Deck Size Change – Construction Legality

With the release of Bit Depth, it’s time to officially unveil a change to the game’s basic deck construction rules that we’ve been playtesting. This is something that came about after we announced we would be working on the new set (Bit Depth) 9 months ago. As this has had incredibly positive results, damn-near zero negatives, and fixes several aspects of the game, we’re proud to announce a very carefully crafted change to deck size! If you’re just here for the rules and don’t care about the “why”, skip to the Pre-Setup Procedure section. Full Article

Why Mission-based Card Games Don’t Work

One of the hallmarks of western card game design since the early 90s with Decipher Inc, is the “location” or “mission” card. You can see its presence even today in some of Fantasy Flight’s biggest earners. I’m here to say that I don’t think this style of game design really works for dueling card games. Their apparent primary narrative purpose is to give a sense of dimension to the board—making it somewhat like a board game, and add a layer of depth to the game. Its apparent mechanical purpose is to split player resources across various goals (locations/missions tend to give rewards). This is a style of prescriptive design wherein the designer assigns a mechanic to the game and players must play around this mechanic. This is opposed to a freestyle game such as Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh or a semi-prescriptive game such as Pokemon. In those games, you can pretty much do what you want within a much larger constraint space. Players tend to value that large space because it acts like a sandbox that gives them authority and power to craft their own style of play and consequently, their own player-driven narrative. But maybe mission cards are just kinda bad. Full Article

Digi-Deck: Time Stop

This deck primarily relies on its Ace—Download. By cheesing through Levels rapidly, it can arrive at Millenniumon and effectively stop most opposing strategies, as well as disrupt the speed of the opponent’s play. Using high-body Ultimates like Kimeramon, this deck has an easy time progressing through its evolution steps, with or without its many Evolution cards. It tries to pack an answer for every occasion, then uses Millenniumon’s ability (and DATA card) to refresh the deck of the best solutions for the current matchup. Over a short time, the deck becomes incredibly tooled to the specific opponent being faced.

For high skill players, the deck also tends to have a lack of good prediction effects. Only Millenniumon and Airdramon have good To-Zero specials, with the former’s requiring a turn to set it up. Airdramon won’t be a body on the field for long, but that can hypothetically increase the usability of its To-Zero. Kimeramon has a Cross To-Zero but would rarely use it unless it’s time to evolve or the opponent can gain way too much advantage from a 1st Attack, x3 VS, or Drain ability. Outside of these mundane cases, Set EX Palmon exists in the deck which can give an attack-prediction for +400 Power. This can be absolutely crucial, but if not recycled, is highly limited. Due to the limited predictive power, it is an easier deck to play but also one with less maximum potential.

Types

Primary type: (22)
Lesser types: (8) | (5)
Rare types: (4) | (2)
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.

Millenniumon DATA
2 Mutates + 1 Silver ball
Level Crush
Vending Machine

This pre-setup removal will prioritize getting as much early-game as possible and minimizing late game. Most games, I will remove the Mutates and Silver Ball over the 3 Firewalls in the deck, just because Firewalls are technically more viable early game most of the time. Level crush is absolutely dead. Millenniumon DATA could be good but only if you lead with an early lot of trashing, which is rare. Vending Machine is even worse because it’s also slow.

Credit for the original list goes to member SubZero.

See visual list for specific card versions whenever ambiguous.

Time Stop

Level R: 10

4 (DB) Biyomon – Used primarily for her draw 2, as the evolve effect is only usable early game. Evolve effect is great for not only fixing an early brick but also for toolboxing a specific Level C for the situation needed (Jamming on Aquilamon or Circle hate on Airdramon for example). This can also assist bluffing before attacks are chosen, especially since the other Rs don’t have Circle hate, therefore Airdramon is a great pick; and moves forward into Kimeramon’s DNA.

4 (EX) Palmon – The one and only good predictive card in the deck. Power +400 on the same-prediction is pretty top notch here and can easily end an annoying opposing Level C with too much health or a Level U that slipped in. The alternative helps fuel our main inevitability engine of recuperating the deck.

1 Lucemon – Having the ability to void anything is pretty nice, even though it lets the opponent draw. Even if this gets digimon-voided (but not Firewalled), you still get the type change effect, which can be crucial for activating Aquilamon to fetch the Ace or attaching Kokatorimon to start the engine.

1 Monodramon Partner – This is our partner. I sincerely wish we could use it to evolve or use the support regularly. Unfortunately, until the DATA proxy is used, Monodramon must be considered nothing more than a searchable DATA card for the purposes of Mega evolving. After that, he facilitates our deck quite well. Just about any replacement partner would probably do well here.

Level C: 10

4 Airdramon – Decent HP body for stalling until Level U if necessary. Can be devastating if it comes from Biyomon. Can occasionally search Aeroveedramon. Sadly, this support is often a dud and is only necessary for Kimeramon’s easy DNA. When on the active, any Metal (not in deck), Wind or Dragon can be used as DNA for Kimeramon. This essentially means any Level C in this deck.

4 Aquilamon – Despite the ridiculous body on this bird—which is quite handy, the primary use for it is to support and fetch Download. This can be difficult if Download was recycled after evolving to Kimeramon/Millenniumon since their types are Enigma, but their bodies should buy enough time to get a Puppet Switch or Lucemon. This card is absolutely crucial early, then used about once after that to return Download to the hand after it’s recycled and sits in the trash unused.

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. In the ideal game, Kokatorimon isn’t actually usable until a type change occurs, since you would be Downloaded to a Kimeramon. However, Aeroveedramon and Megadramon do exist as temporary surrogates with huge bodies, so the Kokatorimon is still possible on Level U. It cannot be overstated how crucial this attachment is to the function of the deck. If it gets shattered, it should be the top recycle priority for later use. This along with trash-cost cards in the deck can single-handedly set up the deck as a raging inferno.

1 Birdramon – The support can find the partner when KO’d, which is a bit of a setback but absolutely better than not having it. Otherwise, it’s a good functional any-recycle to help boost our deck before its ready.

Level U: 7

4 Kimeramon – Necessary for the main strategy. Large body. Gets us to Millenniumon. Great for Mutate and Level Crush.

2 Megadramon – Primarily in the deck for its Wind typing (to activate supports) and level, Megadramon also boasts a pretty large body in the form of power. This can give us pseudo-Mega power until we’re ready to evolve. HP isn’t much of a concern in this deck when it can effectively bounce around high level Digimon repeatedly, so high Power is far more desirable. The support ability can be incredibly clutch as well, winning several games by KOing opposing Megas and Ultimates.

1 Aeroveedramon – This card has a lot going for it: If you normal evolve to it using Airdramon, it picks a card from the top 3. It has a decent body with a sometimes-necessary 1st Attack that’s pretty high. It can activate Wind-based supports and its own support is incredibly relevant almost all the time, doubling power on Level Us. Regardless, the fail state can give non-Us (such as Millenniumon) 1st Attack on support.

Evolution: 6

2 Mutate – Level-hop from U to U with 300 bonus HP. Ideally, the target is from Aeroveedramon/Megadramon to Kimeramon once the partner is drawn. However, Mutating to stay alive is perfectly valid as well. Make sure to rack the +30Ps in the deck so their costs can be paid.

1 Level Crush – Used almost exclusively to deny the 2KOs when Millenniumon starts to get weak. By the point, the deck should be perfectly set up and Level Crush has a high likelihood of being drawn from a trim and fit deck. Crush down to Kimeramon and start preparing the Download/Mutates for more endurance later. At this point, Kimeramon’s HP would be 4020, which is soul-crushing to face.

1 Download ACE – The bread and butter of the deck. Download should be used liberally, early, and often. Always attempt to recycle this into the deck and bank one in hand in case an HP-refresh is necessary. This card can potentially ensure an opponent never gets a KO.

1 Super Tag – This is a semi-fail state but can assist at getting to Level U without trouble. In addition, it sets up a nice DP contingency in case the main hitter dies unexpectedly. It’s possible to use Super Tag to set up for Mutate.

1 Digivice – Fail state but acts as an effective catch-all for Level U.

Option: 12

2 Puppet Switch – Essential for early re-use of Download and other key components of the deck (Millenniumon DATA). Use this to change to Wind type to enable supports. Keep hand size up. DP bonus helps set up Mutate.

2 Partner Finder – The partner is incredibly key in this deck. The road to Millenniumon is paved with Mugendramon DATA, and so it is our proxy card. The Partner must be in hand to use the proxy, so partner finders are more necessary than it may first seem. The good news is, after the first use, the second finder can be used to shuffle the partner back in, giving them a key appearance late game in case the main attacker gets KO’d with no good replacement. At 2, this deck essentially has 3 chances in the deck to get the partner.

2 Cherrymon’s Mist FIREWALL – This is the most orthodox and reliable Firewall. This could be at 3 copies, but homogeny kills in this deck. This deck requires diversity and re-use.

1 Dark Destroy FIREWALL – The third Firewall should be Dark Destroy. Since Death Evolution will always fail due to our higher level and Jugonsatsu simply adds more tankiness to an already tank deck, Dark Destroy is necessary. The ability to punish supporting with a Level U is devastating when the opponent is behind.

1 Vending Machine – No recycle-based deck would be complete without a Vending Machine. This makes the deck less vulnerable to trash, mulligans, and can help boost setup to the deck thinning process.

1 Training Manual – Necessary to plug a weakness to discard and since the deck needs to dig late game into the streamlined deck.

1 Mega Chip – The cost ironically sets up the deck by removing all cards at an equal rate, but the “recycle any” effects can cherry pick what goes back in. In addition, this makes a devastating blow.

1 Mega Disk – Same as Mega Chip for purpose, but with slighly more trash capability and a significant increase to the deck’s endurance. This is often a target for constant re-use.

1 Silver Ball – Nearly staple leveler of playing fields.

Data: 1

1 Millenniumon DATA – Almost always used as a slightly weaker Any-Phase Vending Machine, hence only one copy of vending machine. If any Data Break occurs, this deck will probably lose.

Destiny Zone

Partner: Monodramon

Millenniumon – Main event. Use the Trash 3 cost to set up the trash incrementally. First time, it usually has to change its Cross in order to gain the best effect from the opponent. The most common is To-Zero, but you can always threaten a sudden 1st Attack kill out of nowhere. Bear in mind, this ability stays, it is not a lingering type that gets removed after the turn is over. That means if you choose Crash, be prepared to not only heal but change the Cross after. Always try to use the recycle any 2 if possible since it’s the primary engine of the deck, especially when compounded with Kokatorimon and several supports that do similar things. A one-turn setup can be achieved with a large enough trash, Kokatorimon, Millenniumon DATA any phase, and Vending Machine (recycles any 13 minimum, then sets up the top 3). This is similar to a heavy Recode deck except that it is a bit more flexible and can be faster.

Airdramon – Just used as an emergency to Kimeramon. This will BRICK the Mugendramon DATA!

(BR-059) Coredramon – This green guy has serious tank health in case of the horrifying problem where we partner evolve. Bricks Mugendramon DATA!

Mugendramon DATA Proxy – If only we could use the Data Break or Any Phase without completely bricking the deck. However, the DNA material off of a heavily searchable partner means the deck has maximum consistency for getting to the main event. This card’s existence as the deck’s proxy could be a good argument for running no partner champions, and instead adding 2 cards to the main deck.

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:

Super Tag – It’s a good card and has the before mentioned positives. However, it’s more often than not a dead card due to requiring a Puppet Switch from a previous turn for the +10P it provides to be worthwhile. It’s almost better to use Meatvolution for the same purpose.

Megadramon + Aeroveedramon – They’re good obviously. However, they don’t make much sense either. Just about any Level U would be possible here as long as it has Wind. MagnaAngemon could be better just for toolboxing type-hate from the deck. So could Angewomon or Garudamon. The list will only grow as the game gets older. In fact, Aeroveedramon may be completely flawed and Megadramon may be the preferred U. Or none of these types at all, and you could just chance that you won’t need a specific type and try picking something monsterous from another type. Maybe that causes D-Link to look like a better choice than Digivice or Super Tag.

Birdramon – Probably the weakest champion choice in the deck. Howabout Kiwimon for some 1st Attack? Maybe we could run something that increases our Wind-type change consistency.

Monodramon – Almost completely arbitrary. This deck could run just about any partner Digimon since the support and evolutions can never be used until after it’s proxied for a DATA. The possibilities here are endless. Only chosen because it feels weird not to have an extra Airdramon or 60 DP as a support.

The entire Wind typing – Most unusually, the entire deck may be a flawed concept. Wind is certainly a good choice and proved itself in testing thus far. However, a better version of the deck might fail forward by running Monochromon and Cyclomon, to pick Download from the deck on a successful evobox. Admittedly, Kokatorimon carries Wind in this instance, and is the primary reason I stuck with SubZero’s original type choice.

DATA as a proxy – It’s also possible that a better version of the deck might ditch having the DATA as a proxy and searching the partner and just hard-mulligan to the DATA in the main deck and then recovering the trash with oodles of recycle.

Destiny Zone

Key Points

In the briefest of terms, this is a juggernaut of a deck. It’s incredibly fast and incredibly tooled. Let’s take a look at some of its strengths and weaknesses, and keep these in mind while playing:

Incredibly fast. Download, Digivice, Super Tag, and several +30P Digimon make this deck a monster of speed. Skips levels regularly.
High endurance. Usually, speed decks lack endurance because they skip crucial stepping stones like Champion Digimon, removing hit-absorption before healing through evolution. This deck uses Download and Mutate to repeatedly skip around level Ultimate, healing constantly. In addition, it Level Crushes from Mega to Ultimate for the same effect. Immense endurance.
High Power. Speed decks tend to lack consistent matchup power as opponent catch up to their level. However, this deck abuses high-body Digimon and doesn’t suffer low power here.
Inevitability engine. Millenniumon plus his DATA and other picky recycles (Birdramon) allow this deck to continuously weed out the unnecessary cards through the course of the game. Bricking becomes non-existent by late game.

Early game can brick. Due to high reliance on Evolution cards to set up, your early game is incredibly vulnerable to well-placed Death Evolutions and simple miss-hands. Mitigate with a liberal opening game mulligan and have a backup plan to evolve orthodox.
Vulnerable if it has to mulligan too much. Some decks can bounce back and typically one with this much recycle can, but it tends not to be enough. In fact, the deck tries to actively put bulk in the trash. Surprisingly vulnerable to a trash-oriented deck.
Control decks make this a tough matchup. You don’t have much to recover hand size other than set DB Biyomons and single cards. If someone can effectively keep your hand low and fog the game long enough, there’s not many tricks in this deck to overcome that.
Circle punishment is devastating. This is a deck that is overly-reliant on Circle until it gets Millenniumon, where it can ride Cross to victory.
Lower-level cards are devastating. Data Hijack, Black Gear, Whistle, and the list goes on… low-level cards can grind this deck to a screeching halt, allowing the opponent ample time to catch up. This effectively nullifies all of the speed the deck has built to that point. It would then need to solely rely upon endurance and its inevitability engine.

Behind the gears of “Time Stop” lurks a beast ready to awaken. This is a deck that thoroughly abuses —wherein earlier plays tend to compound their effects on the game; not only through insanely fast evolution, but also by streamlining the deck of unnecessary cards based on the opponent. Given this, it’s difficult to soft-counter this deck, much more to hard-counter it. Absolutely top play is necessary from the opponent in order to not get run over immediately.

If Digimon Battle Evolution had tournaments, this is the style of deck I would expect to see at top levels of play. It gets checked hard against Rookie-counter, low-level Crash, and rush decks that pack Circle-hate, but it plays the long game while also setting up totally insurmountable Digimon early. In this respect, it might be comparable to Magic‘s “Tron” deck type in modern. If you’re the type of player that likes to get in early, have a ton of contingency plans, and set up for the long winter, give Time Stop a go!

Credit again, for the original deck list should go to member SubZero. Mostly with respect to the bold idea to have the DATA as the proxy, repeatedly abuse Download, and use a Wind core for consistency. This version of the deck has been adapted to the deck list legality changes that allow more cards (50 shared between the DZ and main deck, adding +6 cards to the deck) and to further refine its main strategy.

Top

Card template change!

Subtype Change

The card templates for Digimon Battles now reflects the subtypes better. Instead of a permatext denoting that it’s “Also ” etc, it now displays all the subtypes in a new black bar under the primary type icon. The site currently has all the new images updated but TTS and OCTGN do not yet. The change is superficial only, so you won’t be required to update your decks. Example of the change below:

Digimon COTD: Black Gear

Black Gear—If own level is lower…

What’s good about it: Black Gear is a crazy mix-n-match that tries to give you the best possible answer to whatever lower-level situation you find yourself in. Since you gain every effect cumulatively, unlocking the Level U effect also automatically means getting the Level C. Since each level has an “OR”, you could potentially play this card with any 3 of 6 different effects. Each of those effects is easily comparable to other option-potence cards. At the highest level, it even gives the option for “Turbo” which means change the Support to “Any Phase”, so you can stack the remaining effects and still play a support; or else you could just get your Ace and play something devastating. With 2 KOs on the line, turbo OR Ace is a heavy advantage. Even if you’re not lower level, you can still draw 2 in a pinch.

What’s bad about it: You get nothing unless you’re behind in evolution. Everything you get is based on your opponent, which you can nudge but never control. If you unlock only the Level C ability, you’re Level R and at that point, a mere Power -400 or HP -300 might be nothing when you’re so weak. Voiding while the opponent is higher and U/M usually leaves you open to a beating from their superior body and the alternative for Trash 6 may do nothing to help you in that particular instance. Turbo and Draw 2 isn’t particularly devastating to a Level M, regardless of your level. Any Ace searched can’t be supported on the same turn. Each effect on its own is hard to justify.

Tips: At first, Black Gear looks difficult to control. But it’s important to remember, you don’t get more effects the further behind you are, you get them for being any number of levels behind, but with an opponent’s that’s further up the evolution stages. Therefore, the maximum value of Black Gear isn’t when you’re Level R, it’s when you’re Level U and they’re Level M (or any level just under theirs). Simply use a slow-evolution deck—Marine type usually excels at this. Any Digimon with high HP at each level can go slowly and allow the opponent to eventually reach Level M with very little risk. You won’t need to focus on your damage much, which gives you time to prepare for the biggest effect. Try using this as a guaranteed 2 KO card, either by searching your Ace (while Level U ideally) or turbo for a last-ditch KO. If you chose “trash 6”, the opponent may not be able to effectively recover from losing their Level M, as you now threaten to reach your own Level M unchallenged. If you plan to wait for the best effect or not, it’s still a good idea to include other “low-level” cards such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/170-Whistle.png” name=”Whistle”], and cards that work better if level is lower, like [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/199-Data-Copy.png” name=”Data Copy”].

Turbo is not a unilaterally worse choice than your Ace, since Turbo allows you to stack every other effect, draw 2, and still support with [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/068-Silver-Ball.png” name=”Silver Ball”], which covers the same bases as Black Gear’s turbo condition. The real weakness of Black Gear is comparing it to Silver Ball in the first place, since the ball is a far more straightfoward card that gives high value every time, regardless if your level is lower. All the ball and gear care about is whether your opponent is high enough. With that in mind, black gear can be extended beyond this microcosm of level, which isn’t very common anyway (U and M aren’t the mode of the game) and provides an additional benefit for opposing Level C. It’s not a devastating effect, but -400 Power can sometimes be as good as Whistle, since the highest Level C power is 600, most circles are around 500, most triangles around 300, and the average incoming attack will be somewhere around 400 after all. With that in mind, it’s like a soft Whistle if you’re R (where Whistle works at higher levels too, so long as you’re lower), but with the additional option to soften them up by 300 HP before hitting. Some Level R are quite strong, such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/011-Goblimon.png” name=”Goblimon”], which has the highest base power of any R, and Crash Rookies such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/010-Ghostmon.png” name=”Ghostmon”], which has the highest damage potential of all Rs. Goblimon’s circle plus Black Gear is 780 damage! Ghostmon’s crash + gear is 1050 damage on a Rookie!

In fact, Crash with any lower level is going to benefit from the HP -300 effect, so keep that in mind. Just throwing this one out there: you can Data Break on the turn you support with black gear, since you probably don’t want Level M anymore (unless you have a plan), and breaking will pile on even more powerful effects. What’s extra devastating is piling black gear on after using [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/164-Level-Crush.png” name=”Level Crush”] to ensure maximum carnage. Crushing for an HP reset, a ton of bonus HP, plus all the gear effects you can handle is a pretty strong turn. Surprisingly, that’s not the only Evolution card this low-level option pairs well with—[card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/167-Mutate.png” name=”Mutate”] can keep your HP reset and fresh, while providing a body swap to another of the same level (which would obviously be lower). Another counter-intuitive pick is [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/166-D-Link.png” name=”D-Link”], since you can play an abnormal Level C and evolve to Level U, assuming you waited for an opponent Level M. So it’s not even a matter of keeping your own active alive through this process to maximize the effectiveness. You might think it’s tough to ensure you’re exactly 1 level lower, but since Mutate, Level Crush, and D-Link all assist in fine-tuning this, it’s actually quite easy. Not to mention there’s more than one card in the game that evolves you from R to any C from the deck (or Destiny Zone). You don’t have to be “lowest” level, just a little lower will do.

Digimon Partners

What’s a Partner?

A partner can be any Level R (Rookie) in the game. You’ll want to have one in every deck, since they confer distinct and inarguable advantages that normal Rookies just don’t offer. Things can get a bit complicated, so it’s let’s break down what a partner can do:

Evolve very quickly, before the Evolution Phase even
Toolbox one of two specific Champions for you
Ignore DP and type while evolving from the Destiny Zone
Use certain Option/Evolution/DATA cards as a proxy

How are they used?

Partners can be used in one of a couple scenarios in the game, and have several rules tailored specifically for odd cases they create. They’re essentially, a dedicated rule-breaker. Here are some of the scenarios, and a walkthrough of how partners change them: Full Article

Digimon COTD: Plug-In Backup

Plug-In Backup—Keep your DP even when you evolve.

What’s good about it: Since you often have to make tough choices about what to rack, this eliminates that responsibility by taking all those cards back. Since it has “recycle any 3”, you’ll get to choose which cards are returned—including partner, Ace, DATA, Firewalls, situationally good cards, and anything the opponent trashed or sniped that you wish to keep.

What’s bad about it: Early game, you don’t have much to recycle. Requires evolving by DP and provides no discount. In fact, discounts of any kind make this hypothetically less useful since racking means needing the Backup less. On the same note, it doesn’t shine by default in decks that can evolve with 1 rack. This effect can be a low return value unless planned for properly. While rare, it can’t take anything from DP unless it’s a Digimon card.

Tips: Make sure you’re not trying to use lots of external DP-gain effects such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/002-Monodramon.png” name=”Monodramon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/043-Raremon.png” name=”Raremon”], or evo bonuses for this. If you do, you’ll lose out on a lot of its potency. This is similar to a [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/182-Vending-Machine.png” name=”Vending Machine”] that you use during evolution. If you’ve already used [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/099-SuperTag.png” name=”Super Tag”] or some other method of “ignore DP”, Plug-In Backup interferes heavily with this by taking everything back into hand. This card is best used a little after the early game, when you have some trash to recycle or in decks that need to rack more; OR after deliberately using a mulligan a few times to search your Ace, use it, evolve with this, then recycle the Ace. A property common to all “recycle any” cards is the ability to trash your deck on purpose of the bulk cards, then put the strongest cards back in for easy access later. Since it’s a Plug-In, it benefits from [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/019-PluginQ.png” name=”Reload Plug-In Q”] (Quick), which gives it another draw 1 if Q is in the Destiny Zone—even more cards!

Backup asks two opposing things of you: Ensure you can be independent with your evolution (no DP reduction necessary), and rack more than 1 cards to make best use of it. Normally, if not using your Evolution card to make the evolve itself easier, you should at least have high +P or low DP cost, to ensure fast and smooth evolution. Therefore, what Backup actually asks is that you make best use of it in decks that have trouble evolving, which will pay everything back to you. In some ways, this is more powerful than Super Tag since you can re-use all the DP for different purposes. In other ways, it’s worse—if you need to re-rack them, it’s going to take time.

If you evolve fast and regularly, [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/036-BurstGrowth.png” name=”Burst Growth”] is probably better than Backup. If you’re slow or have high trash costs and low hand (or need to maintain hand), Backup is great. The [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/136-WhamonU.png” name=”Whamon”] Level U support and [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/145-Wargreymon.png” name=”Wargreymon”] or [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/090-Rusttyrannomon.png” name=”Rusttyrannomon”] Activate both benefit from larger hands. In those Level M cases, it’s difficult to keep the hand size large due evolution requiring resources from hand. Backup can ensure a much more potent and more reliable activation. A minor point, but using DP to evolve to [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/001-Herculeskabuterimon.png” name=”Herculeskabuterimon”] means everything in DP is taken, you might draw 2, and that massive hand of cards is protected from discard, plus your deck is now 3 cards larger which helps enable the deck protection passive.

If you get the evo-bonus of [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/148-Rosemon.png” name=”Rosemon”] or [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/008-Megidramon.png” name=”Megidramon”] (when evolving by DP of course), an added Backup is a total of Recycle any 8! That’s a very powerful way to create the most potent deck for upcoming plays. This also heavily fuels discard costs such as an attached TOY [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/034-Missile-Pod.png” name=”Missile Pod”] and [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/065-MetalParts.png” name=”Metal Parts”], where every discard counts.

[card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/016-Puppet-Switch.png” name=”Puppet Switch”] is a notoriously strong card but it can’t be used with Backup! Pay attention to where Plug-In Backup is restricted to only taking “Digimon DP”. [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/030-Kyuubimon.png” name=”Kyubimon”] particularly loves and hates this plugin. Love because you can switch what supports Kyubimon activates at no extra DP cost to you. Hate because you may not want to switch, but using this in the same deck will eventually force one or else face the consequences of a dead Evolution card in hand.

As we see, Plug-In Backup is best in decks that “slow rack” and can obtain all their DP from Digimon cards in that zone. It’s very specific but there are several cards that shine extra bright this way. Any Digimon with “Put this into DP.” somewhere in its effects, such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/041-Ogremon.png” name=”Ogremon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/031-Armadillomon.png” name=”Armadillomon”] (or [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/039-Armadillomon.png” name=”Armadillomon”]), [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/014-Mushroomon.png” name=”Mushroomon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/043-Patamon.png” name=”Patamon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/036-Falcomon.png” name=”Falcomon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/051-Akatorimon.png” name=”Akatorimon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/134-Angewomon.png” name=”Angewomon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/089-Devimon.png” name=”Devimon”], [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/048-Minotaurmon.png” name=”Minotaurmon”]…this list could go on for a while. In the great case of PR [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/009-Witchmon.png” name=”Witchmon”], she doesn’t just put herself into DP, she can also be used after you take all yours with Backup and swap DP with the opponent to give them 0 DP. Weirder, you could swap and then play backup, giving you the unprecedented ability to hold your opponent’s cards in your hand! Also any evo-bonus with “Put … into DP” (usually the top 1 Digimon of deck), example being [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/090-Devidramon.png” name=”Devidramon”]. So when using this card with a huge list of Digimon, there’s a lot of value that can be had for re-using those same cards over and over.

Digimon COTD: Hagurumon

DB-014 Hagurumon—A Rookie fit to assist Crash.

What’s good about it: Immediately, you’re drawn to the Support ability which attaches and saves you from the perils of Crash. Since —the type Hagurumon most easily assists, has a staggering amount of Crash, it fits right in. Circle to zero helps tremendously to keep it alive on a medium-strength body. One of the rare attachments where you will be able to use the ability the turn it attaches, so you don’t waste a turn.

What’s bad about it: You shouldn’t hang out on this Active (it’s not Goblimon after all). You’re still going to lose HP, diminishing the possibilities of this card far more than it may first appear. Takes away the slot of the valuable “Miracles Crest” which lets you use your own Active’s Support (something crash-centric decks already strive for).

Tips: Well now you don’t have to run Concert Crash anymore. Pair this with other possibilities such as Chainsaw, Data Copy (for an instant kill with almost no downside), Waspmon, or add Drain when you Crash with cards like Dark Wings. Try changing your type to after attaching, so you unlock access to more Drain. Or change to to unlock access to powerful HP-based conditionals like Icemon.

Digimon COTD: Biyomon

DB-013 Biyomon—An evolution-primed Rookie with serious hate.

What’s good about it: The amazing ability to toolbox a Champion for direct, immediate evolution from the deck, which ignores DP since it’s outside the evolution phase. That ridiculous triple hate of with a high 200 base power for it (this is good even for many Champions with x3 VS). +30 P is always welcome on a Rookie, especially in Wind. If you don’t manage to be R and Wind for the Support, you still get a serviceable draw 2.

What’s bad about it: Incredibly weak attacks otherwise. You need a serious back-up plan for this Digimon, if it gets stuck out there and left hanging with all those low-Power attacks and the extremely vulnerable HP. You will have to actually validate the Champion, which is locked to Wind Rookies. The x3 VS is only useful if you can actually hit with it without dying at Rookie level. You have to skip using an Evolution card that turn, which can stop you from getting pretty powerful bonuses.

Tips: There are really not a lot of downsides to this card other than the loss of tempo. The Support isn’t just good for saving DP and toolboxing, it can also set an opponent up for failure if they think they’re going to KO a Rookie but nope, actually you pulled out a Champion (especially if it has a new attack ability that predicts what they planned for!). Make sure you aren’t playing this when you could just evolve normally to a good option in hand. Alternatively, the effect is also sort-of like “Super Tag” in that you’ll get to keep DP, so you can Rack-Up, skip evolving, use this as support to set up your Champion (be sure to know what attack you want to use during the Strategy Phase) and then you’ll be set DP-wise for Ultimate. is really good x3 VS, especially if you manage to mix her into a deck with something like Sabirdramon. That unlocks the ability to abuse the x3 VS on a much larger scale, or even make a skeleton for a “Mastemon” deck.

Digimon COTD: Miracle Ruby

Miracle Ruby—Are you ready to evolve?

What’s good about it: “M” is for “Miracle” and “Multi-use”—you can play this as a normal support to get a phoenix effect, which doesn’t let the opponent have a KO. But you can also choose to “Turbo”, which means play this Any Phase with a couple of modifications: you don’t delete it and it counts as 1 KO as normal. You get to pick based on the situation whether it’s better to give up your support for the turn or not, depending on how far ahead the opponent is in KOs, so this is never dead in hand just like other Aces.

What’s bad about it: If 1000 HP would’ve saved you a KO, [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/004-Gold-Mushroom.png” name=”Gold Mushroom”] is arguably better (an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure). On that note, [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/071-Mystic-Seal.png” name=”Mystic Seal”] is better if you would use Ruby for its Support-speed effect in most situations, since by virtue of not dying, Seal still allows you to attack (plus void something). Not every Ace gets deleted, so good luck finding an abusable combo for this.

Tips: Here’s the thing, you’re supposed to use the Turbo version. It doesn’t delete itself (since no KO reduction happens), can be played any time so you’re not giving up support, and has a secret hidden inside it—counting as up-to 1 KO means using this out of nowhere with Level M gives you an unvoidable way to keep it fielded, while still counting as -1 KO! Gold Mushroom, Mystic Seal, and the like aren’t borderline-unvoidable. The only way to void this card when Turbo is [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/014-ClownTrick.png” name=”Clown Trick”] and that’s likely to just give you the card right back again, so you can still use it later; plus it’s a pretty rare situation to see. If you know they have Clown Trick, try baiting them to waste that void before they know what Ace you’re using. Since you’re not giving up that support, you can still play something devastating and offensive for battle, or just grab some delicious utility from [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/197-Training-Manual.png” name=”Training Manual”], especially if it fuels an Any Phase saturated deck. This is also a really weird and situational counter to [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/012-Soulmon.png” name=”Soulmon”], since your opponent is only likely to use it when you’d be KOd and you can throw this in during the first step of the Battle Phase to ensure no response play from the opponent—again, it counts as -1 KO in that situation too. Don’t forget revived Digimon never count as more than 1 KO for any reason, so this permanently sets your Level M to 1 KO.

Any situation where KOs are worth more than 1, the Turbo version of Miracle Ruby is amazing. Weirdly, you can use the Turbo version very well even with the same Soulmon; since you can’t guarantee Grudge is going to work or even be your best response that turn, a Turbo Miracle Ruby will act just like the regular Support version and give up 0 KOs due to its evo-box! With a little recycle…well you know. If you use the fact that you will appear to be cornered on the turn you Turbo this card, the opponent will select a strategy accordingly, play a support accordingly, and then be completely surprised during the first step of the Battle Phase. Because of this, Miracle Ruby is paradoxically better with decks that have some way to threaten the opponent’s attacks, such as “Counter” or “to Zero”, since they still have to account for your will to live (they don’t know you’re fine dying). In any case, that most likely means they have to support in order to get the last bit necessary to KO you, without knowing what lurks in your hand. This effectively also makes Miracle Ruby a void card, since opponents will want to play power gain to get a KO, only for you to utterly negate that no matter how much they gained. Someone using Crash or [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/191-Chainsaw.png” name=”Chainsaw”] for such a situation has doomed themselves.

But then it keeps going…if you’re not playing a deck with extreme abuse of Any Phase, large amounts of draw, or some way to get to Level M quickly, you still have the option to play this for any of your typical actives (assuming you still have a reason to put it in your deck). It’ll be deleted and therefore won’t be abusable. It won’t be nigh-unvoidable. It won’t be unilaterally better than Gold Mushroom or Mystic Seal (or any other similar), but you will still have a Digimon, it will have a good enough amount of HP to survive, and that will give you time to find some other strategy. Interestingly, it’s a weird counter for the devastating [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/067-ShiningMane.png” name=”Shining Mane”] where any other card that gives +1000 HP can’t be, since you won’t meet the conditions for its halving. Shining Mane often causes you to seize defeat from the clutches of victory.

Ruby is definitely a card that assumes you’ll be on your back-foot at some point during the game. Weirdly, I’ve witnessed a lot of contradictory things while playing this game. Those two Aces I keep bringing up? They’re common to use at the wrong time, especially Gold Mushroom since it gives more HP than people typically use before they evolve again. They don’t signal to the player when the best moment to use them is. They’re actually too good sometimes. If you’re too flexible, you don’t have a map for when to play the card. If you can’t play Miracle Ruby until you would almost certainly be KO’d, then you can pretend to be a cornered rat and force the opponent to act accordingly, as above. Ruby tends to stay in the hand for far longer, scale to the skill level of any opponent, and vastly change the little subgame of attack selection during the strategy phase. You can even commit to the revival despite not being obvious that you’ll be KO’d, by playing it earlier in the turn and forcing the opponent to try and wiggle around it—it’s a signal that you’re going to use Crash or some other reckless play and they’re likely to waste their energy trying to stop it. Since you can just recycle it back, the Ruby isn’t even wasted. Regardless of which version you use, it’s not as simple as “X card is better”.

Why does this whole article seem like a back-footed defense of a back-foot defense card? Because both reveal new hidden truths. The Miracle is Ruby lets you evolve, or stay at your max evolution. I hope this COTD does similar.

Digimon COTD: Meatvolution

Meatvolution—A silly name but a serious healing card that recovers HP when evolving.

What’s good about it: There’s nothing more to say than free meat! HP +400 (nearly unvoidable) outside of the Support Phase is pretty ridiculous, and like most utility-evolutions, Meatvolution sets your new Digimon up for success early. In this case, you get to use that shiny new Digimon for a much longer time before being forced to evolve again. It’s more powerful than Recovery Disk, which is often played in HP Recovery decks. You also get a cost reduction of -10 DP which is nice.

What’s bad about it: As typical with utility evolutions, you’ll have to evolve from DP and have your evolution taken care of independently of the card. This is just a bonus you get for doing things the old-fashioned way. It also still costs you a card from hand (and all your DP) so watch your card advantage. If you don’t actually need the extra 400 HP, this card can be a misplay or dead in hand. If you’re planning to evolve before the 400 HP is used up, you’ve essentially wasted everything.

Tips: Make sure whatever you’re going to with this card can use the 400 extra HP. It’s especially good when you can search Meatvolution card situationally from your deck. Almost always, [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/164-Level-Crush.png” name=”Level Crush”] will provide you with far more HP; so always ask yourself if you are heavily gunning for an HP-based strategy or just want to shore up some weaknesses in your existing Digimon. Overall, it’s not a bad pick once you have your DP/evolution squared away. In fact, this is one of the best cards for a Crash deck! DP -10 is the sweet spot for those since they often run many low-cost Level C, then try to get as much HP as possible before the inevitable crash. “But what if I have too much overkill” —You, probably. You might have overkill or just a ton of crash regardless, but that’s actually a good thing. In Game Theory terms, Crash is your “big gun” and the threat of it being used has to be taken just as seriously as it being used. Try looking up “Brinksmanship” to see how to level up your play in these situations. Let’s say for now that a gun is always in use, even when it is not being fired.

Digimon COTD: Reppamon

Reppamon—A Champion with heavy emphasis on support.

What’s good about it: The evo-box damaging ability is always welcome, as -100 HP to the opponent could result in a pre-Batttle Phase KO. You can choose to pay the Support cost or not, which makes this at the very least not bad to top-deck. Reducing the opponent’s Power to zero, especially while you get to attack, is incredibly powerful and usually better than a “Counter” if implemented correctly. The “Trash 2” Cross-ability can be used to much effectiveness when paired with other Trash abilities, making your fast -based deck capable of reducing the max number of KOs necessary to win in short order. Its evo-box branches 3 different types.

What’s bad about it: Its overall body is incredibly weak. You will be needing that evo-box bonus damage to deliver anything remotely resembling a KO, especially un-boosted. The +20P is a bit coarse in a type that tries to evolve as fast as possible. Lack of native 1st Attack on a weak body means it has trouble getting the final blow. Support is type-locked and attack-locked, on top of requiring a loss of card advantage (remember, you already -1 when you support with it).

Tips: If you plan to use the support often, try using -locked effects that swap your with Power (e.g. “Love Crest), or use Digimon with higher Triangles, or Triangle-abilities (e.g. “Kiwimon”) for maximum effectiveness. If you want to go for a trash-based strategy in Wind, make sure you protect its Cross and keep its HP up heavily with cards like “Large Disk”. Always set up the ability to evolve it to Level U ahead of time so you don’t get stuck on Reppamon and eat a KO.

Why Are Megas so Weird

Okay, I admit, almost none of you actually asked this question to yourselves. Maybe a few who played the game Digimon Battles was based on: Digimon World: Digital Card Battles for Playstation. In that game, all the Mega Digimon were Level U (Ultimate). It may have even shocked some of you to see Digimon like HerculeseKabuterimon, Phoenixmon, and Wargreymon labeled as “U”! Why might that be?

It’s all about balance: try playing this game with a 30 card deck instead, 4 copies of any card (not the 4, 3, 2, 1 cascading limits I put on them) and then try running 4 levels of cards in the deck. It’s madness! You won’t have nearly enough room in a deck to make any of this consistent. But at the time, the Mega-level Digimon were the star of the show and not including them would’ve seemed out of touch with the intellectual property. So they were downgraded a level, but most of them kept insane power in some way or another (usually with added cost). Full Article

Data Breakers Set Release

New set released! Let’s dive right in. What does this set contain?
- 50 New game cards
- New type: Ruler (4 cards)
- New card type: DATA (5 cards)
- New keywords
- Partnerable ACE (1 card)
- New card type Firewall (3 cards)
- 8 new Rookies (one in each printed type)
- 13 Champions
- 7 Ultimates
- 6 Megas
- 7 new Evolution cards
- Fan-favorite Digimons!
Links here will take you straight to an explanation of each new thing in the set!

Ruler Type
Data Cards
Firewalls
Gallery of All Cards (Full Layout)
COTDs for SetDB
Erratas Pror to Update