Heading into the Top 32, with almost 1200 competitors eliminated by that point, and in a field of X-Sabers, Blackwings, Gadgets, Gladiator Beasts, and Frog Decks, 1 competitor stood apart from the crowd. Ben McDowell made Top 32 and won himself a Dark End Dragon with a Macro Cosmos Deck. Here’s how he did it!

Monsters:

3 Guardian Eatos

3 Beast King Barbaros

3 Elemental Hero Neos Alius

3 Crusader of Endymion

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

Spells:

3 Dimensional Fissure

3 Gemini Spark

2 E – Emergency Call

2 Book of Moon

1 Shrink

1 Reinforcement of the Army

Traps:

3 Dark Bribe

2 Macro Cosmos

2 Skill Drain

2 Royal Oppression

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Mirror Force

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Starlight Road

McDowell’s Deck relies on an array of Continuous Spells and Continuous Traps to stop the key plays of Decks like Infernities and X-Sabers. Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos keep opponents from using cards like XX-Saber Darksoul, Gottoms’ Emergency Call, Infernity Mirage, and Infernity Launcher. Skill Drain shuts down powerful on-field effects, like XX-Saber Faultroll, Herald of Perfection, and XX-Saber Hyunlei. And Royal Oppression allows high-ATK Normal Summoned monsters to dominate.

This Deck is all about using big, fast monsters to quickly beat down the opponent, like Elemental Hero Neos Alius and Crusader of Endymion. Beast King Barbaros goes from 1900 ATK to 3000 ATK when Skill Drain is active. McDowell runs 3 copies of each for straight beatdown power.

He also runs Guardian Eatos, another big beater with 2500 ATK. Since McDowell plays 5 cards that keep monsters from going to his Graveyard (Fissure and Cosmos), it’s rare that he’ll find himself in a situation where he won’t be able to Special Summon Eatos. Eatos is best played in multiples whenever possible, and the added draw power of Gemini Spark can help McDowell put together those multiple-Eatos hands that can be so powerful. With an Eatos and a Neos Alius or Crusader, McDowell can put 4400 ATK on the field without any warning. Two Eatos makes 5000 ATK, and a single Eatos with Beast King Barbaros can reach 5500 ATK. McDowell’s Deck gains a lot of speed from Eatos, and while he can be vulnerable to early game disruption, his success suggests that the benefits outweight the risk.

With 9 Continuous Spell and Trap Cards in his Deck, many of which are active at the same time, Heavy Storm can be McDowell’s worst nightmare. But since Giant Trunade can lead to OTK’s just as easily in this format, he can’t rely just on Starlight Road to protect his field. In addition to Starlight Road and Solemn Judgment though, he runs Dark Bribe, which can protect him from Heavy Storm, as well as Trunade and even Cold Wave. The extra card McDowell gives to his opponents with Bribe just doesn’t matter if he wins before they can put that card to use.

One problem that can happen is that Eatos can’t be Special Summoned with Royal Oppression sitting around. If McDowell draws Eatos early, he’ll just Summon it before activating Royal Oppression. But if he draws it when Oppression is already active, he can probably rely on his opponent to destroy Oppression at some time, or is likely winning already anyways. With so many Dust Tornadoes in this tournament, Oppression usually doesn’t stick around long anyways.