In front of us we see a pure Spirit Deck which plays many different Spirit Monsters as options. Let me explain a bit more in Detail how these legendary creatures from Japan work:
Help me I'm a Spirit!
Spirits like Union or Tuner is a undergroup of effect Monsters which is very small to this very day and lacked suppport until recently. Spirit Monsters general rules with a few exceptions are that they cannot be Special Summoned and they return to the Owner's Hand during the End Phase of the turn they are summoned or flipped face up.
Sounds terrible but imagine a Card which says Discard the opponents whole Hand or Draw until you have 5 Cards in Hand. Spirit effects are strong and can be reused every turn while hiding behind defensive tools they have. That's what makes them strong. So let's look at our different Options we play now.
The many different Options
To gain access to your many options at any time Aratama is the key card to use. Pot of Duality is a must play too, since you almost use no special Summons in this Deck. The big 4: Sword Emperor - Tsumuhakutsunagi, Amaterasu, Hino-Kago-Tsuchi and Yamata Dragon are to be played carefully when the situation allows. Thanks to the new Sakitama they can be more easily summoned turn 1 and combined with Nikitama you get all invested Ressources back too.
Amano Iwato and Yata Garasu have lockdown capabilitys which makes them nice options too. It's very good to use Izanagi or Konohanasakuya to keep Amano Iwato or the Big 4 on the field.
Spring of Rebirth at 3 looks strange at first sight but let me explain. You can indeed Chainblock the effect of Spirit's Invitation with the Spring of Rebirth since both are Mandatory triggers. Spirit's Invitation's current errata is a bit of a Mystery. The OCG and Master Duel too already got the updated text which forces the opponent to select one of his Monsters to return to his Hand instead of you. This effect ignores almost any kind of protection making it a strong Tower Removal.
Inbetween the Spirit World
The many other small Spirit Monsters all have useful applications in various Situations making them interesting to use. The 2 one tribute Removal Spirits Dark Dust Spirit and Fenghuang are perfect to be looped over and over again to gain massive Advantage over the opponent. Same goes for Rasetsu and Yaksha but in a much smaller scale.
Yamato no Kami is an additional summon every Turn with build in S & T removal. Asura Priest can remove whole Boards of Weak Monsters. Tsukuyomi is Semi Removal and can flip your own Spirits Face Down again, especially nice with Amaterasu combined. Maharaghi can manipulate your Draw every turn to Draw the right cards, Izanami can recycle Spirits every turn and set up the GY and Inaba White Rabbit can slowly poke away the opponents LP while hiding behind cards like Invitation, Spring or Salvation.
Final Words
Overall this deck can surprise the unprepared opponent and win out of nowhere. Against strong offensive Decks it's difficult to keep up with this slower Control Strategy but it certainly works most of the time if played right.
The new Level 11 Sword Emperor Spirit Boss Monster alone brings this Deck back into the well deserved Spotlight and it's very capable dealing with difficult Boardstates thanks to many options available at any time. Lastly Sakitama was the last missing piece to bring this Strategy back into serious Deckbuilding Area.
Give it a try and summon some Spirits from ancient Japan upon your opponent!
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆☆
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