The head judge said: Wow! That was a monster turn!
Hi I’m Jasper, but most people online call me Baritone. I have been a big fan and player of the Digimon TCG since around the release of BT5: Battle Of Omni where I went to my first tournament with UlforceVeedramon. And I’ve been to regionals at least once a year every year and to every yearly Finals. I got into the game initially so I could open the packs together with my sister who I used to watch Digimon with growing up.
BT12-021_P1 Veemon because he is energetic, blue and has 3 cool armor evolutions! The coolest of which is Magnamon obviously.
EX2-045_P1 Calumon because I love the full art playmat for this art. I am a sucker for extended artworks.
I managed to set up a locals at a shop in my hometown and I’ve been playing there every week (I think I missed three weeks total so far) since EX1: Classic Collection. There are some other shops around but I really really love the community that my own store has. When I want to seriously try a deck I will go for a few sessions online to get a feel for the opening hands and consistency. After that I go around the different locals in my area to practice different matchups.
The only result I’ve been really proud of outside of this past regional is the first Digimon Finals where I got top 60 which was the first time I was close to getting top 32.
Veemon & Magnamon are my favorite digimon and evolution. So really it was that and the fact it was powerful that made me pick it over trying a ‘more meta’ deck.
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I played it a lot at locals, online and at a different store to get a good matchup spread and to see if I was able to navigate through matchups I didn’t know. And then I would add or remove cards I felt were causing wins or losses. It was mostly about testing my mindset for Finals as I acknowledged that I ruined a few tournaments in the past by letting the games get to me when realistically I could have come back.
While I beat all the MirageGaogamon decks I came across I still find the matchup so scary because of their consistency. If they get to their BT13-033 MirageGaogamon: Burst Mode to bottom deck your ACE or EX1-068 Ice Wall! and it is over.
Red Hybrid and Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi are the easiest especially the later if you can get BT16-102 Magnamon (X Antibody) live before they can DNA Digivolve as it effectively ruins their OTK and use BT17-077 Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE that can also demolish the deck.
My deck choices are mostly very simple. I wanted to see if I could just slap my favorite Digimon in a deck and make it work to the best of its ability. So I started with checking which Veemon's I could use for searching and advantage.The BT12-021 Veemon is by far the best searcher to run in combination with P-124 Davis Motomiya so he was an easy choice. P-117 Veemon is the best Veemon to put in raising on the first turn, especially if you have a tamer you can use to pass turn with. Any Tamer will allow you to at least go into Magnamon without passing the turn, except under BT8-094 Digimon Emperor, which is all the deck needs to get going. It also has arguably the best inherited effect in the deck.
The best Veemon to slam down that isn’t a searcher is BT16-017 Veemon because at 2k he can crash into floodgates and leftover rookies in messy game states. His main utility in the deck is allowing an early Magnamon through the memory refund. The inherit is also really good for allowing security hits that float around 15k if BT16-102 Magnamon (X Antibody) is not online yet.
The final Veemons are still in flux as I am unsure what ratio to play either of them in. ST9-02 Veemon is a budget version of BT12-021 Veemon, but I just see him as extra copies for more consistency.
EX3-004 Veemon is situation dependent. The idea is to unbrick by trashing a Veemon or Magnamon in hand to get more draws which helps to grab unsearchable cards like BT10-112 Jesmon GX or BT9-098 Awakening of the Golden Knight. This doesn’t really come up though and he could easily be a memory boost. His niche application is to pitch a BT17-077 Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE if you plan to use the 2nd copy of it to Blast Digivolve on the following turn to steal turn or to prevent followup.
For the Champions, I play all the available Magnamons though there is one I play less because he is simply less good at getting in swings or affecting the board.
BT8-038 Magnamon is the best Magnamon for swinging, it can’t go wrong if he gets a boost and even without the boost he only dies to level 5 and above Digimon, bounce or bottom decking options.
ST17-13 Magnamon is by far the best one for utility and preventing boards from getting out of hand. His security effect is extremely relevant, especially rewarding you for using P-124 Davis Motomiya to keep Veemons on the board while clearing the board of any 1 source mono or 2 source dual color Digimon. This came up repeatedly for clearing level 5 dual color ACE Digimon without a Digitama. This card is why I have an Omnimon and I will break down why later.
BT13-040 Magnamon is the Magnamon that you want to slap on top of any On Play Veemon to trigger more searching. This Magnamon also doesn’t have Armor Purge but a more niche replacement effect which lets you retain a body after being hit with -DP effects. You can Armor Purge Magnamon X into this guy and trigger the All Turns to float into a Veemon. The remaining singleton Digimon is BT7-023 Korikakumon which is just there to Hybrid for game.
The only Mega level 6 is BT16-102 Magnamon (X Antibody). The entire cornerstone of the deck, your win condition and your play enabler. The deck revolves around getting to this guy fast, often and then repeatedly triggering his When Digivolving effect to become immune and swing.
BT10-112 Jesmon GX is a tech choice because of my previous love for the Jesmon deck and because a friend who moved far away gave them to me as a parting gift. It also helps that he is extremely synergistic with the BT9-109 X Antibody option. This card is how you win against Seven Great Demon Lords. When using the When Attacking effect of X-Antibody you can slot BT8-038 Magnamon or BT16-102 Magnamon (X Antibody) for a mid swing unsuspend to retain a blocker on the board. Jesmon GX sadly cannot use EX4-068 Heaven's Judgement or EX1-068 Ice Wall!.
The last Digimon is BT17-077 Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE, which I was hesitant to include at first but when a friend ordered some I joined in and I haven’t regretted it at all.
This card steals games, snatches victory away from a lot of decks, it is a +4k power boost against anyone trying to crash and it can remove someone's whole trash to prevent followup. It even sometimes gains 3 memory which is just insane. This card paired with the ST17-13 Magnamon is the reason I got 2nd place.
For the options it is rather simple. EX4-068 Heaven's Judgement is super synergistic with the wide color spread found in the deck and 2/3 of my top end Digimon. It has cleared a lot of the MirageGaogamon Galaxy decks by just sniping 2 MirageGaogamon which is crazy value. BT9-098 Awakening of the Golden Knight and EX1-068 Ice Wall! are auto include cards when playing Magnamon (X Antibody) or any blue decks respectively. BT4-104 Blinding Ray is there to trigger Magnamon (X Antibody) and gain memory while doing so.
BT9-109 X Antibody is probably either the 2nd or 3rd best option in the deck but the one I want to see the most in an opening hand. Any hand that lets me turn 2 Magnamon is amazing with this card because if one of the 3 draws in that turn are Magnamon (X Antibody) I can evolve during an attack to do an unaffected check while getting a double activation of the When Digivolving for a huge blocker they cannot interact with except for very specific cards. It also lets you surprise an opponent looking to Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE you as it cannot be stripped and it means they cannot botdeck whatever Digimon it is attached to. Also enables Jesmon GX to be viable in the deck.
P-104 Mental Training wasn’t added that much because the evolutions were too expensive but rather just for the search without bottom decking Davis or Ice Wall.
I only run 3 different Tamers of which 2 are Memory Setters. I run 1 BT1-087 T.K. Takaishi for a potential search for 5 cards from security for any missing combo piece. This almost never whiffs and if it does there is a strong chance there was at least a lot of information gained from playing it.
The BT3-093 Davis Motomiya is there to be a searchable Memory Tamer and to do a one off search that can sometimes grab 2 cards.
The last tamer is P-124 Davis Motomiya and he is the star of the show for enabling bigger and better turns. He is extremely good when paired with the P-117 Veemon for going into Magnamon with even some memory left over for additional plays. He sets up great turn 1 boards with a Veemon in raising and a potential Veemon played out for free to search for follow-up turns. Do remember that this effect is mandatory and in the Semi Finals. I won by using its evolve effect so I wouldn’t have to draw cards allowing me to choke and setting up for 3 memory next turn which allows me to go into a Magnamon X to swing the game back in my favor.
The main counter cards in my deck are the BT17-077 Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE and BT10-112 Jesmon GX the former for letting me either demolish a deck that revolves around inherit effects or a wide swarm deck that Magnamon X-Antibody does poorly against. The latter of the two lets me get in extremely strong checks against Mega Zoo decks like Royal Knights or Seven Great Demon Lords. It did perform a fair bit in the finals against Three Great Angels but I couldn’t get there fast enough and it allowed them to stabilise the game.
For the first game this was quite a tough match to warm up with but mostly because this was a player who knew what he was doing. He however got both of his MirageGaogamon whipped by a EX4-068 Heaven's Judgement in both games I won. The Game I lost was close but I didn’t see the lines early enough, which means drawing more cards which means you lose.
Played the mirror against a really nice fellow Magnamon and Jesmon fan. My build just saw the pieces more consistently and I snowballed both games by being more aggressive.
Played against the person who introduced me to this game on Table 1 and got steamrolled. Game 1 I was simply not seeing the right Magnamon in the right order to affect the boardstate enough and Game 2 I drew all of my Level 6+ cards back to back after the mulligan. Unlucky but it happens.
This was an extremely quick game as once I set up there was very little they could do to push past Magnamon (X Antibody) except for raid which I can get too big for. Not a lot to say here.
This matchup can be very tricky when you are up against a good pilot who sees the lines. If you can swarm and Jesmon GX them early you can pressure them out of the game. Also Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE proactively in this matchup and keep Magnamon (X Antibody) on the field since Seven Great Demon Lords doesn’t have a great out to it and it can block their lethal push with EX6-073 Ogudomon.
This was against another close locals friend of mine and it was a bit of a wash. He played it well but if I see the counterplay and his line isn’t the fastest it can be it becomes very easy for me to disrupt with Paladin. He trashed a BT17-040 Kazuchimon as setup for a following turn push and when I Paladin ACE’d it away he couldn’t get to another one in time.
The final round of Day 1 was against yet another friend who I helped host a tournament for last summer. He piloted his deck super well and I unfortunately for him just had the lines to end the games before he could. The immunity to the deletion effects is very very strong in this matchup. Another matchup where Paladin and BT10-112 Jesmon GX can both do amazing work.
This was easily hands down the best game of Digimon I’ve ever played. Romir, the pilot for this deck is someone I was very scared of going into the matchup especially since I don’t have a lot of experience vs Leopardmon. The final turn of this game is something I will never forget.
I am put at 3 memory with only a P-124 Davis Motomiya and a Veemon in raising with my opponent at 2 security. My opponent has a board with 2x EX6-035 Cherubimon, a BT17-077 Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE and about 5 blockers. (Some of them were suspended) I raise my Veemon, Davis triggers to put me to 4 memory. I evolved into ST17-13 Magnamon to strip and bounce a 2 source Cherubimon ACE. This puts me to 1 memory and then 5 memory. From there I go into BT16-102 Magnamon (X Antibody) and become immune. The suspended Paladin ACE on his board has a BT14-049 Lillymon ACE in its sources and last turn one of my Paladin ACE got checked in security. I hard evolve into my Paladin ACE in hand to strip all his sources to put me at minus 3 memory and bottom decked my own trash to go back to 0 memory. From here I swing while bottom decking his unsuspended blockers. I manage to use the 2 suspended bodies to get the swings in on security after being blocked by all his remaining blockers. This has put me at 9 memory from the Paladin ACE and Cherubimon ACE overflow. So I feel safe taking these swings. Then at 0 security with a suspended Paladin ACE and a clear board I evolve my Davis into BT7-023 Korikakumon for game.
The head judge who had been by the table now stands up and just says: “Wow. That was a monster turn.” And I don’t think I could put it better myself.
That was the best turn I’ve ever had and it won me a serialized Omnimon. I am happy I managed to get this win and from here on out I am once again playing stress free. The rest of the bracket is just to see how far I can get with my 2 favourite Digimon.
This matchup despite being 2-1 did not feel extremely close to me. The only reason I lost a game is because I carelessly did not use BT4-104 Blinding Ray to gain memory to stay out of EX1-068 Ice Wall! range. Of course his final security was Ice Wall and he managed to squeak out the equaliser. In the games I won once again Paladin ACE to prevent crashing and Heaven’s Judgement to delete multiple MirageGaogamon and swung the match extremely hard.
Paladin also does extremely well into Ice Clad digimon trying to run into a suspended Magnamon X-Antibody.
I managed to defeat the person who knocked my friend playing BT17-028 AncientGarurumon out of the tournament, so I was over the moon.
I went into this matchup blind and both games I simply did not see good lines. I don’t remember the games that well since it was clear early on I could not pressure him enough (though BT10-112 Jesmon GX does pressure them a lot!) for me to gain control of the game.
The pilot deserves credit for playing it well and I hope he enjoys his title as he should.
I think the deck is solid, it does what I want it to do and it does it reasonably consistently.
There are tweaks I want to try and changes I think could improve the deck but for now I am happy with the matchups against all the decks as they are before the BT18-19: Special Booster Ver.2.0 format.
There is some testing to do against Purple Hybrid and Lordknightmon but those are the only decks I feel like I might have a tougher time against purely because they mess up either my consistency or flood the board. I believe this deck can still win against both of them in longer games.
I would play less EX3-004 Veemon as it mostly wasn’t unsearchable cards that I struggled with finding. I think P-036 Blue Memory Boost would help more and maybe I could bump another Veemon to higher copies.
BT9-109 X Antibody is blitz, use it if you can. It’s also a minus 1 memory in hand vs MirageGaogamon and prevents BT17-077 Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode ACE and niche bounce cards like BT14-026 Zudomon ACE.
BT1-087 T.K. Takaishi is often a search 4-5 which is insane value even if it’s a one time deal. Remember to not just snipe the good card out of security but to make sure you remember what is in there. Information like that can swing games!
Shout out to all my friends from locals, especially Chris (Round 3: AncientGarurumon) for getting me into the game, always being great to play against and for supporting me on day 2. Another shout out to Gaj for convincing me to play Paladin ACE and for always bullying me with MirageGaogamon. Thanks to Sway (Round 6) for putting up with my annoying decklist spam as I kept tweaking the deck and running it into him at locals. He is the best post locals drinking buddy!
A big thanks to everyone from Leiden, Zoetermeer and Almere who was there to make Day 1 great and a final shout out to the Card Guild Gang for all the good memories and vibes and especially Theodosis for giving me those Jesmon GX Alt Arts as they helped me decide to make this build.
Lots of love to all of them and to anyone who reads this and decides to play Magnamon in the future! (Let me know!!)
Interviewed and special thanks to: Jasper van der Mark
Author: Digital Gate Open (Nathan van Hulst)