V-Mundi

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

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

Data Breakers Full Spoiler

Read more

Digimon COTD: Sniper Disk

Sniper Disk—Evolution that lets you “snipe” cards right out of the opponent’s deck.

What’s good about it: You get to see your opponent’s entire deck and every card that remains. This can target an Ace! It can also target Firewalls. You can hit an opponent’s Partner or Level Us to stop their plans early. If you hate being “sacked” by lucky late game draws, this fixes that problem immediately. Opponent can’t simply mulligan-spam into their best cards. You still get +10DP as long as your level is lower than the opponent’s.

What’s bad about it: You have to actually evolve by DP. Gaining the +10DP bonus means you’re not using this card to stay ahead, you’re using it for damage control. Opponents can actively/passively resist this card with simple Recycle abilities, many of which are abundant and incidental. Significantly less effective later in the game and/or after Partner/Ace/Firewall cards have been played. Need to have a legitimate evolution strategy independent of this card—it’s not “Digivice” after all.

Tips: This one speaks for itself. Make sure you have a good evolution structure to your deck independently of Sniper Disk. Always try to memorize the remaining cards in your opponent’s deck (you only get one shot). Snipe cards as mentioned above, which are Aces/Firewalls/Partners and other cards that may be problematic for you to deal with, or give the opponent fast or immediate upcoming advantage, especially if they do something reckless like spam mulligans. Try to use Evolution searchers to get this card when you need it, before all the good stuff gets played.

What are Firewalls in Digimon Battles

 

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!