Shiranui. The deck almost everyone told me is either too slow to complete vs PK Fire, or too weak to take advantage of the slower decks in the meta, like Monarchs. But they seem like a diamond in the rough to me, since they have so much support in the pre-existing Zombie engine, and because of Shiranui Sage coming out in TDIL this August, I feel like building the deck now before the Sage hype-train kicks in (if it does at all) would be fun. Also because honestly the deck is fun for casuals and locals and has a lot of potential.

MONSTERS (23)

• 3x Shiranui Samurai - The Shiranui Protagonist. Self-buffs himself to 2400 ATK and banishes monsters he battles with if he banishes a Zombie from the grave, making him an excellent out to a lot of cards on his own during the mid-late stages of a duel. His banish effect recovers Shiranui Monsters from the Graveyard, which is actually pretty useful for recycling Spiritmaster and Sage later on. Reminder that Samurai can activate his effect during either player's turn, which means he alone can deter all your opponent's monsters from attacking simply by banishing a Smith from your grave.

• 3x Shiranui Spiritmaster - Like Vega and Altairs undead love child. When normal summoned, he Special Summons a Shiranui from the Hand or Grave. 1 Card R4NK play, or a turn 1 Level 6 Synchro play with Spectralsword. His banish effect pops a face-up card on your opponent's side of the field, making it useful for getting out of Domain-lock or something via Swallow Style or Gold Sarcophagus.

• 1x Shiranui Smith - Honestly mildly subpar, but tutors for a Shiranui card if used as a Synchro Material. He's not too impressive on his own, and you don't want to open into him without the field spell since he provides nearly no plays outside of R4NK fodder or if you have Synthesis up with Spectralsword for the first turn tutor. His banish effect can protect you from an all-out thrashing by preventing all zombies from being destroyed by battle, which means Samurai can stay on the field after crashing for the banish effect. Ran at 2 until Sage comes out.

• 3x Shiranui Spectralsword - The reusable tuner, he can Special Summon a synchro by banishing himself and a non-tuner material from the grave. This doesn't seem all that crazy, until you realize that this summon isn't considered a synchro summon, and therefore doesn't mean you have to use the materials specified on the Synchro Monster. Hello Revived King Ha Des and Archfiend Zombie-Skull, who normally require Plaguespreader/Pain Painter to be summoned.

• 3x Mezuki - A vital part of the Zombie Engine, this guy in any zombie-oriented deck makes some mad plays by recycling tuners and XYZ materials. The fact that he gets returned from the Banished zone by Samuraisaga means that you can make more and more plays each turn.

• 3x Uni-Zombie - Another vital part of the Zombie Engine, this guy dumps your Mezuki's in hand and deck to the grave to increase levels by 1 (up to 2, if you use both effects). Being level 3, just using one of his effects with any non-tuner in the deck means Shogunsaga or Psy-Framelord Omega. Honestly, just his dump effect is absolute gold, and he could be considered the best Zombie support ever, until Sage drops. That art is just...questionable.

• 3x Goblin Zombie - Part of the Zombie Engine, this little dude searches out zombies when sent from the field to the graveyard. I don't like running three, since his effect only triggers when sent from the field, and honestly you should have enough dumps and tutors that you shouldn't need him as much outside of searching for Uni-Zombie. Also, the occasional deck-mill when he inflicts combat damage is kind of nice (but also kind of bad when facing decks with Burning Abyss monsters).

• 3x Zombie Master - Favorite part of the Zombie Engine. Dumps a zombie, then Special Summons a zombie from the grave (including the one you dumped in the first place). Makes plays on his own, and can further push plays when revived via Mezuki. If you have Zombie World up, you can special summon monsters in your opponent's graveyard as well.

• 1x Masked Chameleon - Special summons any of the Shiranui cards on normal summon. It's a fun card to play, but it negates their effects on summon and specials it in DEF. Makes Omega, and Shogunsaga when Zombie World is up. It'll get cut for Sage when Sage comes out, possibly.

SPELLS (11)

• 2x Shiranui Style Synthesis - First turn plays are boosted for the free Shiranui this thing pumps out. It's effect is similar to Zombie Master, except it only works on Zombies with 0 DEF, and only in your graveyard. It also has a second effect that returns a banished 0 DEF Zombie to your grave. All in all, a neat card, but since it only works when you have no monsters, and is limited to being played once per turn, it's really just a facilitation of your Turn 1 plays. Not a bad card though, and you can put Zombie World over it afterward.

• 2x Zombie World - Craps all over Monarchs, preventing them from Tribute Summoning anything until they Twin Twisters it, MST it, or Tribute Summon Mobius- oh wait...they can't. Also opens up your opponent's grave for Zombie Master to access, and makes Masked Chameleon (or any tuner your opponent might have) able to Synchro Summon Shogunsaga. It's also a side target for non-Monarch games.

• 2x Terraforming - Search out your field spells, and thin your deck at the same time. Makes Synthesis more visible in the opening hand, and makes Zombie World more visible in the Monarch matchup. Also a side target for non-Monarch games.

• 3x Twin Twisters - Backrow and Domain removal by dumping Mezuki? Yes please. This card cripples Pendulum scales, backrow, and lock cards like ASF and Domain while also providing a way to dump cards in your hand to further your plays. Useful as hell.

• 1x Burial From A Different Dimension - Limited for a good reason, this card returns 3 banished cards to your graveyard. Recycle Mezuki, Spectralsword, and all sorts of other great stuff to open up or extend plays. Absolutely no reason not to run this card, in all honesty.

• 1x Gold Sarcophagus - This card is hilarious in this deck. The search is delayed, meaning it's not as useful as other tutoring methods like Goblin Zombie, but what really makes this card shine is that it provides access to the Shiranui's banish effects at any point of your main phases. Need protection from Battle Destruction when you crash Samurai? Banish Smith. Need to return a zombie from your grave to your hand? Banish Samurai. Want to get rid of Domain or some other bothersome card? Banish Spiritmaster. It's uses are so varied that it's never a dead draw, and the tutor and deck thin it provides is solid gold, pun intended. It is, however, Mindcrush bait, which isn't as big of a problem now as it was back in the Tellar meta.

TRAPS (6)

• 3x Shiranui Style Swallow's Slash - I really want to run this at 3. Tribute a zombie, then destroy two cards your opponent controls. Then on resolution, you can banish a Shiranui from your deck. Banishing Samurai returns the tributed card to your hand. This also gets cards like Goblin Zombie in the grave, triggering it's effect. Overall a great card.

• 1x Bottomless Trap Hole - Goodbye Pendulum Summon, hello open field.

• 1x Time-Space Trap Hole - More summon hate. Gets rid of Beatrices, Dark Destroyers, and other annoyances.

• 1x Solemn Warning - As you can tell, I really don't want you summoning stuff.

EXTRA DECK (15)

• 3x Shiranui Samuraisaga - A 2500 Attack beater that recovers banished Zombies once during either players turn. It's not hard OPT, so if you have multiples, they each can do their effect. However, you can only summon one Samuraisaga per turn, so it does have it's limits. Banishing this card makes one of your opponent's monsters lose 500 ATK, which doesn't sound all that great at first, but when you banish it for Shogunsaga, and Shogunsaga becomes a 5500 Beater, that -500 is a lot more threatening than it looks. Ran at 3 because of the banish recovery.

• 2x Shiranui Shogunsaga - Your big bad boss monster. 3000 base Attack is nothing to scoff at, and when he's summoned you can banish a Shiranui in grave to boost his attack equivalently to that monster's base attack. He's a strong beater that you use to smash stuff mid and late game while you have stuff like Revived King Ha Des and Archfiend Zombie-Skull up to prevent floats or protect it. When it's destroyed and sent to the graveyard, you can return a banished zombie with 0 DEF to the grave (which doesn't apply to Mezuki sadly).

• 2x Archfiend Zombie-Skull - Summoned via Spectralsword's graveyard effect, this guy prevents all your zombies from being destroyed via Card Effect. Raigeki and Dark Hole are typically outs to your Shogunsaga, and Mirror Force dunks on you without him out, so he's pretty valuable protection.

• 1x Revived King Ha Des - This guy lets you dunk on Kozmos and BA by making it so that any monster destroyed by battle with a Zombie is banished instead of going to the graveyard EDIT: Has it's effects negated in the graveyard. This prevents things like Ship floats, Beatrice and Dante graveyard effects, etc etc. He's a hilarious card that comes in Ulti, so definitely have him somewhere in there.

• 2x Psy-Framelord Omega - Another way for you to passively recover banished cards, this guy recovers Mezuki and everything else. Being level 8 makes Masked Chameleon an easy way to make him, and his disruptive effect of banishing cards in your opponent's hand is annoying as hell. He's pricey, and Samuraisaga also recovers materials, so honestly if you're budget locked, you can sub him out for other Level 8s like Scrap Dragon.

• 1x Black Rose Dragon - ALLAHU AKBAR. Reset the field state by nuking the field. Now usually this card is pretty equal in terms of penalty on either side of the field, but if you have Archfiend Zombie-Skull up with Zombie World, you can essentially save ALL your monsters, including itself, from it's destruction. Against non-Kozmo decks, this usually means some serious damage, so Black Rose is a viable play offensively in this deck. Potentially bumped to 2.

• 1x Clear Wing Syncho Dragon - I love this card, you love this card, we ALL love this card. Protects your Synchros from being targeted (which, between Smith and Archfiend Zombie-Skull, makes your field nearly indestructible) and negates the effects of your opponent's Monarchs and such.

• 1x Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer - Remember when this card was like almost $20? Well there's a good reason for it. This threat-spinner is a wonderful staple for budget decks, but honestly this guy is most likely to get cut in this deck in favor of other cards like Heartland Draco mostly because you have Spiritmaster and other forms of removal.

• 1x Abyss Dweller - Nobody likes playing against graveyard effects. If you don't have Ha Des or a boosted Samurai up, this card helps immensely.

• 1x Traptrix Rafflesia - If you don't open into tuners, and can't search one out, you make this. Amazingly intimidating, and easily made with Spiritmaster or Synthesis.

SIDE DECK (15)

• 3x Chain Disappearance - Anti-Monarchs and slightly anti-BA (banishing all Scarms and Farfas is kinda fun, and you can banish Dante for lols).

• 3x Flying "C" - Old but Gold. Prevents BA from XYZ Summoning and nukes their BA cards if they don't have Rhino up. Also stops PK Fire.

• 1x Soul Drain - Slows down BA ridiculously. Unsure if it works on Kozmo Ships (I know it doesn't on Pilots), but if it does, more power to you. Also stops PK Fire hard.

• 3x System Down - I hate Kozmo ships, and this card is a saving grace when you're facing down two Dark Destroyers and a Forerunner.

• 1x Zombie World, 1x Terraforming - Mostly for the Monarch matchup.

• 1x Drifting Ghost and Winter Blossom - I know this card is OCG until SHIV, but it is SO good. A level 3 Zombie Tuner that also can be discarded to wipe a staple from a player's Extra Deck.

• 1x Dante, Traveller of the Burning Abyss and Phantom Knights of the Break Sword - For use with Winter Blossom to incite cancer and tears.

Any help with consistency and EXPLOSIVENESS is appreciated, and thanks for reading.

EDIT: Adjusted numbers. 2 Goblin Zombie, 1 SSSS (Trap), -1 Smith. Looking into Jewels of the Valiant, and playtesting out consistency suggestions from /u/hopefullyhelpfulplz