Set TB Release & Errata

Tamer Boost (TB) is a small release but with something for everyone. There are 26 new cards; all but 1 are Options. The odd one out is a special Mastery which also opens up a new format possibility for players. There are some rule changes and additions. The big aim with Tamer Boost was to provide as many granular new options as possible, especially type changes and rarely mixed effects. More proxies were also a big priority.

Gem Rule

The gem rule:

At pre-game setup, immediately after you make a side pile, take up to any 4 “gem” symbol cards from your deck and add them to your side pile face-up (showing the gem side).
Opponent can inspect face-up cards. Continue play as normal.

Finally! We’ve been waiting since Gems were first released in Tamer Accessories to reveal their intrinsic effect. If you thought the only purpose to gems was for search cards in Solar Flare and Royal Domain, well I have good news. The rule for gems is they are free before-game, face-up side pile cards!

What this means is, after you create your side pile during the game and your deck is now 40 cards, you may take up to 4 additional cards with the gem symbol out of the deck, place them face-up on the side pile for the opponent to see, and proceed as usual. So decks can now have 36-40 cards during that period, a max difference of 10%.

The aim here is to make certain cards with intrinsically great mid game effects (but less good early game) less able to ruin opening hands at the cost of giving the opponent information. Of course, now that they have the information, it changes how they play, even if you don’t use them muahaha.

Arena Format

As an additional deck legality requirement for Arena Format, both players must use the “Arena” mastery in their Destiny Zone.

New format! Arena DBE is a casual alternative to DBE in which both players add the mastery “Arena” to their destiny zone. With this, the game will feel a lot more like Digimon World: Digital Card Arena and Battle. Both players have open information about all hands and hands refill to 4 each turn, but can’t go higher without triggering discards. This changes the way certain cards can be played and some become better or worse when your opponent knows you can play them. This means threats are live more frequently but bluffing is difficult if not eliminated. Players can of course use the mastery as normal in their own deck.

Shatter change

Shatter effect has changed. The new way of using shatter is this:

It activates at ability speed 1, along with things like Counter and Grudge.
When it activates, reduce opponent power by own (Shatter) attack’s printed power.

That’s it. No more on-hit effect, no more attach destruction. Since the EX release of Shatter, it has always been the odd ability out. This is because it was combined from two separate abilities: reduce power generally and remove attaches. The original concept just needed a few modifiers to work but it took way too much time to test such a big fix and so here we are. Printed power was the way to go all along. It may be surprising to find out it took so long to nail that down, but Shatter is actually the combination of every “Guard” ability smashed into one and made fair! If each Guard were in one effect, it’s just a free turn for you, as your opponent normally does nothing with 0 Power. An early idea was to halve all power but that’s actually stronger than a Digimon support by itself, and Cross abilities shouldn’t be stronger than a Digimon support innately. Exceptions like Drain are “costed” more heavily when I create the cards and thus reduce other stats. Another was to make it always reduce -200 since that’s the general level of this kind of ability but that was too inflexible. It’s more challenging but more rewarding to design with the scaling effect of more power means more reduction. As you probably noticed, Shatter was heavily reduced in power because of its drain-like defensive results plus removal capability all in one. The problem with the on-hit requirement was needing 1st Attack to be paired with it for maximum viability. Otherwise, it just existed as generic removal, which is pretty boring as an attack ability goes. Abilities are meant to add dynamism to the game, not take it out. In the case of Shatter, it’s already a player’s bid to not have to think too hard about what attack the opponent chose, so we stuck with that and honed it correctly.

Eject keyword

Meaning: “Remove the specified number and type of cards in play from the specified player (1 of own if not specified).

They go to the trash as usual but is not counted as trashing. Since Shatter was changed not to remove attaches anymore, new cards will be created (some exist in TB) which remove attaches, especially the opponent’s. But because in the past we have used such inconsistent wording (discard, trash, remove…) for this process, it causes confusion as to whether they actually count as discards or trashes or whatever, for the purposes of Heracleskabuterimon and other effects. They were not intended to count for this. Attach removal was always supposed to supersede any other effects dealing with discard or trashing. From now on, when cards are taken out of play and naturally either put into the trash or deleted as a result, they are “Ejected”. This is mostly for attaches and DP cards. We will now stick to “discard” as meaning the hand and “trash” as meaning to the trash (from the deck).

Errata Oct 2022

It’s a small release so the errata are here:

Lucky Mushroom ➤ Art, name is Happy Mushroom (Digimon World 1, DCA mistranslated from Unlucky)
Silver Ball ➤ Art, removed opponent discard
Behemoth ➤ Art, effect trimmed for adjustment to Shatter. Ejects attach or power.
Metalgreymon ➤ Art tweak & general template power text size increase (done because Arena art uses upgraded card frame)
Vending Machine ➤ Art, simplified to BR-only effects
Data Copy ➤ Art
Uninstall ➤ Art, trashes 10, draws 2 on fail