Digimon COTD: Digi-Diamond

Digi-Diamond—the Swiss-army-knife of Ace cards.

What’s good about it: Digi-Diamond is currently the most versatile Ace. “Any Phase” timing extends the number of cards you can play per turn (and is extremely powerful and limited). Changing your attack in the support phase is powerful, since you can evade a counter or buff a different attack. Changing your type can help you get around “x3 VS” and aid in evolution. HP Recovery and the revive effect both help you keep your current Digimon, for evolution purposes or dealing a finishing blow (best on the opponent’s turn). Draw 2 is icing on the cake that make this one of the more powerful cards and the Ace you can’t go wrong with.

What’s bad about it: The power gain, like every other effect of Digi-Diamond is small. Each Individual effect has specific uses, and most of them don’t really assist each other—you’re usually going to play this for one of its effects at a time and just get the others as nice bonuses.

Tips: Digi-Diamond is a good starting point for the deck’s Ace if you’re not sure what it needs. Playing Recycle effects lets this card shine, allowing you to use it for whichever effect is the most helpful now and then recycle it back for later. If you find yourself using Digi-Diamond for the Draw 2 most of the time, use a different Ace. Other Aces do much more than just draw—yours will get outpaced by them.

Digimon COTD: Witchmon

Witchmon is a Champion that Boosts Power and can evolve to types.

What’s good about it: It fits with typical x3 VS while adding some other coverage for , which is the best type for taking out Nightmare digimon in one hit. x3 VS almost always evens the playing field when they inevitably end up at a higher level than you. +30P is higher than average, helping speed up evolution. Evolving to type lets you play [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/134-Angewomon.png” name=”Angewomon”] for [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/092-Mastemon.png” name=”Mastemon”] decks, and other / crossover decks without any downside of being threatened by an extra x3 VS. Even the small HP +50 is good for covering some of Nightmare’s excessively weak HP. The uncounterable evo-bonus is a godsend for protecting her modest circle.

What’s bad about it: It’s not fully , so it can’t evolve from . Witchmon’s support reduces both and to 0, making top-deck supporting risky.

Tips: This card is a tactical choice for your Destiny Zone If your partner is BKGatomon, despite its overall low stats. Witchmon’s support ability plays well with Cross abilities like “x3 VS” (which she has), “1st Attack” and “Drain”. Since the power boost happens before the x3 VS, it can easily generate a KO, and Nightmare decks typically change the opponent’s type to Engima so they leave nothing to chance here. Nightmare almost never has 1st Attack, but Wind has a lot; so pairing +400 with 1st Attack is stronger than the option-level support Behemoth by magnitudes, and easily generates KOs. Drain is just exhausting to fight if it gets such a power boost.

Street Dates Are Nonsense

More rumors of street breaks for Dragon Ball Super

Why They Exist

For those unaware, a “street date” is a restriction of sale dictated by a company regarding their product. For example, the sale of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince could not be conducted before the given date (oh god, the spoilers). Industries originally put these in place to keep larger stores from over-running smaller stores, like a sort of self-regulating form of capitalism. They’re not in the law and there can ultimately end up being little to no consequence, depending on if terms of service or a contract is involved. Large stores could use early sales as a form of arbitrage against smaller stores, ruining any chances of the latter having a fair shot. Sounds like I’m for them right? No.

In particular, this is a response to the never-ending accusations of Dragon Ball Super having broken street dates 1-2 weeks ahead of time. Several of these accusations have been fake, caused by baseless and poorly-researched rumors. However, new accusations keep coming so I’m not even going to bother researching or calling them out. Ultimately there’s going to come a time where a store does actually break street date and I want to lay some shit down in that inevitable event:

Why This is Bullshit

Once a distributor puts it in a store’s hands, there’s nothing Bandai (or most any company) can do legally to stop the sale or even punish them. There’s no contract signed to which stores must adhere. It’s an arbitrary capitalistic control scheme and means exactly nothing (remember the part about self-regulation?). Let me paint you a picture—a store spends hundreds of dollars on cases of product for a game (especially a new one from a company with bad history like Bandai) and are somehow socially expected to eat that capital loss for a month or more with no safety net just to stick to an arbitrary date. Full Article

Digimon COTD: Concert Crash

Concert Crash makes your power the same as your HP then halves your HP.

What’s good about it: It gives you Crash without your Health being reduced to 10. Unlike Crash, if your HP changes, your power will not. Since it affects all Power, not just cross like crash, this can be used with other cross abilities such as x3 VS, Jamming, 1st Attack, and Drain. In particular, 1st Attack is a devastating auto-kill from any situation. If you can hit the opponent with a big attack, then use 1st Attack + Concert Crash the next turn, it’s like your Power was the combined total of the two. With Drain, it’s absolutely busted since there’s no actual cost once you hit. A x3VS with your HP as power is overkill to the maximum. Jamming with such high Power is incredibly strong, since it makes you effectively uncounterable so you won’t hit yourself with your own HP, can’t be 1st Attacked if you’re abusing the “halve HP” cost while at low HP, and any Digimon support that would interfere with such a huge gambit is dead. Another ridiculous attack ability pairing is Grudge + Concert Crash. Assuming your opponent plays right into the Grudge and KOs you, you will revive for double the HP you started with, not your halved HP or original HP! If you don’t get KO’d, it’s even better since that means you get double your HP as power. Concert is also a proxy, which makes it a great choice for decks with [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/183-Partner-Finder.png” name=”Partner Finder”] or for partners that have some form of HP protection as their main support, to cover all bases.

What’s bad about it: The HP reduction happens before any attack, making it harder to use on your opponents turn. The card is not just bad to use when your HP is low, it’s even more dangerous than Crash (because your HP is lowered before attacks). Awful card if your used attack has Counter or Crash.

Tips: It is best to play this when you can get a KO—high health Digimon make this far more likely, while Digimon with 1st Attack make it easier to use on your opponents turn. Decks that are specialized for Crash can use this to survive Crash attacks they otherwise wouldn’t. If you have [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/019-Olegmon.png” name=”Olegmon”] Level M, you can pay -300 HP instead of half and it’s unvoidable, making this a bomb you can detonate with no blowback. If this is played after [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/164-Level-Crush.png” name=”Level Crush”], it’s almost guaranteed to KO any opponent instantly and “halving” your HP in that instance just means going back to normal. [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/018-ZeedMillenniummon.png” name=”Zeedmillenniumon”] has the highest printed HP in the game of 3000 and can search this card, making it a guaranteed KO in every normal situation, and can be used with its Jamming or Corrupt. If the other searched card is also massive HP recovery, Zeed can bounce back from the cost.

A vanilla but devastating Level M for this card is [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/161-Saberleormon.png” name=”Saberleomon”]—it has 1st Attack for use with Concert Crash but then an Activate that makes the opponent’s Power 0 for the same cost of halving HP. At that point, it’s just entirely dodging the cost, since it can pummel with 770 more Power. With 1950 HP, a good case scenario is 1950 damage 1st Attack for KO, then get unopposed victory bonus, then a riskless 770 Power attack when the opponent fields a new Digimon, followed by 770 again on your own turn for a very likely 2KOs. [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/026-SnowGoblimon.png” name=”Snowgoblimon”] has the highest Level R HP: 780. This is a highly solid attack, made marginally better by its Shatter 100 which will still reduce incoming damage by 100 (and trash an attach), making the halved HP of 390 more like 490 for the consideration of an opponent striking back.

[card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/093-Whamon.png” name=”Whamon”] has the highest Level C HP: 1300. With its considerably strong added support of Jamming, Whamon can smash most Level Us and anything below for a KO, while ensuring no interference from Digimon supports or cross abilities. Its remaining HP of 650 isn’t as bad as Crash, since it’s not a guaranteed KO-trade. Therefore, Concert Crash is well-paired with Evolution cards such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/167-Mutate.png” name=”Mutate”], since you can simply reset your HP after an attack on the opponent’s turn (Concert can do well there if it doesn’t kill you).

Digimon COTD: Mutate

Mutate allows you to evolve to the same level and heal.

What’s good about it: This card allows you to refresh HP, evolve from the Abnormal state, and removes Type restrictions when evolving. You can quickly evolve to a Champion or Ultimate by playing one as abnormal, then “Mutating” into the same level. It even treats Level M as U for the purposes of “same-level” evolution, just like in the PS1 game. You still get an evo-bonus, which means you can play abnormal, Mutate to another of the same level, and get an evo-bonus.

What’s bad about it: Mutate requires DP, gives no discounts outside of evo-bonuses, and you can’t (really) change level with it.

Tips: It is absolutely great for stalling strategies, letting you refresh your Active Digimon. This card allows you to run a higher number of C/U Digimon—especially when paired with other Evolve cards like [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/164-Level-Crush.png” name=”Level Crush”] and [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/166-D-Link.png” name=”D-link”]. It’s not as good as Level Crush for the pure purposes of saving the Level M from giving up 2KOs, not as good as D-Link for pure abnormal evolution due to no DP discount. But D-Link can’t be used with Level M since they can’t go “up” anymore, and Level Crush can’t be used to reset yourself to a Digimon of the same power level as well as Mutate. It blends the two cards purposes together and provides an extremely fast and stable reset for the active. Mutate also acts as a supplement for the other two cards if they’re part of a primary strategy. Since you can only have 2 copies of any Evolution card, a deck with heavy D-Link focus to quickly evolve to Level U is more effective if it can make use of Level U hand flooding that might occur—a job which Mutate does. It’s also good in any deck where you might get flooded with the same Level. Shogungekomon‘s Level C search pushes those decks to play more Level C, which Mutate can stop from being a weakness. A last-minute Mutate to a Digimon with the appropriate x3VS ability can turn the tables significantly. In that situation, you can evolve at a normal pace to not give up your power, then Mutate later to fix the current digimon with one you prefer. In that way, it also acts as a small DNA fixer and a way to get an evo-bonus when you otherwise couldn’t (both for same-level evolution and for changing the current active’s name for a later evolution). Since Digimon of Level U are very powerful, Mutate works extra well on these and you’re not limited by their Ruler property.

Digimon COTD: ShogunGekomon

ShogunGekomon, Is an Ultimate level Digimon with an exceptional body and a support that searches for a Champion.

What’s good about it: Shogungekomon’s deadliest attack is , which makes it a difficult opponent to shut down. If it becomes outmatched, it can use drain to stall for long enough to evolve. Most Digimon with drain don’t have HP this high, at this level for this cost. A [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/154-Lilithmon.png” name=”Lilithmon”] Level M could outpace its stalling capability with higher starting HP and higher drain, but at Level U, Shogungekomon is only outmatched by higher-cost Digimon such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/125-Neodevimon.png” name=”Neodevimon”]. The biggest contender for a match is [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/121-Blossomon.png” name=”Blossomon”], which has higher Drain but lower starting HP. Essentially, Shogungekomon bets on its high triangle Power to be safe enough that it won’t need to stall as often as Blossomon when threatened, but can stall if 700 Power falls behind the curve. Generally, any Digimon with a high is tough to beat since you can’t rely on as many tricks to stop their attacks. The Support effect can search Champions for various purposes such as: Rack as DP, support with various conditional effects based on the current situation, obtain DNA materials, or in the worst case to pick out the next body if your active is at risk of KO. The best part is you don’t have to wait to support with that Level C if you can pay the trash. The trash cost also feeds into its evo-bonus if you later evolve to it. The evo-bonus adds to its conservation nature by retrieving something in trash, which could be anything best-fit to the situation.

What’s bad about it: Having Drain is a two-edged sword most of the time; it usually means your printed HP is going to be a lot lower than comparably-costed Digimon. Shogungekomon is no exception here—1400 HP puts him right about where a 40 cost Ultimate with Drain can be and no higher. This means most other Ultimates of the same cost are going to steamroll him if he doesn’t commit to Drain in order to hang on until an appropriate support comes along to assist. Additionally, the Champion you search is one your opponent now knows about, so it could be played around if they support second and you choose poorly or get stuck in a bad spot.

Tips: When using it as a body and you can get the evo-bonus, a good set of cards to keep in the deck are ones that pay trash costs for powerful effects, since that creates more opportunity to check the trash. Keep an eye out for “Also counts as type” in other printed frame colors like Monochromon. Make sure you load up your deck with a few reliable Champions that are hard to punish, such as Drimogemon, Galgomon, or Garurumon.The support heavily benefits from Nature’s commonly overlooked conditional cards such as [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/106-Icemon.png” name=”Icemon”], Ankylomon, Tailmon, and Leomon. Since you can just pick whichever fits the situation, it makes sense to structure a deck’s Level C lineup with few copies of each, but more variety. This can make the deck overall less reliable for DNA…except Shogungekomon also allows searching for the purposes of DNA. Make sure you set up a clear path for evolving to Shogungekomon—it usually requires an Evolution card unless you have a body like Garurumon or Icemon which can tank for long enough to rack. Don’t get caught in a Drain-lock for too long, where you can’t afford to play anything but Drain and nothing is fixing it—take a few mulligans to get out of it and start coming back, especially if you have cards that “activate an evo-bonus” since the mulligans won’t punish you in that case. Have a Level M handy that you can evolve to when Shogun inevitably gets outmatched—[card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/001-MetalEtemon.png” name=”Metaletemon”] is good for this since it has a DNA with Meteormon (whose support condition is trivial to meet for you), and has a crazy-strong body with high HP, solid power distribution, and another searching effect as an Activate.

Digimon COTD: Level Crush

Level Crush! An evolution card that lets you evolve downward and double your HP.

What’s good about it: It more than refreshes your HP with very little card investment, keeping you going on the same active far longer than usual. It also lets you use your Mega and then evolve when you get low—forever denying the 2 KO points that Megas provide.

What’s bad about it: This card is practically useless when you’re losing, or stuck on Champion. Using it while behind in points could propel you even further behind if the opponent has a solid evolution strategy. The fact that it takes your evolve for the turn can really slow down your game.

Tips: Level crush is best used when you’re running Champions with a lot of health. It is best to avoid using it until you’re low on HP or are above Champion. Having Champions with good abilities like Jamming and Shatter can send the game spiraling into a never ending slog for your opponent. Mix with the card “Mutate” for best results.

Digimon COTD: Chainsaw

Chainsaw. An Option played in the Support phase that triples your power. Then after the battle, if you’re still alive, you go straight to 10 HP.

What’s good about it: What’s great about this Option is how it really helps come back from an absolute pummeling. Especially if used on the opponent’s turn, so you go into your own turn ready to evolve and heal yourself back up.

What’s bad about it: It’s essentially useless with a Drain ability since the 10 HP occurs at the end phase, and doesn’t work at all with Crash or Counter, but few things do. Meaning Chainsaw is for playing it straight: using , or an attacky-.

Tips: You can get massive numbers if paired with a that has “x3 VS”, which will sextuple them. If used like this versus a Mega level, you can earn 2KOs for the one you will inevitably lose. Securing a dominant position with Chainsaw can only be done if it’s your opponent’s turn when you play it and you can evolve next turn. Otherwise, you’re just setting yourself up so they can knock you down.

Lightning Epic Variant

Only read the bullet-point lists if you just came here for the rules themselves. My ramblings are not necessary but provide some insights.

Epic Card Game is a pretty wonderful game and has proven that it’s willing to change over time. But one of the things it seems to encourage pretty heavily is extra variants. They add a lot of replay value to the game while we wait for additional sets. Lightning Epic is a variant that came about by pure accident. Back when I first obtained my original copy of base set in 2015 and read the terrible rulebook, we were pretty confused on many of the rules. Thus, it led us to playing several rules slightly incorrectly for some time. The game seemed to be charged with lightning and amazingly deadly—packed with strategy. When we finally learned the real rules about 10 games later, Epic flopped around like a cold, dead fish. See, the problem was that Epic always favors the defender, by allowing them the last word on practically everything. If you play a card and attack, the defender can respond. If they block and you play a card, they can respond. If they pass and you play a card, they can respond. No matter how you try to wiggle in some extra aggro, the defender can always play the control game perfectly.

Lightning Epic changes this. After playing Epic for two solid years with several hundred games under my belt, I’m confident in saying this is my absolute favorite variant of the rules. Only a few changes were made to the core of the game, most of them extremely play tested for compatibility and balance. After seeing the damage that stalling forever until you win is doing to this game, I think Lightning Epic is needed now more than ever. Let’s eliminate the slog! Full Article

Chess: The Emperor Has No Clothes

A very popular consensus among the layperson, the educated, and the autodidact alike is that chess (or Go) is the ultimate game of skill and strategy. Being really good at chess (or Go) makes someone appear smarter, more pensive, and is a great shortcut to establishing that a fictional character should be taken seriously when they say anything remotely academic. But are the tropes about chess (…or Go) actually true? Do abstract lifestyle games like chess, Go, or shogi have the tangible value we place upon them as a society? It would certainly seem that dedicated players believe so. I’m here to tell you the emperor (king) has no clothes. Full Article