Ritual Beast

Ritual Beast
"Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio", "Ritual Beast Tamer Lara", "Ritual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi" and "Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica"
Japanese	霊（れい）獣（じゅう） 霊獣 (base) れいじゅう (ruby) Reijū (romanized) Spirit Beast (translated)
French	Bête Spirituelle Spiritual Beast (translated)
German	Geistungeheuer Spirit Beast (translated)
Italian	Bestia Spirito Spirit Beast (translated)
Korean	령수 靈獸 (Hanja) Ryeongsu (romanized) Sprite Beast (translated)
Portuguese	Besta Espiritual Spiritual Beast (translated)
Spanish	Espíritu Bestia Beast Spirit (translated)
Sets Booster SP: Tribe Force Secrets of Eternity The Secret Forces Crossed Souls Raging Tempest
Lists	Members Support

"Ritual Beast", known as "Spirit Beast" (霊（れい）獣（じゅう） Reijū) in the OCG and "Spiritual Beast" in other TCG languages, is an archetype of WIND monsters (with the exception of "Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio" which is a LIGHT monster) that debuted in Booster SP: Tribe Force. The emphasis of their strategy is Contact Fusion, by banishing the materials you control. This archetype includes the sub-archetypes "Ritual Beast Tamer", comprised by humanoid Psychic-Type monsters, "Spiritual Beast", whose members are Beast, Pyro, Aqua and Thunder-Type beast-like creatures, and "Ritual Beast Ulti-", which are the Fusion Monsters of the archetype as a whole.

This archetype seems to be the remnants/successor of the "Gusto" archetype in the Duel Terminal Storyline, as "Ritual Beast Tamer Elder" is a grown-up "Kamui, Hope of Gusto". Their team symbol is a sphere encircled by four-pointed star (different style for each pair), which shaped similarly as the crest of the "Gusto", further reinforcing the connection between them. In addition, the artwork of the cards features the coiled foliage seen in many "Naturia" cards, implying that these monsters may inhabit the "Naturia Forest". This connection is cemented by the art of "Ulti-Gaiapelio", which depicts "Naturia Gaiastrio" as part of a "Ritual Beast" pair. The Fusion monsters of the archetype also serve as a throwback to the original "Gem-Knight" Fusion Monsters, forming the same Pyro - Aqua - Thunder trinity (albeit in WIND as opposed to EARTH and with the exception of "Ulti-Gaiapelio", which is LIGHT/Psychic).

Below is the list of the original members of the archetype and how they are related with each other.

Spiritual Beast	Ritual Beast Tamer	Ritual Beast Ulti-
Apelio	Lara	Ritual Beast Ulti-Apelio
Cannahawk	Elder (Kamui)	Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk
Pettlephin	Wen	Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin
Apelio + Naturia Gaiastrio	Lara	Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio

Names in the TCG

In French, Italian and Portuguese, the archetype is called "Spiritual Beast", since the implied "Ritual/Spiritual" pun wouldn't work in those languages due to the backward word orders. For example, in French, if "Ritual Beast" were to translate to "Bête Rituelle" and "Spiritual Beast" to "Bête Spirituelle" instead, the "Spiritual Beast" archetype would then be split from "Ritual Beast", or the whole card text wording would be unnecessarily complicated. As for German, the word "Geist" ("ghost; spirit") appears to be the most common but it seems too short and not to be able to bear such a pun.

Lore

The Spiritual Beast have dwelt on this world since time immemorial and possess mystical powers. They live together with the Ritual Beast Tamers, and together both man and beast combine their powers together to try and prevent any disaster that comes their way.

Playing style

Each of the "Ritual Beast Tamer" monsters have a tendency of swarming the Field (with the exception of "Ritual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi"), in order to ease their Contact Fusion, either by Special Summoning one of the banished or deceased "Ritual Beast" monsters, allowing an extra Normal Summon, or even Summoning monster from the Deck or Extra Deck.

On the other hand, the "Spiritual Beast" monsters banish 1 "Ritual Beast" card from the Hand, Deck, Graveyard, or Extra Deck in order to get rid of problematic opposing cards, search for a card on the long run, give a power boost, or setting up combos, respectively.

Each of the Main Deck monsters also shares a restriction that only allows them to be Special Summoned once per turn.

The original "Ritual Beast Ulti-" Fusion Monsters are all Level 6 and their ATK and DEF have a sum of 3000. They have effects that are somehow related to their ATK and DEF stats:

• "Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin" bears a solid DEF and a passive effect that gives it immunity against destruction effects.

• "Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk" has medium ATK and DEF and features a supportive effect that gives its owner card advantage by returning banished "Ritual Beast" cards to the Graveyard in order to search for resources;

• "Ritual Beast Ulti-Apelio" has a high ATK and offensive effect that renders it immune to any effect while it is attacking;

• "Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio" is the strongest among the "Ritual Beast Ulti-" monsters, with Level 10, 3200 ATK and an omnipotent effect that can negate the activation of any card or effect, putting heavy pressure on the opponent and preventing them from counterattacking; however, it has a more difficult Summoning requirement.

In addition, with the exception of "Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio", all of them share the following effect:

"During either player's turn: You can return this card you control to the Extra Deck, then target 2 of your banished monsters (1 "Ritual Beast Tamer" monster and 1 "Spiritual Beast" monster); Special Summon them in Defense Position."

This ace effect is one of their biggest strength; by utilizing it, they can dodge most dangerous cards, such as "Bottomless Trap Hole", "Number 101: Silent Honor ARK", "Scrap Dragon", etc. This ability also allows the player to utilize certain "Once per turn" effects multiple times per turn (mostly "Spiritual Beast" monsters and "Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk"), effectively accumulating massive resources, enabling many combos, and often, leads into OTK in just a few turns.

The archetype also has a pair of Pendulum Monsters, "Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica" and "Ritual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi", with Pendulum Scales of 1 and 7 respectively, allowing the Deck to Pendulum Summon.

Due to the Limitation of "Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk" by the November 2015 Lists in TCG, the deck's major play becomes even riskier than usual, and somewhat suffers a consistency hit, but still quite powerful.

Recommended cards

Recommended cards

Main Deck Monster Cards Effect Monsters Ritual Beast Tamer Elder Ritual Beast Tamer Lara Ritual Beast Tamer Wen Spiritual Beast Apelio Spiritual Beast Cannahawk Spiritual Beast Pettlephin Spiritual Beast Rampengu Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda Tuner monsters Genex Ally Birdman Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit Effect Veiler Pendulum Monsters Ritual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica Archfiend Eccentrick Spell Cards Ritual Beast's Bond Ritual Beast's Promised Return Dimensional Fissure Emergency Teleport Foolish Burial Gold Sarcophagus Pot of Avidity Terraforming Oracle of Zefra Brain Research Lab Chicken Game (OCG only) Quill Pen of Gulldos Instant Fusion (if using "Norden") Trap Cards Ritual Beast Ambush Ritual Beast Steeds Macro Cosmos Starlight Road Extra Deck Fusion Monsters Ritual Beast Ulti-Apelio Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin Elder Entity Norden Thousand-Eyes Restrict Xyz Monsters Daigusto Phoenix Sky Cavalry Centaurea Herald of Pure Light Totem Bird Leviair the Sea Dragon Super Quantal Mech Beast Grampulse The Phantom Knights of Break Sword Lightning Chidori Daigusto Emeral Constellar Ptolemy M7

Weaknesses

• "Imperial Iron Wall", "Chaos Hunter" and "Artifact Lancea" prevents cards from being banished, preventing their Contact Fusion and most of their effects.
• As all of their effects activates on the field, "Skill Drain" can be a nuisance for this deck. It won't stop them from conducting Contact Fusion or de-fusing, but does shut down the search effect of "Ulti-Cannahawk" (without its de-fuse trick), or most of its Main Deck monsters.
  • However, this can also benefit "Ulti-Apelio" in some way, since without its immunity effect, it can gain ATK boosts from "Spiritual Beast Apelio", allowing it to destroy bigger monster in battle.

• Due to their "de-fusing" capability, most targeting effects are particularly ineffective against them. But it still won't save them from cards like "Artifact Moralltach", "Madolche Queen Tiaramisu", "Nekroz of Trishula" or even the opposing "Ritual Beast Steeds". Effect negation or destruction negation effect are particularly important against those threats.
• "Denko Sekka", "Royal Decree", or "Trap Stun" can shut down both "Ritual Beast Steeds" and "Ritual Beast Ambush", which most Ritual Beast decks depends on to secure field presences. "Denko Sekka" is the most dangerous of them all, since its Continuous Effect doesn't leave any chance for player to respond with on-field cards at all; but can still be stopped by either hand traps like "Effect Veiler", or Counter Traps like "Solemn Warning" or "Chaos Trap Hole".
• Counter Trap Cards that can negate Special Summons can effectively disrupt the deck's major play, since not even the de-fuse abilities of "Ritual Beast Ulti" monsters can dodge it. Negating the Summon of "Ulti-Cannahawk", in particular, can almost completely paralyze the deck. To stop them, cards like "Wiretap" or "Trap Stun" (activated beforehand) can be useful. Spell/Trap destruction cards such as "Mystical Space Typhoon", "Night Beam" or "Twin Twisters" can also helpful against these threats.

Trivia

• This archetype's Contact Fusion style is similar to that of VWXYZ monsters, albeit with the ability to freely reverse the fusions.
  • Their constant "tagging out" mechanic between their Main Deck monsters and Fusion monsters is also similar to Gladiator Beast archetype, albeit without specific named materials on their Fusion Monster.
• All monsters in this archetype have their formal names derived (in whole or in part) from Ainu, the only remaining (though nearly extinct itself) language of the ethnic group of the same name. This language was also featured on members of the "Gusto" archetype– most notably "Kamui, Hope of Gusto", whose name comes from the Ainu word for "deity".