Spirit Deck

Spirit monsters have a side effect, they return to their controllers hand during the turn they are normal summoned, or flip face-up, and they can not be special summoned (except Yamato-no-Kami). This wording of text makes spirit monsters highly useless in the graveyard, and makes the user of the deck have a lot of cards in his/her hand. To run a proper spirit deck one must be able to have their spirit monsters on the field without sending them back to their hand.

Strategy
Spirit monsters have a wide range of effects that allow for field and hand control. The more powerful Spirit monsters can also completely devastate your opponent's hand, while also replenishing yours. Others, such as Dark Dust Spirit and Yamato-no-Kami, can completely decimate your opponent's field. And if these two monsters happened to be destroyed in the process, Izanami helps put these cards back to your hand, allowing these to be used again. Her effect can even be used on the opponents turn if she was set and flipped face-up.

Spirit monsters are characterized by their effect of returning to the hand when the turn is up, thus it can be quite hard to keep field presence. However there are ways around this. Due to the wording on Spirit monsters, they only have to activate their effects during the turn they are summoned. Mirror of Yata, Interdimensional Matter Transporter, and even the field card, Future Visions can help in this respect, as they cause the spirit monster to skip over the end phase, thus avoiding returning to the hand. Interdimensional Matter Transporter can also help existing spirit monsters to avoid spells and trap cards that would otherwise destroy them. Since you are likely to run into field presence problems anyways, removing the monster for a turn shouldn't pose much of a problem. Using Future Visions can be an advantage to you as well, seeing as your opponent's monster that are Normal Summoned are also removed from the field for a turn. Spiritual Energy Settlement Machine should NOT be used, as it forces you to discard cards from your hand and may cause you to loose field presence altogether if you cannot meet it's requirements. Another tempting combination is Susa Soldier with Skill Drain. Forbidden Chalice is a quick-play spell card to help bypass the End Phase by negating your Spirit Monster's effect (just like Skill Drain but just for a turn) as well as giving them a slight attack boost. Note that these two cards render the entire point of spirit monsters moot, as their effects are what make spirit monsters so powerful. However, you can use Skill Drain when you summon a massive amount of Spirit monsters (via Ultimate Offering), and then destroy Skill Drain when your turn is up, or you can take the safer route by using Forbidden Chalice without losing the effect entirely. Since the end phase of the turn the monsters were summoned is past, Spirit monsters no longer need to activate their effects and permanently remain on the field.

However, you may not want your spirit monsters on the field. Due to returning to the hand, Spirit monsters are afforded some immunity to spell and trap cards of your opponent. Inaba White Rabbit can be used to greatly annoy your opponent. While 700 lifepoints doesn't seem like a lot per turn, when your opponent has no way of stopping the little bunny from harassing them, the damage does add up. If you combine it with Metal Reflect Slime, this can prove to be quite an effective and annoying tactic. Spirit monsters also return to YOUR hand, thus you can use them with Creature Swap. This way you permanently gain control of your opponent's monster, while the one he gets returns to your hand. Another useful card that can be used with Spirits (most preferably Fairy Type spirits) can be the level 3 Tuner - Herald of Orange Light. As your fairy type spirits like Asura Priest, Izanami, or the spirit support monster Izanagi, remain in your hand, you can utilize Herald or Orange Light's effect of negating an opponents devastating effect from Judgment Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, or simply an effect that could be a negative impact on yourself. Its effect is great but it being a Tuner helps all the more, however with you having issues lacking monsters on the field it may be difficult bringing this monster to its full potential.

To combat the field presence problem, you can use trap monsters. These cards also double as surprise defense, and are more easily summoned than conventional defensive monsters. Their trap nature means that they will survive most field-clearing spell cards, such as Lightning Vortex, and lure your opponent into a false sense of security. This is especially true for Metal Reflect Slime, as it has a whopping 3000 defense, easily able to deter any conventional attackers. In a pinch, they can also be used as tribute fodder. Another option would be Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, because even with a once per turn restriction it is enough for making up for your monsters' field presence. Gorz the Emissary of Darkness can also help, as you will likely possess no monsters, and simply use up whatever spell and trap cards you have left. With a massive 2700 attack, Gorz is nothing to laugh at. Kuriboh can also help a lot.

On the subject of Tributes, high level spirit monsters run into the problem of tributes. While it's also a normal issue for any deck running tributers, spirit monsters return to the owner's hands, thus the tributes are wasted if they do so. One way around this problem is the aforementioned technique to keep them on the field. Another is to use Mausoleum of the Emperor. This field card allows you to replace tributes with lifepoints. Although the price is steep (2000 points for each two-tributer and 1000 for each one-tributer), the results can often be devastating. This also makes the summoning of high level spirit monsters extremely easy, as well as allow you to combo with one of the above techniques to keep spirit monsters on the field.

Note that with the monsters returning to your hand, you are more than likely to start discarding within your first 3 turns. Infinite Cards can resolve this problem, thus it's recommended to have 2 copies of this card.

Another good spirit strategy (if you are using scrap iron scarecrow and/or cards such as Marshmallon to protect your lifepoints) is to use the dark door or Kaiser Colosseum. This keeps your opponent from summoning more monsters than you have on the field. Also, the dark door, especially if coupled with scrap iron scarecrow can really protect your lifepoints.

Important

 * Many effects that are used in Spirit Decks (for example Mausoleum of the Emperor) have a high Life Point cost, cards like Spring of Rebirth or Draining Shield help you to alleviate it.


 * Often your field will be empty, thus cards that protect your Life Points (for example Gorz the Emissary of Darkness or Threatening Roar) are highly recommended.

Spirit Monsters

 * Asura Priest
 * Dark Dust Spirit
 * Fushi No Tori
 * Great Long Nose
 * Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi
 * Inaba White Rabbit
 * Izanami
 * Maharaghi
 * Yamata Dragon
 * Yamato-no-Kami
 * Yata-Garasu (Traditional Format only)

Other Monsters

 * Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
 * Tragoedia
 * Battle Fader
 * Cyber Dragon
 * Izanagi
 * Sangan
 * Spirit Reaper
 * The Tricky
 * Neo-Spacian Glow Moss

Spells

 * Book of Moon
 * Creature Swap
 * Mirror of Yata
 * Orb of Yasaka
 * Scapegoat
 * Spring of Rebirth
 * Swords of Revealing Light
 * Sword of Kusanagi
 * Monster Reincarnation
 * Future Visions
 * Forbidden Chalice
 * Mystic Box
 * Ectoplasmer

Traps

 * Spirit's Invitation
 * Royal Oppression
 * Metal Reflect Slime or Zoma the Spirit
 * Waboku
 * Threatening Roar
 * Compulsory Evacuation Device
 * Legacy of Yata-Garasu
 * Ultimate Offering
 * Interdimensional Matter Transporter
 * Gorgon's Eye (for keeping spirit monsters on the field)