With EX1, the winning decklist is showing more for black color, those are Machinedramon force and Etemon/MetalEtemon pairing with D-brigade.
Surprisingly, the Machinedramon deck continues receiving support in BT7 next adventure, triggering me to further optimize the deck and preserve the Machinedra power. There are some weaknesses that are found in EX1 Machinedra deck such as:
- It needs time to set up the Machinedarmon line, consider you are lucky to draw Machinedramon early.
- The Machinedramon becomes useless if it does not inherit a "blocker".
- Without "reboot" it cannot unleash its full potential, we cant use him to attack if we need him to stay unsuspended to block in the opponent's next turn.
These weaknesses are considered as "bad hands" or hand brick and if it happens, the Machinedra deck is unable to reverse the situation. But with BT7 support, the deck now has more solutions to control the board.
Rookie for Draw power
In the old Machinedra deck, I used the black color rookies to do normal digivolving to move up to LV5 to search for EX1 Machinedramon. But after do some re-evaluating, I think the purple base would be better for draw and trash cards.
The BT3 Demimeramon digitama and LV3 Tapirmon can help to "draw 2 trash 1" when they got destroyed. And if I have Eyesmon: Scatter Mode in hand, I can digivolve up to this LV4 digimon to get totally "draw 4 trash 3" when it gets destroyed.
[BT7-069] Eyesmon: Scatter Mode
[On Deletion] Draw 3 cards from your deck, then trash 2 cards in your hand.
To not causing confusion to our reader, we need to declare resolving effect for each card, we must not sum up the "draw and trash" effects all at once.
The Eyesmon Scatter Mode can be hard-play by paying 4 costs, it is cheap enough for a level 4 with the huge power of draw and trash. This card helps me in many games when I can't draw Machinedra.
LV4 Black Digimon
I still use Nanimon as it is a cheap LV4 black digimon and also a security digimon, I will hard play him to move up to LV5 to search for Machinedramon. With only 3 costs to play, if we can have Taichi on board to secure 3 memories at beginning of the turn, then Nanimon role would be easier to fulfill.
The blocker Mekanorimon is another MVP of the deck, I feel that it is so much important to have him added to your deck.
Mekanorimon is a Lv4 that only takes 4 costs to play and we always have to hard-cast him. The strategy to use Mekanori is to make the Machinedramon unsuspend if we have ST5 Taichi tamer on play (consider Machinedramon does not have "reboot" in the opponent's turn). On top of that, Mekanori is also a blocker to stop the opponent from using their rookies to attack our security, slowing down the game for Machinedra.
Controling Memory
If you played EX1 Machinedra before, you must also experience the desperate feeling when the opponent controls the memory. Machinedra needs 12 costs to play, then only can gain back memory for each LV5 cyborg card it has in its digivolution source. So if the opponent only gives you 1 memory in your turn, even all the LV5 cyborgs are ready and the LV6 Machinedra is available in hand, you still cannot play him.
In this deck, I replaced the pair tamer Joe & Izumi to put 1 copy of Tai Kamiya 4 costs tamer, he can help to reset the memory to 3 at the beginning of the turn. Besides, I also increase the number of Ultimate Connection option cards to use when I need 1 more memory to play Machindra. Ultimate Connection is like a lifesaver when I don't have Tai on board.
Board Control
This is a new power that fully supporting the Machinedra deck, make the deck become more solid and stronger, the BT7 ChaosDramon.
Chaosdramon gives me the safe feeling against the deck that tends to widen the board with their rookies. Chaosdramon can be digivolved from EX1 Machinedra for 1 cost or digivolved from a LV5 black or red digimon by paying 4 costs. Once it appears, it destroys at least 2 opponent's digimon with 6000 DP or less because it should have 2 LV5 in its digivolution source if we are able to put 1 LV5 digimon card with cyborg at the bottom of this digimon digivolution cards.
Alter-S is another option to clear the board when it is digivolving. I choose Alter-S because we can digivolve from black EX1 Machinedra or red Chaosdramon into this digimon. And if the opponent does not destroy him in their next turn, we can return LV6 Machinedra to hand when Alter-S attacks and continue another Machinedramon shield on the board.
In summary, I love this deck. It is much better compared to its previous version. To confirm if this deck can stand in the top tier we must test it with more decks like Rookie Rush or OTK, but for decks that need time to set up, I am confident that Machinedra can definitely put up a good fight.
Very interesting mix of purple