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.

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 and Interdimensional Matter Transporter 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. 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. Note that this renders 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. 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 alot 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.

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.

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.

Recommend Cards
Spirit Monsters
 * Asura Priest
 * Dark Dust Spirit
 * Fushi No Tori
 * Great Long Nose
 * Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi
 * Inaba White Rabbit
 * Izanami
 * Kinka-byo
 * Maharaghi
 * Otohime
 * Susa Soldier
 * Tsukuyomi (Traditional Format only)
 * Yamata Dragon
 * Yamato-no-Kami
 * Yata-Garasu (Traditional Format only)

Other Monsters
 * Gorz the Emissary of Darkness (optional)
 * Cyber Dragon (optional)
 * Izanagi
 * Sangan (optional)
 * Spirit Reaper
 * The Tricky (optional)

Spells


 * Book of Moon
 * Brain Control
 * Creature Swap
 * Infinite Cards
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Mirror of Yata
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Orb of Yasaka
 * Scapegoat (optional)
 * Spiritual Energy Settle Machine
 * Spring of Rebirth
 * Swords of Revealing Light
 * Sword of Kusanagi
 * Chorus of Sanctuary
 * Monster Reincarnation

Traps


 * Dark Bribe
 * Spirit's Invitation
 * Draining Shield
 * Sakuretsu Armor
 * Mirror Force
 * Royal Oppression
 * Metal Reflect Slime or Zoma the Spirit
 * Waboku
 * Begone, Knave!
 * Ordeal of a Traveler
 * Compulsory Evacuation Device
 * Legacy of Yata-Garasu (optional)
 * Ultimate Offering
 * Interdimensional Matter Transporter

Dimensional Trap Spirits
This is a kind of Anti-Meta deck, that can lockdown your opponent's strategy by using Dimensional Fissure, and some counter trap cards for being sure that your opponent will not counter the strategy. In addition, this deck uses a lot of Trap Monsters, and Fiend's Sanctuary to make it faster.

It's based in Spirit Monsters, but basical strategy is to use them to Special Summon Izanagi and have a lot of monsters to Tribute to Summon the two highest-attack spirit monsters Yamata Dragon and Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi, and also an adittional high ATK monster Beast King Barbaros (it's a very good alternative to have one Beast King Barbaros in this Deck.

How It Works?
It can counter almost all of the most popular decks by usind Dimensional Fissure, because almost any Deck need the using of monsters in the Graveyard, with the difference that in this Deck, any monster Removed from play is important.

Most of the key cards may be hard to find in the whole Deck, but the using of cards like Card Destruction, Magical Mallet, and Reload can solve this problem.

The principal strategy is to make a lockdown with Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi's effect and Beast King Barbaros one.

Whatever, if your Beast King Barbaros is Removed from play, don't worry, there's other ways of clearing your Opponent's Field.

Recommended Cards
Monsters


 * Hino-Kagu-Tsuchix1
 * Yamata Dragonx1
 * Dark Dust Spiritx1or2
 * Beast King Barbaros
 * Izanagix2
 * Susa Soldierx1
 * Asura Priestx1
 * Izanamix1
 * Maharaghix1
 * Otohime/Fushi No Tori/Inaba White Rabbitx1

Traps


 * Embodyment of Apophisx3
 * Metal Reflect Slimex3
 * Zoma the Spiritx3
 * Bottomless Trap Holex2
 * Solemn Judgementx1
 * Dark Bribex1

Spells


 * Fiend's Sanctuary
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Giant Trunade
 * Magical Mallet
 * Card Destruction
 * Dimensional Fissure
 * Spiritualism