V-Mundi

Digi-Deck: Magna Dux

 

Do you really like having a near-unlimited use of powerful trash cost cards like Mega Chip? Do you like to stack flat power gain with multipliers? Does the idea of tying all these benefits together appeal to you? Then you just might be ready for Magna Dux. This is a deck primarily centered around “early and often” with regards to everything. Get big effects early, get them often, don’t stop getting them. It relies on its Ace Reload and its Mega Dukemon to recover any costs paid. Lastly, it stacks attachments with the copious toolboxing to make each active more than meets the eye.

For high skill players, this deck has multiple layers of consideration: what to toolbox when, how aggressively to mulligan for a type-hate champion, or keeping track of deck size are all important. Mostly, it’s a deck for those who prefer to hit one button (Cross) and keep hitting it for most of the game.

Types

Primary type: (25)
Lesser types: (2) | Lesser types: (3)
Rare types: (1) | (1)
Mostly weak to Wind x3 VS, but several additional weaknesses occasionally.

Suggested pre-setup side choices:

Prioritize removing these particular cards in the pre-setup. Adjust to your matchup.

  • Mega Chip
  • Silver ball
  • Mega Disk
  • Dark Wings
  • Reload
  • Cherrymon’s Mist

This pre-setup removal will prioritize getting as much early-game as possible and minimizing late game. In some cases, early Mist could be better than protecting your Cross with Letterbox, so make adjustments where needed.

 

See visual list for specific card versions whenever ambiguous.

Magna Dux

Level R: 11

4 Patamon – Primarily fills the +30P quota while giving an extra set of type-hate cards. In this case, as a hate it’s better than Attack Chip and Behemoth combined. However, it will always be useful for recouping deck losses.

2 Penguinmon – Another Rookie primarily used for the +30P, but also doubles as a +20P that gives an evo-bonus. If you rack anything in this deck and play Penguinmon, you should be able to make any non-Ruler evolution. The extra evo-bonuses aren’t incredibly necessary, so save them for Angemon, sometimes Cupidmon, and the rare V-dramon.

4 Lucemon – This is the primary Rookie body of the deck. The +20P will rarely be good enough to do more than assist Evolution cards. However, the type-hate cross is sometimes a safe bet to fall back on, it has an evo-bonus to both Angemon and Cupidmon. The Support ability is like having 4 sources of keeping your superior bodies alive versus Digimon supports, since it voids them. That void is unconditional (save for being Digimon) but beware of the draw 1 to the opponent. If played perfectly, it should void something scary and put the opponent from 2 to 3 cards, which gives them zero advantage on their own next turn.

1 Kudamon Partner – This is our partner. Its innate attachment effect is part of the main purpose of Dukemon (to have two attachments) and works well with the deck.

 

Level C: 10

4 Angemon – Good HP body, mildly respectable power all-around, and a terrifying Drain attack. When evolving from the majority of the deck’s Rookies, Nightmare and Marine suddenly take a nosedive and eat triple damage plus your Drain! This is devastating if used correctly. The Support is useful to extend your field of type-hate beyond whatever the current active may be able to target. The if not will keep us healthy regardless what the opponent is packing.

4 Cupidmon – Good HP, useful power levels, and respectable early 1st Attack. Its support may boost power like much of the deck—comboing with the power tripling effects, or it may give Crash which is very effective given that this deck has above-average HP. The if not will keep us healthy regardless of the opponent’s level.

1 Kokatorimon – This card provides valuable engine-fuel by itself. As long as you don’t lose the active, it should start adding quality to the deck almost immediately. Unlike most decks with Kokatorimon, this does not entirely rely on him but instead allows the deck to extend its number of useful attachments by one (for Dukemon) and sets up early re-use of key cards for later.

1 V-dramon (PR) – This champion’s immense body for both HP and circle power make it a useful singleton card and it doesn’t disrupt Magnamon. The Crash has the added benefit of taking advantage of the deck’s sizable HP. Its support is often a life saver in any conditions.

 

Level U: 6

4 HolyAngemon – (Magna in dub, hence “Magna Dux”) This is the primary evolution target and the most effective way to jump to Dukemon. Given its average stats, the best way to make use of HolyAngemon is by adding an attachment (such as Love Crest), gaining the evo-bonus which is nearly guaranteed, and supporting such that his cross is incredibly powerful. This can easily one-shot 98% of the game’s champions and has a faster damage clock than any ultimate without pulling tricks. Given that you should have 3 common type coverages for the type-hate, the only remaining thing to do would be to support with another HolyAngemon for 6 types, or Patamon for 4. Therefore it is crucial that all copies of HolyAngemon are recycled back into the deck either with Reload, Patamon, or Kokatorimon.

2 Magnamon – Often times HolyAngemon isn’t strong enough to carry you to Dukemon. For these cases, Magnamon sports a significantly higher HP and Power body, albeit at a significantly increased cost. Given that you will get a free attachment due to the Ruler restriction the deck was built around, its key that if you want to evolve to Magnamon, try playing cards that trash as a cost first such as Giga Hand, Mega Chip, Mega Disk, or the other Magnamon support. These are also great targets for Kokatorimon recycling due to the Firewall-like void support. Generally if playing against most decks, HolyAngemon will have a strictly more powerful (and harder to stop) attack power. In those cases where he’s not your best bet, make sure to try and play your draw effects and get Magnamon.

 

Evolution: 5

2 Super Tag – Unlike a Digivice or similar, Super Tag can be used to virtually reduce the cost of a Level M’s DP.

2 Incubator – You or the opponent will likely have an attach so this is used for the DP reduction at Level M while riding the winds of past attach success. Especially useful for getting rid of Magic Word (from either player) so you can immediately get evo-bonuses again. Crucial for finding attaches early. With Magnamon’s attach T evo-bonus, you can also choose from the trash, which gives full coverage for any attach. Reminder: you cannot pick firewalls or aces with Magnamon BUT Incubator can pick Magic Word if you want!

1 Burst Growth – Incredibly useful at recovering losses due to some of the more expensive evolution in this deck.

 

Option: 14

2 Attack Chip – Very basic and useful card. Combo with x3 VS on Cross attacks, increase the threshold for a 1st Attack KO, and significantly increase Drain’s effectiveness.

1 Mega Chip – The trash cost in this deck might as well be unlimited due to Dukemon’s ACTIVATE and Reload. This becomes an absolutely bananas Power boost and makes numbers large enough with x3 VS that it might kill MoonMillenniummon in one hit under the right circumstances.

1 Mega Disk – Same as Mega Chip for purpose and near-unlimited use, but instead used as a way to keep a key active such as Angemon or HolyAngemon in case it would die.

1 Silver Ball – Nearly staple leveler of playing fields.

1 Behemoth – With the x3 VS in this deck, 1st Attack and +100 Power can be just plain nasty. With Shatter, most of the Circle attacks are high enough that this can completely nullify an opposing attack.

1 Puppet Switch – While the type-change effect isn’t too useful, the +10P combines nicely with the +30P racks in the deck and the recycle + draw allows the immediate reuse of Reload for a potential infinity engine. Play Reload, choose Puppet Switch and any other card, play Puppet Switch on the next support to get Reload, use the racked Puppet Switch somehow to get it into trash, play the Reload putting Puppet Switch into deck, get the Switch again. Reload as much as necessary.

1 Love Crest – Semi-useful evo-bonus effect in some cases, especially if one is missed such as Dukemon. The attack swap ability is incredibly useful in this deck since it makes triangle very powerful when Cross isn’t as devastating.

1 Letterbox – Given how reliant the deck can be on Cross at times, it’s useful to have it unaffected by Jamming. In many cases, this turns your type-hate attacks into attacks that also threaten to Flatten. With that constant threat, letterbox brings a new dimension (no pun intended) to the deck’s ability to add pressure to each attack. Often it will cause your Cross attacks to be able to kill either by flat or HP damage, so the opponent can’t always simply invalidate only one of those.

1 Cherrymon’s Mist FIREWALL – Used specifically for the end-turn of the game to guarantee a sure-KO. Otherwise, it can be selectively recycled by Kokatorimon for later or recycled with Reload.

1 Magic Word FIREWALL – Given the high impact of attachments in this deck, Magic Word is incredibly useful. In fact, it’s almost unfair since most of your attacks during a given game should be Cross, making Magic Word a voiding machine. Be careful since you can’t activate evo-bonuses (even if a card effect would) while it’s attached and that can prevent Angemon/HolyAngemon from being as useful. This can also outright diminish Dukemon’s purpose in the late game.

1 Ultimate Storm FIREWALL – People get very addicted to circle versus this deck. It has virtually no way to punish circle other than flat and deadly attacks will significantly dampen all the Drain. This is best used when you can’t 1st Attack for a KO.

1 Giga Hand – Given the nearly-unlimited trashing in this deck, Giga Hand is nearly a copy of the ACE Ground. This is especially useful in a deck where HP is above average like this.

1 Reload  ACE – Given the number of reckless trash costs in the deck, Reload seems like the natural choice. The recycle all feature works much like Dukemon and being able to take any 2 cards after (plus extra) in a deck with multiple single-copy cards means you have a lot of choices for exactly what is most devastating. Here you can see the particulars of why there’s so much type-hate in the deck: choose any type-hate necessary to win or simply pick a Cherrymon’s Mist if it can win the game! With Reload not deleting itself after use, it can then be recycled back into the deck and used over and over, making this a counter to trash-centric decks.

Destiny Zone

Partner: Kudamon

Dukemon – The eventual goal. Usually, you’ll work toward Dukemon slowly even if your pace could be increased. This is because the deck has a lot of HP, healing, and staying power even if it’s often very fast at evolving. That path will allow you to carefully pick your evolution chain and eventually land on Dukemon from HolyAngemon, which is the ideal choice. If not, try to re-use racked DP with Super Tag or wipe out attaches with Incubator and grab a replacement attach (which will let you hold off on the ACTIVATE for a while). He’s absolutely massive in both HP and power all-around, especially his record-shattering 400 1st Attack, which can be pumped very high by supports in this deck. Dukemon’s ACTIVATE is very reminiscent of the Reload ACE: You’ll recycle everything, resetting all the trashing that was done to you, then attach any 2 in the deck. In addition, you get to set up the next 10 cards of the game. By the time Dukemon is necessary, x3 VS may not be a viable solution anymore especially against a skilled opponent. This is where careful choice of which attach combo to pick and how to set up the next 10 cards of the game is important. Be incredibly careful! Dukemon has a crucial evo-bonus, which is shut off by yours and your opponent’s Magic Word. Be absolutely ready to remove yours (with Incubator) and Shatter the opponent’s (with Behemoth) if necessary to make the most of this Mega.

Akatorimon – Usually a way to grab Kokatorimon when absolutely necessary. Not generally recommended unless it’s absolutely vital. Searching for other champions may also be more important than Kokatorimon but I would argue rarely is their Support going to work well enough that Cupidmon wouldn’t have been the better partner evolve choice.

Cupidmon – Good body, has 1st Attack with big cross to rival Dukemon, choose this.

Grapple Chip Proxy – 700 Cross before you even multiply it. With drain.

Possible Changes

No deck is perfect or unbeatable. Most probably have room for improvement even when not considering the meta. This will be no different. Here’s a list of stuff that just may not work as well as I think it does, that I can see coming:

Akatorimon (Destiny Zone) – Useful for fetching some support champions but may not be as effective as Reppamon in many matchups.

Puppet Switch – Some won’t want to focus on cheesing Reload as hard and for those people, I suggest Stardom over Puppet Switch. Or some other attach for ridiculous combos at Dukemon.

Attack Chip – While this is incredibly useful and versatile, I know that many people won’t appreciate such a unitasker. Even in cases where people do, they might otherwise favor Dominate Chip given the evo-speed and HP of the deck. Since Attack chip is here for cross but also circle, a replacement should ideally respect this. However, Grapple Chip and Plug-In S (Special) both amplify Cross to cosmic levels which make them tempting. Boost Chip is awesome for using up the Puppet Switch, especially to keep abusing its loop since one requirement is to get it out of the DP.

Incubator – If you don’t like the redundancy of incubator in an attach-heavy deck, try Splice Chip. You’ll get a guaranteed 10 +P and at least 200 Power, which can wreck with the cross levels here. Be aware it makes Dukemon a harder evolution, which is usually not a problem since you want to go slow anyway.

Letterbox – I wouldn’t blame anyone for being skeptical of using Letterbox in a non-flat deck. It really does work but if you can’t make it sing for you or just don’t like spreading out that far, try Potty Boat to punish partners, Lucky Mushroom since your attacks will likely always be different, or Data Copy in case an opponent tends to have some sort of supremacy over you. For Data Copy, your evo-bonuses will protect you from the type change and you get to keep your Cross abilities.

 

Destiny Zone

Key Points

This deck is incredibly vitality-based and capable of paying trash costs almost indefinitely. Let’s take a look at some of its strengths and weaknesses, and keep these in mind while playing:

  • Above-average evo speed. Super Tag and Incubator have a habit of making DP costs very low with added benefits, plus 6 copies of +30P cards.
  • Above-average endurance. Hits the mark for HP and keeps going. Combined with its heals, this deck tends to sit at 1000 HP+ for champions and can be 2000 HP+ for ultimates. With proper recursion of Mega Disk, it keeps going.
  • High-to-Bullshit Power. When the typing is right (which is usually), this deck’s power is outright bullshit. Flat power bonuses stack immensely with multipliers which this is abusing heavily. When that fails, it falls back on the completely celestial power ratings of Ruler Digimon.
  • Infinity engine. Reload, Dukemon, and other recycles in this deck tend to make it an infinity gauntlet of useful cards being played over and over. It’s nigh-impossible to beat this with a trash strategy except with numerous well-placed voids (or a Dark Destroy right to the ace, for deletion). Can mulligan incredibly aggressively, especially to cheese a Reload into the hand.
  • Never fails. All of the conditional effects in the deck tend to have “if not…” triggers that give you some other effect anyway. This makes cards capable of multiple roles that shift throughout the game as your standing shifts.
  • Champions can be sticky. Since all the champions cost 40 DP and get no discounts, it’s incredibly difficult to start off on champion immediately without some form of evolution card assistance. This is where Penguinmons, Super Tag, and Incubators combine with the racks to make evolution possible.
  • Vulnerable if Reload gets buried in the trash or deleted. Be wary of trash decks nevertheless since Reload is incredibly necessary to the deck. Once that passes, Dukemon, Patamon (if not) Puppet Switch and Kokatorimon are the only hope to recover it.
  • Magic Word is a soft counter. As said, Dukemon has a hard time with Magic Word on the field. You can remove your own easily enough but you’ll likely have to bait out the opponent’s with a powerful Option.
  • Self-type change can disable the deck. Opponents who use Data Morph, Scummon’s Curse, D-Link in a multi-color deck, or Puppet Switch may prove tough due to their ability to use type changes to evade the brunt of your damage.
  • Often lacks draw power. Despite the singular V-dramon, alternate Patamon supports and misc draw scattered around, the deck does lack a significant source of draw and relies heavily on Reload.

 

Beside the apparent complexity of Magna Dux is a brutal simplicity—hit hard, hit fast, hit often. Keep hitting, don’t stop. While its copious use of Cross is predictable, it’s often not very punishable. In fact most of this deck’s play style is incredibly predictable but difficult to actually punish. Therefore it’s tough for an opponent to create an edge case to exploit against Magna Dux. With so many layers of redundancy and an ethos of “do what works”, this deck tends to be a dauntless KO-gobbling machine. While not particularly heady or flashy, it does contain some near-infinite combos that can give inspiration to new deck types. If you’re a fan of big, meaty plays that are consistent for days, try Magna Dux.

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Alice White

Alice White

Alice is the webmaster of VMundi, author, and editor. She has over 11 years of publishing experience writing articles for various self-run sites. Her interests include game design, writing romance fiction, economics, Game Theory, graphical design, and mathematics.

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