The Lost Millennium introduced us to the elemental charmers. Each of these ladies held mastery over an element, and used it to wield control over any monster with that elemental attribute. By using their power, a player could nab an opponent’s monster with the vulnerable attribute and use it against the opponent.

Cybernetic Revolution introduces us to another of their talents—the spiritual arts. Each of these spiritual arts can be a useful tool for their respective charmer, or for any deck that focuses on a specific element. This week, we’ll examine each of the Spiritual Art cards. I’ll detail how they’re played and explain any rules problems that they may have. I’ll also give you a few combos to try out.

Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane

“No, that one wasn’t right. Time for a substitution.”—Aussa

The Earth attribute is well-known for having physically strong monsters, like  and Berserk Gorilla. It also has a large selection of monsters with useful effects, like Exiled Force, Pyramid Turtle, and Fiber Jar. Warrior and Beast decks also tend to run a solid selection of Earth monsters pulled from various expansions.

For these decks, and for Aussa, we have Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane.

“Tribute 1 EARTH monster on your side of the field. Special Summon 1 level 4 or lower EARTH monster from your Graveyard, except the Tributed monster.”

You begin by tributing one Earth monster on your side of the field as a cost to activate the effect. After paying the cost, declare a level 4 or lower Earth monster in your graveyard as the target for the Spiritual Art’s effect. The monster you target cannot be the monster you tributed to pay the cost, as Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane specifically says that this is not allowed.

If I tribute Goblin Attack Force to pay the cost for this card, I can choose any Earth monster in my graveyard that’s level 4 or lower, as long as I don’t choose the exact same Goblin Attack Force that I tributed to pay the cost. Any other copies of Goblin Attack Force that I already have in my graveyard are fair game—I just can’t grab the same one that I tributed.

When the effect resolves, the Earth monster that I targeted is special summoned from the graveyard onto the field in the battle position of my choice. Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane functions in the support role of substitution. If you have one Earth monster on the field that’s inadequate for the current situation, you can replace it with another low-level Earth monster that seems better suited to the task at hand.

Look back to my example that included Goblin Attack Force. When your Goblin Attack Force attacks, it will be switched to defense position after the battle phase ends. With its 0 DEF, this leaves the Attack Force in a very vulnerable position. But by using Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane, I can tribute the expended Goblin Attack Force and replace it with another, less vulnerable Earth monster from my graveyard. You could even replace the tributed Goblin Attack Force with its new brethren, Goblin Elite Attack Force.

Here’s another neat trick. Begin by attacking with an Earth monster you control. After the attack is finished, use Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane to tribute the Earth monster that attacked and bring out another low-level Earth monster from your graveyard. Then, finish up by attacking with your newly special-summoned monster! That’s quite a one-two punch!

You could even use Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane to tribute a Sheep token, because this tribute is used to pay the cost of an effect and not for a summon. Your weak little Sheep token could quickly become a much stronger monster, all thanks to Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane.

Spiritual Water Art – Aoi

“I think you lost something!”—Aria

Spiritual Water Art – Aoi reads, “Tribute 1 Water monster on your side of the field. Look at your opponent’s hand, select 1 card from it, and send that card to the Graveyard.”

The Water theme isn’t known for its discard effects, so Spiritual Water Art – Aoi shows a new type of strategy. Now you can use Abyss Soldier to return an opponent’s card on the field to the hand, and then follow up with Spiritual Water Art – Aoi to make him or her discard that card.

First, tribute a Water monster on your side of the field to pay the Spiritual Art’s activation cost. When the effect resolves, look at your opponent’s hand, choose the card that he or she will discard, and then wave it goodbye as it takes its voyage to the graveyard. It’s a pretty simple effect to follow.

This Spiritual Art is also good with other Water attribute combinations. Consider the monster card Lekunga from Invasion of Chaos. You can use its effect to remove Water monsters in your graveyard from the game in order to special summon “Lekunga tokens” to the field. These “Lekunga tokens” are also Water monsters, and that makes them a valid choice to pay the cost for Spiritual Water Art – Aoi. This method will allow you to safeguard your monsters on the field and instead use Lekunga’s effect to generate the Water monster to pay for the Spiritual Art.

You can also accomplish this task through the use of Scapegoat. Normally the Sheep tokens start out as Earth monsters, but with the help of DNA Transplant, they’ll become the Water monsters that you’ll need to pay for the Spiritual Art. Or, you can forget about the Sheep tokens and just use Water monsters with an ATK of 1500 or less. By using Water monsters with such low ATK values, you can return them to your hand with Salvage and overcome the cost that was expended.

Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai

“Hmph! Not even a challenge.”—Hiita

Over the years of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, the Fire monsters followed a gradual path toward effects that inflicted damage directly to a player, or “burn damage” for short. Lava Golem was the first monster to usher in the age of Fire-based burn damage, followed later by good companions, like Solar Flare Dragon, Ultimate Baseball Kid, and Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. Now the Fire-based burn damage strategy takes another big step forward with the power of Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai.

“Tribute 1 Fire monster on your side of the field. Inflict damage to your opponent’s Life Points equal to the original ATK of the Tributed monster.”

Begin by tributing a Fire monster on your side of the field to pay the Spiritual Art’s activation cost. When the effect resolves, you’ll inflict damage based on the original ATK of the tributed monster. This value is normally the ATK that’s printed on the card, so be sure to refer to the monster you tributed when you’re determining how much damage you’ll inflict to your opponent.

This card can work very well in an aggressive Fire deck. Rise of Destiny brought us the strong level 4 Fire monster Gaia Soul the Combustible Collective. With its 2000 original ATK and its piercing-attack effect, you’re already set-up to inflict a big chunk of damage, but it also has the added ability that lets you tribute other Fire monsters to make Gaia Soul more powerful. However, Gaia Soul has a weakness—at the end of the turn, it will be destroyed.

We know when we use Gaia Soul that it will not survive beyond the turn. What can we do with it before this happens? We can use Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai and tribute Gaia Soul to pay its cost! With an original ATK of 2000, we’ll be inflicting 2000 points of damage to the opponent. That’s one-quarter of his or her starting life points gone from a single effect!

2000 may be good, but we can do better. How about inflicting 3000 points instead? We can do this by using Lava Golem. Begin the process by tributing two of your opponent’s monsters to summon Lava Golem to the opponent’s side of the field. Then, use a card to take control of Lava Golem, like Brain Control from The Lost Millennium. Finally, tribute Lava Golem to pay the activation cost of Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai. With an original ATK of 3000, we’ll be inflicting 3000 points of damage to our opponent.

Some Stall-Burn builds that use Solar Flare Dragon and Lava Golem will fall victim to an opposing Creature Swap, which can turn the tide. With Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai, the Stall-Burn player can successfully defend against the opponent’s plan by tributing Solar Flare Dragon before the opponent can claim it, or tributing Lava Golem after they’ve received it from the opponent. The additional damage inflicted will make it all worthwhile.

Spiritual Wind Art – Miyabi

“Umm . . . I think that . . . maybe . . .  you should sit this one out.”—Wynn

Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, from Flaming Eternity, made a strong point of taking an opponent’s card from the field and returning it to the top of the deck. The powers of Wind took note of this, and decided to move it in another direction.

Spiritual Wind Art – Miyabi reads, “Tribute 1 WIND monster on your side of the field. Select 1 card on your opponent’s side of the field, and return it to the bottom of the owner’s Deck.”

First, tribute one Wind monster on your side of the field to pay the activation cost. Then, choose a target on your opponent’s side of the field. When the effect resolves, the fearsome gale will blow the targeted opponent’s card straight to the bottom of its owner’s deck. You opponent will have some fun trying to get that card back again.

But this Spiritual Art isn’t without its problems. If you use its effect to target an opponent’s face-down trap card or quick-play spell card, they might activate that card in response. If they do, your problems will just be starting.

If the card you target is a normal trap card, a counter trap card, or a quick-play spell card, and the opponent activates it, the card will not return to the bottom of the deck. Only trap cards and spell cards that remain on the field, like continuous trap cards or a trap card like Metalmorph that equips to a monster, will return to the bottom of the opponent’s deck. Remember that Phoenix Wing Wind Blast shares the same problem, so be careful when you choose your target!

Until next week, send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com.