Ramon Bennet is 21 years old, and hails from Newnin, Georgia. He’s been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for three years or so, and he started out in the days of Magic Ruler. He didn’t play seriously at first, but started playing Clown Control a year ago to take his level of competitiveness up a notch.
“I went with it cause it reflects my personality—happy-go-lucky. Why not a clown deck?” It’s Ramon’s favorite type of deck, and he felt that though many players opt for cookie cutters, he wanted to do something different. “I’m 5-2 at the moment. I lost to Team Nexus, but that was cool, because those guys are really nice.” Was he here as part of a team? “I’m here with a few friends. We’re not really a team, but we‘ve talked about forming one.”
His favorite combo? Two copies of Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6, and they’re unaffected by the defensive and synergistic spells he’s running. The three copies of Stumbling and Messenger of Peace that he’s employing don’t slow down Ramon’s offense as much as they potentially could. “The Dragon’s a powerhouse.” A top prospect for the format’s number one dark horse, Horus is seeing more play than most expected today, and Ramon’s deck is just one of many making use of it.
Those Stumblings are more than just defense, though. “I can summon Dream Clown when Stumbling is out, and Dream Clown goes straight to defense position. That triggers its effect and automatically destroys a monster.” It speeds up the deck’s monster destruction engine and renders it utterly vicious. The three copies of Blade Rabbit mimic the Clown concept, giving Ramon even more access to monster destruction, which is ideal in an environment that will see a return to aggressive swarm and rush decks.
Ramon made some other creative picks, too. “I love Tragedy! I love it, that’s my favorite card!” Combined with Stumbling, it can often clear an opponent’s entire field. While many players had been enthused about the possibilities for Clown Control in the new play environment, very few, if any, looked at it and went “Hey! Let’s put Tragedy in there!” It’s an intuitive piece of tech, and Ramon should be commended for using it. It helps him exploit the fact that he’s running more defensive spells than others might for the same theme—more combo potential justifies a narrower set of card choices.
What about the side deck? “My deck doesn’t struggle against other decks, so the only monster I really side deck hard against is Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. My side deck is set up so that I can try and bounce the Phoenix off the field instead of destroying it, so I can get around its effect. My only weakness is spell and trap removal.” Like many duelists, Ramon had run into the brick wall conundrum of an environment packed with Royal Decree—that is, how do you run spell-negating traps in a format that makes traps useless in a significant number of your matches?
Ramon liked the new format. “The original version of this deck actually ran nothing but commons, but the new list really gave it a boost. I was really excited about it, I was all, ‘These Clowns are gonna work their way through!’”
Monsters: 18
2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6
1 Des Lacooda
2 Swarm of Scarabs
2 Giant Rat
3 Blade Rabbit
3 Dream Clown
1 Big Shield Gardna
2 Swarm of Locusts
1 Sangan
1 Exiled Force
Spells: 14
3 Stumbling
1 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Messenger of Peace
1 Premature Burial
2 Level Limit - Area B
1 Book of Moon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Zero Gravity
Traps: 8
3 Tragedy
3 Solemn Judgment
1 Spiritual Earth Art – Kurogane
1 Call of the Haunted
Side:
1 Stealth Bird
3 Mysterious Guard
3 Crass Clown
2 Des Wombat
1 Wave-Motion Cannon
1 Dark Mirror Force
2 Dust Tornado
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
With good tiebreakers resulting from defeats handed to him by major team-based players, Ramon’s X-2 record might just be enough to get him into the Top 8. If he can maintain wins for the next two rounds, a little luck will be all he’ll need to make Day 2 and have a shot at his own Des Volstgalph!