Invited Author: Ying Huang
Country: North America
Introduction
Hello everyone, Ying “Human” Huang here to talk about my deck and match ups for Top Cut NA Online Regional Event. As this is the first NA event to include ST-9 and ST-10 for the format, every deck available to players is at full power. This means when deck building, every deck and every situation should be put under consideration and how to counter each of them
Deck's Distribution
Eggs:
4x Nyaromon / 1x Demimeramon:
I’ve seen many people play 4x Demimeramon and 1x Nyaromon instead, I prefer this set of eggs as Nyaromon can occur more than once as the digimon attacking may survive allowing for multiple occasions of drawing and discarding. This allows the player to control the cards in their hand and keep the most optimal cards for each situation. Another reason I play this set is because of the rookies played, the Demimeramon egg is most optimal when combo together with Tapirmon, however this list does not play any Tapirmon.
Rookies:
2x Gazimon / 2x Psychemon / 2x Candlemon / 2x Salamon:
With the style of the deck being very similar to Security Control, having a low rookie count does not hurt the deck. Instead you increase your security defenses and promote consistency by using memory boost options to find the pieces to your combo. Gazimon and Psychemon are crucial for the Imperialdramon matchup where Gazimon counters hammer spark and memory boost plays coupled by Psychemon countering Stingmon plays to prevent your opponent from jogressing into their level 5s. Psychemon is also extremely crucial when playing against Beelstarmon. Although I did not play against any in the tournament, the deck is still very powerful and doesn’t hurt to be prepared for the matchup.
Candlemon helps with controlling memory usage and Salamon allows you to jogress into Mastemon in a scenario where you do not have Gatomon to jogress at the end of turn.
Champions:
4x Gatomon / 2x Blackgatomon:
As Gatomon is the most important card in the deck and the initiator of allowing the player to jogress when necessary. Blackgatomon is my choice of secondary champion for having a dual color, an inheritable effect to give the digimon “Retaliation”, and its ability to rush when played.
Ultimates:
3x BT3 LadyDevimon / 1x ST10 LadyDevimon / 2x Lucemon Chaos Mode / 3x MagnaAngemon / 2x ST10 Angewomon / 1x BT8 Kimeramon:
BT3 Ladydevimon is the main draw power of the deck to allow you to control your hand and utilities. While ST10 LadyDevimon is not as powerful as the BT3, the card is necessary as an extra purple level 5 digimon and to be a target for Flame Hellscythe to bring back in order to make jogress plays. Lucemon Chaos Mode is your primary pick for a jogress Mastemon play in order to delete an opponent’s digimon or Tamer.
MagnaAngemon and Angemon would be your defensive plays and the play to pass turn before jogressing at the end of the turn. While MagnaAngemon is more defensive, Angewomon promotes a more aggressive play as the inheritable gives your digimon Security Attack +1 if you control a purple Digimon.
Lastly we have Kimeramon which is my choice of Tech for the deck. Kimeramon’s effect makes it multiple colors based on its sources and in this deck, when you digivolve it or jogress into Kimeramon, it is always yellow and purple which then allow you to jogress into Mastemon with either a yellow or purple.
Megas and Omnimon Zwart Defeat:
4x ST10 Mastemon / 2x Ophanimon FallDown Mode / 1x Creepymon / 2x Omnimon Zwart Defeat:
The primary top end of the deck is ST10 Mastemon, the most powerful card in the deck that can control your opponent’s Digimons in the battle area. Mastemon being 13000 DP makes it very difficult to remove and when coming out, majority of the time, a Lucemon Chaos Mode will follow up in order to clear an opponent’s board. When already in the battle area, Mastemon synergizes well with Flame Hellscythe and Omnimon Zwart Defeat.
Which brings up why Omnimon Zwart Defeat is played in the deck. Besides being able to digivolve and deleting a tamer, when Omnimon Zwart Defeat is attacked in your Security, it is then played in the battle area. Since Omnimon Zwart Defeat is played by a card effect, it activates Mastemon’s all turn effect, which deletes a digimon that is equal to or less than the level of the digimon played. Since the newly played Defeat is level 7, Mastemon would then delete a digimon level 7 or less.
Next we have Ophanimon FallDown Mode which has a strong board presence due to its ability to bring back a level 4 or lower digimon when it is deleted. In most cases, this digimon would be Gatomon which then allows the player to make another play to jogress into Mastemon or play another Ophanimon. The on deletion effect can also bring back a Blackgatomon which has “rush” in order to attack 1 more time which in many cases is the extra attack needed to win the game.
Our last level 6 and tech for the deck as well, Creepymon. Creepymon is the game closer for the mirror match and for the Rapidmon Yellow Hybrid match up. There are other games in which it could extend to the late game where decking the opponent out is the primary choice for a win condition. Creepymon gives the deck an additional win condition outside of attacking through your opponent’s security. Its ability to play a level 5 or lower purple digimon from trash if 4 or more cards are trashed from your deck synergizes together with Mastemon in order to control the battle area.
Tamers:
3x BT8 Kari Kamiya:
My choice of tamer is purely Kari to keep consistency of the deck so that the tamer I play will always be Kari. The tamer allows for proactive plays as it is a memory tamer and so you can play recovery cards for a lower cost as Kari can be tapped to gain 1 memory when a card is added to your security.
Options:
3x Purple Memory Boost / 1x Reinforced Memory Boost / 4x Flame Hellscythe / 3x Chaos Degradation / 1x Calling from the Darkness:
Purple Memory boost synergizes together with purple egg base for the event if you do not have any rookies to play. Even on turn 1 when you do have a rookie to play but not gatomon, it is objectively better to play the purple memory boost instead of the rookie if the said rookie is yellow and not purple. This allows you to dig through 4 more cards of your deck to find gatomon or any other purple digimon that you need to make combo plays. With the same argument as purple memory boost, reinforced memory boost does the same except recovers 1 security and adds 1 card to hand. These memory boosts can then be used on a later turn when extra memory is needed to take control of the game.
Flame Hellscythe is the best option in this deck to synergize with Mastemon hence why it is maxed out in the deck. Hellscythe can bring back 6000 dp or less yellow or purple digimon back from trash while reducing your opponent’s digimon by 6000 dp. This bypasses armor digimon’s ability to armor purge and delete them and allow you to play a digimon in the battle area. With the popularity of Rapidmon, it is a prime target for Flame Hellscythe as it is 6000 DP naturally.
Chaos Degradation is necessary in the deck despite its high cost due to its strong capability of removing difficult digimons such as Ouryumon or Zwart Defeat. Ouryumon has a protection effect that prevents itself from being deleted by card effects and Zwart Defeat has an on deletion effect that would then delete one of your digimon. The deck itself naturally has difficulties dealing with level 7 digimon as the only way to handle them is by attacking over them somehow or by using Chaos Degradation.
Lastly, Calling from the Darkness is a must have option that has value from early game all the way to late game. Calling from the Darkness allows the player to select exactly what purple digimon they need in the late game to set them in an advantageous position. Such targets could be a purple rookie together with Gatomon to set up for a following turn or Mastemon in order to jogress digivolve and take control of the battle area.
Gameplay / Matchups
Blue Hybrid:
Although I did not play against any in the tournament, I believe this matchup to be fairly advantageous for Mastemon. This is due to its ability to interact with Tamers with lucemon Chaosmon and Zwart Defeats. With the large number of security bombs in this deck, floodgates that blue hybrid generally keep on the battle area would get removed and allow Mastemon to take advantage of the lack of tamers from being removed by Lucemon.
BlackWarGreymon:
A decent matchup about 50-50 depending on the style of BlackWarGreymon. Many BlackWarGreymon players gear towards a more controlled style of removing tamers and digimon, preventing their opponents from countering. Then we have players that tend to play a more aggressive style using BT1 Wargreymon in order to negate options from being played from security and OTK their opponents with an Omnimon with “blitz” to finish their opponent off. While Mastemon has a stronger match up against a controlled style of BlackWarGreymon, it has a weaker match up against an OTK aggressive style of BlackWarGreymon. In order to play against this style, one should keep their security as high as possible and not allow your opponent to check the remaining security in 1 hit.
X-Antibody:
As discussed previously, Mastemon struggles to deal with a protected Ouryumon and level 7s. Once an Ouryumon is established in the battle area and is consistently protected by its effect, Chaos Degradation is the only card in the deck that can deal with it. In order to play this match up, one should remove Yuji’s as much as possible with Lucemon Chaos Mode and Zwart Defeats to prevent Ouryumon from getting its own effect.
AncientGreymon Red Hybrid:
The hardest matchup for Mastemon is AncientGreymon Red Hybrid as the deck can attack for 5+ security at once and prevent options from being activated. The best way to play this match up is to consistently keep your security high and remove any digimon your opponent has in the battle area to prevent any chip damage. By keeping your security count to be at least 1+ to the number of security checks an AncientGreymon would do will prevent your opponent from digivolving into Omnimon with “blitz” to attack for game.
Rapidmon Yellow Hybrid:
This is an extremely long match as both decks recover a lot and will stall each other out. The toughest card to deal with in this deck is Susanoomon as it is a level 7 and only Chaos Degradation can remove it from the battle area. Susanoomon can also prevent the deck out win condition as it places a combination of 10 tamer or hybrid from the trash to the bottom of the deck when the deck count is low. To play this match up, one should always keep a Chaos Degradation to remove a Susanoomon if it is played and to always watch the deck count so a Creepymon can be played to trash the remaining cards in your opponent’s deck. The last win condition would be to be as aggressive as possible and not allow your opponent to set up tamers and recover their security.
Mastemon:
A fairly straight forward matchup as the second Mastemon to come out will remove the first Mastemon that was played. This is played very similarly to Rapidmon Yellow Hybrid as decking the opponent out is the most likely reason for a game to end than if all security was attacked.
Beelstarmon:
Very similar matchup as Mastemon and Rapidmon as the longer the game goes, the stronger the deck is as Beelstarmon can be played at a lower cost. However to counter this, Psychemon can be played in order to prevent Beelstarmon from having a reduced cost and control the battle area. The best way to play this matchup would be to be as aggressive as possible and reduce your opponent's security as fast as you can. This is because Beelstarmon does not have the capability of recovering security unlike Mastemon and Rapidmon Yellow Hybrid.
ImperialDramon:
Due to the speed of the deck, this is one of the hardest but also easiest matchups for Mastemon due to how linear it is played. If no Exveemon and Stingmon are available to be played together in order to jogress digivolve into Paildramon, the deck slows down exponentially allowing Mastemon to fight back and control the battle area. However if both are available, ImperialDramon is extremely aggressive and can attack multiple security within a single turn if no options are hit to remove the Paildramon. The best way to play this matchup is to not give the opponent too much memory when they have tamers and a digimon set up in the raising area and to remove as many digimon in the battle area as possible to not allow for jogress plays.
Armor Rush:
A fairly advantageous matchup for Mastemon as armor purging does not prevent the digimon from being deleted if its dp is reduced by Flame Hellscythe. Mastemon’s ability to play Lucemon Chaos Mode would also bypass the armor purge as Lucemon would have the digimon armor purge first then Mastemon’s effect would trigger as Lucemon was played by an effect to delete another digimon of equal to or less level. Armor Rush also has difficulties continuously pressuring the opponent as many resources are used at once in order to put pressure on the opponent while Mastemon is able to recover all the damage with the use of MagnaAngemon.
Summary
While Mastemon does have a poor matchup to OTK oriented decks like AncientGreymon Red Hybrid, X-Antibody, and BlackWarGreymon, I believe it is one of the if not the strongest controlled based deck for the format. Having access to floodgates like Gazimon and Psychemon, prevents your opponents from taking advantage of memory gaining cards and play reduction cards that normally puts them in an advantageous position. Angewomon’s inheritable of giving security attack +1 when a purple digimon is in play gives the deck an aggressive behavior when necessary. Despite the flaws of the deck of not being as consistent as one would prefer, it is very capable of making comeback plays when at a disadvantage due to the security having an effect on the game if an option of an Omnimon Zwart Defeat is attacked.