Invited Author: Simon Peters (Oceania)
Deck Review: Royal Control (won local tournament)
Introduction
Where to start. I enjoyed Digimon growing up, season 1. I loved all the OG characters and watched it religiously on Cheese TV (television program in the 90’s).
My fav character was a tough pick between Agumon & Gabumon. Later I saw the introduction of Omnimon and absolutely loved it. So fast forward many years and I was at a locals to play Dragonball Super. I saw the new Digimon TCG boxes sitting across the room, and had to get some!
My first pack contained the Alt Art Omnimon (I didn’t even know Alt Art’s were a thing!!) and I thought wow! I need more. So I grabbed 2 more boxes (to my wife’s immediate displeasure).
A few sets release and I fall in love with Security Control. The versatility and ability to respond and react with multiple avenue’s to a win condition, with a controlling playstyle suited me to a T.
But then it happened… the Evo Cup and the winning deck showcasing the brutality of Red + Omnimon and Delicate plan. I lost hope, my favourite deck would not be able to compete against this sort of vicious playstyle.
BT6 dropped. The game.. CHANGED.
Alphamon, Royal Knights & Control. I thought about it for a week. Then put these ideas into a single deck. Royal Control was born!
Deck Objective:
- Win in Style
- Outlast your opponent
- Control the board
- Blow things up from Security
- Surprise your opponent
How to do this?
- Recovery Options
- Punishing Security Options
- Alphamon & Omnimon Zwart Defeat.
Early Plays
When starting a game and not knowing which way the penny will drop, I find it healthy to use a Holy Wave as we have access to our Yellow options at all times with a Full Art Bibimon!
So turn one can be a holy way or reinforced memory boost if we are unsure of what we are up against. Another alternate play can be a Tamer or Sistermon as these give minimal memory (the smallest we play is Sistermon Blanc at a mere 3 cost) or drop a 6 cost Gigadramon or 7 cost Andromon.
This lets us see what sort of deck the enemy will have, allow them to establish board presence and determine how we approach the game.
Gigadramon will give us access to digivolving to any of our level 6’s with an immediate swing. This is imperative when vsing blue and the dangers around Hexablaumon and Azulongmon tech’s.
Andromon provides us a blocker ready to hold back rush style decks like RR & D-Brigade’s.
Beyond Turn 2.
When we approach turn 2 and beyond we can look at our resources and hopefully be able to drop our Craniamon. Craniamon is what gives us real stopping power. The only real threat to our Crania is a Security Control match up, or a yellow deck with Wyvern Breath.
To this we will hopefully have our Sistermon Ciel on board or 2 copies which push all of our royal knights beyond kill zone for yellow.
Our MVP for poke is Jesmon. Yes we take advantage of this royal knight. They allow us to utilize to the fullest our hand and grave with Sistermon. A digivolved Jesmon is boosted even further on enemy turns with Gigadramon setting us to 13k. Not many Digimon can swing over or trade equally with this threat. No to mention Jesmon’s ability to make use of Piercing. This disables black from holding us off for any real length of time.
We do hope our Alphamon remains in security until necessary. Alphamon is our most preyed for Digimon to be in Security as it gives us answers to OTK Jesmon decks and other Royal Knight counter matches.
We run a copy of Omnimon Alter-S as this provides yet another way for us to handle a wide board of rush decks, and the potential to clear it up in a single blow. Preferably leaving Crania on board and digivolving over a compromised (tapped) Jesmon if the enemy has managed to play something a lot larger.
Match-ups
So even though we prepare for the worst case scenario (Jesmon Red), we cannot guarantee a win (or can we? 😉), it comes down to playstyle, making the right moves at the right time, and occasionally a little luck! (I mean we do run 4 copies of 2 amazing recovery options!)
Final Z-Punch gives our Jes and Alpha or Zwart D the option to benefit from Crania’s “Don’t Touch my blocker passive”. (Came in clutch a few times to have an Omni Zwart D act as a blocker with Reboot as well as have an option to explode!!)
Vs. Black Red: 2-0 Win(Deck worked as intended and had an impenetrable line of defence)
Vs. Revised (BT6) Lordknightmon: 2-1 Win (This match gave me the sweats, however an Iron Fist cleared 3x LKM in one mighty blow, securing the win condition).
Vs. Hexblau/Azulongmon: 2-1 Win (This match was also sweaty. Involved making the cheapest plays possible at times and ensuring we had Digimon to digivolve from in order to swing/defend)
Vs. Jesmon: 2-0 Win (This match, was incredibly unlucky for the Jesmon player. Bricking, and not seeing a Delicate Plan put my opponent on the complete defence)
Closing Thoughts
I am a local Pro Player for our TeamCardTitan lgs store. I have been active in the community for several months and recently got heavy into the Digimon scene even though I was collecting from the start of the year.
I placed low in the Evolution Cup (my first big splash into competitive play outside of my LGS) placing 113th.
I then participated in the DC-1 Grand Prix placing 66th (missed out on top 64 by 2 slots!!)
Hoping to achieve higher results in the months to come but absolutely in love with my Royal Control Deck. It feels solid and may look confusing to some. Potentially swapping out a Gigamon & Z-Punch for more recovery and an Omnimon Zwart D to increase the hit rate of these.
A big shout out to my LGS store owner & Coach Indi Watts who went over my concept and deck list with me prior to the event. Pointed out a few changes (and cards) I then switched out as they didn’t activate in security. Whom also suggested Omni Zwart D for the deck…. Beautiful edition I should of thought of given my love of Omni!
(Who doesn’t enjoy blowing up a much needed Tamer when necessary, or getting a Free 13k DP for nothing!!).
Is your plan with Jesmon just to hard drop him? Because as the deck stands currently you have no way to digivolve into him because he requires a level 5 red digimon and Gigadramon is exclusively black.
NVM turns out I'm an idiot.
Haha, originally I thought the same, then I read the text in the Gigadramon again, then yaa, it can works 🙂
How has the deck fared for you since? Made any changes, placed at any other tournaments?
https://digimonmeta.com/2021/12/21/simon-from-australia-an-upgraded-version-of-royal-control/