Clown Crew is quickly becoming ‘the deck that never was’, with a ridiculously cool core line, access to some of the game’s best floodgates, and theoretically the tools to handle most matchups. The issues with the deck, however, stem from the metas in which it’s existed; at the outset of its release, there was a huge concern with being Drolled amid already-present consistency problems, and even in Genesys it couldn’t beat a Herald of Orange Light to save its life. The second wave of support was good, of course, but arrived in a set with other meta mainstays that just outcompeted the crew. I say all of this because three of my favorite Rogue strategies were combined last weekend to win the Genesys event at the Guadalajara Regional, between Clown Crew, Radiant Typhoon, and…Runick? I wanted to touch on how this deck managed to perform so well, and what the future holds for it, now that we have the next slew of point updates.
Clown Crew has been a Rogue option in Genesys since the format began, and a reasonably-established one at that. It was never a top 3 deck, and generously cracked top 10, but with its capacity to draw upwards of 6 cards in a turn alongside access to the devastating The Wicked Avatar, Radiant Typhoon meanwhile was so good that it received a number of points on its core cards, and fell away to just being an engine after the fact. In the TCG, its time in the sun ended after Radiant Typhoon Chant was Limited. Runick though, that’s a different story entirely. Runick was, for a long time, one of the dominant meta strategies, with it switching between tempo, to Synchro combo, and finally as a deep draw engine; we can play three copies of Runick Fountain in Genesys, for 0 points, while even so it’s Semi-Limited in the TCG. The issue you may have recognized, however, is that the only zone to which we can Summon Runick Fusion Monsters is one which doesn’t exist in Genesys: The Extra Monster Zone.
All of our Runick cards are no longer modal, once we switch from Advanced to Genesys, meaning that at best they’re removal spells which might rip a few garnets from the opponent’s deck. Runick Tip, the deck’s search Spell, is the only one that’s pointed, meaning we can’t even play it to add extra names to the GY for Fountain. Of the ones we can play, we’re on Fire, Destruction, Curses, & Slumber, being a monster pop, S/T pop, negate, & protection respectively. The good news is that people are genuinely excited to play cards like those in the format, with analogues like Forbidden Chalice & Final Bringer of the End Times often appearing between Main & Side. Moreover, these are all Quick-Play Spells, which can trigger our Radiant Typhoon package, with a whopping 19 of our Main Deck being Quick-Plays. The Runick engine represents that, eventually, we will find the pieces we need, and are okay trading 1-for-1 with the opponent until then. As an added bonus, Slumber is absolutely debilitating for the best deck in the format, Blitzclique, giving us a huge edge in that match-up.
The thing these three individual strategies have in common is pretty neat, once you put it all together: They use Quick-Play Spells, and deep draw. The essential Clown Crew Malabarisme, which is searched throughout your combo—that’s a Quickie. Your End Phase trigger, that draws you into pieces like our Runick Spells, which can draw more via Fountain and be activated before you need to discard. Radiant Typhoon’s entire identity is based on Quick-Plays, and specifically the actual Mystical Space Typhoon which sees play at 2 copies here, but don’t forget that Vision can pitch an errant Runick Spell to draw 2. This isn’t a deck that aims to win quickly, but rather grind out the opponent due to the numerous skipped Battle Phases incurred by Runick cards; you’re playing to reach an unloseable gamestate, not a winning one.
One of the changes I’ve had to make compared to the winning version played by Alex Andrei at Guadalajara has to do with, unfortunately, consistency. Following the most recent set of changes, the list arrived at 114pts from a flat 100pts, courtesy largely of Preparation of Rites. Prep was copies 4-5 of Clown Crew Flair, something the deck certainly appreciated, but now with these changes there wasn’t a great way to add back a 1:1 search spell for those purposes. Instead, I’ve opted to include a card which escaped unscathed, Pair Bear Scare. This is essentially another copy of Runick Flashing Fire, aside from the fact that it doesn’t target, and goes to the opponent’s hand afterwards. We’re playing a sensible 2 copies, so when they go to activate the copy we passed, not only can this result in Radiant Typhoon triggers, but we can simply show the other Scare and prevent them from flexing it against us. This is a card which certainly comes out after Siding, as many players are including their own Scares, but it’s a great card for a hard-to-fill slot.
The Extra Deck remains unchanged though, and it’s essentially just a huge chunk of options we’d previously have sent with Ultimate Slayer, which now costs too many points, alas. I have opted to switch the big Radiant Typhoon ratios, however, given that, pivoting to 1 each of Fonix & Varuroon, from double Fonix. These games go long, so the hard once-per-turn on Fonix actually did come up in testing, and made me yearn for a second big name. The concern in doing so is that Fonix is usually how you shoot for lethal damage, putting together Biancaviso and 2 copies of Fonix for a cool 8500 damage, but I’m not especially worried about that, especially if you’re playing with more lax time rules. If given unlimited time, this deck can grind with the very best of them. Unless you’re playing against Red Dragon Archfiend, you’ll generally have that time, with not every deck in the format able to put up an OTK, especially through our ample removal.
As for the Side, it’s changed, with Ultimate Slayer & Shared Ride being substituted for additional copies of Sphere Mode & Wicked Avatar, and Gordian Slicer being slotted in as the best 0-point board breaker. This is perhaps where the point changes are felt most acutely, given our Extra now serves as a toolbox we’ll never touch, instead of a flexible bevy of sendable tools via Slayer. I’ve been considering trying to get Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Thunderbolt in here somewhere if only to slot in Punishment. Of the 7pt cards in the format, I’d say Krosea is one of the best, and I think there’s more decks worth exploring that can include her, lock or no. Shiina is the other card that couldn’t fit here, but I’m less worried about that given it doesn’t have tremendous synergy with our Clown Crew monsters. Ultimately, this is a deck that aims to disrupt via 1-for-1 Spells, and not blowout Monsters.
For as good as the Genesys format is—and indeed, it’s a great format right now—there’s a few cards in this list which serve as canaries in the proverbial coal mine. The Eye of Truth is a terrible Yugioh card, objectively speaking. It does very little, aside from force your opponent to play with their hand revealed…and that alone entirely shuts off decks which require reveals as part of their costs. Blitzclique is the big one, but also Kewl Tune is quite affected. The degree to which other floodgates have been hit is so vast that the Eye remains as one of those left standing, and it’s still included in the Side of a Regional-winning list. Gravity Collapse meanwhile is a card that’s really not been good enough without being searchable, but Genesys is low-ceiling and slow enough as to make it relevant. In our list, we’re Tributing a Clown Crew Meteor to lock our opponent out of Specials, on top of obviously getting advantage via Meteor’s effect. Unlike Eye, I feel Collapse really ought to be pointed; it’s widespread enough as a card that enters the Main Deck going first to make me concerned.
On the whole, this is a deck that illustrates…well, everything about Genesys. Why it’s cool, with Clown Crew, how decks you’d think can’t operate inside its ruleset might thrive, with Runick, and even some of its slight problems, motioning towards Gravity Collapse. For as much as this deck is good, it’s also slow and fair, not unlike the recent topping Sky Striker list in Advanced format; Yugioh is, for now, in one of the healthiest overall metas it’s had for quite some time. Of course, that’s going to be thrown entirely out of whack this November, but we’ll talk about that some other time.
How have you enjoyed Genesys after the most recent point changes? What decks have succeeded for you in the format which you didn’t expect? How do you think Magnificent Monsters will affect things? Let me know in the comments below!
