and Baron Mordo. This is a fun concept that can irritate your opponents.
Ghosts at Midnight
Another creation from BEWD that provides some of the most consistent discard while disrupting your opponent's gameplan.
Variant Gallery
Conclusion
Silver Samurai is a fun card you can add to your deck to combat particular cards, but it also has some untapped potential. Keep an eye on Samurai as more cards are added. The loss of Zabu has really hurt him, so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a cost reduction at some point in the future. Hopefully, you're inspired to try to annoy your opponent by discarding their cheap cards repeatedly.