Invited Author: Garry Yeung
Country: Indonesia
Introduction
Hi, Garry (@garryyeung) from Indonesia here. With the release of BT12-Across Time Bandai decided to have an early Evolution Cup and with same prize again (Omegamon and Agumon) and with only 1 week from the release of the set the meta is still unclear and people are still trying new things. So today I will tell you my opinion about the early meta of the set and share what I know about my Hunter deck.
First of all I don’t think there’s a tier/near tier 0 deck this time, unlike last set where BlackWargreymon X-Antibody just beating everyone’s ass and with the new restriction list Xros Heart having trouble to control the game. BlackWargreymon is still a strong deck but with the new hunter deck that can set up tamer from scratch easily and Arresterdramon Superior Mode can easily deal with the Greymon X-Antibody Sources Effect. The new Wargreymon can also easily deal BlackWargreymon X-Antibody since it can easily hit him with raid but lately I have seen people just bring both of the BlackWargreymon and the new Wargreymon in the same deck so they have become more flexible.
Decklist featured on Digimonmeta: Deck Information – DIGIMON CARD META (digimonmeta.com)
Deck Building
Overall, I think there’s gonna be a lot of variation of this hunter deck in the future, with people trying new things. There are other option you can choose and I think the card to consider bringing in the future would be Cho-Hakkaimon for board control and more draw, Soundbirdmon BT10-072 and Yuu Amano BT10-093. But in the end it’s all about your playstyle and for now I will stick around with this decklist and might change it a bit in the future.
Distribution
Digitama (Lvl2)
I think bringing only 4 Monimon is always the better choice for this deck but you can consider bringing one Kozenimon if you really want to play the deck with 5 digitama but again I don’t recommend it and just adjust it to your playstyle.
Rookies (Lvl3)
4 Gumdramon and 4 Psychemon is a must, you always need the draw from their sources effect and Psychemon is a great card for you when you need to take the card from your tamer sources. Trust me they are gonna help you in the early-mid game. While I rarely use the Gumdramon DigiXros effect but you can always use it when you get a little bit bricky. Now I choose 4 Dracmon since I bring 13 Tamer in the deck so you can always reduce it to 3 or 2 if you only bring 12 Tamer (bringing 4 is still okay though) since the +2000 DP from the sources is always great. For alternative you can try bring ChuuChuumon so you got more blocker (this is great if you are facing against Xros Heart or other deck that want to hit you early with rookies), Shoutmon BT12 is also not bad. You also must notice that people are bringing in Ekakimon BT12 but just be careful that one doesn’t have save for himself (although you can always save it later from your level 4 save effect).
Champion (Lvl4)
For now I trust 4 Shoutmon King and 4 Damemon to play my tamers and Arresterdramon for the same reason as the purple rookies (you always need the draw and the rush can always help you finish the game). While for Tuwarmon for me it’s quite a bricky card if you have it in the early game but once the enemy start coming out and you need to remove them you can devolve first before evolving to Arresterdramon Superior mode or Omegashoutmon to make it easier for them to remove the enemy’s Digimon. There’s a chance to remove Damemon if you don’t feel like it to gacha your tamer (I already see some people ditch them) since you can discount Tuwarmon evolution from all of your tamer later on. But with my playstyle I would like to play it the highroll if you want to try you can bring Dobermon BT12 for vengeance ess but careful once again like Ekakimon you don’t have save for himself (and worse thing you can’t save 2 like Damemon).
Ultimate (Lvl5)
This is where you can change it a lot even I think I need more time to experiment here. For this decklist I think I use quite the standard one (4 Arresterdramon Superior Mode and 3 Omegashoutmon) but there are some combination I would like to try. Previously I mention Cho-Hakkaimon as a potential change for Omegashoutmon since you can control the board like Omegashoutmon but in exchange of Omegashoutmon Security Attack+1 you can get more draw when you clear your enemy board. Astamon is also a potential good card here even if you can’t digivolve it from the black and red level 4, you can always play them from your tamer’s sources and play another tamer (I think in the early game doing this is always good). But I think overall you should always bring 4 Arresterdramon Superior Mode the rest is up to your playstyle. If you want to play into Quartzmon you better play Astamon more since you can reduce the Digivolution cost.
Mega (Lvl 7)
At this point bringing one is only for lucky charm for me if the times come when I need to evolve my level 5 to Quartzmon. I think you can adjust this to your local tournament. If you have many Red Hybrid, Xros Heart, or heavy tamer or swarming deck related in your locals you can always add more Quartzmon and focus on it.
Tamer
Playing 4 Taiki for consistency you always need more card, this is the first tamer besides Tagiru that you want to have at the field first. When you don’t brick you can play Tagiru later via Shoutmon King or Damemon but always priotize Taiki over other Tamer unless you need it. For now, I bring all the other tamer 3 so the total is 13 tamer, if you want to bring less tamer you can always cut Watchmaker or Amano Yuu to 2 copy.
Option
1 Copy of Calling From the Darkness, easily said the best option for the deck since you can get your Arresterdramon Superior Mode back and other purple Digimon. Since Arresterdramon Superior Mode and Omegashoutmon can’t save themselves and their sources there’s always gonna be a ton of Digimon in your trash when they died. Make sure you only bring Monimon in the Digitama deck if you bring this option for easier activation.
Tournament Report
Swiss 4 Round BO3
W: Win, L: Lose
Round 1 VS Ulforceveedramon X-Antibody (2-0) W W
I don’t think I remember anything else besides the enemy bricking so hard to get the Ulforceveedramon combo done. I just play it slowly but surely by controlling the enemy’s Veemon, although the Leomon from the EX is a bit annoying in the early since he got the memory and draw.
Round 2 VS Beelzemon X-Antibody (2-0) W W
Since the enemy deck rely on swarming the Impmon and hitting security early on, I can get the advantage by getting free tamer from security and controlling the board easily with the Shoutmon sources to destroy 4000 DP below. Although the enemy can also control my board every turn I have more hit with Arresterdramon rush and Arresterdramon Superior Mode end of turn attack.
Round 3 VS BlackWarGreymon X-Antibody (2-0) W W
The first game I thought I already lost when my opponent destroy two of my tamer with BlackWargreymon leaving me with one. But slowly I comeback by playing tamer with my Digimon’s effect and controlling the enemy board back with Arresterdramon Superior Mode. Also my enemy having hard time to make his second mega. The second game my enemy brick and hard play Metalgreymon since I already have one tamer I can easily destroy it with my Omegashoutmon although my Omegashoutmon died with the first check (hitting the enemy’s mega in security) he still having hard time to find rookies and play another Metalgreymon from hand therefore I always lead the game with a memory advantage and finish the game.
Round 4 VS Wargreymon X-Antibody (2-1) W L W
This series probably the most surprising for me because although in the first game I easily control the enemy’s Digimon and manage to finish the game before the Wargreymon can finish me, he comeback easily in the second game by checking all my security with the help of security attack+. Sadly in the second game I am the one with the bricky hand even in the last turn I only have 1 Arresterdramon Superior Mode in hand and 1 Tamer only. If I have more hand I think I can still try to win the game since there are 5 Tamer in my arena after the enemy checking all my security. The final game is very intense since the enemy realize without him playing another tamer or Digimon besides his one beefy Wargreymon I won’t be able to do anything to it. At one point I even hope there’s a tamer coming out from his security so I can control his Digimon. The final moment from this game is when the enemy check all my security and I got my Watchmaker from it and it is my fourth tamer in the field. From there I feel like there is hope for my last turn since the enemy still have three security and 1 Omegamon X-Antibody BT10 in the field. At my last turn I have one Dracmon (he survive since my enemy Omegamon X-Antibody my Arresterdramon Superior Mode) in front and I have all four different Tamers in the field, at this point I can finish the game by hitting with Dracmon and finishing it up with Arresterdramon rush and Arresterdramon Superior Mode end of turn’s effect but then I make a fatal mistake that almost cost me the game. When my Dracmon check the security it’s reveal a X-Antibody option making me got no memory enough to Digixros my rookie and evolve it to Arresterdramon and hit twice with Arresterdramon Superior Mode. I forget that I can hit first with Arresterdramon that I give jamming to check the last two security with Watchmaker effect (Security Attack+1) and then finish the game with Arresterdramon Superior Mode end of turn effect. What I do in the game is I evolve it to Arresterdramon Superior Mode give him blocker and check his security without suspending (end of turn effect) and give him 1 memory therefore I can block his omegamon attack next turn and finish the game with Dracmon in the arena or another DigiXros from hand and Arresterdramon rush next turn. Luckily last turn my enemy forget to hatch and evolve the digitama making this play possible. If I make this mistake and my enemy didn’t make his mistake I would have lost the game. (I still feel so stupid until now)
Closing Thoughts
First of all I think this is a great meta with the diversity of the deck that are competitive and playable, I hope Bandai can maintain this kind of environment for the game (but please stop with the Omegamon Evolution Cup the price is going down like hell). I remind you all that this is still early in the meta and I find that there are more variation you can play for the Hunter deck. Since the enemy are more likely to play one unit only without any other Digimon or even Tamer the Hunter deck might have to find a solution to control the enemy or at least for now devolve it or destroy it with Tuwarmon or Omegashoutmon (Yeah this Hunter deck actually still can control your enemy field even if your enemy want to try one unit Digimon strategy). I might be experimenting a bit with Cho-Hakkaimon or Astamon and since I don’t like the playstyle of Soundbirdmon and the old Yuu Amano from BT10 I don’t think I will touch them (They are still great guys just make sure its suitable for your playstyle). Hopefully I can share a lot more in the future and goodluck for all of you. Don’t forget to follow me at twitter @garryyeung.