Category: Box Review

Review: BT-12 Across Time

BT-12 is shaping to be a reboot of sorts, featuring a cast of all our anime heroes from the very first season to Xros Wars or Fusion season 3. Well of course they all appeared in that final episode together didn't they, but somehow these new cards do seem to power creep the old ones, and have effects made more loyal to the anime. We are excited to lets get down to it!

Rebooting Our Heroes

In season 3 of Xros Wars or Fusion anime, otherwise known as The Boy Hunters who Leapt Through Time, 5 heroes were summoned from their times to stop an army created by Quartzmon. This is where Bandai gave us refreshed card effects for our main heroes.

[BT12-095] Tai Kamiya

– [Start of your Main Phase] [On Play] 1 of your Digimon with [Agumon] or [Greymon] in its name gains +1000 DP and "Blocker" until the end of your opponent's next turn.
– [Your Turn] When one of your Digimon digivolves into a Digimon with [Greymon] or [Omnimon] in its name, suspend this Tamer to gain 1 memory.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its memory cost.

[BT12-070] Wargreymon
Mega | Vaccine | Dragon-Man
– Digivolve: 3 from level 5 with [MetalGreymon] in name
– [Raid] (When this Digimon attacks, you may switch the target of the attack to 1 of your opponent's unsuspended Digimon with the highest DP.)
– [When Digivolving] This Digimon gains +3000 DP and [Reboot] until the end of your opponent's turn.
– [All Turns] [Once per Turn] If the target of an attack changes, unsuspend this Digimon.

[BT12-090] Davis Motomiya 
– [Start of your Main Phase] If you have a Digimon with [Free] in its traits or a Tamer with [Ken Ichijoji] in its name, gain 1 memory.
– [Your Turn] When one of your two colored blue and green Digimon attacks, by suspending this Tamer, that Digimon may digivolve into a Digimon card with [Imperialdramon] in its name in your hand by paying its memory cost.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its memory cost

[BT12-031] Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode
Mega | Free | Ancient Dragonkin
– Digivolve: 2 from [Imperialdramon: Dragon Mode]
– [When Digivolving] Suspend all of your opponent's Digimon with no digivolution cards, then return 1 of your opponent's suspended Digimon to its owner's hand. By returning 1 [Imperialdramon: Dragon Mode] from this Digimon's digivolution cards to its owner's hand, return all of your opponent's suspended Digimon to the bottom of their deck instead.
– [Both Turns] For each color in this Digimon's digivolution cards, it gets +1000 DP. While this Digimon has 2 or more colors in its's digivolution cards, it gains [SecurityAttack+1] and [Blocker]

The new Tai Kamiya is a black tamer that grants [Blocker] and a slight DP buff to his line of Digimon, and his new Wargreymon works as a versatile piece, having both [Raid] during your turn and [Reboot] and [Blocker] during your opponent's turn makes him both a sword and shield. Greymons already have a great lineup accumulated from past sets but is mostly aggressive, so the addition of a more defensive route is be very flavourful. 

Meanwhile the new Davis Motomiya lets you digivolve into Imperialdramon when attacking, which is very helpful in a deck where both Dragon Mode and Fighter Mode take up LV6 slots. The new Fighter Mode has very strong board control and also counters Dexmon, while being optionally defensive with [Blocker]. Together with Dragon Mode, digivolving into the new Imperialdramon line will almost guarantee flipping board states to your favour.  

[BT12-089] Matsuda Takato
– [Start of Your Turn] If your memory is 2 or less, set it to 3.
– [Main][Once Per Turn] By placing this tamer and 1 [Growlmon] or [Wargrowlmon] from trash to the bottom of 1 of your [Guilmon] in any order, digivolve it into a [Dukemon] in your hand ignoring level requirements by paying its cost. That Digimon will gain +2000 DP for the turn.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its cost.
[BT12-018] Dukemon
Mega | Virus | Holy Warrior / Royal Knight
– [Raid]
– [When Digivolving] Delete 1 of your opp Digimon with 6000 DP or lower.
– [When Attacking] Delete 1 of your opp Digimon with 6000 DP or lower. If this effect did not delete your opp Digimon, trash the top card of their security.

Excitement comes from the all new Takato Matsuda from Digimon Tamers, which finally has Biomerge Digivolution! This card effect is faithful to the anime, placing the tamer below your Guilmon in order to digivolve into Dukemon. The updated Dukemon (and lineup) is very strong, gaining a board advantage in almost any situation. 

For example, Takato can biomerge into Dukemon, deletes a big Digimon using [Raid] together with up to 2 smaller 6000 DP or lower Digimons or trashing their security if the effect fails (and if this takes too much of your memory then we can always rely on the old EX-2 Takato for [Blitz]). 

Takato's line of Digimon also enjoys the extensive lineup from past sets hence is expected to fare very well in the coming tier list.

 

[BT12-088] Takuya Kanbara
– [Security] Play this card without paying its memory cost.
– [Start of your Turn] If you have 2 or less memory, set your memory to 3.
– Inherited: [Your Turn] This Digimon gains +2000 DP. If this Digimon has 10000 or more DP, it gains "[Your Turn] [Once per Turn] When this Digimon checks your opponent's Security, gain 2 memory.

[BT12-017] KaiserGreymon
Hybrid | Variable | Dragon Warrior
– [SecurityAttack+1]
– [When Digivolving] Delete 1 of your opp’s Digimon with 6000 DP or lower. If this Digimon has a red tamer in it’s digivolution cards, delete 1 of your opp’s Digimon with DP equal or lower than this Digimon’s DP instead.
– [On Deletion] You may play a [Takuya Kanbara] from your hand or trash without paying its cost

Hybrid Digimons seem to have been stagnant for a while since BT-07, and the updated Kanbara does not seem to be doing too much either. However, the secret sauce lies in his new line if hybrid Digimons. 

Previously in BT-07, Kanbara and his hybrid line has a very linear strategy. The old BT7 Kanbara is a 3-cost tamer that does nothing until he digivolves into Aldamon or Kaisergreymon, and there are no card effects amongst his LV4 to LV6 digivolutions that plays him from hand/trash (only the LV3 Flamemon has this). Furthermore, since his LV4 and LV5 hybrid forms have so little board control, the only effective way to play comes from warp digivolution into Kaisergreymon but even with that, he does almost nothing to your opponent's board other than swinging security. Without Mega Digimon Fusion! to support Susanoomon, Kanbara fell from grace very quickly.

Fortunately, the new tamer-recycling effects given to Agunimon and Aldamon in BT-12 should revive this deck, and gives it a lot more dimensions than previously possible. The new Aldamon can now digivolve directly from tamer, and Kaisergreymon now has some board control and is arguable better than the older variant (since I feel his second effect is very redundant). Fans of hybrid decks should be very excited with this update.

[BT12-092] Masaru Daimon
– [Start of your Main Phase] When you have a Digimon with [Agumon] or [Greymon] in name, by paying 1 cost, this tamer is treated as a Digimon with 3000 DP for the turn, and cannot digivolve.
– [Your Turn] When this tamer is suspended, you may digivolve 1 of your Digimon into a yellow card with [Greymon] in name from your hand without paying its cost.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its cost.
[BT12-043] Shinegreymon
Mega | Vaccine | Light Dragon
– Digivolve: LV5 with [Rizegreymon] in name for 3 cost.
– [When Digivolving] For each of your yellow or red tamer, 1 of your opp’s Digimon and all of their security Digimons get -3000 DP for the turn.
– [Your Turn] All of your [Masaru Daimon] gets +3000 DP and [SecurityAttack+1].

Another major update came from Masaru Daimon and Shinegreymon. Daimon is often seen fighting alongside his Digimon, and this has been faithfully captured in his card effect. At 1-cost, Daimon can be treated as a 3000DP Digimon and when attacking can digivolve your other Digimon into a yellow [Greymon] in name for free. 

Daimon hits very hard (6000 DP with [SecurityAttack+1]) when supported by Shinegreymon, and Rizegreymon recycles Daimon back into your security, making this effectively a [Recovery+1] and "play a tamer for free" effect combined. This high impact synergy should be able push him into high-tier in the coming meta.    

[BT12-087] Taiki Kudo
Hunter | Xros Heart
– [Start of Your Main Phase] By placing 1 Digimon card with [Save] in its card text from your hand under this Tamer, [Draw 1].
– [Your Turn] When your Digimon would digivolve into a Digimon card with [Save] in its card text, by suspending this Tamer placing 1 card from under your Tamers at the bottom of that Digimon's digivolution cards, reduce the digivolution cost by 1.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its cost.

[BT12-112] Shoutmon X7: Superior Mode 
Mega | Data | Composite / Xros Heart / Blue Flare
– When this card would be played, by placing 1 of your [Shoutmon] into this Digimon's digivolution cards, reduce the play cost by 1, and you may also place cards in trash as digivolution cards for DigiXros.
– [On Play] Return the digivolution cards of 1 of your opponent's Digimon to the bottom of deck in any order, and return that Digimon to the bottom of deck.
– [Your Turn] All of your opponent's Option card's [Security] effects do not activate.
– [DigiXros-1] Unlimited Digimon cards with different card numbers with [Xros Heart] or [Blue Flare] in their traits.

[BT12-096] Tagiru Akashi
Hunter
– [Start of your Turn] If you have 2 or less memory, set your memory to 3.
– [Your Turn] When one of your Digimon would digivolve into a Digimon card with [Save] in its description, by suspending this Tamer and and placing 1 card from under your Tamers under that Digimon as its bottom digivolution card, reduce its digivolution cost by 1.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its cost.

[BT12-083] Arresterdramon: Superior Mode
Ultimate | Vaccine | Dragon
– Digivolve: 4 cost from a red or black or purple LV4 Digimon with [Save] in description.
– [When Digivolved] Put 1 of your opponent’s LV3 or lower Digimon to the bottom of 1 of their other Digimon’s digivolution cards or to the bottom of 1 of their tamers. For each of your tamer’s with different colors, increase the LV selected by this effect by +1.
– [End of your Turn][Once Per Turn] If this Digimon has 4 or more digivolution cards, this Digimon can attack without suspending.
– Inherited: [When Attacking][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon has [Save] in description, [Draw 1].

Finally for the Xros Wars heroes, Kudo Taiki gets his hunter form, together with Amano You and Tagiru Akashi, as well as the antagonists Ren Tobari, Airu Suzaki, and Ryouma Mogami. These new tamers reduce digivolution cost instead of DigiXros play cost, and should work well in their respective decks. In my opinion, digivolution is a far better mechanic than any [On Play] effect, and I wholeheartedly welcome this mechanic update.

We also get the respective Digimons from these 6 hunters, but few are notable such as Arresterdramon Superior Mode with a Bagramon-like effect, Shoutmon X7 Superior Mode with an omnipotent removal effect, and a Quartzmon waiting to dominate the next meta. We discuss some of them below.

Quartzmon 

Perhaps a card that many are expecting to top competitively in the early BT-12 meta. Quartzmon is such a powerful card, suspending the entire board permanently (as long as it is in play) making this potentially one of the strongest control card we have ever seen. This is a double edged sword though, since both players will have their board states frozen, Quartzmon becomes the only Digimon that can attack (not accounting for fresh Digimons entering from nursery) hence the tempo can be slow. 

Despite seemingly too powerful, Quartzmon is actually susceptible to many effects, namely removal option cards, digivolution effects or on-play effects that removes/returns/de-digivolves, and attacks from fresh Digimons entering from nursery. However, when played right, Quartzmon is still extremely formidable, and we see some synergy with cards like Puppetmon, Giga Death, and Nidhoggmon. 

Furthermore, since Quartzmon also digivolves from LV5, we also see potential to play this with [EX2-072] Blue Card since Quartzmon is not a white Digimon.

[BT12-081] Astamon
Ultimate | Virus | Wizard
– Digivolves: [Psychemon] for 5 cost / Yellow or Green or Purple LV4 with [Save] in description for 3 cost.
– [When Digivolving] You may play a LV4 or lower Digimon with [Save] in description from under 1 of your tamer without paying its cost. If this Digimon has 4 or more digivolution cards, this Digimon may digivolve into a [Quartzmon] from your hand or below your tamer by reducing its digivolution cost by -3.
– Inherited: [When Attacking][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon has [Save] in description, [Draw 1].

[BT12-057] Quartzmon
Mega | Unidentified | Unknown
– Digivolve: 9 cost from LV5 with [Save] in description
– [When Digivolving] Suspend all Digimons except this, and all tamers. Then, gain +1 memory for every 2 suspended Digimon or tamer.
– [All Turns] All Digimon except this and all tamers cannot be unsuspended.
– [When Attacking] Suspend 1 of your opponent's Digimon or tamer. Then, for every 5 suspended Digimon or tamer, trash the top card from your opponent's security stack.

The Final Forms

Bandai finally gave us the final forms of Bagramon and Shoutmon, and boy do they not dissappoint.

Bagramon has a unique effect in BT-11, but his actual usage was rather lacklustre: not only is he is expensive to play but his removal effect is very conditional. In many occasions, he fails to remove what is needed, or ended up giving too much memory to the opponent to rebuild what was removed. 

DarknessBagramon is a much simpler card: he deletes a Digimon, can board wipe tamers, and ends their turn by gaining +5 memory from trashing 5 of your Bagra Army digivolution cards (assuming you use those that grant memory on trashing). On top of that, he also digivolves from LV5 so there is synergy with Blue Card and [P-077] Wizardmon if you wish. He is also great with Kaiser Nail since his [On Play] effect equips him well (unlike Bagramon).

Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum, Shoutmon X7 Superior Mode has arguably the most omnipotent removal effect at the moment. By first returning all digivolution cards from a Digimon to their deck followed by returning that Digimon to deck, bypasses any protections granted by X-Antibody (of the Wargreymon X,  Blackwargreymon X, and Metalgarurumon X line), Mugendramon, Ragnamon etc. X7 Superior also has the highest base DP charted by any Digimon at the moment, and can be DigiXrosed using an infinite numbers of cards from trash. 

When he uses DigiXros materials, he can easily inherit a variety of effects that gives him an edge on board state. He also stands to benefit from Kaiser Nail, since he can be inserted into the digivolution cards of Deckergreymon, Mervamon, or Shoutmon King Mode. 

We expect to see both of these cards used extensively in the coming meta!

[BT12-111] DarknessBagramon
Mega | Virus | Composite / Bagra Army
– [On Play][When Digivolving] Delete 1 of your opp’s Digimon. Then, put up to 5 Digimon with [Bagra Army] in traits to the bottom of this Digimon’s digivolution cards.
– [Opponent’s Turn] When your opp’s Digimon digivolves or attacks, by trashing 5 cards of this Digimon’s digivolution cards, return all tamers to hand.
– [Digixros-3] [DarkKnightmon] X [Bagramon]

[BT12-112] Shoutmon X7: Superior Mode 
Mega | Data | Composite / Xros Heart / Blue Flare
– When this card would be played, by placing 1 of your [Shoutmon] into this Digimon's digivolution cards, reduce the play cost by 1, and you may also place cards in trash as digivolution cards for DigiXros.
– [On Play] Return the digivolution cards of 1 of your opponent's Digimon to the bottom of deck in any order, and return that Digimon to the bottom of deck.
– [Your Turn] All of your opponent's Option card's [Security] effects do not activate.
– [DigiXros-1] Unlimited Digimon cards with different card numbers with [Xros Heart] or [Blue Flare] in their traits.

Beelzemon gets the X-Antibody jab

BT-12 also buffs Beelzemon by giving him his X-Antibody line.

Not sure if this is the reason why the [ST-14] Beelzemon theme deck was delayed, but perhaps Bandai wanted to control the tempo in which a Beelzemon deck will be buffed. But with his line of X-Antibody it does seem a very strong buff, and could very much push him into tier-1 in BT-12.

The current Beelzemon deck, while unpretentiously strong, builds too linearly and relies too much on Ai & Mako. Without Blast Mode, Beelzemon has limited firing range and is not aggressive on security attacks. In BT-12, Beelzemon X will not only help to remove end-game dependency from Blast Mode and Ai & Mako, but also lets us play the much-coveted Cool Boy in this deck. 

[BT12-085] Beelzemon X Antibody
Mega | Virus | Demon Lord / Seven Great Demon Lords / X Antibody
– Digivolve: 1 from [Beelzemon]
– [When Digivolving] If this Digimon has [Beelzemon] or [X Antibody] in its digivolution cards, for every 10 cards in your trash, trash the top card of your opponent's security stack.
– [On Deletion] You may play 1 Digimon card with [Impmon] in its name from your trash without paying its memory cost.

[BT12-082] Baalmon X-antibody
Ultimate | Free | Wizard / X Antibody
– Digivolve: 0 cost from [Baalmon]
– [When Digivolving] Return 1 card with [X-antibody] from your trash to hand.
– [When Digivolving] Trash top 3 cards of your deck. If there is Baalmon or [X-antibody] in this Digimon's digivolution cards, delete 1 opponent's LV4 or lower Digimon instead.
– Inheritable: [Your Turn] While this Digimon has [Wizard] or [Demon Lord] in its traits, it gains +2000DP for the turn.

The new option card [Seventh Full Cluster] also adds extra ammunition to Beelzemon X, triggering from trash whenever you digivolve into Beelzemon X.

[BT12-110] Seventh Full Cluster
Seven Great Demon Lords
– [Trash] [Your Turn] When your Digimon digivolves into [Beelzemon X Antibody], by returning this card to the bottom of your deck, delete 1 of your opponent's Digimon with the lowest level.
– [Main] Delete 1 of your opponent's Digimon with the lowest level.
– [Security] Activate this card's [Main] effect.

Other miscellaneous buffs

Aside from Beelzemon, BT-12 will also give X-Antibody treatment to 2 very popular Digimons. 

Fans of Ulforceveedramon will rejoice having Ulforceveedramon X released just one set after Rina/Ulforce was significantly buffed. Recently competitively played with Jeri/Leomon, it is interesting to see whether X Antibody cards can find its way into a tight Jeri/Leomon/Rina/Ulforce deck. Or maybe other builds will emerge?

Meanwhile a similar story with Mugendramon which was heavily buffed a set ago with Analogman, we now have a Chaosdramon X that can possess all of the effects from it's underlying Mugendramons and Chaosdramons. This card solves the dilemma of whether to digivolve a BT-11 Mugendramon and losing its [On Deletion] effect, or losing the DP-reduction nullification effect of your EX-2 Mugendramon. In addition, it has also the ability to pull a [Machine] or [Cyborg] card from trash to itself at the start of your main phase, repairing any gaps during its digivolution. 

Imagine pulling 2 EX-2 Mugendramons into itself and tidal wave! 

[BT12-029] Ulforceveedramon X Antibody
Mega | Vaccine | Holy Warrior / Royal Knight / X Antibody
– Digivolve: 1-cost from [Ulforceveedramon]
– [When Digivolved] Unsuspend this Digimon or 1 of your blue tamer.
– [All Turn][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon is unsuspended, if you have a blue tamer or if this Digimon has [UlforceVeedramon] in its digivolution cards, return 1 of your opponent's Digimon with the lowest LV to their hand.

[BT12-072] Chaosdramon X Antibody
Mega | Virus | Machine / X Antibody
– Digivolve: 2-cost from [Mugendramon] or [Chaosdramon]
– [Start of Your Main Phase] Put 1 [Cyborg] or [Machine] type Digimon from your trash to the bottom of this Digimon’s digivolution card.
– [All Turn] This Digimon gains all the effects from any [Mugendramon] and [Chaosdramon] in it’s digivolution cards.
– [All Turn][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon is deleted, trash 1 card from the top of your opponent's security.

Summary

BT-12 is picking up on where BT-11 has left off, building on good and fun card mechanics while delivering on variety. New card mechanics such as Takato's Biomerge Digivolution and Daimon's punches will surely be popular among players, and they set a good trajectory for the coming tamers and Digimons that are not yet rebooted. 

Furthermore, as a collector's addition, there is still 2 more special alternative art cards that is yet to be revealed. And boy ain't that box topper sexy!

 

Score: 9/10

 

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ST-14 Beelzemon Starter Deck – Cards Leak

ST14 Card List Info

This is how the high rarity card looks like in the upcoming ST-14 starter.

A reprint of BT4 Tactical Retreat

[ST14-09] Beelstarmon

When playing this card from your hand, reduce its play cost by 4 for every 10 cards in your trash.

[Both Turns] (Once Per Turn) When a card is trashed from your deck, you may play 1 [Impmon] from your trash without paying its play cost. That Digimon played by this effect gains <Rush> for the turn.
[Opponent’s Turn] When your opponent’s digimon attacks, trash the top card of your deck.

A reprint of st6 Pagumon

Another tool for the Beelstar toolbox!
[ST14-12] Dog Monkey Bullet
– When this card is trashed from deck, put it in the battle area.
– [Main] Delete 1 of your opponent’s Digimon with the highest LV
– [Main][Delay] Return a purple Digimon or tamer from your trash to hand.
– [Security] Delete 1 of your opponent’s Digimon with the highest LV

A reprint of BT2 green Digitama Algomon, EX2 option card Corona Destroyer

[ST14-04] Phascomon

"Blocker"
[Your turn] This Digimon can't attack players.

Promo Wizardmon will be included in ST14, this is an old art, was given in a campaign during BT9 release.

A reprint of BT9 X-antibody option card. Love the art anyway.

[ST14-03] Candlemon

[On Play] Trash 2 cards from the top of your deck.
[On Deletion] If your trash contains 10 or more cards, "Draw 1"

[ST14-07] Baalmon
– [When Digivolved] Trash the top 3 cards of your deck.
– [When Digivolved] This Digimon gets “[On Deletion] If you have 10 or more cards in trash, you may play a [Beelzemon] from trash without paying its cost” until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
– Inherited: [Your Turn] When this Digimon has [Demon Man] or [Demon Lord] in traits, this Digimon gets +2000 DP.

[ST14-10] Beelzemon: Blast Mode
– When this card is trashed from your deck, delete 1 of your opponent’s LV3 or lower Digimon. For every 10 cards in trash, increase the LV of this effect by +1.
– [When Digivolved] Unsuspend this Digimon. If you have 20 or more cards in trash, gain +3 memory.

[ST14-11] Ai & Makoto
[On play] Reveal the top 4 cards from your deck. Add 1 digimon card from among them with the 'Evil', 'Wizard', or 'Demon Lord' trait to your hand. Return the remainder to the bottom of your deck in any order.
[Your turn] When your digimon digivolve into a purple digimon, you may suspend this tamer to return 1 card from your hand to the top of your deck and to gain 1 memory.
[Security] Play this card without paying its play cost.

[ST14-06] Witchmon

[When Digivolving] Trash top 3 cards in your deck.

Inherited: [Your Turn] If this Digimon has [Demon Man] or [Demon Lord] in its trait, it gains +2000 DP

Alternative art of ST7 Guilmon, ST8 Veemon, EX2 Impmon and BT2 Secret Rare Beelzemon.

This set includes a new Beelstarmon (st14-09), Beelzemon Blast Mode (st14-10), tamer Ai & Makoto (st14-11). The new reprint for bt2 Impmon, new promo card (p-077), bt8 SkullSatamon, ex2 Corona Destroyer.

Yaamon
Inherited:  [When Attacking] (Once per turn) If this digimon has 'Demon man' or 'Demon Lord' in its traits, trash the top 2 cards from your deck.

Impmon
[When attacking] If you have 20 or more cards in your trash this Digimon may digivolve into 1 'Beelzemon' from your trash ignoring digivolution requirements (whether or not you pay the digivolve cost is cut off)
Inherited: [Your Turn] (Once per turn) When you trash a card from your deck delete 1 of your opponent's lvl 3 digimon.

Porcupamon
"Blocker"
[On Play] Trash the top 2 cards from your deck

Baalmon
[When Digivolving] Trash the top 3 cards from your deck.
[When Digivolving] Until end of opponent's turn, this digimon gains the following effect; '[On Deletion] If your trash has 10 or more cards, you may play 1 'Beelzemon' from your trash without paying its play cost.'
Inherited: [Your Turn] If this digimon has 'Demon man' or 'Demon Lord' in its traits it gains +2000 DP.

Beelzemon
[When Digivolving] Trash the top 4 cards from your deck.
[All Turns] (Once per turn) When you trash a card from your deck, for each 10 cards in your trash, gain +1 memory.
[Your Turn] (Once per turn) When you trash a card from your deck, this digimon gains "SecurityAttack+1" for the turn.

Early Review: BT-11 Dimensional Phase

BT-11 Dimensional Phase releases the end of this month, extending the reach of Xros Wars Digimons and introduces Digimons and characters from it's video game franchise. Early review… here we go!

X7 and Beyond!

Fans of Xros Wars will finally get their full roster of Digimons and Digivolutions. 

With the proper materials, Shoutmon X7 is a 2-cost to play Digimon that is a 16000 DP wall and deletes an opponent's Digimon, with [Rush] and [SecurityAttack+1] for extra aggression. 

However, Shoutmon decks in BT-10 meta do not suffer against any decks in particular, and since X5 was already providing whatever X7 can provide (except for deletion and the high-DP) it becomes skeptical for some on whether X7 will truly earn it's place in Shoutmon decks, especially when it disrupts the current deck distribution (with addition of OmegaShoutmon and the ZekeGreymon lineup).

But we are still only half the set in, and waiting to see if X7F will be introduced in this set.  

[BT11-019] Shoutmon X7
– [Rush]
– [Material Save 4]
– [On Play] Delete 1 of your opponent's Digimon with DP equal or lower than this Digimon.
– [Both Turns] This Digimon gets +1000 DP for every 2 cards in its digivolution cards.
– [DigiXros-2] [OmegaShoutmon] x [ZekeGreymon] x [Balistamon] x [Dorurumon] x [Starmons] x [Sparrowmon]

Enter The Demon Lord

The biggest boss of Xros Wars finally joins the card game, and far more interesting that the Shoutmon roster. 

Bagramon sports very interesting effects that has yet to be seen in game, and the deal-breaker may be his ability to look at your opponent's hand, which is currently available only to Bagramon. We think that he will fare quite well with in the competitive scene.

[BT11-088] Bagramon
– [On Play][When Digivolved] When your opponent has 1 or less Digimon, you may see all of your opponent’s cards in hand, and trash 1 card from amongst. When your opponent has 2 or more Digimons, put 1 of your opponent’s Digimon as the bottom digivolution card of another opponent’s Digimon.
– [Both Turns][Once Per Turn] When your opponent’s Digimon digivolves, or when it’s digivolution cards is increased by effect, by trashing 1 card from this Digimon’s digivolution cards, trash 1 card from the top of your opponent’s security.
 
[BT11-109] Astral Snatcher
Effect: [Main] You may put up to 3 [Bagra Army] Digimon from your trash to the bottom of 1 of your Digimon’s digivolution card or 1 of your tamer card. Then, if you have a [Bagra Army] Digimon or tamer, put 1 of your opponent’s Digimon to the bottom of another of their Digimon’s digivolution cards.
Security: Revolve this card’s [Main] effect

Bagramon's option card Astral Snatcher is another interesting addition to deck building. Being a 7-cost purple option means instant synergy with Beelstarmon and Promo Metalgarurumon. 

Promo Metalgarurumon in particular can digiburst infinitely using Astral Snatcher, putting more Digimons back to its digivolution cards than it discards. What this lacks is a little bit more synergy to use those [Bagra Army] cards under Metalgarurumon… maybe MegaDarknessBagramon?

Sheep Combo! 

Another unique ability in BT-11 is Kingsukamon's [On Play][When Digivolved] effect that turns your opponent's Digimon into a 3000 DP Sukamon, which will work wonders with Flame Hellscythe.

[BT11-043] Kingsukamon
– Digivolves from LV4 with [Sukamon] in name for 3 cost
– [On Play][When Digivolved] When your opponent has 16 or more cards in trash and you have 3 or more cards with [Sukamon] in name in trash, 1 of your opponent’s Digimon becomes [Sukamon]/White/3000DP until end of your opponent’s next turn.
– [When Attacking] During this turn, for every other Digimon with [Sukamon] in name, this Digimon gains [SecurityAttack+1]
– Inherited: [Both Turns] When this Digimon is deleted, by deleting another Digimon with [Sukamon] in name, this Digimon is not deleted.
 

Since Kingsukamon is a 6000 DP yellow Digimon, Flame Hellscythe can play him from trash and guarantees removal of 1 of your opponent's Digimon by reducing it's DP to 0.

However Kingsukamon's effect will only effectively change a Digimon's name, color, and DP. It will not remove its effects and abilities so [On Deletion] and [Armor Purge] effects will still activate as usual.

Phoenixmon Rebirth

For fans of Phoenixmon, rejoice as BT-11 finally introduces a version of this iconic Digimon that doesn't suck! Akiho Rindou's Phoenixmon can trigger it's own [On Deletion] effect whenever the opponent's security reduces, which synergies well with her line of Birdramon and Garudamon to play 4-cost red tamers for free. 

This engine works in a way where if you have 1 tamer in play, Phoenixmon's death will summon a Birdramon, or Garudamon if you have 2 tamers, or Phoenixmon if you have at least 4 tamers! With a combination of Akihos and Taichi tamers cards, Pheonixmons can be continuously played upon death and with [Rush] and [SecurityAttack+1] they become tremendously aggressive. 

 

[BT11-089] Rindou Akiho
– [On Play] Reveal 4 card from the top of your deck. Add 1 red Digimon with [Vaccine] in traits to your hand. Return the remaining cards to the bottom of your deck.
– [Your Turn] When you play a red Digimon with [Bird] or [Beast] in traits by effect, you may suspend this tamer to give that Digimon [Rush] for the turn.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its cost.
 
[BT11-016] Pheonixmon
– [Your Turn][Once Per Turn] When your opponent’s security is reduced, trigger 1 of this Digimon’s [On Deletion] effect.
– [On Deletion] You may play 1 3000 DP or lower red Digimon with [Bird] or [Beast] in trait from hand without paying it cost. For each red tamer you have, increase the DP threshold of the played Digimon by 2000.

ANALOGMAN 

Oh boy… paying tribute to Digimon World 1 comes the original and perhaps the most iconic antagonist of the game's franchise, Analogman is the most obvious buff to any Mugendramon deck. It seems obvious that Bandai wasn't happy with the fact that their favourite machine Digimon with 2 gigantic cannons weren't doing well in any meta, with EX-01 being short lived, and subsequent Chaosdramons in BT-07 and EX-03 failing to lift any Mugendramon deck competitively.

This time around, we have a new Mugendramon that hopefully fixes the weight issue of the old. A dual [On Play] and [When Digivolving] effect gives this new Mugendramon a much needed flexibility, to search and prep your trash for another Mugendramon. 

However, since there is no cheap way to play Analogman it does not yet look obvious that Mugendramon will be making a clear comeback in BT-11.

 

[BT11-092] Analogman
– [Start of your Main Phase] By Trashing 1 Lv.5 'Cyborg' Type card from your hand, gain 1 Memory and draw 1 card.
– [Opponent's Turn] When an opponent's Digimon attacks a Player, you may suspend this Tamer to change the attack target to 1 of your Lv.6 'Machine' Type Digimon.
– [Security] Play this card without paying its cost.

[BT11-072] Mugendramon
– [On Play] [When Digivolving] Reveal 5 cards from top of your deck. Add 1 [Analogman] from among to your hand and 1 card with [Cyborg] or [Machine] in its traits from among to your hand or to the bottom of this Digimon's digivolution cards. Trash the remaining cards.
– [On Deletion] By returning 1 of your [Analogman] to the bottom of your deck, you may play 1 [Machinedramon] from your hand without paying its memory cost.

A New Mervamon Loop? 

With the [Back for Revenge] option card and [Minervamon], it is possible to loop for OTK by using using [Back for Revenge] on [Minervamon].

When Minervamon attacks and is deleted, summons Mervamon from trash and subsequently summons another LV4, and revives itself by using [Back for Revenge]. All 3 Digimons can attack with [Rush] thanks to Mervamon, and when Minervamon is deleted again this can be repeated! 

 

[BT11-086] Mervamon
– When you play this card, you may use cards from your trash as DigiXros materials.
– [On Play][When Digivolved] You may play 1 LV4 or lower purple or [Xros-Heart] Digimon from your trash without paying its cost. If DigiXros-ed, the amount of digimon played +1.
– [Both Turn] All your Digimon with [Retaliation] or [Xros-Heart] gains [Rush] and [Blocker].
– [DigiXros-3] 1 Digimon with [Xros-Heart].

Summary

BT-11 is looking good so far, and we haven't even mentioned the new [Charge] effect nor talked about the elegant Leomon archetype-buff Panyjamon. But we had to mention the new gold foils! 

Gold foils are a new rarity in Digimon Card Game, and with low pull rates Bandai hopes that's these gold cards can improve collector value for high-rarity Digimon cards. These cards do look good on ads and we can't wait to see the actual thing!

 

 

But coming back to gameplay, BT-11 does offer enough mechanics to breathe new energy into this 2 year old game. This set should fare quite well for both the players and collectors.

Score: 8/10

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Review: EX-03 Draconic Roar

EX-03 is a small expansion set filled with enhancements for the dragon archetype. With all 74 cards in this set fully revealed today, let's take a look at the new additions! 

A new "black" Imperialdramon line!

Bandai is giving us an exciting new lineup of red/purple Veemon and Wormmon moving into an all new Imperialdramon. This new lineup can digivolve very quickly (into Imperialdramon and Fighter Mode) with just a rookie and 3 starting memory.

 

[EX3-004] Veemon  
Effect 1: [On Play] By Trashing 1 [Free] card or 1 card with [Imperialdramon] in its name from your hand, draw 2 cards.
Inheritable: [Your Turn] While you have a Purple Digimon in play, this Digimon gets +2000 DP.

[EX3-008] Flamedramon
Effect: [When Digivolved] Activate 1 of the following:
-You may digivolve 1 of your other Digimon into a Purple LV4 [Free] Digimon from your Trash, paying its cost.
-You may Jogress digivolve this Digimon with your other Digimon into a Digimon card in your hand, paying its Jogress cost.
Inherited effect: [End of Your Turn] This Digimon and your other Digimon can Jogress digivolve into a Digimon card in your hand by paying its Jogress digivolution cost.

[EX3-055] Wormmon
Effect: [On Play] Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Add 1 Purple or Red [Free] card or 1 card with [Imperialdramon] in its name from among them to your hand, and trash the other one. Return the rest to the bottom of your deck in any order.
Inheritable: [All Turns] While you have a Red Digimon, this Digimon gains [Retaliation]
 
[EX3-058] Shadramon
Effect: [When Digivolved] Activate 1 of the following:
-You may digivolve 1 of your other Digimon into a red LV4 [Free] Digimon from your Trash, paying its cost.
-You may Jogress digivolve this Digimon with your other Digimon into a Digimon card in your hand, paying its Jogress cost.
Inherited effect: [End of Your Turn] This Digimon and your other Digimon can Jogress digivolve into a Digimon card in your hand by paying its Jogress digivolution cost.

Both LV3 Veemon and Wormmon have decent draw/search [On Play] effects, and their LV4s Flamedramon/Shadramon have similar effects.

[EX3-010] Paildramon
Jogress: Red LV4 + Purple LV4 at 0 cost
Effect 1: [When Digivolving] If Jogress digivolved, you may play 1 [Dinobeemon] from your trash without paying its cost.
Effect 2: [On Deletion] You may play 1 [Veemon] from your trash without paying its cost.
Inheritable: [Your Turn] While this Digimon has [Imperialdramon] in its name, gain [SecurityAttack+1].

[EX3-061] Dinobeemon
Jogress: Purple LV4 + Red LV4 at 0 cost
Effect 1: [When Digivolved] If this Digimon is Jogress digivolved, you may play 1 [Paildramon] from your trash without paying its memory cost.
Effect 2: [On Deletion] You may play 1 [Wormmon] from your trash without paying its memory cost.
Inherited: [Your Turn] While this Digimon has [Imperialdramon] in its name, this Digimon may also attack your opponent’s unsuspended Digimon.

The new LV5 Paildramon/Dinobeemon also has similar effects, allowing you to play the other from trash to facilitate a Jogress digivolution.

[EX3-063] Imperialdramon: Dragon Mode
Jogress: Purple LV5 + Red LV5 at 0 cost
Effect 1: [When Digivolving] If Jogress digivolved, your opponent chooses 1 of their Digimon. Delete all of their other Digimon. Then, [Blitz].
Effect 2: [When Attacking][One Per Turn] This Digimon gains +2000 DP for the turn. Then, you may digivolve this Digimon into a [Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode] from your hand by paying its cost.

[EX3-073] Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode
Digivolves from "[Dragon Mode] in name" for 2 cost.
Effect 1: [Piercing]
Effect 2: [When Digivolved] By returning 1 [Imperialdramon: Dragon Mode] from this Digimon’s digivolution card to the bottom of your deck, all your opponent’s [Security] effects cannot activate during this turn.
Effect 3: [On Deletion] You may play a [Wormmon] and [Veemon] from your trash without paying its cost.

With a starting memory of 3 and a rookie Veemon/Wormmon pushed into the battle area from nursery, a ramp digivolution into LV7 can happen in the following sequence:
1. Play a LV3 Veemon/Wormmon for 3 cost. Search/trash the appropriate LV4 or LV5 Digimon as needed. (You will have at least 2 LV3 Digimons in your battle area and 0 memory)
2. Digivolve 1 of your Digimons into LV4 Flamedramon/Shadramon, activating its effect to digivolve your other LV3 into LV4 Flamedramon/Shadramon from trash, which activates its effect to Jogress into LV5 Paildramon/Dinobeemon at the end of turn. (you will be at -4 memory)
3. Jogress digivolve both your LV4 Digimons into Paildramon/Dinobeemon, resolving its effect to play the other LV5 from trash. (you will still be at -4 memory)
4. Jogress digivolve both your LV5 Digimons into Imperialdramon, activating its [Blitz] effect and then its [When Attacking] effect to subsequently digivolve into Fighter Mode. (you will be at -6 memory)

With this combo, Imperialdramon would leave your opponent with only 1 Digimon, and Fighter Mode attacking that remaining Digimon (suspended or not) piercing 2 of your opponent's security while nullifying their security effects, at 17000 DP! 

Examon Looms

The final Royal Knight and the Dragon Emperor [Examon] has finally been revealed today as a LV7 Digimon, and boy isn't he formidable!

[EX3-074] Examon
Jogress: Green LV6 + Blue LV6 at 0 cost.
Effect 1: [When Digivolved] Put 1 green or blue Digimon with [dramon] in name to the bottom of this Digimon’s digivolution cards. If Jogress digivolved, you may play 1 green or blue Digimon with 12000 DP or lower and [dramon] in name without paying it’s cost.
Effect 2: [Both Turns][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon is suspended, unsuspend it and suspend 1 of your opponent’s Digimon.
EX3-024] Slayerdramon
Digivolves from [Wingdramon] or [Groundramon] at 3 cost
Effect 1: [Both Turns][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon is suspended, unsuspend it.
Effect 2: [Start of Opponent’s Main Phase] By suspending 1 of your Digimon with [dramon] or [Examon] in name, 1 of your opponent’s Digimon must immediately attack.
Inherited: [Start of Opponent’s Main Phase] By suspending 1 of your Digimon with [dramon] or [Examon] in name, 1 of your opponent’s Digimon must immediately attack.
 
[EX3-044] Breakdramon
Digivolves from [Groundramon] or [Wingdramon] for 3 cost
Effect 1: [Both Turns][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon is suspended, suspend 1 of your opponent’s Digimon.
Effect 2: [Both Turns][Once Per Turn] When only your opponent’s Digimon is deleted in battle with 1 of your Digimon with [Dramon] or [Examon] in name, trash 1 card from the top of your opponent’s security.
Inherited: [Both Turns][Once Per Turn] When only your opponent’s Digimon is deleted in battle with 1 of your Digimon with [Dramon] or [Examon] in name, trash 1 card from the top of your opponent’s security.

Slayerdramon has a formidable new effect that forces your opponent's Digimon to immediately attack during the start of their main phase, introducing board control and utterly destroying OTK decks such as Grankuwagamon or Alphamon archetypes. Breakdramon meanwhile trashes your opponent's security whenever their Digimon is deleted in battle against yours, introducing a passive aggression. 

The strengths of these 2 Digimons can be merged into Examon, and when coupled with their LV3 and LV4 inheritable effects (granting [Blocker] and [Evade]) make this a very interesting new archetype that may destroy most OTK decks but may be weak against some specific hybrid blue or hybrid yellow decks that returns Digimons to hand/deck, DP-reduction, or attack/block-freezing. 

Remark: [Evade] is a new effect text that allows your Digimon to suspend itself in order to prevent deletion.

The 4 Great Dragons

A new option card [Trial of the Four Great Dragons] facilitate this a new megazoo-like archetype. LV6 [4 Great Dragons] Digimons can be played for free using this option card, and when those LV6 Digimons are deleted at the end of your opponent's turn they will play new copies of [Trial] for free, until Goddramon arrives to deal sick damage to your opponent's security. 

[EX3-069] Trial of the Four Great Dragons 
Effect 1: [Main] [Draw 1]. Then, place this card in your battle area.
Effect 2: [Main] [Delay]
⋅ Play 1 card with [Four Great Dragons] in its traits from your hand without paying its cost. Digimon played by this effect cannot digivolve to level 7, and is deleted at the end of your opponent’s turn.
Security: Place this card in the battle area.

[EX3-035] Goddramon 
Effect 1: [When Digivolving] Add 1 card with [Four Great Dragons] in its traits from your trash to your hand.
Effect 2: [When Attacking] 1 of your opponent’s digimon gets -6000 DP for the turn. Then, by returning 1 [Holydramon], 1 [Azulongmon], and 1 [Megidramon] from your trash to the bottom of your deck, trash the top 2 cards of your opponent’s security stack.

[EX3-036] Holydramon
Effect 1: [On Play] All of your opponent’s Digimon gain [Security Attack -1] until the end of your opponent’s turn. If this card was played by the effect of [Trial of the Four Great Dragons], all of your opponent’s digimon gain [Security Attack -2] until the end of your opponent’s turn instead.
Effect 2: [On Deletion] If you don’t have [Trial of the Four Great Dragons] in your battle area, put 1 [Trial of the Four Great Dragons] from your hand in your battle area.

[EX3-025] Azulongmon 
Effect 1: [On Play] [Draw 2]. Then, if this card was played by the effect of [Trial of the Four Great Dragons], Memory +2.
Effect 2: [On Deletion] If you don’t have a [Trial of the Four Great Dragons] in play, you may place 1 from your hand in your Battle Area.

[EX3-064] Megidramon
This card/Digimon is also treated as [ChaosGallantmon].
Effect 1: [On Play] Delete 1 opponent’s Lv.5 or lower Digimon. If this card was played by the effect of [Trial of the Four Great Dragons], increase the target LV of this effect by 1.
Effect 2: [On Deletion] If you don’t have a [Trial of the Four Great Dragons] in play, you can place 1 [Trial of the Four Great Dragons] from your hand into your battle area.

This archetype may open doors to deck building creativity in the coming meta, so it is definitely worth keeping an eye on!

And the Elemental Dragons

The single tamer card in this new set is [Kurihara Hina] from Digimon Links, and she synergizes a new elemental dragon archetype. 

[EX3-065] Kurihara Hina
Effect 1: [Start of Your Turn] When your opponent has a Digimon, gain +1 memory.
Effect 2: [Your Turn] When your Digimon digivolves into a Digimon with [Rock Dragon], [Earth Dragon], [Machine Dragon] or [Sky Dragon] in traits, by suspending this tamer, activate 1 of that Digimon’s [On Play] effect.
Security: Play this card without paying its cost
[EX3-053] Metallicdramon
Effect 1: [On Play] All of your opponent’s Digimon [De-digivolve 1]. Then, delete 1 of your opponent’s Digimon with play cost of 5 or lower. If this effect did not delete an opponent’s Digimon, all of your opponent’s unsuspended Digimon cannot digivolve until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
Effect 2: [Opponent’s Turn] When you have a tamer, this Digimon gains [Blocker] and [Reboot]
 
[EX3-012] Volcanicdramon
Effect 1: [On Play] Delete all of your opponent’s Digimon with the lowest DP. If this effect fails to delete your opponent’s Digimon, your opponent cannot play Digimons with 5000 DP or less.
Effect 2: [When Attacking] When you have a tamer, trash the top card of your opponents security.

Hina will activate a Digimon's [On Play] effect during digivolution, as long as that Digimon belongs to either Rock, Earth, Machine, or Sky Dragon in traits. 

These elemental dragon Digimons are also introduced in this set: Jazardmon and Jazarichmon (metal dragon), Metallicdramon (sky dragon), Lavorvomon and Lavogaritamon (rock dragon), and Volcanicdramon (earth dragon). These new Digimons have [On Play] effects that can be tapped by Hina, and works in cohesion to provide aggression (through the Volcanicdramon line) and defence (through the Metallicdramon line).  

Remark: some older Digimon cards such as [BT2-018] Volcanicdramon will also work with this new archetype, but power-creep may have taken its toll on those cards. 

Buffing some existing archetypes 

Other than the archetypes above, some existing archetypes will also be blessed in EX-03. 

 

[EX3-023] Plesiomon
Effect 1: [When Digivolving] You may play 1 blue level 3 Digimon card or 1 level 4 or lower Digimon card with [Aquatic] in one of its traits from 1 of your blue Digimon’s digivolution cards without paying its play cost. Then, you may place 1 blue Digimon card from your hand under this Digimon as its bottom digivolution card.
Inherited: [All Turns][Once Per Turn] When you play a Digimon from digivolution cards, return 1 of your opponent’s Digimon with a level equal to the played Digimon’s level to the bottom of its owner’s deck.

[EX3-026] Aegisdramon
Effect 1: [When DIgivolved] You may play 1 LV3 blue Digimon or Digimon with [Seadramon] in name or a [Aquatic] type Digimon from 1 of your blue Digimon without paying its cost.
Effect 2: [Opponent’s Turn][Once Per Turn] When your opponent plays a Digimon, you may trigger 1 of this Digimon’s [When Digivolved] effect.

The "play Digimon from digivolution cards" playstyle has gotten an upgrade through Plesiomon and Aegisdramon, but is this enough to put a dent to the coming meta remains to be seen. 

[EX3-046] Commandramon
Effect: [Decoy(Traits: D-brigade)]

[EX3-054] Darkdramon
When digivolving into this card, you may return up to 5 [D-Bridgade] cards from your trash to the top of your deck to reduce its digivolution cost by -1 for each card returned.
Effect: [Your Turn][Once Per Turn] When you play another [D-Bridgade] Digimon, delete 1 of your opponent’s Digimon with a play cost equal or lower than that Digimon, and unsuspend this Digimon.

Fans of D-brigade will also rejoice knowing that there is a new lineup of LV3 to LV6, with the new Darkdramon being awfully sick! 

[EX3-045] Hydramon
 Effect 1: [When Digivolved] You may suspend 1 of yours or your opponent's Digimon.
Effect 2: [Both Turns][Once Per Turn] When an opponent’s Digimon is suspended, gain +1 Memory for each of your other suspended [Plant] or [Fairy] type Digimon.
Effect 3: [End of Your Turn][Once Per Turn] If you have 2 or more suspended [Plant] or [Fairy] type Digimon, return 1 of your opponent's suspended Digimon to the bottom of their deck.

And vegetables is given an upgrade nobody is asking for, but this should do one for Bloomlord decks!

Summary

With dragons being in the focus, EX-03 was able to introduce a few small excitements into a slow-aging card game. Clearly with the dragon-theme, this set is not diverse enough to give Bandai the confidence of sales hence the decision to include a time-proven fan-favourite that is Imperialdramon as an all-new archetype.

And also a supposedly high-rarity pull of an alternate-art Imperialdramon should drive some collector value into this set, just in case everything else isn't quite enough.

EX-03 will not be missed by many non-dragon Digimon players, and Bandai's simultaneous release of One Piece Card Game's first booster set (in July) may garner this a weaker set overall.

Summary: 4/10 

 

How rare is this card?

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Review: BT-10 Cross Encounter

We were a bit late doing this BT-10 review, having all the cards from this set fully revealed a couple of days ago. Nevertheless, this should allow us to take a more holistic look at this set so lets get into it!

Xros wars comes to the DCG 

Digimon Xros Wars (or Digimon Fusion in EN dub) introduced us to Kudou Taiki (or Mikey Kudo in EN dub) and Shoutmon back in 2010. In the anime adaptation, there were 4 factions led by different generals: Taiki's Xros Heart, Kiriha's Blue Flare, Nene's Twilight, and Yuu's Bagra Army. These factions has now been properly introduced in BT-10.

Unlike the earlier renditions of Xros Wars Digimons that started back in BT-05, the new Xros Wars Digimons have traits relating them to their respective factions.

Before diving into the cards, let us quickly recap some new effects that were introduced in this set.

– [DigiXros-N]: When you play this card, you may place 1 of each of the llisted cards from your hand/battle area to the bottom of this Digimon's digivolution cards to reduce its play cost by N for each card placed.
– [Safe]: when this Digimon is deleted, put it below 1 of your tamers.
– [Material Safe N]: when this Digimon is deleted, put N-number of cards from this Digimon's digivolution cards stated in its [DigiXros] condition to the bottom of 1 of your tamers.

The general idea of the [DigiXros] system is to play Digimons instead of taking the usual digivolution route. Rookie Digimons can be played for their [On Play] effects, and then swinging at your opponent aka rookie-rush style. When they are deleted, they can use [Safe] to return to your tamer, to be later relaunched as a [DigiXros] Digimon. 

 

[BT10-087] Kudou Taiki and his [Xros Heart] crew would fully embody the [DigiXros] system, taking advantage of the different affinities of his Digimons (across different colors) to launch Shoutmon X4, Shoutmon X4B, Shoutmon X5, and Shoutmon X5B. Taiki is a natural strategist in the anime, and this has been made evident in the card game as his deck's playstyle may be the most complex among the other factions.

 

[BT10-088] Aonuma Kiriha (Christopher) and his [Blue Flare] Digimons embody a strong affinity for freezing the opponent's Digimons, and has access to option cards that allow him to return the opponent's Digimon to hand.

Meanwhile, [BT10-092] Amano Nene would mostly work with DarkKnightmon, embodying the role of the undying. In addition, this set also introduces [BT10-069] DarkKnightmon X-Antibody along with a new [BT10-066] DarkKnightmon that has a [DigiXros] effect, which should further strengthen the original DarkKnightmon tribal deck. 

On the other hand, her younger brother [BT10-093] Amano Yuu (Ewan) would lead the Bagra Army using a Darkness Loader that allows him to force a [DigiXros], which is reflected in his tamer card effect allowing him to reduce a Digimon's play cost without that Digimon needing a [DigiXros] effect.

This new system would definitely introduce a much-needed new dimension to the game's complexity, and we very much welcome this system after the rather stale BT-09 X-Antibody meta.

An updated Ghost Game lineup

Yes, the Ghost Game Digimons finally get the updated digivolution forms. But we will focus our attention on Gammamon's darker form [BT10-078] GulusGammamon and his LV5 form [BT10-011] Canoweissmon. While GulusGammamon is a very reliable LV4 Digimon, having both a [Retaliation] effect and a semi-revival [On Deletion] effect, the spotlight shines on his LV5 Canoweissmon, which has a unique effect that allows him to gain all the effects from all his digivolution cards with [Gammamon] in name. 

Gammamon has got some great potential in the past, and with these new additions we may finally have a mechanic that is uniquely Gammamon! 

Sakuyamon buffed

When Rika and her Sakuyamon were introduced in EX-02 there was a lot of hype that lacked substance: a mechanic that relied on plug-in option cards was missing some serious consistency. Honestly, it came to us a surprise that [BT10-041] Sakuyamon: Maid Mode would be introduced so soon, but this Digimon has a seriously good effect allowing some option cards to not only be played for free, but returned to the top of your security. Along with her new line of LV3 to LV5 forms, they should help to stabilize the Rika/Sakuyamon mechanic.

In addition, it is also largely speculated that Sakuyamon: Maid Mode be very useful in a security control deck, so sec-con fans can rejoice!

… and saving the fire from an OTK meta

The previous set can pretty much sum to an OTK meta, with the X-Antibody Wargreymon, Metalgarurumon, Grandiskuwagamon, and Alphamon doing too much damage in competitive games. It comes as no surprise that Bandai would first try to dampen this by using some anti-OTK effect, and the first of this came in the form of a sexy [BT10-042] Venusmon.

Other smaller random buffs 

[BT10-023] Thetismon hastens Jellymon's hand-recycling capability, which may see its engine borrowed into other decks for milling. A new [BT10-031] Pulsemon with [Blocker] and the new [BT10-100] Impulse Memory Boost!! option card would allow this mechanic to better sustain the 3-security condition. The new [BT10-052] Cherrymon should strengthen Shivamon, and Justimon gets a new arm in [BT10-067] Justimon: Critical Arm. [BT10-083] Minervamon is a hidden potential that should work with a number of different deck mechanics such as Lucemon Falldown Mode. A new [BT10-086] Omegamon X-Antibody with a unique effect that should help cripple some security control decks. 

But last but not least, some very notable buffs to the ST-12 Jesmon starter deck in the form of [BT10-016] Jesmon X-Antibody, [BT10-068] Gankoomon X-Antibody, [BT10-085] Sistermon Ciel, and of course the highly anticipated [BT10-112] Jesmon GX which we will touch upon a little bit more below.

The secret rares of BT-10

BT-10 has 3 secret rare cards, 2 of which were already revealed with the remaining rumoured to be a low pull-rate ghost-rare Alphamon.

 

The first SEC revealed was a surprise. [BT10-111] Shoutmon King Ver. is akin to a joker card in any digiXros decks, cementing his position in playability during this meta.

[BT10-112] Jesmon GX
Digivolves at 5 cost from a Digimon with [Royal Knight] in its traits
Effect 1: [When Digivolving] You may place 1 Digimon card with [Royal Knight] in its traits and play-cost of 13 or less from your hand or trash under this Digimon as a digivolution card to activate that Digimon's [When Digivolving] effect. Then, [Blitz].
Effect 2: [All Turns] While this Digimon has a card with [Royal Knights] in its traits in its digivolution cards, it gains [Piercing], [Blocker], and [SecurityAttack+1] for each of those cards.

The second SEC is none other than [BT10-112] Jesmon GX, whose effect also came as a surprise as it does not buff specifically the Jesmon archetype but rather the Royal Knights. With so many [Royal Knight] Digimons we have thus far (9 of them has a [When Digivolving] effect), it would be interesting to see if Jesmon GX could revive the older deck engines, or bringing forth some new mechanics never seen before!

Summary

BT-10 is certainly an more exciting set than its predecessor, running new [DigiXros] mechanics and some random rebalancing that should shake up some creative deck building. Though there may be some misses and disappointments that some of your anticipated cards were not introduced in this set (such as Bagramon or Shoutmon X7), the current lineup should be sufficient to re-energize the stale BT-09.

 

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Early Review: BT-07 Next Adventure

After a lackluster month of EX-01, we have finally gotten our fair share of BT-07 card reveals. 

A brief introduction to those who are not following, BT-07 Next Adventure is an upcoming expansion set to be released on the 27th of August, themed around the Digimon Frontier anime series. 

We will see heavy support for tamer cards and [Hybrid] Digimons, as well as some subtle introduction to X-antibody mechanics. For fans of Digimon ReArise and VB, the full digivolution lines of Herissmon and Pulsemon are also introduced in this set, so read on for a quick and early review!

Hybrid Archetype Buffed

Prior to BT-07, there is no true support for the [Hybrid] archetype outside of them simply being Digimons that can digivolve from a tamer card. Due to this lack of support, [Hybrid] Digimons are usually only added at minimal copies into decks to go for that "final hit". 

All this will change come BT-07: the 6 tamers from Digimon Frontier will be introduced, all whom possess effects and inheritables that make them the core engine of their decks.

Notable tamers are [BT7-085] Kanbara Takuya and [BT7-087] Minamoto Koji. Both these tamers can pull 5 [Hybrid] cards (from trash and hand respectively) to themselves as digivolution cards in order to "Hyper Spirit Evolution" into LV6 Kaisergreymon and Magnagarurumon.

Takuya's evolution into Kaisergreymon will be guaranteed an attack thanks to Kaisergreymon's [Blitz] effect, and if inheriting the new [BT7-014] Aldamon he can do an almost unblockable 2 security checks at 14000 DP with option-jamming. However, with no other [Hybrid] cards carrying useful inheritables yet, it is hard to determine if he can redefine the meta.

Koji, on the other hand, is already showing great promise with [BT7-029] Magnagarurumon on board control by allowing the player to return a digivolution card from himself in order to bounce a similar LV Digimon from your opponent's board back to their hand. 

You may want to watch an early proxy gameplay of Kaisergreymon and Magnagarurumon (from ファイル島の民) to see these engines in action.

Score: 7/10

Metalgreymon and Weregarurumon

It is quite unexpected for Bandai to give Metalgreymon and Weregarurumon the SR treatment, since they are neither new Digimons not Frontier-related. However, they possess effects that can significantly strengthen many decks, allowing some older deck engines to keep up to newer metas.

Expect to see the new [BT7-013] Metalgreymon in BOC, Jesmon, or even Shoutmon decks, and [BT7-026] Weregarurumon used to revive Hexeblaumon, Imperialdramon and Ulforceveedra engines!

Score: 9/10

Herissmon Line

This is the first time Herissmon (from ReArise) is introduced into DCG, and being the first yellow Digimon line to have strong support for [Digiburst]. 

Based on the effects of his digivolution line up to Rasenmon, he would derive great offensive value (both on board control and security damage) when the player is low in security. Therefore, we foresee him to have great synergy with [BT4-104] Blinding Ray. 

Score: 8/10

Pulsemon Line

First introduced in Vitality Bracelet (VB), Pulsemon has appeared as a promotional card and in BT-06 together with his LV4 form Bulkmon. In BT-07 we will be getting his full digivolution line up to the LV6 [BT7-041] Kazuchimon. 

The Pulsemon line has always been deriving maximum value when the player has exactly 3 security cards, and that has not changed in this upcoming release. Kazuchimon's very hefty digivolution cost of 5 may deter some players from building him into their core engine, but it cannot be denied that he will provide great [Recovery] value when the player has little to no security left. 

His LV4 and LV5 however, may become very interesting cards that can create very high DP Mekanorimon. Will we finally see a blocker-centric yellow/black deck with Craniamon?

Score: 8/10

Removing the Gatcha from Green

There is one particular engine that is unique in green: an effect that allows a LV5 Digimon to reveal 3 cards from deck when attacking, and digivolving to any revealed LV6 cards without paying it's cost. This engine is first seen in BT2 with Jagamon, and then with [BT5-089] Izzy & Mimi. 

In BT-07 we now have [BT7-045] Tortomon, a LV4 digimon that will make this very engine reliable. Work him with a strong LV6 Digimon such as [BT6-054] AncientTroymon or the new [BT7-055] Xuanwumon, and we might have a winning recipe for a new green meta!

Score: 9/10

A Fallen Cherubimon and Lucemon

To be honest, much of the excitement from this set comes in a purple package of Frontier antagonists. 

[BT7-079] Cherubimon's effect will be able to give so much board control when digivolving, and then some more when deleted. It is very obvious that he will run well with the LV3 Lucemons, since there is no color restrictions on the revived Digimons for his [On Deletion] effect. 

Meanwhile, [BT7-111] Lucemon Falldown Mode has to be the most hyped-up card since not being revealed in BT-04 and all sets after that. Kudos to Tomanikanji for the excellent work on his art since Lucemon FM was not exactly famous for being the most handsome Digimon (he looked rather chubby and deformed in the original anime series, and then in Hyper Colloseum and XROS wars). His effects however, may leave much to be desired: while having a good deletion effect, his play/digivolution cost is far too high. Maybe he will do well in a Security Control deck with heavy reliance on his option card [BT7-109] Dead or Alive. 

Score: 7/10

Kouta and Dorumon Joins the Fray!

Another set excitement comes in the form of [BT7-090] Doumoto Kouta, a legendary character from Digimon Chronicle and Dorumon's tamer. 

Since there was much wait for a proper Alphamon support, Kouta and Dorumon would be welcomed additions. However, based on the revealed cards so far, both Kouta and Dorumon does not seem to do much (or anything) for Alphamon, and appears to buff it's own line's LV6 [BT7-065] Dorugoramon more than anything. 

We are still unsure if Dorugoramon's reverse-like digivolution mechanic would be exclusive to x-antibody Digimons, but so far that mechanic does not seem too promising.

Score: 6/10

Conclusion

In addition to the 112 cards in this set, BT-07 will also carry 8 Campaign Promo cards featuring the 8 Digi-destined from 2020's Digimon Adventure anime reboot. Only 4 have been revealed so far but some have excellent card effects and may make their way into meta decks. 

In addition, it has also been leaked that Susannomon will be introduced as the other SEC card in this set, and none of the white Digimons have been revealed yet. 

But based on what we see so far, BT-07 is promising to be a great set, one that rivals BT-05 in hype and excitement, and renews some confidence in this card game after some recent lackluster releases. 

Final Score: 9/10

Early Review: EX-01 Classic Collection

Overview

The EX-01 Classic Collection is the first minibox released for Digimon Card Game. This set uses card artworks borrowed from the older (and now discontinued) Hyper Colosseum series, similar to what we see in alternate-art versions of BT-01 SEC Metalgreymon and BT-05 SEC Omegamon X. 

Sandwiched between the usual 3-month BT release cycle, with a little bit more than half the number of (different) cards we get in a standard expansion set, the EX-01 actually retails higher than standard BT expansion sets (with boxes going for 5280 Yen compared to a standard expansion set's 4752 Yen). With all 8 SR cards and sole SEC already revealed, we take a deeper look at whether EX-01 is worth it's premium price.

Improving the classic digimons

EX-01 is expected to deliver enhancements to existing or more precisely, traditional archtypes such as Tyrannomon, Angemon, and Myotismon. These are mostly Digimons from the 1999 anime Digimon Adventure 01, the subsequent Adventure 02, as well as the first Digimon World video game released on the Playstation in 1999.

We expect no new effects or gameplay engines to be introduced in EX-01. 

Additional Info: There will be 66 Digimons, 1 Tamer and 6 Option cards in this set. 

Agumon Booster

The Agumon/Greymon line is actually very well boosted in EX-01! 

Agumon has an excellent inheritable effect allowing a 3-card search for any tamer card or Digimon with [Agumon] in it's name, Greymon synergizes well with the 3-cost [BT6-087] Taichi, and Metalgreymon grants the much needed [Piercing] (but perhaps better suited for our SEC Machinedramon instead).

The SR Wargreymon meanwhile, is solid but not essential. At LV6, his first effect [Advance] is currently shared with both Zekegreymon and Shoutmon DX. His second effect allows him to delete a [Blocker] Digimon whenever he attacks, is rather conditional. At 4-cost to digivolve and 12000 DP he somehow lacks the firepower we see in a meta definer like Jesmon. 

They may do well in a Bond Of Courage (BOC) deck!

Score: 8/10 (great and timely boosters for BOC)

Gabumon Booster

With the EX1 Gabumon/Garurumon behaving exactly like their red counterparts, they make great support cards for any existing BOF decks. 

Also similar to it's red counterpart, Metalgarurumon will be in for a hard fight for a spot in any existing BOF decks. While his second effect can be very effective against the Archilles heel of BOF [BT6-054] AncientTroymon, it is an effect that remains rather conditional and a 8-card hand may be quite hard to meet at times.

It is also possible to build a deck around Metalgarurumon and large 8-card hand sizes (with promo Weregarurumon and the starter deck Veedramon lineup) but in the current meta landscape, really?

Score: 7/10 (some robustness coming to BOF decks)

Imperialdramon Booster

The previous [BT3-027] Paildramon was a great digivolution card for any Imperialdramon, an excellent engine drowned in today's insanely aggresive meta. This EX1 Paildramon is promising, but we do not yet know his full potential until his LV4 (possibly ExVeemon and/or Stingmon) is revealed. 

The EX1 Imperialdramon is also a welcomed addition with his strong [When Digivolution] effect that suspends an opponent's Digimon while unsuspending itself. 

A promising lineup that might bring Imperialdramon decks to a comeback. 

Score: 9/10

Recovery Decks Finally Playable?

Security recovery and DP-reduction effects are a yellow exclusive ever since the beginning of DCG. However, 6 expansion sets on we saw yellow transform into a very aggressive DP-reduction system of Wargreymons, Lordknightmons, and Valdur-Arms, with its recovery component drowned into the side component of yellow decks (often through some effective play of Lucemons or what not). 

There are no competitive "recovery-centric" yellow decks. The closest use of a "recovery-centric" engine comes in the form of a Security Control deck. Recovery-based Digimons are usually never preferred as LV6 choices (and Dynasmon borderlines that). 

These may all change with EX-01. It remains to be seen whether such a defensive deck, conducted by the angel duo Angewomon and MagnaAngemon, will ever see foothold in competitive landscape.

Score: 7/10 (an interesting but unproven buff)

Revenge of Diaboromon!

Honestly after BT-05, we would have never expected another Diaboromon so soon (for the record, this is the fifth Diaboromon released in DCG)!

With both Infermon and Diaboromon, tokens will now become significantly bigger and more useful. A hoard of 5000-7000 DP tokens with [Blocker] can be what it needs to slow down a game enough to build a wide board of Diaboromons for the win!

Diaboromon decks has always been a fan favorite, and this boost will be very well received! 

Score: 9/10 (will definitely see a comeback, while it lasts)

Analogman's Machinedramon?

Probably the most exciting card in this set, Machinedramon is naturally a hard-cast Digimon. With enough [Cyborg] fodders in hand/trash, this Digimon becomes an efficient 7-cost to play LV6 Digimon with a multitude of defensive effects under it's arsenal. We have written an early review for him a while ago, so do give that a read!

Score: 10/10 

Myotismon Back On Stage?

It really is a shame that the ever so popular Myotismon digivolution line, the original symbol of evil, was demoted to a binder warmer for almost the entire time DCG was played. Ever since introduced in BT-02, he was never really viable. Besides the BT-02 VenomMyotismon which was occasionally played with Kimeramon (during the BT-02 meta), other Myotismons never really caught on. 

So it is really nice to have this new Myotismon drop in EX-01. We would like to believe that he has potential, and we have written about him in an early card review some time ago. Do give that a read if you enjoy the nostalgia that is Myotismon!

Score: 8/10.

Mameo of DW1

Possibly the most nostalgia-heavy card ever released, the young protagonist of Digimon World 1 (aka Mameo) has never been released in any other card games, namely Hyper Colloseum and the more recent Battle Spirits, despite being the first Digimon tamer ever (DW1 was released on January 1999, 2 months before they premiered the first Digimon anime series).

With low play cost, white support, and Mimi-like effects, this tamer card will likely be popular among the more creative decks!

Score: 9/10

Fun Fact!

There are no vanilla Digimons in EX-01. Every card in EX-01 have an effect, and faithfully supports their digivolution lines and decks. 

Summary

EX-01 is an expensive, unexciting 73-card minibox filled with "classic art" that skimps on paying artists for new artwork. There is no hype, no major surprises, no new mechanics, and no new Digimons. 

Well there was one surprise: Mameo!

EX-01 is also a better box for the environment: it uses less plastic, running 12 packs per box rather than the standard 24.

But this is not what EX-01 wants to be. It does not scream of hype, surprises, or new mechanics. It is here to fill the gaps of the game. It is here to make that Tyrannomon fan happy to play his Tyrannomon deck again. It is here to give Diaboromons another shot at the meta landscape. It is here to try to level the playing field. 

It is a boring box filled with very useful cards, and I can't help but wonder if we should just be patient and wait another month for an expansion set that has hype, surprises, and might truly reset the playing field!

Score: 7/10

 

Early Review: BT-06

Overview

Less than 3 weeks before the official release of BT-06, only slightly more than a quarter of cards were revealed. That said, we have already seen 8/11 of the SRs, which should give us a hint on how this expansion set should perform. Let's dig right into it!

New Mechanics

<デコイ> or <Decoy> is a new effect introduced in BT-06, and the only Digimons we know so far that has this effect are [BT6-059] Machmon and [BT6-064] Mamemon (both are black Digimons). 

A Digimon with <Decoy> can sacrifice itself to protect another Digimon (of the specified color only) from being deleted by a card effect. This is akin to an effect blocker, which should come in handy amid a rising ecosystem of cards with deletion effects. 

I believe that the introduction of <Decoy> is intended to reposition black as a defense-centric color, since <Blocker> digimons are now pretty much card-effect fodder in current meta. While this might strengthen black cards against red and purple, it will not protect against yellow's DP-reduction, which is a dominating color in the current meta. Therefore, the effectiveness of <Decoy> should be quite limited.

It should also be noted that this effect will only protect one Digimon from deletion, so in the case of a [BT1-084] Omegamon deleting more than 1 Digimon with the same name, then <Decoy> can only be used to protect one Digimon and not the rest.

The meta is expected to speed up

The icons of this set is none other than [BT6-018] Agumon Bond of Courage and [BT6-030] Gabumon Bond of Friendship. Not only are these LV7 duo formidable enough by themselves, but also given strong support cards! 

Both of these LV7s can warp digivolve (yes not an official term but you get the gist) from a LV3 [Agumon] or [Gabumon] respectively, if you have their new tamers [BT6-087] Tai Kamiya or [BT6-088] Matt Ishida in play. In addition, this warp digivolution comes at a very reasonable 3-memory cost!

In comparison, a warp digivolution of the recently launched starter deck LV3 [ST7-03] Guilmon into a LV6 Gallantmon will cost more than that (4 memory)! 

The strong synergy between these LV6 duo with their tamers and rookies sets up not only a very strong board control, but also allows for surprise comeback. They are expected to dominate red and blue decks in the coming BT-06 meta!

Early gameplay videos:
Agumon deck vs. Lordknightmon deck
Gabumon deck vs. Lordknightmon deck
Agumon deck vs. Gabumon deck

Score: 9/10 (as good as it goes for red and blue)

 

Jesmon

Yellow players in the BT-05 meta understand the stability and robustness of a Lordknightmon engine for simultaneous board control and widening. In the coming set, red players can access this similar mechanic in the form of [BT6-016] Jesmon. 

Jesmon has a [When Attacking] effect that allows the player to play a [Sistermon] from either their hand or trash, which has superb value. Jesmon subsequently gains a +3000 DP buff with <Piercing>, in addition to a +2000 DP buff if you have [Sistermon Noir] in play. 

At a minimum, this engine should be robust, and gives Jesmon some board presence with high DP and <Piercing>. The presence of Sistermon Blanc should also offer Jesmon some protection in the case that he is suspended after an attack. However, Jesmon will require access to additional inheritable effects (such as <SecurityAttack+1> or those that allow him to attack an unsuspended Digimon) in order for him to shine.

Score: 6/10 (more card reveals may increase the score)

Flamemon

This very unassuming card is expected to provide a very significant boost to Ancientgreymon decks, which is currently underperforming even with the anniversary promo card [P-029] Agunimon. This [BT6-010] Flamemon will grant Ancientgreymon the <Piercing> effect, allowing for more effective aggro plays. 

Score: 8/10

Dynasmon

Passive effects are usually not very well-received in competitive games, with examples seen in Belialvamdemon, Donedevimon, and Sakuyamon. As such, I believe that [BT6-044] Dynasmon will not dethrone Lordknightmon off the yellow meta just yet.

That said, I feel that the combination of effects that Dynasmon has (trash stockpiling, searching, and security stalling) hints at the potential introduction of another card: Lucemon Falldown Mode. So until we know that as a fact, Dynasmon is expected to remain as an underdog.

Score: 4/10 (may be higher with Lucemon synergy)

Black becomes more technical

A defensive, blocker-centric black is pretty much a thing of the past, with the vast variety of card effects that will remove or delete Digimons without ever attacking, and <de-digivolve> effects being less potent since it usually works into the opponent's advantage. 

With this, I think black Digimons will now have an exclusive access to blanket effects that targets based on Digimon's play cost. 

[BT6-067] Gankoomon has a [When Digivolving] effect that deletes all your opponent's Digimon with the lowest play cost, which can be used in many ways. 
1) Delete a large swarm of rookie Digimons that has the same play cost (usually play cost of 2). 
2) Delete a single large Digimon when opponent only has 1 Digimon in the battle area.

The goal of effects like Gankoomon is to maximize the deletion value by managing the play-cost numbers on your opponent's board, using cards like [BT6-064] Mamemon to eliminate the odds.

Score: 7/10 (black to get play-cost based board control on steroids) 

Skullgreymon

Another unassuming card, [BT6-078] Skullgreymon has a unique effect that, when trashed from hand, allows him to be attached and used as a digivolution card on one of your purple Digimon. While one might, on first impression, think that he would synergize well with [BT2-083] Millenniummon, we would like to remind that Millenniummon is not a purple Digimon.

Besides, SkullGreymon behaves like counter-attack for purple during the right times. When we trash this card by another effect, we can put this card under a LV3 or LV4 digimon to destroy an opponent's powerful Digimon (without extra cost) to give one of your Digimon the [Retaliation] effect. SkullGreymon can be much more flexible compared to the BT-02 "Retaliation" Devimon.

Score: 8/10 

Eosmon

The LV5 [BT6-085] Eosmon breaks the mold of deck-building by allowing up to 50 copies of itself in one's deck, and the LV4 [BT6-083] Eosmon allows the player to play a 4-cost white tamer card without paying it's cost. Since there is currently no white tamer cards that will synergize with Eosmon, I believe that this set will inevitably introduce [Menoa Bellucci] as it's white tamer. 

I guess we will not know of Eosmon's full potential until it's full lineup is revealed.

Score: ?/10.

Predictions

At the time of this writeup, 3 SR and 2 SEC cards remain unknown. Below are some of my speculations.

Full Royal Knight lineup unlikely to be unveiled: while we have [Sistermon] providing buff to the [Royal Knight] type, it is unlikely for BT-06 to unveil all members of the remaining Royal Knights, which include Examon, Magnamon, and Alphamon. I believe that while Examon and Magnamon might not be revealed yet, but Alphamon has been heavily hinted to be revealed soon (from card erratas). Alphamon may be one of the SEC cards of BT-06.

Lucemon Falldown Mode: The LV3 Lucemon has been revealed back in BT-04, with no follow-ups along his digivolution line. With both Lordknightmon and Dynasmon revealed, it is very likely for Lucemon Falldown Mode to also be revealed in this set (since the next EX-01 set may not be a suitable landing for Lucemon). Also, since 2 SR cards has already been revealed for purple, it is likely for Bandai to introduce Lucemon Falldown Mode as a SEC card for BT-06.

Summary

I feel that aside from the LV7 Agumon and Gabumon duo, there is not much going for in this set as compared to the previous BT-05. 

Many cards here are less exciting, and exist only to complement or add variety to the already existing engines in the current meta, and my opinion is that Bandai acknowledges this as a fact by bundling it with alternate-art box-topper cards from a card popularity poll.

If Alphamon and Lucemon Falldown Mode is indeed introduced in this set, there is still no guarantee that they will provide meta-defining effects out-of-the-box (since SEC cards can be usually quite unplayable in it's immediate meta). Nevertheless, it seems that the presence of either or both of these cards will be needed to at least give BT-06 a proper dose of excitement.

Score: 6/10

 
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What is new in BT5 Battle of Omega

Overview

In the earlier post about Early Review for BT05, we mentioned about the new power, chain, engine and trend of each color. In this post, we focus on what is new regarding of effect, ability that haven't appeared in previous booster box.

List of Card that has new type of effect

Red Gaossmon, blue Syakomon and yellow Cutemon
[Opponent Turn]: Your opponent can't reduce digivolution cost
With the "opponent turn" effect, Nokia Tamer effect or Hidden Potential or Fuse Into Ultimate Digimon effects are no longer able to achieve. We are still waiting for official Q&A for this card, but if it is true that it applies to all cards effect (digimon card, tamer card and option card), then it would be a good option to put into your deck 2 or 3 copies since there is too many colors now able to reduce digivolution cost.
Digimon can evolve from a same level digimon, this happens in red and blue colors. This ability helps the deck to be more robust and flexible, it helps to get more draw if hands stuck, helps to put more LV6 digimon into omegamon digivolution source, helps to activate the effect from same LV digimon with fewer cost to digivolve…

[BT5-018] Dorbickmon, the first digimon ever has the effect: trash a red digimon from hand to add the trashed digimon's DP to this digimon for the turn. So in this turn, I can trash a LV4 digimon with 6000DP to make this Dorbickmon DP to 11000+6000 (17000)DP. This is a good plan to come quick and destroy a LV7 rested digimon in the battle without using and option card or evolve to LV7.

Sakuyamon, a yellow digimon, the first digimon has a very defensive effect: [In opponent's turn] When opponent digimon is moved from raising area to the battle, that digimon get SecurityAttack-3 for the turn, no matter it's evolved after that. This is a very good ability for yellow to slow down opponent's attack to their security, but opponent's newly moved-out digimon will still able to attack your digimon in the battle.

A new green LV 3 Palmon from BT5 with "On Deletion" effect: place 1 Palmon from trash into bottom of 1 of your green digimon evolution source. This card will give benefit to the digimon that needs card to do digi-burst, especially green digimon that requires many cards to do digiburst like Nidhoggmon or BT5 Rosemon.

Omnimon Zwart D, make it record to be the first digimon that can delete opponent's Tamer. After BT5, there is more Tamer that provides more advantages to control the game or even destroy a deck profile (such as Rookie Rush), with this new effect, the number of tamer in the battle now can be reduced. 

Omnimon Zwart D just need 3 costs to evolve, so there is no surprised if player use 4 copies of this card in their deck.

Summary

BT5 is going to give us some new deck profiles, new playing style and more Omegamon in the battle (because it is called "Battle of Omega" :)). There is only one week left till the day we got the BT5 cards in our hands, so what deck you plan to build?

Share with us at digimonmeta@gmail.com

Early Review: BT-05

Overview

With more than half the cards revealed so far, its time again to take a look at what this expansion set gives!

New Mechanics

<進撃> or <Blitz> in English (until Bandai gives us the official name) is introduced as a new effect in BT-05. Usually paired with [When Digivolving], this effect allows the Digimon to attack even if the memory is 1 or higher at your opponent's side. This effect is similar (albeit weaker) to [BT4-090] Chaosmon's, but does not naturally unsuspend your Digimon or allow you to attack an opponent's active Digimon.

A handful of Digimons with same-level digivolution (LV6→LV6) were also introduced. These Digimons typically have a [When Digivolving] effect and cost significantly less memory when digivolving from it's same level.

White tamer and option cards were also introduced for the first time. The rules to play a white option card are still unconfirmed, but we shall know in the coming weeks whether a white Digimon or white tamer is required as a pre-requisite for playing white option cards.

Dual tamers are also introduced in BT-05, granting a stackable +2 memory at the start of your turn if a condition met. There will be 3 of these tamer cards in BT-05, one each for blue, green, and white.

A pilot Shoutmon lineup

The Shoutmon lineup (from the 2010 anime series Digimon XROS Wars) finally makes an appearance, piloting the <Blitz> ability. [BT5-009] Shoutmon has a solid search effect when played, and can warp digivolve into LV5 [BT5-014] Omnishoutmon at cost of 4 memory, offering additional digivolution robustness and lowering bricked-hands. At LV6, both [BT5-017] Zekegreymon and [BT5-019] Shoutmon DX pilots the <Blitz> effect. Shoutmon DX can also digivolve from the same level at a lower memory cost. 

While there is undeniable synergy between Digimons from this Shoutmon lineup, it is too early to tell whether <Blitz> is a truly formidable effect or one that is rather easy to overcome (since it might end up being a glorified security check since it cannot target active Digimons without inheriting Zekegreymon). Furthermore, same-level digivolutions such as Shoutmon DX may end up stacking and wasting too many LV6 Digimons within one digivolution chain, increasing the risk of losing everything in just 1-hit! 

Watch an early gameplay video showing Shoutmon pulling off a marginal win over an existing red build (with Blitzgreymon and Victorygreymon), perhaps indicating that it is not so much better than what red already have.

Score: 6/10 (can be higher if the deck is further optimized and LV distributions are reworked)

 

Blue can finally freeze!

Since the beginning of DCG, blue cards run effects that tends to weaken or disable the opponent (akin to a freezing effect in most animes and games). This was originally conceptualized using digivolution-removal effects, but happened to be pretty subpar in actual competitive gameplay. Things did not improve even with the addition of Shakkoumon back in BT-03, as putting a <SecurityAttack-1> on Digimons without digivolution cards does not make them much less formidable. 

Now in BT-05 we have the Hexblaumon lineup, which is significantly more intimidating than what we have seen for blue before. [BT5-032] Hexblaumon disables all your opponent's Digimons without digivolution cards from attacking or blocking, which is extremely effective at stopping your opponents. In addition, with simultaneous access to <Jamming>, and synergy with not only his own digivolution chain but also tons of other blue cards, should put blue decks back in the forefront of tier lists.

While undoubtedly oozing with potential, early gameplay videos show that heavy reliant on Hexblaumon can be detrimental. Since effectively removing him from play can immediately undo all his "freezing" effects. More trials will be needed until his full potential is unlocked.

Score: 8/10

Holy warriors

While looking a little underwhelming at first, [BT5-045] Crusadermon seems to have managed to give yellow a slight boost in this set. From this early gameplay video we got a glimpse of Crusadermon's potential, and incredible synergy with warrior-type Digimons. In particular, the LV5 Digimon [BT5-042] Knightmon can be played from your hand at 0-cost whenever Crusadermon attacks, allowing very fast paced board build and control.

Score: 9/10

Green loses it's edge

Bandai very recently announced its first DCG restriction list, limiting green staples [BT2-047] Argomon and [BT3-103] Hidden Potential to just 1 copy per deck. This news is expected to hit green decks really hard, potentially dethroning them from their Tier-1 dominance. 

With this nerf, Bandai is seemingly trying to revive a more defensive green. All 3 green LV6 Digimons revealed thus far appear to have a defensive nature, while the new green dual-tamer card [BT5-089] Izzy & Mimi triggers when LV5 Digimons attack. This seems to indicate a trend encourages green Digimons to attack at as soon as they reach LV5, and then digivolving into a defensive LV6, and then an offensive LV7 when necessary. 

However, none of the newly introduced cards seem to be appealing additions to the current green inventory hence might just end up warming your binders.

Score: 4/10

Diaboromon's Revenge

Back in BT-01, Diaboromon has not very popular in competitive play due to his high costs, low DP, and lack of overall support. This will be very different in BT-05 with a plethora of Diaboromon lineup and support being announced. While it might not live up to its hype (there are several weaknesses in a pure Diaboromon deck that can be easily exploited) there is certainly room to optimize and offer some fresh new plays for Diaboromon fans out there.

You can watch some early gameplay videos from this channel to see how a BT-05 Diaboromon deck would fare against some different deck profiles. Will Diaboromon dethrone D-brigade as a rush-type black deck?

Score: 5/10 (there is certainly a lot of hype, but still much to prove) 

Zwart puts purple back into the spotlight

Purple will become an exciting color in BT-05: not only did Bandai introduce some powerful new purple Digimons, but also improved its synergy with many existing cards. 

Kimeramon's very popular effect is now also accessible in [BT5-081] Chaosgallantmon, at a more memory-efficient package and synergy with his second effect, while also boasting a very respectable 12000 DP. The Gallantmon digivolution line is also further buffed by the addition of [BT5-083] Megidramon: being the only Digimon that can play a LV6 Chaos/Gallantmon from your hand or trash for free (we expect him to be very popular in new megazoo decks). 

Further along we have the new black/purple [BT5-087] Omegamon Zwart, which should prove very popular in upcoming purple decks. He already has some exciting synergies with some existing and new cards, and by being such an iconic Digimon should see himself in many upcoming deck experiments. 

PS Somehow Omegamon Zwart looked more appealing to purple than he is to black, since he is only the second LV7 for purple (after Millenniumon) while black already has access to 4 different LV7 Digimons (not even including the upcoming Armegeddomon) prior to Zwart.

Score: 9/10 

White tamer and option cards

White tamer and option cards are introduced in BT-05, and so far all of them have exciting effects that solve existing problems in the current meta. [BT5-091] Takumi Aiba encourages digivolution while penalizing rookie rushes. [BT5-092] Nokia Shiramine boosts the efficiency of Greymon, Garurumon, and Omegamon-centric decks (which are actually well distributed across all colors except green) which helps to level the playing field against the speed of green decks. [BT5-093] Tai & Matt increases the aggresiveness of Omegamons, while [BT5-109] Fuse Into The Ultimate Digimon! fills in the weaknesses of some LV7 Digimons such as [BT1-084] Omegamon and [BT5-087] Zwart. We should expect to see them used extensively in all upcoming decks!

Score: 9/10.

A plethora of Omegamons

Omegamon is easily one of the most iconic Digimon in the entire franchise, if not the most iconic. The [BT1-084] Omegamon Alternate Art card remain the highest valued card in the collector market, and [BT3-112] Omegamon Alter-S being very close behind. Exploting this fact and releasing 4 different Omegamons in a single expansion is close to unfathomable, and it remains to be seen how the second-hand market reacts to this set (and the overall prices of all Omegamons). Regardless, it is undeniable that BT-05 has so much value packed into it, and these 4 Omegamons might just become the only chase cards running this set (with the other 8 SR cards taking the dip).

Score: 10/10.

Summary

Compared to previous sets, BT-05 exhibits outstanding value (the last time we saw such good value was in BT-02 and BT-03). Looking back, BT-01 was too heavily skewed towards a single Omegamon card (being the only chase card in that set) while BT-04 features 3 SEC cards that are either barely usable in competitive game, or having incomplete support.  

With 4 Omegamons and a handful of other exciting SR cards, a BT-05 box might just remain one of the most exciting boxes to pull for many months to come. 

Score: 9.5/10

 
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