Clown Control

The Clown Control Deck gets its name from the main monsters of the Deck, "Dream Clown" and "Crass Clown". It focuses on the effects of those two monsters and "Blade Rabbit", in conjunction with cards that switch Battle positions, such as "Stumbling", "Spirit Burner", "Zero Gravity" and "Labyrinth of Nightmare". These cards allow immediate and recurring activation of the monster effects, which grants field advantage.

The Rat and Warrior Toolboxes are used to search out "Dream Clown", which is arguably the decks most important monster. Furthermore, the Rat toolbox allows one to search for helpful monsters that support the deck, such as "Karakuri Strategist mdl 248 "Nishipachi"", "Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo" and "Neo-Spacian Grand Mole".

It is often necessary to include stall cards in the deck to protect the clowns from being trampled, thereby keeping them alive long enough to trigger their effects. Such cards include "Gravity Bind", "Messenger of Peace" and "Level Limit - Area B". Equip Spell Cards such as "Gravity Axe - Grarl" can be used in conjunction with the stall cards to further enhance the control aspect. Continuous cards that combo well with Stumbling can also be used, for instance "Level Limit - Area A" allows one to reuse Dream Clowns effect and potentially activate the effect of Crass Clown the turn it is summoned.

Ideally, the monsters in a clown control deck should have good synergy with the continuous cards the deck focuses on. However, a situation may occur where they do more harm than good, particularly when XYZs and Synchros are required, in which case cards like "Giant Trunade" and "Zero Gravity" can be used.

The opponents Spell and Traps can severely deny you from controlling the field, thus making it important to run Spell and Trap removal. Hand disruption, such as "Don Zaloog" and "Spirit Reaper" can take advantage of the opponent's open field, which is especially useful if the opponent saves their cards in their hand for explosive plays later on.

This Deck has little to no Special Summons or Tribute Summons, making cards like Grave of the Super Ancient Organism and Mask of Restrict good side-deck options. Clown control decks can also make great use of Anti-meta cards to slow down the opponent and increase field control. These include "Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo", "Jowgen the Spiritualist" and "Thunder King Rai-Oh". Whether to use Fossil Dyna or Jowgen, depends on preference and play style. Jowgen the Spiritualist is faster at getting rid of the Special Summoned monsters than Fossil Dyna, but Dyna is more guaranteed to succeed than Jowgen.

Clown Control decks often revolve around either "Stumbling" or "Labyrinth of Nightmare" as the Deck works differently depending on which is chosen. Builds that use both should focus the deck around one of them, using the other for support purposes.


 * "Stumbling" lets the player stall from opponent attacks and trigger the effects of "Dream Clown" and "Blade Rabbit", thereby protecting his or her monsters and Life Points while maintaining field presence. The strategy at large is to get any two of a "Dream Clown", "Blade Rabbit" or "Crass Clown" on the field (with one in each position) so you can use one to destroy or return a monster, while the other attacks.


 * "Labyrinth of Nightmare", on the other hand, doesn’t switch monsters to Defense Position until the End Phase of the turn, allowing un-delayed attacks from both players. Monsters that inflict Piercing damage like "Enraged Battle Ox" and powerful beatsticks, such as "Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke", are welcome in Clown Control Decks that utilize "Labyrinth of Nightmare". Monsters such as "Goblin Attack Force", "Spear Dragon", and "Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress" should be included, since they switch to Defense Position after they attack or activate their effects, and they will be switched back to Attack Position during your End Phase, ready for use again during your next turn.

Additional tech options include:


 * Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6" as it is unaffected by "Stumbling", "Earthquake" and "Messenger of Peace".


 * Black Salvo" is used to summon "Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei"". Its effect can then be used to manipulate positions once per turn, allowing It to attack the same turn it is summoned, while "Stumbling" is on the field. Alternatively, the effect can be used to make sure labyrinth changes it to attack position at the end phase. An additional position change can occur if a "Karakuri Strategist mdl 248 "Nishipachi"" was summoned by its effect.


 * "Cloudian - Eye of the Typhoon switches the battle positions of all non-"Cloudians", thereby triggering clown card effects. It is destroyed when it's switched into defense, but can be used with Stumbling and Labyrinth of Nightmare if combined with Raging Cloudian.