Last week we wrote about how Grandiskuwagamon is is dominating the early meta in Japan and Malaysia, while the other decks are still trying to make good footing in this new landscape. Amongst them is none other this set's poster boy, the all-new Alphamon deck, and today we will look at this in a bit more detail.
If anything can be said about the Alphamon deck, we'd say that he is an all-rounder. We have very recently witnessed this deck holding up very well against the tier-1 Grandiskuwagamon (with a 2-0 win in the finals of a 20+ man tournament), and having tried this ourselves we'd have to agree that this is indeed a monster of a deck.
Core engine: digivolution
Digivolution is in the core of this deck.
Digivolving into LV4 Dorugamon requires 2 cost, and then 0 cost into Dexdorugamon to gain 1 memory, [Blocker] and [Retaliation]. This is effectively a 1 cost digivolution if you have the right cards in hand.
Digivolving into LV5 Dorugreymon allows you to put a black [X-Antibody] Digimon into it's digivolution cards to gain protection. Ideally, by originally inheriting a [BT7-054] Dorumon and putting another copy underneath (from this effect), his digivolution cost becomes just 1 memory (since we gain +2 from the 2 inherited Dorumons).
Digivolving your Dorugreymon into Dexdorugreymon is generally free, and gives a simple board control in the form of LV4 deletion.
With Cool Boy, these dex-digivolutions become even cheaper: a single copy of cool boy could've reduced this entire LV3 to LV5 digivolution to 0-cost!
Not a surprise why cool boy is one of the most sought-after card in BT-09!
Into LV6, both the old [BT6-111] Alphamon and the new [BT9-066] Alphamon are 3-cost to digivolve. If you have a starting memory of 3 (from Doumoto Kota) or generated some along the way (from a combination of Yuujis or Cool Boys), digivolving into Alphamon would probably still keep your turn. Otherwise, you would still be very safe staying at LV5 Dorugreymon or Dexdorugreymon thanks to the turn protection he has, or even better, the [Blocker] and [Retaliation] granted from Dexdorugamon.
Back to the Alphamons, both are great choices. However, in a more aggressive setup the new Alphamon does better, allowing you to retrieve an X-Antibody trait card from trash to be put under his digivolution cards. Ideally, an Ouryumon can be picked up if you plan to move into LV7 Alphamon Ouryuken, or another BT7 Dorumon if you wish for memory to keep your turn. Either way, you de-digivolve 1 of your opponent's Digimon.
Either way, it would be ideal to move into LV7 Alphamon Ouryuken before initiating an attack, since at LV6 Alphamon does not have a lot of DP to go swinging at securities. With Ouryumon in his digivolution cards, his digivolution cost would only be 3, and by returning unneeded digivolution cards to your deck, you gain enough memory to keep your turn.
So there you go, a LV7 Alphamon Ouryuken capable of 2 swings at security, easily with +1000 DP from Dorugamon and [SecurityAttack+1] from Dorugreymon, and possibly [Retaliation] from DexDorugamon and deletion protection from Dorugreymon, all done comfortably within the comforts of a turn's memory!
Given enough memory gained from Ouryuken's [End of Turn] effect, it is possible to use a Hybrid as end game. Otherwise, Ouryuken should have enough staying power to last through your opponent's turn for an end game the next.
The right cards
This deck's performance lies at the mercy of your draws, so it would be essential to search and have them ready. Fortunately, a standard Alphamon build is not short of searchers. To name a few, 4 copies of the BT7 Dorumon, 4 copies of Cool Boy, and some copies of Ryuudamon, Doumoto Kouta, and memory boost provides ample searching power.
This deck is not short on drawing power too, thanks to the Digitama [BT7-005] Dorimon, the tamer Yuuji and most importantly, Cool Boy.
Matchup: against Grandiskuwagamon
Alphamon Ouryuken is very likely a 17000 DP Digimon at all turns, and a Grandiskuwagamon without inheriting at least +2000 DP cannot even battle and delete Ouryuken. And if Ouryuken inherits [Retaliaion] for the turn from Dexdorugamon, it would take a lot of courage for Grandis to perform a suicide attack.
It would also cost any Digimon a lot more memory to become Grandiskuwagamon than it would to Ouryuken hence as long as you have the right cards in hand.
Matchup: against Wargreymon X
Wargreymon costs a lot more to grow, and unless he can inherit enough to push his DP to 17000, Wargreymon X will not be able to delete Ouryuken by effect. And if Ouryuken inherits turn protection from Dorugreymon, he would be pretty untouchable even when hitting Gaia Force from security.
The only bet would probably be with [BT8-067] Metalgreymon's de-digivolve effect, reducing Ouryuken into DP-range of an ordinary attack or deletion by effect.
Matchup: against Metalgarurumon X
Metalgarurumon X would theoretically eat Ouryuken alive, since the standard Alphamon deck lacks protection against "return to hand/deck" effects. A standard Alphamon player would invest all memory into a single stack, with maybe another LV3 or LV4 lying on the board, which makes good pie for a Weregarurumon X en-route to Metalgarurumon X.
However, it is also comforting to know that Alphamon routes are much more efficient to grow than the Garurumon route hence the possibility of you outrunning their pace. Timing is crucial hence its important to ensure that you have what it takes to swing for 4 security checks in one turn and another for the win, so chip 1 security off your opponent early and have some hybrid LV4s prepared.
Sample decks
Below are some sample deck profiles for reference.
