Introduction
Hello DigiDestined! This is Robin from DigiDestined Doods (@DDDTcg). I have been playing digimon trading card game since the BT1 era and is very much a Black user during its BT2 release. Since BT9, I have been playing competitively and Alphamon has been an integral part of my competitive journey. It has net me multiple wins in tournaments and is considered a force to be reckoned with during its BT9 dominance. If not for the nerf hammer on dorugrey, I believe it would have been a tough contender.
Alphamon Deck Ratio
For players looking to deck-build Alphamon, here is my take on the deck ratio that would serve as a reference for an OTK setup. There are 7 flexible slots that you can tech for either consistency, defensive or offensive playstyles. I recommend having 12 rookies, as Alphamon needs a strong start to put pressure on your opponent.
Alphamon in BT13 Environment
The definition of “the strongest” in BT13 is all about speed, power, and value. Low-cost evolution, playing tamer by digivolving, multiple security check, restand capability, all of these can now be incorporated in a single deck, Burst Modes. MiragaGaogamon:BM is probably the most difficult to deal with since they can bounce your digimon easily.
Yggdrasil Royal Knight brings back the horrors of Mother D Reaper. Putting your opponent on the clock with the impending doom of getting OTK. It can search for your pieces, has strong board control, and can continuously defend against the onslaught of attacks until Omegamon hits the board.
But thankfully, BT13 Alphamon is the answer to all of your tough matchups, preventing all attacks to player from 10 cost and above. You can even hard cast in an attempt to floodgate your opponent (I manage to comeback from such plays), it also has a one time protection and combines this with BT9 Dorugreymon, it is truly unkillable!
**Take note that BT13 Dorugreymon inheritable effects can proc first after you digivolve to Alphamon:Ouryuken during your end turn to allow you to gain 1 additional memory.
Optimal OTK Setup (Tamer-less)
This is an OTK setup that does not require any tamer, here are the following steps to achieving that (assuming you have sunarizmon and at least 7 memory) You can also use this setup if you have sufficient memory, tamers and cards
Step 1: Digivolve to Dex-Dorugamon and trash either Ouryumon or BT13 Dorugreymon (make sure you have 1 additional Ouryumon in hand).
Step 2: Digivolve to BT9 Dorugreymon to slot either Ouryumon or BT13 Dorugreymon
Step 3: Digivolve to BT13 Alphamon to add your trashed Ouryumon or BT13 Dorugreymon. You should have line looking like this
Step 4: Attack with Alphamon for 3 security checks, you can remove an x-antibody source to prevent it from leaving play. Restand with Ouryumon inherit effects.
Step 5: Digivolve to Alphamon:Ouryuken. First, activate BT13 Dorugreymon inherit effects to slot an Ouryumon from hand. Activate Alphamon: Ouryuken effect to return up to 7 X-Antibody Digimon to continue your turn. (You can return the "old" Ouryumon)
Step 6: Attack with Alphamon: Ouryuken for 3 security check, restand with Ouryumon inherit effects and end the game with final attack!
**You can also do this with BT13 Dorugrey in breeding, BT9 Dorugrey in Hand/Trash, and 4 memories.
Option Tech Choices
Kongou is the best answer against one of the top decks in the current meta, ShinegreymonBM. It stops Marcus from giving so much value and buys you that extra turn to set up your OTK. Alpha-line is also immune to DP reduction too! It is also good against Red Hybrids.
Breath of the Gods was played extensively in previous Alphamon builds as it helps with prevention from bounce and allows you to attack as it gets reboot to block attacks (assuming you have retaliation/blocker). The security trigger
Final Zubagon Punch serves as an option that covers the dorugrey nerf (security +1) and can give you the extra check to end the game. Additionally, it also helps boost Alphamon defense with +3k DP and reboot.
60% winrate synergizes well with BT13 Alphamon and can help to discard your pieces for 2 digivolution cost. This helps in situations where your opponent tries to memory choke you.
Level 3 Flex Slots:
The inclusion of Sunarizamon has become a key to the OTK setup but I would not recommend playing 4 pieces, as it can be awkward at times when you would need to slot [x-antibody].
Chikuri helps with slowing down Yggdrasil RK and Blue Flare.
BT9 Dorumon discard and drawing power can help provide consistency.
Promo Dorumon can help with unbricking your hand and sometimes play a 4 cost digimon, and by the way, BT13 Dorugamon is a 4 cost digimon!
Level 4 Considerations
There are only 2 other x-antibody choices for your Level 4 slots, and both are leaned toward a defensive board control stance, BT8 Ginryumon and BT9 Raptordramon. The upside is that you would not need to rely on Dex-doruga line and can push out from breeding to digivolve.
Black hybrids can also be considered as your final attackers. Mercuremon gives one of your digimon [Blocker] and act as a chump blocker.
Level 5 Considerations
You would probably want to run all the Dorugreys for 2 things, protection and memory gain from slotting. Grademon is great to cycle through the deck for your Alphamon and an additional inherit source but with Alphamon being played at 4-5 pieces, it is still generally quite hard to dig.
Hisyaryumon was added to replace the Dorugreymon solely because there was no other suitable level 5. There are 2 ways to trigger its effect, either by slotting an [X-Antibody] option or resting [Yuji] tamer to proc and digivolve to Alphamon with -1. Unfortunately, these 2 factors are sometimes hard to realise, with little deck space for [X-antibody], and ending on an Alphamon with 12-14k DP is not the ideal finish.
Matchups
MirageGaogamon: Burst Mode
This high-burst OTK deck can easily wipe out your security with 1 tamer and 1 Gaoga line. It’s just insane what this deck can pull out even when you are ahead in board and security. It is hard to play around bounce effects, but take note that they can only bounce Level 5s and lower, and Tamers before it goes into Burst Mode, which means if you end on Alphamon, you can expect it to stay on the field. Passing 10 memory with BT13 Alphamon is also a play that you can consider, and if you can chain another BT13 Alphamon, the game is most likely in your favor. Remember, your opponent can play around by spamming rookies so make sure to up blockers for the lower-level digimons.
Shinegreymon: Burst Mode
Shinegrey received a tremendous boost in BT13 with Shinegreymon:Burst Mode, it is now able to dish out 3 – 4 checks in a single turn. The deck can search for tamers, play tamers for free (from both hand and security), and has 0 cost evolution! The setup time is much faster compared to Alphamon, and before you knew it, you are within OTK range. Kongou is probably your best option as it prevents Marcus from attacking (hence preventing 0 cost evolution) and security recovery. Shinegrey players could tech in Shinegreymon: Ruin Mode and that could really mess up your OTK potential. The key to winning would be to stay patient, you can stall the game with BT13 Alphamon and Kongou, and as long as you can ensure that they do not have a digimon on the board, Marcus would be invalid. A possible idea I had was to use Quartzmon instead of Alphamon: Ouryuken for board control, similar to how it is played in Grandis deck.
Rosemon: Burst Mode
Resting is one mechanic that Alphamon struggles to deal with and Rosemon:Burst Mode even prevents you from unsuspending. You would also need to be mindful of BT13 Rosemon [All Turns] effect, if you rest your tamer; especially for cool boy effects, they can rest a digimon and you would not be able to execute your OTK strategy. The strategy is to play the breeding game, if you have no digimon on board, they cannot rest and they will not be able to pull off multiple checks. Play tamers and memory boost until you have the perfect line .
Yggdrasil Royal Knights
The hot favorite coming out from BT13 with the strategy of putting 5 Royal Knights under Yggdrasil_7D6 and playing Omnimon to summon all your Royal Knights with Rush and ending the game in true fashion.
But fear not! Alphamon does have some sweet counters with the likes of BT6 Alphamon security effect, stopping 12 digimon from attacking player; BT13 Alphamon flood gate to prevent 10 cost and above from attacking; Breath of God security effect to stop attacks and the cute yet deadly [Chikurimon] which is the main threat aginst the deck as it cannot play Royal Knights for reduced play cost. You should also aim to pass the turn with as little memory as possible so that they will not be able to play 2 Royal Knights during the early-mid game.
Sistermons have been considered in the deck to provide draw power, reboot support to all royal knights, it can also come in handy if you combo Omnimon and Leopardmon to give all Royal Knights blocker (they can get reboot from sistermon after attacking) in a situation where players cannot end you on the turn. This also poses a problem to Alphamon as they cannot deal with a wide board, in addition all the Royal Knight has different play cost, which makes Alphamon:Ouryuken targets limited to 1 or 2.
Examon
Just pray that your opponent brick. There is very little you can play around Examon since it will force your digimon to attack and your Alphamon line can be easily extinguished. Quartzmon might be a surprise card to consider, but it is not searchable by any means.
Wargrey/Black Wargrey
The most annoying part to deal with would be [Greymon X-Antibody]’s reduced digivolution cost and protection, as Alphamon only has a 1-time deletion effect it can be difficult to come back, especially when you would also need to deal with a wall of 18-20K DP Blocker. Although it is susceptive to De-digivolve, with no means of attacking an active digimon, Alphamon would need to switch to a TTK (two turn kill strategy) forcing the Wargrey to block your attacks. Digivolving to Ouryumon might be relevant at times to get additional DP and protection, it can also delete a 7 cost to stabilise the board.
Xros Hunter
BT13 Alphamon is immune to Arresterdramon:SM! But on the flip side, it gets stoned by Quartzmon. In general, Alphamon has a tough time dealing with Digixros decks, tech-ing in [Chikuri] as a counter means does not exactly net you a huge advantage as it does not move your game plan in collecting the key pieces. As Xros Hunter is an aggro deck, they could potentially hit your tamers or memory boost in the early game, to give you that edge to tilt the game to your favor.
Blue Flare
Always aim to maintain a single digimon on the board until you are ready to push your breeding for the win. After you have played your level 3 searchers, it is better to use them to poke the security in hopes of getting it deleted so that you can play another digimon to apply pressure. If you get frozen by Metalgreymon, try to digivolve to Dex-Doruga to give retaliation/blocker to buy you that extra turns. You also do not need to digivolve to Ouryuken since Alphamon’s DP is sufficient to bash through their security.
Bloom Hydra
When dealing with a wide board, the key would be to find ways to efficiently delete digimons with BT9 Alphamon’s de-digivolve and Ouryuken highest-cost deletion effect. Dex-Dorugrey is also important to take our Terriermon to enable your combo. Dexmon can easily gain back the board control you needed but it is definitely difficult to squeeze in a spot for him.
BT13 also introduces Lalamon, a level 3 searcher that has an inherit effect that reduces digivolution cost when there is a green tamer, and coupled with Yoshino, this deck can go from level 3 to level 6 with just 3 memory or less!
Final Thoughts
It has been a long time coming that Alphamon can be played competitively and I am really excited on taking it to the top. Although it is not as straightforward as it used to be, BT13 Alphamon can now effectively maneuver against tough match up. Last but not least, #LetsmakeAlphaGreatAgain
Robin, I think you read the BT13 Alphamon effect wrong. It can only prevent leaving play by effect. Therefore battling a security Digimon of a higher DP kills your line.
Yep Got Cha! Sorry it was still in the inital phase of BT13 so some effects I have must have got it wrong but it has been changed! Thank you!
Step 4: Attack with Alphamon for 3 security checks, even if it hits a higher DP digimon, you can remove an x-antibody source to prevent it from leaving play. Restand with Ouryumon inherit effects
^ This is technically wrong since Alphamon only prevents card effect removal.
I have made the necessary changes and thanks for pointing out!