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
With the new card template, we have a totally new anatomy and some new rules. First, let’s examine the stylistic changes to familiar elements. Click each one for a huge version of the image.
Limiter Icons
Each of these were designed to look like circuit board modules with pinouts you can add to a DIY tech project. If you look closely on the card frames without one of these, you’ll either see a grayed out set of pin holes or nothing at all, which indicates if that card can even have that module. Just a small detail.
Proxy. Was just a yellow “P” now resembles a computer chip with the full word.
Evo Bonus. Was: “Digivolve”. Effects still refer to this as “Evo Bonus” anyway.
Ace card. Just a style change.
New firewall symbol
Category Icons
Option category card
Evolution category card
Data category card
Mastery category card
Type Icons
Dragon type
Nature type
Marine type
Metal type
Nightmare type
Wind type
Jungle type
Enigma type
Ability Rename: Guard
Attack ability “Circle Guard”, was “Circle To Zero”.
“To Zero” has now been renamed “Guard” on all attacks going forward. While the old version is much simpler and gets the point about its effect across, two problems led to this change:
DBE now has effect resolution speeds. “To Zero” may be too straightforward for new players and cause them to apply the effect immediately, at the wrong timing.
The name “To Zero” is very cumbersome. Talking about it is so difficult when there are non-abilities with the exact same effect phrasing that we always use the term “Guard” as in the opposite of “Counter”.
New Symbols
Flash. This is an evo-bonus effect that activates once, in order listed, then goes away. Much like a regular support effect. The opposite of a permanent.
Void. This is a stand-in for the word “void”. Can instruct you to void something as an action, or else make something unvoidable.
Extra Slot — Add 1 more empty slot for attaches.
Hand
Deck
Trash (stack of cards, not the effect)
Speed icons are later on this page.
Location Zone Tags
The pointed, orange tags with a zone name represent the location depicted or cards within it. They do not represent a timing. At the start of an effect, it means “when this card is in this zone…” It may also instruct you to put cards in the depicted zone or remove cards from it.
Data Packet Zone
Destiny Zone
Active Digimon
Evolve Zone
Examples:
DP — Data Packet Zone. This is where players rack cards for their +P value (added packet). This zone symbol is not the same as DP requirements on a card, nor the amount of DP value in the zone.
DZ — Destiny Zone. This is where players have cards that start the game outside of their main deck.
ACTIVE — The active Digimon. This does not refer to any cards in the stack under the active Digimon. Often used to grant a passive effect while this Digimon is active.
AZ — Active Zone. This is the zone where the active Digimon and all cards under it are placed. To keep track of effects from the AZ, slide the card out a bit until this effect can be read.
EVOLVE — Evolve Zone. Means the card will usually stay in this zone instead of getting sent to trash at the end of the phase; in order to get constant effects.
SUPPORT — Not on cards with “SUPPORT” as their primary timing, but used to reference other cards in the support zone.
The Dark Area, Deck, Hand, and Trash are not zones for these effects.
Grid
The “Grid” is a term that refers to all cards a player has combined in their Deck, Hand, Trash, Active Zone, DP Zone, Evolve Zone, Support Zone, and attached. These cards are “on-grid”. It does not refer to cards in a player’s Dark Area, Destiny Zone, under other cards due to an effect, or deleted from the game. Those cards are “off-grid”.
Not referenced on new-template release cards.
1st Attack
The turn player now gets their “1st Attack” at the start of their Prep Phase instead of Battle Phase. The “1st Attack” ability and card effects still resolve as normal and steal away any the opponent has, or else secures their own existing as usual.
Stylish Keywords
Keyword bubbles for timing and attack ability.
Attack abilities granted by an effect are now inside a lime green keyword bubble to make them stand out as specifically abilities and not as part of the effect. This means they activate at their normal timing instead of immediately. Note when a card grants 1st Attack by itself and when it grants an attack the 1st Attack ability.
[1/Turn] is now a pink keyword bubble with “X・Turn” where X is any number of specified activations per turn.
Timing Keywords. Replacing the simple underline for timing are colored bubbles specific to each timing in the game. They are PREP, EVOLVE, STRATEGY, SUPPORT, BATTLE, END, ANY. ANY can also be combined with other phases to get a synthesis of the two as before and it takes on the color of the proper phase.
“OR” is now bolder and white to set it apart from the rest of the whole effect. This was designed to help players better distinguish which items within the effect they must choose.
CRITICAL. When this effect resolves, set your HP to 10. If it’s already 10, get KO’d immediately instead. This is placed with highly abusable effects such as Power to 0, which could be chained indefinitely. Or else used with effects that should not be used in succession (such as Crash with opponent’s Power to 0).
DATA cards
“DATA BREAK” now has a stylish timing bubble but follows the normal rules. The “DNA” section has been removed for redundancy since DNA rules only require you to have a card with the same name, which DATA category cards already satisfy.
Effect Speed
Effect speed is a new rule to Digimon Battle Evolution. Or should I say an old rule? Originally, effect resolution speed icons could be found in the Playstation game DBE is inspired by. However, the original rarely worked as intended since it didn’t have a very intuitive tie-breaker rule for timing conflicts (they used a secondary card number for this). DBE already had three levels of speed, they were just hidden in the rules in a weird way and implicit. Now they are explicit. First, find the explanation for each speed below. Then the full resolution order rules. Finally, a quick wrap-up to help players mentally “convert” the speed of old cards without this printing.
Speed Introduction
Voids and unvoidables. Previously, this was a set of rules designed to make Jamming and void cards function without paradoxes of causality.
Most cards, especially things that can change the game in ways conditional effects would later use.
Counter and other sluggish cards that activate last either for advantage or as a penalty. Especially effects with no use outside of battle.
After all support cards are played normally by both players, begin resolving effects in the below order:
Resolves first. Quick. This speed is used by voids and their own opposite—unvoidable effects. This includes effects that act as unvoidable on something else, such as “own power can’t lower or be 0”. The Jamming ability must activate at this time. Mimic must also activate now since it could copy Jamming. Most of this is the same as the old rules for void/unvoidable and Jamming. To sum up, these are effects that might cause weird time paradoxes if they tried to resolve any later. Attach from Hand is a special activation speed and can activate now or be reserved for a later timing.
Resolves second. Default. Almost every effect resolves at this timing. If there is any doubt for old supports, resolve them at Speed 2. When resolving an attack ability at this speed, simply reveal your attack (if necessary) to prove you chose this one, as you would with Jamming and Mimic above. The following attack abilities resolve as described below, in normal tie-breaking order:
1st Attack — Reveal attack. Set own attack to happen first; can stack with itself. This is completely erased by a later-activated “2nd Attack”.
Killer — Reveal the listed attack and if valid, get 1st Attack (above) and Boost own Power +300. No other rule changes from normal.
Recode, Corrupt, Draw, Recycle, Trash, Static — Reveal attack. Resolve the effect in full. No other rule changes from normal.
Attach Hand or Trash — Attach up to 1 card from Trash/Hand as instructed. If Attach Hand and not used at Speed 3, resolve that now. Attach Hand or Trash can be delayed instead until Speed 1.
Guard — Do not reveal attack! Set “Guard check” and resolve later during the Battle Phase. At this time, players don’t know if the Guard attack was actually chosen. This activation simply means it hasn’t been voided, nothing else happens yet.
Resolves last. Delayed. Up to this point, the implicit rules of supports are simply explicit. But with Speed 1, things change. Supports with this timing are mostly limited to the new “CRITICAL” keyword or effects that grant the equivalent of Speed 1 attack abilities in some cases. If an old effect gives you Counter attack, set your Power to 0 when the support resolves, not when the ability activates. After all supports at speed 1 resolve, reveal all unrevealed attacks. Speed 1 attack abilities will be the very last things to resolve during support phase. Once attacks are revealed, if there are any Speed 2 abilities left to resolve (such as 1st Attack being delayed), do those first. Resolve the below abilities with normal tie-breakers:
Counter — Get 2nd Attack (erases all own 1st Attack set up till now) and set to attack last, do not set own Power to 0 at this time. Counter sets Power to 0 when you gain the ability instead. The rest of this is resolved during Battle Phase (Set Counter attack).
Grudge — Get 2nd Attack (erases own set 1st Attacks). Reveal attacks and if valid, double own Power now. The rest is resolved during Battle Phase (Set Revive by own Grudge power).
x3 VS — If valid, triple own power now.
Attach — Any pending, unused “Attach” abilities can be used now, from their respective zones. Attach Hand, Attach Trash, Attach Deck. This is the only timing for Attach Deck.
Drain — Set “Absorb HP” and resolve later during the Battle Phase. This simply represents Drain not being voided at this time.
Crash — Set “Self-destruct” and resolve later during the Battle Phase. This simply represents Crash not being voided at this time.
Shatter — Discard any 0 or 1 attach in play. Reduce all opponent’s Power by this printed Power or its current power, whichever is lower. Changed from requiring players to hit with it.
Flat — Set “Flatten attack” and resolve later during the Battle Phase. This simply represents Flat not being voided at this time.
TIMING CONFLICTS Don’t forget if a player’s own effects activate at the same timing, they choose their own order of resolution. When different players conflict with support (and now attack abilities), the turn order automatically decides it as usual, with the turn player resolving theirs first, then the non-turn player. The exceptions are Speed 3 which are simultaneous as usual for voids, and Speed 1 where supports resolve before abilities.
Resolutions that continue in Battle Phase…
In the Battle Phase, resolve the attack abilities in this exact order when applicable, always respecting normal tie-breakers:
Determine the first attacker.
Guard: Check all set Guard effects for validity, then set their target Power to 0.
Shatter: Choose and discard an attach in play.
Counter: If Counter attack set, skip the countered attack if valid, then use that attack against its owner, then deal own Counter’s damage (always 0 unless boosted).
Crash: If Self-destruct is set, when attacking, deal damage equal to Crash owner’s HP instead of Power (ignore Power).
Drain: If Absorb HP set, when dealing damage, increase own HP by the owner’s damage actually dealt.
Flat: If Flatten attack set, when dealing damage, Flatten (one token).
Grudge: Whenever KO’d, if Revival set by Grudge, revive owner with HP by Grudge’s current Power.
Despite having speeds now, attack abilities are still not the same as supports!
Speed Summary
Players each play up to 1 card in their empty Support Zone.
During this phase, players alternate resolving supports/abilities (when possible) one at a time, highest speed to lowest, looping each speed until all its supports resolve, then moving to the next, until all effects are resolved.
Resolve all Speed 3 as a normal void. Voids and unvoidables are Speed 3 (including Mimic).
Resolve all Speed 2 as default effects in the game. Attack abilities sometimes fully resolve and sometimes just “set” part of their effects for later. Most cards are this speed, including get 1st Attack.
Resolve all Speed 1 supports first. Reveal both attacks. Then resolve all Speed 1 attack abilities. Cards that make a player slower or only work during Battle and End phases are this speed.
In Battle Phase: Finish resolving the attack abilities that have to do with dealing damage (Counter, Crash, Drain, Flat) or reducing opponent power (Guard).
Remember those promos for Cyber Junk? Well there’s one thing we couldn’t do at the time that we really wanted to. Heavyleomon! Yeah, its model was totally broken at the time but now we have obtained the power of 3D modeling and rigging. So please enjoy Heavyleomon with the new template. The purpose of CJ was originally to be the supplement expansion to XD, but the Zuba models weren’t fully ripped and available yet so we moved on to the rest of the PenZ Metal Empire. Heavyleomon is from PenZ:ME so now we finally have a conclusion to Loaderleomon sitting alone. You might notice some excessively good use with Loader!
Well there’s still no Locomon but look at Duramon and…is that Piledramon??
There’s a completely new card template being used now which creates huge images. We changed lots of art and most effects. Much of this makes cards closer resemble their original videogame counterparts but made playable. Some are here for better compatibility with Set XD release.
NOTE: The name changes of Alraumon and Biyomon are not reflected on other card’s evo-boxes yet. Please treat those cards as valid for these new names.
Polymorphic Code ➤ Art. Speed 3 made explicit because unvoidable
Palmon ➤ Art
Alraunemon ➤ Art. Name “Alraumon” ➧ “Alraunemon”. +P 20 ➧ 10, discourage rack/support-only. Added conditional 30 +P. Added conditional power to encourage fielding this
Demidevimon ➤ Art. Support removed halve HP which was unweildy, made it a type buster
Piyomon ➤ Art. Name “Biyomon” ➧ “Piyomon”. Stat tweaks to original PS1. Conditional +P removed to discourage rack-only. Support now has conditional draw
Mojyamon ➤ Art. Support variable HP recovery ➧ definite as in PS1. Ability Draw 1 ➧ “Guard”. Evo-bonus names for better network. Evo-bonus draw 1 & discard ➧ draw variable or take Level C to give back advantage removed from “Draw 1” ability
Doggymon ➤ Art. Swap Deadly and Normal attack power. Evo-bonus names for better network, HP +200 ➧ +100 & trash 2. Support discard 2 ➧ 1, trash 1 ➧ 2. Added conditional guard to encourage fielding+voiding and add tankiness lost by HP bonus reduction
Gladimon ➤ Art. Support from -punishing discard 4 ➧ bonus and irreducible power (aka “sharp”). Speed 3 for “unvoidable”-like nature of sharp. Evo-bonus names new network compatible with XD. Stats tweaked and rebalanced for better Deadly at tiny cost of all others
Hanumon ➤ Art. +P 20 ➧ 10. Evo-bonus Unvoidable ➧ HP+70, take Level U, boosts only affect self for new 40/+10 weight class. Added conditional 20 +P. Support from Jamming to PS1-like power and conditional draw
Gesomon ➤ Art. Stat block was Dolphmon (PS1) ➧ Gesomon (PS1). +P 20 ➧ 10. Added conditional 20 +P. Support was Dolphmon (PS1) ➧ low-power big HP recovery. Evo-bonus Power only for Special attack but opponent can’t play Evolutions. “To Zero” ➧ “Guard” wording update
Centaurmon ➤ Art. +P 20 ➧ 10. Added conditional 20 +P. Deadly power reverted to PS1. Evo-bonus Normal attack also gets +50 pow now, HP +150, Draw 2 to compensate for worse printed +P; names changed for better network
Check the card gallery for the full library. Or see below for this one.
Finally, it’s here, XD! The D is for Durandal. Auxiliary sets are even smaller than mini sets, typically around 10-12 cards. These focus heavily around a central theme—in this case, Zubamon & related blades. These sorts of sets are really great for adding small supplements to the game in a way that’s easy for us to design and develop over a shorter period of time. The effects in this set focus on hooking a benefit into your own KOs and keeping your DP zone filled enough for a comeback. So it charges down like a train, gets a huge hand and keeps coming when knocked back. It’s relentless! XD is also the premier of our new card template! This is so exciting. We can’t wait to have people dive right in and start having a blast.
Huge set! Very very exciting! Royal Domain is a big set we’ve been planning for over a year now which is meant to add a lot of Level M cards to the game as well as Aces. Since these cards are only 1 per deck, they tend to get low priority in most sets and have 0-2 of each. But rule of cool: If it’s cool, downsides be damned, just make it. Even if you’re not likely to see your Mega in a given game, we still worked to make each one feel unique and powerful, besides the fact they compliment play styles in the game.
As the word “Royal” implies, this set contains a few missing Royal Knights like Sleipmon, Dynasmon, Lordknightmon. The total number of Ruler Digimon and cards for them have gotten a big boost. But of course—this is Royal Domain. We didn’t neglect the other stages of evolution and there are plenty of Rookie cards with a second printing now. No new Datas, we’re sorry :( but we made a playable Venusmon before the official card game! This set took a lot out of us, especially the development phase, so we hope you enjoy.
Another followup set, this time for XC. Before, those murky bunnies got the followup Lunar Eclipse and now the burning cats get Solar Flare! You see what we did there? These follow-up sets are meant to flesh out their partner Auxiliary set (in this case, XC) and have about 15 cards. These are themed but less so than Aux sets in order to bring more variety. There are actually 3 new mechanics in this set, which is probably a record for something so small. The attack ability “Mimic”, the keywords Fast/Slow, and the mechanic Nova counters. We had a lot of fun making all these new cards so we hope you have as much fun playing.
A new year, a new set of expectations. Our art game is going ever-higher. This time, we have been rigging and customizing models just to improve art while still working on delivering new cards. Here, we have erratas to accompany the new SF set release and art fixes. Some effects also changed.
Firamon Alt-art provided (no effect changes, just non-dot art).
Guilmon Art & types for x3.
Madleomon Leormon name change
Leormon Leormon name change & stats & types x3 & if not effect
Tortamon Leormon name change
Labramon Stats & ability & art & effect & +P
Kudamon Art & type x3
Hawkmon Art
Tsukaimon Effect removed recode.
Gabumon Triangle up
Elecmon Ability to x3 VS & stats & art
Garurumon Art & bonus & effect buffed
Kabuterimon Art & effect to support & bonus
Tekkamon Art & bonus
Leomon Leormon name change
Wargreymon Art
Giromon Art & bonus & effect buffed
Coliseum Art & reverted to old PS1 game style with buff
And now for the long-awaited third Auxiliary Set, XC! The C is for cats & corona, like the halo of the sun. Auxiliary sets are even smaller than mini sets, typically around 10-12 cards. These focus heavily around a central theme—in this case, Apollomon & related cats. These sorts of sets are really great for adding small supplements to the game in a way that’s easy for us to design and develop over a shorter period of time. The effects in this set allow you to partially mulligan several times in one game and hook into the discards for various other neat effects. This one was super cool to work on and I hope you all enjoy.
What’s good about it: Royal Meister starts with an unopposed victory bonus (Draw 1 and opponent trashes 2) then follows up with a super version of [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/078-Piximon.png” name=”Piximon”] support that can be any attack ability (not just ) and any of your active stack, not just the current active. This is especially devastating if you pair with multiple “x3 VS” abilities and swap to the effective type at any given time. If played right, you get more value than any of the Defense Plug-Ins. With a swiss-army knife that can include Drain when you need HP, Grudge for revive, and a variety of attack guards and counters, the possibilities are only limited by your deck and evolution.
What’s bad about it: The possibilities are limited by your deck and evolution. If you aren’t evolving much or have a homogenous deck, Royal Meister is going to give you few choices and may actually become dead in hand.
Tips: The second effect works like a Ruler Dominion effect but for attack abilities. Sometimes, you may use this simply to gain your ability while getting to use and that can be value enough. Pair with a KO on the opponent’s turn (1st Attack or a “Killer” ability) to effectively get two unopposed victory bonuses. A deck with a few Shatter abilities scattered throughout can use Royal Meister as a more affordable way to remove pesky attachments even when they won’t get the damage reduction. You can also use abilities like “Static 3″ and with the mastery Calamity, convert the static into Trash 3 for a total Trash value of 5 plus a draw, which beats [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/190-DigiGrave.png” name=”Digi-Grave”]. Importantly, this does not change your attack’s ability to one in your stack, it changes Royal Meister to the effect of an attack ability so you can double up on your own ability. That normally isn’t useful except in cases where you double up your x3 VS (x9 VS!) or with something like [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/044-Dorbickmon.png” name=”Dorbickmon”] for a grand total of Trash 10. Royal Meister can also be very strong if you have 2 different attack Counters in your active stack including one on the active which you use, effectively guaranteeing a counter in most cases. Pair with [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/008-Metamorph.png” name=”Metamorph”] to basically pick any abilities in your entire deck.
What’s good about it: You get 200 Power, then can pick between any types you want or 20 +P to assist evolution. Simple, flexible, fits in many decks.
What’s bad about it: This can’t be racked, so shouldn’t take the place of a Digimon with 20 +P (you have to wait till next turn to evolve, not immediately). Its primary support is also only +200 Power when that’s the same a Digimon support provides, so most 20+P Digimon with the same support would be comparable. Many decks have no use for type change especially at support speed. Even if you need one of these, since it’s worse than another Option at each effect, you’d need at least 2 before it pays off.
Tips: Use Loader Chip to get tight decks some more room. When a deck has problems evolving but has plenty of Evolution cards, Loader Chip will help since it won’t sacrifice any Power along the way. Can be combined with Ancestry mastery for +100 HP (choose type change) in addition, which works to increase its value. Combine with [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/090-Rusttyrannomon.png” name=”Rusttyrannomon”] ACTIVATE for big damage (choose DP). Use with [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/007-Ace-Chip.png” name=”Ace Chip”] for another +100 Power. Combine several helper cards like this for a monster support. In a chip-heavy deck, chain Loader into [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/011-BoostChip.png” name=”Boost Chip”] when you don’t need the DP to evolve. Compare as a more aggressive version of [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/016-Puppet-Switch.png” name=”Puppet Switch”].
What’s good about it: Doubles your Power and sets the opponent’s to 0. This doesn’t care about level, though it certainly covers Level M just like Silver Ball and any Level C that shares a name with the opponent’s destiny zone. Yes, has the name. Hearts attack specifies “Digimon”, not card number. If it came from there (check their pre-game roster to be sure) or simply matches, you’re getting the effect. It also means decks that use a lot of Level C with “Also named ______” can be in big trouble. Hearts Attack allows you to get ahead early if the opponent starts with a destiny evolve; or you can get 2 KOs much easier in the late game if they get to Level M. If you can’t use the effect, you get a very high quality draw (recode 2 and draw) as replacement.
What’s bad about it: Unlike Silver Ball, the mean hugs do not cover Level U, so you won’t be able to use this as an answer to a sudden threat you had no way of seeing but you also can’t deal with. Level C are not normally huge threats except a few and Level M you can usually see coming. Worse, Level U are typically easier to KO with double power than Level M. This is also entirely opponent-dependent unless you can coerce them into drawing their partner or specific Level C from deck, and then into evolving it; so it may be dead in hand for a while. Even if it’s a high quality draw, the alternate effect is just a replacement for this dead card that used up a valuable support for turn.
Tips: Like Silver Ball, you get a surprising amount of coverage to save your butt. Weigh the options between Level U and destiny-related Digimon. Both give you Level M coverage by their nature. Level U may not fall from a simple power doubling but a Level C could die in a heartbeat. This is especially good for countering any deck that likes to search its partner, use [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/013-BlueComet.png” name=”Blue Comet”], overuse the same named Level C, or weirdly has cards with the same name as their destiny zone but at different levels somehow (Example: changing their active’s name). Hearts Attack is especially devastating in the common situation where you get a KO and the opponent digs for their partner to quickly come back. Many common partner evolutions are strong since you don’t have to meet DP requirements, so this also offers protection from [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/090-Devidramon.png” name=”Devidramon”] and similar.
Dirty Saucer—Garbagemon’s signature shield and yours too.
What’s good about it: You get to draw this to hand, so it’s an extra free card. Stops all trashing and I do mean all. Right in the middle of it. Even if you are supposed to Trash 7 but you only trashed like 2, you stop immediately. Even the opponent’s trash costs won’t be able to be paid for the rest of the turn. Now you can use highly detrimental cards like [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/009-BigMamemon.png” name=”Bigmamemon”] with a much softer blowback. Even the almighty [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/177-Warp-Dimension.png” name=”Warp Dimension”] becomes a foam dart gun because Dirty Saucer only stops the trashing, it doesn’t void the support that caused the trashing. In fact, many opponent cards may misfire (self-void) even if they are unvoidable, since cards can always void themselves. Once it’s in your hand, you can put anything from your trash back in the deck plus a recode after.
What’s bad about it: Chance. Once you want this to get trashed, you may not get it. Or you might just draw it. A self-destructive or reckless player may find themselves without their shield in a time of need, with tons of cards blown away into their trash zone. It’s also really hard to use in a deck with trash costs. If you say you are trashing 3 for a cost then the second card is dirty saucer, you only count as having trashed 2 cards. Depending on the effect, this can misfire after you’ve already paid. You can suppress the misfire but it means skipping Dirty Saucer. The “Any Support” effect does delete itself, so is very fleeting and must be used wisely. You should check if this actually affects your game anyway, since you might use it a few times in the lifespan of a deck but not actually see the benefits unless you also change how you play. Every slot this takes up in a deck could’ve been a much more powerful card. Options are vying for limited and highly competitive space within a deck, so Dirty Saucer’s lack of “killer app” potential could make it a flop in your deck. Plus, if you really want to stack the recode, the shuffle beforehand is going to hurt all your other recodes.
Tips: Maybe you noticed, but the act of trashing should happen 1 card at a time to keep a player’s trash zone in the correct order (bottom to top). This allows crazy cards like Dirty Saucer to exist and effectively interrupt that process as soon as it shows. Be aware that “both players trash X” effects should happen simultaneously, so make sure to react in a timely manner if your Saucer happens, to prevent any game state rollbacks. While not every deck can use this with maximum copies (and bypass much of the negatives), a deck using the Mantra mastery (for shuffle recode) can exploit the shuffle effect on Dirty Saucer to maximum potential without also increasing its own risk too heavily. Look for effects like Tueryemon that have trash costs but have more than 1 effect so your entire support doesn’t misfire if you get Dirty Saucer. Try using Recycle on it to guarantee you get the nullification next time you would trash, then have some extra draw ready in case you don’t. Recode can be a downside but also help you know when the Saucer is coming. The best part may be getting trashed a lot before seeing this, especially since the “Recycle any 1 and shuffle” part will only be putting your best card back in a much thinner deck and this can be combined with other similar effects for a deadly lean-machine deck. Because Digimon doesn’t really have a “meta”, I wouldn’t recommend Saucer for trash countering but I would suggest a copy or two if your own deck is self-destructive or very weak to such things. Keep an eye on your Ace and you may be able to retrieve it with Saucer and simply mulligan until you get the Ace, if that suits the current game.
