Research—what does the scouter say?
What’s good about it: Changing your attack after seeing the opponent’s, allows you to pick the highest-damage, safest option that can dodge their attack abilities; choose your own cross if you know the opponent used a relevant attack; and you can play this in response to “If both attacks are same”, “different”, or “If opponent used [attack]” to effectively void the card by ruining its condition. Research can also be attached for permanent knowledge of the opponent’s hand—an extremely abusable packet of information. The turbo (cost of static 2) changes the slow support effect timing into “Any Phase”, so you can see the opponent’s attack, change yours, then immediately support with something that takes advantage of what attacks were chosen; or simply attach it and support in a way that takes advantage of hand knowledge immediately. As a proxy, it can be most effectively used with partner-searching effects and on a partner with some battle related support to close up its weaknesses. If one of your own attacks has Jamming, you can void the opponent’s attack ability and Digimon support, then resolve Research to change your attack to something more powerful—effectively giving your strongest attack Jamming. What’s bad about it: By default, this is support timing and doesn’t help the battle by itself. Even with turbo, you have to static your own trash (which is a cost and can’t be skipped, so is a dead card early game). It’s true that you can make up for a lack of skill at attack prediction, but over-reliance on Research could become a detriment to your own personal growth. Since it doesn’t help with battle, playing it as support can be a waste of a turn. Tips: Pair the attack changing effect with defensive cross abilities like Jamming, to-zero, counter, grudge; or against those abilities to use your best attack that isn’t being countered. For the same purpose, [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/003-Datamorph.png” name=”Data Morph”] admittedly tends to be better. There are some unique situations where Research’s attack change is better though, such as an opponent with Counter (all attacks). You could switch to your weakest attack and take as little damage as possible, where Data Morph would be the worst case scenario. Research can go beyond this; Turbo creates powerful combos with cards like: [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/010-CyberParts.png” name=”Cyber Parts”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/184-Short-Lance.png” name=”Short Lance”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/056-Net-Worm.png” name=”Net Worm”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/013-Uninstall.png” name=”Uninstall”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/011-DeluxeMushroom.png” name=”Deluxe Mushroom”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/066-HappyMushroom.png” name=”Lucky Mushroom”], Coliseum, [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/041-Starmon.png” name=”Starmon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/068-MagicWord.png” name=”Magic Word”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/012-LiquidCrystallize.png” name=”Liquid Crystallize”]. Any “both players use [attack]” is also incredible when you can simply change your attack afterward during the first step of the Battle Phase; some examples are: [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/022-Balmung.png” name=”Balmung”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/198-Mystery-Egg.png” name=”Mystery Egg”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/153-Giromon.png” name=”Giromon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/037-Impmon.png” name=”Impmon”].X-ray hand vision is incredibly useful for discerning the best time to play discard effects, especially random discards like: [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/193-HeapofJunk.png” name=”Heap of Junk”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/185-ScummonCurse.png” name=”Scummon Curse”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/015-Lie.png” name=”Lie”]. Discard-all effects also become far more timely and less damaging to yourself when you know exactly what is being trashed. Examples: [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/020-Fakedrimogemon.png” name=”Fakedrimogemon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/127-Deathmeramon.png” name=”Deathmeramon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/154-Lilithmon.png” name=”Lilithmon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/008-Chaosdukemon.png” name=”Chaosdukemon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/129-Superstarmon.png” name=”Superstarmon”], and you’ll know what effect they’d likely pick with [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/031-Bombnanimon.png” name=”Bombnanimon”]. The combos and possibilities with Research seem endless because it gives the one power that is normally forbidden in Digimon Battle Evolution—and one thing many aspects of the game hinge upon: hidden knowledge.
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