Invited Article | Author: Vampoch
Youtube Channel: VampEpoch
Introduction
With the advent of BT5 came along great support for the Diaboromon strategy, be it with Digimons from the Lv2 Tsumemon all the way up to the Lv7 Armageddemon and every level in between, a personalized tamer with Arata Sanada and 2 options that obliterated rookie strategies or created more Diaboromon tokens.
Unfortunately none of these cards fixed a very glaring and core weakness, not only for Diaboromon decks but for any Black deck for that matter, that is to deal with hard played Digimon that cost 8 or above. The premiere example of this is BT5 BlackWarGreymon, that when hard played is almost impossible to destroy with a pure Black deck with the exception of a 12K or higher blocker.
To cover for this weakness I’ve seen and tried many hybrid Black decks but none played to the strengths of the Diaboromons strategy. Such was the story up to the 21th of April when in Japan a tamer with the name of H.N. Tsurugi won a tournament with a Diaboromon deck with a tech I’ve never thought of and in my opinion is the single biggest game changer for Diaboromon decks since the release of BT5.
Capitalizing on the strengths of the deck
Upon first looking on his deck profile you’ll see what looks like a very traditional Diaboromon token built.
On Lv2, BT5 Tsumemon for extra draw (BT2 Kapurimon for the Flex), and on Lv3, BT2 and BT5 Keramon for even more draw and searching, cheap Lv3 with BT3 CommanDramon, and an extra blocker with ST5 Agumon.
On Lv4, BT2 and BT5 Chrysalimon for free memory, a free Arata Sanda and what is in my opinion the best security digimon in the game BT5 Shademon. The [BT5-063] Kurisarimon's inheritable effect also gives "Rush" for the digimon with the same name as this digimon. This is to give the Diaboro token credit to attack on the turn they are played.
On Lv5, BT2 Infermon and BT5 WaruMonzaemon for a cheap digivolution to Diaboromon.
On Lv6, BT5 and Promo Diaboromon for extra tokens and One-Turn-Kill capabilities since the promo Diaboro has "Security Attact +1" for each Diaboromon in play. For Lv7 digimon, BT5 Armageddemon for a big beatstick but more importantly the negation of Lv7 “When Digivolving” effects. The Amaggeddemon with only 3 cost to evolve as well as 3 cost to play if we destroy one Diaboromon, and it gains "Rush" in the turn it plays. This ability sometimes helps us to win the game with a final check.
For the tamer is a no brainer for the Arata Sanada for the extra memory and tokens, but you will not find any Black option on this build.
The strengths of this Diaboromon deck lies on the fast evolution and placing as many bodies as possible on the field, most probably to have as many attacks to security as possible, but H.N. Tsurugi saw one step beyond. He added 2 Yellow techs that not only worked wonders with the strategy but has the potential for the greatest field removal in the whole game.
The Stars of the deck
BT5 Starmons is a Lv3 Yellow Digimon that has been a 4 auto-include in Crusadermon decks with the capacity to remove up to Lv4 Digimon in that deck, but as good as it is in Yellow decks in this Diaboromon build its potential is pushed to the max. It no exaggeration, since I’ve done it myself, that with enough luck and pushing the strategy to its limit a single Starmons can deleted 14K Digimon in this deck, but on the less extreme spectrum you can easily use it to delete Lv3 that negate memory gain or even blockers to go for game.
Just adding Starmons was genius but the inclusion of the Yellow option BT5 Spiral Masquerade the aforementioned weakness was covered and with space to spare. With the amount of bodies you’ll have on the field, protected from the most common effects of mass removal by Armageddemon, Spiral Masquerade can easily go for -15k DP, not only deleting up to any none boosted Lv7 but also any number of Lv3 and Lv4 that you may be facing.
Note: This deck don't include any yellow tamer, so Spiral Masquerade only can be played on the same turn we play Starmon (need 3 memories or more) or when Starmon is in the battle.
Conclusions and space for improvement
In my eyes, if more tournament players were more aware of this Yellow techs and the insane potential they have in the Diaboromon strategy, Black decks would more consistently win tournaments but as in everything Digimon there is always space for further evolution. Such was the impact of this deck on me that I created a Youtube channel just to share my more in depth thoughts and personal take on this strategy, which I think presses even more on the strengths of this build. It’s not only strong but also really fun to play, take it for a drive, put your own personal twist to it and all around just have a great time.
I hope to bring more and higher quality content in the future, be it in written or video form and will gladly welcome any feedback.
