Tag: #yellow

[EN] Dr Zaius: 1st Place Ultimate Cup Europe with Yellow Hybrid ft Venusmon

Invited Author: Dr Zaius (Juan)

Country: Europe

Introduction

Thanks to DigimonMeta for inviting me to write the article. My name is Juan, better known as DrZaius and I´ve been consistently playing the european online events since I started playing back in BT5. I got some success, like tops in Regionals and Ultimate Cups, won a Digi-Fest and the previous European Online DC-1. This time I managed to win the latest European Ultimate Cup held by RaidNTrade with a deck I couldn't take to the big events: Yellow Hybrids. 

A few weeks ago from the moment I write this, I won the DC-1 with the Xros Heart deck, which I took since the beginning of the BT10 format and I harvested a really big streak of wins in locals, also I considered myself one of the best Alphamon players in Europe, giving even ideas to players like Utsu from France about the deck who got success with it. I felt really sure about my skills with any of the two decks but then the banlist was announced and this Ultimate Cup had it applied, so I was running out of ideas. 

With Alpha and Xros Heart gone, the format basically made MetalGarurumon X a nearly tier-0 strategy. Since I didn´t have the promo cards the deck runs, and I would only need them for one single tournament, I decided to return to control decks. As I expected about half of the tournament being Metal X, the best choice was to lock them from winning by controlling Venusmon. 

My friends and me were discussing about Ophanimon Loop, but I also expected a big amount of Security Control decks, since this metacall was pretty obvious. Ophanimon Loop, as Mastemon does, die by deckout to SC, but hybrids don´t. SC is historically proven to be bad against hybrid decks. From my point of view, you play a bad deck with good removal when playing SC, but Yellow Hybrids is a good deck with worse removal. I had a previous version of the deck with 4 Sunrise Busters, so I only needed to make a few changes to the original version.

My only concerns were two things: Jesmon GX, which was the worst matchup to face by the deck, due to its floatability; and having some draws between rounds. I am the kind of player that likes the grind game and plays better under pression, but in an online event you need to play fast and wasting time when having a slow opponent can just cost you a whole round. I got pretty lucky of ending most rounds 2-0. 

Click into image for link to decklist.

Decklist

The Digi-Eggs: 

As this format is still pretty fast and aggressive, Upamon fits better to be at 4 copies. I left one Cupimon just in case I found a D-Reaper deck in any round. You go full-aggro with Rapidmon and need to get more cards in order to have a quick game, since it is unbeatable if it gathers Gatekeeper + 6 material Mother. Also having the fifth Digi-Egg makes you able to play longer against a control deck.

The Tamers: 

This is the most important part of the deck. Back in time in BT7-BT8 formats, most tamers were not active during most part of the game, with the exception of BT1´s TK Takaishi. TK is still one of the best cards in the game because of the consistency it provides, the memory setting and the information you have about your security, which is really helpful when taking decisions. I run 4 copies because the event had mulligan, and its the card you always want to open with. Then 3 copies of Zoe Orimoto for extra consistency. In the previous versions, consistency was an issue and Zoe solved most games, since you had to waste TK searches in order to get the hybrids. Now you have multiple ways to increase your resources and get better cards in the security stack.

The rest of the tamers are easier to explain: 2 Cody, 2 TK & Kari and 3 copies of Tai & Kari. Cody and Tai & Kari have the main goal of making you have 4 memories. 4 is a very important number in this deck, since most of our powerplays cost 4 memories: Shakkoumon, Tamers, Venusmon, Rapidmon… It´s nearly impossible to play around Tai & Kari tamer because most decks cannot afford to wait for a turn to attack, due to the danger of cards like DeathXmon and Rapidmon. As we are not Security Control, we are more proactive, and leaving the opponent with 3 securities is also easy. The tamer was insane during the entire tournament. 

About TK & Kari, it acts as Swords of Revealing Light, giving you extra turns since the opponent won´t attack you unless they feel like winning. In this extra time, you can easily win the game or set even more tamers, or just heal your securities. Just broken.

 

The Rapidmon and Rookies package: 

This part is the most simple. Rapidmon is pretty broken. In BT8 I considered this the best card of the format. Can solve any board state on its own. Has pretty strong psinergy with your tamers, and is a level 4 than can kill any Digimon in the game. Running 4 copies of ST1 Patamon was mandatory if I was about to play Rapidmon, and two copies of Salamon which is a pretty solid card in order to have a total of six. Having 6 rookies give you high probabilities of starting with one of them during the first turns, which is something you really want.

Most players were asking me about why not running the red base with EX2 Gigimon and promo Guilmon… The answer is: Just read Rapidmon. The value you get from Rapidmon is just so high that the red base can´t compensate it with random draws.

The Hybrid package: We are a hybrid deck, so we run the full 9 copies package, with the limited JetSilphymon.

The spicy part: 3 copies of BT8 Shakkoumon. This card is basically a replacement for the copies of JetSilphymon we lost. It works as a basic lv5 with “When digivolving, recovery +1”. The thing is that having a cost of 4 makes it pretty psynergic with the deck. Before we were explaining why the number 4 was magic, and here is one of the reasons. Also I´m playing 1 copy of ST8 Coredramon, which is a good blue lv4 card, just in case we need to DNA digivolve. In the tournament, DNA digivolve into Shakkoumon was more frequent than evolving into Jet by 1. Also is a double color card with a good inherited effect.   

Finally, the queen of control: 3 copies of BT10 Venusmon. What to say? The card just makes Metalgaruru X explode. Most players didn´t even know the card. The value it gives is just insane. It basically says “you win an extra turn”. And you can do a lot of things if you get a free turn, like winning the game. Also I run 1 copy of Susanoomon in case I faced a control deck to avoid deckout and a copy of DeathXmon, to have a good play against rogue aggro decks.

The options:

2 copies of Yellow Memory Boost for extra consistency, Reinforcing Memory Boost and Sunrise Busters as obvious choices in a yellow deck. The only spicy card here was Loekthe Adistako (or whatever the name is). I packed in 3 copies because the card is good against all decks and in any given position of the security stack. BT5 yellow players know how easy is to be at 3 memory in order to trigger the full effect of this card. In a vacuum, paying 8 for removing one thing does not sound good, but paying two to remove two threats is a different thing. Just insane. The last card is a copy of Wyvern´s Breath, just in case we needed to remove a thing like DeathXmon or a really big body.

Matchups

2-0 Vs. MetalGaruru X: Pretty standard game. This was the matchup that I tested the most and was fast and straightforward. Venusmon did her job.

2-0 Vs. MetalGaruru X: Again against this deck, this time against an Spanish player, Adrian Dueñas (shoutouts here to him!). This player from Madrid is also an ex-Yugioh player that plays really well. I just got really lucky. In a given moment, a Loekthe option card appeared in the 4th position of the security, killing two Weregarurumons in the process.

2-0 Vs. Jesmon GX: Here is when I though my tournament run was over. This matchup is the worst by far, since it can get protections from Gankoomon X, revive constantly the Sistermons, and has OTK potential. The point here is that I can´t kill both the Jesmon and the Sistermons in a single turn, so I depend highly of my options in security. This isnt even great because they still have access to A Delicate Plan or Gankoomon X… I just got very lucky to survive and win both games.

2-1 Vs. Jesmon GX: Again, I felt really unlucky since I didn´t expect to see another one. A misplay costed me game 1, but I was able to win the next games. This player ended up with 3rd place of the tournament and was playing a version based in Gankoomons, so it was a pain to deal with. Rapidmon suspended its board of blockers and I could attack for game with hybrids.

2-1 Vs. Beelstarmon: This was against Unluckyvann, which is one of my friends. We even tested together for this event and I shoutout here to him. It was by far the most intense round of the entire tournament. We reached the time-out and he couldn´t kill me in time, but I could kill him with hybrids. Ironically, this was the deck running Psychemons and was the first where I could resolve DeathXmon.

2-0 Vs. Blue Flare: I didn´t expect Blue Flare performing so well in the tournament. I did a misplay in game 1 by hardplaying Coredramon, being greedy to DNA digivolve later and return something to hand, but this didn´t work. I was able to grind that game and then the second game was faster. Blue flare has a strong grind game if you give them enough time.

2-0 Vs. ImperialDramon: Again, a spanish player, Zoriak (shoutouts). It was pretty funny because he didn´t know what Venusmon did. Actually he is one of the best spanish players, having topped all Ultimate Cups he participated in. He got the second place in the tournament. But our match was just fun to see. Venusmon did everything and he played into Venusmon with misplays. The funny part is that we were both in our Discord channel talking together during the entire tournament. 

2-0 Vs. Blue Flare: Against Riku, another spanish player. If in round 6 I was not expecting Blue Flares… Just imagine in the final round. This time I was nervous because I know the grind game of Blue Flare and I need to remain with one single Digimon on the battle Area during all the time, making me unable to make a quick win. My best bet is to do some cheap damage and stall with Venusmon and heals, and then Hybrid rush him. This was the game plan and it worked out both games.

Summary

I´m really happy of the result with this deck. Back in time I couldn´t play it in BT8´s Ultimate Cup events because of the banlist hit to JetSilphymon, but this deck is one of my favorites from all times. Also it feels really well to get such a huge result with a deck that nobody was expecting to get success, not even myself!

I felt like I was done after winning the DC-1 event, but having another big win so soon has been awesome. The deck is still pretty good and I felt sure of every single decision I took in deckbuilding and playing. I´m also pretty happy of having 5 spanish players in the top 8, so congratulations to Zoriark, Asibaru, Foturan and specially Riku for getting into the final.

At last, I want to shoutout my friends Xuso, JC, Alberto, Miguel, Dai, Adrian, Iván and Daniel because of the support and the testing, as well as to the spanish community, which has proven to perform really well this tournament and I´m sure they will continue getting good results. Sorry about this article for being so long, if you have reached this sentence, thank you for reading this!

BT11 Yellow Hybrid – “The Beautiful Angel Who Wields the Ruthless Spear”

Invited Author: Mickey
Country: Indonesia

Introduction

The latest banlist on September 1, 2022 had significantly nerfed Yellow Hybrid due to [BT7-038 JetSilphymon]’s limit. Without question, the card was a powerhouse for the deck because of its effects and traits which carried the deck to top tier ever since its debut in BT7. In this new BT11 meta where Xros Heart is getting stronger and BlackWarGreymon X being a dominant force that has access to mass tamer removal, many believed that this is the end for the deck.

Sunday, October 9, 2022 was Indonesia’s first Super! Tamer Battle in Arcanum Hobbies, Jakarta. At first, I doubted whether if I should join because I felt that my deck was not up to par with the newer decks and that it is not complete yet (2 key cards I bought did not arrive on time). But I really love playing in tournaments where there are lots of people, so I just winged it and joined the event. To my surprise, I managed to play well and ended up sweeping the Swiss Round stage (5-0)! Although I was eliminated in the Top 8 round, I believe that my experience was a good performance report of the deck. 

(The [BT1-063 Seraphimon] was a replacement for my second [BT10-041 Sakuyamon: Miko Mode] that didn’t arrive on time.)

To players who play / know the deck, there’s literally nothing new in my list. It is the common build ever since BT10 came out, where the Red base became very popular due to the draw speed provided by [P-041 Guilmon] and [EX2-001 Gigimon] as well as enabling [BT9-099 Sunrise Buster] – which is a very powerful Option card. The key cards that I want to highlight and explain further are [ST3-09 Angewomon], [BT9-040 Angewomon X-Antibody], and [BT10-101 Lónkhē Adistakto].

Angewomon and Angewomon X-Antibody

When the banlist takes effect and JetSilphymon limited to 1 copy per deck, players start theorizing on what would be the best replacement for it. Some use [BT2-038 RizeGreymon] and [BT9-041 RizeGreymon X-Antibody] for more aggression and tempo. Some use [BT10-037 Weddinmon] for a cheap Ultimate to evolve into a Mega. But naturally, there are 2 choices that are most prominent: [ST3-09 Angewomon] and [BT8-042 Shakkoumon]. Both cards have [Recovery +1], which is a part of JetSilphymon’s effect and what helped Yellow Hybrid, as a control-based Tamer deck, to take hits while they are spending their turns building their Tamers on board or removing threats. 

Angewomon was my first choice and it felt a bit “different” that I had to pay 3 memory and wait for my Security to be at 3 or less to recover (JetSilphymon really is overpowered, lol). Sometime later, I saw a Japanese list that run Angewomon X and placed second on an EVO Cup tournament, so I tried it. I was a bit skeptical because it looks a bit greedy and requiring 2 cards in hand to pull off the combo. However, during my tests online and real-life tournaments, it was decent and has more healing potential than JetSilphymon alone. At its full potential, the combo heals you twice and applies [Security Attack -1] to an opponent’s Digimon, which comes in handy quite often. In the Super! Tamer Battle, I managed to pull the combo off in all 6 games! I even managed to do it twice in a couple games, which totals to 4 recoveries! The Angewomon package is consistent and potent.

I also tried Shakkoumon and it is decent too. Its advantage is that it has a higher Security threshold, so you can heal even at 5 and its ESS can be handy at times. The trade-off is that it costs 1 more memory to evolve into but it is more stable. I personally think that both choices are solid choices and it comes down to the player’s preference.

Lónkhē Adistakto (En: Ruthless Spear)

During reveal season of BT10, I was very skeptical of this card when it was revealed. I thought of it as a [BT6-101 Breath of Wyvern] and [ST10-14 Chaos Degrade] combined into 1 card but the effects are watered-down as a trade-off. But boy was I wrong – during BT10 meta I already loved this card! In my opinion, this is probably Yellow’s best heavy removal in the game right now (bonus points for the card’s artwork and flavor). Of course, Chaos Degrade still reigns supreme as Yellow’s best removal (even probably the best removal in the game period) but you need a Purple base to reliably enable it in Yellow Hybrid. With how popular and fast the Red base of Yellow Hybrid is since BT10, Lónkhē has value that it’s easy to use (only Yellow) and if it procs at exactly 3 Security, it’s often a very strong removal that opponents may find hard to recover from.

The reason that I brought 4 copies was because this card won’t work as well if you only bring 1 or 2 copies. Through my experience, it is not rare for my opponents to check this card as the 4th security – enabling the double removal effect. Yellow Hybrid has enough staying power and attack power to win games even if Lónkhē “heals” the opponent, so don’t worry about that factor. It is still great even when Used from Hand – Yellow Hybrid has a lot of memory on average thanks to their line of dual Tamers that paying 8 memory is not too steep for the deck.

Another reason why I brought 4 copies instead of using other Options such as the popular [ST3-15 Holy Flame] is because in BT11, we are back to having a board presence meta. Shoutmon X7, BlackWarGreymon X, UlForceVeedramon, BloomLordmon, Hydramon, Mastemon, Dexmon – you name it. Those boss Digimon presents a threat and must be answered. In BT10, most Yellow Hybrid lists used Holy Flame because the meta was heavily dominated by pre-BT11 Xros Heart, where multiple attacks in a turn was the main concern and Xros Heart barely has a board at the end of their turn – so big removals won’t have any targets. But now, Holy Flame won’t answer the big boss monsters and Sunrise Buster alone is not enough.

I hope my explanations for those key cards can be a valuable reference for your deckbuilding and on how you would anticipate the BT11 meta. Finally, here is my tournament report!

Super! Tamer Battle Report

Round 1 – Mastemon (W)

The new Mastemon is something to be respected. The new Angewomon and LadyDevimon are great additions to this deck, as well as their Tamer – Mirei Mikagura. They are now able to recycle their Mastemon and making it into a 13000 DP Blocker due to Angewomon’s ESS.

My opponent had an early lead, opening with ST10 Tailmon and able to evolve into the angel Ultimates for cheap and Jogress fast into Mastemon, even summoning Lucemon Falldown Mode twice which killed a Takeru & Hikari Tamer and Seraphimon, and at one point, got my Security to 0. This is where being patient, focus, and decision-making is tested. From experience, Mastemon has a strong heal and board presence. But the deck is heavy by nature, so it can’t end games fast even when leading. I kept removing his Mastemon and Lucemon FM with Sunrise Buster and Lónkhē Adistakto, eventually healing him up into 8 Security. The Angewomon package and JetSilphymon was able to heal me out of lethal range, and I started to gain the advantage. I managed to evolve into Venusmon and Dexmon which stalled him a bit, though both were removed by 2 Chaos Degrades.
Eventually, I hit the perfect timing where I was able to warp evolve into Susanoomon and attack during the same turn, which sweeps 3 securities at once without fear because there’s nothing in Mastemon decks that has 15000 DP or above, 2 Chaos Degrades were used, and I had Taichi & Hikari to reduce Security DP just to be safe. Susanoomon survived the next turn and checks 3 securities again, and the remainder was finished by Guilmon and Hybrids.

Round 2 – Linkz Dragon (Tidal Wave / Dorbickmon variant) (W)

Early game I didn’t respect my opponent’s Volcanicdramon enough and got 1 Security trashed as a result. The game was intense with a lot of back and forth interactions, but it wasn’t as pressuring as the previous round.
Eventually, he played Metallicdramon while both of us are low on Security, which was a correct play in my opinion. I couldn’t finish the game because my Tamers can’t evolve unless they’re Suspended. I removed his Metallicdramon, and next turn he played another Metallicdramon after DigiXros-ing into a complete Dorbickmon to check my remaining Security. I dropped Dexmon and used Sunrise Buster on his Jazarichmon (devolved from Dorbickmon), while his Metallicdramon died blocking another Dexmon I had out 3 turns earlier.
On his final turn, he couldn’t draw anything to solve my board (another Metallicdramon or Dorbickmon – but there was already 3 of the latter in his Trash so it’s likely to be all his copies) and I won by attacking with my Dexmons and Hybrids.

Round 3 – Xros Heart (W)

This one was quick. My opponent had a very strong early game where he checked all 5 of my Security in no time. I healed back up with the Angewomon package and JetSilphymon and stabilized, eventually evolving into Venusmon and dropping Dexmon, as well as being able to use Lónkhē’s effect to send his X4 / X5 (I forgot) into top security and removing its materials. He ended up not having enough materials and memory to do anything much and conceded.

Round 4 – Xros Heart (W)

The game was quite back and forth – not an explosive early game unlike the last round. Though eventually my opponent managed to play Shoutmon X7, which is a very strong boss Digimon and I just realized how good it is until I finally faced one. X7 has removal on play and comes with an arsenal of strong ESS. I managed to remove 2 with Lónkhē Adistakto, which trashed a great deal of materials. It was a drawn-out game where we went into timeout (0, 1, 2, 3 then check Security rule). He eventually decks out and lacked both the materials and Xros Digimon to do anything. I won because I only need to check 1 security for the timeout rule to kick in (We’re both at 4) or if it hadn’t reach time yet, I’ll just end my turn and he’ll lose by decking out.

Round 5 – Yellow Hybrid (W)

Well, what do you know? The top table is a Yellow Hybrid mirror! He won against BlackWarGreymon X in his previous rounds, so it’s also proof that the deck can win against what people thought to be the bane of its existence.
This round was not as intense as the previous 4 rounds because my opponent unfortunately bricked, and I didn’t. I had a slight lead from the start and evolved into Seraphimon early. Its [Security Attack +1] was able to check 4 securities and my opponent concedes because he had no answer to it, despite always starting with surplus memory due to Takeru & Hikari.

Top 8 Round – Xros Heart (L)

This one was a very intense game as well I can’t even remember the exact details. One key factor that gave my opponent the edge was BT1 Taichi, which gives even more firepower to Shoutmon X7. I healed a total of 5 securites in this game and still lost.
There were three mistakes that I did: 

1. Forgetting that his Shoutmon X3 was affected by Angewomon X’s [Security Attack -1] effect, so technically I would have 1 more security which could change the entire story.
2. Dropping Dexmon on an empty board which gets removed immediately by dropping Shoutmon X7. I could’ve just played it later, but I was greedy and wanted to strengthen my board presence. In hindsight, I should’ve hold into my Dexmon so I can Devolve the X7 and would have an easier time dealing with OmegaShoutmon instead.
3. I was at 0 Security and was pressured by his Shoutmon X7. I started with 6 memory and had Lónkhē Adistakto, Sunrise Buster, Fireball, 3 Hybrids, and Sakuyamon: Miko Mode in my hand. I think the pressure got into me, and I decided to use Fireball and evolve into Hybrids hoping to draw into my last Angewomon, so I can evolve into it, recover, and evolve into Sakuyamon: Miko Mode to remove his Shoutmon X7 (I had enough tamers to remove it with Sunrise Buster) and recover again. It didn’t happen, so I used Lónkhē Adistakto on X7 and passed him a lot of memory. Looking back, simply using Lónkhē Adistakto could’ve been the better play. He would start at 4 memory (BT1 Taichi and Taiki, Kiriha, Nene) and he had almost no materials under his tamers other than Shoutmon and OmegaShoutmon. My theory was confirmed because he Xrosed into an X3 with only Shoutmon as the material, so it will cost 5, and would’ve passed the turn without even attacking.

But that’s what’s fun about DCG, where every game has its own surprises, turns and twists! And every game is an opportunity to learn and become better.
My opponent, Garry (He wrote some articles in here, too!) got into the finals against Eka’s BlackWarGreymon X, where it showed dominance against Tamer-heavy decks and won the tournament!

Closing Thoughts

Yellow Hybrid is still a fun and enjoyable deck to play in BT11. I love the deck because of its uniqueness and requiring a different approach to playing the game. I’m proud that it performed well in an environment where most people doubt it. 

As with any other decks, the key is to be patient, weigh your options, and have the courage to decide a play. Don’t need to worry much about what decks you will encounter in the meta – just focus in understanding your deck in and out and learn from your mistakes. All your games will improve naturally as you gather more experience.

Shout out to Arcanum Hobbies as the host of the tournament and to the Indonesian Digimon Card Game Community! You guys are a great bunch of friends to chat with, and great opponents to play with! 

Good luck and have fun always!

Sam Zhou: 1st Place NA Carta Magical 2022 Regional, a Tourney Report.

Invited Author: Sam Zhou
Country: North America

Introduction

Hey guys it’s Sam here with a summary of my experience at the Carta Magica NA Online Regional Event. The first thing about this event to address is the format which was up to BT8 with the exclusion of ST-9 and ST10 due to inaccessibility from delays. This meant that two premier strategies in Imperialdramon and Mastemon would be missing from the tournament and fewer tools for other decks such as armor rush not having access to mega death. Realizing this my playgroup surmised that the top threats in this meta were likely: Yellow Hybrid, Blue Hybrid, Black Wargreymon, Armor Rush and X-Anti body thus the building was revolving around having good matchups against these decks.

Deck's Distribution

Eggs:

4x Upamons/ 1x Frimon: Upamons are the premier yellow eggs to maximize due to the consistent ability to draw your cards late in the game. There is argument to play Cupimon to have access to card draw early on in the game when you have 5 or more security however the game plan for this deck was to usually be at a security deficit to enable T.k & Kari which is counter intuitive to Cupimon so I elected to play Frimon as the 5th egg to give a very easily enabled 1k dp boost. I believe it is also totally fine to play only 4 Upamons as you only play 6 rookies and thus is very unlikely to run out of eggs.

Rookies:

The low rookie count is typical of yellow hybrids strategies since you will mostly be playing tamers rather than evolving in raising. Previously yellow hybrids would play a synergistic purple sub package including purple eggs and rookies however with the addition of Rapidmon and Cody Hida, the favor shifted towards yellow eggs and rookies, but I can see a shift back to purple as the meta develops as it is still providing strong and unique tools that mono yellow doesn’t have access to.

4x ST3-04 Patamon: Extremely important rookie since it allows you to gain memory when you delete Digimon via dp reduction which is key in being able to evolve into Rapidmon and not passing turn with its 4-evolution cost.

2x BT2-034 Salamons: Extremely good at stabilizing when the opponent is playing aggressively, however most of the time you will reserve it as the 5th and 6th body to go into rapidmons.

2x Bokomon: One of the few proactive Digimon you play in the deck. It’s ability to search for key cards while presenting a continuous memory advantage makes opponents forced to react and commit to remove it.

Champions:

4x Kazemon and 4x Zephyrmon: Standard to max out the hybrid, offers a lot of synergies with Jetsilphymon, the tamers and Susanoomon and now with yellow eggs you have more ability to dig via evolving on top of your rookies. Some of the most important decisions in games is choosing when to turn your tamers into the hybrids as well as moving them to the correct zones whether it’s from security to the hand or cycle aggressively to draw and fuel a potential Susanoomon evolution.

4x Rapidmon: One of the 2 cards from BT8 that make a big impact in making yellow hybrid viable in bt8 and single handedly saves in a lot of matchups yellow hybrid previously struggled in. When you can set up tamers to guarantee enough memory to Rapidmon and keep turn you can play with high confidence that you will be able to out any threating board your opponent can present. With the usage of Cody and even T.K. Kari you can easily swing over the high dp megas that your opponent invested a lot of resources into. It forces opponents to respect this threat that they are forced to play conservatively and slower which is ideal for your gameplan. It is having armor purge makes it the creme de la crème of champions as it allows you to build up your board and play more aggressively than in previous formats due to it limiting opponent removal options.

Ultimates:

4x Jetsilphy: Super powerful card that allows you to control your security as well as enabling an avenue to your megas for 3 memory if evolving from tamer into lv 4 hybrid into Jetsilphy.

2x Rizegreymon: High tempo card that is surprisingly sticky on the board since it dodges Ouryumon and Blackwargreymon’s on digivolve as well as options such as Gewaltschwarmer. The strongest aspect of this card however is the inherited ability to give sec+1 if you have 3 or more tamers which allows the deck to quickly end games.

Megas and Susanoomon:

2x Dynasmon: One of the most nuanced cards in the deck. Provides 3 distinct roles. Firstly, it is one of the few ways to remove our own security to enable TK. & Kari in control matchups. Secondly it is a proactive play that allows you to dig into your deck and find the key pieces that you are missing in your hand while filling trash for Susanoomon. Lastly it completely stops chip strategies and stabilizes your life by recovering using Zoe or T.K. while also providing an additional buffer vs OTK strategies.

2x Shinegreymon: Really underrated card nowadays due to yellow having so many new mega since the glory days of bt3 but the sun hasn’t set on this card as it still clears boards and can swing with unmatchable power when supported by the plethora of tamers you play.

1x Susanoomon: Highly synergistic card in a hybrid strategy. Provides removal, clears 3 securities at once, base high hp and most importantly. prevents deck out which is highly likely with this deck in control matchups.

Tamers:

The bread and butter of the deck. Yellow tamers allow you to proactively build recurring advantage over your opponents whilst being difficult to interact with. They also serve as a launching point for your hybrids to make high impact plays.

4x BT1-087 T.K Takashi

4x Cody Hida

4x Zoe Orimoto

3x T.K. & Kari

 Each tamer has different importance depending on the matchup and I will explain those in the matchup section later.

Options:

1x Yellow Memory Boost: A flex slot, ideally it should be another Susanoomon but I only had 1 available but It boosts consistency and helps mitigate the low number of rookies being played in the deck while arming you for explosive turns even if your tamers aren’t enabled.

1x Reinforcing Memory Boost: The giga chad boost yellow memory boost wishes it was. Does everything yellow memory boost does but bigger and better. It’s limited to 1 for a reason.

2x Tactical Retreat: A tech card aimed at helping prevent blue hybrids from running rampant with memory advantage after freezing your Digimon. Also allows you to recycle hybrids by retreating them into security and grabbing them back with Zoes. Effectively allows you to play more than 4 Jetsilphymon in a game.

Gameplay / Matchups

Matchup Notes:

Blue Hybrid: One of the hardest matchups and feels unfavorable unless you play tech cards that are not good against the rest of the meta. Our play group expected Blue Hybrids to be a stronger contender in this format without Imperialdramon since it was a bad matchup while still having good matchups across the rest of the board. Key strategies are to be decently aggressive and force the blue hybrid player to turn their tamers into hybrids and remove them as well as exhausting their ability to strip sources by slowly evolving your lines. Tactical Retreat allows you to salvage Digimon that would normally enable their Sora & Joe.

Black Wargreymon: A decent matchup in my opinion unique in that they are able to interact with your tamers, but they have issues blowing up your security quickly and presenting a face clock which gives ample time to set up. Just be aware to deny Blackwargreymon’s ability to delete 2 Cody, play wyvern’s breath if you expect this matchup to be prevalent and always try to reserve a rapidmon play to respond to their blackwargreymons or a fast evo into shine if you have enough tamers.

X-Antibody: Another similar matchup to blackwargreymon but they have more explosiveness and OTK potential. However, they have fewer controlling elements and takes time to set up. You must play for aggression or else they will establish the perfect stack and OTK you. Shinegreymon can usually out any board they present while also allowing you to swing over their mega blocker.

Armor Rush: Relatively easy to control early on but does have insane high roll potential. Try to set up an overwhelming memory advantage with your tamers so you will out tempo their moves and try to set up your security so that it can deny big fire rocket turns. If they set up multiple Ken and Davis, you will be forced to try to end the game quickly because it becomes impossible to control them at that point.

Yellow Hybrid Mirror: Most important aspect is being able to set up a memory advantage via tamers. Usually neither player is going to attack security, so it becomes a race to draw the key cards as well as trying to self-inflict damage via T.K or Dynasmon or force them to recover more than you to enable T.K Kari. There for you must be careful when you play Jetsilphymon or Reinforcing memory boost. Susanoomon is usually the key card to win since it has sec + 2 as well as deck out prevention.

My matchups at Carta Magica 2022 Regional:

R1 vs Beelstar 2-0:

G1&2: Was able to set up a memory advantage after scatter mode swung into my sec using T.K & Kari and end the game before they could start playing Beelstars for free. Cleared wide boards using Rapidmon and set up security to ensure scatter mode / promote survives.

R2 vs Yellow Hybrid Mirror 2-0:

Opponent never saw their T.K. & Kari or didn’t run them, so I was able to comfortable win via memory advantage both games.

R3 vs Yellow Hybrid Mirror 2-0:

Usual strategy g1 with the memory advantage. G2 was spicy/lucky, both of us were even and high health. I used my only Susanoomon on my shine to clear the board and try to set up an OTK but it got wyvern-ed, I hard played cards and avoided digivolving to stay in the game but by the time I drew the last card in my deck I couldn’t go for lethal, however my opponent’s was also near deckout and I swung into security and hit eden's javelin to force my opponent to draw their last card which was Susanoomon.

R4 vs Yellow Hybrid Mirror 1-0:

R1: I won traditionally, R2 I was in the driver seat and time was running low, I decided to try to go for the win which led to some bad security checks by me that put me on the back foot but with some good security checks on my part as well I was able to stabilize, and we both drew g2 due to time.

R5 vs Beelstar 2-0:

R1: my opponent bricked and hard played a bunch of rookies that I was able to remove using goldrapid, which set him back far enough that I could gain momentum using T.K & Kari due to his early swings. G2 was closer, I played aggressively knowing my opponent would win the late game once he set up and he was 1 memory/ 1 discount away from being able to win but he couldn’t set it up and I was able to end the game the next turn.

R6 vs Beelstar 2-0:

G1: Played aggressively but it got to the edge once my opponent started zwart D on top of their beels to start removing my tamers but rapidmon provides a lot of damage early on and I was able to seal the deal past a full board of zwart defeats and a vilemon. G2 I positioned and early rapidmons that swept the board and survived a couple of checked and followed up with a rize to make my opponent’s removal options really awkard and was able to carry the tempo to a win.

R7 vs Big AncientGreymon 2-1

I was nervous for this matchup since it was not on my radar and could potentially win the game by building a mega stack in security. The gameplan focusing on trying to either: recovery my sec high enough to survive the turn he moves out and prevent an otk and use all the tamers from those sec checks to stabilize OR develop enough zoes and time zephymons to make ancientgreymon die to a sec check and luckily 2 of the 3 games I was given enough time to set up zoes and zephymons to make his ancientgreymon die to a mega in my stack and I was able to wipe the board on the following turns and close out the game before he could pose another lethal threat.

There was only 7 rounds due to the other undefeated losing to a pair down and the large amount of draws in the tournament.

Summary

I think a large part of my wins was due to the preparation of the deck which led to favorable matchups in the mirror match with the usage of shines and T.K & Kari and luck with the pairings being able to face mostly matchups that I was well practiced in. I want to give special thanks to the shine master QiQi and the the first bandai tournament champ FromTheFuture(who got 4th this event!) for helping me prep for this event by playtesting/theory crafting. I learnt the playstyle from QiQi’s who had won a previous Bandai event using yellow hybrid and he also came up with this list.

Hope you found my write up informative and valuable!

[En] Zachary: 2nd Place in Oceania Regional with Yellow Hybrid Rapidmon

Invited Author: Zachary Tregenza
Country: Oceania

Introduction

Hello, Zac from down under here. I’ve been asked to give a breakdown of my deck and tournament run for my latest BT8 regionals. To summarise I got 2nd in ranking with 5 wins, 0 losses and 1 draw, in doing so, solidifying my view that yellow hybrids are an absurdly strong deck. My following opinions and takes on the deck and matchups should be taken with a grain of salt based on your play style and how early we are into the new set 8.

Deck's Intro and Game Plan

General Game Plan

This is my general game plan for most match’s to power through any board and will help set the context for card choices and strategies. This involves chipping over the course of the game and undoing damage dealt back with recovery and answering board states as necessary.

Early Game: Establish Tamers and level 3s e.g. TK, Zoe, Boko

Mid Game: Recover, Control, Chip e.g. Jet, Rapid, Swings

Late game: OTK, Hybrid for game e.g. Susanoomon

BT7 Package

4x Zoe Orimoto // 4x Kazemon // 4x Zephyrmon // 4x Jetsilphymon // 2x Bokomon

The core of the deck, little to be explained except for Bokomon. I couldn’t understand other lists taking Boko out when it’s a top 5 search for arguably your most important cards and allows for free extensions to help chip your opponent without passing turn.

Eggs

4x Upamon

At this time, this slot seems rather contentious between Upamon and Cupimon. One excels late game, the other early. Cupimon is a great option to push out rookies to swing and start seeing more cards to help slow the opponent into your range. I have seen success with Upa as the format is still very aggressive, in combination with how I play into Rapidmon (which I will discuss in a bit). This one is a personal preference slot (I prefer my foiled Upas). 

Level 3s 

4x Patamon // 2x Salamon

The rookies are a tiny part of the decklist but are very impactful. The Salamons play the part to be the catchup recovery late game and a great little teaser to play off Ophanimon:FD deletion effect. The Patamon is the important key to maximising Rapidmon’s devastating entry, therefore a must 4 of. Cutemon may be a viable option here into a heavy Mastemon or Hybrid format but personally, I did not feel this was necessary.

Level 4s

4x Rapidmon

This card is insane. Rapidmon is a level 6 Shinegreymon but he’s level 4 AND can use armour purge to stick to the board if answered. Using Rapidmon sparingly to maximise his impact whilst juggling the rookie in the raising area is what makes the deck have a chance against decks like Imperial and what dictates winning the mid game. When the board is lacking threats to yourself, I will push the rookie out of raising to chip at the opponent. Else, if the opponent is building tall or wide, pushing out a stockpiled Patamon in raising and Rapid in hand for the follow up will generally answer any board. The only drawback is Rapid will require you to have tamers to suspend targets to resolve the minus to DP, but given I use the early game to establish the as many tamers logistically possible this is less likely to be a problem.

Level 5s

1x Rizegreymon

This is a relic from the BT7 formats build and is completely optional spicy tech. I found relying only on Jetsilphymon as the bridge to level 6s was not consistent and fragile. In combination with how I use Jetsilphymon to get in cheeky chip damage prior to evolving into level 6s I’d find myself running out. Rizegreymon pairs best with the TK and Kari Dual Tamer but as shown in my list I rely on this less for large memory gains. So a good consideration would be if you like the dual tamer, running more Rizegrey is beneficial and vice versa. A comedic interaction emerged during one of my games in which I had evolved up to a Susanoomon whilst Rizegreymon was underneath, leading to Susanoo checking 4 Security instead.

Level 6s

1x Shinegreymon // 2x Ophanimon: Falldown Mode

Like most other Yellow hybrid lists, I ran the new dual colour Ophanimon, for its simple but strong effect. Its recovery on evolution and paired with its on deletion make it a tricky card to answer whilst passively threatening 1 check for the opponent even if they kill the card once. This card is a great mid game tool to end your hybrid line to recover till you’re out of your opponent's kill range. The one of Shinegreymon is another optional spot. Throughout my matches, it resolved when it needed to clear problem cards that Rapidmon couldn’t or wasn’t in a position to. The best option I believe I should have run in this spot however would be the BT1-Seraphimon for a cheap recovery and 2 security checks. His 10k attack however feels riskier given BT8s taller security, leaving this spot entirely to preference.

Level 7s

2x Susanoomon

The big Susan fills two simple but key weaknesses for the yellow hybrid game plan, decking out and mirror matches. Susan stops deck outs as the deck draws a lot and stalls till they’re winning, enough said. His key role in closing the game and making headway in mirror matches. My approach for the mirror match will either maximise hybrids evolves to chip aggressively like normal (hand permitting) or build for a large OTK on the back of Susan’s 15k Dp and triple check. This is run as a two of as in every mirror match, if they play Susan, you’ll have to answer back with your own to keep your momentum. 

Tamers

4x T.K. Takaishi // 2x T.K. Takaishi & Kari Kamiya // 4x Cody Hida

Given the introduction of BT8 Kari tamer, most other hybrid lists include this card to get extra memory from recovering, however, they were making a sacrifice. Ol’ reliable TK in my opinion is too strong to cut, for the latest Kari. TK provides the utility to look and take cards within your security, essentially turning your security into a second hand (Allows me to scope security for options to check if I can be aggressive). Taking away this utility for a potential one memory in a deck that gains a lot of memory while reducing costs and refunding memory, Kari might be overkill. To emphasise this, the more reliable memory gain is generally covered by my remaining tamer choices of Cody and TK&Kari. Both tamers synergise heavily with Rapidmon’s Dp reduction to close out the gap of really tall Digimon. 

Options

1x Reinforcing Memory Boost // 1x Yellow Memory Boost // 2x Wyverns Breath // 2x Eden’s Blessing

Both memory boosts serve the same function within the deck to help consistency and extend turns. These are efficient ways to stockpile the necessary memory to enable Susanoomon plays as discussed before without passing turn. I’m future lists I would consider more of the Yellow Memory Boost but I couldn’t source extra for this tournament. The remaining cards are the flex spots. Both of these choices for me were to ideally answer Paildramon from the Imperial decks and other tall Digimon during security checks. As described, they are security bombs to blow up Digimon to regain some momentum. Wyverns hit hard but cost a lot, while Edens was the cheaper but has a smaller reduction to compensate. These ratios can go up or down depending on how much you want to rely on security or removal to win games. For my tournament experience, they came up as needed. (Twice during the tournament, Paildramon Swings into my Security, Hits Edens, I only have 7 cards in hand, Pail lives with 1k. Probably a decent reason to just play wyverns instead)

Cards that weren’t included but might be worth considering:

Cupimon – Patamon generally sits in raising until rapid is worth going for, may not resolve too many draws on higher security

Chaos Degradation – The best way to answer X antibody if they have the proper protection but requires purple

Flame hellscythe – Amazing card but doesn’t answer Paildramon

Purple Kari Tamer – Better at staving off aggro rather than tall decks, may be required to enable the dual colour options above. 

BT8 Kari Tamer – I don’t think it’s required, but enables interesting plays.

Holy Flame and Holy wave – Personal preference

Cutemon – A good option to impact hybrids and Mastemon if their popularity increases

Spicy Strategies

Throughout this breakdown I have mention “chip” damage consistently. This my overall approach for the deck as Jetsilphymon is unrivalled in chipping security while healing your own. This mindset allows you to play at a quicker pace than normal and less time fumbling around in a game mindlessly recovering. This mindset also transfer to Ophanimon:FD and Rapid in which you can swing and chip freely whilst they are on board and do not mind if they die during their checks as they both leave a Digimon on board for your opponent to deal with while not checking your own security. This stratagem is obviously match up dependant given piercing and decks like BT8 Blackwargreymon. My final thoughts being especially when paired with Bokomon the deck can win games quickly in both amount of turns and time, both of which seem to be a problem for players in the meta. 

Gameplay / Matchups

  1. Jesmon – (2-1) – My opening match to help warm up for the day was a super teched out Jesmon deck. The amount of tech cards he included allowed me to have the time to just simply chip away at his security each game. An interesting addition that did interrupt my general game play stemming from my opponent was the new Digimon Emperor Tamer. The tamer would punish me for bringing my Patamon out of raising area to then evolve into a Rapidmon (without passing turn like normal). The tamer further punish Rapidmon by killing it and using the tamers other ability to suspend and draw 1, and since the Patamon would remain, it was another target for the Emperor tamer to resolve again at a later point. So in summary that one tech tamer threw me for an wild ride I was not expecting match 1. An additional note was I made a bad misplay in not respecting Jesmon and did not kill it (and killed another target instead) and lead to me losing from Jesmon Swing into Blitz Omnimon. That game loss was 100% avoidable if I had properly analysed what his deck was going whilst he was showing me his top deck searches (e.g. Huckmon revealing top 5).
  1. B/G Rookie Rush – (2-0) – Blue and Green Rookie Rush Deck that featured rookies that were designed to be maximise the Davis tamer adding both green and blue. He featured the normal blue options of Hammer Spark and Ice Wall to further craft his turns ideally, and a Rapidmon to evolve on green rookies for additional control. Both games were extremely close where if I didn’t see 1-2 more sources of recovery (generally Jetsilphy), I would have not been able to out pace his early aggression. Game 1 finished with me on 0-1 security even whilst recovering an additional 4 security throughout the game. To note he played optimally and never committed more than two rookies to board as well making my own Rapidmon evolves to control the board feel worse. Ophanimon:FD shone most during these games to extend enough time for me to gain back momentum whilst being almost interactable.
  1. Imperial – (2-1) – My first match was playing against what I believed to be an even match with given my option selection and playstyle. However given the tournament did not include mulligans, this was either a curse or a blessing with my opponent seeming to draw every tool to extend and finish me and game 1 within 2-3 turns. So coming out of that game having my confidence shook with its aggression I wasn’t able to grasp what to change. Game 1 was the normal Imperial gameplay consisted of: Exveemon Swing > Play Stingmon > DNA Paildramon > Swing Twice > Evolve into Dragon Mode > Spit out Exvee and Sting > DNA the 2nd Paildramon > Swing Twice > Pass Turn. This leaves me with minimal security and ways to effectively clear the board or recover post the beatdown leading to a loss. Game 2 and 3 however went slightly differently in that my opponent didn’t see a second Paildramon early to DNA and passed into my turn with a Dragonmode, Stingmon and ExVeemon on board. This plays perfectly into a Rapidmon play, pushing a Patamon out of raising, then evoling into Rapid, reducing the level 4s to 0, and bringing the Dragonmode into a range to swing over. This board control buys enough time for the yellow hybrids to recover enough to escape a lethal range and chip through the mid game. To help my own consistency in recovering, my opponent would sometimes return a Jetsilphymon to my hand with the Megadeath option (through using it themselves or it resolving in security).
  2. Yellow Hybrids Mirror – (2-0) – The yellow hybrid mirror remains the same as when played in BT7. The safest strategy is build up enough board presence to win the game with an OTK, however in game 1 my hand presented me with a more aggressive line (more hybrids, less memory boosts and tamers), so I this line to push my opponent to low security early on. This is a large gamble as aggression into a yellow hybrids security leads to inevitable tamers being played for free, even more so when the mirrors run a large amount of the Dual tamer TK& Kari. This allowed my opponent to make large memory gains in their turn however due to opening a large amount of hybrids I can pressure them so my own security is in danger. This leads to a race to see who can continue drawing hybrids or rapids to answer the board. I manage to do this by evolving a hybrid on tamer, swinging into security, ending the turn with a new tamer. This gamble pays off for a win in game 1. Game 2 would be a closer game in which we neither player commits to the aggression gamble and both of us play passively. I built slowly into cards such as Ophanimon:FD and Susanoo to make the board harder to clear until I take the lead and bully his board and security slowly for the win.
  1. Yellow Hybrids Mirror – (1-1) – To open this match, the no mulligan rule really shone here and showed how poorly hybrids can perform without a memory fixer. My opponent starts his turn with a memory fixer, passing to me, of which my hand is only level 4 Digimon and up and no way to advance or gain advantage. My opponent snowballs this lead by memory choking my turns until I see my own memory fixer but when its too late for me to make a comeback. Game 2 I manage play the game on a even playing field from turn 1 and build advantage into an almost OTK using Susanoomon, however this takes a large amount of turns slower progressing in my favour. Ultimately leading to too little time for me to finish game 3 and resulting in a tie.
  2. Imperial – (2-1) – My final match of the day I get paired up into the 1 of 3 undefeated players left in the tournament, whom is playing Imperial. This match proceeds in the exact same way as my 3rd match into the deck earlier. Game 1 Imperial opens most of the evolution lines and multiple Paildramon to snowball my security into an unrecoverable deficit, leading to a game 1 loss. However, history repeats itself in my favour and the 2nd and 3rd games unfold like my 3rd match in which my opponent saw less Paildramon and would pass turn to me in the exact same way, evolving into Dragonmode and playing Exveemon and Stingmon from sources. I follow this with optimal clears with Rapidmon. Once again leaving me with enough time to recover and chip while my opponent tries to rebuild their board. My opponent even remarked that he knew once he played the Dragonmode, that it was probably the wrong play. For the final game the chip damage adds up throughout the game comes down to dicey moment in which I have just enough memory to swing with every card on left board and raising and no memory to spare if a Hammer Spark, Ice Wall or board removal will cost me the game. Luckily none of these reveal themselves in security and evolving on a tamer with hybrid closes the game. In doing so ending the tournament 1 round early as the other two undefeated players conclude their match finalising a winner and I having sadly stopped the Imperial players undefeated streak.

Conclusion

In closing, I’m proud of how the deck performed and how I played most matches. The deck is great at adapting for the meta or personal preference. I would not take anything I’ve stated as gospel as the English Digimon community will always innovate even knowing the Japanese meta ahead of time and I hope to do the same. Thanks to my locals and friends for being competitive and reliable testers.

I play tamer. I play jet. You lose.

Cheers.

[En] Nathan – 1st Place at TAK DC-1 GP Oceania Oct 10 Tourney Report

Invited Author: Nathan Humphries (Oceania)
Tournament Report: DC-1 GP Event Oceania (128 players)
Host: TAK

Deck Introduction

LordKnightmon is pretty self explanatory, my deck is pretty standard with some extra spice so I'll call it Lord The Brick Throwing Knight and you'll see why.

I won't go over all of the levels and why, as its all pretty standard. So I'll skip straight a head.

Level 6's
4x LordKnightmon
2x SlashAngemon
1x Mastemon
So the main difference here is there is a Mastemon the trash ability combinded with bringing back BushiAgumon, a blocker, Lucemon or Pulsemon too good to pass up.

Level 7's
2x Chaosmon Valdur-Arm
1x Omnimon Zwart D
If you got a Mastemon might as well have a Zwart D, the chance it ends up in security stack is nice and deleting tamers is also amazing especially since SlashAngemon or Mastemon is fairly useless once evolved so the potential to delete another Digimon or board wiping two by clashing just works too well.

Tamers
1x TK Takaishi
1x Izzy Izumi
1x Tai and Matt
Ok so this is where things start to get interesting. TK pretty standard go in Security grab what you need etc. Often when I was playing as LordKnighmon, I was bricking on draws instead so that's where Izzy comes in being able to un-brick your draws and ordering them in a way to possibly Lucemon recover something spicy into your security is a really good option for Yellow. 

Additionally playing TK can be risky later game as I have 6 non-yellow cards and thats done me in before. And the same to Tai and Matt, with LordKnight being so prevalent having level 6's up constantly it seemed like a no brainer especially after a game I had in the EVO cup against Declan, it would have been useful (I didn't have it then I changed it specifically after that game it was originally just a TK), potentially going to 5 memories is very strong for LKM and setting up a massive board.

Options
2x Blinding Ray
1x Spiral Masquerade
1x Ultimate Flare
Ok so pretty standard but hey Ultimate Flare what the hell? Well Rookie Rush I hate it, it sucks get rid of it hence 1xUltimate Flare that I replaced a Spiral Masquerade for it. Last tourney it was great, this tourney it barely showed up except in one clutch situation so I guess it did its job. If BT5 was ongoing I would remove it and go back to 2x Spiral(I would keep the Izzy though).

Match-ups

1 – LordKnight Star: 2-0
A variant LK deck that played the Starmon options would be cool but he bricked both games I didn't

2. Green: 2-1

Last game Brick
Two close games.
First game he was just non stop Nidhogging my board and I bricked a little replacing my LK's he won by Nidhogging me one last time
Second game less Nidhogs came out and he hit Zwart D in Sec I built up and sent it into security
Third game he bricked hard this ended quickly

3. Lord Knight: 2-0
Standard Mirror He Bricked both games I bricked a bit with one but Kotemon so that was nice

4. Purple Tactimon 2-0
Game 1 He bricked
Game 2 He bricked

5. Lord Knight: 2-0
We talked about it before the game how its hilarious Ive just been bricking people with my curse had a bit of a laugh and started
He bricked both games

6. Lord Knight: 2-1

Good game.
Finally another good set after all day of nothing but bricks no bricks here (except me game 1)
Game 1: He built up, I built up, ran into a Zwart D had to clear it he built again faster and won
Game 2: I had a straight evolution built board fast with a Blinding Ray to then play two rookies I believe I brought out two Lucemons went and just sent it into security and won.
Game 3: He built up faster had an LKM out before I could get one in hand ran straight into Ultimate Flare in security, I came out and built my board fast because of Angewomon and LKM. I finally started swinging into him he had Two of his two Zwart D's in security but I had my BushiAgumon out to end the game right then and there before it would matter.

7. Sec Control: 2-0
I dreaded this game I know this guy and he is a really good SEC Control player. Sadly for him you'll never guess what happened
His security bricked with mainly tamers and digimon even after recovery for both games. Tourney ended in Mastemon bringing back BushiAgumon and ending the game.

Closing Thoughts

I didn't even do anything and the opponents just won the entire thing for me, this was just gift-wrapped like a brick through the window.

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[En] Aye Chan Moe: 1st Place at Core TCG EVO Cup Sept 26 Tourney Report

Invited Author: Aye Chan Moe (North America)
Tournament Report: Evo Cup on Sept 26 (491 players)
Host: Core TCG

Deck Introduction

With how popular the deck is, I don’t think LordKnightmon needs too much of an introduction. But if it does, it’s an insanely powerful card that lets you put out rookies or warriors for free when it attacks and it grows bigger the more bodies you have on the field, making it an extremely difficult threat to remove. Knightmon and Starmons are the stars (no pun intended) of this deck, letting you reduce the DP of your opponent’s digimon when you swing with your LordKnightmon, making this deck a nice blend of going wide AND going tall while also controlling your opponent’s board. 

Digitama

4 copies of  [BT5-003] Pickmon and 1 [BT4-003] Koromon. This deck has a lot of DP reduction effects be in multiples of 4000 and a lot of decks are now running the 5000 DP blockers with 1 cost to evolve over the 6000 DP blockers so the –1000 DP effect from these at the very least help to settle those blockers up for deletion via the –4000 DP effects. Pickmons are the easiest to enable since the deck already wants to be spamming the board but Koromon is a nice backup since there are ways to get to 3 security, whether naturally via your opponent’s attacks or via things like Blinding Ray, WarGreymon, or even T.K grabbing a Chaosmon Valdur Arm from security. 

LVL 3s/Rookies

4x [BT5-035] Starmon, this card is insanely flexible and allows you to make a good variety of plays. Its on-play effect, at worst, can delete a 1000 DP rookie, and at best, it can delete a 6000 DP blocker and let you swing in for more damage. It also helps set up your opponent’s board for Spiral Masquerades, Knightmons into SlashAngemons, or even just reduce their biggest threat’s DP low enough that you can swing into it and delete it. 

4x [P-028] Pulsemon. This is just a good card overall. Early game, replaces itself when played and helps you dig through your deck to look for the pieces you need. When you’re at 3 security, it’s a 2 cost to play that still draws you a card. When paired with LordKnightmon, you get to draw, gain a memory, or both, making this an extremely flexible card.

The rest of the rookies are 2x [BT4-038] BushiAgumon for extra same turn damage with LordKnightmon or Blinding Ray, 2x [ST3-04] Patamon for memory gain when deleting stuff with DP reduction, 1x [BT5-033] Cutemon to slow down Imperialdramon and green Digisorption decks, and 1 [BT5-034] Kotemon to help dig for your LordKnightmons and Knightmons when you have everything set up but you just need a LordKnight or a LVL 5 to evolve into.

LVL 4s/Champions

4x [BT4-042] Piddomon and 3x [BT3-037] Turuiemon since they're only 1 memory to evolve.

3x [ST3-07] Unimon as blockers with 6000 DP that get around cards like Shoutmon DX, Nidhoggmon, and Omnimon Alter-S.

Finally, I run a single copy of [BT5-037] Gladimon for the same reason I run the one copy of Kotemon: Finding LordKnightmon. Gladimon is also not the worst card to hard play. At 4 cost, if I have a TK out, I can choke my opponent at 1 memory. It also conveniently dodges Ultimate Flare, one of Black’s most popular removal options at the moment. Gladimon is also playable via LordKnightmon’s effect since it’s a warrior so that’s always a plus and it’s one of my more preferred targets to evolve the 2 Angewomons I play onto.

LVL 5s/Ultimates

4x BT5-042 Knightmon. This card is a warrior that LordKnightmon can play for free that helps you delete your opponent’s Digimon and, if it sticks around, becomes another LordKnightmon or another LVL 6.

3x [BT4-046] WarGrowlmon. This is the card I want to be evolving my Digimon into in the Raising Area so that once it gets to my next turn, I can push it to the battlefield and digiburst to give something –4000DP. If I’m guaranteed 3 memory, either via Blinding Ray or T.K, I can then evolve it into a SlashAngemon to delete something with 12000 DP or less or into a LordKnightmon to start putting Knightmons or Starmons onto the field and finish off whatever I had targeted with WarGrowlmon’s effect.

2x [BT3-039] Angewomon. This card adds some extra flexibilities to my LVL 6s, letting me put out extra rookies when I am at 3 security or less. With LordKnightmon, it can be anything between cheating out a Knightmon and a Starmons to delete one or two things to cheating out 2 BushiAgumons to swing for the game. Even without LordKnightmon, it enables my SlashAngemons to be more than just 8000DP beat sticks that will probably die to security. Also, as seen in the BT4 meta, it works really well with the 1 of WarGreymon that I’m running.

LVL 6s/Megas

4x [BT5-045] LordKnightmon. As I said in the deck introduction, this card is insanely powerful. It lets you put bodies out for free while also growing itself in terms of DP, making it a harder to remove threat since your opponents can’t just simply swing into it with most of their LVL 6s.

2x [BT1-062] SlashAngemon. This card will always be good in yellow. It’s not a great attacker but it makes up for it by deleting most LVL 5s and below and when added on top of other DP reduction effects, this is usually the finishing blow that will delete your opponent’s biggest threats.

1x [BT4-048] WarGreymon. This card was the menace of the BT4 meta and it is in this deck as the backup plan. It’s pretty good in the mirror match since it can usually reduce the opposing LordKnightmon’s DP low enough to delete when you swing into it and being able to become active again makes it a harder threat to remove. It’s also a very aggressive attacker, letting you attack twice a turn as long as you have the security to remove for its effect.

Other cards

2x [BT4-091] Chaosmon: Valdur Arm. This is in here as extra removal, that’s about it. It’s best when evolved onto SlashAngemon to make it bigger but it’s still pretty good on top of any LVL 6 when the situation demands it.

3x [BT1-087] T.K. Takaishi. This card smooths out your turns by guaranteeing that you start with at least 3 memory and it helps dig out cards you might need in your Security Stack.

2x [BT4-104] Blinding Ray. At worst, it gets you to 3 memory when your opponent is setting you to 1, allowing you to evolve your LVL5 that you just moved from Raising Area to the Battle Area into a LordKnightmon and immediately gain advantage with its attack trigger. At best, it lets you go to 5 memory, play a BushiAgumon, and swing for game.

2x [BT5-099] Spiral Masquerades. This deck often goes wide and Spiral Masquerade is the best removal option with a big board, allowing you to delete just about anything your opponent has.

Match-ups

Round 1 (Purple 2-0):

Game 1: I was able to delete any stack he raised so he was never able to get up to a LV 6

Game 2: Same as game 1, he couldn’t stick a threat.

Round 2 (Green control 2-1):

Game 1: This one was pretty straightforward, I was able to build up my stack pretty quickly while he was missing his LVL 6s so I took over the game pretty easily

Game 2: I had a pretty good board and cleared his board pretty well but he was able to raise a LV 4, evolve it into a Blossomon, and then played Hidden Potential Discovered to go into Nidhoggmon to clear my board. He then evolved his Nidhoggmon into Chaosmon to delete my LordKnightmon and I couldn’t recover after that.

Game 3: I was able to go up into a WarGreymon on the battlefield while I kept a WarGrowlmon in the Raising Area, which let me chip away at his security while playing around Nidhoggmon. The turn he did go into Nidhoggmon, I had played a Gladimon on my turn so I had left him at 1 memory (I had a T.K out, setting me to 3 memory every turn). He played Hidden Potential Discovered again and only removed the Gladimon. He then evolved into Chaosmon after to swing into my WarGreymon but on my turn, I raised my WarGrowlmon, digi-bursted to give the Chaosmon –4000DP, evolved into LordKnightmon to swing into the Chaosmon and delete it. He wasn’t able to recover after that

Round 3 (Red Shoutmon 2-1)

Game 1: I was able to delete his Shoutmon stack pretty easily when I was able to go up to LordKnightmon so the game was in my favor

Game 2: I bricked pretty hard this game, I missed my LVL 4s  and 3s after the first LVL 3 so at one point, I had to hard play a Knightmon to delete a rookie and when I was able to evolve it into LordKnightmon, he was able to swing into it with his Shoutmon DX that had a ZeigGreymon under it. I couldn’t build enough of a board either, since he kept deleting anything I played with Shoutmon’s effect. His stack had 3 Shoutmon DX’s at least by the time the game ended.

Game 3: He didn’t have any ZeigGreymons to go with the Shoutmon DX so my LordKnightmon was left uncontested and quickly took over the game.

Round 4 (Green/Yellow Rookie Rush 2-0)

Game 1: I bricked actually. I started with 3 Knightmons, a Spiral Masquerade, and a SlashAngemon but the brick actually worked out in my favor. He went first, which let him evolve one LVL 3 in raising and play a LV 3 which luckily had 3000 DP so, on my turn, I just played a Knightmon to delete it. On his turn, he didn’t attack at all, he played more rookies and then Spiral Masqueraded my Knightmon. My bricked hand didn’t really get any better so I played another Knightmon and deleted another rookie. He attacked with one Rookie, played another, and Spiral Masqueraded my 2nd Knightmon. In my turn, my bricked hand still didn’t get any better so I hard-played my 3rd Knightmon, killing another Rookie. This one stuck around since he didn’t have a 3rd Spiral Masquerade to follow up with so he started swinging and most of his Rookies die to my security stack. In my turn, I finally draw a rookie so I evolve into in Raising and evolve a 1 cost on top of it. I swing at the surviving Rookie and then evolve my Knightmon into the SlashAngemon to delete the other one. He was very low on cards at this point so I was able to take the game back in my favor with the Spiral Masquerade in my hand, as well as the LordKnightmon I was eventually able to evolve into.

Game 2: He actually let me go first, which I think helped me out a lot more than he thought it would. I had a pretty good hand this time, with a turn 1 T.K. making sure I’d always start at 3 memory. I was able to respond to his board pretty efficiently on my turn when I evolved the rookie I had in raising to a blocker and ended my turn by deleting one of his 2000 DP rookies with Starmons. From there, I was able to go up into WarGrowlmon the next turn, deleting another threat with its Digi-burst, and I hard-played a Knightmon to delete another, just so that if he did have Spiral Masquerades in hand, he’d have to delete both of my LV 5s to stop me from going into LordKnightmon. He wasn’t able to delete both of them so I was able to go up into LordKnightmon and the game went in my favor.

Round 5 (LordKnightmon/Mastemon/WarGreymon 2-1)

Game 1: I went first so I spent my turns building up my stack in Raising while also trying to establish a blocker in the battle area and he did the same. He got to LordKnightmon first and swung, which let me respond on my turn with my own LordKnightmon swinging into his while reducing its DP with Knightmon’s on-play effect. I also had a SlashAngemon to evolve the Knightmon into so I was able to deal with the Knightmon he had played off of his LordKnightmon. The game went quickly in my favor after this.

Game 2: He went first. He had both Omnimon Zwart Defeat and WarGreymon out at one point and I didn’t have the pieces needed to deal with both of them so I lost pretty quickly.

Game 3: I went first. I usually like to go 2nd in the mirror but since I saw the WarGreymon and Zwart Defeat, I assumed he was running the Mastemon build and didn’t have any SlashAngemons, which would have let him respond to my threats more easily. I went up into LordKnightmon in Raising as he did the same as well. On my turn, I swung at him, played a Pulsemon to draw a card. I evolved Pulsemon into Piddomon to block, played Blinding Ray, and hard played a Unimon so that he would have to deal with both blockers on his turn with 1 memory to get rid of my LordKnightmon. He wasn’t able to so I was able to take over the game, eventually winning a BushiAgumon.

Round 6 (Imperialdramon 2-0)

Game 1: We both bricked. I had no LV 4s and he had no LV 5s so I spent my turns evolving Rookies in Raising while also playing Pulsemons to dig through my deck while he spent his turns evolving into blockers. I also hard-played a couple of Angewomons, which he responded to with Absolute Blasts. By the end of the game, he had managed to evolve 2 out of 3 of his blockers into Paildramons and I had 6 rookies total. I was down to 2 security after his swings while he was down to 4 security (I had attacked with a Pulsemon on my 2nd turn) so I swung with all 6 since I was going to lose the next turn and prayed that there were no Absolute Blasts in security. Turns out there weren’t and I won the game.

Game 2: I was able to go up into LordKnightmon and respond to his Imperialdramon pretty efficiently. All of his Nidhoggmons were also in security so he couldn’t clear my board and I was able to win.

Round 7 (LordKnightmon 2-1)

Game 1: He won the die roll so he went first, which let me see what he was doing first and gave me an extra card to respond with.

Game 2: I went first so we were in the opposite situation now, he had the upper hand and was able to respond to my threats better.

Game 3: I chose to go second and similar to the previous games, I was able to respond to his threats better. By the end of the game, I had both LordKnightmon and a WarGreymon with an Angewomon under it and I was able to put down a BushiAgumon with their effects, which gave me enough aggression and removal to delete his blocker and win the game.

 

Round 8 (Imperialdramon 2-0)

Game 1: I actually was missing a rookie so I had to begin the game by playing TK and grabbing a Rookie out of security. Luckily, his hand wasn’t too great either so I was able to start building up my stack in Raising. I was also able to put down a Cutemon pretty early and that slowed him down enough to let me go into LordKnightmon and take over the game. I had kept putting him at 1 or 2 memory so that he would have to spend 3-4 Hammer Sparks if he ever wanted to evolve into Imperialdramon. I also didn’t see Dinobeemon in Raising so I was able to swing freely knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to evolve into Nidhoggmon.

Game 2: I was able to answer his first Imperialdramon with LordKnightmon putting Knightmon into play and evolving it into a SlashAngemon. By the end of the game, he had a Paildramon in Raising and a Dinobeemon that he had built up in the battle area so I was able to comfortably swing again knowing I wasn’t going to get hit by a Nidhoggmon.

Round 9 (Purple Lilith Loop 2-0)

Game 1: We were both able to build up into our LV 6s but I had all the pieces I needed to remove his biggest threats and he had no way to deal with mine.

Game 2: He went up into Anubismon first, which I was able to delete on my turn by evolving into a WarGreymon, giving it –6000DP with its effect, and then hard playing a Knightmon to finish it off. With the amount of memory I gave him, he was able to go up into an Omnimon Zwart through a Lilithmon and Jack Raid, which he then used to bring back 2 LadyDevimons. Unfortunately for him, that did pass the turn over to me so I was able to evolve my Knightmon into LordKnightmon, which let me play another Knightmon for free, bringing Zwart’s DP down to 11000. I swung with WarGreymon to bring it down to 4000 (I had a Pickmon under WarGreymon). I was then able to finish it off with a Starmon. On his turn, he looped Jack Raids by evolving both his LadyDevimons into Lilithmons but he couldn’t find another Omnimon Zwart to keep him in the game so, on my turn, I was able to delete both Lilithmons by using WarGreymon to bring one down to 5000DP, evolve the Knightmon into a SlashAngemon to finish it off, and then finished the turn with Spiral Masquerade deleting the other one. He wasn’t able to recover from that and I was able to win from there.

Closing Thoughts

I can definitely attribute some of my wins to luck, especially round 4, when my bricked hand actually worked in my favor, and round 6 when both my opponent and I were bricking. Overall though, this deck is insanely powerful, allowing me to respond to basically anything that my opponents played while building my board. The one of WarGreymon was definitely an MVP in any games it showed up in, giving me the extra aggression and repeatable removal effect I needed to secure a lot of my wins.

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An Electric Rushed Lordknightmon

Invited Author: Lum Wenkang (Singapore)

Lordknightmon has always been a dominant face of yellow ever since its appearance in bt5. In a game where you manage your resources, memory is the biggest factor of the game. And Lordknight being able to play a card for free given the condition is met has always been one of the best resource cheats.

As a yellow player, I made a guess that Shine-yellow hybrid and Lordknight will be the face in BT7 format. However, the lack of usage for Lordknight surprised me and I decided to bring it to my local.

Hybrid is the dominant force in BT7, and their engine tends to run Bokomon, memory blockers, and maybe evolution cost-reduction blockers. Strong in their own rights, their low DP tend to put them under the radar of many nuke decks. Lordknight can do it without any option or tech cards as Knightmon's -4k DP is a great solution while also being a staple in the deck.

What give Lordknight a push in this set is the release of electric rush. At 3 security you are able to restand your Digimon (usually Lordknight) and gives +3k DP to any one of your Digimon.

This means that Lordknight can spawn even more units while dealing damage!

Deck Owner: Lum Wenkang

How to play this deck

The question is how to maintain your security at 3: lucky for yellow it has no shortage of such tools.

If your security is more than 3, you can reduce it with BT6 Pulsemon, BT3 Lopmon, and/or BT4 Blinding Light.

If your security is at 2, a Lucemon would suffice.

If you are at 1 or 0, use Binding Light if you have a Takeru on the board, evolve a Knightmon into a Kazuchimon to recover it back to 3.

Once you are at 3 security, feel free to go on a rampage! If you inherit the BT3 Angewomon, each Lordknight attack will cough 2 units, which will quickly pull you apart from your opponent's hard resources (unit on the board). In addition, the BT3 Upamon, BT7 Pulsemon, promo Pulsemon and Electric Rush will give you the resources to fund Lordknight and Angewomon.

Currently standard digivolution decks, while not as explosive, have better memory control over hybrid deck. Hybrid decks, unlike standard digivolution decks, will have to play a Bokomon and tamer (so on their turn will usually require 3 + 3 memory). Digivolving a LV3 into a 1-cost LV4 will put my opponent at 1 memory, and similarly when digivolving into lvl 5. If my LV6 can remove Bokomon then I will be able to establish a strong board presence until they can rebuild.

Matchups

While the deck is strong against hybrids, it is weak against:

– Security Control: a Lordknight dying to an option or a big Digimon on the first security check is too painful. However, it is OK if it dies to later security checks since you will already have multiple Digimons on the board.

– Nidhogg: the Lordknight and LV3s will be cleared, 'bankrupting your investments!

– Blue Strip: this matchup is kind of dependent on draws, as Azulong can become super cheap, and Hexablau stopping your advancement since units played by Lordknight do not have digivolution sources. Though you can just digivolve and drag the game out with Kazuchi until Spiral Masquerade comes to hand, I do not think that the deck has a good chance if Hexablau is set up more than 2 times. On a side note, using Blue Strip as a tech is relatively effective as well.

Games

Match 1: vs Red Hybrid

Game 1: I suppose my opponent did not expect that I am playing a different variant from most Lordknight decks (the DP reduction variant), so he put me at 3 security in early game, which allowed me to quickly pull away with 7 units in 1 turn.

Game 2: After learning how I played in game 1, he tried to build his board with tamer and lvl 4 hybrid. I cut my own security to 3 and equalizing his security to 3 while deleting his Bokomon with a Knightmon effect. With 3 memory and only 4 hybrid Digimon in trash, he was unable to end me with some luck on my side. Playing 2 atomic inferno, his BurningGreymon performed 3 checks and is required to die on the last check (so he can launch Kaisergrey) which is an impossible condition given that he is 13k DP large.

Match 2: vs Red/Blue Hybrid

Playing against Kyle, a friend of mine, was fun and relaxing since we both know each other tricks well.

Game 1: Due to hand brick, I hardplayed an Angewomon on turn 1. Thankfully, he did not have the best hand thus had no way to remove Angewomon, allowing me to digivolve into Lordknight and pull the game away.

Game 2: Sometime quite early in the game, he managed to warp his Koji into Magnagaruru to bounce my Lordknight back to hand (by returning one of his LV6 hybrid). I was unable to stop his onslaught as I attempt to rebuild my Lordknight, losing that game.

Game 3: I had only vague recollections of this game, but I did remember using Spiral Masquerade on his Magnagaruru (which was not warped from tamer but digivolved the traditional way). I pulled away from then on.

Match 3: vs Blue Hybrid

You can watch this game on DPP channel (to be posted later).

Game 1: I managed to pull the game apart with Electric Rush and pressured my opponent early in the game.

Game 2: Must be my highest highroll as I opened with the perfect hand. After game 1, David (my opponent) likely thought that it was safer to farm Tamers first. I quickly digivolved into Lordknight and played the BT6 Pulsemon, setting up the condition needed to pull the game away. What left a strong impression was that this was a game where he was perfectly capable of winning (something I did not expect) despite how strong my board has become. He managed to create a condition where he had 8 memory and 2 Howling Memory with 4 tamers, so he would have won as long as he attacks with 4 hybrid Digimons. However, with lady luck by my side, he was 1 card shy from drawing the part needed.

BT7 Yellow Deck Review: Shine-Zoe Hybrid

Invited Author: Abuan Binoe (Philippines)
YouTube: Binoe Abuan

Digimon Frontiers is my favorite season of the Digimon anime series and since BT7 introduced all of the show’s protagonists in the Digimon card game, all I have to do is to build and play a deck with my favorite character in it – Zoe Izumi.

The yellow color has good compatibility with tamers, it also has some of the best tamers in the game like BT1 Takeru and the dual tamer Takeru and Hikari. Because of this color's uniqueness, in theory, should work well with the new hybrid Digimons from BT7. Yellow also has the BT2 Shinegreymon, which is the best Digimon to utilize tamers for control. Combining all of this led to the idea of constructing this deck, the Yellow Shinegreymon-Hybrid Deck. You can also watch a deck profile video of this deck at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7nMq5OKy2s

Deck Owner: Abuan Binoe

The goal of the deck is simple and can be shown in four points – (1) Play tamers, (2) Recover security with Jet-Silphymon, (3) Control the board with Shinegreymon, and (4) have multiple attacks utilizing the level 4 hybrids.

(1) Play tamers (or let the opponent hit the security to get tamers)

This deck plays 16 tamers. The 4 copies of BT1 TK and 4 copies of Zoe are there to increase the deck’s consistency. BT1 TK can get fetch any yellow card from the security plus it is a memory fixer. Zoe can fetch a hybrid from the security, increasing the chances of having a hybrid in your hand. The 4 copies of the dual tamer Hikari and Takeru are very important for memory control. In this deck you let your opponent hit first and that can trigger the memory +2 effect of Hikaru and TK giving this deck the chance to have a very large memory to set up explosive plays mid and late game. The -1K DP can also come in clutch to kill small Digimons. I played 4 copies of the start set Takeru, this is good as it is just a 2-cost tamer and it also boosts your security Digimon by 2K. This can also be swapped with 2 BT3 Hikari and 2 [ST3-12] Takeru combinations.
 Setting the tamers early on increases the consistency of the deck, gives you more memory and you can utilize them with a barrage of attacks using the level 4 hybrids mid and late game.

(2) Recover security with Jet-Silphymon

The new level 5 hybrid, Jet-Silphymon, is one of the most important Digimon of the deck. You can evolve it for 1 cost when the Digimon you evolve it from has a tamer underneath and can trigger "Recovery +1" if it evolves from a hybrid, both effects will happen most of the time. This is important because you let your opponent hit your security early game so having a recovery card is good. Another good thing is that it is a 1 cost bridge to Shinegreymon making your minus DP plays easier.

(3) Control the board with Shinegreymon

Since you have many Tamers and you can easily get to a Lv. 5 Digimon through Jet-Silphymon, you can digivolve it into Shinegreymon to clear the opponent’s board easily.

(4) Have multiple attacks with your Lv. 4 Hybrids

I play a total of 8 Lv. 4 Hybrids in this deck – 4 copies of Kazemon and 4 copies of Zephyrmon, both of which evolves from a tamer for 2-memory cost. Since you have lots of tamers and you can gain memory with your tamers (Hikari & Takeru) (and other option cards), you have enough resources to unleash a barrage of attacks – evolving tamers to Lv. 4 hybrids, giving you so much advantage and possibly win the game. 

Other cards in the deck:

Bokomon – Bokomon is there to search for tamers and your Hybrids, it is a staple for all the hybrid decks out there. Its other effect to lets you gain 2 memory when you evolve a tamer, making the evolution cost basically free. Leaving a Bokomon alive in the board against hybrid decks is really dangerous which is why it is a usual target for early removal effects.
Patamon – Patamon is there to fetch your tamers, it can also be used as a free evolution for an extra draw.
Upamon – The Digitama of the deck allows you to draw when your Security is less than 3 which is most times.
BushiAgumon – It is there for sneak plays to end the game, but I might cut it and play 4 Patamons instead. Although it can be clutch in the end game, it still uses 5 memory which is too much since you can use that memory to evolve 2 Lv. 4 hybrids already.
Rizegreymon – You won’t get Jet-Silphymon all the time and this is the reason for playing Rizegreymon, not only that it is a versatile Lv. 5 with an ESS of "Security +1" when you have 3 or more tamers, but it also allows you to play a tamer for free.
Sakuyamon – One counter for this deck, especially in red decks, is to build a big Digimon in the nursery and have it attack for multiple security checks and end the game with an OTK. Sakuyamon stops that together with the potential OTK with the rush decks like Agumon BOC and Gabumon BOF.
Susanoomon – A good card end game especially if you have spent a lot of hybrids already. It is a big cannon that can destroy a problematic Digimon and can punch for 3 security.
Blinding Light – This card is there to control your security especially if you want to trigger the memory gain with the Dual tamers. This can also be a clutch end game as one Blinding light can give you one extra Lv. 4 Hybrid evolution and attack.
Wyvern’s Breath – This is to clear out problematic Digimons and counters for this deck. E.g. [BT5-058]Argomon – this card can completely stun this deck as you won’t get the minus DP from Shinegreymon and your tamers can’t evolve to attack since all of them will remain tapped as long as Argomon is in the field.

Overall, the win condition of this deck is simple and easy to understand but executing it is not that easy. You may have to assess the board state and execute the plays at the right time. You can’t be too passive or you’ll lose because there are a lot of aggro decks these days. This deck requires a lot of playtesting and getting used to. I can’t say that it’s one of the best decks out there, but it is the deck that I have the most fun playing with.

Tournament Match-Ups

Vs. Security control: 1-1 (Draw due to time limit)
Vs. Green Hybrid: 2-0 (Win)
Vs. Jesmon: 2-1 (Win)
Vs. Red Hybrid: 2-0 (Win)
Vs. Blue Hybrid: 2-1 (Win)
Vs. Green Hybrid: 2-1 (Win)

Color Match-Ups
Vs. Red – This is one hard match-up as the red hybrid is really fast. If you can’t answer their early game charge especially the 3 checks with Ancientgreymon, you will lose that game, otherwise, if you survived and controlled the board and made it to mid-game, there is a high chance that you can win especially if you can do a memory choke against the red player. The only problem late game is that there is a chance for the Kaisergreymon "Blitz" play which is really problematic.
Vs. Blue – You won’t have a Digimon in the field most of the time so Blue-stun is not really a problem. The real problem is that Blue has a decent speed and it has Hammer spark and Ice Wall so you have to plan your plays carefully.
Vs. Green – Green is a low-cost ramp deck because of Junpei and the download ability but as long as you can control the board, you can gain an advantage with this deck. The real problem is that if they are playing Argomon through download which can really stun the Shinegrey-hybrid deck.
Vs. Black – Black is slower and needs set-up which is favorable for this deck. You need to clear out blockers like Mechanorimon as it can stop your multiple attacks since it is a 6K DP multiple stand blocker, 7K with Taichi.
Vs. Purple – Purple decks like to attack the security early game which is good for this deck because there is a high chance of them hitting tamers from the security. Their Digimon won’t die as well if they hit a tamer which is not the optimal outcome for a purple player.

[EN Format] A Winning LKM Tournament Report

Invited Author: Jam Pingul (Germany)
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/jamminzz

Today we played Lordknightmon-control in our very first tourney of the BT5 format.
This Deck is all about controlling the board with amazing tempo-plays by cards like Lordknightmon, Starmon and so on.

My Version of the Deck was pretty much built against Rookie Rush and other aggressive Decks as I expected a lot of them due to a lot of players praising its strength for the new format.

Deck Introduction

Digitama

I run 4 Pickmon and 1 Upamon. Pickmon fits perfectly into our gameplay with his DP reduction effect to establish board presence while keeping opponents board as low as possible.

Upamon was needed for the 5th filler Digitama spot that could sometimes draw you some big cards from the top.

Rookie Digimon

I played 4 Starmons which literally is the new star of the Deck. While going wider on board the more the game goes on this card becomes super scary for your opponent, especially when cheated out by Lordkightmon. Who doesn't love a free removal that stucks on the board?

4 Pulsemon were pretty  much staples as these are arguably one of the best rookies in the game. Drawing a card for a potential 2 memory play is good! But getting cheated out by Lordknightmon for +1 memory and a card draw is just nuts. 3 ST3 Patamon are included for the memory gain as you have a lot of DP reduction effects in the deck, pretty good for memory choking your opponent! I also included 2 Bushiagumon for the burst lethal potential from hand if cheated out by Lordknightmon or by just having a Blinding Ray with a TK tamer on the board. 2 Promo Patamon are some small techs against the aggressive decks, people these days do not expect those.

Champion Digimon

My champion level Digimon were pretty much yellow champion staples with 4 Turuiemon and 4 Piddomon. Digivolving into a champion for 1 cost is pretty good especially if it's a blocker. Same purpose for the 2 other Blockers in Unimon, cheap blockers for aggressive matchups.

The last champion card was Gladimon, I actually just wanted to test him out because of being another good cheat out target for Lordknightmon while providing knowledge what cards in your security stack are, if you're able to get a LKM or Knightmon then jackpot! This actually came in clutch in some games today! Especially in the mirror match where more Knightmon that can be cheated out are very important to have!

Ultimate Digimon

My Ultime Digimon spots were also taken by staples, 4 Wargrowlmon are good to chop down the opponents board as well as the Knightmon. Last one of course being the Prime target of LKM.

As 9th ultimate I added a ST3 Angewomon to provide some heal against aggressive match ups.

Mega Digimon

We of course play 4 copies of Lordknightmon, this card is just broken, pretty hard to kill due to his [ALL TURN] effect and being able to cheat out up to ultimate level digimon is beyond incredible.

3 Slashangemon are included for being another big removal in the deck. Turns where a LKM attacks,then summons a Knightmon and then digivolving it into a Slashangemon for at least -12000 DP is ridiculous.

I added 1 single copy of Wargreymon for being another good burst option while also being a pretty good DP reducer that comes in clutch with effects like Pickmon in inherited while also providing you more options with the draw out of your security stack.

Matchups

This is the result in recent local tournament (Cardicuno in BT5 format) i attended and won first place

 Round 1:

Purple Mastemon 2-1: Purple is always a scary one to face now these days as they pretty much turn the game in their favor with one good fusion play or even one turn kill you. I won game 1 due to removing anything he puts on the board to prevent him from going into fusion plays.

Game 2 was decided by a small mistake on my side as i opted to not remove his digimon. He then proceeded to have some pretty amazing fusion plays that turned the game completely in his favor, Couldn't recover from this and we were off to game 3.
I actually forgot how I won game 3 but I remember it being pretty easy because of him having a brick hand. 

Round 2:

Lordknightmon Mirror 2-0: We both were playing pretty defensively raising our LKM in our raising areas while trading off some rookies with our Starmons on the field. After finally raising his Lordknightmon he misplayed by attacking with the wrong LKM (the one that had good inherited effects) to just play out another LKM which he did not opted to attack with (the other LK had no inherited effects). I killed his LKM with inherited effect and slowly chopped down his board turn by turn with him having no answers to my board.

Game 2 was decided by me having digivolving up to LKM early with a lot of Knightmons to cheat out and kill off everything he puts on the board. 

Round 3:

Purple Omni Zwart 2-0: This one was pretty easy due to myself having the LKM digivolution line early into the game and him having a slow hand. I then slowly again chopped down his board turn by turn while also slowly reducing his security for the win.

Game 2 was super fast due to him having a brick hand with all his megas and not having any LV5.

 

Final Round:

Purple Lilith Loop: I was looking forward to this Match up as I haven't tested against a Lilith Loop Deck yet. I figured to just keep on removing his stuff to prevent him from going into those scary loops and it paid out. Game 1 I digivolve early into my LKM while killing all his Level 5's. He couldn't get into the game and quickly lost to me flooding the board.

Game 2 We both digivolve early into our boss digimons, Lilithmon and LKM. He opted to go all in with his Lilithmon, hoping that I don't have a Knightmon that I could combine with a SlashAngemon to kill off his Lilith. Well… I did. He couldn't recover from it and quickly lost from there onwards. 

Overall Thoughts

Yes this deck is insanely broken. There's nothing really much to add to this statement. Not sure about the anti-aggro techs yet as I haven't faced any Rookie Rush today. But I actually would consider dropping another Unimon for Gladimon, I was surprised how good this card can be in a lot of situations.

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

Deck Review: Security Discard

Invited Article | Author: Effendy (Indonesia)
Facebook: OGRE Citra;  Discord

BT6 Double Diamond has brought us some new yellow Digimon cards, such as [BT6-034] Wizardmon, [BT6-044] Dynasmon and [BT6-033] Pulsemon which will mainly support the security discard deck's strategy. This scheme will work well with the BT4 Wargreymon and  BT3 Mastemon. 

I would like to introduce one of my new yellow decks that uses 3 main LV6 pillars: WarGreymon, Mastemon and Dynasmon. This deck provides a new way of manipulating my own security stack to achieve victory.

Regarding the deck's distribution, this deck runs 14x Lv3 Digimon cards, 10x Lv4 Digimons, 9x  Lv5 Digimons and 8x Lv6s without any Lv7 Digimons. 2 copies of the new tamer Takeru & Hikari and 2 copies of BT1 T.K Takeru are also included, with another 5 slots for option cards.

The foremost strategy for the deck is to make my security stack drop to 3, many cards are used to either take benefit from it or to support this plan. Wizardmon gives memory+1 when a card is removed from security stack, Dynasmon give recovery+1 when the security is discarded in both player's turn (and if my security card is less than 4), and Pulsemon will grant "Jamming" when the security is exactly 3 cards. This is where effects of cards like BT4 Wargreymon and BT3 Mastemon can show their true potential.

Besides those two cards, there are also other cards that can synergize with Wizardmon's and Dynasmon's effect, such as Blinding Light which give memory+2 by discarding one security card, and BT1 Takaishi Takeru tamer that searches 1 card from security stack and gains Recovery+1 if a yellow card is taken. I’ll explain why these two cards is so awesome with Wizardmon and Dynasmon.

When we use Blinding Light to discard 1 security card to gain 2 memories, each Wizardmon in the battle will gain 1 memory for the turn, and Dynasmon's effect can be triggered when our security drops to 3 or lower. 

Similarly with T.K Takeru's [On Play] effect, the reason why Takaishi Takeru synergizes with Wizardmon is because the play cost of Takeru can be reduced when we gain back memory from Wizardmon. Even though we will trigger the recovery+1 from T.K Takeru 's effect when we take 1 yellow card from security, Wizardmon will still trigger his memory+1 effect. This same concept applies to Dynasmon (as long as the security card now is 3 or lower), allowing his effect to recover an additional card on top of TK's, a 1 loss 2 gain. 
 
And another good use of this combo is when Takeru's effect is used to take a color besides yellow (Mastemon),  Dynasmon effect can be used to cover that loss. It’s really a great synergy!! XD

Beside cards I've explained above, I’d like to introduce other cards that are also key for the deck:

    1. BT3 Angewomon: this card not only give some swarming power for aggro, but also prevents 1 of your opponent's Digimon (especially multi-attacks) from checking my security.
    2. Bushi Agumon: this card is a fast aggro attacker and a surprise finisher, can be summoned for free with the help of BT3 Angewomon's inheritable effect.
    3. Promo Pulsemon: this is an excellent LV3 that can provide both draw power and memory when the security is exactly 3 cards!
    4. Promo Tailmon from the anniversary pack: this card is used for [Recovery+1] and also as a Blocker when summoned by Mastemon.
    5. Mimicmon is also a candidate to be summoned from Mastemon's [When Digivolving] effect to regain 2 memories. This is also probably the cheapest yellow Lv4 currently because it will only cost 2 when played.
    6. ST3 Angewomon is used for [Recovery+1] and best supports Mimicmon. By playing the LV4 with only 2 cost, we can digivolve into ST3 Angewomon to trigger the recovery.
    7. Lastly, Digitama cards such as BT3 Upamon, BT4 Koromon and BT6 Bibimon: these cards play a supporting role and the reason I chose these 3 being that my playstyle will always maintain a security size of 3 or lower.

The weaknesses of this deck can be apparent if paired against with a deck focusing on large or fast security attacks (OTK) such as Red Jesmon, Red Agumon BOC, or Blue Gabumon BOF. Often I find that Dynasmon cannot recover security faster than it hits so our hope is perhaps for the opponent to have a less than ideal hand! lolx.  

Utilizing The Deck

The plan is to bring out Dynasmon as soon as possible because he will be the shield in the early game phase while we prepare troops for attacking. After that, we can start focusing on building a digivolution chain for Wargreymon with BT3 Angewomon in its digivolution cards, so that every time Wargreymon attacks we can play a LV3 for free (Bushi Agumon), then Mastemon will come in as a finisher for game.

The dream digivolution chain for Wargreymon starts with lv2 Bibimon, lv3 BT6 Pulsemon, lv4 BT6 Wizardmon, and lv5 BT3 Angewomon. We can make various combos when security card is exactly 3, Bibimon will give memory+1, Pulsemon will give jamming, Wizardmon will give memory+1 while Wargreymon activates the effect by removing security then Angewomon will be able to summon level 3 digimon for free twice, the LV3 to be played from BT3 Angewomon's effect would be 2 BushiAgumon (extra 2 attacks) or 2 Pulsemon promo (extra memory+2 and/or extra draw+2). 

This digivolution line can also be used with BT3 Mastemon, imagine Mastemon [when Digivolving] effect will discard both players 1 security card then summon either BushiAgumon if we want to finish the game, or Mimicmon to gain memory and digivolving to ST3 Angewomon for Recovery, or promo Tailmon for recover and blocker. BT3 Angewomon's inheritable effect will also summon another Bushi Agumon or Pulsemon promo again resulting the same outcome.

In conclusion I can say this deck is kinda interesting to play with and it has potential to be able to compete with BT6 meta like Agumon BOC, Gabumon BOF or Jesmon as long as the preparation can be completed early.

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