It is week 1 for the new themed decks ST-9 and ST-10, and the yellow/purple Jogress deck seems to be a fan favourite in Japan.
We will check out 3 winning decks, and will take a deeper look at why they are winning in at their locals.
The Obvious: Lucemon and MagnaAngemon
There is no surprise in the natural synergy between the new ST10 Mastemon and these cards.
Lucemon: Chaos Mode is now such a significant force when played for free using Mastemon’s effect, ridding him of heavy reliance on the Dead or Alive option card. However, he may be an overkill if your opponent does not give you a good deletion candidate. Meanwhile, the [BT1-060] MagnaAngemon has a recovery effect that is almost always welcomed.
We observe that both these cards are almost always played at maximum copies, with MagnaAngemon having a slight edge (see Nero-san’s deck).
The Slightly Less Obvious: Zwart Defeat
Some may argue that Zwart Defeat being unnecessary, having a DP not larger than Mastemon and the fact that Mastemon has a [Both Turn] effect that makes her a valuable asset on the battle area.
However, one cannot deny the devastation of a Zwart Defeat that is checked/played from security while Mastemon is in play, allowing you to delete a LV7 or lower Digimon (from Mastemon’s effect).
The winning decks above tend to rely on heavy recovery engines in order to mill Zwart Defeat into their security.
The Less Obvious: Security Control
2 of the 3 winning decks shown above play a large number of option and tamer cards, in security control fashion.
In Mamoru-san’s deck, we see a total of 14 option cards, and amongst them 8 recovery cards. He runs maximum copies of Reinforce Memory Boost, having a large pool of candidates (14 options, 4 Defeats, and 2 tamers) to be put into security for control.
Mamoru also plays 4 copies of Tactical Retreat, which not only work wonders when hit from security, but also synergizes extremely well with Zwart Defeat. Since Zwart Defeat is now a “Gaia Force” when hit from security (when you have Mastemon in play), returning him to the security becomes invaluable.
In the case of Morio-san’s deck, while he also ran maximum copies of Reinforce Memory Boost, he did not opt for Tactical Retreat but instead, relied more on deletion options.
Playing this deck in security control fashion made a lot of sense, since Mastemon is a LV6 Jogress which requires 2 LV5 Digimons in play, which can be obnoxiously expensive. However, with security control, the efficiency of memory usage becomes significantly less important, relying instead on expensive and big plays.
Remark: it is also interesting to note that both decks only run 4 to 6 copies of LV4 Digimons.
The Less Obvious: Eyesmon Control
In the 3rd deck, Nero-san complemented Mastemon with the standard Eyesmon engine. While it is common knowledge that Eyesmon is a very meta engine that not only provides a strong milling bed but also board aggression, he is now made stronger with Mastemon since he will also trigger Mastemon’s [Both Turn] effect when he is played from a discard, allowing you to delete an opponent’s LV4 or lower Digimon.
In actual games however, this combo may be a little harder to pull off, since Eyesmon is usually played in early game if possible while Mastemon would require some setup. Furthermore, Mastemon is formidable enough with MagnaAngemon and Lucemon in mid/late game hence may not put Eyesmon in the spotlight. However, the Eyesmon engine would be able to provide an efficient foundation of LV4 Digimons during the early game, in order to move into LV5 therefore should make the Jogress evolution much easier.
Nero-san’s deck relies on sheer speed, efficiently milling and growing his board while controlling the opponent’s.
Another Loop with Omnimon Zwart
Digivolving Mastemon into Omnimon Zwart using Mega Digimon Fusion can create another loop for Jogress evolution. The ST10 Tailmon and a Purple LV5 can be retrieved back from the trash by triggering OmniZwart’s effect, then digivolve the Tailmon into another LV5 yellow Digimon such as Angewomon or HolyAngemon. (Omnimon Zwart can declare attack to return the LV6 ST10 Mastemon in its digivolution source to back to our hands for the next Jogress evolution).
Even if the memory is already in the opponent’s side, you can still trigger [ST10-04] Tailmon’s inheritable effect to Jogress the LV5 yellow (with Tailmon in its digivolution source) and a LV5 purple Digimon into ST10 Mastemon.
For more decks, do check out in our site BT7 deck-list.