Digimon COTD: Royal Meister

Royal Meister—Unopposed victory pixie.

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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/078-Piximon.png” name=”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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/190-DigiGrave.png” name=”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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/044-Dorbickmon.png” name=”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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/008-Metamorph.png” name=”Metamorph”] to basically pick any abilities in your entire deck.

Digimon COTD: Loader Chip

Loader Chip—Choice and resources.

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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/090-Rusttyrannomon.png” name=”Rusttyrannomon”] ACTIVATE for big damage (choose DP). Use with [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/007-Ace-Chip.png” name=”Ace Chip”] for another +100 Power. Combine several helper cards like this for a monster support. In a chip-heavy deck, chain Loader into [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/011-BoostChip.png” name=”Boost Chip”] when you don’t need the DP to evolve. Compare as a more aggressive version of [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/016-Puppet-Switch.png” name=”Puppet Switch”].

Digimon COTD: Hearts Attack

Hearts Attack—Hug them way too tight.

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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/013-BlueComet.png” name=”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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/090-Devidramon.png” name=”Devidramon”] and similar.

Digimon COTD: Dirty Saucer

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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/009-BigMamemon.png” name=”Bigmamemon”] with a much softer blowback. Even the almighty [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/177-Warp-Dimension.png” name=”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.

Digimon COTD: Gigastick Lance

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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/198-Mystery-Egg.png” name=”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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/018-XVmon.png” name=”XV-mon”] for which you may want to combine with the [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/011-Ancestry.png” name=”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 [card img=”https://www.v-mundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/007-Darkdramon.png” name=”Darkdramon”]!