V-Mundi

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.

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:

Promo Cards – Dukemon & Herculeskabuterimon

Along with some emergency-erratas taking place after the launch of Data Breakers, we’re bringing two new Promo cards that will be legal for play and available on both Tabletop Simulator and OCTGN: Dukemon and Herculeskabuterimon.

Originally, these cards were slated for a much later set release that would likely come out at the end of the year. Instead, we’re moving them up since they’re fully ready for play and to apologize for the mini-errata coming soon, as well as the lack of COTDs. Those COTDs did have to be put on hold temporarily however, since much of our attention has been diverted attempting to convert Alsciende’s NetrunnerDB into a DigimonDB, as well as other side-projects. For now, we’re shelving it since it’s eating up too much time and should return to COTDs and design shortly. Without further ado, here are the new cards!

These aren’t being released as part of a specific set. Instead, they are numbered for the “PR” or “Promo” pool of cards. We’ve had promotional cards before, but they were always previews of upcoming sets. This time, we’re starting a promo pool so cards can be released in-between sets, especially ones that would be nice to have in the game but won’t fit within the parameters of the next set.

These aren’t really an apology and were going to be released anyway :)

Digimon COTD: Black Gear

Black Gear—If your level is lower…

What’s good about it: Black Gear is a protective Option for when your Level is lower. It grants a variety of boons depending on your Opponent’s Level; each as good as or better than other cards. C is better “Heap of Junk” with “Whistle” stacked on top. U is a weaker “Training Manual” plus killing off all their most damaging Power. M lets you immediately refresh your HP, potentially getting as much as free warp from Rookie to Ultimate.

What’s bad about it: You get nothing unless you’re behind in evolution. Everything you get is based on your opponent, which can make it more situational. The M-level ability fails immediately if you’re at Level U, and has to be set up prior to supporting. You can’t change your attack if you get to evolve with this.

Tips: At first, Black Gear looks difficult to control. The conditional can be easily accounted for by simply using it in a slow-evolution deck,—giving second-evolver advantage while protecting against the first-evolver. A mostly-Rookies deck makes constant use of Black Gear to the fullest. “Whistle”, “Research” and other cards with the same conditional can intersect and strengthen the deck’s overall protection. While determining whether the M-level effect is what you want, consider prepping for it with previously mentioned protective cards, while waiting for a strong ultimate like “Gigadramon” or “Wargrowlmon”, which could end up netting you 2 KOs.

Digimon COTD: Whamon

Whamon (Level U)—The magic of an Ultimate that evolves from itself.

What’s good about it: Whamon (like his Champion form) has the highest printed HP of any Digimon in its level. The Evo-box bonuses featuring “Whamon” push the HP even higher. Whamon in the Evo-box gives this card a built in “Mutate” letting you evolve from U to U if you would like. Its Support ability is also very nice getting tons more HP if you can keep your hand relatively stable.

What’s bad about it: This card has low Power—closer to a Champion rather than an Ultimate. Its to zero ability is very under-powered.

Tips: Whamon (like most Ultimates) wants a dedicated deck with lots of evolution cards that can supplement its built-in Mutate. Running “Download” as your ace with cards like “level Crush”, “Plugin Back-up” and “Burst Growth” can give you extra effects with your extra Evolution, and keep the Whamons coming.

Digimon COTD: Data Hijack

Data Hijack—Evolve from your deck and charge extra DP.

What’s good about it: Data Hijack’s primary effect is to evolve to level C straight from the deck. Evolve from deck is bonkers, letting you take full advantage of every Champion in your deck, as long as it’s a legal target. It’s second effect doesn’t require you to evolve, meaning you can use it even if you can’t go up—If that’s the case, the second effect lets you virtually charge twice before Evolving (by DP instead of the primary effect), or reveal the top card of your deck before the support phase. After use, it deletes itself so you don’t accidentally get flooded with this card after recycle effects (this is usually a good thing, since re-using a card like this is rare and requires tricky timing, while it clogs the hand).

What’s bad about it: At mid to late game, this card can be rather dull— especially if you are not at Level R or you didn’t have a valid card on the top of your deck (cards with +P).

Tips: Data Hijack loses consistency as the game progresses. If you have no other evolution to play and this is stuck in your hand (usually stopping you from draw 2 each turn), consider playing it and checking the top of the deck—at the very least, you get to check your upcoming card. Mixing this into decks with extra Champions or a variety of them can let you toolbox your evolution. Try running with “Shogungekomon”, “Cherrymon” or Champions with a wide variety of evolution-box effects.

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: Read more

Digimon COTD: Plug-In Backup

Plug-In Backup—Keep your deck big and quality while evolving.

What’s good about it: Since you often have to use Rookies for Rack-Up, this returns them back to the deck, which is necessary for keeping up throughout late game. Since you get to choose everything that goes back in, it’s very quality and can increase the long-term draw quality. This respects “Super Tag”, allowing you to simply Recycle any 2, making your next 2 draws/supports anything from your trash.

What’s bad about it: Way early game, you usually don’t have the recycle live. Requires evolving by DP, though that should be the norm for shuffling in your DP. Doesn’t shine in decks that can 1-Rack evolve. It can be small potatoes even if you plan for it properly.

Tips: Make sure you’re not trying to use lots of external DP-gain effects such as Monodramon, Raremon, or evo-box bonuses for this. If you do, you’ll lose out on a lot of its potency. This is similar to a Vending Machine that you use during evolution, but that combos better with Super Tag allowing you to do remarkable setups where you re-use key cards like Firewalls and Aces immediately after evolution. This is best used early-mid, or midgame when your trash has the highest potential for abuse OR after deliberately hard-mulling your hands a few times to search your Ace, use it, evolve with this, then re-use the ace. This can also work well without Super Tag, since you’ll be getting that Ace/Firewall later in the game too. If you find yourself running out of quality Rack-Up later in the game, causing a loss (common problem), try Plug-In Backup.

Digimon COTD: Coliseum

Coliseum—Changing both players attacks to  with various bonuses for yourself.

What’s good about it: Coliseum boosting your power is very helpful. Forcing a fight can be very necessary when you need to prevent  abilities like drain and 1st attack. Especially if you want to use your circle with impunity.

What’s bad about it: tends to be the strongest attack for the majority of digimon. the bonus effects aren’t always that helpful at letting your attack happen on your opponents turn.

Tips: Coliseum is a tricky card to pin down, its extra effect tends to seem more random than it is, if you can figure out you opponents best move generally you know what effect your going to get. it’s best to use this on your turn when your opponent is most likely to use abilities to get extra damage out or survive to evolve on their turn. In some instances, you can get 200 Power and the change, making it comparable to an Attack Chip without the threat of counter (or “to zero” effects).

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—the ACE that keeps on giving.

What’s good about it: “Any Phase,” Miracle Ruby doesn’t use your Support for turn. 1000 HP is a fair amount to Revive with. You will see this card again and again, at least until your opponent hits 4 KOs. Revival reduces KO points given to 1, regardless of being a Mega or other effects in play.

What’s bad about it: Like with all Revival effects this card still grants your opponent KO points.

Tips: Combining with Megas that can get Aces like “Metaletemon” can let you use this without aggressive mulligans, letting you go full-power for far longer. Mega-centric evolution strategies like “Hyper Digivolve”, or Megas with Champion DNAs (like “Goldnumemon” and “Saberleomon”) can use this to force your opponent to KO your mega 4 times. Use cards like “Metal Banana” at that point to stay in the game with a large body that can deal a lot of punishment. Beware that revival-loops can be good, but can also trap you into a known-defeatable strategy. Consider letting one pass if your opponent sets up against it too much.

Digimon COTD: Meatvolution

Meatvolution—A silly name but a serious healing card that recovers 300 HP when evolving.

What’s good about it: There’s nothing more to say than free meat! HP +300 (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 as powerful as Recovery Disk, which is often played in HP Recovery decks.

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 300 HP, this card can be a misplay or dead in hand.

Tips: Make sure whatever you’re going to with this card can use the 300 extra HP. It’s especially good when you can search Meatvolution card situationally from your deck. Almost always, “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.

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). Read more