Trivia: This set was the toughest one to develop yet! Other sets may have taken longer, but XB had the most hurdles to clear. XB design started halfway through TOY and half the set was complete once Tamer Accessories was complete. Tamer Accessories was complete at the halfway mark of TOY as well. XB designs were completed at the start of January and the final development cycle continued through the month. Bet some of you didn’t know game designers work on multiple projects concurrently!

Killer?

The rules have been updated to explain the strange new attack ability “Killer” that premieres in this set. A few errata Digimon got ahold of it as well. When the opponent uses the attack specified on the ability, you get 1st Attack and Boosted Power of +300! Kind of like a lightning-fast version counter attack that’s a bit riskier since you still take full damage when you’re hit. This resembles the Gem cards that were released in set TA.

Flip cards?

You can check out a detailed explanation on the accompanying post Intro to Flip Cards. You can now have cards with multiple faces! You flip them in-game at various times when effects tell you to. Sometimes it just happens while they’re hanging out in the Destiny Zone. But sometimes…it can even happen right before the battle phase for your active. This brings a completely new dimension (literally) to the game, as players must map the complex analysis of multiple possibilities that have a chance to change during a fight, or just before evolving. In practice, don’t worry about them being too complex. Great steps were taken to create boundaries on when cards can flip so players can focus on just the manageable and relevant information.

“13” cards?

Aha! It’s 13 numbered cards but we actually had to create 15 cards. The new flip cards added a ton of extra challenge and were more intricate than simply designing two separate cards.

More Stuff Coming Up

There is a completed errata coming up with 70 changed cards. Much of these are art changes but some were fixes to XA, in order to give it as unique a feeling as XB. Now you see why this was the hardest development cycle! Tabletop Simulator is coming soon with XB cards and errata. There’s also 2 new cards added to XA, in order to make it feel more complete and like it was originally intended.

Play Style?

Skip to the pics if you want the good stuff. This is a dev commentary on the Mastery.

Mantra is the new XB mastery and it’s quite a treat to play with. Recode 1 is typically a welcome side-effect but Recode isn’t the Belle of the Ball in general. Rarely do you give up a Support for something with little direct impact on the game state. Ahhh but I want to recode! Random drawing sucks. Enter: Mantra. Like the practice of Mantra, you will be repeating your actions. Shuffle. Recode. Shuffle. Recode. Shuffle. Recode. Stay disciplined by keeping your hand within the lowered limit, despite all the draw effects in XB. Since Mantra allows Recode every time your deck is shuffled for any legitimate reason, you can maximize your deck searching effects with peace of mind and stand protected from a troublesome opponent who looks through your deck with bad intentions. At the start of the game, players must shuffle their deck before drawing their hand. You will now Recode. After combining side piles and mulliganed cards, players shuffle. You will now Recode. You get 2 chances to recode your deck before players even take turns.

XB Full Spoiler

Gallery of All Cards (Full Layout)