Shiranui Spiritmaster

Just as fundamentally important to the Shiranui theme as Solitaire, Shiranui Spiritmaster is the swiss army knife of fire zombies, especially now that Gold Sarc is back at 3.

Getting Spiritmaster going early is the crucial second step to the success of Shiranui. Get Solitaire on the field is priority number 1, but then it should be all about Spiritmaster, ideally for the rest of the duel. Because while his normal summon ability is fantastic and his effect when banished is even better, what makes him superb is when he’s already banished. The reason is because of how the Shiranui theme works to begin with thanks to cards like Solitaire and Spectralsword. For instance, let’s say you have an already-banished Spiritmaster thanks to Swallow’s Slash, Gold Sarc, or Reincarnation (OCG). Well then normal summon another one, special summon Solitaire, tribute to summon Scapeghost, use Solitaire’s effect to summon the banished Spiritmaster, and now you have an easy Trishula. And since Spiritmaster and Solitaire are your main targets to banish, they serve as food for Reincarnation to draw. And there’s something really important to note there: Solitaire appears to be tailor-made for Spiritmaster due to that banishing effect when it’s the target of his normal summon effect. All sorts of shenanigans can be had with the combo.

Now, the Shiranui theme by itself is missing maybe one strong piece to be tier 1, but the engine of Solitaire and Spiritmaster has been thrown into many decks with great success. Shiranui Speedroid can topple any top deck at the moment, as the ban list was not favorable to a lot of the former powerhouses. And zombie hybrids using cards like Fairy Tail – Snow are also seeing great success. Plus, let’s not forget that ABC isn’t nearly as strong against Shiranui as many other themes. Banishing only enhances them.

I can’t say enough about Spiritmaster when Gold Sarc is at 3. It’s critical to understand how much it benefited from that change. Just one Sarc lets you pop any card on the field at any time while giving you an initial field to start your plays. And if you happen not to move Spiritmaster during the next turn, you get to add him to you hand during the standby phase after that. This isn’t even mentioning the fact you’re thinning your deck by up to 3 cards. Zombies are getting a lot of new support and they have a superb foundation and a solid, splashable engine in Shiranui. Spiritmaster will be a key card in the coming years.

Advanced: 4.5/5

Future Potential: 4.5/5

• Slightly below average stats.
• Effect only works on Normal Summon, which is fine but it doesn't benefit from cards like Zombie Master and Book of Life
• Special Summoning a monster from your hand is not very useful, but from the graveyard, yes.
• Since it requires a monster from the graveyard, it's often a dead draw on turn 1.
• Since Shiranui monsters banish themselves, this card might not get much better late game.
• It does help replace itself by destroying a face-up card, but in the Pendulum era, that might not be enough.
• It's a good card for its deck, since it's a +1, but it's not really an above average card.

2.5/5

You know what I decided? Revival effects are really good. Shiranui Spiritmaster is a Level 4 Fire Zombie-type monster with 1500 Atk and 0 Def. Shiranui is a great engine, and this card is absolutely essential. The stats are a staple of the archetype and are hardly worth mentioning all week. It needs to be called Shiranui to be Shiranui, and then 0 Def is a trait of many Zombies. Zombies have very good generic support which is what makes the deck consistent. What makes this monster great are the very useful effects.
 
The hard once per turn effect of Shiranui Spiritmaster is that when it's banished from anywhere, you can target and destroy one face up opponent's card. I know I usually have a problem with cards that target and destroy, but in this case an exception can be made only because as a non boss monster, the utility of the effect can be relied upon to at least destroy a card every turn. The Normal Summon effect is the main reason to run so many Shiranui Spiritmaster. You get to Special Summon any Shiranui monster except itself from the hand or grave. No once per turn, no level restrictions, and no cost. Just Normal Summon and gain advantage. Then, If the Special Summoned monster leaves the field, it is banished which would help because then other Shiranui effects would activate. Two great effects on an easy to summon monster in an archetype that gets great indirect support means a very good score. 
 
Score: 4/5
Art: 4/5
 
-WarlockBlitz