Invited Author: Aye Chan Moe (North America)
Tournament Report: Evo Cup on Sept 26 (491 players)
Host: Core TCG
Deck Introduction
With how popular the deck is, I don’t think LordKnightmon needs too much of an introduction. But if it does, it’s an insanely powerful card that lets you put out rookies or warriors for free when it attacks and it grows bigger the more bodies you have on the field, making it an extremely difficult threat to remove. Knightmon and Starmons are the stars (no pun intended) of this deck, letting you reduce the DP of your opponent’s digimon when you swing with your LordKnightmon, making this deck a nice blend of going wide AND going tall while also controlling your opponent’s board.
Digitama
4 copies of [BT5-003] Pickmon and 1 [BT4-003] Koromon. This deck has a lot of DP reduction effects be in multiples of 4000 and a lot of decks are now running the 5000 DP blockers with 1 cost to evolve over the 6000 DP blockers so the –1000 DP effect from these at the very least help to settle those blockers up for deletion via the –4000 DP effects. Pickmons are the easiest to enable since the deck already wants to be spamming the board but Koromon is a nice backup since there are ways to get to 3 security, whether naturally via your opponent’s attacks or via things like Blinding Ray, WarGreymon, or even T.K grabbing a Chaosmon Valdur Arm from security.
LVL 3s/Rookies
4x [BT5-035] Starmon, this card is insanely flexible and allows you to make a good variety of plays. Its on-play effect, at worst, can delete a 1000 DP rookie, and at best, it can delete a 6000 DP blocker and let you swing in for more damage. It also helps set up your opponent’s board for Spiral Masquerades, Knightmons into SlashAngemons, or even just reduce their biggest threat’s DP low enough that you can swing into it and delete it.
4x [P-028] Pulsemon. This is just a good card overall. Early game, replaces itself when played and helps you dig through your deck to look for the pieces you need. When you’re at 3 security, it’s a 2 cost to play that still draws you a card. When paired with LordKnightmon, you get to draw, gain a memory, or both, making this an extremely flexible card.
The rest of the rookies are 2x [BT4-038] BushiAgumon for extra same turn damage with LordKnightmon or Blinding Ray, 2x [ST3-04] Patamon for memory gain when deleting stuff with DP reduction, 1x [BT5-033] Cutemon to slow down Imperialdramon and green Digisorption decks, and 1 [BT5-034] Kotemon to help dig for your LordKnightmons and Knightmons when you have everything set up but you just need a LordKnight or a LVL 5 to evolve into.
LVL 4s/Champions
4x [BT4-042] Piddomon and 3x [BT3-037] Turuiemon since they're only 1 memory to evolve.
3x [ST3-07] Unimon as blockers with 6000 DP that get around cards like Shoutmon DX, Nidhoggmon, and Omnimon Alter-S.
Finally, I run a single copy of [BT5-037] Gladimon for the same reason I run the one copy of Kotemon: Finding LordKnightmon. Gladimon is also not the worst card to hard play. At 4 cost, if I have a TK out, I can choke my opponent at 1 memory. It also conveniently dodges Ultimate Flare, one of Black’s most popular removal options at the moment. Gladimon is also playable via LordKnightmon’s effect since it’s a warrior so that’s always a plus and it’s one of my more preferred targets to evolve the 2 Angewomons I play onto.
LVL 5s/Ultimates
4x BT5-042 Knightmon. This card is a warrior that LordKnightmon can play for free that helps you delete your opponent’s Digimon and, if it sticks around, becomes another LordKnightmon or another LVL 6.
3x [BT4-046] WarGrowlmon. This is the card I want to be evolving my Digimon into in the Raising Area so that once it gets to my next turn, I can push it to the battlefield and digiburst to give something –4000DP. If I’m guaranteed 3 memory, either via Blinding Ray or T.K, I can then evolve it into a SlashAngemon to delete something with 12000 DP or less or into a LordKnightmon to start putting Knightmons or Starmons onto the field and finish off whatever I had targeted with WarGrowlmon’s effect.
2x [BT3-039] Angewomon. This card adds some extra flexibilities to my LVL 6s, letting me put out extra rookies when I am at 3 security or less. With LordKnightmon, it can be anything between cheating out a Knightmon and a Starmons to delete one or two things to cheating out 2 BushiAgumons to swing for the game. Even without LordKnightmon, it enables my SlashAngemons to be more than just 8000DP beat sticks that will probably die to security. Also, as seen in the BT4 meta, it works really well with the 1 of WarGreymon that I’m running.
LVL 6s/Megas
4x [BT5-045] LordKnightmon. As I said in the deck introduction, this card is insanely powerful. It lets you put bodies out for free while also growing itself in terms of DP, making it a harder to remove threat since your opponents can’t just simply swing into it with most of their LVL 6s.
2x [BT1-062] SlashAngemon. This card will always be good in yellow. It’s not a great attacker but it makes up for it by deleting most LVL 5s and below and when added on top of other DP reduction effects, this is usually the finishing blow that will delete your opponent’s biggest threats.
1x [BT4-048] WarGreymon. This card was the menace of the BT4 meta and it is in this deck as the backup plan. It’s pretty good in the mirror match since it can usually reduce the opposing LordKnightmon’s DP low enough to delete when you swing into it and being able to become active again makes it a harder threat to remove. It’s also a very aggressive attacker, letting you attack twice a turn as long as you have the security to remove for its effect.
Other cards
2x [BT4-091] Chaosmon: Valdur Arm. This is in here as extra removal, that’s about it. It’s best when evolved onto SlashAngemon to make it bigger but it’s still pretty good on top of any LVL 6 when the situation demands it.
3x [BT1-087] T.K. Takaishi. This card smooths out your turns by guaranteeing that you start with at least 3 memory and it helps dig out cards you might need in your Security Stack.
2x [BT4-104] Blinding Ray. At worst, it gets you to 3 memory when your opponent is setting you to 1, allowing you to evolve your LVL5 that you just moved from Raising Area to the Battle Area into a LordKnightmon and immediately gain advantage with its attack trigger. At best, it lets you go to 5 memory, play a BushiAgumon, and swing for game.
2x [BT5-099] Spiral Masquerades. This deck often goes wide and Spiral Masquerade is the best removal option with a big board, allowing you to delete just about anything your opponent has.
Match-ups
Round 1 (Purple 2-0):
Game 1: I was able to delete any stack he raised so he was never able to get up to a LV 6
Game 2: Same as game 1, he couldn’t stick a threat.
Round 2 (Green control 2-1):
Game 1: This one was pretty straightforward, I was able to build up my stack pretty quickly while he was missing his LVL 6s so I took over the game pretty easily
Game 2: I had a pretty good board and cleared his board pretty well but he was able to raise a LV 4, evolve it into a Blossomon, and then played Hidden Potential Discovered to go into Nidhoggmon to clear my board. He then evolved his Nidhoggmon into Chaosmon to delete my LordKnightmon and I couldn’t recover after that.
Game 3: I was able to go up into a WarGreymon on the battlefield while I kept a WarGrowlmon in the Raising Area, which let me chip away at his security while playing around Nidhoggmon. The turn he did go into Nidhoggmon, I had played a Gladimon on my turn so I had left him at 1 memory (I had a T.K out, setting me to 3 memory every turn). He played Hidden Potential Discovered again and only removed the Gladimon. He then evolved into Chaosmon after to swing into my WarGreymon but on my turn, I raised my WarGrowlmon, digi-bursted to give the Chaosmon –4000DP, evolved into LordKnightmon to swing into the Chaosmon and delete it. He wasn’t able to recover after that
Round 3 (Red Shoutmon 2-1)
Game 1: I was able to delete his Shoutmon stack pretty easily when I was able to go up to LordKnightmon so the game was in my favor
Game 2: I bricked pretty hard this game, I missed my LVL 4s and 3s after the first LVL 3 so at one point, I had to hard play a Knightmon to delete a rookie and when I was able to evolve it into LordKnightmon, he was able to swing into it with his Shoutmon DX that had a ZeigGreymon under it. I couldn’t build enough of a board either, since he kept deleting anything I played with Shoutmon’s effect. His stack had 3 Shoutmon DX’s at least by the time the game ended.
Game 3: He didn’t have any ZeigGreymons to go with the Shoutmon DX so my LordKnightmon was left uncontested and quickly took over the game.
Round 4 (Green/Yellow Rookie Rush 2-0)
Game 1: I bricked actually. I started with 3 Knightmons, a Spiral Masquerade, and a SlashAngemon but the brick actually worked out in my favor. He went first, which let him evolve one LVL 3 in raising and play a LV 3 which luckily had 3000 DP so, on my turn, I just played a Knightmon to delete it. On his turn, he didn’t attack at all, he played more rookies and then Spiral Masqueraded my Knightmon. My bricked hand didn’t really get any better so I played another Knightmon and deleted another rookie. He attacked with one Rookie, played another, and Spiral Masqueraded my 2nd Knightmon. In my turn, my bricked hand still didn’t get any better so I hard-played my 3rd Knightmon, killing another Rookie. This one stuck around since he didn’t have a 3rd Spiral Masquerade to follow up with so he started swinging and most of his Rookies die to my security stack. In my turn, I finally draw a rookie so I evolve into in Raising and evolve a 1 cost on top of it. I swing at the surviving Rookie and then evolve my Knightmon into the SlashAngemon to delete the other one. He was very low on cards at this point so I was able to take the game back in my favor with the Spiral Masquerade in my hand, as well as the LordKnightmon I was eventually able to evolve into.
Game 2: He actually let me go first, which I think helped me out a lot more than he thought it would. I had a pretty good hand this time, with a turn 1 T.K. making sure I’d always start at 3 memory. I was able to respond to his board pretty efficiently on my turn when I evolved the rookie I had in raising to a blocker and ended my turn by deleting one of his 2000 DP rookies with Starmons. From there, I was able to go up into WarGrowlmon the next turn, deleting another threat with its Digi-burst, and I hard-played a Knightmon to delete another, just so that if he did have Spiral Masquerades in hand, he’d have to delete both of my LV 5s to stop me from going into LordKnightmon. He wasn’t able to delete both of them so I was able to go up into LordKnightmon and the game went in my favor.
Round 5 (LordKnightmon/Mastemon/WarGreymon 2-1)
Game 1: I went first so I spent my turns building up my stack in Raising while also trying to establish a blocker in the battle area and he did the same. He got to LordKnightmon first and swung, which let me respond on my turn with my own LordKnightmon swinging into his while reducing its DP with Knightmon’s on-play effect. I also had a SlashAngemon to evolve the Knightmon into so I was able to deal with the Knightmon he had played off of his LordKnightmon. The game went quickly in my favor after this.
Game 2: He went first. He had both Omnimon Zwart Defeat and WarGreymon out at one point and I didn’t have the pieces needed to deal with both of them so I lost pretty quickly.
Game 3: I went first. I usually like to go 2nd in the mirror but since I saw the WarGreymon and Zwart Defeat, I assumed he was running the Mastemon build and didn’t have any SlashAngemons, which would have let him respond to my threats more easily. I went up into LordKnightmon in Raising as he did the same as well. On my turn, I swung at him, played a Pulsemon to draw a card. I evolved Pulsemon into Piddomon to block, played Blinding Ray, and hard played a Unimon so that he would have to deal with both blockers on his turn with 1 memory to get rid of my LordKnightmon. He wasn’t able to so I was able to take over the game, eventually winning a BushiAgumon.
Round 6 (Imperialdramon 2-0)
Game 1: We both bricked. I had no LV 4s and he had no LV 5s so I spent my turns evolving Rookies in Raising while also playing Pulsemons to dig through my deck while he spent his turns evolving into blockers. I also hard-played a couple of Angewomons, which he responded to with Absolute Blasts. By the end of the game, he had managed to evolve 2 out of 3 of his blockers into Paildramons and I had 6 rookies total. I was down to 2 security after his swings while he was down to 4 security (I had attacked with a Pulsemon on my 2nd turn) so I swung with all 6 since I was going to lose the next turn and prayed that there were no Absolute Blasts in security. Turns out there weren’t and I won the game.
Game 2: I was able to go up into LordKnightmon and respond to his Imperialdramon pretty efficiently. All of his Nidhoggmons were also in security so he couldn’t clear my board and I was able to win.
Round 7 (LordKnightmon 2-1)
Game 1: He won the die roll so he went first, which let me see what he was doing first and gave me an extra card to respond with.
Game 2: I went first so we were in the opposite situation now, he had the upper hand and was able to respond to my threats better.
Game 3: I chose to go second and similar to the previous games, I was able to respond to his threats better. By the end of the game, I had both LordKnightmon and a WarGreymon with an Angewomon under it and I was able to put down a BushiAgumon with their effects, which gave me enough aggression and removal to delete his blocker and win the game.
Round 8 (Imperialdramon 2-0)
Game 1: I actually was missing a rookie so I had to begin the game by playing TK and grabbing a Rookie out of security. Luckily, his hand wasn’t too great either so I was able to start building up my stack in Raising. I was also able to put down a Cutemon pretty early and that slowed him down enough to let me go into LordKnightmon and take over the game. I had kept putting him at 1 or 2 memory so that he would have to spend 3-4 Hammer Sparks if he ever wanted to evolve into Imperialdramon. I also didn’t see Dinobeemon in Raising so I was able to swing freely knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to evolve into Nidhoggmon.
Game 2: I was able to answer his first Imperialdramon with LordKnightmon putting Knightmon into play and evolving it into a SlashAngemon. By the end of the game, he had a Paildramon in Raising and a Dinobeemon that he had built up in the battle area so I was able to comfortably swing again knowing I wasn’t going to get hit by a Nidhoggmon.
Round 9 (Purple Lilith Loop 2-0)
Game 1: We were both able to build up into our LV 6s but I had all the pieces I needed to remove his biggest threats and he had no way to deal with mine.
Game 2: He went up into Anubismon first, which I was able to delete on my turn by evolving into a WarGreymon, giving it –6000DP with its effect, and then hard playing a Knightmon to finish it off. With the amount of memory I gave him, he was able to go up into an Omnimon Zwart through a Lilithmon and Jack Raid, which he then used to bring back 2 LadyDevimons. Unfortunately for him, that did pass the turn over to me so I was able to evolve my Knightmon into LordKnightmon, which let me play another Knightmon for free, bringing Zwart’s DP down to 11000. I swung with WarGreymon to bring it down to 4000 (I had a Pickmon under WarGreymon). I was then able to finish it off with a Starmon. On his turn, he looped Jack Raids by evolving both his LadyDevimons into Lilithmons but he couldn’t find another Omnimon Zwart to keep him in the game so, on my turn, I was able to delete both Lilithmons by using WarGreymon to bring one down to 5000DP, evolve the Knightmon into a SlashAngemon to finish it off, and then finished the turn with Spiral Masquerade deleting the other one. He wasn’t able to recover from that and I was able to win from there.
Closing Thoughts
I can definitely attribute some of my wins to luck, especially round 4, when my bricked hand actually worked in my favor, and round 6 when both my opponent and I were bricking. Overall though, this deck is insanely powerful, allowing me to respond to basically anything that my opponents played while building my board. The one of WarGreymon was definitely an MVP in any games it showed up in, giving me the extra aggression and repeatable removal effect I needed to secure a lot of my wins.
