New Support for Spirit Decks (Written)

[Charlelot]

Hey everyone,
 
Since I started playing Yu-Gi-Oh, I've always been facinated with Spirit monsters. Their unique artworks combined with their strange set of effects always seemed to make them stand out in my eyes. Sadly, the years have not been kind to the archetype (if you can even call it that). Although cards have been released periodically to support Spirit monster, it was never quite enough to make the deck competite. For the longest time, I've struggled to imagine a series of cards that could work as a standalone archetype as well as a support for the existing cards. This is the result of my work. Have a look and tell me what you think.
 
Note: This is an updated version of a previous topic I've posted. I decided to publish this again due to significant changes to my previous work.

 

[spoiler=Monster Cards:]

Spirit Avatar of the Traveler

Level 4 LIGHT Warrior/Spirit/Effect

ATK 1800 DEF 1000

During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned, return it to its owner’s hand. If this card is banished; you can add 1 "Spirit Avatar" monster from your deck to your hand except ‘’Spirit Avatar of the Traveler’’. During either player’s turn, while you have no face-up monsters or control only Spirit monsters, when your opponent activates a Trap Card: you can banish this card from your hand and 1 Spirit from your deck, and if you do, negate that activation. You can only use each effects of "Spirit Avatar of the Traveler" once per turn.

 

Spirit Avatar of the Temptress

Level 4 FIRE Psychic/Spirit/Effect

ATK 1000 DEF 1200

During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned, return it to its owner’s hand. If this card is banished; you can Special Summon 1 of your banished level 4 or lower Spirit monster except ‘’Spirit Avatar of the Temptress’’. During either player’s turn, while you have no face-up monsters or control only Spirit monsters, when your opponent activates a Spell Card: you can banish this card from your hand and 1 Spirit from your deck, and if you do, negate that activation. You can only use each effects of "Spirit Avatar of the Temptress" once per turn.

 

Spirit Avatar of the Outsider

Level 4 DARK Spellcaster/Spirit/Effect

ATK 1500 DEF 1500

During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned, return it to its owner’s hand. During your Main Phase, while you have no face-up monsters on the field or control only Spirit monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. During either player’s turn, while you have no face-up monsters or control only Spirit monsters, when your opponent activates a monster effect: you can banish this card from your hand and 1 Spirit from your deck, and if you do, negate that activation. You can only use each effects of "Spirit Avatar of the Outsider" once per turn. 

 

Spirit Avatar of the Leviathan

Level 4 WATER Fish/Spirit/Effect

ATK 100 DEF 2100

During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned, return it to its owner’s hand. If this card is Summoned; you can Special Summon 1 level 4 or lower Spirit monster from your hand. If this card is banished, you can destroy 1 face-up card on the field. You can only use each effects of "Spirit Avatar of the Leviathan" once per turn.

 

Spirit Avatar of the Great Swarm

LV 4 EARTH Beast/Spirit/Effect

ATK 900 DEF 1200

During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned, return it to its owner’s hand. Once per turn, if this card is banished; you can add 1 "Spirit" Trap Card from your deck to your hand. When an opponent’s monster declares a direct attack: you can Special Summon this card from your hand; negate the attack then end the Battle Phase (Quick Effect). If this card is Special Summoned this way, it does not return to the hand during the End Phase and it cannot be used as Xyz Material for an Xyz Summon except for the Xyz Summon of a Spirit monster.

 

Spirit Avatar of the Philosopher

Level 4 WIND Reptile/Spirit/Effect

ATK 1200 DEF 1600

During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned, return it to its owner’s hand. During your Main Phase, if this card is currently banished, you can pay 500 LP and banish 1 Spirit monster from your hand or field; Special Summon this card. If this card is banished; you can add 1 "Spirit" Spell Card from your deck to your hand. You can only use each effects of "Spirit Avatar of the Philosopher" once per turn. 

 

[spoiler=Spell Cards:]

Temple of the Spirits

Field Spell Card

There are no limits to the number of cards in player’s hands. During your Main Phase, you can banish 1 Spirit monster from your hand or deck; you can add 1 of your banished Spirit monster with a different name to your hand. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY, you can banish this card from your GY; if your opponent controls more cards than you do, special summon 1 level 5 or higher Spirit monster from your hand, deck or GY ignoring its effect. You can only use each effects of ''Temple of the Spirits'' once per turn.

 

Yata Garasu's Gift to the Spirit Avatar

Normal Spell Card

Reveal 1 Spirit monster from your field or hand; reveal the top 3 cards of your deck, add 1 of them to your hand, banish 1 and return 1 to the top of your deck. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY, you can banish this card from your GY; shuffle 3 of your banished Spirit monsters to the deck, then you can draw 1 card. You can only use each effects of ''Yata-Garasu's Gift to the Spirit Avatars'' once per turn.

 

Rank-Up-Magic Spiritual Providence

Normal Spell Card

Target 1 Spirit Xyz monster you control. Special Summon 1 Spirit Xyz from your Extra Deck that is 4 Ranks higher than that target, by using that target as the Xyz Material (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to that target also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster). During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY, if you control no monster, you can banish this card from your GY; Xyz Summon 1 Spirit Xyz from your Extra Deck using up to 3 of your banished ''Spirit Avatar'' monsters as Material. If you activate this effect, you cannot Summon any other monsters this turn except Spirit monsters. You can only use each effects of ''Rank-Up-Magic Spiritual Providence'' once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Trap Cards:]

Pact with the Underworld Spirits

Continuous Trap Card

During either player’s turn, you can send 1 Spirit monster from your field or hand to the GY; target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; banish it, face down. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY, you can banish this card from your GY; select 1 of your banished ''Spirit'' Spell or Trap Card except "Pact with the Underworld Spirits'' and send it to your GY.

 

Accord with the Earthly Spirits

Continuous Trap Card

During either player’s turn, you can activate one of the following effects:

·         Banish up to 3 Spirit monster(s) from your hand or GY; gain 300 LP for each card.

·         Destroy 1 face-up card you control.

If your opponent declares a direct attack, you can banish this card from your GY; switch all Attack Position monsters your opponent controls to Defense Position. You can only use each effects of ‘’Accord with the Earthly Spirits’’ once per turn.

 

Communion with the Guardian Spirits

Continuous Trap Card

Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can Special Summon 1 level 4 ''Spirit Avatar'' from your hand or that was banished. If this face-up card is destroyed, return every face-up monster(s) you control to its owner’s hand. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY, if you control no monsters, you can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon up to 3 of your banished level 4 ''Spirit Avatar''. Their effects are negated. If you activate this effect this turn, you cannot Special Summon except Spirit monsters and you cannot conduct your Battle Phase.

 

[spoiler=Extra Deck]

Great Spirit of the Vengeful Hurricane

Rank 12 WATER Wyrm/Xyz/Effect

ATK 4000 DEF 3500

This card is always treated as a Spirit monster. This card can only be Special Summoned by the effect of ''Rank-Up-Magic Spiritual Providence'' and cannot be Summoned any other way. This card is unaffected by other card effects. If this card attacks, negate the activation of any card effect that would change the original ATK and/or DEF of a face-up monster and destroy it. During your End phase, you can detach all Xyz Material from this card; banish every other card on the field. During your opponent’s next End Phase after you activated this effect; banish this card.

 

Spirit Avatar of the Burning Shadow

Rank 8 FIRE Dragon/Xyz/Effect

ATK 3000 DEF 2800

2 Level 8 Spirit monsters.

This card is always treated as a Spirit monster. This card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. Once per turn, during your Main Phase, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroy every Special Summoned monster your opponent controls. This card cannot attack on the turn you activate this effect. If this card destroys a monster by battle, inflict half of that monster's original ATK to your opponent's LP.

 

Spirit Avatar of the Lone Hunter

Rank 4 EARTH Beast/Xyz/Effect

ATK 2500 DEF 2200

3 level 4 monsters.

This card is always treated as a Spirit monster. You can only Xyz summon this card by using at least 1 ‘’Spirit Avatar’’ as Material. While this card is face-up on the field, Spirit monsters you control cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. Also, Spirit monsters you control inflict piercing damage to your opponent when they destroy a Defense Position monster by battle. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroy 1 card on the field.

 

Spirit Avatar of the Northwind Gale

Rank 4 WIND Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect

ATK 2200 DEF 1800

2 level 4 ‘’Spirit Avatar’’ monsters.

This card is always treated as a Spirit monster. While this card is face-up on the field, both players can only Special Summon once per turn. Other face-up "Spirit Avatar" monsters you control gain 300 ATK and DEF. During either player's turn, if this card would be destroyed by battle or by a card effect, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card instead.

[Dova]

As I have often said and will definitely say again, I always like alternate mechanics. Haven't visited Spirits in a while, so let's dive right in!

 

The first thing of note is the fact that unlike the almost entirety of Spirits, these cards not only CAN be Special Summoned, but their effects also compensate for this. It really bugs me, even if it is a form of buffing them, because these cards don't really feel like the clunky yet lovable Spirit monsters I have grown to love, and which Konami actually made some decent cards for. This is just a flavour nitpick, something I don't really talk about, but it would be difficult to change the archetype now, so...onwards.

 

Outsider, Traveler, and Temptress are decent handtraps, foreshadowing an interesting banishing mechanic. My only issue here is the potential Temptress/Traveler combo as a lockdown engine in Decks; If you run 3 of each, Temptress will always grant you a Spell Negation, and Traveler will always grant you a Monster Negation, and the best part of this is the fact that when you activate this, if you always do 1 Temptress + 1 Traveler, you get a Summon and you get to search another one. First point of order: Prevent Traveler from searching himself by name, and prevent Temptress from Summoning herself by name. Otherwise...I dunno, because your restriction on only controlling Spirit monsters/no face-up monsters sort of limits the handtrap potential in splashing, and yet in defensive decks like PSYFrame and Shinobirds, this could very easily get one of them banned in the meta.

 

Leviathan, Philosopher, and Swarm, on the other hand, are rather interesting, and actually really support the archetype without being massively dangerous. You have your searching, your popping, your swarming, and your protection. I like these better than the first 3.

 

The Spells/Traps emphasize the point that generic point for a subtype is great...unless there are semi-decent archetypes already made for them. While fine for 2016, now we have the aforementioned Shinobird. However, I think Temple and the rest get away with it, as they deal a lot with banishing. Speaking of Temple, it provides a use for the higher Level Spirits, so...hooray! Gift is a sort of double search/draw, so bonus points there. I'll discuss the RUM with the Xyzs, but Balance is sort of...unnecessary? It lets you Synchro, but this archetype, and Spirits in general, aren't really fast enough to merit Synchroing, especially without a Tuner already. Level modulating is nice, I guess, but again, not good enough to be run.

 

Pact is decent, allowing for recycling and HARD banishing. Accord is incredibly less useful; unless I missed something, I don't see why one would want to destroy one of their own monsters. Banish, maybe, but LP gain is also not very good. The GY effect is good, but still not worth running the card. Communion provides your swarming (still not enough for Balance), both in the GY and outside. Can you explain Gateway to me, though? The wording is confusing, and I'm not sure I understand anything other than it can Summon a token. The EMZ restriction seems annoying though; if your opponent grabs one of the EMZs, then you can't do anything about it.

 

The Xyz are all great, I think. I would prefer it if Lone Hunter, rather than a material restriction on its Summon, instead restricted some of its own effects based on its material. However, why are these Spirits? The Shinobird Rituals are Spirit monsters because they return to the hand, and have nomi clauses, but what makes these Spirits? It just seems to be Normal Xyzs made Spirits so that they get Spirit support bonuses, and I don't like handwaving. And as such, I would suggest just not making them Spirits. They don't need the Extra Support, and therefore have the RUM only work on an Xyz with a Spirit monster as a material(s).

 

Quite a few flavour issues, and sort of hit and miss when it comes to strength, but a part of me that is not completely offended by said issues rather likes the creative route you took on these cards. They may not be exactly Spirits, but they remind me of Shiranui. I'd say a decent job, and it shouldn't be too hard to fix the problems I've mentioned, if you do agree with me on those points.

[Charlelot]

As I have often said and will definitely say again, I always like alternate mechanics. Haven't visited Spirits in a while, so let's dive right in!

 

The first thing of note is the fact that unlike the almost entirety of Spirits, these cards not only CAN be Special Summoned, but their effects also compensate for this. It really bugs me, even if it is a form of buffing them, because these cards don't really feel like the clunky yet lovable Spirit monsters I have grown to love, and which Konami actually made some decent cards for. This is just a flavour nitpick, something I don't really talk about, but it would be difficult to change the archetype now, so...onwards.

 

Outsider, Traveler, and Temptress are decent handtraps, foreshadowing an interesting banishing mechanic. My only issue here is the potential Temptress/Traveler combo as a lockdown engine in Decks; If you run 3 of each, Temptress will always grant you a Spell Negation, and Traveler will always grant you a Monster Negation, and the best part of this is the fact that when you activate this, if you always do 1 Temptress + 1 Traveler, you get a Summon and you get to search another one. First point of order: Prevent Traveler from searching himself by name, and prevent Temptress from Summoning herself by name. Otherwise...I dunno, because your restriction on only controlling Spirit monsters/no face-up monsters sort of limits the handtrap potential in splashing, and yet in defensive decks like PSYFrame and Shinobirds, this could very easily get one of them banned in the meta.

 

Leviathan, Philosopher, and Swarm, on the other hand, are rather interesting, and actually really support the archetype without being massively dangerous. You have your searching, your popping, your swarming, and your protection. I like these better than the first 3.

 

The Spells/Traps emphasize the point that generic point for a subtype is great...unless there are semi-decent archetypes already made for them. While fine for 2016, now we have the aforementioned Shinobird. However, I think Temple and the rest get away with it, as they deal a lot with banishing. Speaking of Temple, it provides a use for the higher Level Spirits, so...hooray! Gift is a sort of double search/draw, so bonus points there. I'll discuss the RUM with the Xyzs, but Balance is sort of...unnecessary? It lets you Synchro, but this archetype, and Spirits in general, aren't really fast enough to merit Synchroing, especially without a Tuner already. Level modulating is nice, I guess, but again, not good enough to be run.

 

Pact is decent, allowing for recycling and HARD banishing. Accord is incredibly less useful; unless I missed something, I don't see why one would want to destroy one of their own monsters. Banish, maybe, but LP gain is also not very good. The GY effect is good, but still not worth running the card. Communion provides your swarming (still not enough for Balance), both in the GY and outside. Can you explain Gateway to me, though? The wording is confusing, and I'm not sure I understand anything other than it can Summon a token. The EMZ restriction seems annoying though; if your opponent grabs one of the EMZs, then you can't do anything about it.

 

The Xyz are all great, I think. I would prefer it if Lone Hunter, rather than a material restriction on its Summon, instead restricted some of its own effects based on its material. However, why are these Spirits? The Shinobird Rituals are Spirit monsters because they return to the hand, and have nomi clauses, but what makes these Spirits? It just seems to be Normal Xyzs made Spirits so that they get Spirit support bonuses, and I don't like handwaving. And as such, I would suggest just not making them Spirits. They don't need the Extra Support, and therefore have the RUM only work on an Xyz with a Spirit monster as a material(s).

 

Quite a few flavour issues, and sort of hit and miss when it comes to strength, but a part of me that is not completely offended by said issues rather likes the creative route you took on these cards. They may not be exactly Spirits, but they remind me of Shiranui. I'd say a decent job, and it shouldn't be too hard to fix the problems I've mentioned, if you do agree with me on those points.

 

Hey there,

Once again, I thank you for your wise counsel. Since you exposed your thoughts in great detail, I feel it is my duty to respond in kind by clarifying the design choices I previously made. I too really like the old school Spirit monsters but I believe that they are way too slow and inconvenient for today’s metagame. I tested the Shinobird archetype when it was released and I was left really frustrated by the results. I came to the conclusion that the No Special Summon clause was really holding the archetype back. Although, I admit that I felt more comfortable doing this since Izanagi and the Shinobird Rituals (witch both have SS mechanics) were already introduced by Konami. Now for the individual cards:

 

Traveler, Temptress and Outsider: Well, you got me there my friend. It was my mistake. I never realized that those cards could be used for a loop. As you can imagine, I’ve made the necessary adjustments. Although, I do believe that the hand trap mechanic of these cards is pretty well balanced since it requires having a sufficient number of Spirit monsters in the deck. I really don’t see how any hybrid deck could abuse these effects.

 

Accord: That card was meant to act as a permanent ‘’Fairy Tail Snow’’, allowing the player to banish their Spirit monsters (and activate their effects) during either player’s turn. The destruction effect gives the players the chance to get rid of troublesome cards on their side of the field (every Trap Cards are continuous, so they can get cloggy), prevent the destruction of Communion by an opponent card effect and set up some Spell/Trap Cards from the field to the graveyard during the opponent’s turn (since their second effect is activated in the grave). The LP boost wasn’t necessary, but I thought it added something a little something to the card.

 

Balance and Gateway: Once again that’s my bad. Those two aren’t supposed to be in there. Like I wrote in the intro, I’ve invented this archetype years ago and have just returned to it. So I’ve experimented with different types of Summoning mechanics and alternative ways to make the deck work better in the LINK era. So, including these cards here was a mistake on my part. That being said, you were curious about Gateway. I admit, it may be my weirdest creation yet. I wanted it to work like a universal LINK monster that would allow the player to Summon any Xyz Spirit from his Extra Deck without being limited link arrows. Basically, if there was a free Extra Monster Zone, the player could Summon Gateway as an Xyz monster on that zone (a bit like a Paleozoic card).

 

The Extra Deck: After Konami broke their rules by introducing Rituals/Spirit monsters, I didn’t think it was a big deal to create Spirits Xyz but, after thinking about it for a while, I can see your point. I think I’ve remedied this situation in a way that makes us both happy and without adding more text to the RUM (there so much text on there I don’t even know if it would actually fit on a card).

 

As always, if you have any more comments about the changes I make, feel free to contact me again.