If your opponent decides to attack, the deck wins by acing!
Hello hello! My name is Júlio, aka BWOK everywhere else. I started playing the Digimon TCG during the BT13: Versus Royal Knights pre-release when a friend from work invited me to tag along and give it a shot. I grew up with Digimon, so the nostalgia hit me but what the Digimon TCG really hooked me is the memory system. It's such a refreshing mechanic compared to other TCG’s. I’ve been completely obsessed ever since.
My favorite Digimon is BT2-056 Numemon because in a world of digital gods and fierce monsters, sometimes it's the silly poop-slinging digimon that stands out the most.
BT17-102 Greymon from BT17 Secret Crisis is my favorite art because I loved the Digimon Movie.
This was my first regional success! I came in aiming for an EU Finals invite and not only did I get it, but I took the win too. Couldn’t have asked for a better outcome!
The deck I piloted was Turtle GankoX (Gankoomon). It was originally created by my friend Tartaruga, who’s been terrorizing our locals with it for months now. He also placed top 16th with it at this regional. In fact, three of us brought this deck to the event we placed 1st, 16th, and 21st!
I still didn’t have my invite going into the event and this deck has great matchups against the current top meta decks such as Growlmon variants, Sakuyamon, Royal Knights, Omnimon Alter S variants, Puppets.
In a meta where most decks just want to go fast and cheat the memory gauge, Turtle GankoX slows things down and forces your opponent to interact with you and play fair.
3
3
4
4
4
4
2
4
4
3
1
2
3
1
2
1
4
1
4
1
BT14-001 Koromon, the staple red egg. Provides consistent early-game draws, which is exactly what the deck needs to get rolling.
BT17-001 Gigimon, since we run 4 BT16-082 Ukkomon, playing 5 eggs is mandatory. Out of the remaining options, this egg is the only one that proved it could be useful during training.
BT14-009 Gotsumon is a perfect floodgate for matchups against Omnimon Alter S, Growlmon based deck, Puppets, Adventure, Royal Knights, Imperialdramon and more.
BT17-001 Gigimon, a Floodgate tailored to counter Omnimon Alter S (Blue variant / GAS), Galaxy, Growlmon Gravity Crush abusers, etc.
BT20-008 Huckmon, an amazing rookie. You’ll almost always have something to trash, making it great for cycling through your deck. Also combos incredibly well with the ST16-014 Matt Ishida tamer.
ST12-012 Sistermon Blanc, you always have something to trash in hand, so the draw effect is excellent. With the meta full of deletion effects, Decoy Red/Black also works wonders.
BT16-082 Ukkomon, for consistency. It's a great card to draw into your pieces and hatch a Digitama.
BT20-013 BaoHuckmon is usually only used if you have BT19-011 WarGrowlmon Ace, need the draw or plan to use ST12-015 From Master to Disciple. Otherwise I often just trash it.
BT19-011 WarGrowlmon Ace. A fantastic tech that can catch opponents off guard and effectively skip their turn. Its inheritable also synergizes with EX8-074 MedievalGallantmon for clearing high DP Digimon.
BT20-057 Gankoomon & BT20-059 Gankoomon (X Antibody) are your bread and butter. These are the cards you want in every game.
BT20-059 Gankoomon (X Antibody) is typically your go-to trash target if available.
EX8-074 MedievalGallantmon is absolutely busted. This card can stall until you find your combo pieces or outright solo win certain matchups. A 7 memory cost floodgate that deletes two Digimon, is an ACE target , ... Ridiculous. Please ban!
P-186 Gallantmon is a Royal Knight trait card so it’s a valid target for BT20-021 Jesmon GX ACE. Can be played cheaply in the late game and clears large stacks efficiently.
BT10-112 Jesmon GX One of your win cons. If your opponent isn’t enabling ACE plays, Jesmon GX can swing for 4 checks and make your board immune.
BT20-021 Jesmon GX ACE, your other win con if your opponent attacks. Nothing in this meta is over 16k DP, so you’re guaranteed to delete something. Grants all your Digimon Blocker and swings for 4 checks.
BT20-060 Alphamon: Ouryuken ACE, a last-minute inclusion. Originally we played BT9-112 DeathXmon, but Alphamon proved better for its DNA potential with EX8-074 MedievalGallantmon / BT20-057 Gankoomon / P-186 Gallantmon or just as a powerful hard-drop removal tool.
P-130 Lui Ohwada pairs perfectly with BT16-082 Ukkomon. When it hits from security, and you raise a floodgate into an already immune board, it's hilariously devastating.
ST16-014 Matt Ishida is easily the best memory setter for the deck. The combo with BT20-008 Huckmon start of main gets you to 5 memory which is the cost for digivolving your BT20-059 Gankoomon (X Antibody) into BT10-112 Jesmon GX. Also makes ST12-012 Sistermon Blanc cost only 2 memory.
ST12-015 From Master to Disciple, a Royal Knight card making it targetable for BT20-021 Jesmon GX ACE. Usually trashed via BT20-008 Huckmon or ST12-012 Sistermon Blanc unless you urgently need the search effect.
LM-033 Garnet Memory Boost! for consistency. This card searches for all your key pieces and enables you to play a floodgate before setting up your BT20-059 Gankoomon (X Antibody) combo.
The gameplan can be summarized by building a board with the appropriate floodgates for the matchup and BT20-059 Gankoomon (X Antibody). If your opponent decides to attack, the deck wins by acing. If they choose not to attack, you chip away at their security while aiming to reestablish immunity with another or BT10-112 Jesmon GX.
Game 1 showed some first-game jitters. I wasn’t as aggressive as I should’ve been in this matchup which caused me to lose momentum and the game. I managed to refocus and bounce back in Game 2.
Game 2 both Gotsumon and Shamanmon were excellent floodgates here. An early Shamamon forces the Royal Knights player to either remove it or pay full cost for their options. A Gotsumon on the field when hitting security locks out the use of Omnimon (X Antibody).
This matchup felt like a race. He managed to combo off in Game 2 before I could set up Gankoomon (X Antibody), but in the other two games I was faster and took control of the board.
Gotsumon was the MVP here. In both games he dropped his tamer early and I responded with Gotsumon right after. Since he struggled to maintain his turn after DNA digivolving, once I placed Gankoomon (X Antibody) on the board, there wasn’t much he could do.
Game 1 played out very similarly to the previous matchup.
In Game 2 he managed to rush Magnamon (X Antibody) super early, but luckily I had Alphamon: Ouryuken ACE in hand, once I used it, he couldn’t recover from that.
This matchup was a real eye-opener. In our group testing it seemed like an easy win thanks to MedievalGallantmon, but my opponent clearly knew his deck inside and out.
Game 1 turned into a 40-minute stalemate, but I eventually pulled out the win.
Game 2 had only five minutes left on the clock, so we both had to speedrun. Luckily I opened strong and won before he could find his Galacticmon.
This round was a team kill. I got paired with one of our group friends who helped us practice the Growlmon matchup. He knew exactly what I wanted to do and had all the tools to counter it, so I lost pretty quickly. Gallantmon (X Antibody) and Crimson Blaze turn what’s usually an easy matchup into a very difficult one.
This matchup went exactly like in practice. They have very little early removal and rely heavily on gaining memory to keep their turn. I just had to drop a Shamanmon and from there, there wasn’t much he could do.
This was one of the matchups we practice a lot and usually. If they can get a double Nokia Shiramine on field the matchup becomes almost impossible. So the game depends a lot on not hitting any tamer with early security checks as well as playing rookies and getting Gotsumon with Gankoomon (X Antibody) as fast as you can on the field. But I was fast, both games turn 3 I had a board with Gotsumon and GankoX and my opponent didn’t have the best of hands so I took the win and placed 7th on day 1.
BirdsGrowl is the easiest matchup among the GrowlX variants. In both games, I managed to get Gankoomon (X Antibody) out with Gotsumon before he could swing with his Phoenixmon (X Antibody), which completely shut down his momentum. Smooth win!
One of the trickiest matchups since he can reach +16K DP or have Oblivimon in its sources to ignore my board. The first game was tough, but I drew all my MedievalGallantmon cards, so every time he built up to Machinedramon, I could clear it with Gankoomon (X Antibody) and MedievalGallantmon. In the second game, he bricked hard and once GankoX hit the field, there was no coming back.
Just like in practice, this one went smoothly. I built a board with Gotsumon, Shamanmon, and Gankoomon (X Antibody), then it was game over.
In the finals I got a fellow Portuguese opponent, but luckily for me he didn’t have much experience in this matchup.
Game 1 I managed to outspeed his Omnimon Alter-S combo.
Game 2 I found out the hard way he had 2 Crimson Blaze in his deck.
Game 3 came down to the wire, by around turn 5, it was do or die. If I didn’t close it out then there would be no turn 6 for me. He was threatening an Omnimon ACE that could wipe my entire board, and I had 6 memory. I had to believe in the heart of the cards and top deck Jesmon GX... and I did!
This deck was extremely well-tuned to counter the current meta since it has solid matchups against nearly all Tier 1 and 1.5 decks. But one of its biggest strengths is the element of surprise. A great example of this was the Galacticmon player who made Top 8 (shoutout to Fokxu).
He ran into the Turtle GankoX trifecta during the tournament and after losing to me he quickly adapted and went on to knock out my other two friends who were also playing the deck.
That said, I do think it will be hard for this deck to top again unless some major changes are made.
But if you’re interested in trying it out, the biggest tip I can give is to not be afraid to pass a lot of memory to your opponent. Most of the time, it’s better to give them 10 memory while you have a field set up with floodgates and BT20-059 Gankoomon (X Antibody), rather than passing 7 with just having a GankoX on board.
If you’re struggling against this deck, a few tech cards can completely flip the matchup like BT8-097 Crimson Blaze, BT8-094 Digimon Emperor, or any strong removal options.
Big shoutout to everyone I met at this regional. Everyone was super nice, and I hope to see you all again at EU Finals!
Special thanks to my friends who helped me prepare for the event and an extra special thanks to Tartaruga for building such an awesome deck!
Sometimes I feel like there’s a lot of negativity around the game, but I genuinely believe the Digimon TCG is in a great place right now and hopefully, with the upcoming banlist (please Bandai, ban EX8-074 MedievalGallantmon), things will get even better.
Sure, Bandai might drop the ball a few… some… many… times but honestly, so far this year they’ve done a good job. So credit where it’s due: great work Bandai!
Interviewed and special thanks to: BWOK
Author: Digital Gate Open (Nathan van Hulst)