Dealing With Ragnaloard

21 October, 2020 | Thought | Rononrun

Overview

With the upcoming release of BT-03 comes Ragnaloardmon, a digimon as broken as many has anticipated. Properly stockpiled, Ragnaloardmon can check 5 securities in a single, unblockable attack, making him a much larger threat than the once reigning Omnimon. How do we then, deal with this calamity?

Ragnaloardmon, a recap

If you haven't, read this concise introduction to the Ragnaloard engine. An experienced player would build his Ragnaloardmon in the breeding (nursery) area, properly stockpiling him with the correct inheritable effects before unleashing him into the field. When built along the red route, he can launch an unblockable attack (due to piercing) at the opponent's entire security stack with <SecurityAttack+4>. On the other hand, when he is digivolved along the black route he can de-digivolve 2 of the opponent's digimons with every attack, significantly crippling the opponent as the game drags on!

A raging storm will always hit. It is what you do after that matters.

Ragnaloardmon is akin to a coming storm. You do not prevent him from happening (especially for red Ragnaloard) but must simply be prepared to deal with the aftermath. Even a perfectly-built Ragnaloardmon cannot win the game alone in a single turn, as another digimon is needed to attack the security-less player. This is that critical moment that you must prepare for.

Ragnaloardmon does not play in a turbo engine. The total digivolution costs it takes to become Ragnaloardmon, along his best route, is a hefty 8 memory. Therefore, always be mindful of how much memory you are giving to your opponent!

The simple (and largely similar) ways to recover from a calamity

Here we will discuss some generic, non-engine-specific ways to deal with Ragnaloardmon since most specific engines have unique mechanics for dealing with such threats.

When playing in blue, you should field a blocker or two before Ragnaloardmon is unleashed, to defend against any post-Ragna follow up attacks. Playing 4 copies of Vulcan's Hammer is almost a must as you would want Ragnaloardmon to hit them at the security, abruptly ending the chain attack. Always keep removal cards such as Cocytus Breath/Ice Wolf Claw in hand to be used on Ragnaloardmon.

A similar method is used when playing in red. If you have Omnimon, hold on to him until after Ragnaloardmon has been fielded so that he can be removed.

Green, black and violet also possess removal cards to deal with Ragnaloardmon. Since Ragnaloardmon has , [BT2-110] Trump Sword will always work on him. Do note that for yellow however, there is no option powerful enough to remove Ragnaloardmon hence it is highly recommended to play in hybrid. While there are more sophisticated ways to play mono-yellow in this meta, they belong in specific engines hence not discussed here.

Ending it fast

In the BT-03 meta there are quite a number of effective ways to rush, potentially allowing you to win the game before your opponent can field their Ragnaloardmon. For example, the Imperialdramon Jamming engine can be very quick, in addition to the existing and already fast rookie rush engines.

Digivolution into Ragnaloardmon is often slow. In a rush engine, the 8 memory needed for Ragna is almost equivalent to playing 6 LV3 digimons (2 played from digitama) in 3 turns hence equalizes the advantage quite reasonably.

The secret recipe

[BT3-046] Terriermon and [BT3-061] Chuumon are digimons that you should play in the BT-03 meta. Their effect will cripple not only Ragnaloardmon (as he cannot gain +3 memory when digivolved) but many other digimons in BT-03.

Beware of the black Ragnaloardmon

Black Ragna is much more stable than red, since he is pretty much immune to early security checks (due to vast amounts of black blockers) and has the ability to de-digivolve your digimons (which includes your blockers) allowing other attacks to easily go through. To make matters worse, if [BT3-075] Craniamon has also been fielded then both red and violet removal cards will not be able to land on him (hence putting you in a unsurmountable handicap if you are playing either of those colors).

Therefore against black Ragna, it becomes imperative to destroy their digimon before they become Ragnaloardmon. A good moment would be Raijiludomon or Tialudomon, depending on your removal options. Ragnaloardmon is significantly less threatening without the proper inheritance effects from the ludomon line.