Good news for Ghostrick fans out there! An interesting 4-card wave was just announced in Battle of Chaos after quite some time of radio silence. Today we'll be reviewing the new cards and providing some insights on how you could build Ghostrick in the modern era.
One cool thing is that there are multiple variants to work with! All of them certainly have their ups and downs, and play differently to each version. As a result, there's a lot of options to choose from. Without further ado, let's get our spooky on and join the festival!

Everyone's Here!

The aptly named Ghostrick Festival is an interesting Link-1, bringing a whole slew of effects to the table. It's the first-ever Link monster that can be summoned by using a face-down monster as material, thematic to the deck. Allowing Ghostrick monsters to attack directly while you control one of their fields is a nice touch. The real kicker though of course is its ability to tag out into any Ghostrick from the Deck! This significantly boosts the deck's speed and lets you be lenient with your ratios.
Being a Link monster also opens up possibilities for the deck. Parallel Exceed is an aspiring choice, as it even lets you make Ghostrick Angel of Mischief! That cheeky Rank 4 toolboxes your entire S/T arsenal, so keep an eye out on her.
From your Field Spells that you run and the spooky Trap cards, there's a couple of choices to work with. Renovation is a recent addition to the arsenal that's a doozy! It gets you to any Field and lets you do a bunch of XYZ plays with its GY effect.
Dogmatika Ghostrick is now a half-decent option moving forward! Every Ghostrick monster gets you to Festival which then turns on your Ecclesias and whatnot. One interaction that the variant abuses is with Nadir Servant and Dogmatika Punishment with the Xyz monsters! Alucard's GY effect shines here, as you can recover any Ghostrick card in the GY.
A common play would be to add back the monster you just used for Festival! Some aspiring duelists are sending Apkallone to then dump Shaddoll Hound, triggering Ghostricks when flipped.
Leaning more on Level 1s and Fairy (more on this later) is a fair choice, as they work well when recycled and combo with the Link. Run at least 2 copies! Pure can also max it out.

Still Warrants Testing

Ghostrick Siren and Trick or Treat are interesting, to say the least. These two aren't completely terrible, but they are awkward to work with and can often be middling. Still, there are some merits to considering them. Siren is the first level 4 Ghostrick, which leads to believe that other level 4s will be created soon. Its effects aren't bad, but the RNG needed to pull it off makes it quite cumbersome. Still, you are able to get it off Festival and maybe get some mills going. Not being able to get both effects Is also unfortunate.
Trick or Treat is definitely a gimmicky card, but some people are arguing it can be a source of consistent damage, something that the deck has been lacking for years on end. However, it can often feel like a do-nothing due to its conditions. All of the other variants of the strategy are able to shore up the lack of damage one way or another.
If considering running either, 1 copy is fine for each since the deck can grab it whenever.

Shot at Greatness

Ghostrick Shot is one of the best support cards printed for the archetype and demands to be talked about. Being able to search a card off Mischief that immediately does something is unprecedented. The usage and power of Shot depend on which variant you decide to play, but it's quite welcome in each of them regardless.
Shot lets you recur back Ghostrick monsters from the GY or summon ones from the hand, while also letting you flip a face-down up for more utility. Pure likes the flip-up aspect, as you can benefit from multiple effect triggers. The big appeal of Shot though lies in this particular play.
Any access to Dullahan or Alucard makes this possible!
Summon any of them onto the field, then overlay into Angel of Mischief! Mischief then detaches the Xyz monster to add Ghostrick Shot to your hand. Activate Shot to revive the detached monster and then stack the second Angel of Mischief. You can opt to search for a second S/T such as Renovation if you wish. If you do, the detached Ghostrick Xyz will add you back the Shot to your hand.
You can then overlay into Utopic Future using both angels, and then ladder up into Utopic Draco Future! Not only that, you get to have Shot next turn to revive Alucard or Dullahan and then Shot's GY effect to give them material in order to use their effects. You can even make a third angel on top of it to search for more Ghostrick stuff!
What this means is that a Ghostrick engine now becomes possible for decks that can afford the main and extra deck slots! It's definitely worth looking into! And actual Ghostrick players can still make use of the tools provided to them as well, even more so since Angel searches are a lot more beneficial.
Ghostrick Fairy in particular is a great enabler of Socuteboss, while also being potent in both Pure and Dogma! If you link away Fairy for Festival, when they attack Festival you can bring out another Fairy. That copy will then revive the initial Fairy, which can then also revive the second Fairy. In addition to that, you're flipping a bunch of their cards face-down which can be devastating! Coupled with cards like Specter and Lantern, you can build up a lot of card advantage from floating. To save the fairies from being banished, making the rank 2 does the trick! This underrated card went from clunky and slow, to one of the best the deck has to offer yet.
All in all for Shot, anywhere between 1-2 copies works just fine. There are times where you wanna hard open it, but you can just grab it via Angel for the most part.

Sample Treats

There's still a lot of testing to be done, but for now, a couple of Ghostrick friends over at the r/yugioh Discord server decided to brew up something that may tickle your fancy. Special thanks to both Nocturne and Halfmiss!

The ratios in the Main or Extra Deck can easily be tweaked to one's liking, so the list is fairly customizable. Zombie World is the Field Spell of choice for Renovation, but other options do exist too. Its GY effect is nice to remember too, helping play around targeted removal or negation for Mischief and friends. In a pinch, opening a hand trap and Parallel Exceed still gets you to the Angel of Mischief. I would try to squeeze in N'tss though if possible. Backrow removal is a bit lacking for the deck as Alucard can only hit sets.

Here's a PK list that aims to make use of the new Ghostrick engine, min-maxed to just 1 garnet in Shot. Other versions such as 1-axis may also want to investigate running this package.

However, I'm sure there are some pure users out there, not to worry we have you covered too! After all, the Festival is for everyone to enjoy! Offbeat stars like Nekomusume and Scare get to shine a bit in this variant. You can also still go for UDF lines if you wish.

Conclusion

And that marks the end of our festivities for now, but the fun never ends with Ghostricks! While it won't be a meta contender as some would hope, the deck finally has some fangs bared and can go toe to toe with others in a decent manner now. No matter which way you play it, you're sure to have a good time! Which Ghostrick monster is your favorite? Mine is definitely Specter. Until next time folks!