Skull Warrior

Every man's one true wish is to die honorably. Don't deny it; nobody wants to die in a miserable or pathetic fashion. The desire to die fighting and valiant to the very last breath is the spirit of the samurai, those ancient warriors of Japan's feudal times. Needless to say, Skull Warriors imitate this same kind of fighting style by putting everything on the line. In exchange for good abilities and above-average stats, the warriors that do get this bonus are often sacrificed at the end of the turn. It's alright, however, since their sacrifices are not in vain. There are multiple support cards for Skull Warriors that mitigate or completely reverse the "handicap" of being destroyed. They can also come back to life, truly living up to their name.

On a whole, Skull Warriors are strong at rushing, but their rushes are of a somewhat different tone than the traditional rush. Instead of rushing to end the game or push damage, Skull Warriors rush in order to gain field control and hand advantage. Because of awkward logistical problems with size limits and certain on-hit effects, Skull Warriors are hard-pressed to create explosive turns and thus must use a combined strategy of force and cunning to maneuver their opponents into disadvantage.

Let's first start by introducing the mechanic of self-destruction that is common among many Skull Warrior cards. I like to term this mechanic "suicide" or "kamikaze", whichever you feel is more appropriate (I suppose kamikaze is more appropriate, but it's harder to say). Basically, Skull Warrior cards gain effects (either on-call or on-activate) and then destroy themselves at the end of the turn, similar to that one Katana weapon. This makes them very good at forcing unfair tradeoffs in your favor, since bouncing or destruction effects don't hurt Skull Warriors nearly as much.

Would you like some
oni giri?

Blood Knife, Kimensai is the typical kamikaze attacker you'll see with Skull Warriors. He has 4000/2/1000 stats, which is slightly below average but it's not an issue in this case (Katana World actually has the lowest base stats of all the worlds, and Kimensai just exhibits the typical stats you would expect). He destroys himself at the end of the turn (-1) for free Penetrate (+1), a fair trade in all regards. Penetrate with 4000 power, however, is a bit weak. If possible, you'd want to call two of these and link attack the center (using Sakurafubuki to negate any shield spells). That way you'll have an 8000 power attack that will deal 4 damage and allow Yamigitsune to To Darkness them. The main bonus of Kimensai is that he can proc To Darkness without directly attacking the enemy.

Your other Size 1 attacker is Aftermath, Gagaku. He's got some nice stats that you're going to want to use to clear walls and such. As a result, he combos better with Setsujishi than Yamigitsune. You'll find that every kamikaze suicider in Skull Warriors will either fit well with Yamigitsune or Setsujishi, so keep this in mind as you're planning your drops.

King of Fatality

Tempest, Garo-oh is a Size 2 suicide attacker. His flexibility makes Garo-oh incredibly good. You don't have to doom him on-call, but on-ability. When you activate his ability (-1 gauge/-0.5 advantage), he gets +3000 temporary power (+0.5) and Double Attack (+1) and then he seppuku's at the end of turn (-1). Until then, he just sits on your field timidly and wastes nothing, merely hitting for the odd 3000/2/5000. Because of this, he does nicely for a center wall at times. He's also instrumental in Skull Warrior OTKs because Double Attack on a Size 2 is just amazing. The fact that he's a Size 2, however, is a bit annoying since you can only have 1 of these and then 1 Yamigistune. That's not really OTK pressuring, which is what you normally would expect from such a rush heavy playstyle.

There's a reason my
spirit is the fox

The reason you're never worried about suiciding warriors is because Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune can make their deaths into advantage for you. His ability To Darkness activates whenever a Skull Warrior damages an opponent. You can drop the Skull Warrior (note: To Darkness does not destroy the Skull Warrior) to draw a card. If you use this on any monster, you're still making a wash. But when you do this on a card already doomed to die, you're gaining a +1 that you normally wouldn't have access to (sounds like Great Nature). Since the suiciders all get enhanced +1 abilities because they will eventually -1 later, Yamigitsune essentially turns all your suiciders into permanent +1's. With higher quality. Of course, the Skull Warrior has to actually damage the opponent (0 damage does not count), so if your opponent plays smart with shields you'll still end up with the not-so-good end (which is a wash). This is why Sakurafubuki is extremely important in Skull Warriors for getting rid of shields and allowing Yamigitsune to get free advantage everywhere.

As noted by my wonderful editor Silent Tom, if you use To Darkness on a monster in your center and have a weapon equipped, you can come out with a 4-attack combo turn. This is highly not recommended unless you plan to end it that very turn.

One strike, one kill

When it comes down to it, though, the truth is that both Kimensai and Garo-oh have pretty low power by themselves, often forcing them to link attack to clear walls. Thus they can't guarantee as much damage as other decks like Adventurers with their freaking ridiculous Penetrate combos. However, Skull Warriors is not all about rushing for win - it plays a mean field control game as well. If you're using Skull Warriors and you're finding that you just can't deal enough damage to kill, you might want to pay some attention to the control side of Skull Warriors. Flash Strike, Yamaihebi comes down and immediately removes a Size 1 or lower monster on the opponent's field. Sweet. He dies at the end of the turn, but he trades very evenly 1-for-1. He doesn't even have to attack to get his +1, whereas Kimensai and Garo-oh have a chance to be blocked before their respective +1's kick in. Essentially, Yamaihebi plays safer and ensures that you get your investment's worth when he dies.

Charon's taking some
time off

Until this point, Skull Warriors really shouldn't be looking like an amazing archetype. Yes, they do get free +1 with the Yamigitsune combo but that's situational and also size limited. But then we get Return to the Underworld, and all of a sudden everything makes sense. There's never a time where you won't have a Yamigitsune. Ever. You can use Art of Explosive Hades Fall to grab Yamigitsune and drop him, then revive him with Underworld. From then on, you can just pay 1 gauge every turn to revive Yamigitsune without paying Yamigitsune's 1 gauge call cost. You almost don't want to call Yamigitsune from hand ever. You can just gauge him, pay out the gauge, and then revive him (not in the same combo, obviously, since you can't use the payment cost of Underworld as a revival target).

Underworld gets crazier, since you can have multiple copies on the field and activate Underworld multiple times per turn. Endless Kimensai's at -0.5 opportunity cost per each sounds pretty good, especially since gauge is relatively cheap for Skull Warriors. If you read my calculations in my Buddy article, the combination of Hades Fall and Underworld can guarantee any Size 1 run at 4 copies onto the field by Turn 3. There's almost no reason why you wouldn't want to have 2 of these floating on the field. Don't set more than 2 ever, please.

Ugh. Demon Way, Shienrekka is so bad. Skull Warriors have crap defense, the usable ones that have decent defense suicide themselves, so this is literally doing nothing for you. Do me a favor and toss this card aside. I don't ever want to see this card in competitive play, until Skull Warriors get the adequate support for it.

Apparently, there are
good sins too

Should you run a Size 3 without Soulguard, Penetrate, or Double Attack? If you've read my card quality article, your answer should be no. It's even worse when the call cost is still a staggering 3 gauge. But Evil Sins, Shumokuzame somehow manages to redeem itself as playable, even necessary. Reason 1. He's a Size 3 that we can use with Hades Fall to screw over Ancient World decks. Reason 2. He salvages any Demon Way spell you want. Want another negate? A spell-canceler? Center shield? 1-for-1 destruction? Impact? You name it, you get it. Reason 3. He puts three cards back from your opponent's drop to the bottom of his deck (henceforth known as excavating). Was your opponent counting on having 2 Adventurers to rescue with Mission: Nazaro Springs? Not anymore. Was your opponent's Dragon Knight, Richard getting a stat buff from 4 or more unique Dragon Knights in the drop? Not anymore. Excavation can cripple certain strategies that decks rely on, and ultimately could turn the tide of a match. Since you can "choose up to three", you can simply choose none if you don't want to excavate.

If at first you don't
succeed...please, tell
me what it is like

Set 3 gave us nothing really good besides Undefeatable, Setsujishi. But honestly, that's all Skull Warriors ever needed. An alternate Yamigitsune. At the end of the turn, Setsujishi can choose any number of Skull Warriors on your field (including itself) and put them into gauge. What this means is that instead of suffering a -1 from suicide, kamikaze warriors can now become a +0.5 guaranteed. Sure, it's not as good as a +1 from Yamigitsune but the Skull Warrior doesn't have to damage the opponent for it. And you can always use a little gauge support. Since Setsujishi can't be called to center, it brings up the problem where you can't actually use him to shield like Yamigitsune (by the way, forgot to mention, but always call Yamigitsune to the center. Always). That's okay, he baits the Right-hand Back-hand counter spells pretty hard. With the new promo Demon Way negates, having an open center is no longer a death flag like it used to be. Setsujishi, nevertheless, should always be seen as a backup to Yamigitsune, a Plan B. He doesn't exert nearly as much pressure and fits better with cards that attempt to control the field. Plan A is stab and kill. Plan B is dominate and win. It's true. After all, he's freaking Undefeatable.

Set spell, come here...

A problem with Skull Warriors used to be getting Return to the Underworld into play as soon as possible. You would run the spell at max copies in order to increase your odds of getting it out, but Cat Shadow, Aoihime helps a lot. When she's called, you can ditch a card to get any Demon Way Set spell you want - namely, Return to the Underworld being your most important one. While the transaction is a minus (-0.5), Aoihime is a decent monster and the spell is really important. You can treat Aoihime as extra copies of Return to the Underworld for purposes of deckbuilding. Also, the card you discard can then be immediately called to the field which allows you to get your combo out really quickly.

More caws

I'm shocked that this costs 1 gauge. I mean, mathematically it's balanced but you don't actually get anything useful - any lower power with the same crit deals the same damage, and Yamigarasu already hits 4000 power while being more utility and useful as a Mover. The only thing I see useful about this card is that it costs no more to revive than any other card, but that's not really a plus. You'd be banking on not only getting Underworld (not hard) but also finding a way to mill him, and I'd rather not bother.

See, like this. This guy is actually better than Treachery, Jakikarasu. Even if he's uglier.

Dead people

Disperser of Conflagration, Shiromizuchi. It only costs 1 gauge to call from the drop zone. Value!

Demon Kid, Hiunmaru is not fair. He's a spammable 6000/2 attacker that actually costs nothing because he pays for himself. Skull Warriors have gauge issues after abusing Underworld too much but Hiunmaru definitely solves half those issues.

If you ever want to tech a strange Size 1 into your deck for clutch purposes, running a few Defiant, Sabifukuro is a great way to make your deck run more smoothly. He can search out any monster from your deck and add it to the drop, allowing you to run techs and get them consistently via Underworld. Though you have better Size 2 options, and Sabifukuro is not even 3 crit so I'm disappoint.

...what the hell is that thing?

The Ebb and Flow of the River of Demons

I've heard people criticize Demon Way, Ukishizumi Ikusabune for being "unusable because Yamigitsune". What? The Impact is great because its Yamikitsune's ability off a body. You can't guarantee that every Skull Warrior is going to actually hit an opponent every turn. The Impact allows you to transform an "unfruitful" turn of burning through your opponent's negates into card advantage for you. You can even choose how many Skull Warriors to kill, and the Impact itself washes with just 2, meaning you can still leave something in the center to guard and not even minus off the Impact. It's a pretty good deal, really.

Unblockable

First Omni Beast Lord, Ziun kicks off some supposedly cool Skull Warriors support...but there's a lot of issues with Ziun himself. Like sure, he's cool because he almost guarantees a 3-damage swing and can Penetrate the center...but 3 gauge is a lot to invest. HunterSerge also points out that you stop negation but not reduction of damage, so stuff like Chillax! still activates with no problem. Plus, Ziun has a frighteningly low 1000 defense that can be targeted by so many different Counter removal spells it's not even funny. With no real way of protecting Ziun, you really shouldn't be using him (although you can tech him in as a target for Art of Explosive Hades Fall).

Ever since Mach Braver got printed for Hero World, it appears that the Counter call mechanic is splashing over to other worlds. Lightning Speed, Tsukiusagi might not have Mach Braver's defense, but she's got 2 crit for extra aggression on your turn.

Double Attack on a Skull Warrior that you can call with Return to the Underworld for 1 less gauge is like the dream. Also, to dispel any weird myths, the Kalavinka bird of Buddhist mythology isn't actually gender-forced male, so I really don't know where Bushiroad was getting their weird ideas from.

Death is just a party

Odd Ritual, Skull Festival is...just better Return to Underworld. Paying out of life instead of gauge, can target Size 2 monsters, just overall better. Kinda. You see, while life payments are usually ideal, Katana World has no life gain effects so it's pretty risky, especially if you also want to use Sakurafubuki. Although with Aohime searching out any Demon Way Set, you could easily get both and pay 1 gauge 1 life to call out a veritable army with no hand minus. Sounds really scary.

With Skull Festival, suddenly Skull Warriors have access to a lot of volatile Size 2 plays that weren't available before. You can run Bokunryu for removal and get it every turn, you can activate Garo-oh and get it back the next turn...there's a lot more strategy and diversity with your field placement. Definitely a good thing for Skulls, allows them to win without going ham into rush plays.

On-play pay 1 gauge deal 1 damage. Qinus Axia as a Size 2 for Skull Warriors. Legit.

I didn't know childhood
hurt this much

Yamigitsune gives advantage, Setsujishi gives gauge, and now we get a new Yamigitsune. Boy Transformation, Yamigitsune is a Size 0 that costs 1 gauge to call, has kinda whatever stats, but it really doesn't matter. That ability is pretty heinous. Every time a Skull Warrior deals damage to an opponent, you can put that monster to the drop zone and then deal even more damage equal to the Size of that monster.

Here's the thing. You have Goraiko, the dude who deals 1 damage on-entry.

I mean 3.

You can only activate it once per turn but like really, having easy access to 3-damage nukes is pretty not fair. You can then call normal Yamigitsune and draw off of Boy Transformation. And you can revive the entire combo turn after turn.

Kuwabara kuwabara

Demon Way, Arakuyou is a great card advantage card in case you don't want to rely on Yamigitsune. If you lose 2 or more Skull Warriors through destruction, you can cast this spell as a Counter, pay 1 gauge, and draw 3 cards. Obviously it doesn't synergize with Yamigitsune-like abilities but it's a good backup. It's actually better in a sense because it also pads against enemy removal and is pretty fail-safe in all situations. Remember that Skull Warriors normally banzai for +1 so this card is actually just +1.5 pretty much always. Alongside Ukishizumi Ikusabune (the Impact) you're looking at non-Yamigitsune ways to get your engine running.

Kage Ziun...is literally the same card as Ziun. They changed none of the problems. It still sucks. Next!

First Omni Beast Messenger, Goishi Goma is kinda weird because his effect works for Ninjas as well. So he's actually really good with Gojinmaru...in fact, he has counter synergy with Return and Skull Festival. Funky.

- updated to H-BT04, CP01, H-EB04, H-TD02, H-PP01 -

All images used obtained from the official Bushiroad website and used here solely for reference purposes. Future Card Buddyfight!, logos, and respective content belong to Bushiroad. Large images belong to the Buddyfight! Wikia.