Hi, Garry Yeung from Indonesia here. I’v been writing articles for a while here and now digimonmeta asked me to write about red/blue hybrid and my GAO Indonesia 2024 journey. Because @DDDTcg already made a good article about the deck before in here, I will avoid repeating what he already explained well.
Deck Build
Digitama (Lvl 2)
If you play 8 Ukkos or you always rushing rookies, always use a 5 digitama deck whatever you playing. Koromon is a very standard red tama here for the draw, some people use Yokomon to take Ancientgaruru but I prefer Gigimon to memory choke while destroying opponent’s floodgate rookie or even the annoying nume. Don’t bring the Pinamon from BT13 since it’s only destroy 2000DP or less, all the floodgate that annoys this deck are 3000DP.
Rookie (Lvl 3)
Always go for 8 Ukkos in red digitama build, you want to rush the game by hitting security. Muchomon is the best to evolve after you run out all the Ukkos. The rest of the rookie slot is flexible depending on the meta, since we have annoying Numemon (X-Antibody) and cards with partition like Paildramon I prefer using 2 Gotsumon. Shamanmon is also not a bad floodgate in this meta since you can block memory from ExVeemon Jogress, Loogamon Rookie, and Hammer Spark play. Although many people already leave Bokomon, I still prefer to bring one just to unbrick my hand and add more choices to play tamer (Bokomon is also ok to use when you need to find Digimon Emperor and Lui Ohwada).
Champion (Lvl 4)
A playset of the KendoGarurumon and Lobomon from BT17 is a must. It is literally the part of the combo and the heart of the deck. The new Lobomon from BT18 is just there to add more consistency.
Ultimate (Lvl 5)
I only play 1 Beowolfmon from BT7 to remove annoying Rookie or Champion in the board when I don’t have the combo piece for AncientGarurumon. You can also play the new Beowolfmon from BT17. I don’t prefer JetSilphymon from BT7 since it is very hard to hope in your recovery in this deck.
Mega (Lvl 6)
4 AncientGarurumon is okay but you can add other Mega or Lvl 6 ACES if you bring more lvl 5 in the deck, otherwise a playset of AncientGarurumon is more than enough. If you feel like you always draw AncientGarurumon in hand you can reduce it to 3, but I don’t really recommend it.
Mega (Lvl 7)
ShineGreymon Ruin Mode to lock down digimon in raising area with blanket -5k DP, can also clear wide board that sometimes AncientGarurumon have trouble with. Other choice probably Dexmon but it can get easily countered by floodgate rookies. I don’t really think there is a good lvl 7 ACES for the deck right now.
Tamer
Some people prefer bringing Koichi from BT18 but I realized it’s too slow to play that kind of card in this deck. I always prefer a playset of the memory setter Koji from BT17 and 3 cards of Koji from BT7. I experiment with 1 Takuya & Koji from BT18 just to add more extra attack and surprise. 2 Digimon Emperor is a must in this meta since people can just rush you down with Ukkomon. 3 Lui Ohwada is a flexible number you can also bring 2 Lui and add other tamer to the deck.
Option
2 Crimson Blaze is one of the reason people prefer the red digitama than blue, while blue digitama can play around Digimon Emperor and play tamer more easily the red tama have easy access to this option. I always bring Heaven Judgement for this deck to play againts TyrantKabuterimon match up, it is also flexible option as well to bring to beat wide board, you can bring other big removal option since this is optional choose. 2 Hammer Spark also flexible since you can reduce it for Ice Wall, but from what I experience people can just play around it and the turn will be wasted for it. Still not a bad option if you playing mirror or against the Gabumon deck that want to all-in hit your security. The last option is 2 Ancient Protectors, this card is very flexible since you can get a hybrid and play a tamer from the option or just Digi-Xros into AncientGarurumon for cheap cost.
MATCHUPS
For the matches, I will give a strategy of what you need to do and don’t. I will start from match i got in GAO, btw this is my matchup:
Since I don’t really can describe all play in the matchup and I probably forget things here and there, I will just give what I thought about the matchup.
Imperialdramon
If you play Gotsumon and Crimson Blaze properly you will have the advantage in this matchup since the Imperialdramon deck rely on the Tamer and Partition very hard and it all got countered by Gotsumon and Crimson Blaze. If you unlucky and didn’t draw any of it then the game probably just a 50:50 depending on what your Ukkomon hit in the early security.
Numemon
This is a very hard matchup, some said its 50:50 but I think right now it slightly advantageous to Numemon since they bring all the floodgate rookie that can hold AncientGarurumon, Always save Crimson Blaze to clear all of them and play around the ACES because if your AncientGarurumon got de-digivolve you will probably having a hard time to recycle things. They also bring Digimon Emperor that can hold Ukkomon from going into field.
TyrantKabuterimon
One of the worst matchup of the hybrid deck if the opponent can go early into TyrantKabuterimon and have redirect, with the board of full Immune Digimon you can’t even touch opponent’s security properly. The only choice is to get your Heaven Judgement or other big removal option and hope they can’t make a new Mega. You can also hope the opponent can’t get into Mega early and you chip all the security as fast as you can with Ukkomon.
Conclusion
In my opinion there is no best deck in this format, it’s always about the matchup and how you play against it even when you’re in a disadvantage situation. I really excited to see how the meta growing since Blue Digitama Ancientgarurumon is also becoming popular again and people will probably try more and more new things.
Overall, I really excited to see that many players in GAO are playing different things and it’s a really an unpredictable meta. Hopefuly we can meet at events in future. Thank you for reading my article, don’t forget to follow me at twitter @garryyeung.