Digimon: Digital Card Battle Part #16 - Black Digimon Analysis

Part 16: Black Digimon Analysis

Okay. I goofed again. Mostly because the guide I was using worded this part poorly, and I haven't done this in years, etc. So why did I fight Rosemon over and over again? Well it turns out that I was completely incorrect: Rosemon's Lure is always your prize after the first win against her, but there is one other card you can win, and for this one, you have to defeat Rosemon ten times, without leaving the Battle Café, without losing once. If you do that, you will win this:

Yeah. How anyone's supposed to figure this shit out is beyond me, and this isn't even the only time you can win a bonus card by winning a string of battles against the same opponent without leaving the Café they're in. But enough about that, it's time for my fourth

Competetive Analysis

Today's topic is Black Digimon. As you have seen, they basically have the most powerful stats and support effects in the whole game, but those support effects carry a LOT of risk. Many Black Digimon have effects with a lethal drawback, so timing is critical when using any of these. Topdecking is extremely dangerous as you could hit the wrong effect and ruin your entire strategy, so be careful. Of course, if you know your deck well, and can better predict the upcoming card, topdecking isn't so bad as it may seem.

Black is also noteworthy for having great stats and really, REALLY poor evolution speed. This is the only color in the game to contain cards that add zero DP when put in the DP slot. All the Rookies add 20, and everything else rarely adds more than 10. Evolution Options might be justified here, as I don't like the idea of adding Green cards just to have better Evolution speed all that much.

Black Rookies

Let's get these three out of the way. DemiDevimon is an anti-Green card, Dokunemon is an anti-Yellow card, and BlackGatomon's support effect requires your opponent to be Armor level. However, BlackGatomon's attack stats are pretty good, so consider using her for that, since there aren't that many great Rookies in Black.

Kokuwamon is a pretty good card. A nice amount of HP and the least risky support effect here (you lose 100 attack power but gain 200 HP) makes for a decent card.

Tsukaimon's stats are similar to Kokuwamon's, but Tsukaimon has...well, it's not a great effect, your O and T attack powers get lowered to zero, but you get +200 X attack power. Suffice to say, Biyomon, Candlemon, and a ton of other cards outside Black have better effects, but I can't recommend this one even in Black unless you REALLY need the boosts to X attack power.

Ooooh boy. This has decent attack power and its support attack halves your attack power in exchange for making all of them Absorb HP, which has its uses, but the thing that kills Aruraumon's potential (in combat anyways) is her HP. She has 420. Make any joke you want, because that's literally the lowest starting HP any Digimon in the whole game has. But, again, she has uses...

This is a pretty decent card. Good HP, good attacks, and the Jamming effect if you care. The support effect is the most risky out of the Rookies: Your opponent's HP is halved, but their attack power doubles. If you are attacking first and can KO your opponent right away, this is a good card for that situation. If you're REALLY advanced, you can double the power of the attack you're about to counter, if you predicted that correctly - now that's gotta hurt if you pull it off.

Black Champions

Turns out there are actually two Black Champions that take only 20 DP to get to, and they're both decent cards. Zassomon, aka Weedmon, aka that jerk from the Monochrome Shop minigame, has decent attacks, but only 600 HP and no X effect. His support effect sets all your opponent's attacks to 300 power, which can make a devastating attack into an average one. Guardromon halves your own HP in exchange for +300 attack, and he has the Crash effect.

On that note, I should point out something awesome about Crash. Crash attacks can be made to Absorb HP, and since they always do as much damage as you have HP, it's like doing damage equal to your HP for free - actually, you profit by 10 HP! A deck focusing on Crash wants Aruraumon here since the drawback of halved attack power doesn't matter to the Crash effect.

Gururumon costs 40 DP and the others cost 30, but they all have similar support effects so I'm listing them all now. They each force both players to use O (Darkrizamon), T (Gururumon), or X (Saberdramon). They also all have passable stats, especially Gururumon. The support effects are great for forcing your opponent to not use X, thwarting the effects of Short Lance or Lucky Mushroom, and Saberdramon in particular is fabulous if you use cards with X counter.

YIKES. The stats of a Rookie on a Champion. I'm not even kidding, Soulmon's stats are similar to Goburimon! His X attack Absorbs HP? So what? He only has 500 HP to start, he's taking a KO! Zassomon does more for 10 less DP. Skip this card. The support effect is even worse.

Bakemon's...playable, but I don't recommend him over some of the other cards here.

Aaaah, that's better. This is Fugamon, and I'm not sure why he's a Black card, Ogremon is as well and they're both color swaps. He's got 940 HP and all of his attacks do at least 400 damage. No X effect, however, and his support effect just changes your own attack, not sure why you'd want that. He's usable at least.

This is Tekkamon. He's got 1,100 HP, a nice big pool for use with...the Crash effect! I can see that being useful. His support effect boosts the attack of both players by 300, so be careful when using it. His stats are on par with Garurumon, but he's still very, VERY playable and flexible.

Devimon is an anti-Green card, next!

Here's Ogremon. He's got decent stats and attacks, and even a counterattack. The support effect is...strange. It throws out your entire DP slot and multiplies your attack power by the number of discards. Which means it'll be five or six turns before you can put this to good use, since there's no way to get more than one card into the DP slot every two turns. Ogremon's good for combat, though!

Tuskmon...he's basically a slightly better Fugamon, so I wouldn't use him.

Stingmon is an alright card. 880 HP, nice attack strength, and his X effect is Absorb HP, and it's a pretty strong X attack, too. His support discards 1 DP slot card for +200 attack power. That isn't too bad, but I wish they would try to make Black Digimon have effects that aren't "Red Digimon effects with a drawback". Anyways, Stingmon is a decent card, use him if you like.

Wizardmon has similar stats to Stingmon, but swaps HP Absorb for Jamming, and his support effect discards your hand and draws two cards. If it's your turn and you want to try for better options on your opponent's turn, that can help a little. He's as playable as Stingmon in my opinion.

Guess what, they made a Black Champion that costs 50 DP. And what do you get for that 50 DP? A stronger Fugamon. I would avoid using this.

Black Ultimates

Black also has the only Ultimate in the game to cost a mere 20 DP. At only 1,100 HP, an O attack that does 610 damage, and a Jamming attack, it's, uh...well, it's fine for that price, but just keep in mind the other Ultimates are far better, their only problem is their price. Infermon's support effect is alright, though, you discard 5 cards from your deck to get +400 attack power.

Phantomon is the only Black Ultimate to cost 30 DP. Yes, everything past this point is 40 DP or more. Phantomon himself is okay, maybe a tiny bit better than Infermon. His support effect discards 7 cards from your deck to make all your attacks Absorb HP. You can get a pretty big HP boost from that but it's quite costly.

Alright, this is getting somewhere. WaruMonzaemon has some great attacks, 1,590 HP, the Jamming effect, and his support reduces your HP to 10 but doubles your attack for that turn. Very risky, but if you survive the turn you can follow up with other cards. He's good in combat with a 700-point O attack, too.

Andromon trades a bit of attack power for a little more HP compared to WaruMonzaemon. His support effect halves your HP in exchange for +400 attack power. If your HP is low, this is hardly a cost, but still a risky card. Usable.

And here we have...a Black Ultimate that gives 20 DP?! Unfortunately her HP and attacks aren't much better than Phantomon's, but I will say that the support effect is pretty good - both players get +200 attack power. Not nearly as risky as Guardromon for example. A usable card.

The first of the 50 DP Black Ultimates. I'd normally just say "anti-Green card" and be done with it but even in that context, the support effect just makes your opponent discard his hand. Still, this is the card I used to deal 9,990 damage this one time, so that's fun to demonstrate.

This is an excellent card! Megadramon's O attack does 920 damage, the highest we've seen so far if I remember right. His other attacks are just okay, he's got a nice big HP pool, and his support effect halves the HP of both players. Not a bad card.

Yikes. Uh...unfortunately Phantomon had better stats for less DP, and Myotismon's support effect is the same as Phoenixmon's, which is useful, but if you want a revival card, stick to Miracle Ruby. Well, Myotismon gives 20 DP, at least.

~~Piedmon~~ Pierrotmon (this was his name in Digimon World 2 and it's infinitely better than the other one, so I'm going with that) and GranKuwagamon are basically giant beatsticks, though the former has the Jamming effect, and the latter has no X effect. Neither of them have support effects that are worth their cost, though Pierrotmon makes both players discard their hands. Used on the enemy turn, it leads to you having a hand and your opponent not having a hand.

These two cost 60 DP. VenomMyotismon isn't that interesting compared to Machinedramon, who has a 980-point O attack (higher than Megadramon!), 2,400 HP, and the Crash effect, so that's quite a bit of practical applications of sheer firepower. Just keep in mind the DP costs are getting quite price-y, and neither of these guys have any support effects.

And here they are. The undisputed strongest Digimon in the entire game. Nothing has higher HP and attack power, and nothing has higher DP cost either, because they both cost 70. You need a lot of luck to get to these two, and they have horrifically bad support effects. Like, they could have no effect at all and it'd be better than what they do. Use only if you really know what you're doing.

Recommended Option Cards

Super Recovery Floppy - The HP values here are usually comparable to a Red Digimon's. This ends up being a nice card in such situations.
Hacking - Should go without saying that this card is crazy, but I'll say it one more time: Black's evolution speed is slow and plenty of their cards reduce your own HP. Switching your HP for your opponent's is huge in this color.
Shogun's Order - This reduces both players to zero attack power, which will not matter if you use Crash strategies. Also good for avoiding taking a KO if your HP just dropped to 10 or something.
Speed Digivolve - This actually gets you to Ultimate faster than Special Digivolve, usually. But you still need some luck to pull off such a maneuver.
Miracle Ruby - I have been getting quite a bit of mileage out of this. If you've got a Champion, and you need just a bit more time to turn it into an Ultimate, bring this along if you like.

Today's deck is a run-of-the-mill Black deck. It's got all the basics, the staple Option cards, and a couple of cards to help with a few Yellow opponents in today's hit list.

So, the crew from Wiseman Tower have hit their Ultimate forms and they're looking for rematches. For some reason you can't fight Sora and co. until you defeat their partners, but as long as we get more matches in, right?

Garudamon's what you'd expect from a Red deck that has birds in it. Lots of attack power and plenty of 1st Attack effects. You DON'T want to use WaruMonzaemon against her.

Here's me using Miracle Ruby to keep Kokuwamon alive. I like that it gives you 1,000 HP when it's used - that's a nice big pool of HP.

It's especially good when the best card for this situation pops into my hand immediately after.

Excellent.

Yes, I'm using this. I feel like it's an overpowered card, but Black cards are in serious need of a boost to evolution speed.

Darkrizamon's interesting due to his T attack being the strongest, although his X attack only doing 30 damage is...well, a little unfortunate.

And on the next turn I got Gatomon and WaruMonzaemon, so you get to see the evil teddy bear in action. Ah, I remember the one I had in Digimon World 2, I gave him such lovely attacks as "Touch of Evil" and "Party Time". Gave a whole new meaning to the name "Winnie The Pooh".

Garudamon also has a healthy stock of recovery cards, which is great because I can absorb more HP with Dark Bone! So with Garudamon out of the way, we move onto Sora.

He was actually pretty chill about--

"He"??? Yeah yeah, Digimon don't have genders, but, it's just, you know...

Sora's a little infamous for being one of the earliest opponents people see Special Digivolve used against them. Except her deck is full of Evolution Options, so she has the same weaknesses Ninjamon did.

All too quickly, the dangers of too many Evolution Options in your deck is realized.

Also, I can confirm Option effects resolve first in the event of a support speed tie. Thank you, user who pointed that out, now I have proof!

Anyways, I'll also confirm that Absorb HP effects can only absorb as much HP as the opponent has, which certainly mattered here.

Had to bring in the Armor to finish the job this time.

So you might wonder who this mysterious Digimon is and why he won't chat with us.

You remember how the Beginner City Arena was exactly the same as before in the rematch, except with one new opponent?

They did the same shit with the Extra Arenas, so I had to fight Flamedramon and Raidramon again to get here. I'll spare you guys seeing that yet again.

The fuck? That's not a Paildramon thing at all...well, if you can read minds, then you already know how fucked you are.

Really. The one attack that I'm allowed to use KOs him here anyways.

It's amazing that I can't even use Hacking here because I would end up with less HP after the fact.

I then use Darkrizamon's support effect to ensure both of us use O, only to make sure he wouldn't counter it. Attack-changing effects are fun.

At least I get a good prize pack, now to move onto the next city and do it AGAIN.

But you ARE Togemon! I guess?

Lillymon's gimmick is that she uses a deck of Green Digimon and Green Digimon ONLY. No Options. I've gone over the weaknesses of Green in the past, but at least Lillymon hits Ultimate quite often.

And there are advantages to that, mind you. But they weren't much help to her in the end. There weren't even any anti-Black cards, which would have posed a threat to me.

It is heavily implied that they are arguing with each other. (?)

I'll say. Running over opponent after opponent gets very boring.

Mimi is the most throwaway opponent I've ever seen. The deck description says it all: 24 Digimon, 6 Options. Nothing else of interest.

Well, I suppose it's an interesting theme deck idea. These are all Digimon Mimi in particular has encountered - Numemon, Gekomon, obviously Palmon...but it's horrible in terms of playability.

What, so NOW you're suddenly itching for a rematch?

Anyhow, this Extra Arena updated too, and now we have a Green and Yellow deck to contend with.

Ugh. Shurimon just had to have X to zero as his X effect, so even though I could totally nail him with Dokunemon's X attack, it's too risky to try.

So I brought in my own Armor and did it the usual way.

And I run over him completely after that.

What they do with Igloo City is fucking fantastic. I mentioned that this is the one arena that changes permanently, so if you didn't complete it when Garurumon was the final opponent, well now you can't get 100% story completion, because defeating Mimi causes MetalGarurumon to appear at the arena instead, locking you out of the previous one!

He's our next target, by the way.

Haha he has to hold the card in his mouth, does he think he's Great Grey Wolf Sif or something? (Woo, obscure Dark Souls reference, I'm totally hip to the times)

Instead of the usual counterattack strategy, MetalGarurumon seems fixated on blowing shit up.

Huh, I never thought about using that card in a Blue deck! Mainly because losing half my health felt like too much of a cost.

Anyhow, the match doesn't go all that well for him...though I wasn't expecting the anti-Armor cards.

Does this count as getting to Ultimate? He malfunctioned because he started with a Champion...

Hey, I was going to get KO'd anyways, at least this let me halve his HP!

There, that's better.

Now then, I did mention the arena changed, right? Well, there are no new opponents, it's just MetalGarurumon in place of Garurumon, but you still gotta clear it for story completion, so I'll skip right past that...

The, uh, the Whamon rematch, it was, um...it was an experience...

I think you get Desperate Win if both players have zero cards left in hand and deck when it's all over.

Right, that leaves "Matt", which in the dub, is technically a nickname even though nobody calls him "Yamato" anyways.

ARGH! THOSE EYES! Must...avert...gaze...

Anyways, he's largely similar to MetalGarurumon, deck and all.

Oh hey, if I use this here, he'll be forced to counter something I'm not using!

Didn't take long to take him out. Oh, and he has anti-Black cards because he decided to include some of T.K.'s cards in his deck. He didn't get to use them, though.