Deck Learning 101: Ft. Spirit Beasts

[Arc V Yuto]

SPIRIT BEASTS

Hello everyone and welcome to my post on learning Spirit Beasts for this current meta game of Yugioh. If your tired of having to deal with the current meta or just sick and tired of playing meta all day or if you are in search of something viable to play that has a lot of comboing to it then this is the guide for you. I myself have been playing Spirit Beasts since July of 2015 and have enjoyed the deck ever since. The deck list from before has changed a ton due to changes in meta picks or ban list hits to the deck in general but the general play style has not changed since day one and it is a rude play style at that.

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HISTORY LESSON

Spirit Beasts are a Fusion based deck first released in Secrets of Eternity (TCG) with 2 cards, those cards being Spiritual Beast Rampengu and Ritual Beast Ambush. The set with the release of the mass of their support would be The Secret Forces (TCG) when they were rather pushed aside by the most popular deck from that set being Nekroz.  Spirit Beasts recieved another round of support in the set Crossed Souls (TCG) when they received Zefra Pendulum monsters along with a new boss monster fusion that would outshine the prior boss monster of Spirit Beasts. The most recent amount of support of Spirit Beasts would be in Raging Tempest (OCG) with the release of a new monster and a new spell.

Spirit Beasts are what they are refereed to in the OCG while their official name in the TCG would be Ritual Beasts. (I call them Spirit Beasts because I believe it sounds better) Spirit Beast playstyle is one of control and aggression being able to pull off big combos with searching everything and turning those resources into things to be used against the opponent. Spirit Beasts also have an OTK with having two Ulti-Apelio's and Ritual Beast Bonds you can easily push past 8000 damage in one turn.

Spirit Beasts have never been known as a top deck in other regions such as the OCG and Europe when it was at full strength but it was shown countless tops in the TCG being able to go head to head with Nekroz which it had a fair matchup against while it struggled vs other backrow/control decks such as Qliphort and Burning Abyss. After it's hits Spirit Beasts have been no where to be seen as the deck is considered by many dead and un-usable now.

SMALL COMBOS

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All about this guy^

Here are some in depth small combos of have you to can make a board that can be threatening to all.

The main way Canahawk works and your able to search by only returning one to the grave is you choose two to return to grave to get the search then you chain the un-contact effect targeting one that you are returning to the grave and one other that you aren't. EX. I have Ritual Beast Tamer Wen, Elder, and Spirtual Beast Canahawk Banished, I activate Ulti-Canahawk search effect targeting both of my tamers as soon as it allows me to chain I chain the un-contacting effect targeting one of my tamers and the Canahawk, the chain resolves I get my two monsters on the board and a search. (Win Win)  

Combo 1: Opening any combination of Elder + Canahawk/Rampengu can guarantee you two searches (Preferably Steeds and Ambush)  but doesn't allow you to un-contact which could cause problems if the opponent Raigeki's you or is able to get over your Ulti-Canahawk. (Recommended if you know exactly they have no way of getting over your monster or when Spirit Beasts had more than one Ulti-Canahawk)  

Combo 2 Spirit Beast OTK: I usually do this two people after flipping Steeds and Ambush as it is the easiest at that point as they will usually not have any monsters to get in the way. All you need is the ability to make 2 Ulti-Apelio's and having Ritual Beast Bonds in hand via Ulti-Canahawk or other ways. You contact for two Ulti-Apelios's and attack with both 2600+2600 which is 5200 then activate Bonds banishing both Ulti-Apleio's for Ulti-Gaiapelio which adds another 3200 brining our total to 8400 which is a little over game.

KEY INFORMATION

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A couple things that you need to keep in mind when playing this deck is knowing that you are trying to combo which means you have to know when you are able to effectively combo off while having little troubles with the opponent which is why this deck particularly likes going first always. Being able to set up a board before the opponent is always nice and if you open well you can blow out the opponent usually.

Keep in mind that all the Spiritual Beast monsters including the tamers can only be Special Summoned once per turn. Don't forget this as it can lead to you possibly cheating and that is never good. To add on to this each of the Spiritual Beast monsters effects can only be used once per turn but this can be dealt with as if the monster is to leave the board via a contact fusion or other ways it's effect can be used again as those effects aren't tied to the card when it leaves the board.

Be sure to side deck, this is a deck where you can be destroyed very easily in harsh matchups such as other backrow decks that may be more consistent than yours and opened better. Since it's a combo deck and you try to get to your combo as fast as possible one would think you can't side deck well without destroying access to your combo. This is not the case with Spirit Beasts as they can play aggressive with their fusions or passive so don't be afraid to side deck cards in that help you as they don't hurt going for your combo if you can live to make it later.

This deck is quite prone to bricking as you want to open a Tamer respectively Elder and a Spiritual Beast such as Rampengu or Canahawk to enable a starting combo.

Deck list!

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3: Ritual Beast Tamer Elder
2: Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda (Shadow's favorite)
1: Ritual Beast Tamer Wen
1: Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica
1: Ritual Beast Tamer Lara

This would be the Tamer count, my build focuses on cycling through this guys and not so much utilizing their summon effects except turn one or two when I'll usually game the opponent. The tamers also help for a grind game with the opponent except Elder most of the time. I am still testing Winda a little switching from 2 to 1 sometimes but decided to keep it at two as it benefits the deck all around being counted as a Tamer and a Beast.

3: Spiritual Beast Rampengu
3: Spiritual Beast Canahawk
2: Spiritual Beast Apelio
1: Spiritual Beast Pettlephin

Very very standard Spiritual Beast lineup as Rampengu in my opinion is the best one now closely followed by Canahawk for enabling your combos. Pettlephin is mainly good at getting rid of annoying things in your way such as a mysterious back row your opponent has that could possibly be a Mirror Force. And Apelio helps maintain a helthy amount of banished resources to help you get through the game.

2: Max "C"

Would play 3 but Konami says no to that so we will stick with two as it's a excellent card vs the current meta game and helps you gain advantage and possibly get out of brick hands.

2: Ritual Beasts's Return (One thing is this card to me doesn't seem to have a ton of uses but can be used to get to combos if you open a Canahawk and no Tamer)

2: Twin Twisters (Helps deal with pesky back row and can open up Lara/Pilica plays turn one as well as Wen if you have D Fissure up or Macro Cosmos)

1: Ritual Beast's Bonds (Only used to enable and go for the OTK)

1: Dimensional Fissure (Helps deal with the meta and benefits your deck a lot)

1: Emergency Teleport (Blaming Kozmo for this hit to one, used to get a Tamer straight from the deck but that Tamer counts as being Special Summoned for the turn so beware of usage)

3: Ritual Beast Steeds (Best removal ever, doesn't target goes great with Macro and D Fissure)

2: Ritual Beast Ambush (Very interesting choice on my part as I always kept this at 3 but recently I feel as if this card at 3 causes brick hands and you usually only need one to go off to win let alone a second for getting yourself back into the game, still all around a great card)

2: Dimension Barrier (Good card helps you win some match ups turn one after setting up, not really fair at all except vs Kozmo when they could careless about this card)

2: Solemn Strike (No need to explain just more unfair cards that can be used)

2: Burying Mirror Force (Helps deal with your opponents possible floodgate monsters and also allows you to stall to get combo pieces)

1: Solemn Warning (Best trap in the game, why not run it?)

1: Macro Cosmos (Same reason and Dimensional Fissure)

1: Vanity Emptiness (Good floodgate, helps secure games, also amazing with Macro Cosmos as this card won't be destroyed as nothing with be hitting the graveyard)

Extra Deck:

1: Ritual Beast Ulti-Canahawk (Enables looping and lots of searching, why one? Because Konami hates us all)

3: Ritual Beast Ulti-Apelio (Need 3 no less no more)

3: Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio (Big beater, get him out easier with Winda and Bonds. If summoned the normal way very very huge problem to deal with)

2: Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin (Anyone call for some defense?)

1: Number 39: Utopia
1: S39: Utopia the Lightning

1: Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer

1: Lightning Chidori  

1: Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss (See side deck to know why)
1: ABC-Dragon Buster (See side deck to know why)

SIDE DECK:

3: Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju

2 Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries

3: System Down

1: Twin Twisters

1: Raigeki

2: Dark Hole

3 Anti-Spell Fragrance

In all I love this deck a ton and think it can be a great deck if learned and put into the right hands, I hope you all enjoyed this guide on playing Spirit Beasts and hope if you played or play this deck you learned something new about it. If there is another deck you would like me to cover leave a post and I will see what I can do.

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[Earth Guardian (Zolfo)]

im not gonna lie, i kinda wanna try the deck out... but it take a lot longer then your average duelist to master its playing style. Quite frankly, i just don't have the time nor the patience to learn such a complexed deck.

It was a good read, plz make more like this. I will enjoy every piece of them

[Zaio Volnutt]

I would suggest taking out 1 system down as once RATE comes to TCG ABC will be losing coverage easily. I would honesrly suggest to chip in a 2nd dimensional barrier tbh.

[mimgrim]

Its a nifty little guide in terms of teaching some of the basics of Ritual Beasts, but I have a few disagreements with the decklist.

First off all 2 Winda is too much. The general effect is neat but is too slow to go off, I would def run only 1 solely for the extra name and that's it. In return, Ambush should be played at 3.

Thirdly you are missing a super duper important card in the deck that recently got unlimited. Gold Sarcophagus. This card should really be a considered a must have in any RB deck. Period. You talk about how combo centric this deck is and this card opens up those combos even more. Open up Elder + Hawk + Gold Sarco? That's like one of the best hands ever and even though its a 3 card combo you still break even at the very least (Iirc, I'm pretty sure you can at least get that much but I think its possible to get more out of it if you do it right). Hell, Pengu + Dprison + Gold Sarc is like almost as good, was just as good back when ulti-hawk was at 3 but I digress (and oh boy back when Ulti-Hawl was at 3 don't even get me started on Elder + Pengu + Dprison + Gold Sarc, hoo boy, and hell even back then Elder + Pengu + Sarc was also hella good). Basically Gold Sarc increases the combo tree of RBs by a ton and it can lead to soooo many cool things Hell, it even has more synergy now due to the new spell card RBs have.

That being said with Ulti-Hawk limited it hurts their consistency a lot by limiting what Pengu can accomplish now, which makes their brickiness worse then what it already was. I mean it still fun doing their combos but without the reliability of Pengu plays with Ulti-Hawk and Canahawk it just makes the deck's already apparent problem worse and it ends up making it less fun for me.

Still one of my all time fave decks though, especially when Ulti-Hawk was at 3.

[Arc V Yuto]

Its a nifty little guide in terms of teaching some of the basics of Ritual Beasts, but I have a few disagreements with the decklist.

First off all 2 Winda is too much. The general effect is neat but is too slow to go off, I would def run only 1 solely for the extra name and that's it. In return, Ambush should be played at 3.

Thirdly you are missing a super duper important card in the deck that recently got unlimited. Gold Sarcophagus. This card should really be a considered a must have in any RB deck. Period. You talk about how combo centric this deck is and this card opens up those combos even more. Open up Elder + Hawk + Gold Sarco? That's like one of the best hands ever and even though its a 3 card combo you still break even at the very least (Iirc, I'm pretty sure you can at least get that much but I think its possible to get more out of it if you do it right). Hell, Pengu + Dprison + Gold Sarc is like almost as good, was just as good back when ulti-hawk was at 3 but I digress (and oh boy back when Ulti-Hawl was at 3 don't even get me started on Elder + Pengu + Dprison + Gold Sarc, hoo boy, and hell even back then Elder + Pengu + Sarc was also hella good). Basically Gold Sarc increases the combo tree of RBs by a ton and it can lead to soooo many cool things Hell, it even has more synergy now due to the new spell card RBs have.

That being said with Ulti-Hawk limited it hurts their consistency a lot by limiting what Pengu can accomplish now, which makes their brickiness worse then what it already was.  I mean it still fun doing their combos but without the reliability of Pengu plays with Ulti-Hawk and Canahawk it just makes the deck's already apparent problem worse and it ends up making it less fun for me.

Still one of my all time fave decks though, especially when Ulti-Hawk was at 3.

I have reasons as to running the choices I do as this is not meant to be a fun version more so a competitive view of the deck as to combat the meta the best. Ambush doesn't help in multiples when the opponent will only give you a couple of turns to live and opening Ambush doesn't go into more combo pieces thus adds to more brick hands. The reason I've chosen not to run Gold Sarcophagus is through testing I found it wasn't worth running since I couldn't and wouldn't be utilizing Wen's eff to special summon and would rarely have access to the Ritual Beast's Return. Although this is a good option I need something to go off turn one or turn two and vouched these options that I have to be better for a early game but not a later game which Gold Sarc can apply. The ratios of Winda are something I have been messing around with a ton as the card does seem rather useless as it has no immediate effect but having the ability to substitute any Spirit Beast or Tamer is nice as well as allowing for easier rank 4 plays. I will still be tankering around with Ratios. Thanks for the suggestions

[mimgrim]

The thing is Gold Sarc does help in the early game a ton. But you need to look at is more then just what it base effect says, don't think of it as a searcher that gets you a card two turns later, think of it as a combo piece that gets you a card you need banished right now. And look at it in more of a context then Wen.

Even ignoring the great combos it can preform due to them require like 3 cards there are a ton of small combos we can apply as well. You already mentioned Wen + Gold Sarc which is one of them but there is also Gold Sarc + Bond. And there are so many other combos with it as well.

So don't think of it as a card that only helps later in the game by being a glorified search of whatever but rather being a huge plus in the combo department by increasing the combo tree by a lot and getting more out of them, and if you can open the combo pieces early game all the better.

Besides, RBs can't really be made to compete with the meta in that way due to their natural brickiness and they end up becoming like a 25/75 deck in the process (because even assuming they get the stuff they want they still gonna be in for a hard time regardless against the meta). The better route to take would to be and make it to where they can survive for more then a few turns against the meta by giving them more anti-meta/stall stuff, aim to live out longer rather then beat them sooner as RBs can't really do the latter all the consistency against the meta because of both power creep and brickiness.

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