Andy Tan: The new Beelstar Deck (ST14) – BeelShine

Invited Author: Andy Tan (won twice with this Beelstar deck)

Country: Singapore 

Introduction

Hi Andy here, I first started playing Digimon when BT6 first released and was introduced to Beelstar.

I feel Beelstar has always been a silent powerhouse throughout the different sets with it only slowly falling off as the meta shifted to a more fast paced one.

The problem I feel with Beelstar is that it’s rather slow in building up its trash by relying purely on the draw and discard mechanic of Scattermode and Gabumon. With the introduction of ST-14, we are treated to two new cards that made a milling version of Beelstar more viable – Warring Shots and also the new Beelstarmon.

Deck's Strategy

The strategy for the deck is rather straightforward – as milling is a notch faster than discarding, you mill as much as you can. Each 7 cost option and each card in your trash means a cheaper BT6 or ST14 Beelstarmon. If you accidentally mill any of your key pieces, you can also then recover them with the myriad of trash recovery cards that is in the deck. Once you have reached a reasonably high amount of cards in trash, that’s where the nasty side of the deck kicks in – you get to spam cheap level 6s in the form of beelstars which then goes into Shinegreymon Ruin Mode.
 
Click into the image for deck featured in DIGIMON CARD META

The following are some key cards that really synergises well with each other.

Warring Shots – As a 7 cost purple option, Warring Shots is an auto include in a Beelstar deck. However, it is it’s two Main effect that truly makes it shine. Firstly it destroys one of your opponent’s highest level Digimon if casted from your hand or triggered as a security effect – I see this as somewhat a compliment to Fly Bullet since it can delete a level 7 Digimon. Secondly, when the option is trashed from your deck it gains a delay effect where you can pitch it the next turn to return a purple tamer or Digimon from your trash. While the deck has other trash recovery cards such as calling from darkness or Yamato, warring shots is by far the best as it’s a free card recovery as long as it’s milled from your deck. This card can then be pitched to fetch any Digimon in your deck – be it an impmon if you are bricking, a beelstar to recur it’s effect or to loop a shinegrey Ruin mode to disrupt your opponent’s play next turn. The possibilities are endless.

Shinegreymon Ruin Mode: A good Digimon in shinegrey decks and an even better card in this deck that can spam cheap purple level 6s. Ruin Mode by itself is a tough nut to crack the -5k DP on digivolution/deletion disrupts pretty much all strategies on your opponent’s next turn – this is especially so if you managed to clear their board using your beelstar. Its end of attack effect where it deletes an opponent Digimon along with itself is devastating enough, but it also recovers 1 security for you. In this deck that’s chock full of removal options, a security recovery could mean yet another obstacle for your opponent when they are swinging for your life.

To top it all off, as a purple Digimon, Ruin Mode can also be recovered by most of the trash recovery cards that is in this deck

ST14 Beelstarmon: This card may not seem like much as first but it serves both as discount fodder for your BT6 beelstar, allowing you to run less options that might cause you to brick and to run this instead. As it’s cost reduce by 4 for every 10 cards in your trash, having 20 cards would mean playing this for 5 cost – a relatively cheap price to pay for a level 6. Its two other effects allows you to build your trash and also play an impmon with rush. Playing an impmon in this deck would either mean you mill 3 more cards, or you recover a Beelzemon or Beelstarmon from trash. Both very good effects to be getting for free!

BT2 Beelzemon: I run this as a one off due to the deck being able to recover it from trash rather easily. It’s good in this deck as it allows your impmons a chance to become a huge beat stick and also it’s ability to delete a level 4 on Evo comes in handy when dealing with Psychemon/Solarmon or Chikurimons which would otherwise lock you out of your Beelstars

Darkness Wave: At 1 cost, this card mills 3 cards from your deck, a cheap card to build your trash and potentially pop off a few effects. Also super useful if you are looking to memory choke your opponent

Eyesmon Scattermode: Although the deck centres around milling, this card is still integral as it allows you to cycle options or cards that you don’t necessarily want in your hand for new ones. Evolving this on top of impmon x also means you get 2 mills each swing regardless if it dies or not! (Shoutout to Gum for this suggestion!!)

Happy bullet showering is very handy in removing sticky cards such as the Metalgrey and darkknight that spawns from grey knight or the blitzgrey and cresgaruru from alter s

Matchups

While this deck is a tad faster in terms of setting up and can compete with most decks, it’s still an unfavourable game against fast and aggressive decks like Greymon (especially if they have immunity with X antibody and greymon x) and the sheer destructive power of Grandis and beelze. Those games are usually decided by the power of your security cards which leave a lot to chance. Dedigivolution strategies like blue flare/twilight can also disrupt your ruin mode plays and also deny your ever important on deletion effects. But for the most part you can cruise through them as your Digimon usually are hard casted and so can’t be dedigivolved.
 
Round 1 vs Wargrey: My opponent started of strong and had a Blackwargrey x with x antibody immunity on board and left me with two security. However at that point in time I had build my trash to a sufficient enough level to play beelstar for 3 cost. I played two beelstar to clear off his Blackwargrey x, before going into ruin mode the next turn to stall him from pushing out his Digimon for a turn while I swarm the field to end the game.
 
Round 2 vs Shinegreymon: My opponent was not able to get a rookie so he played a level 4 from hand for the first two turns, each of these level 4s then were killed off with an option in my hand. In the second half of the game I sealed off his ability to build his board by killing off his shinegrey with beelstar and using my ruin mode to ensure that his Digimon stays in the nursery and his masarus remain as tamers. Once this was done, a combination of recycling my ruin modes and beelstars to both swarm the board and to close off his field won me the game.
 
Round 3 vs Xros Heart :My opponent played a X4 on his first turn, passing me to 3 memory. My had was horrible so I paid 13 memory to play ST-14 Beelstarmon, passing my opponent to 10 memory. While I thought this would be game, as it allowed my opponent to build up his tamers to a staggering 4 tamers on turn two, the effect of beelstar came in clutch when he swung into my security after setting his tamers up, milling a BT2 impmon which allowed me to play it due to beelstarmon’s effect.
On my next turn, I swung with my impmon which then milled 3 and this again recycled an impmon with rush due to my beelstar’s effect. This along with some good mills with darkness wave saw my trash reach a decent amount and allowed me to start playing bt6 beelstarmons to start wiping his board. And as usual once the board is all cleared, beelstar goes into ruin mode to further lock things down.
 

Tips when playing this deck:

1. When given the choice, always try to go for mills rather than drawing and discarding – most key effects of this deck only triggers when they are milled. Your Eyesmon exists as a backup and as a way to unbrick your hand
2. Don’t be afraid to pitch your warring shots’ delay effect early in the game to retrieve impmons or other cards that help to set up your trash
3. Always try to digivolve up to a ruin mode in the same turn that the first copy is deleted. This sets enormous pressure for the following two turns and will likely win you the game – this may sound hard but it’s easy to pull off in this deck if you use your cards at the right time
4. You can discard your beelstarmons if needed. You can always find a way to fish them back to your hand later
 

Garry: Hunter x Hunter Deck Review, BT12 Meta Thoughts, and Evolution Cup Report

Invited Author: Garry Yeung

Country: Indonesia

Introduction

Hi, Garry (@garryyeung) from Indonesia here. With the release of BT12-Across Time Bandai decided to have an early Evolution Cup and with same prize again (Omegamon and Agumon) and with only 1 week from the release of the set the meta is still unclear and people are still trying new things. So today I will tell you my opinion about the early meta of the set and share what I know about my Hunter deck.

First of all I don’t think there’s a tier/near tier 0 deck this time, unlike last set where BlackWargreymon X-Antibody just beating everyone’s ass and with the new restriction list Xros Heart having trouble to control the game. BlackWargreymon is still a strong deck but with the new hunter deck that can set up tamer from scratch easily and Arresterdramon Superior Mode can easily deal with the Greymon X-Antibody Sources Effect. The new Wargreymon can also easily deal BlackWargreymon X-Antibody since it can easily hit him with raid but lately I have seen people just bring both of the BlackWargreymon and the new Wargreymon in the same deck so they have become more flexible.

Deck Building

Overall, I think there’s gonna be a lot of variation of this hunter deck in the future, with people trying new things. There are other option you can choose and I think the card to consider bringing in the future would be Cho-Hakkaimon for board control and more draw, Soundbirdmon BT10-072 and Yuu Amano BT10-093. But in the end it’s all about your playstyle and for now I will stick around with this decklist and might change it a bit in the future.

Distribution

Digitama (Lvl2)

I think bringing only 4 Monimon is always the better choice for this deck but you can consider bringing one Kozenimon if you really want to play the deck with 5 digitama but again I don’t recommend it and just adjust it to your playstyle.

Rookies (Lvl3)

4 Gumdramon and 4 Psychemon is a must, you always need the draw from their sources effect and Psychemon is a great card for you when you need to take the card from your tamer sources. Trust me they are gonna help you in the early-mid game. While I rarely use the Gumdramon DigiXros effect but you can always use it when you get a little bit bricky. Now I choose 4 Dracmon since I bring 13 Tamer in the deck so you can always reduce it to 3 or 2 if you only bring 12 Tamer (bringing 4 is still okay though) since the +2000 DP from the sources is always great. For alternative you can try bring ChuuChuumon so you got more blocker (this is great if you are facing against Xros Heart or other deck that want to hit you early with rookies), Shoutmon BT12 is also not bad. You also must notice that people are bringing in Ekakimon BT12 but just be careful that one doesn’t have save for himself (although you can always save it later from your level 4 save effect).

Champion (Lvl4)

For now I trust 4 Shoutmon King and 4 Damemon to play my tamers and Arresterdramon for the same reason as the purple rookies (you always need the draw and the rush can always help you finish the game). While for Tuwarmon for me it’s quite a bricky card if you have it in the early game but once the enemy start coming out and you need to remove them you can devolve first before evolving to Arresterdramon Superior mode or Omegashoutmon to make it easier for them to remove the enemy’s Digimon. There’s a chance to remove Damemon if you don’t feel like it to gacha your tamer (I already see some people ditch them) since you can discount Tuwarmon evolution from all of your tamer later on. But with my playstyle I would like to play it the highroll if you want to try you can bring Dobermon BT12 for vengeance ess but careful once again like Ekakimon you don’t have save for himself (and worse thing you can’t save 2 like Damemon).

Ultimate (Lvl5)

This is where you can change it a lot even I think I need more time to experiment here. For this decklist I think I use quite the standard one (4 Arresterdramon Superior Mode and 3 Omegashoutmon) but there are some combination I would like to try. Previously I mention Cho-Hakkaimon as a potential change for Omegashoutmon since you can control the board like Omegashoutmon but in exchange of Omegashoutmon Security Attack+1 you can get more draw when you clear your enemy board. Astamon is also a potential good card here even if you can’t digivolve it from the black and red level 4, you can always play them from your tamer’s sources and play another tamer (I think in the early game doing this is always good). But I think overall you should always bring 4 Arresterdramon Superior Mode the rest is up to your playstyle. If you want to play into Quartzmon you better play Astamon more since you can reduce the Digivolution cost.

Mega (Lvl 7)

At this point bringing one is only for lucky charm for me if the times come when I need to evolve my level 5 to Quartzmon. I think you can adjust this to your local tournament. If you have many Red Hybrid, Xros Heart, or heavy tamer or swarming deck related in your locals you can always add more Quartzmon and focus on it.

Tamer

Playing 4 Taiki for consistency you always need more card, this is the first tamer besides Tagiru that you want to have at the field first. When you don’t brick you can play Tagiru later via Shoutmon King or Damemon but always priotize Taiki over other Tamer unless you need it. For now, I bring all the other tamer 3 so the total is 13 tamer, if you want to bring less tamer you can always cut Watchmaker or Amano Yuu to 2 copy.

Option

1 Copy of Calling From the Darkness, easily said the best option for the deck since you can get your Arresterdramon Superior Mode back and other purple Digimon. Since Arresterdramon Superior Mode and Omegashoutmon can’t save themselves and their sources there’s always gonna be a ton of Digimon in your trash when they died. Make sure you only bring Monimon in the Digitama deck if you bring this option for easier activation.

Tournament Report

Swiss 4 Round BO3

W: Win, L: Lose

Round 1 VS Ulforceveedramon X-Antibody (2-0) W W
I don’t think I remember anything else besides the enemy bricking so hard to get the Ulforceveedramon combo done. I just play it slowly but surely by controlling the enemy’s Veemon, although the Leomon from the EX is a bit annoying in the early since he got the memory and draw.

Round 2 VS Beelzemon X-Antibody (2-0) W W
Since the enemy deck rely on swarming the Impmon and hitting security early on, I can get the advantage by getting free tamer from security and controlling the board easily with the Shoutmon sources to destroy 4000 DP below. Although the enemy can also control my board every turn I have more hit with Arresterdramon rush and Arresterdramon Superior Mode end of turn attack.

Round 3 VS BlackWarGreymon X-Antibody (2-0) W W
The first game I thought I already lost when my opponent destroy two of my tamer with BlackWargreymon leaving me with one. But slowly I comeback by playing tamer with my Digimon’s effect and controlling the enemy board back with Arresterdramon Superior Mode. Also my enemy having hard time to make his second mega. The second game my enemy brick and hard play Metalgreymon since I already have one tamer I can easily destroy it with my Omegashoutmon although my Omegashoutmon died with the first check (hitting the enemy’s mega in security) he still having hard time to find rookies and play another Metalgreymon from hand therefore I always lead the game with a memory advantage and finish the game.

Round 4 VS Wargreymon X-Antibody (2-1) W L W
This series probably the most surprising for me because although in the first game I easily control the enemy’s Digimon and manage to finish the game before the Wargreymon can finish me, he comeback easily in the second game by checking all my security with the help of security attack+. Sadly in the second game I am the one with the bricky hand even in the last turn I only have 1 Arresterdramon Superior Mode in hand and 1 Tamer only. If I have more hand I think I can still try to win the game since there are 5 Tamer in my arena after the enemy checking all my security. The final game is very intense since the enemy realize without him playing another tamer or Digimon besides his one beefy Wargreymon I won’t be able to do anything to it. At one point I even hope there’s a tamer coming out from his security so I can control his Digimon. The final moment from this game is when the enemy check all my security and I got my Watchmaker from it and it is my fourth tamer in the field. From there I feel like there is hope for my last turn since the enemy still have three security and 1 Omegamon X-Antibody BT10 in the field. At my last turn I have one Dracmon (he survive since my enemy Omegamon X-Antibody my Arresterdramon Superior Mode) in front and I have all four different Tamers in the field, at this point I can finish the game by hitting with Dracmon and finishing it up with Arresterdramon rush and Arresterdramon Superior Mode end of turn’s effect but then I make a fatal mistake that almost cost me the game. When my Dracmon check the security it’s reveal a X-Antibody option making me got no memory enough to Digixros my rookie and evolve it to Arresterdramon and hit twice with Arresterdramon Superior Mode. I forget that I can hit first with Arresterdramon that I give jamming to check the last two security with Watchmaker effect (Security Attack+1) and then finish the game with Arresterdramon Superior Mode end of turn effect. What I do in the game is I evolve it to Arresterdramon Superior Mode give him blocker and check his security without suspending (end of turn effect) and give him 1 memory therefore I can block his omegamon attack next turn and finish the game with Dracmon in the arena or another DigiXros from hand and Arresterdramon rush next turn. Luckily last turn my enemy forget to hatch and evolve the digitama making this play possible. If I make this mistake and my enemy didn’t make his mistake I would have lost the game. (I still feel so stupid until now)

Closing Thoughts

First of all I think this is a great meta with the diversity of the deck that are competitive and playable, I hope Bandai can maintain this kind of environment for the game (but please stop with the Omegamon Evolution Cup the price is going down like hell). I remind you all that this is still early in the meta and I find that there are more variation you can play for the Hunter deck. Since the enemy are more likely to play one unit only without any other Digimon or even Tamer the Hunter deck might have to find a solution to control the enemy or at least for now devolve it or destroy it with Tuwarmon or Omegashoutmon (Yeah this Hunter deck actually still can control your enemy field even if your enemy want to try one unit Digimon strategy). I might be experimenting a bit with Cho-Hakkaimon or Astamon and since I don’t like the playstyle of Soundbirdmon and the old Yuu Amano from BT10 I don’t think I will touch them (They are still great guys just make sure its suitable for your playstyle). Hopefully I can share a lot more in the future and goodluck for all of you. Don’t forget to follow me at twitter @garryyeung.

Khai: BT12 Beelzemon – This is the right way to trash OPP's Securities.

Invited Author: Khai

Country: Brunei

Introduction

Hi everyone, 

I have recently joined Brunei’s Gamers Tavern Digimon Tourney with a total of 21 players participating and have won the tournament using one of the poster boys of the Digimon World Beelzemon.

A brief introduction, I have played Beelzemon since its first released back in BT2, always putting at least one BT2 SEC Beelzemon in any of my purple decks. Ups and downs of battles the card just couldn’t fit in the meta, but with the intro of EX2 Beelzemon line and supports, the deck became better with its discard pile strategy trashing from deck, cheating out Impmons and Beelzemons, I have won quite a few tournaments with Beelzemon since then. Although the deck and formulas still felt clunky especially with the ongoing meta till BT11, the deck struggled a lot. It was missing its “X Factor”, missing pieces to make it as scary as the Tier 1 decks like BWG X, Xros and more.

It was a struggle except till the new release of BT12 Beelzemon X Antibody support line. The deck can now properly compete with the existing top decks. Although there were a lot of choices I have decided to go for this build:

Decklist featured on Digimonmeta: Deck Information – DIGIMON CARD META (digimonmeta.com)

Match Results BO1:

1st Game: Jesmon X – Win

2nd Game: Mugendramon – Win

3rd Game: R/B Gaiomon – Win

4th Game: BWG X – Win

5th Game: Wargreymon X – Win

I will not explain to much on how the deck works but will break down my choices from BT12:

Impmon X Antibody

 

This card one of the good choices, it allows our Beelzemon discard pile after so many trashing from deck to be more of a Box Deck with our trash becoming a more accessible resource.

On play or when digivolving you can trash an option to return 2 of the best choices Wizard or Demonlord, I would usually choose wizard with the choices of returning Wizardmon or Baalmon to keep on what the deck wants to continue, filling up the discard pile. The "inherited effect" of the Impmon also helps us with trashing from deck.

Beelzemon X Antibody

The main hero of the deck that I have chose to focus on. You will only want to focus on the digivolve ability as that is what the deck has evolved into, the ability has allowed the deck to reach all new heights in battling the deck’s worst match ups by trashing away security. With how the we usually trash our cards from deck it is not impossible to reach to at max 30 cards to trash 3 security which is a big hit to opponents.

One of the toughest match ups for the previous Beelzemon deck had to be BWG X, with its midrange defensive strategy preventing destruction. After including Beelzemon X, my strategy against BWG X was to build up my board state, and also try to discard as much cards to hit that one evolution of Beelzemon X to trash most of their security. With that I will eventually finish with one hit of one my digimons.

Seventh Full Cluster

The main hero of the deck that I have chose to focus on. You will only want to focus on the digivolve ability as that is what the deck has evolved into, the ability has allowed the deck to reach all new heights in battling the deck’s worst match ups by trashing away security. With how the we usually trash our cards from deck it is not impossible to reach to at max 30 cards to trash 3 security which is a big hit to opponents.

One of the toughest match ups for the previous Beelzemon deck had to be BWG X, with its midrange defensive strategy preventing destruction. After including Beelzemon X, my strategy against BWG X was to build up my board state, and also try to discard as much cards to hit that one evolution of Beelzemon X to trash most of their security. With that I will eventually finish with one hit of one my digimons.

Also to share one of my favorite combos of the deck:

Calling of the darkness to return Beelzemon X if in trash or any purple choices. Baalmon to revive any of the 2 Beelzemon to field for the Beelzemon X to evolve on. Also to note no one want to delete a Baalmon if they don’t want to see a Beelzemon coming.

To finish up this article, I would definitely recommend players to try out this deck. I will continue to experiment builds to atleast include the EX2 cards in the future. I am very much excited for the new ST Beelzemon that will be released soon!

DigimonMeta: 1st Place Evo Cup Post-BT12 with Red Hybrid

With fresh BT-12 cards I went home after work on a Friday evening and put together a Hybrid Red deck for my local Digimon Evo Cup, and was fortunate enough to win this 32-player tournament. 

With the games fresh in my mind I would like to share a little bit about this winning decklist with you, and the matchups that I went up against today!

 

Decklist

I did very much enjoy the Digimon Frontier anime season, and I liked the mechanics of hybrid Digimons. Being so fresh in the BT-12 meta, I felt that this deck was not overly complicated and could perform very decently in the early meta. 

My winning decklist. Big shoutout to our dear friend DTCGReview for featuring it and Kouriten SG for hosting the tournament.
 

LV3 Digimons: I played only 9 copies of red LV3 Digimon, and opted out of the [BT4-009] Flamemon since he did not have any inherited effects. I ran a bit light on LV3s as I felt that they did not provide a lot of value during mid-games, and I would only want a copy or two to kickstart my turn-1. To supplement this, I play 2 copies of Boko and Neemon which totalled my rookie base to 13 cards, which I felt was healthy. 

LV4 Digimons: I maximised on all the available hybrid digimons that I can use, so 4 copies of BT12 Agunimon and BurningGreymon, as well as 4 copies of BT7 BurningGreymon for very important board control. I did not include the BT7 Agunimon as I felt that the BT11 Birdramon offered a lot more, having [Blocker] and an important inherited effect at the same play/digivolution cost made more sense. Since I only play 2 Birdramons, they behave like tech cards and do not cause any problems with flexibility digivolving from my tamers. I usually use Birdramon on my BT7 Flamemon, giving this deck a bit of surprise stall power while making good use of Flamemon's inherited effect.

LV5 Digimons: I play only 6 copies of LV5 Aldamons, and mainly the new one for his ability to digivolve directly from tamer. However, I am lately convinced that the older BT7 Aldamon still serves a very important role, so I might adjust the numbers slightly.

LV6 Digimons: No surprises here, only maximum copies of the new Kaisergreymon and a single copy of the old Kaisergrey for [Blitz]. The new Kaisergreymon is undoubtedly the MVP of this deck, as he plays the role of both board control and OTK. With BT7 Takuya underneath, he would easily dish out 3 security checks at 15000 DP, deleting almost any Digimon when digivolving. In addition, he returns Takuya to play when he is deleted, closing the loop of an attack cycle.

Options: 2 copies of Atomic Inferno which is indispensable for the aggression this deck needs, and 2 copies of FireDrake Strike for efficient board control. As the deck was supposed to move fast, I did not include any heavy-cost option cards to avoid giving away too much memory and risk losing my board state advantage.

[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

Strategy

I try never to play tamers by paying their cost. Whenever possible, I build up a BT7 Flamemon into a LV4 (hopefully Birdramon) or even into LV5 if I have 2 or more tamers in my hand which I can play efficiently using Flamemon's and Birdramon's inherited effects. Otherwise, Neemon would also be a great way to play my tamer for free. 

Playing them this way is not only efficient, but also serves up target on the field for my opponent to spend their resources on, and sometimes allowing me to counterattack using BT7 BurningGreymon, KaiserGreymon, or FireDrake Strike.

Once tamers are on the field, they become easy to loop. With Neemon in play, I can digivolve my tamer into LV4 hybrid and attack without worry of deletion since Neemon recycles them from trash. An ideal attack comes from digivolving my tamer into the new BT12 BurningGreymon, as it eventually becomes a 10000 DP Digimon and activates Takuya's inherited [SecurityAttack+1] or memory +2 effects. 

I rarely digivolve and attack as Agunimon since it has much lower DP and will only play a Flamemon on deletion, which I do not always have ample of. Furthermore, Agunimon's inheritable effect is far too attractive for me to ignore.

At LV5 though, it is often enough to stop at BT7 Aldamon since he will have +4000 DP when digivolving which, when adding with Takuya's +2000 DP, makes it a 14000 DP Digimon. Depending on how safe I deem my opponent's security, I usually stop and swing at Aldamon followed by FireDrake for board control, instead of moving all the way into Kaisergreymon in order to preserve my hand with enough solutions for the next turns. In a hybrid game, Takuya can digivolve directly into Kaisergreymon so there is really no need to waste too much of your hand's resources too early.

Matchups 

Game 1: Hybrid Red (2) vs (1) Dukemon 

I was not well prepared against the new Dukemon deck, and has not gotten the new card effects memorised, and this was made worse by fact that my opponent being a seasoned Dukemon player.

All I know about my opponent's deck is that being Dukemon, it will delete my Digimons while digivolving up into Dukemon. I played by a notion that he will delete around 3000 DP at LV3-LV4, and around 6000 DP at LV5-LV6. So I tried to manage the memory and board state to reduce unnecessary damage.

I lost a game to an excellently timed digivolution sequence to Dukemon Crimson Mode, deleting my Digimon which added 3 cards into my 7-card trash, making it just enough to trash 2 of my remaining security for the final swing using Takato's [Blitz].

Otherwise, I was able to win the other 2 games mostly by swinging for 3 security checks using either Kaisergreymon or Atomic Inferno, and otherwise just by having a slightly more robust hand as my game plays on. 

Game 2: Hybrid Red (2) vs (1) Mastemon 

In the first round of this matchup I did not know which deck my opponent was playing, seeing a purple Digitama and an Eyesmon did not reveal much about the deck. But when my first security check revealed a Flame Hellscythe which then deleted my Digimon and summoned a MagnaAngemon I guessed it would be something along the Mastemon/Ophanimon line.

I lost my first game, given too much advantage to his strong hand and security. There is little I could do with Mirei on board and Tailmon digivolving into Angewomon for 1-cost, playing a Ladydevimon for free and subsequently Jogress into Mastemon and playing another MagnaAngemon for free which then digivolves into Ophanimon, all in one turn destroying my board and recovering his security.

But on his other 2 games both his hand and security was not so ideal. By hard-playing a MagnaAngemon for 7-cost and not drawing a LV3 for one to two turns allowed me to setup my tamers and solutions to remove his LV5 Digimon, and holding off attacking his security to avoid giving him too much early advantage until I have my board ready to end everything within a turn or two. 

Game 3: Hybrid Red (2) vs (0) GrandisKuwagamon 

An unfortunate matchup pitting me against my dear friend, I won the first game easily and ungracefully thanks to his incredibly broken hand (2 LV5 and 3 LV6 Grandis). In the second game, he got the game in control but when he mistakenly attacked my LV5 Aldamon that is inheriting Birdramon, the game swang into my advantage as I was then able to put my BT12 Takuya tamer which guaranteed me a starting 3 memory, which I then used to digivolve my 3-cost Takuya into Kaiser for 3 checks and finishing the game with my Flamemon from nursery.

But nevertheless, I had an Atomic Inferno in hand which could grant me a similar 3 checks using Aldamon even if he was not deleted by Grandis and memory choked at 1, albeit the slightly larger risk of checking without Aldamon's inherited option security nullification.

Game 4: Hybrid Red (2) vs (1) Bloomlord Quartzmon 

I have heard some stories about the horribly lethal synergy between Bloomlord and Quartzmon, but being my first time playing against it I was not fascinated by the fact that this deck was piloted by one of the most seasoned green player in Singapore.  

I lost my 1 game against an excellent setup of double Bloomlords and a Quartzmon in a single turn, filling his board with a hoard of large Digimons while reducing my security to 1, and not to mention the horror of having all my tamers and Digimons suspended. But otherwise, I was able to win my first game by being slightly faster, and my second by luck since he wasn't able to draw into any LV4 Digimons.

Since a Bloomlord deck will tend to digivolve outside of nursery, using the Ajatarmon/Sunflowmon/Redvegiemon combo, I try not to waste my BT7 BurningGreymons and making sure that I clear up those Sunflowmon and Redvegiemons quickly, and using FireDrake Strike on the 7000 DP Ajatarmon, possible as long as I have any LV4 hybrid inheriting Takuya.

Game 5: Hybrid Red (2) vs (0) Hybrid Red 

A mirror match in my final matchup, which I am very happy to play against given all the variables of new decks coming from BT12. A mirror match would mean that the outcome of the game hinges entirely on my understanding of my deck, and developing strategic countermeasures. This is not difficult given how fresh BT12 is, and how straightforward most Red Hybrid builds are. 

I did not have a good starting hand on both my games, not drawing any LV3 Digimons. In my first game, my starting hand was marred by 2 copies of Atomic Inferno, which took me a few turns to overcome and after I continuously failed to draw into any Kaisergreymon, I gave up on that thought and setup my board with a LV4 hybrid, cleaning up my opponent's board while slightly choking memory to make sure that he cannot delete my LV4 easily during his turn. When he returns the turn to me at 3 starting memory, I digivolved into Aldamon at 1-cost, and used the 2 Atomic Inferno from my starting hand to swing 4 security checks at 20000 DP, and the board state swang to my favor.

In my second game, my opponent drew into a broken hand and when he hard-casted his LV5 Aldamon the game pretty much ended for him.

This site uses english-translated cards from digimoncard.dev.

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

 

This site uses english-translated cards from digimoncard.dev.

BlackWarGreymon X in BT11

Blackwargreymon X is horrible. This deck is winning everywhere in the early weeks of BT-11, and today we take a quick look at its sheer strength in this meta.  

Ultimate defence 

If one word describes Blackwargreymon X, it is defence. 

Blackwargreymon X , or BWGX in short, puts immense pressure onto your opponent's board. Like Magnamon X it can redirect an attack to itself, and similar to Dexmon it will delete your opponent's lowest cost Digimon during the start of their turn. These 2 effects together stresses your opponent's board as they will need to put up something larger than 13000 DP just to overcome BWGX, but will be deleted the next turn if they spend all their resources on that building that 1 Digimon. 

Though many would believe that it is possible to bypass BWGX's first effect as long as they attack with their lesser DP Digimons, this can be circumvented when BWGX inherits [BT8-064] Greymon's [Blocker] effect. 

Correctly built, BWGX will block 2 attacks every turn, which in many cases will be all your opponent can pull off. And 1 of your opponent's Digimon will always be deleted at the start of their turn. 

BWGX's new LV4 digivolution in BT-11 makes him one of the most unbreakable Digimon in the game right now. The new Greymon X allows BWGX to trash an X-Antibody to prevent itself from leaving play, hence immune to deletion, return to hand/deck. His only weakness would be 0 DP, Chaos Degrade and de-digivolve (but de-digivolving him into a LV6 Blackwargreymon will not break him), but with the new MetalGreymon X both these weaknesses will be circumvented as well (for a turn at least).

Meanwhile, this new Metalgreymon X also grants BWGX a lot of aggression, allowing him to trash opponent's security almost too easily.

This entire digivolution line as a whole, builds BWGX into a very solid Digimon that has so much board presence yet unbreakable. And since this deck plays X-Antibody Digimons extensively, it is very robust and quick thanks to Cool Boy and all the 0-cost digivolutions.

Without forgetting the old BWG 

And all these strength without considering that the old BT8-070 Blackwargreymon is still as strong as ever. In a BT-10/11 meta that is very much tamer-centric (thanks to DigiXros), BWG's digivolution effect become invaluable. 

With an X-Antibody in his digivolution cards, BWG can attack twice, digivolving into BGWX during his second attack, and then reboots during your opponent's turn to delete 1 of their Digimon (and maybe trash their security if you also inherit LV5 Metalgreymon). This is sick.

 

And Hades Force the icing on the cake and Yuuya level-up the defence.

As if BT-11 hasn't buffed BWGX enough, they introduced the new option card Hades Force, which has so much flexibility in deletion. To put it simply, Hades Force is hands down the greatest solution to any tamer-based deck, allowing the player to delete several tamers at one go!

With a BWG (with X-Antibody) on board, using Hades Force will delete around 3-4 of your opponent's tamers or a number of Digimons (anything that sums to 12 cost), and then allowing your BWG to attack after that, digivolving into BWGX. 

 

Yuuya is a very important tamer for the deck, but do not recommend to put many, 2 would be enough. Yuuya will increase the DP for BlackWargreymon and protect it from option cards. This is the final point that makes BlackWargreymonX untouchable when it has perfect digivolution combo. 

A sample decklist

And here we have a sample decklist that has easily topped the locals. Do check out more BWGX decklists at our BT-11 Decks Section!

 

This site uses english-translated cards from digimoncard.dev.

BT11 Purple Minervamon – Mervamon Loop

Introducing the new purple loop Minervamon-Mervamon, this is an upgrade version of BT10 Minervamon loop.

What is happening in BT-11?

BT-11 is a very interesting meta so far, there are many competitive yet fun decks that can be played this time around. We have seen the potentially tier-0 BlackWargreymon deck, an upgraded Blue Flare, a very strong new Xros Heart deck, the fun KingSukamon concept, and new support for Bagra's Army. Meanwhile, Rina's Ulforce deck is still finding its way through optimisation and Mirei's Mastemon deck was able to scrape some wins in tournaments.

In BT-10, the Minervamon profile is considered tier-2 because she hasn't all the support she needs. But with Mervamon in BT-11 the requirements now seem complete.

Much like other purple Cerberus loop decks, this deck's tempo is quite fast and rushy. With the correct Digitama, BT2 Gabumon and Eyesmon Scatter Mode, the draw and trash happens very quickly.

Now we have Mervamon that can be played when Minervamon is deleted. Mervamon [On Play] effect plays a purple LV4 Digimon from trash, and 2 if DigiXros-ed (a simple condition). For synergy, I have included 4 copies of [BT11-078] Soulmon to accompany her.

Soulmon with [Retaliation] gains [Rush] thanks to Mervamon's [Both Turns] effect. Seeing Soulmon in battle, your opponent would not let their Digimon be in suspended state.

This deck also plays 2 copies of Lucemon Falldown Mode to counter decks that uses important tamers, or against Digimons that refuse to suspend such as with [Reboot]. Dexmon is a backup plan against Xros Heart or Blue Flare, but really against DigiXros decks a standing Mervamon that keeps reviving blocker Devimon can be quite annoying.

The good thing about this deck is that Digimons are never afraid to be deleted, as well as not relying too much on tamers. It can counter a good number of decks in the current meta (such as BlackWargreymon X). 

This site uses english-translated cards from digimoncard.dev.

Unlimited Loop Zero!

When the new SEC tamer Rina Shinomiya was revealed, players immediately realised a certain synergy with UlforceVeedramon Zero. Today we take a quick look at this almost illegal combo!

Unlimited Loop Zero!

The heart of this combo are 2 cards only: [P-048] UlforceVeedramon Zero and [BT11-112] Rina Shinomiya. 

This combo is so lethally simple that it sounds wrong. Have both Ulforce and Rina setup in play. When Ulforce attacks, suspend Rina to activate Ulforce's [When Digivolved] effect which will unsuspend both Ulforce and Rina. Repeat.  

If you play Rina after Ulforce Zero, then Ulforce will gain protection from [Evade] when checking security or getting through big blockers. 

The only visible drawback of this combo lies in requiring a decent trash size (from Ulforce's effect in order to unsuspend itself and Rina). This can easily be supported by purple base such [ST6-03] Gabumon and [EX2-040] Devidramon, which will digivolve into Ulforce through the new purple/blue LV5 [BT11-085] WaruSeadramon. This entire digivolution line is however quite expensive.

But even without resorting to unconventional builds, Zero's digivolution line gives plenty of trashing power, as well as tamer cards such as [EX1-066] Analog Boy.

But will this build faster than meta OTK decks like GranKuwagamon X? or rush decks like the poisonous Xros Heart? 

Setting up both Ulforce and Rina (assuming she doesn't pop up free from security) would cost at least 11 memory, and this does not include playing cards such as AnalogBoy to prepare your trash pool. In comparison, the fastest Grankuwagamon X deck needs only 5 memory for 6 security checks. 

So I think not.

 

But more importantly, for players in Asia, the Zero Digimon line are still on official ban-list. Tough luck! 

 

This site uses english-translated cards from digimoncard.dev.

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.

Is Xros Heart 2.0 better than 1.0?

Xros Heart has been dominating the tier list since BT-10, with many succumbing to its sheer aggressiveness and efficiency. However, the BT-10 Xros Heart roster was mostly considered as incomplete due to lack of bigger Digimons such as OmegaShoutmon, ZekeGreymon, and X7. 

In BT-11 we finally have a much more complete roster, but is Xros Heart 2.0 truly better than 1.0?

A quick summary of Xros Heart 1.0

In BT-10 Xros Heart (aka 1.0), the game plan is very close to rookie rush. In addition to the 12 copies of LV3 Digimons, Dorurumon and Ballistamon can be played by tamers Angie Hinomoto and Jeremy Tsurgi. Each of these Digimons will swing security and become DigiXros material for Shoutmon X4 (for draw power) and X5 (for aggression), both to inherit Shoutmon's [Rush] effect.

The abundant tamers provide necessary draw power (from Angie and Mikey) and memory (from Jeremy) to sustain heavy DigiXros-ing, but the true MVP here is undoubtedly Mikey (Kudou Taiki) solely for his ability to use materials under your tamers as DigiXros materials, which helps to sustain multiple single-turn DigiXroses into X4 and X5.

As all the Digimons in this deck are somewhat lacking in board control, especially against bigger Digimons, Sunrise Buster and Dexmons are usually included for this episode. In a way, Sunrise Buster becomes an essential component of this deck thanks to its compatibility with the sheer number of tamers in deck.

An example winning decklist for Xros Heart 1.0

Xros Heart 2.0: a different mechanic?

In BT-11 we finally have the new OmniShoutmon and ZeigGreymon cards, Running both cards in the same deck would mean a different composition from Xros Heart 1.0 (since there is simply no space for these new digivolutions). 

Judging from their effects, these cards focus on board control rather than the aggressive rush mechanic from 1.0.   

The new Shoutmon DX is an expensive DigiXros between the 2 cards above, requiring a huge 7 cost even with both materials. However, if we look in another perspective we see a 7 cost card that deletes an opponent's LV5 while freezing another for a turn, while setting you up for a bigger X7 in later turn. 

In a way, DX also helps gel the odd pieces of Taiki's Xros Heart with Kiriha's Blue Flare roster, since the deck may not have space to run the incompatible digivolution lines of Shoutmon and Greymon. With DX, we can run either a Xros Heart or Blue Flare as base, and throw in the other OmniShoutmon or ZeigGreymon to make things work.  

And why play 2.0 if not for Shoutmon X7, BT-11's new badass fusion Digimon. Shoutmon X7 is essentially 2 cost to play when you DigiXros with 6 materials, and deletes an opponent's Digimon when played. Apart from that, his list of effects are very similar to the old X5 (assuming both are ideally DigiXrosed), having [SecurityAttack+1], [Blocker], [Rush], [Piercing], and [Reboot].

So in other words, in X7 we are paying an additional 2 cost for his deletion effect. 2 cost is too much to pay when we are doing multi-attacks in 1.0, but cheap when we need board control.  

 

And since 2.0 will break free from the chains of Xros Heart 1.0 and Blue Flare 1.0, it has a new supporting tamer [Taiki & Kiriha & Nene]. This card is sort of a union of effect from all of BT-10's tamers, having Taiki's and Kiriha's effect of pushing materials from tamers, Angie's draw power, and Jeremy's memory gain. 

By consolidating several tamer effects into a single card, 2.0 may try to deviate from 1.0 in terms of reliance on large number of tamers. In a way, this card becomes a superior version of BT10's Taiki and Kiriha, and may well find its way to replace them in those deck variants. 

 

Is 2.0 superior to 1.0?

While the older 1.0 has seen huge success in competitive gameplay, it may begin to succumb to several decks in 2.0, namely the new Blackwargreymon and Phoenixmon decks. Blackwargreymon can cripple 1.0's huge reliance on tamers while Phoenixmon's sheer number of blockers can slow down offence, and the generic 1.0 deck may lack deletion cards to turn board state to their favour.

2.0 meanwhile can be tad too slow against many other decks, but trades off speed for better board control. This deck throws bigger Digimons at your opponent (such as DX and X7) and forces your opponent to react to them, and such decks typically can be more robust against a larger variety of matchups. 

Personally I would feel that 2.0 frees up more deck space for cards that counter a variety of matchups, which is important given the many new decks and enhancements coming in BT-11 such as Blackwargreymon, Ulforce, Bagramon, and Ragnamon. A largely linear and predictable deck such as Xros Heart 1.0 may very well see its last days coming September end. 

 

This site uses english-translated cards from digimoncard.dev.
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