Interview with Ben Sherman

The Belgian National Championship certainly isn’t the first in this year’s series of Yu-Gi-Oh Nationals. Only last weekend, Ben Sherman won his over in the United Kingdom! Of course, I just had to ask him a few questions about this.

Ben receiving his prizes at his Nationals in Birmingham. Photo taken from the official coverage site.

How did you get into (competitive) Yu-Gi-Oh?

I've always been a fairly competitive person, it's just in my nature! I got into competitive Yu-Gi-Oh after going to locals with a few friends for the first time and I really wanted to do well.... I lost every game! With that I started to attend locals more often and got to know the 'good' player there and I learnt from them. I would pick their brains with what is good and why and with that then set out to get the cards I needed.

Which Deck did you use at your Nationals and why?

I used Mermails as I believe it to be the best choice at current, it has a built-in ability to deal with almost any situation that can happen in a duel. I have been playing the deck for over a year now and I feel like I'm still using new combo's with it. The deck is so innovative; it has adapted to every Forbidden and Limited List and every meta change. It'll take a full on assault from the ban hammer to remove Mermails from the tier list.

Which other things gave you the edge over the competition?

Knowledge, knowledge of how almost any deck that I could come across works and how it plays, what it's weaknesses and strengths are and with that then comes the individual cards, one such card 'Beelze of the Diabolical Dragons' in particular is so difficult for most decks to deal with, so difficult that it can be called a 'win' condition against certain decks.

What are the top contenders until PRIO becomes tournament legal, and how do you think PRIO will affect the European Championship?

This format has been amazing and there are so many decks that are viable and a threat, to list them: Mermails, Infernities, Geargia, Harpies, Spellbooks, Noble Knights, Bujin, Chain Burn, Chain Beat, Inzektor, Mythic Dragon Ruler, Lightsworn, Chaos Dragons,. .. I'm not too familiar with the cards that are in PRIO as of yet but when the set gets officially released I'll be able to have a much more extensive look into what's being used. As for how this will affect the meta is that it will give decks like Madolche and Sylvans the boost that they need to be more competitive and make decks such as Bujin to become even better, what I think PRIO will really do is increase the pool of meta decks even further and then there's Artifacts! This deck has so much potential yet I still feel that at the moment it's unfinished as a meta deck.

Any shoutouts or people you want to thank?

There are so many people I want to thank that the list would be huge so I'm just going to say you guys, all of you that helped me build, test, gave me ideas, told me which of my ideas were bad and why, I would like to thank you all, you know who you are. As for shout outs first off is my team, Jared Stone, Andrew lam, Omar Mahmood and John Cummings. Also a shout out to Shaun Godly. And last but not least, shoutouts to Dave Salisbury and Lee Austin, the owners of my 2 locals.