Ahh...readers hello once again from the depths of Indiana! After a great tourney this weekend (which I won, more on that later) and hanging out with my girlfriend I have begun my article on how to run a Spirit deck, as you've seen from the title. For a long time, there have been only two Spirits worth running, and only one qualifies for mainstream decks now. We all know her; Tsukuyomi the Goat Control Queen. The other, commonly used in Ojama Trio FTKs, is Asura Priest, who, is actually a beast should you play him/her/it right. In the next section, we'll look over what Spirits will and will not help the deck become competitive casually.

            Here is a brief identifcation of the current group of Spirit Monsters around:

LOD-000 Yata-Garasu
Fiend/Wind/Spirit/3/200/100
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that it is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points, your opponent skips his/her next Draw Phase.

LOD-064 Maharaghi
Rock/Earth/Spirit/4/1200/1700
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. If this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up, see 1 card on the top of your Deck during your next Draw Phase before you draw, and return the card to the top or the bottom of your Deck.

LOD-065 Inaba White Rabbit
Beast/Earth/Spirit/2/700/500
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. This monster attacks your opponent's Life Points directly.

LOD-066 Susa Soldier
Thunder/Earth/Spirit/4/2000/1600
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. The Battle Damage this card inflicts to your opponent's Life Points is halved.

LOD-067 Yamata Dragon
Dragon/Fire/Spirit/7/2600/3100
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points, draw cards from your Deck until you have 5 cards in your hand.

LOD-068 Great Long Nose
Beast-Warrior/Dark/Spirit/5/1900/1700
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. If this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points, your opponent skips his/her next Battle Phase.

LOD-069 Otohime
Spellcaster/Light/Spirit/3/0/100
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. If this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up, you can change the battle position of 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field.

LOD-070 Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi
Pyro/Fire/Spirit/8/2800/2900
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. If this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points, your opponent must discard all cards in his/her hand during the next Draw Phase before they draw.

LOD-071 Asura Priest
Fairy/Light/Spirit/4/1700/1200
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. This card can attack all monsters on your opponent's side of the field. You cannot attack your opponent directly if you attack any monsters first.

LOD-072 Fushi No Tori
Winged-Beast/Fire/Spirit/4/1200/0
This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points, increase your Life Points by an amount equal to the Battle Damage.

DCR-075
Tsukuyomi
(Dark/Spellcaster/4/1100/1400)
Spirit: This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner’s hand during the End Phase of the turn that it is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or flipped face-up. When this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or flipped face-up, flip 1 face-up monster on the field into face-down Defense Position.

            Ahhh so for the most part, there they are. Some we will be using, some we will not. I'll tell you right now Fushi No Tori doesn't seem like my style or where the direction of this deck will be going. Anyways, more so, notice this line in the text of ALL Spirit monsters:

This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or flipped face-up.

            That my friends, drives people away, it takes away field presense and takes away advantage. So, how do you conquer this problem? Simple, you must be creative, and work with your versatility skills. Here is a simple, and very effective way to control your opponent from ever taking advantage of your Spirits.

Spirit Reaper+Kaiser Colosseum

If you have no idea what Colosseum does, here is the effect:

MFC-031 Kaiser Colosseum
Continous Spell Card - Common
When there is 1 or more monster on the field of the controller of this card, his/her opponent cannot place a monster on the field if the opponent would then have more monster on the field then the controller of this card.

            Ah, VERY fun to use with Spirits, and no opponent sees it coming. This not only helps you control the field, but it gives you the chance to hit with Spirits and you can rest assured that they'll be safe. Reaper is an inpenitrable wall (outside of Trample) who works amazing with Spirits. Now, we're going to look at what Spirits we should, and should not run in this deck.

SPIRITS TO USE: Tsukuyomi, Asura Priest, Otohime, Inaba White Rabbit, and should you want to, fit in Yamata Dragon, although I don't recommend him.

            We're going to use Tsukuyomi for the obvious reasons: Control and Flip Reuseability. She's the bane of many decks out there, and in here she'll get more creative on her motives. Asura Priest his a multistriking beatstick, so whats not to love? Your opponent has 4 Goats, Asura attacks, now they have none. Simple. Otohime is one very very underrated Spirit, although her powers aren't on par with Tsukuyomi's, she can still drop a Berserk Gorilla dead in its tracks. Inaba White Rabbit is a sassy little burner monster that suprisingly works well offensively and in a Burn deck alike.

So, your Monster line-up for this deck would be:

Tribute Monsters: 2
Jinzo
Airknight Parshath

Level 4 or Lower: 15

1 x Sangan
1 x Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 x Morphing Jar
2 x Otohime OR 1 x Otohime and 1 x Yamata Dragon
2 x Asura Priest
2 x Tsukuyomi
2 x Magician of Faith
2 x Inaba White Rabbit/2 x Night Assailant
2 x Spirit Reaper

The Magic and Trap section would be as usual, with a tad bit of adjustments.

Magic/Spells: 19

1 x Pot of Greed
1 x Graceful Charity
1 x Delinquent Duo
1 x Heavy Storm
1 x Snatch Steal
2 x Nobleman of Crossout
2 x Kaiser Colosseum
2 x Smashing Ground
1 x Mystical Space Typhoon
1 x Spring of Rebirth [abuse those Spirits = )]/ 1 x Spititual Energy Settling Machine
2 x Creature Swap (these are g0dly in Spirits)
2 x Scapegoat
1 x Enemy Controller
1 x Swords of Revealing Light

Traps:6

1 x Torrential Tribute
1 x Mirror Force
1 x Call of the Haunted
1 x Ring of Destruction
2 x Compulsory Evacuation Device/2 x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

            So my friends, you have the Spirit deck constructed. Hope you enjoyed this lengthy article, it was fun. By the way, if any of you readers ever want to meet me I'm in CJ's Carshop every Saturday from 1 til 5. I encourage you to stop by and say hello, I'm always up for meeting readers. Have fun with this deck you guys, it works in different variations but I have found associating bounce mechanics to it works best. Enjoy guys and keep the decks coming!                                                                                                                                            WiCkEd