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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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 The Sneak Peek weekend has come and gone, and I hope everyone that went had a great time playing with the new cards. Now, it’s time to get back down to business. When you think about a circus, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Some people might say animals or acrobats, but I’d be willing to bet that most people think of clowns. That’s right, clowns. Those people who paint their faces, wear brightly colored clothing, and run around doing crazy things for the amusement of the crowd. Today’s deck is all about clowns—specifically, Dream Clown.
Until the release of Pharaoh’s Servant, Yu-Gi-Oh! was thoroughly dominated by Beatdown decks. While the set certainly lent a lot of support to Beatdown decks, it also provided the card that became the staple of Stall decks for years to come. I’m talking about Gravity Bind and its effect that prevents monsters of level 4 or higher from attacking. Gravity Bind suddenly put Stall decks on the map.
Once Stall decks could effectively prevent attacks, all they needed was a way to win. Burn was ineffective and slow at this point. Exodia was quite deadly with the addition of Backup Soldier to its repertoire, but that big guy is a story for another day. Stall decks had to rely on reducing an opponent’s life points to 0 by attacking, and the only decent monsters that could attack under Gravity Bind were the cycle of direct attackers from Metal Raiders, White Magical Hat, and Hayabusa Knight. With that in mind, take a look at a sample Pharaoh’s Servant-era Clown Control deck.
Monsters: 19
3 Dream Clown
3 Hayabusa Knight
3 Jinzo #7
3 White Magical Hat
2 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom
2 Mask of Darkness
1 Cyber Jar
2 Sangan
Spells: 12
1 Pot of Greed
1 Change of Heart
1 Monster Reborn
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Snatch Steal
1 The Forceful Sentry
1 Confiscation
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Messenger of Peace
Traps: 9
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Trap Hole
3 Gravity Bind
3 Solemn Judgment
The Clown Control deck was another child of the Internet, made popular on message boards around January 2003. The deck was built to abuse Dream Clown’s effect by hiding your monsters behind Gravity Bind and picking off each monster an opponent put down. Once a Clown Control player could get alternating Dream Clowns down on you, you were pretty much toast unless you drew aHeavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon, and if the Clown Control player didn’t have a response or another copy of Gravity Bind. After clearing the other side of the field, the Clown Control deck would assault an opponent with Hayabusa Knight and White Magical Hat to ensure that there would be no recovery.
Sounds pretty unstoppable, right? Wrong. In addition to Clown Control’s greatest asset, Pharaoh’s Servant also brought the bane of its existence, Jinzo, into the game. At this point in the game, the Forbidden list was barely a twinkle in its creator’s eye, so Witch of the Black Forest was still out in force. Duelists would just wait for the Clown Control player to slay their Witch with a clown, and then used its effect to fetch Jinzo. One revival spell later, Jinzo was on the field making Gravity Bind worthless. This version of the Clown Control deck packed three copies of Solemn Judgment for situations like this, but it was never guaranteed that you would have a copy out or that it wouldn’t get nailed by Mystical Space Typhoon.
What options did Clown Control have for dealing with Jinzo? First, the deck had hand destruction. Clown Control was one of the first decks to focus on removing potential threats from an opponent’s hand. Second, the deck packed plenty of ways to get rid of monsters that could be used to tribute summon Jinzo. Playing Mirror Force, Raigeki, Dark Hole, 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom, or Trap Hole were all excellent ways to remove the swarm of monsters that usually came before the summoning of Jinzo. As a final line of defense, the deck could also fall back on one of its copies of Solemn Judgment or try to take control of Jinzo with Snatch Steal and turn the machine on its master.
Now that you have an idea of the strengths, weaknesses, and win conditions of Clown Control, let’s take a look at the matchups it would have faced in a typical tournament.
Clown Control vs. Beatdown
Beatdown’s success in this matchup was primarily dependent on two factors. First, could the Beatdown strategy remove Gravity Bind or Messenger of Peace before the Clown Control player could set up a lock and disrupt the Beatdown player’s hand? Second, could the Beatdown player get Jinzo out? If either of those two things happened, the Clown Control player was in big trouble. To deal with Jinzo, the Clown Control player had to count on drawing Snatch Steal. If Messenger of Peace or Gravity Bind was destroyed, the Clown Control player needed to draw a card that could replace the lost stall effect.
Another important card to look out for in this matchup was the relatively new Nobleman of Crossout. Many Beatdown players were experimenting with the Nobleman early, and they were able to wreak severe havoc on defensive players. This matchup usually fell in Beatdown’s favor.
 Clown Control vs. Lord of D. Combo
No contest at all here. The Lord of D. combo was so inconsistent that the combo deck’s player usually couldn’t pull it off in one game, let alone in two or three. However, Clown Control was toast if the combo player was successful. Back then, Lord of D.’s card text had the wrong wording, making it protect Dragons from everything rather than just from targeted effects. Due to the inconsistency of the combo, this matchup heavily favored Clown Control.
Clown Control vs. Exodia
An Exodia deck needed to have its copies of Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan destroyed to get the necessary effects and pieces. The Clown Control player didn’t need to destroy them due to Jinzo #7, and even if the Witch and Sangan were destroyed, there’s enough hand disruption in the Clown Control deck to make any Exodia player cry. Backup Soldier was nearly irrelevant in this matchup, because it was usually the only card worth using Solemn Judgment on. This matchup was so far in Clown Control’s favor it wasn’t even funny.
Clown Control vs. Clown Control
Ah, the dreaded Clown Control mirror match. This matchup was always one of my favorites to watch because of the incredible amount of skill needed to play it. In the mirror match, all of the stall cards in both decks were practically worthless, as was 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom. The first game was all about trying to set up a lock on the other player before he or she could get a lock on you. After game one, the match came down to whoever had the better side deck for the mirror match. Stall cards went out in favor of Axe of Despair, and recursion cards replaced 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom. In its day, the Clown Control mirror match was the most explosive and exciting matchup between two Stall decks. This matchup is in favor of the better Clown Control player.
There you have it—the first deck that could accurately be labeled as a Control deck. Could Clown Control work in today’s environment? I’d say yes. Today, there are even better stall cards out that don’t even fear Jinzo, and the amount of removal cards has been significantly reduced. I’d be willing to bet that a clever player could pilot an updated Clown Control deck to the Top 8 of a Regional tournament.
Join me again next week, when I’ll be overclocking some hard drives. Until then, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
Jerome McHale
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu |
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