V-Mundi

Transformers TCG Product Review

Hasbro released the Transformers TCG designed by Wizards of the Coast today. I had some interest in this game after checking out the rules and seeing that it would be a pretty intense showdown experience. Naturally I did what any normal adult woman would do and pre-ordered two booster boxes. They’ve arrived and now I have a product review for you all. A foreward: I used to be a TCG player for nearly all my life. As someone who dislikes predatory business models, TCGs have been off my radar for quite some time. The Transformers TCG will be ultimately no different. There are rares, uncommons, and commons. There’s tons of wasteful garbage you throw away after unwrapping them. You’ll pull too many copies of the same common for just yourself. The steep price of the product is ultimately for pretty cardboard. Given that I do not appreciate the TCG model, I will not be giving a review of its full distribution nor as a game. This review will be accepting all of these things as granted, therefore you will not find this to be an anti-TCG rant. This will purely be an opinion article reflecting how I feel about what I opened. In that way, I am biased more toward games that offer as much of a complete playset as possible in a box.

This review is based on the opening of two booster boxes and therefore pull rates will reflect this. Read more

Fallout Board Game Review

Suit up your Power Armor and get ready for radscorpion combat. Because that’s what Fallout has become.

This game is a nightmare. I’ve kind of spoiled my entire review at the start so let’s step back a moment and talk about the good in the game—what little actually exists.

Components

Quality is standard here for Fantasy Flight: you have good linen quality cards, you have good linen quality chits, and everything is thick and very nice overall. The miniatures are great (though the lack of female representation is pretty stupid in an adventure game. It’s 1 out of 5.). The player boards are very inventive and they’re fun to play with. They do their job better than a game without such dynamic play boards. Read more

Digimon COTD: Mastertyrannomon

Mastertyrannomon—Power up!

What’s good about it: Mastertyrannomon sports a pretty “square” body of attacks, in that they’re all quite closer together in number than other . In a correctly built deck, its support is stronger than an Attack Chip. The evolution box bonus gives unprecedented toolbox power—take any 1 Digimon from your deck! The x3 VS gives the ability to hit Jungle/Nature for 1080 to start, which easily one-shots all Jungle champions and 2-shots all Jungle/Nature Ultimates. With the evobox containing multiple, tightly-grouped champions, a deck that always gets the evobox bonus is easy to achieve.

What’s bad about it: Like most , Mastertyrannomon suffers from low HP. In fact, his HP is lower than the average in his cost and type. If you’re not facing Jungle/Nature, his x3VS is just wasted power going unused, which also means he doesn’t have attack hate and therefore can’t protect himself against enemy attacks, which he would be weak to. Given that you usually want only 1 copy of a “hate” card but his support requires you run him around 4, this is an additional downside. His evobox doesn’t include a DP cost reduction, meaning most of the time he takes 2 rack-ups to get, or requires an Evolution card. The Support, while potentially very powerful, scales slowly and requires a certain amount of time or effects to have passed during the game to really be useful. In addition, “-tyrannomon” cards end up having to be in the deck at high numbers, potentially choking other ideas out.

Tips: Choose your other Tyrannomon ultimate—it’s not a great idea to only run Mastertyrannomon. Try using Super Evolve to pick Master out of the deck when his x3 VS would be relevant. Since his evobox can take another Master from the deck (for Support), it’s recommended to pack Partner Finder, use the partner evolve to get to Deltamon, Tyrannomon, Darktyrannomon, or Coredramon (any) in preparation. This should guarantee having your powerful support. Master works well with cards that have trash costs such as Mega Disk, Mega Chip, Dark Wings, and occasionally Giga Cannon (though HP can be relatively low in a Tyranno deck). Once a Master’s support is high, it should stay there barring opposing Static effects, so there may be no need for tons of recycle. Try re-using Master supports over and over again for a quick win. If you’re willing to give up evolution to Mega, try running Zeedmillenniumon/Millenniumon with Cyberdramon DATA and Millenniumon DATA: This gives you access to a +800 Power Data Break and 5 selective recycles to re-use Master’s support.

Digimon COTD: Magic Word

Uh…uh…uh…you didn’t say the

Magic Word—A new firewall that stops Any Phase effects and sticks around to void.

What’s good about it: If you’re good at attack prediction, this card can gain almost endless voiding of Digimon, which is incredible value. Magic Word also heavily punishes decks that use evolution box bonuses to lower DP costs, which can throw off their entire evolution progression. Any Phase effects can be some of the most flexible and hard to deal with effects in the game since they occur outside of normal play. No more sudden use of Digi-Diamond, Kabuterimon, or RedOtamamon, just to name some. They would have to Support with those effects—the Digimon you can continuously void; the Option you can void by merely trashing the Magic Word! Having the ability to trash it at any time to void Options can make opponents play their Options more conservatively, so it’s always threatening.

What’s bad about it: Magic word is a two-edged sword—you don’t get to use “Any Phase” or evolution boxes either. Depending on whose turn it is and what your opponent plays, it can be a played around or voided (on initial Support). Suppose you’re bad at prediction, or the opponent is better: your Magic Word’s usability drops off significantly. This can easily make it worse than any other Firewall. More than one Magic Word at a time is pretty much nonsense unless your opponent supports with an Option so you can trash it. Other firewalls tend to be far more usable one after another. Lastly, Shatter is an attack ability, which this doesn’t void, and it gets rid of Magic Word.

Tips: Try to keep your “Any Phase” effects to a minimum. DATA cards may still be worth it, especially since you can dictate the terms of when it leaves play to some degree. Try to ensure your own deck doesn’t require evolution box bonuses for decreasing DP. Try cards that attach directly from the deck! In this way, Tyrannomons can become extra copies of Magic Word in the deck. Love Crest and Moxie are good for decks that aren’t attempting to “double-dip” on the evoboxes, since the deck should be able to evolve fine without them but can get nice bonuses when these are attached instead of Magic Word. “Research” lets you mismatch your attack, guaranteed.

Digimon COTD: Disrupt Ray

Disrupt Ray—Choose your opponent’s attack, sort of

What’s good about it: If you’re an expert at prediction and attack-choice punishment, Disrupt Ray can be incredibly potent. This card can be used, with significantly higher accuracy than not, to force a Counter or to-Zero effect, or at the very least save you from a deadly . Don’t forget that this can protect you from a powerful opposing like a Counter/Flatten/to-Zero effect which threatens your own attack, in addition to a one-hit-kill Crash/1st Attack/x3 VS. Replacing itself with a draw is a nice bonus too!

What’s bad about it: There’s no fast-and-loose way to specify what attack you want an opponent to use in Digimon. This is on purpose—taking away a player’s choice is heavy handed design and can lead to less mutual exchange of intelligence and tactics; as well as ruining fun for players when you’re making choices for them. Disrupt Ray is therefore limited in its capacity to change attacks by forcing its player to figure out what the opponent would choose and, if the Ray is still the best card to play in that instance, decide what “direction” they want to rotate the attack selection from that presupposed choice. If the deck playing Disrupt Ray is telegraphing that it does attack changes, opponents can play further mind games to disrupt the disruption. In addition, many situations make Disrupt Ray significantly less effective than simply playing a Recovery Disk or other protection from damage. You have to work hard to get the best use of this. It also doesn’t stop Jamming. If an opponent wants to reveal with Jamming before this Option resolves, they can do it and still Jam your attack ability (not this Option), then their attack will change. This means Jamming effectively gets better if Disrupted.

Tips: Don’t tip your hand by being incredibly obvious about your ability to counter or nullify attacks. But the mere existence of Disrupt Ray can also effectively disrupt how an opponent chooses attacks if they know you have it, or suspect, and you respond by not playing it. In that case, you still have the card to play and predicted accordingly. If you absolutely must force a specific attack, usually for Counter, Flatten, or to-Zero, make sure you understand the situation and opponent’s current payoffs. If they are none the wiser and have the ability to one-hit-kill your Digimon with either or , and you have Counter on your , you can safely assume Cross is your best attack, support with Disrupt Ray, choose the bottom option (which assumes they went for the “safer” Traingle-kill) and roll them up to Circle for your counter! Now you take no damage and they take it all. Notice that by being in a weaker position (both Circle and Triangle can KO instead of just the typical Circle), there’s no need to guess what they’re playing. If it’s a Circle one-hit KO and Triangle two-hit KO, you still have to guess whether your opponent values taking you out now, can afford to take you out next turn, or prefers to be unpredictable. Keep these things in mind. Disrupt Ray is also a good choice for decks that need to hit with commonly—and it supports protecting your attack as well as a Coliseum. Often this protects from a Counter/to-Zero/Flatten to your favored attack.

Bit Depth Set Release

 

Bit Depth Full Spoiler

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Digimon COTD: Reload

Reload—Refresh all the things!

What’s good about it: As an ACE, it pulls its weight in utility by providing any two cards from the deck and effectively making trash costs—or opposing trash strategies, null. You get a full deck, a full hand (some of which is picked), and to setup part of the deck going forward. It’s a great preparatory tool for the transition into late game. And if willing to give up on the huge effect of a late game deck refresh, it can still be used to refresh the hand and pick any 2 early on, which in some cases can be more effective earlier game.

What’s bad about it: You don’t get to keep your current hand. It’s not always a bad thing but it’s worth noting that it will reduce its efficacy window if you have to give up other critical in-hand cards, then waste some of your 2 picks on those cards again. You can also lose out on the effectiveness of the deck refresh if you haven’t gotten any trash-cost cards or you are forced to play it early. Like Polymorphic Code, you get a hand of 4 that turn; unlike it, Reload is voidable and is your only support for turn.

Tips: Once you decide Reload is best for your deck, always try to maximize every bonus it provides. This goes without saying, but it can be tricky if you plan for a deck of trash costs for heavy effects (Mega Chip, Mega Disk, Phantomon, Dark Wings, Giga Cannon, et al) and end up trashing the Reload without any way to recover it. The good news is Reload can be gained back with “recycle any 1” effects. Some evolution boxes will make this a practical ACE search when combined with reckless trashing, which Reload would then erase as if it never happened, effectively making high-trash costs in your deck into ACE-power cards! In addition, cards like Aquilamon are intensely powerful when combined with Reload, since this gives you effectively 5 copies of the Reload for purposes of sequencing: now you’re more likely to draw the Reload earlier than trash cards.

Digimon Errata May 2018

Today set “Bit Depth” releases and with it, our (hopefully) final set of erratas for past cards. Several cards had their evolution boxes expanded (in preparation), patter streamlined, effects re-balanced, bodies changed, and so much more. Don’t get too excited, it’s mostly just typo fixing and patter updates. So that players don’t feel like the erratas differ too much from the look and feel of new cards, each changed card has had the new Bit Depth font changed for its effect text as well. Some of the fixes are merely correcting errors from the previous errata (Panjyamon from the subtype update, we forgot his marine type!) but will still get the font change. Be sure to update your decks accordingly!

Check the card gallery to see for yourself.

Errata List
Type listed is the primary printed type only, so you can find it in the Gallery more easily.
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Flatten Mechanic

Flatten is a mechanic that was released with set Bit Depth. It decreases the dimensions of opposing Digimon until they shrink into a point and vanish!  On its own, flat doesn’t do any damage or cause any immediate effects—instead, it’s a ticking time bomb. So here are the rules:

  • When you meet your condition (in the pic, opponent used Circle, or opponent’s type is Dragon), you will cause a “flat” to the opponent
  • On attack abilities, only one condition can be met per hit. (If a Dragon uses Circle, it only causes 1 flat, not 2.)
  • Track “flat” by taking a card from the top of your deck, if any, and placing it face-down in front of your active. Neither player may look at it.
  • If you would ever have 3 flats, you get KOd! Shuffle all flat trackers back into the deck. Note, this means you must have 3 remaining cards in your deck to be KO’d by “flat”.
  • If you would take damage while you have the 1st Attack and 2 flats, you get KO’d!
  • When you evolve, you can pay 10 DP from anywhere (such as your DP zone or your Immortalize card) to remove 1 flat marker (shuffle it in). You can only remove 1 flat per evolution.

And that’s how it works. Check the rules for an official explanation (glossary or attack abilities). Flatten is specifically intended as an alternate win method, similar to trashing an opponent’s deck out (which may reduce your required KOs). You will still have to use all your cunning and experience to make the most of it, but it can be a powerful KO method. Since it “poisons” a Digimon, opponents may have to slow down their evolutions. Or you could exploit them after they evolve to Mega for 2 KOs. Repeatedly gaining 3 flats can be difficult, even if you maximize your opportunities, so be sure to have a backup plan.

 

Term Change: Proxy card

These little “P” symbols used to be called “Partner Options”. Option like choice not the card type. I bet you can see how this is confusing. Especially when DATA and Evolution cards have the “P” symbol now. There’s a new term change—Proxy. It starts with P, it’s thematic, and it’s what you’ll use now! Just a heads-up.

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. Read more

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. Read more

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 time asymmetry—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.

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Digimon COTD: Puppet Switch

Puppet Switch—Setup your hand and DP.

What’s good about it: Puppet Switch puts any card in your trash in your hand. This card is fantastic for reusing powerful cards, and setting up for high DP cost Digimon. Just imagining the possibilities with Ace cards, for instance: you could re-use Warp Dimension, netting you 18 cards of deck damage. Also, since you can change your type, this is usable with an attachment that fell into the trash along the road that your current active zone can’t use. You could change your type to Metal and re-use a Miracle crest to suddenly gain support effects outside of Metal’s domain.

You can do almost everything Puppet Switch does with other cards, but it always takes more than one card (and therefore turn) to set up these sorts of scenarios. This is a high-value card that can give players a host of new and unexpected outs. Most opponents wouldn’t consider a clutch Puppet Switch when playing out their turn. The fact that it gets back cards like evolutions or Digimon that were paid into DP means you can get insane DP value for later evolutions. Example: rack a Redotamamon for +40P, evolve, support with Puppet Switch and get back the Redotamamon, then it gives you +10P. By your next opportunity to evolve, you’ll have a guaranteed 50P and a net card advantage of +0. Lastly, a deck with x3 VS against your type can fall apart if you change your type away (plus you’ll net some sweet cards and DP out of the deal).

What’s bad about it: This card can’t be charged into DP normally—you have to play it as support to get it there. If you’re not set up for multi-color, you lose one of its effects; and if you are, you need a tight evolution-box line.

Tips: If you’re looking to reuse specific cards in your deck, Puppet Switch is a good universal way to do it without splashing into Jungle or Enigma. In fact, Puppet Switch is a good way to unlock the potential of your existing cards and therefore provides good universal synergy. Many games can come down to a well-timed Ace play that doesn’t get voided, so Puppet Switch on reusable Aces can give you the edge to win.