Another followup set, this time for XC. Before, those murky bunnies got the followup Lunar Eclipse and now the burning cats get Solar Flare! You see what we did there? These follow-up sets are meant to flesh out their partner Auxiliary set (in this case, XC) and have about 15 cards. These are themed but less so than Aux sets in order to bring more variety. There are actually 3 new mechanics in this set, which is probably a record for something so small. The attack ability “Mimic”, the keywords Fast/Slow, and the mechanic Nova counters. We had a lot of fun making all these new cards so we hope you have as much fun playing.
A new year, a new set of expectations. Our art game is going ever-higher. This time, we have been rigging and customizing models just to improve art while still working on delivering new cards. Here, we have erratas to accompany the new SF set release and art fixes. Some effects also changed.
Firamon Alt-art provided (no effect changes, just non-dot art).
Guilmon Art & types for x3.
Madleomon Leormon name change
Leormon Leormon name change & stats & types x3 & if not effect
Tortamon Leormon name change
Labramon Stats & ability & art & effect & +P
Kudamon Art & type x3
Hawkmon Art
Tsukaimon Effect removed recode.
Gabumon Triangle up
Elecmon Ability to x3 VS & stats & art
Garurumon Art & bonus & effect buffed
Kabuterimon Art & effect to support & bonus
Tekkamon Art & bonus
Leomon Leormon name change
Wargreymon Art
Giromon Art & bonus & effect buffed
Coliseum Art & reverted to old PS1 game style with buff
And now for the long-awaited third Auxiliary Set, XC! The C is for cats & corona, like the halo of the sun. Auxiliary sets are even smaller than mini sets, typically around 10-12 cards. These focus heavily around a central theme—in this case, Apollomon & related cats. These sorts of sets are really great for adding small supplements to the game in a way that’s easy for us to design and develop over a shorter period of time. The effects in this set allow you to partially mulligan several times in one game and hook into the discards for various other neat effects. This one was super cool to work on and I hope you all enjoy.
What’s good about it: Royal Meister starts with an unopposed victory bonus (Draw 1 and opponent trashes 2) then follows up with a super version of Piximon support that can be any attack ability (not just ) and any of your active stack, not just the current active. This is especially devastating if you pair with multiple “x3 VS” abilities and swap to the effective type at any given time. If played right, you get more value than any of the Defense Plug-Ins. With a swiss-army knife that can include Drain when you need HP, Grudge for revive, and a variety of attack guards and counters, the possibilities are only limited by your deck and evolution.
What’s bad about it: The possibilities are limited by your deck and evolution. If you aren’t evolving much or have a homogenous deck, Royal Meister is going to give you few choices and may actually become dead in hand.
Tips: The second effect works like a Ruler Dominion effect but for attack abilities. Sometimes, you may use this simply to gain your ability while getting to use and that can be value enough. Pair with a KO on the opponent’s turn (1st Attack or a “Killer” ability) to effectively get two unopposed victory bonuses. A deck with a few Shatter abilities scattered throughout can use Royal Meister as a more affordable way to remove pesky attachments even when they won’t get the damage reduction. You can also use abilities like “Static 3” and with the mastery Calamity, convert the static into Trash 3 for a total Trash value of 5 plus a draw, which beats Digi-Grave. Importantly, this does not change your attack’s ability to one in your stack, it changes Royal Meister to the effect of an attack ability so you can double up on your own ability. That normally isn’t useful except in cases where you double up your x3 VS (x9 VS!) or with something like Dorbickmon for a grand total of Trash 10. Royal Meister can also be very strong if you have 2 different attack Counters in your active stack including one on the active which you use, effectively guaranteeing a counter in most cases. Pair with Metamorph to basically pick any abilities in your entire deck.
What’s good about it: You get 200 Power, then can pick between any types you want or 20 +P to assist evolution. Simple, flexible, fits in many decks.
What’s bad about it: This can’t be racked, so shouldn’t take the place of a Digimon with 20 +P (you have to wait till next turn to evolve, not immediately). Its primary support is also only +200 Power when that’s the same a Digimon support provides, so most 20+P Digimon with the same support would be comparable. Many decks have no use for type change especially at support speed. Even if you need one of these, since it’s worse than another Option at each effect, you’d need at least 2 before it pays off.
Tips: Use Loader Chip to get tight decks some more room. When a deck has problems evolving but has plenty of Evolution cards, Loader Chip will help since it won’t sacrifice any Power along the way. Can be combined with Ancestry mastery for +100 HP (choose type change) in addition, which works to increase its value. Combine with Rusttyrannomon ACTIVATE for big damage (choose DP). Use with Ace Chip for another +100 Power. Combine several helper cards like this for a monster support. In a chip-heavy deck, chain Loader into Boost Chip when you don’t need the DP to evolve. Compare as a more aggressive version of Puppet Switch.
What’s good about it: Doubles your Power and sets the opponent’s to 0. This doesn’t care about level, though it certainly covers Level M just like Silver Ball and any Level C that shares a name with the opponent’s destiny zone. Yes, has the name. Hearts attack specifies “Digimon”, not card number. If it came from there (check their pre-game roster to be sure) or simply matches, you’re getting the effect. It also means decks that use a lot of Level C with “Also named ______” can be in big trouble. Hearts Attack allows you to get ahead early if the opponent starts with a destiny evolve; or you can get 2 KOs much easier in the late game if they get to Level M. If you can’t use the effect, you get a very high quality draw (recode 2 and draw) as replacement.
What’s bad about it: Unlike Silver Ball, the mean hugs do not cover Level U, so you won’t be able to use this as an answer to a sudden threat you had no way of seeing but you also can’t deal with. Level C are not normally huge threats except a few and Level M you can usually see coming. Worse, Level U are typically easier to KO with double power than Level M. This is also entirely opponent-dependent unless you can coerce them into drawing their partner or specific Level C from deck, and then into evolving it; so it may be dead in hand for a while. Even if it’s a high quality draw, the alternate effect is just a replacement for this dead card that used up a valuable support for turn.
Tips: Like Silver Ball, you get a surprising amount of coverage to save your butt. Weigh the options between Level U and destiny-related Digimon. Both give you Level M coverage by their nature. Level U may not fall from a simple power doubling but a Level C could die in a heartbeat. This is especially good for countering any deck that likes to search its partner, use Blue Comet, overuse the same named Level C, or weirdly has cards with the same name as their destiny zone but at different levels somehow (Example: changing their active’s name). Hearts Attack is especially devastating in the common situation where you get a KO and the opponent digs for their partner to quickly come back. Many common partner evolutions are strong since you don’t have to meet DP requirements, so this also offers protection from Devidramon and similar.
Dirty Saucer—Garbagemon’s signature shield and yours too.
What’s good about it: You get to draw this to hand, so it’s an extra free card. Stops all trashing and I do mean all. Right in the middle of it. Even if you are supposed to Trash 7 but you only trashed like 2, you stop immediately. Even the opponent’s trash costs won’t be able to be paid for the rest of the turn. Now you can use highly detrimental cards like Bigmamemon with a much softer blowback. Even the almighty Warp Dimension becomes a foam dart gun because Dirty Saucer only stops the trashing, it doesn’t void the support that caused the trashing. In fact, many opponent cards may misfire (self-void) even if they are unvoidable, since cards can always void themselves. Once it’s in your hand, you can put anything from your trash back in the deck plus a recode after.
What’s bad about it: Chance. Once you want this to get trashed, you may not get it. Or you might just draw it. A self-destructive or reckless player may find themselves without their shield in a time of need, with tons of cards blown away into their trash zone. It’s also really hard to use in a deck with trash costs. If you say you are trashing 3 for a cost then the second card is dirty saucer, you only count as having trashed 2 cards. Depending on the effect, this can misfire after you’ve already paid. You can suppress the misfire but it means skipping Dirty Saucer. The “Any Support” effect does delete itself, so is very fleeting and must be used wisely. You should check if this actually affects your game anyway, since you might use it a few times in the lifespan of a deck but not actually see the benefits unless you also change how you play. Every slot this takes up in a deck could’ve been a much more powerful card. Options are vying for limited and highly competitive space within a deck, so Dirty Saucer’s lack of “killer app” potential could make it a flop in your deck. Plus, if you really want to stack the recode, the shuffle beforehand is going to hurt all your other recodes.
Tips: Maybe you noticed, but the act of trashing should happen 1 card at a time to keep a player’s trash zone in the correct order (bottom to top). This allows crazy cards like Dirty Saucer to exist and effectively interrupt that process as soon as it shows. Be aware that “both players trash X” effects should happen simultaneously, so make sure to react in a timely manner if your Saucer happens, to prevent any game state rollbacks. While not every deck can use this with maximum copies (and bypass much of the negatives), a deck using the Mantra mastery (for shuffle recode) can exploit the shuffle effect on Dirty Saucer to maximum potential without also increasing its own risk too heavily. Look for effects like Tueryemon that have trash costs but have more than 1 effect so your entire support doesn’t misfire if you get Dirty Saucer. Try using Recycle on it to guarantee you get the nullification next time you would trash, then have some extra draw ready in case you don’t. Recode can be a downside but also help you know when the Saucer is coming. The best part may be getting trashed a lot before seeing this, especially since the “Recycle any 1 and shuffle” part will only be putting your best card back in a much thinner deck and this can be combined with other similar effects for a deadly lean-machine deck. Because Digimon doesn’t really have a “meta”, I wouldn’t recommend Saucer for trash countering but I would suggest a copy or two if your own deck is self-destructive or very weak to such things. Keep an eye on your Ace and you may be able to retrieve it with Saucer and simply mulligan until you get the Ace, if that suits the current game.
Gigastick Lance—Any sufficiently large power tool is indistinguishable from a mech weapon.
What’s good about it: You get to triple your Power. Yes Power. All attacks have at least an ability of “None”, so this is way less restrictive than first-read. But you can still replace a troublesome ability like Grudge that might kill you for attacking second, with x3 VS which might net you a KO with no HP loss! Plus, when your opponent’s attack ability becomes Shatter, it replaces their existing one. So you can use this to negate a super annoying ability like to zero and use safely. In fact, you can use both together to get a secure triple Power which is very likely a KO. So this card doubles as a way to push for a KO or sort-of void an ability. What’s more important is almost nothing can “void” abilities this way, but Gigastick can!
What’s bad about it: Unfortunately, you may not always use the effects here optimally. For every time you perfectly set up a type-change with Mystery Egg to get the x3 VS ability, there will be a time when the opponent evolves out of the type change or KOs you for wasting a turn on Mystery Egg. Unlike a true Power triple effect, it voids your own attack ability and you may have wanted triple Power Drain or something. And worst of all, the opponent might want Shatter—which they are guaranteed regardless of their attack! Especially if they are attacking first or will survive your attack when you have an attachment. You basically don’t want to play this with attaches unless you are very sure your opponent will be KO’d.
Tips: If you don’t have a way to type-change, this card is essentially an attempt at lucksack or else a super weak void. Be sure you know what you are doing if you want to use attachments with this (like, more than one). Check your deck for how to best change types, such as XV-mon for which you may want to combine with the Ancestry Mastery in case you don’t always want your subtypes. On the other hand, more subtypes can be much better since a Digimon with 3 total types has 3/8 coverage, so you would only need a couple of those to make good use of Gigastick. Beware that a multi-type deck for yourself makes you weaker to regular x3VS! Mitigate the problems with this card and now you have the power of Darkdramon!
The cutting room floor is always full of things with Digimon Battle Evolution. But eventually, some cards get worked out and released as promos! Here’s the 2 that originally didn’t make it into CJ, but are very important: Monodramon (Metal) and the first debut of XV-mon! These aren’t integrated into TTS yet but you can always add them yourself. These are meant to be part of the Pendulum Z metal empire Digimon released in CJ. Please enjoy.
While not a Dragon type, I wonder if it can support a certain Dragon?Even though it’s not a Dragon type (just like Pendulum Z metal empire), you can treat it as one! Recycle “up to”? That’s a lot more control than Recycle! I guess it can be used with Dracomon for an Ancestry theme…Let’s give him a lance!
We got a new set closely following the release of LE called Cyber Junk—CJ! This set is larger than an auxiliary set, with 26 new cards. The central theme here are mechanical, metal, cybernetic, and digital things. CJ is loaded into TTS now. Enjoy all the cool new stuff! (Full spoiler gallery at the bottom of the post)
26 New game cards (8 Digimon, 15 Option)
2 New Attach
6 New Aces!
2 New Masteries!
2 Level M
New Data
Designers Notes! (Don’t peek)
The reason for this set was originally to expand the number of options in a small collection that would also include some new Aces and masteries. This was for the purpose of game population. But since masteries take so long to develop (due to their complexity), there was time to create even more cards and the set went from being a handful of new options to something with many Digimon as well. The options were originally going to focus heavily on the gear of Digimon, such as Psycho Blaster, Trident Arm, Mugen Cannon, Mega Hand, and others were added over time. We wanted the new Ace cards to reflect some signature move of the Digimon, especially Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon. If you pay attention closely, Gaia Force and Grace Cross Freeze give you the power of those Digimon from their Level M and Data cards! With the Digimon, there’s a clear vehicle theme in this set which we tried to stick to and only branch out when necessary. Here is something special about some of the Digimon:
Junkmon was an early addition because we want to release as much of the PenZ Digimon as possible. His effect helps you rebuild!
Nanomon was also meant to be a part of the set in an early design list from last year, as it was one of the original V-Pets not yet made into a card.
Rebellimon sports a new type of evo-bonus we are introducing, that works like type resistance. The opponent will lose power if they are of a certain type!
With Grandlocomon, the opponent gets hit by a train. OOF.
New Raremon is much stronger than the old and can trade relative HP for flat HP! Use it wisely.
New Tankmon is made with an effect that gives a lot of power of course. But just in case you get KO’d, you get cards too.
Loaderleomon brings a new style of giving tribute to the opponent, instead of only self-sacrifice. What a nice gift of DP!
Darkdramon is unaffected by sacrifice and just wants to win. He’s an elite fighter that will use any trick to beat an opponent and is very strong.
In this set, many of the metal Digimon have their normal sacrificial effects and some of them have ways to recover HP. This allows newer players to try the metal style without feeling like they will necessarily lose.
I wonder what would happen if a Mamemon used Smiley Bomb?
Did you notice Tigervespamon’s “Royal Meister” grants the same bonus as the unopposed victory bonus? Mach Stinger V (for Victory)!
Masteries
Pop these into your Destiny Zone when building your deck and for the price of 1 card and whatever downside is printed on the mastery, you get access to a constant bonus during the game.
Laplace Like the demon of the same name, you’ll start to know everything with immense draw power, provided that you sacrifice your health for it…Unfortunately, this means you won’t be able to use attacks that preserve health! Steel yourself with the spirit of Laplace.
Calamity Put a permanent end to your opponent’s deck or get more trash conversion. With this kind of alchemy, you can zap everything away with the spirit of Calamity. But the opponent recycles to thwart your plan…
New erratas! This list shows what category of the cards were changed. Either the effect, evo-box, stats, name, art, just a clarification on the effect, or almost All of them. 17 art fixes including a completion of art fixes for every member of the original Digital Monster v-pet. Finally! All of these are in the next TTS update. If you want, you can always read about the artfixes and dev notes on that in the Dev Feed (tumblr).
Finally it’s time for the followup set to XB, Lunar Eclipse! The light of the moon and shadow of the eclipse—a classic contradiction of light and dark plays out in Set LE, as Set XB wanes. Like an Auxiliary set, this is a small set, with 15 cards. Also like Aux sets, this focuses around a central theme—in this case, light and dark. It’s a small supplement that’s easy for us to design and develop over a shorter period of time. The smallness coupled with the focus on themed effects should make them feel special. LE is loaded into TTS now. Enjoy all the cool new stuff! (Full spoiler gallery at the bottom of the post)
New special Flip cards that change to an alternate, powerful mode.
“Access” keyword returns!
Long-awaited Cherubimons and Marineangemon!
Masteries
Pop these into your Destiny Zone when building your deck and for the price of 1 card and whatever downside is printed on the mastery, you get access to a constant bonus during the game.
Lunar has art depicting a glowing Moonmillenniummon and is intended to let players Corrupt (up to 3 per turn) by making cards enter the dark area. The downside is, whatever amount of cards you would normally just draw during the Prep Phase, you’ll have to wait until the end of the Prep and they also end up dark drawn, so it’s slow! But, that means cards enter the dark area…Don’t forget your first draw of the game is also dark draw and corrupt; and any attaches that draw during the Prep Phase like Purity Crest.
Eclipse shows a shadowy spirit of darkness and lets you always support face-down! You won’t need to attach Hope Crest as often to control the game and get inside the opponent’s head. However, you are no longer allowed to support from your deck (normally face-down) nor from effects (from either player)! Be careful not to rely on cards like Hacking, Aegisdramon, and don’t run out of cards for support—you won’t get to dig for more. This also won’t have a tremendous use on your own turn.
Flip cards Return
You can check out a detailed explanation on the accompanying post Intro to Flip Cards. Pay attention to Lucemon and Marineangemon: these two are special flippers that don’t operate “normally” to provide an alternative card which was the case with Antiramon and Dianamon in Set XB. These achieve some sort of goal to reach a much stronger mode of the card by flipping into a Ruler Digimon! You can also check all the flip cards at the bottom of this post.
Killer, Access, Dark Draw Returns
Killer – When the opponent uses the attack specified on the ability, you get 1st Attack and Boosted Power of +300. Kind of like a lightning-fast version counter attack that’s a bit riskier since you still take full damage when you’re hit. This resembles the Gem cards that were released in set TA.
Access – Show a card from your hand to your opponent, as specified here; usually a type. This is a cost, so it’s optional but you won’t access the following effect unless you do.
Dark Draw – Dark Draw (or Discard) will place that card from your deck into your Dark Area (or from hand to DA if discard). Dark Area cards are added to your hand in the Prep Phase after your normal draw.
Tabletop Simulator now has all the erratas and set XB! So the set release is no longer just window-shopping. TTS also has the blue player hidden zone fixed, since that was quite an error. Try using the new “spread” feature in Tabletop Simulator on the Masteries, it looks rad. Below is the gallery for all the errata art fixes that we made. Some arts were also changed to stock renders just to spare everyone’s eyes while we work on this art replacement project.
We also released a keyword called “Access” to replace the long text “Reveal a in hand:”, so you can find the exact details now in the rules.
Special update! XA has had 2 cards added to it. That’s right, this game is completely digitally distributed so I can do whatever I want, including release cards for older sets. Truth be told, they were supposed to be in there anyway but Masteries weren’t fully tested by that time. So it’s basically cut content being patched back in.
Finally it’s time for the second Auxiliary Set, XB! The B is for bunny. Auxiliary sets are even smaller than mini sets, typically around 10-12 cards. These focus heavily around a central theme—in this case, Dianamon, er, bunnies. These sorts of sets are really great for adding small supplements to the game in a way that’s easy for us to design and develop over a shorter period of time. The smallness coupled with their focus on themed effects should make them feel a bit more special. This is my way of making somewhat linear evolution trees more palatable. I think there’s some cool new stuff in here and I hope you all enjoy.
“13” New game cards
New Option / Attach
New Evolution
New Data card
New Ace
New Mastery
Dark Draw/Trash/Discard returns!
New attack ability “Killer”
New card gimmick: Flip cards! They have multiple faces
