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
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.
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
A quick aside coming off the heels of today’s COTD: Death Evolution. It’s listed as a firewall. Firewall cards are Options that usually Void in some way. Cherrymon’s Mist was the original firewall and has been erratad as such. The card is so staple that every deck needed 3 copies to compete. Stuff like this can’t be nerfed or removed or it would negatively affect the health of the game, but we also don’t like the idea of hard staples being the first cards you put into a new deck. Maybe if this were a pool of cards instead…
Thus the Firewall keyword was born. It’s similar to how Ace cards work: You can have 3 of any firewalls in your deck, period. Essentially what this means is you can still run 3 Cherrymon’s Mist, but then you might miss out on other effects like the aforementioned Death Evolution. You could run 1 Mist and 2 Death Evolution. Or mix and match between the 3 new firewalls in Data Breakers and the original Mist in Base Release. Each one might fundamentally void effects, but all are pretty powerful (almost Ace-worthy, almost).
It will definitely be a priority for us to make more Firewall-keyworded cards, so that players have plenty of strategy, can express themselves through their cards, and you know…don’t show up to a cocktail party in the same dress!
Like any new thing, DATA cards are likely to be confusing at first. The new black border is unfamiliar, and their “timing” text just says “DATA” followed by effects from all kinds of different phases. What’s this all about? Let’s start with their possibilities: Full Article
Digimon Battles (DMB) set Data Breakers brings with it a new category of Digimon—Ruler. Much like Jungle () or Nightmare (), it obeys the rules of evolution. However, there are many rules it does not obey and -Digimon have a lot of special features you should know about, as well as design philosophies that you will notice as trends among their cards. Let’s get started with a list of what they can and can’t do: Full Article
