by Any Yugioh! player knows that Monster Cards have a Type – Warrior, Dragon, Fairy, Pyro, etc. – but some monsters also have a unique Ability, too! A monster’s Ability, if it has one, is listed right next to its Type (with the exception of Special Summon). These Abilities are Toon, Gemini, Tuner, Union, Flip, and Spirit! Let’s take a closer look at Yugioh Spirit Monsters and see what sets them apart from other monsters!
Ability
As mentioned, some monsters have an Ability that sets them apart from other monsters. Monsters with the “Spirit” Ability all share the same unique effect in addition to their own effects. All Spirit Monsters share this effect: “During the End Phase of the turn this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: Return it to the hand.” This means Sprit Monsters do not stay on the Field for very long. Like an ethereal presence, these monsters fade away and cannot be pinned down. This might sound like a huge drawback, but many Spirit Monsters have strong effects to make up for this, like Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi or Yata-Garasu.
Niche Effects
Though many Spirit Monsters have powerful effects, they often only fit into very niche strategies. Even the notorious Yata-Garasu, which was used to lock out the opponent from their Normal Draw, only really works in its own tactic. Even so, Yata-Garasu remained on the banlist for many, many years. Other examples of niche Spirit Monsters include Amano-Iwato, Inaba White Rabbit, and Amaterasu. Because of their return-to-the-hand drawback, Spirit Monsters never really became very popular, and there are very few of them compared to other Ability monsters. Much of the support for Spirit Monsters, like Mirror of Yata, are aimed at removing this drawback rather than capitalizing on it.
Spirit Archetypes
There are relatively few Spirit Monsters in Yugioh! And while there are a few archetypes that have one or maybe two Spirit Monsters in their archetype, like Ice Barrier and Gishki, there is really only one Spirit archetype: Shinobird. And it’s a Ritual-focused deck! This archetype works because of how its two boss monsters work. Shinobaron Peacock and Shinobaroness Peacock both have effects that return multiple cards your opponent controls to their hand, allowing you to clear their board. Then, when returned to the hand, they each Special Summon tokens to help defend yourself.
Konami never leaves stones unturned for too long. Even though Spirit Monsters are not popular or very viable right now, their could make a comeback! Try using Spirit Monsters in your next deck and see what they can do!
