Security Control with Meiko

In this X-Antibody meta, there are a few obvious winners, the obvious being Alphamon and Grandiskuwagamon. The one thing in common between the tier-1 decks and the other popular decks in this meta (such as Wargremon-X) is that they run the OTK mechanic.

A counter to the widespread OTK in BT-09 is the security control deck, often including [BT5-044] Sakuyamon and Dexmon as their core cards. Many play these cards in a traditional Zoe-Hybrid Control deck.

Today we take a look at a slightly different variant that I feel works just as well.

The anti-meta: Sakuyamon and Dexmon

Before moving into the secret sauce, let's take a quick look at 2 of the core cards. 

[BT5-044] Sakuyamon is easily the most anti-meta card in BT-09 if played correctly: play her the turn before your opponent would push out their Digimon from the breeding area to avoid an OTK scenario, even if it mean hard-playing her to the field. It doesn't really matter if you pass too much memory to your opponent since this being a security control deck, should give ample solutions against whatever they put on their field (Dexmon being one).

And then there's [BT9-112] Dexmon, which obliterates your opponent's board when they are not being careful. While Dexmon may not always be able to clear your opponent's board (especially when de-digivolving a LV6 X-Antibody back into their normal LV6 form) he can still come out for cheap when your opponent has a decently large board size and has a strong board presence.

Another special mention that both Sakuyamon and Dexmon can easily cripple an opponent's Armor deck, since Sakuyamon slows down their tempo and Dexmon easily wipes off a board of rookies and Armor LV4 Digimons.

The Meiko engine

Meiko Mochizuki has a 1-card searching effect, and gains +1 memory whenever a purple and yellow Digimon is played (even during your opponent's turn), which works well with [BT9-074] Meicoomon. 

When Meicoomon is hit from security, it will be played and by suspending some Meiko tamers you may gain enough memory to bring your opponent's turn to an abrupt end.

Meanwhile, [BT9-076] Maycrackmon: Vicious Mode has good synergy with Flame Hellscythe. By playing Flame Hellscythe to revive a Maycrackmon, you can hit 1 of your opponent's Digimon with a total of -9000 DP, easily eliminating most LV5 Digimons, in addition to also deleting 1 of your opponent's LV3 Digimon.

With a few Meiko tamers in play, the cost of this play will also be reduced.

Recovery

A security control deck is not complete without recovery, and we can play [BT1-107] Holy Wave and [BT4-105] Tactical Retreat!! for that recovery consistency.

These option cards generate tonnes of value when they are triggered from security, but may be slightly more cumbersome when played from hand.

Holy Wave is a 6-cost option card when played normally, which is very expensive. However, being played in security control format and the Dexmon/Sakuyamon bargaining chips in hand, giving your opponent more memory to build their board won't necessarily be a bad idea as long as what their board setup timing is still under your control.

As for Tactical Retreat!!, this can be a great card to send your Meicoomon back to your security. Great value comes from sending a suspended Meicoomon (after attacking security and surviving) back to your security so that it can just pop back out when your opponent's Digimon swings at it again, potentially triggering your Meiko tamers for additional memory gains.

Tactical Retreat is also amazing with the new security rookie Digimons, which you can also send back to your security when needed. When popped from security, [P-068] Herissmon can slow down security checks while [P-071] Impmon can play a purple LV3 Digimon from trash, both are added to your hand afterwards.

Additional synergies

The purple [BT3-096] Mimi Tachikawa is also an amazing card in a deck with so many option cards, granting excellent value as your game progresses. In addition, she also makes good deterrence against your opponent's X-Antibody option card, which would likely end their turn or limit their play since you would gain memory.

The purple dual-tamer card [BT6-091] Sora & Mimi is also a good card for the very needed drawing power for security control decks. In addition, this card puts pressure on your opponent's board without any LV3 or LV4 Digimons, and if they do consistently play a LV3/4 onto their board then that would work in favor of your Meicrackmon, Hellsycthe, and Dexmon.  

 

[BT7-107] Calling From the Darkness is also a great for pulling your Dexmon or other purple Digimons from trash, which is most likely there due to Meiko's search, your security, or trashed my Meicrackmon's effect. 

 

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

BT9 Security Control: A Deck-out Game

Still remember the BT7/BT8 security control deck which focused on yellow Zoe recovery and multiple hit the opponent's security with Susanoomon to end the game. Thing has changed when Bandai ban the Mega Digimon Fusion option card, digivolves into Susanoomon is no longer a cheap step as it was.

Moving forward to BT9 meta, where many decks run OTK (One Turn Kill) strategy, the Security Control did an improvement to adapt with this fast-pace meta.

In BT9, there are something that are different with older meta such as:

  • The draw power is too fast where there are many 0-cost/1-cost same level digivolving into X-antibody Digimon, causes deck-out faster. On top of that, with the usage of Coolboy, the main character that helps X-antibody decks, the draw-cards happens even faster than expected.
  • There are many cards that can help to avoid Digimon from being deleted by effect or reducing DP. Here are some examples:

Those protections trigger Security Control deck creator to think carefully when choosing the option cards for the deck.

The BT9 tier-1 decks, Alphamon black and GrandisKuwagamon green are the best candidates for Security Control to find the strategy to counter them. Alphamon black has a very strong protection shield from its LV5 DoruGreymon and LV6 Ouryumon while green GrandisKuwagamon now has to borrow the red A Delicate Plan to avoid getting deleted, or return to hand or deck from opponent's card effect when it does multiple security attacks.

BT9 Security Control

The yellow Zoe recovery line is still a vital in Security control deck to pay cheapest cost to "recovery+1" and draw card when there is digivolving. And now, the BT9 Sec Con has a very strong card that bring them to higher level of controlling/halting the game, it is Dexmon

For the meta of Coolboy and many tamers in use, the Dexmon sometimes appears in the battle for free. This is a game-changer for Security Control when not many OTK deck have option cards to destroy Dexmon (except for the Security Control deck itself). Dexmon "On Play" triggers "De-digivolve 1" to all opponent's Digimon and delete all of opponent's LV4 or lower Digimon. On top of that, at the end of opponent's turn, delete all of opponent's Digimon with lowest play cost. This effect makes the opponent always has to throw out a lv3 or a lv4 Digimon that is available in their hand to avoid deleting their big boss in the battle. We normally see 3 or 4 copies of Dexmon included in BT9 security control deck.

Option Cards

There are many new option cards that are available to use for Sec Con. To defend, now it is not about Gaia Force or Atomic Blaster anymore because these are not effective against many meta decks. These days we see more cards that their effects would  return the opponent's Digimon to hand/deck or security stack like Chaos Degrade, Cocytus Breath, Ground Fang or Flame Hellscythe.

If the opponent's Digimon with multiple "security attack" or can "unsuspend many times" hit these cards in security stack, it would be return to hand/deck or security stack, the attack will end. 

A good security control game would be able to halt the game, control the board with Dexmon and option cards, do "recovery" with Zoe line or Ophanimon Falldown mode or Holy Wave or Tacticle Retreat till the opponent deck out. Else, we still see there is 1 copy of Susanoomon to save the game sometimes if there is enough memory to digivolve into him and end the game in the same turn. Besides, Susanoomon helps to prevent you from deck out by returning 10 cards that are Tamers or [hybrid] form Digimon from trash or hand to the bottom of your deck in any order.

A Delicate Plan

A Delicate Plan is the best card to counter whatever surprise things in the security stack. With only 1-cost to play and should be easy to draw from the massive draw power in BT9 meta, sometimes 1 or 2 copies of it would be enough for the deck.

And recently there are many duo-colour tamer cards such as Tai & Hikari (red & yellow) or Yamato & Sora (red & blue), or the BT8 Hiro tamer that has no restriction in color to be used for any Digimon. Using a Delicate Plan in the deck is a good solution to counter Security Control for OTK deck.

Sample decks

Below are some sample deck profiles for reference

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

BT6 Meta: A Tweaking Security Control Deck

Invited Article | Author: Louie Aaron (Philippines)
Youtube Channel :UMR Gaming Channel

With the dominance of Rush-OTK decks (some of which with Delicate Plan tech), Security Control decks have been struggling to rise at the top of the BT-06 meta. Thus, certain tweaks should be done to maintain its viability against the most dominant BT-06 meta decks as possible. Few of the things that should be addressed for the Security Control deck are the Jesmon-Delicate Plan OTK combo and Gabumon – Bond of Friendship (BOF) Rookie Rush attacks.

The picture above is my decklist for the Security Control Deck (inspired from a master tamer named Misao from Japan), which I had used last July 3, 2021, in a local tournament (appreciation to Arken Hobby Center for hosting). I believe the deck was built considering all the existing BT-06 meta decks out there. I had prepared the deck specifically for the Jesmon-Delicate Plan OTK combo and Gabumon – BOF decks, which are some of the most formidable decks used in the area. I will just discuss some of the key cards which secured my wins against Jesmon and Gabumon – Bond of Friendship decks.

Some of the most important cards in this deck, aside from the typical core cards in a Security Control Deck, are the Mekanorimon and Craniamon. Mekanorimon was added to prevent quick depletion of my security pile from rookie rush attacks of the Gabumon BOF or Agumon BOC. Moreover, you already know the reason of adding Craniamon to the deck – removal prevention. However, Craniamon can be removed from the field through minus DP mechanics and bounce-to-hand cards. Although you all should just be vigilant for the minus DP mechanics and Raddle Star (if you have 3 or more Digimons in play), as you can just play Craniamon again in field after the opponent utilizes its bounce-to-hand options such as Cocytus Breath. Of course, observe the game board conditions before hard-playing the Craniamon.

Next key cards added are Gigadramon and Megidramon, these are interesting cards added mainly for cheap utilization of memory (i.e., digivolution from Gigadramon to Craniamon for lower memory cost than hard-playing Craniamon itself into the field) and situational milling of opponent’s deck (i.e., thru digivolution effect of Megidramon from Gigadramon) as for potential opponent deck-out. Megidramon has been vital in winning against Lilithmon Loop and Jesmon-OTK decks by deck-out. This tech is also helpful for Security Control mirror match-ups, as you can manipulate the turns until you can win against the opponent through deck-out

Last but not the least, the addition of Salamon in the deck provides a situational recovery upon deletion (if conditions are met) and extra draw upon digivolution from the yellow digitama. The addition of Sakuyamon in the deck should not be forgotten as it is the essential card to prevent OTK from Jesmon and other red boss cards. Even with the deletion of Sakuyamon by Jesmon thru Judgment of the Blade option, Jesmon cannot perform its OTK attacks even with Delicate Plan. Moreover, Jesmon can be deleted from play thru removal options after its turn – which is, of course, the specialty of Security Control Decks.

Match-up

Here are the match-ups against my Security Control Deck for the last July 3 local tournament:

Round 1 vs. Purple Lilithmon Loop Deck: Win 2-1

This has been the closest match that I have played against, as I had only won by deck-out with my opponent’s misplay on digivolution into Omnimon Zwart without using Fuse into Ultimate Digimon option. Other than that, the opponent cannot do rush attacks with his rookie digimons due to Mekanorimon present in play. And removal options were utilized as soon as his Level 5 Digimon was raised from the hatching area. I would say Ginkakumon Promote is really dangerous to play with, especially in Lilithmon Loop Decks.

Round 2 vs. Red Jesmon-OTK Deck: Win 2-0

I had won the 2 matches against the Jesmon-OTK deck thru playing Mekanorimon and Craniamon in the field and subsequently removing all the Digimons that can potentially evolve into Jesmon. Unfortunately, Sakuyamon stayed either with the security pile or with the bottom cards of the deck. Mekanorimon is a very good card against potential Sistermon-Hackmon rookie rush attacks, as all of his Sistermon Blancs and Noirs and Hackmons cannot do anything but only watch Mekanorimon blocking their paths in the opposing field. Moreover, it is fortunate that the Jesmon player is void of any Judgment of the Blade option in his deck. Thus, I can confidently play Mekanorimon, Gigadramon, and Craniamon in the field without worry.

Round 3 vs. Red Jesmon-OTK Deck: Win 2-1

This was where Sakuyamon shines the brightest, as it prevented the potential OTK attacks of Jesmon from the hatching area. He had no choice but to raise the Jesmon from the hatching area to prevent waste of resource, which was consequently removed from the field after its turn by a removal option (cannot remember the option card). Moreover, he also had no copy of any Judgment of the Blade option in his deck – same as the Jesmon in the previous round) which gives me the liberty to play Mekanorimon and Craniamon without worry. Also, I had won the game thru deck-out by one and only Megidramon.

Round 4 vs. Blue Ancient Garuru-Gabumon BOF Deck: Win 2-1

This was the most exhausting game to play against, as I was defeated by the opponent due to rookie rush attacks followed by Gabumon BOF warp digivolution and Lobomon spirit digivolution to finish the game. However, Mekanorimon was crucial to the games that I have won as it prevents any rookie rush attacks from the Gabumon BOF player. I gradually exhausted my opponent’s resources by playing Mekanorimon in the field and continuously playing any recovery cards that I have drawn every turn. A bit of luck was added in the final game of this round, as I had checked an Iron-fisted Onslaught to delete his attacking AncientGarurumon in play. Moreover, Salamon and MagnaAngemon were not deleted during their security attacks, with them finishing the game together with Omnimon Zwart Defeat played from security.

Closing Statement

Security Control is still a viable deck in BT-06 meta, typically struggling with Rush-OTK decks. However, I can say that Security Control is a very flexible deck which will be always a highly-tiered deck in the future booster sets. Different Security Control deck builds are expected to compete with the most dominant decks for past, present, and future meta of Digimon Card Game.

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