Invited Article | Author: Marcus T
Opening Notes
No one can claim to be a stranger to LordKnightmon and his army of warrior digimon. You have either played with or against this deck in the current BT-05 meta and judging from the high win-rate at local tournaments, it can be said to be the deck to beat. I attribute the success of this build to 2 main reasons – the ability to swarm the board with warrior digimon and yellow lvl 3s whilst reducing your opponent digimons’s DP, and the excellent consistency that this deck offers.
Unlike other decks that rely on inheritable skills to pull off a game-changing combo (which requires the player to draw the right cards to place in your stack), the goal of this deck is simple; evolve up to Lordknightmon and attack to build up your board.
One of the most devastating plays you can make with this deck (assuming you start the turn with LordKnightmon and 3 memory), is to attack with Lordknightmon, then play a Knightmon. By evolving up to Slashangemon and then to Chaosmon: Valdur Arm to reduce –27000DP on up to 4 targets (assuming LordKnightmon has a Pickmon in his stack and 3 digimon on the field) in a single turn which would completely decimate your opponent’s board.
Distributions and deck-building highlights
The featured deck comprise 14 LV3s, 11 LV4s, 9 LV5s, 7 LV6s, 3 LV7s, 4 T.K. tamers and 2 Spiral Masquerade option cards with the sole purpose of optimising consistency in your draws and plays. Level 3s should naturally form the bulk of your deck as you be able to play them without paying any cost when you activate LordKnightmon’s when attacking ability.
There are several staples that I recommend including 4 copies of – Starmon, Turuiemon, Wargrowlmon, Knightmon and Lordknightmon.
Starmon reduces the DP 1 digimon by 1000 for each digimon you have on your board and makes it easy to control your opponent’s board by leaving threatening lvl 6 digimon like Omegashoutmon DX or Nidhoggmon vulnerable after they attack. Some situations call for Starmon to be played to eliminate an active lvl3 or blocker on your opponent’s board. Two Starmons played consecutively can be devastating if you already have a full board which can remove potential threats and secure your win. At 3 cost to play, Starmon has incredible value and you should, as much as possible, avoid evolving your lvl 2s into Starmon in the raising area.
Turuiemon is not unlike your classic vanilla ice-cream, plain but cheap and good. Not only is it cheap to evolve to, having 6000 DP means that Turuiemon is not vulnerable to Nidhoggmon, Omegamon Alter-S or OmegaShoutmon DX plays.
Knightmon and Wargrowlmon both achieve the same outcome in reducing a digimon’s DP by 4000 but do it in different ways. Wargrowlmon’s digiburst skill is more predictable and reliable while Knightmon’s effect is harder to pull off but allows you to chain into devastating combos while giving you access to lvl 5s on the board for no cost. Both are integral pieces to this deck’s strategy of swarming the board while reducing your opponent’s DP.
Lordknightmon is undoubtedly the star of the show. Not only are you able to play any yellow lvl3 or warrior digimon on the field each time you attack, Lordknightmon grows stronger with each digimon on your board on both turns. That allows Lordknightmon to destroy any suspended digimon that 15000 DP and below if you play Knightmon when attacking. Protect LordKnightmon at all costs and only evolve LordKnightmon to Chaosmon: Valdur Arm if you have no other options.
Similar Yellow LordKnightmon decks do play the following cards that may work for you, depending on your playstyle:
Blinding Light/Yellow Memory Burst: Useful if you do not have access/cannot commit 4 cost for a memory tamer but need at least 3 memory to be able to make your plays. However, digimons that prevent the gain of memory other than from tamers will render these option cards useless.
Angewomon: A useful card to play with both offensive and defensive effects. However her utility is diminished as the “when digivolving” effect of reducing 2 security checks to a digimon can only be activated when digivolved outside of the raising area which her vulnerable to removal due to her low DP. The inheritable effect is also conditional and not efficient in my opinion.
Wargreymon: An aggressive and risky alternative to Slashangemon which often have trouble surviving security checks. If Wargreymon dies at the first security check, then you have effectively sacrificed one security to reduce 6000 DP which is a terrible trade-off.
Searchers such as Kotemon/Gladimon: Yellow requires good draw power to replenish your hand size deficit from playing lvl 3 and warrior digimon. Searchers help to bridge this gap by allowing you to add 1 or 2 digimon to your hand. This isn't the most effective way to draw/increase hand size for 2 reasons: Firstly, your chance of adding 1 card by playing Kotemon is 76.3% and your chance of drawing both a Lordknightmon and a warrior digimon is 18.5%, assuming you have 4 copies of Lordknightmon and 8 warrior digimon in your deck of 50 cards. While the numbers look promising, you can't actually guarantee drawing at least one card, and let's face it – you won't actually max out warrior digimon so your chances of adding cards to hand aren’t going to be as good. You also risk moving important cards such as blockers or Spiral Masquerade to the bottom of the deck. Secondly, you will never be able to add lvl3 digimon to your hand which often is more important than getting a Gladimon and Knightmon.
This build instead generates draw power from 2 main sources – T.K Takeru and Pulsemon. I put 4 T.K tamers as T.K is a superior searcher and allows you to take any yellow card from security, getting you out of tricky bricky situations. When played, Pulsemon guarantees a draw if you have 3 or more security with the added bonus of also increasing your memory by 1 if your security is exactly at 3.
Lucemon: Lucemon is a popular lvl 3 digimon to draft into this deck. The player needs to weigh the risk of bricking against exploiting Lucemon’s security recovery effect. As this deck was built with consistency as a core focus, I decided to not take any chances and I prefer to only run regular lvl 3s which I can count on to evolve in the raising area.
Gameplay strategies and matchups against other decks
Unlike other builds, this is a reactive deck and errs on the side of caution, waiting for the opponent to make the first move and mistake. Your fundamental strategy would be to evolve up to a lvl 5 or lvl 6 in the raising area and only bring your stack out when you have a target to destroy or when you have a good play to make. You should always aim to evolve into a Wargrowlmon in your raising area; doing so puts you in a good position to dictate how the rest of the game unfolds. With a Wargrowlmon in the raising area waiting to come out, you pressure your opponent to decide if he can risk bringing his digimon out or make safer but less effective moves. A good strategy is to stall and bait your opponent by playing tamers, lvl 3 digimon and blockers. Tamers are especially important as all your plays are best made with at least 3 memory at the start of your turn.
Once you have a target on the field, you will need to decide if the target is an immediate threat that needs to be removed. If digimon is rested, you can take it out by evolving to Lordknightmon and attacking it. If the digimon is unsuspended, you may use Wargrowlmon’s digiburst effect to reduce 4000DP, then evolve to Slashangemon to take out a digimon with up to 12000DP, passing the turn if you have to. Slashangemon can also battle and destroy your opponent’s rested digimon with up to 15000DP when evolved in the same turn.
If your opponent doesn’t have a memory tamer, pass as little memory to your opponent as possible by playing lvl 3s, Spiral Masquerade or paying 1 memory to evolve into blockers. The fewer digimon and memory your opponent has to work with, the less likely your opponent can effectively respond to your attacks.
While this deck’s strategy is relatively straightforward, you still need to be mindful of challenging matchups. Beware of decks that push for a quick win by either dealing lots of security checks in 1 attack, or by rushing at your security with lots of rookies. Do not hesitate to play blockers, remove threats whenever you can and adopt a more aggressive playstyle to end them faster than they can end you. Green decks often play Nidhoggmon and Banchostingmon which leaves your Lordknightmon very susceptible to removal, so make sure you anticipate these plays and play multiple blockers or consider passing the turn without attacking.
One of the decks that yellow Lordknightmon struggles most against is the purple Lilithmon-loop build. The nature of this deck is slow and calculated, which gives your opponent enough time to draw, build up the trash and play tamers. This sets up the stage for the advent of Omegamon Zwart and once he appears, it is almost certain that you will lose no matter how close you were to winning. In such situations, your best hope is to build up your board and only start attacking your opponent’s security/digimon once you have enough digimon and blockers on the field.
Closing notes
This deck stands out in the BT-05 meta due to LordKnightmon’s high DP, excellent removal options and ability to swarm the board with lvl 3s, 4s and 5s. It is incredibly satisfying to pilot a consistent deck with so much destructive power but it is by no means simple – the synergy of the cards you choose to tech in and the timing of your plays factor in whether you can take home the win. Which leaves one question to be answered: Is Lordknightmon masculine or feminine?
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