… a meta without a Tier 0 deck almost everything depends on the matchups!
Manuel Anggelo has been interviewed before when he won the Europe Regionals in July and became 2nd with Leopardmon. Make sure to read about that to start knowing this amazing Digimon TCG player.
I feel really good after this win. To win another regionals after the one won in 2023 makes me very proud of myself and encourages me to keep improving in the Digimon TCG and do my best.
I was not that stressed or confident, I always play to win but since this is a meta without a Tier 0 deck, almost everything depends on the matchups. The only moment when I get nervous is when the tournament starts. But for this tournament I felt fine as we have been playing this meta for a long time already.
I try to test my deck 1-2 days before the tournament and if I brick these days, I’m 100% sure I’ll not be in the tournament top cut haha. This somewhat feels like a ritual to me. But normally I don’t try to test too much before the tournament because I prefer to feel fresh before it.
One of my strengths is to be zoned out when I play in a tournament, it feels like I’m 100% focused and almost never do stupid miss plays. I can easily handle long tournaments, however one of my weaknesses is maybe laziness.
I just test as much as I can and try to watch videos of the matchups from which I can learn. Besides that I always play via webcam and at locals before I go to a tournament. I have a friend who is called Dr Zaius who is for me one of the best players I have played against. Testing against him always feels good because I almost always lose, but I learn a lot from that haha. We test for hours and when he can’t, I just play with random people on Discord or use the sim which is also really good.
I’m a very competitive player, so I always play to win. If I’m not in the Top 8 at the tournament, I feel like I played badly.
Just play a lot and try to understand what the reasons are you lose games and how to deal with bad matchups. Find someone to test with, especially for testing bad matchups. Other good habits are: think a few steps in advance and what your opponent could possibly do the next turns. Also against Purple decks, ask what they have in trash, keeping track of your opponents cards by counting cards or just remember what he has searched for can be helpful too. There are many things you can always improve, just think about what it could be.
This is the deck I tested the most in this meta and the only hard matchup that I have is Magnamon.
It is not bad, but I still struggle against some of the most popular decks like: Seven Great Demon Lords! Let’s hope for a comeback with Leopardmon in the future!
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It’s a pretty standard build for a Leviamon deck. The only thing that I changed compared to other lists are for example: 2x BT8-071 Psychemon, 2x BT3-077 Gazimon. I really like to have both floodgates as 2 offs as Psychemon is almost an auto win against Seven Great Demon Lords, which is very popular in the EX7 meta. Then EX5-058 Octomon and EX5-060 Dragomon to trigger the BT15-081 Leviamon (X Antibody). I also prefer a normal 1x BT9-109 X Antibody option instead of 4x EX5-070 X Antibody Protoform, because with the normal one we can do the combo with EX5-060 Dragomon in case we don’t have a EX5-070 X Antibody Protoform for EX5-059 Dobermon (X Antibody). The rest of the deck is pretty standard as I mentioned.
The standard combo is having a stack with an BT9-109 X Antibody or use EX5-070 X Antibody Protoform to go into the Lvl4 EX5-059 Dobermon (X Antibody), then digivolve into EX5-060 Dragomon to digivolve into BT15-081 Leviamon (X Antibody) and be able to do many check and potentially go for lethal.
My game plan was just to avoid playing against the Magnamon, because it is the hardest matchup and try to clear the opponents security as fast as possible while putting floodgates on the field haha, that’s Leviamon!
Hardest but not impossible matchup is Magnamon. The easiest I think is probably Seven Great Demon Lords or Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi, if I can set up an early game EX5-069 Biting Crush.
I think the overall tournament went pretty smooth, the only one I would highlight was the draw against Imperialdramon where I bricked so hard both games. The first game against Imperialdramon was so sad because I bottom decked early game 2x EX5-063 Leviamon and 2x BT15-081 Leviamon (X Antibody) and never saw my EX5-058 Octomon, EX5-060 Dragomon or when I did see them, it was too late. Game 2 I thought I would lose the early game, but thanks to a P-108 Wisdom Training I unbricked my hand.
The weakness of the Leviamon deck is always aggro decks, but the EX7 meta is not that fast. The strength is the fact that we can clear almost any board and be very aggressive at some point.
I wouldn't change anything I think for when it comes to EX7 meta. With Special Booster Ver. 2.0 (BT18-19) I would add to be sure BT19-069 Deltamon to deal with floodgates like BT14-009 Gotsumon or BT9-033 Pillomon. With Special Booster Ver. 2.0 I’ll probably be playing LordKnightmon (X Antibody) or Purple Hybrid, however Leviamon is still good I think but have to test a lot to be sure. Now we have to think about Championship Finals Europe Utrecht at the Netherlands, that's the real challenge. Lets hope I can do well in that big tournament and maybe we see another article for that event haha.
Interviewed and special thanks to: Anggelo Manuel Centeno Rossello
Author: Digital Gate Open (Nathan van Hulst)