Invited Author: Russell LaParre
Country: North America
Hi everyone, my name is Russell LaParre and I'm here bringing a deck profile of the Green Hybrid list I used to win Carta Magica Ultimate Cup on July 2nd, 2022. For some background on me, I used to play Yugioh for about 10 years starting with the release of Metal Raiders, transitioned to playing VS System TCG, quit both of those to play Pokemon TCG, and now the only competitive game I play is Digimon TCG so it's been a fun time translating the deck building skills from those games to this one. I got 2nd at a Digimon Regionals online last season, 4th at my first ultimate cup, top 32 at my second ultimate cup, and was removed from the last Carta Magica Cup I was going to play in but since the event oversold its tickets, I was randomly removed from playing. The win for this event has felt like sweet justice for going through that experience a few months back. Either way, the format for this cup was BT8 + EX02 with Mulligans and no side deck over webcam. With that out of the way let's get into the list and how I constructed it.
Deck
Eggs
4 Gummymon EX02/1 Minomon BT3-004
With the release of Gummymon in EX02, Green finally got a solid draw card via its egg, something its been missing for quite a long time in the game. Gummymon can get draws via Rapidmon, Samadahi Santi and Metal Kabuterimon so it’s utilized well in our list to get tons of value. Minomon was included because I wanted to play my deck at its highest rarity and I bought an event pack Minomon at the PPG Regionals I played the week before in Philadelphia so I played this one instead of the intended Pre-Release Bibimon because I forgot it at home and took the photo of my deck at my locals for deck submission. Bibimon should be played instead so you can potentially give your blocker Cherrymon or Kabuterimon an extra 1k dp when it blocks.
Rookies
2 Calumon EX02
While Calumon doesn’t have a level, its weak so I’m going to call it a Rookie. Calumon gives this deck consistency, power to swing over even matched DP, and a snowball effect if you get value of it and your opponent doesn’t clear it the following turn. Calumon created tons of memory choke situations via raising Terriermon, dropping a tamer into play, then throwing out Calumon to choke at 1. Its 3k DP for free (essentially) is the best value it offers to deck bringing your Shivamon and Ancientbeetlemon to 15k/16k respectfully, allowing to perform security checks dodging threats in Mastemon, Imperial, and Yellow lists.
4 Terriermon BT3-046
Memory Blocker is great in BT8 and BT9. Blocking off Hammer Spark, Memory Boosts, Labramon and random purple decks with Jack Raid makes this an easy 4 of. We also need it to be a Terriermon to turn into Rapidmon for the set cost of 3.
4 Terriermon EX02
This is the latest and greatest card to come to this deck. Its ability to gain 1 memory when putting a Green Tamer into play creates absurdly strong early game board states via choking, board pressure, and combinations with Calumon to manufacture weird gamestates for the opponent to handle. The inheritable ability giving 2k is a psuedo Cody boost to your Rapidmon which doesn’t come all that often except vs Mastemon as usually you won’t have too many unsuspended digimon to tap via its effect giving that Green has little defense in security and decks tend to be more aggressive against you with that knowledge.
3 Bokomon
Consistency, free memory, essentially gaining 1 memory off JP + Hybrid makes this card a must have in the list. I would play 4 but you need room to fit other cards and you have 2 Calumon that can generate similar board value over time.
Champions:
4 Beetlemon
Its Green hybrid, you need to play 4 of these. If you’re piloting the deck for the first time, be careful often you want to play out this card as you will end up sending valuable pieces of your next combo IE Rapidmon, Terriermon or any lvl 6 to the bottom of your deck instead of just drawing into it.
4 Metal Kabuterimon
Similar reasoning to Beetlemon above, this card enables us to suspend over JP and since its DP restricted not level restricted we can suspend rookies, lvl 4s, and MagnaAngemon/Magnaangewoman in this meta. More often than not you will digivolve Metal Kabuterimon over a Beetlemon if you need immediate suspension and haven’t seen a JP yet.
3 Rapidmon
Rapidmon is absolutely absurd in this meta. It gives this deck the wide board clear it was missing in BT7 and provides the suspension utility to get Gummymon and Terriermon effects. Since Green has the luxury of playing Mimi we can go from nothing in raising to throwing out Terriermon into play in a single turn then dropping a Rapidmon to clear their board. Terriermon, play Calumon, then digivolve into Rapidmon with a 3k DP boost was a common play I made throughout the tournament and should be something you factor into thinking when debating of raising your Terriermon into play against your opponent. I usually don’t raise Terriermon out vs matchups where it is considered high valuable unless I have a 2nd one in hand. We don’t need 4 in our list as we can go up into Green Hybrid lines and take other routes of play to win the board. Having less than 3 would feel awkward due the sheer amount of top deck searching your deck does via Bokomon and Beetlemon.
2 Kabuterimon
This was a recent addition to my Green deck that I've been piloting for a few months now. It's necessary to block Exveemon in this format to find consistent success against Imperial decks. Kabuterimon also being an Insectoid allows us to digivolve over our Terriermon, into Kabuterimon into RhinoKabuterimon while still being able to use his effect to digivovle into a lvl 6 insectoid. Keep 2 in the list for the current meta.
Ultimates
4 RhinoKabuterimon
Rhino is basically our boss monster in the deck until we draw into an AncientBeetlemon. Need to play 4 of. Its 8k is stronger than most lvl 5s in the format and the 3K from Calumon lets us swing over other lvl 5s if need be.
2 Cherrymon
I played Lvl 5 Argomon and Blossomon the week earlier at Philadelphia Regionals and felt like their digisorption didn’t provide enough value in the deck as I would like when having a Cherrymon blocker could remove lethal, create choke scenarios, or allow me to draw a card without suspending a digimon on board to get swung at next turn. Cherrymon won quite a few games vs Imperial and Yellow Hybrid as I removed a potential lethal scenario and won the following turn since I had a blocker on board.
Megas
3 AncientBeetlemon
Green’s Mega boss monster, the trash effect and pressure it provides on the current format is absurd. You can trash security options like Chaos Degrade, Flame Hellscythe, and Hammer spark against stall decks and rush them down before they’re able to climb back into the game. I only use the On Deletion effect when I have lethal the following turn or far too many Hybrids in hand where having it deleted immediately after my AncientBeetlemon is deleted wouldn’t matter to my overall resources.
2 Shivamon
As meme as this card is supposed to be, Shivamon can create unplayable gamestates for my opponent to win. In this meta, D Reaper, 3 Musketeers, and Yellow Hybrid (without rookie + rapidmon) have a hard time dealing with cards control. It’s a great inclusion to have at 2, you can easily cut this down to 1 or 0 if you find the need to play the other Megas green has available.
1 BT5 Argomon
My 6th Mega slot is usually the one final decision I make before entering events. AncientTroymon, Argomon, Grankuwagamon ST9, and Nidhoggmon are the best cards to give you value depending on what matchups you expect to run into. Considering Blue Hybrid winning every event in BT8 and Argomon being able to cut off Imperial’s lethal via Lobomon it was an easy decision for me to add this 1 copy in. You can bump this count up to 2 for the next few events by dropping Shivamon or Green memory Boost.
Options
2 Samahdi Santi
Santi gives us a route to tap down our opponents' cards over 6k DP while also being a solid card to hit out of Security. I think this card can be played at no less than 2 in our list and we should play it over Thunder Laser as we can take away lethal from opposing Imperial decks that digivolve into a Mega then use Ken/Davis to restand it by not allowing it to restand the following turn.
1 Green Memory Boost
I previously played 2 Green Memory Boost but cut it down to 1 in order to play the extra Blockers in our deck. 1 felt perfect, I can see myself bumping it back up to 2 if I wanted to play 1 less Blocker but right now I don’t feel the need to do so.
Tamers
4 Junpei
Not much to go over here. JP lets you digivolve for less memory, provides tempo control via piercing, and can drop into play for only 2 with the Terriermon from EX02.
3 Mimi
Mimi is one of the best memory tamers in the game. Allows us to create lethal turns with a lvl 5 on board, swinging for game without spending any memory. I usually play with 4 Memory Tamers in my Hybrid decks but after Philadelphia Regionals I realized I need to play with some sort of “punish” to an opponent hitting my security minus just getting a Tamer into play. Hence, I cut the 4th Mimi for another Izzy Mimi and it worked out beautifully.
2 Izzy & Mimi
While this card may not look all that strong, in such an aggressive format with Armor Rush, Imperial and Red Hybrid, Izzy Mimi becomes our best way to play out of a lucky security to punish early game aggression. I believe I only used the 2nd effect to Gacha into a Mega, 5 times all tournament with only 2 of them hitting successfully.
Matchups
Ultimate Cup Results
I believe this was the round breakdown. I mulligan'd 5 times all day.
Imperial 2-0
Red Hybrid 2-0
Yellow Hybrid 2-0
Imperial 2-0
Blue Hybrid w Bond 2-0
Blue Hybrid 2-0
Mastemon 2-1
Yellow Shine Hybrid 2-0
Imperial 2-0
Matchups
Imperial
Since Imperial can always draw its perfect Exodia combo of Davis, Exveemon, and Stingmon by turn 2-3, we essentially need to match that aggression with defense and winning the board after they go into Dragon Mode Combo. Kabuterimon, Rapidmon, and a Hybrid line allow to us answer their board with ease. If you miss your blocker early, you’ll need to focus on winning board then always keeping a Kabuterimon or Cherrymon in play to prevent them from hitting you with lethal. If they stumble early and you’re able to apply pressure to security before they do, you can switch gears to immediate Rookie/Champion rush them to an easy victory. Shivamon is incredibly strong against them when they stumble early and Ancient Beetlemon with Calumon is the best way to answer their Fighter Mode plays. I find that too many Green players play far too passively against Imperial and in doing so get combo’d out of the game cause they gave Imperial all the time to find their pieces.
Potential Tech
3rd Cherrymon, play 4 Bibimon/1 Gummymon, Grankuwagamon ST9/ AncientTroymon. Bibimon makes our Cherrymon an 8k blocker which would mitigate their entire attack plan to win. Grankuwagamon ST9 can rush down Imperial with back-to-back Sec + 1 turns at 15k which is stronger than their entire deck and it can also swing over Imperial Fighter mode without Calumon which is a plus. This supports the idea of you can rush their deck down before they can rush you if they stumble. AncientTroymon can help remove their lethal by tapping down Paildramon and Fightermode when they attack into you and is a much safer route of playing vs the Grankuwagamon tech.
Mastemon
Sit on your Terriermon + Rapidmon play in Security and hit them as fast as possible with a Rhino into Ancient Beetlemon combo. I think Green is favored in this matchup as they’ll need to use their Chaos Mode to remove your Lvl 6 in play while also giving you 4-5 memory to start your turn after they Jogress. There was a play I made on the tournament stream where my opponent used Lucemon Chaos Mode and Mastemon to clear my Digimon then I responded with Terriermon, 2 Calumon, Metal Kabuterimon, and Rapidmon to swing over his Mastemon and Lucemon Chaos mode to take over the board and snowball a win. Sitting on the valuable DP boosts and Rapidmon control is key to finding success.
Potential Tech
Not necessary
Blue Hybrid
Without Syakkoumon, this matchup is incredibly easy. You can win board every turn against them, Rapidmon clears out their floodgates, and RhinoKabuterimon is bigger than their entire deck minus Azulongmon. The key to winning this matchup is being disciplined and never evolving your Rhino into a Lvl 6 Digimon unless you’re doing to it to completely win the board and put them into a checkmate situation. The 3 memory you’re using to Digivolve into a lvl 6 is better spent putting another Tamer on board and presenting a new Hybrid + Rhino the following turn. Once they strip, stun, that Rhino you can digivolve into a lvl 6 the following turn hopefully Argomon and that should be enough for you to close out the game.
Potential Tech
Alice/Lvl 6 Argomon
You can add Alice into the deck over Green Memory Boost so you can delete your stunned Digimon on board to digivolve Rhino for free into your Megas while also removing your vulnerable digimon to Sora/Joe from the board. Argomon is obviously powerful against hybrid decks and including a second copy into the list will only further push your advantage against them.
Yellow Hybrid
The pressure Green can apply via AncientBeetlemon and Shivamon makes this a favored matchup for you. Try to keep only Tamers in play with 1 digimon on board then utilizing that 1 Digimon on board to create pressure on the opponent. This means playing out Bokomon, attacking with it, then playing a tamer for turn. Whether the Bokomon lives or not doesn’t matter much to you as you creating pressure for your opponent to answer. If they waste a Rapidmon on your Bokomon, you’re happy with that resource exchange and if they go into a Hybrid/Jetsilphymon to attack over your Bokomon you can respond with an AncientBeetlemon for a big security lead. Save your Rapidmon for when they bring out their Rapidmon and remember AncientBeetlemon can’t get its security Trash or Pierce if they armor purge.
Potential Tech
Eldradimon/Lvl 6 Argomon
If the list isn’t playing the Guilmon Yellow Red package, Eldradimon can near autowin this matchup for you. Most Mono Yellow lists aren’t playing Wyvern’s Breath so you can safely swing into security with Eldradimon only fearing hitting into a Susanno or Eden’s Javelin + a big Digimon. Calumon can boost your Eldradimon up to 15k making it an even safer security swing but essentially your opponent has no plays during their turn to remove it. Argomon can lock out your opponent’s tamer board making all their Jetsilphymon come out suspended and if you put Argomon over your Bibimon their Rapidmon play won’t be big enough to trade into your Argomon as their Cody/TK and Kari will be suspended via Argomon.
Summary
I think Green Hybrid is positioned extremely well for the current BT8+EX02 meta. It can adapt with tech across all of Greens Megas available and can go at least 50/50 with every deck in the format. The issue with this deck is it's hard to pilot and many play routes will be presented to you that can cause to potentially lose a game. Even with all these play routes, Green top end potential isn’t so overwhelming strong compared to the other decks in the meta meaning you may spend a lot of time practicing with the deck to get the same results with another deck you’d achieve with much less experience. You can have rocky starts as most Hybrid decks may have and will need to navigate accordingly to climb your way back into games making tournaments with Mulligans a better option for the deck. As I pointed out above, I only mulligan'd 5 times all weekend so I think the list is rather consistent as it is. Thanks for reading my write up today and good luck in all your future events!
What do you think about the future of Green Hybrid in formats like BT9, BT10, and EX3?
I'm curious about buying into Green Hybrid and playing it seems it really seems fun, but idk if it will really be a decent pick in just a month or so.
I'm testing a few Green Hybrid lists right now in BT9 with the top end going into Grandis and Grank ST9 + rapidmon . I think the new dual tamers give green some more ways to start the turn at 4-5 memory + the blue dual tamer gives us Blue/Green for Mega Death. Not sure if it'll work with how fast the BT9 OTK format is but my logic is we can apply enough pressure to force them to have a perfect combo early before we beat them. Grank ST9 is intended to create insane pressure and threaten lethal turn 4-5.
So if a typical Grandis list is like turbo OTK, this Green Hybrid one would be less combo oriented, and a bit more aggressive early game? And also running Rapidmon as removal for specific matchups. A deck like that would seem more interesting to play than the standard turbo OTK version.
You're playing Grank ST9 instead of Grank P because you wouldn't play a lot of the Digi Burst inheritables?
A bit of a late reply but I'm also really keen on piloting this idea going into BT9! How are you finding tweaking the ratios? It feels really tight fitting in more control options like Mega Death as well as X-Antibody. I've been considering dropping the Blockers to add in Mega Death/X-Antibody, swapping out Izzy/Mimi for Mimi/Joe, and then changing the level 6 lineup for 2 Ancient/3 ST9 GranK/2 Grandis. It feels a bit less reliable on defense though since you're heavily relying on getting Mimi/Joe + Mega Death as well as losing blockers to ward off threats like Imperial.