CyberDramon's Digital Index -Digimon CCG

This, the 3rd article in this series (and the final one, for the moment), will deal with deck combinations, strategies for certain decks, and.... well, that's it (but that's enough info for a decently long article right there...), so on to the decks! (Note: This is article is no longer up-to-date, so check everything against more recent erratas and clarifications. Update and new info coming soon.)

First we'll look at the 'true lines' of some Digimon, then see how those lines can be weaved together in different deck combinations. For each deck combination there will be suggestions as to which additional Digimon could/should be added, Digi-Destined and Digi-Modify cards that would work well with that deck, strategies that can be used, and any strengths and/or weaknesses that a player should be aware of (well, all the strengths and weaknesses I could think of at the time).

But first, the 'true lines':

(DM-004 & DM-013) Renamon to Kyubimon to Taomon to Sakuyamon

(DM-006 & DM-016) Veemon to ExVeemon to Paildramon to Imperialdramon *

(DM-007) Patamon to Angemon to MagnaAngemon to Seraphimon

(DM-009 & DM-018) Guilmon to Growlmon to WarGrowlmon to Gallantmon **

(DM-011) Keramon to Kurisarimon to Infermon to Diaboromon

(DM-012) Lopmon to Endigomon *** to Antylamon to Kerpymon ****

(DM-014) Salamon to Gatomon to Angewomon to Magnadramon

(DM-035 & DM-043) Agumon to Greymon to MetalGreymon to WarGreymon

(DM-037 & DM-051) Gabumon to Garurumon to WereGarurumon to MetalGarurumon

(DM-039) Armadillomon to Ankylomon to Shakkoumon to Vikemon

(DM-041 & DM-046) Wormmon to Stingmon to DinoBeemon to GranKuwagamon

(DM-042 & DM-052) Terriermon to Gargomon to Rapidmon to MegaGargomon

(DM-047) Hawkmon to Aquilamon to Silphymon to Valkyrimon

*Veemon's Special Digivolution line doesn't specify which mode of Imperialdramon you can Special Digivolve to, but logic suggests that it's Imperialdramon (Fighter Mode) since that's the only Imperialdramon released so far. (Paladin Mode) will be released in series 2, at which time I'll ask Customer Support what's going on with Veemon's 'true line'.

**In relation to Veemon's 'true line' thing, it casts doubt on whether or not you can Special Digivolve straight to Gallantmon (Crimson Mode) or not, but I'm going to go with not -Special Digivolution to Gallantmon only.

***I believe that Turuiemon, and not Endigomon, is Lopmon's true Champion, and I talked to Customer Support about this. They said that due to licensing issues they can't make the game as correct as they'd like, which doesn't tell me whether I'm right or not, but *does* tell me that Endigomon as Lopmon's true Champion is correct in this game (and will probably not change...)

****A 'Kerpymon' card has not been released in series 1, and so I cannot give any suggestions on a strategy past Ultimate since I don't know what Kerpymon's Digivolve Requirements, Attack and Defense powers, Digimon Group, and Special Effect is going to be. I should note that 'Kerpymon' is Cherubimon's name in the Digi-Battle card game, just so you know who I'm talking about...

Before I give any deck combinations I should say that these aren't the only decks that can be made, just the decks that goes along 'true lines'. With a little creativity you can make a whole lot more decks. ;-)

Deck 1: DM-089 Taomon can Digivolve from Kyubimon, Prariemon, or Rinkmon. DM-070 Prariemon can come from a Patamon or a Monodramon, and DM-071 Rinkmon can come from a Hawkmon or a Monodramon. DM-024 Kyubimon can come from a Renamon or a Veemon. What makes this significant is that DM-026 ExVeemon can Digivolve from a Veemon, Keramon, or a Monodramon, effectively allowing the Renamon and Veemon lines to be weaved together since there's 2 Veemon cards (DM-006 & DM-016) and 2 ExVeemon cards (DM-076 ExVeemon). ExVeemon can Digivolve to DM-093 Paildramon who can Digivolve to DM-103 Imperialdramon (Fighter Mode).

Three copies of each Renamon, Veemon, and Monodramon card gives you 15 Rookies (if you need that many). 3 copies of Kyubimon, Prariemon, Rinkmon, and each ExVeemon gives you 15 Champions (again, if you need that many). Then 3 copies of Taomon and Paildramon gives you 6 Ultimates, and 3 copies of Sakuyamon and Imperialdramon (FM) gives you 6 Megas, over all making a rather large size deck. That gives you 42 Digimon cards, unless you decide to edit that down a little. Renamon and Prariemon are both Animal Digimon, Rinkmon is an Android Digimon, and Veemon and Paildramon are both Dragon Digimon, so DD-006 Takato, who gives a power boost to all Animal, Android, and Dragon Digimon, would be good for this deck. DD-015 Joe gives all Animal and Android Digimon a power boost too, making it also good for this deck. Taomon's Special Effect relys on Digi-Modify cards and Paildramon's Special Effect relys on Digi-Destined cards. Since all those Digimon have an Attack power of 500 or more, I'd suggest having mostly Attack x2 Digi-Destined cards, besides DD-005 Takato and DD-015 Joe, in your deck ...since there are 3 different Attack x2 cards (DD-002 Sora, DD-013 Kari, and DD-018 Digimon Emperor) giving you more than enough Digi-Destined cards to work with. Short of that, cards that give +500 Attack to any 1 Digimon would also work (to a lesser extent).

As for Digi-Modify cards... There are few strategies I can think of, but here they are: MD-007 Aero Wing and MD-018 Ice Arrow would be a very good idea because few of those Digimon have Special Effects that can boost each other's Defense powers (on that note, quite a few Digi-Destined Boost Defense cards may be helpful too...). Something that comes to mind is DM-103 Imperialdramon (FM)'s Special Effect of allowing your opponent to bring Online only 1 Digimon per turn... To give you a bit of an edge, you may want to put one or two MD-017 Digital Bandage cards in your deck; it stops the opponent from moving any Digimon he/she just brought Online to the Attack Row that turn. Also, there's DM-070 Prariemon's Special Effect that gives it a +500 Defense bonus when attacked by an Animal Digimon. One strategy would be to play DM-029 Knight Device, which would work well with Prariemon in your Attack Row, and even better if your opponent doesn't have any Animal Digimon in their Attack Row. Playing it in a combo with MD-028 Rook Device can prove rather useful too, especialy if you've got a good strategy to go with it... ;-) Then there's MD-027 King Device that does twice as much damage as Imperialdramon (FM)'s Special Effect by stopping your opponent from bringing *any* Digimon Online in the turn it's played in. In the way of defense, you may want to think about putting a MD-019 The Aegis card (or 3) in your deck. It gives a relatively small boost to your Digimons' Defense power (+300), but it gives that boost to *all* the Digimon in your Attack Row making it rather useful when you have little to no Digi-Destined Boost Defense cards or Modify cards that stops the opponent's attacks in your hand. For those of you who would rather not have your opponent's Digimon reach the point of being able to attack at all, there's MD-005 Control Spire to stop the opponent from Digivolving, MD-025 Collapsed Control Spire to stop the opponent from moving any Digimon that have Digivolved to the Attack Row, and a few other cards that allow you to cause your opponent to lose a Digimon by making you lose one as well... (I'll let you find those cards on your own)

Deck 2: DM-093 Paildramon can Digivolve from ExVeemon, Veedramon (not released yet), or Stingmon. DM-026 ExVeemon can Digivolve from Veemon, Keramon, or Monodramon; DM-076 ExVeemon can Digivolve from Veemon, Agumon, or Gabumon; DM-075 Stingmon can Digivolve from Wormmon, Agumon, or Salamon. As it turns out, DM-061 Greymon can Digivolve from Agumon or Gizamon; DM-080 Greymon can Digivolve from Agumon or Salamon; DM-055 BlackGargomon can Digivolve from Terriermon, Gotsumon, or Gabumon; DM-053 Garurumon can Digivolve from Gabumon or Wormmon; DM-054 Shadramon can Digivolve from a Wormmon or a Muchomon. DM-062 MetalGreymon can Digivolve from Greymon or BlackGargomon, and DM-090 WereGarurumon can Digivolve from Garurumon, Shadramon, or Aurumon. MetalGreymon can Digivolve to DM-101 WarGreymon and WereGarurumon can Digivolve to DM-066 MetalGarurumon. (This is significant for when Omnimon and Imperialdramon (Paladin Mode) gets released in series 2.) Of course, you can do any sort of combination you want with that -don't need to have all three Digimon 'true lines' in there (unless you want to get to Imperialdramon (Paladin Mode), possibly...).

Now for the other cards... Several of those Digimon are from the Animal, Android, and Dragon groups, and you already know which 2 Digi-Destined cards works for that. However, there are also several Insectoid (Shadramon, Wormmon, and Stingmon), Reptile (Agumon and Gabumon), and Mammal (Salamon) Digimon in there too, for which DD-008 Matt works well. None of the Special Effects rely on Digi-Destined or Digi-Modify cards except Paildramon's, and besides the strategies from the last deck, I can't think of many strategy cards to put in here...

Deck 3: Patamon's line, at the moment, is a bit of a strict line because Pegasusmon hasn't been released yet... Patamon's line could be used in a Vikemon deck, but because the line only starts to interweave at Ultimate it may be a bit difficult... The other line that could be used in Magnadramon's:

MagnaAngemon can Digivolve to DM-096 Seraphimon or DM-098 Magnadramon (among others) and Angemon can Digivolve to DM-086 MagnaAngemon or DM-008 Angewomon. Angemon can Digivolve from a Patamon, Palmon, or Hawkmon. DM-098 Magnadramon can Digivolve from both MagnaAngemon and Angewomon; DM-088 Angewomon can Digivolve from Gatomon, Stingmon, or Angemon; DM-023 Gatomon can Digivolve from Salamon, Kokuwamon, or Chuumon, and DM-075 Stingmon can Digivolve from Wormmon, Agumon, or Salamon. For a little addition, DM-084 Silphymon can Digivolve to DM-094 Valkyrimon and from Aquilamon, Gatomon, or Nefertimon. DM-074 Aquilamon can Digivolve from Hawkmon, Biyomon, or Palmon (Note: Palmon hasn't been released yet, but when it is, it'll make a good addition as it can Digivolve to both Aquilamon and Angemon).

One thing that makes this good is the Special Effects of Hawkmon's line, and another is Gatomon's SE and Angemon's SE. Angemon's Special Effect raises the Attack power of all Angel Digimon in your Attack Row by +300 when that Angemon is on your playmat (which means the Special Effect can be activated in the Digivolve Row). Since Angemon, MagnaAngemon, Angewomon, and Seraphimon are all Angel Digimon, this SE is rather useful (and the posibility of up to 3 Angemon on your playmat means a possible attack boost of +900 for all your Angel Digimon since the SE is stackable). Similarily, Gatomon's SE is exactly the same except it raises the Attack Power of your Animal Digimon. Gatomon, Silphymon, and Chuumon are all Animal Digimon, and there are a few other Animal Digimon Gatomon (and Rookies) can Digivolve too, if you wish to include them in your deck. Then there's the SEs of Hawkmon's line (which I'll mention in another deck idea). You could also add one or more DM-034 Lucemon cards for the Special Effect (for which I'd suggest it *only* be used at this point in the game's history), if you want, but I *highly* suggest making sure it's well defended as it's Attack and Defense powers... well, they're patheticaly low (probably to balance out for it's Special Effect). Cards that would good for that are MD-007 Aero Wing, MD-018 Ice Arrow, the the ovbious Digi-Destined Boost Defense cards, if you don't have one of the defense Modify cards in your possession. I also suggest only bringing Lucemon Online and/or moving it to the Attack Row if you already have the nessesary cards and/or a plan (and back-up plan) to defend Lucemon for that turn so you can use the Special Effect on your next turn.

In cards, there are no Andriod or Dragon Digimon in this deck, and Stingmon is the only Insectoid Digimon unless you want to add more. Thus, I wouldn't suggest having DD-008 Matt in this deck, but DD-005 Takato and/or DD-015 Joe might be useful. I can't suggest any other cards besides the standard-ish ones I mentioned on the second article, so you'll have to go explore some possibilities. ;-)

Deck 4: DM-104 Gallantmon (Crimson Mode) can only Digivolve from a Gallantmon + Grani, and DM-033 Gallantmon can only Digivolve from a WarGrowlmon. DM-091 WarGrowlmon can Digivolve from Growlmon or Sethmon. DM-027 Growlmon can Digivolve from Guilmon, Renamon, or DemiDevimon. DM-021 Sethmon can Digivolve from Guilmon or Veemon.

Because Growlmon can come from Renamon and Veemon and Sethmon can come from Veemon, this line would make a good compliment to a Renamon/Veemon deck (deck 1 in this article). DemiDevimon can oly Digivolve to Growlmon at this point in the game, so I can't realy make any better suggestions right now... :-/ In cards, DD-005 Takato might be good because WarGrowlmon, Paildramon, and Veemon can all use it. Other than that, I'm out of ideas too... We may have to wait until the next series before we can make any realy good 'true line' decks with Gallantmon's line. *sigh*

Deck 5: DM-102 Diaboromon can only Digivolve from an Infermon; DM-092 Infermon can only Digivolve from a Kurisarimon; DM-078 Kurisarimon can only Digivolve from a Keramon; DM-011 Keramon is the only Digimon in that whole line that can Digivolve to something other than what's in it's 'true line', and the only other Digimon it can Digivolve to is DM-026 ExVeemon... That's not enough to build a deck on unless you add this line in as a compliment to another deck. Because the Digimon Group in 'Unidentified' and none of their Special Effects has a compliment in any Digi-Destined or Digi-Modify cards, I can't realy suggest anything for this line... Maybe in future releases I'll be bale to make a deck out of this?

Deck 6: Kerpymon hasn't been released yet, so I can't make any suggestions on that... DM-032 Antylamon can Digivolve from an Endigomon (not released yet) or a Turuiemon and DM-022 Turuiemon can Digivolve from a Patamon or a Lopmon. Also, DM-028 Gargomon can Digivolve from a Lopmon, so Lopmon's line could be added to Terriermon's for a theme-based deck (Twin Digimon of Fire and Ice; based on the description on a Hyper Coliseum card).

Either that, or you could add it to a Patamon/Salamon deck for a theme-based 'Great Angels' deck since Turuiemon can Digivolve from Patamon and Gatomon's SE would compliment Lopmon's line (so far).

For Digi-Destined cards, DD-005 Takato and DD-015 Joe would be good, and for Digi-Modify cards, MD-029 Knight Device would be good because Turuiemon's SE gives a +700 Defense boost when attacked by an Animal Digimon, raising Turuiemon's Defense to 1500. Other than that, can't think of anything for this deck yet... x.x'

Deck 7: DM-098 Magnadramon can Digivolve from Angewomon or MagnaAngemon; DM-088 Angewomon can Digivolve from a Gatomon, Angemon, or a Stingmon; DM-023 Gatomon can Digivolve from a Salamon, Kokuwamon, or a Chuumon. DMP-001 Goldramon (promo card) can Digivolve from a MagnaAngemon or a Paildramon; DM-086 MagnaAngemon can Digivolve from or Pegasusmon (not released yet) or an Angemon; DM-093 Paildramon can Digivolve from a Veedramon (not released yet), ExVeemon, or a Stingmon; DM-057 Angemon can Digivolve from a Patamon, Palmon (not released yet), or a Hawkmon; DM-075 Stingmon can Digivolve from Wormmon, Agumon, or Salamon.

That in itself gives you a number of Digimon to work with and would make a pretty good deck, if constructed well... If you don't have a DMP-001 Goldramon card, DM-103 Imperialdramon (Fighter Mode) would make an adequate substitute. It doesn't have the Special Effect DMP-001 Goldramon has, but it's a Digivolution for Paildramon. MagnaAngemon would still be able to Digivolve to Magnadramon, so it doesn't effect the deck much as far as Digivolution... With Angemon, at this point in the game, you only have a choice between Patamon or Hawkmon for a Rookie (I wouldn't suggest in having both, unless you need the Rookies in your deck), and I'd go with DM-047 Hawkmon. Why? Because Patamon has good stats and an adequate Special Effect, but Hawkmon's SE is more useful in this deck, in my opinion. For Stingmon, I'd suggest adding in a few Wormmon, but not to many as you can still Digivolve from Salamon too..

Another thing to note is that Salamon can Digivolve to both DM-075 Stingmon *and* DM-080 Greymon, and both can also come from an Agumon. This allows Salamon's line to be interwoven with Agumon's, and with a few good combos and effects too... There are 2 Greymon cards in series 1, but I'd suggest only putting in one or more copies of DM-080 (because the other Greymon may not be quite as useful in this deck as you think. Remember, keep the deck tight with some flexability). DM-080 Greymon has a rather low Defense Power and a decent Attack Power, but a realy good Special Effect (for which I suggest that Greymon primarily used in this deck; don't make him the heart of your attack force, and make sure he has adequate defense when you can). I also suggest no more than 4 Agumon cards; there are 2 Agumon -DM-035 & DM-043. DM-101 WarGreymon can Digivolve from a MetalGreymon (although this WarGreymon may not be perticularily nessesary or all that useful ni this deck... ); DM-062 MetalGreymon can Digivolve from a Greymon or a BlackGargomon (the Greymon's Rookies have already been mentioned); and DM-055 BlackGargomon can Digivolve from a Terriermon, Gotsumon, or Gabumon.

The significance of this is that both Terriermon and BlackGargomon work suprisingly well with Gatomon's SE, especialy when you consider BlackGargomon's SE of the opponent not being allowed to play Digi-Destined Boost Defense cards on the Digimon BlackGargomon attacks. And although (DM-042 & DM-052) Terriermon's stats look a little low, you have to take into account it's Special Effect that raises it's Attack by +300 when there's another Animal Digimon in either your or your opponent's Attack Row. Add that to the effect from 3 DM-023 Gatomon you could have in your Attack Row, and you end up with one or more Terriermon with an Attack of 2100. With 3 of the said Gatomon in your Digivolve Row, your BlackGargomon could have an attack of 2000 with your opponent not being able to play Boost Defense cards after BlackGargomon calls an attack*.

(* I should note, though, that Digi-Destined cards state that they can be played 'during the Attack Phase', but not specificaly *when* during the Attack Phase. Thus, it may and should be possible to play a bunch of Digi-Destined Boost Defense cards at the start of an opponent's Attack Phase before they call out any attacks with any Digimon, including BlackGargomon. As long as the Digi-Destined Boost Defense cards are played during the Attack Phase *before* BlackGargomon attacks, there's nothing you can do about it...)

And now for the Digi-Destined and Digi-Modify cards... DD-005 Takato, DD-015 Joe, and DD-008 Matt (with or without the additions from Greymon's line) should all work decently well in this deck. I strongly suggest, though, that you put some MD-007 Aero Wing and MD-018 Ice Arrow cards in there to protect your Greymon (among other Digimon) from the opponent's attacks. For stratagies and combos for WarGreymon's and Imperialdramon (FM)'s Special Effects, you can read what I've written for Deck 1. : ) Othat than that, I can only suggest the general cards mentioned in my second article of this series.

Decks 8 and 9: Dealing with Agumon's and Gabumon's lines, all the suggestions for Agumon's line can be found in decks 7 and 2, and the suggestions for Gabumon's deck can be found in deck 2, as well as any card combos and suggestions for them. :-)

Decks 10 - 12: Deck suggestions for Armadillomon can't be given at this time as I find the Digivolutions for that line a bit too... spaced-out for my taste.. And one suggestion for a Wormmon deck is intertwined with Gaubumon's line, while the other involves a Kabuterimon (which hasn't been released yet). MegaGargomon's line is a bit strict at this point in the game with Rapidmon being able to only Digivolve from a Gargomon or a Rinkmon (and Rinkmon isn't even remotely related ni it's Digivolve Requirements). I suggest having Teriermon and Lopmon together in a deck, but that still doesn't bring it up enough for a full deck... I suggest having MegaGargomon's line in as only a compliment to another deck, at least at this point in the game, unless you can do something creative with it...

Deck 13: DM-094 Valkyrimon can only Digivolve from a Silphymon; DM-084 Silphymon can only Digivolve from a Gatomon, Aquilamon, or a Nefertimon (not released yet); DM-074 Aquilamon can only Digivolve from a Hawkmon, Biyomon (not released yet), or a Palmon (not released yet). Overall, I'd suggest this be used only be used in the suggestion for Deck 3 at this point, unless you can come up with something creative for your deck (until more cards come out, anyway..). DM-047 Hawkmon's SE stops your opponent from playing any Digi-Destined Boost Attack cards while it's in your Attack Row; DM-074 Aquilamon's SE stops your opponent from playing any Digi-Destined Boost Defense cards while it's in the Attack Row; DM-084 Silphymon stops your opponent from playing any Modify cards while it's in the Attack Row; and DM-094 Valkyrimon's Special Effect is basicaly the Effects of the other 3 rolled into 1: With him in your Attack Row, your opponent can't play any Digi-Modify or Digi-Destined cards (of any type), making it rather significant for if Bandai America decides to let Digi-Destined cards do more than just add to a Digimon's Attack or Defense. ; )

And that's all I have for the moment, folks. Hope it helps a bit : ) And I'll be editing and modifying this article, as well as the rest of the article series, once the new cards come out in series 2. ^ ^;; Should have more and better deck suggestions then. X-]

-CyberDramon