Overview
Ever since the card was leaked for BT-05, [BT5-089] Izumi & Mimi has been lingering inside my head. I have been playing green as my core deck for months, so I am rather confident around green engines. However, when BT-05 dropped I was rather demotivated by the new additions, and I didn't want to wrap my head around dissembling my existing green deck in order to play whatever new defensive green that Rafflesimon was introducing.
The God of Gatcha
You'd better pray before each game if you're gonna play Izumi & Mimi… that's what I thought after watching a few gameplay videos that feature this green gatcha deck (there ain't a lot to be honest). You can watch Cody play in this video.
I started building one out of curiosity, and intended for non-competitive play.
This is when I came to a realization that in competitive games, luck matters for any deck we play. Luck matters for every tournament pairings, and luck matters for every draw.
I then made it my mission to build and stabilize the randomness in this gatcha deck!
And so I came up with a more stable way to play a gatcha deck!
Gatcha is a Distribution Game
In order to take advantage of the Izumi & Mimi tamer card effect, there needs to be a LV6 Digimon in every 3 cards you reveal at the top of your deck. It is therefore reasonable to maximize the LV6 counts in this deck. I play 11 LV6 Digimons to make up 20% of the deck.
In order to maintain a stable pyramid distribution, I play only 5 non-Digimons: 4 tamers and 1 option card. With 45 Digimons, I can run a 14-11-9 distribution for my LV3, 4 and 5s. I think that it is possible to play with these numbers slightly to increase the number of LV5 Digimons for robustness, and [BT1-078] Jagamon may just fit in there nicely!
The Izumi & Mimi tamer card is the core of this deck, so play them whenever possible! In all following sections we would usually assume that Izumi & Mimi is already in play, unless specified.
LV6 Gatchapon!
For my core LV6 Digimons I use [BT3-057] MegaGargomon and [BT3-111] Imperialdramon.
MegaGargomon synergizes perfectly with the entire deck. He will suspend an opponent's Digimon through their entire turn, giving you an almost guaranteed +2 memory for each Izumi & Mimi you have at the start of your turn. In addition, he also grants an almost-guaranteed <SecurityAttack+1> the turn he is digivolved, so you would want to perform a security check with your LV5 Digimon if you anticipate gatcha-digivolving into MegaGargomon.
Meanwhile, green Imperialdramon is the perfect candidate to gatcha-digivolve into when you are attacking an opponent's Digimon instead. Digiburst [BT4-059] Lilamon to suspend 1 of your opponent's weaker Digimons and by attacking it with Lilamon, pray to your gatcha god and digivolve into Imperialdramon, allowing you to not only pierce but also unsuspend. Do note that however, you can no longer use Lilamon's inheritable effect to to suspend another of your opponent's Digimon as the [When Attacking] timing has already passed when you digivolve.
To maximize gatcha-digivolution potential, I have replaced all my usual LV7 suspects into [BT5-056] Rafflesimon, which can also digivolve from my LV6 Digimons if necessary. She plays a strong supporting role in this deck, allowing you to not only disable an opponent's Digimon but also to buff your DP beyond your opponent's.
Control Your Gambling Habits
Though said being a gatcha deck, the gatcha component of this deck should only be played with sufficient safety nets. With 2 copies of either tamers, it is reasonably easy to start your turn with 5 starting memory, enough to normal-digivolve into Imperialdramon, with Lilamon providing the suspension effect whenever necessary.
When you only have 3 starting memory, digiburst-trash [BT5-050] Weedmon for that extra +1 memory to normal-digivolve into MegaGargomon for 2 security checks and a suspended opponent's Digimon that will last until the beginning of your next turn for that invaluable +2 tamer memory.
Gatcha-digivolution as an emergency plan. Do not use it if you have a better, calculated solution!
Calculated Risks
The best time to use gatcha-digivolve is when you have at least 2 copies of Izumi & Mimi played, or when you have a weaker Digimon as the attack target. Going at your opponent's security with your LV5 Digimon in hopes of successfully gatcha-digivolving into a LV6 MegaGargomon is a risky affair, and should be avoided unless you have the odds with you.
The odds. They can be easily estimated by checking what LV6 Digimons you have in your hand and trash. If you have 3 Imperialdramons and 1 MegaGargo in hand, then you will be so much more likely to gatcha-digivolve into a MegaGargomon than an Imperialdramon!
LV5 Digimons
While Lilamon seems to be a natural fit in this deck, Blossomon isn't always (at least not for some other players).
My choice of Blossomon over Jagamon is driven by the urge of speed and efficiency, as I often feel that the savings I get from gatcha-digivolving is simply equivalently spent on the 3-cost digivolving into Jagamon. In addition, Blossomon tends to give me more versatility to play with normal-digivolutions than Jagamon, which is purely a gatcha machine. That said, I plan to run a copy (or two) of Jagamon sometime later for some LV5 robustness.
Deck Performance
I have tested this deck in many casual plays, and recently in the Bandai TCG Online Festival Asia virtual event. It has managed to win all its games so far, particularly against the very meta Lordknightmon decks.
In one particular game against a dear friend of mine (also playing Lordknightmon) I managed to pull of a win at my very last turn with no more cards on my deck! So one thing to note in this green gatcha deck is that cards run out pretty fast if you drag your game.
Apologies for a good game not recorded…
Summary
In my opinion, this deck offers a whole lot of fun in the currently saturated meta of almost everything else. This is not your standard green deck with many Nidhoggmons, and is tested to perform very well against many other (meta) decks, so why not give it a try, with your own twist of course!
Digimon Card Meta has uploaded the game reference for this deck in our Youtube Channel, check out the video here.
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