Part 17: Yellow Digimon Analysis

It must be my lucky day. I've managed to entertain myself through this post-game for several updates, but now we've got a quarter of post-game to go and there's only more more to go, one more of my

Competitive Analysis

For the last of these analytic posts I'll be using a Yellow deck. If you've been reading this entire LP since the beginning...well first let me give a big thank-you to everyone who's been here, I appreciate the attention. Second, you probably already know all about Yellow cards, I've been using them since the beginning! But I'll go over it one more time: Yellow is not about being an HP wall, or blasting away with powerful attacks, and evolution speed is average.

Yellow is instead about wacky and confusing support effects. Yellow includes lots and lots of HP manipulation, deck destruction, DP slot destruction, hand destruction, color manipulation - all very strange strategies that, in the hands of a player that knows what they are doing, can be highly difficult to fight back against. Knowledge of the inner workings of this game is highly recommended for any Yellow players out there. On that note, let's remind everyone of how the game resolves support effects.

Support effects always resolve in this order: First, it checks the support speed, as noted by a colored arrow on the card. Blue goes first, then green, then red. If two effects have the same arrow, Option cards resolve first, then Digimon, then X effects. If there are two Options/Digimon/X effects then the turn player gets their effect first. Remember that!

Yellow Rookies



And why not start with the best Rookies in the whole color? Okay, L-ToyAgumon's effect is to reduce your opponent's attack power to zero if you have one or no cards in your hand. This is stupidly easy to set up on any old turn; simply send one card to the DP slot and use another as a support card, and you're left with L-ToyAgumon and one other card. And it works!

And ToyAgumon, oh man, you WERE reading the whole LP, right? Besides having a T-counter, his support effect discards 1 card to drop both players to 200 HP. If you attack first, whether it's your turn or you have a 1st Attack effect? Guaranteed KO. But remember, you're left with only 200 HP afterward, so you better plan for the turns ahead of you after using it! Luckily, there are many cards that function as a follow up. Like L-ToyAgumon assuming the discard effect didn't just trash it. Or even this:



Psychemon is amazing. He changes your HP to match your opponent's. This can be used to get an almost dead Digimon back on its feet, or simply profit off an opponent that just decided to use Warp Digivolve. It can even throw off certain effects that depend on HP, and Crash decks love this too because it's a guaranteed KO if you attack first. Oh, I haven't talked about stats yet...Psychemon has very low stats, so be aware of that. His HP's below 500, you know.



Forces the enemy's HP to match yours, but reduces your attack power to zero. If you are about to get KO'd then this is not a big deal, you can use this to do as much damage as possible while you still can. Unless you get a counterattack right or are even using this in a Crash deck, those don't care about having zero attack power. Really great card depending on what you're doing. Just watch the timing on it!



These two are low-tier but not terrible. ClearAgumon has Jamming as both an X effect and a support effect, and Vi-Elecmon has okay stats and "x3 vs. Yellow" as his X effect. As you'll see, Yellow can actually use that in certain ways. Vi-Elecmon has just one problem, though - no support effect. Brings a tear to my eye. Why recolor a Digimon and not do more to make it stand out?



Hagurumon and his recolor, Solarmon, are the only two Rookies to have the Crash effect. Hagurumon has a support effect, but it isn't really a good one, so I only use it in this weird Crash deck I'll show off later.

Yellow Champions



I can hardly believe this used to be a Green card, but I'm glad it's Yellow. SandYanmamon costs 20 DP, and he might have low HP and stats, but his X attack power is 210 and the effect is - get this - 1st Attack. That goes FABULOUSLY with ToyAgumon's support effect. Ah, but what about SandYanmamon's effect? It's the same as Garurumon's. Okay not exactly, it also reduces their attack power by 100, but you should know by now all the tricks you can pull with that effect. Definitely think about this card if you make a Yellow deck!



These two are your basic Yellow Champion beatsticks. No support effects, but good stats. ShimaUnimon's got O counter for any SandYanmamon or Garurumon shenanigans.



I like this guy a whole lot. Good stats, with the X effect "x3 vs. Yellow", and the support effect, "Opponent uses T." Yep, it's just like Garurumon! Although there are less cards with T-counter rather than O-counter, this card can still confuse your opponent while you twirl your curly mustache and cackle with glee. Man, I am a sucker for this guy's stache.



Hoo boy, now we get into the bad cards. These two are not that far ahead of SandYanmamon in stats, they both have X counter (Can't remember the last time I made use of that) and the support effects...Thundermon makes your opponent throw out their entire hand if they use X (bleh) and Nanimon shuffles your hand into your deck. Nanimon also gives zero DP.



Then you have these guys. They're all literal filth. Sorry. You can do a lot better with stats and X effects across the board, and their supports all involve attacking either the opponent's hand or his DP slot, which I've never thought of as being worth it because cards cycle in and out of these frequently. ShellNumemon's got high HP for a Yellow card, but that's all I can say about these.



This is the first 40 DP Yellow Champion. I don't use him, you can do better with the stats, and his support effect moves the top card of your discard pile to the top of your deck...seems highly situational to me. This is the kind of thing a TV show protagonist would use one time, in the one situation it's ever useful, just to prove it's not useless, and then hypocritically never use it again.

I'm looking at you, Yuya.



Rockmon's a little interesting. Very average stats, "x3 vs. Rare" X effect, and his support effect sends the top 3 cards of the opponent's deck to the discard pile - the first deck destruction card effect! I've had my partners discarded by this beast, so attacking the deck does have some kind of value in this game.



Here we have an anti-Black card. Yellow has a few of those. But, uh, the support effect is just Jamming if your opponent is Black. Use only if the stats appeal.



This is a pretty decent beatstick. 1,000 HP exactly is pretty good for a Yellow card, but the support effect has always felt too situational. I don't think most players ever have more than 2 cards in their DP slot during the Battle Phase. Unless they're using an Armor and building it up for later, I guess.

Yellow Ultimates



I like to call these guys the Metal Bean Trio. They are similar in DP cost and stats, boasting 1,700+ HP and some big attacks. The X effects are where they differ: Mamemon's got O-counter, MetalMamemon has 1st Attack, and Giromon has Crash, and that's a pretty big HP pool for a Crash user. Only Giromon has a support effect: "Opponent uses X." If you're playing an X counter deck for some reason, I would prefer Saberdramon for making your counterattack plays. For every other reason you'd put the Metal Bean Trio in a deck, they are pretty solid.

Also, as I read this, I realize that unless I'm mistaken, these guys are the best beatsticks, almost NOTHING in Yellow tops their raw attack power and HP, and they cost the least. What the?



Out of this and the other three 40 DP Ultimates, Vademon is the only one to give just 10 DP instead of 20 DP. Vademon is a very solid Ultimate with Jamming for his X effect, an O attack that does 850 damage, though his HP is a very low 1,370. His support effect is intriguing: The opponent's color changes to match your own. You know all those cards with anti-Yellow effects? Now you know what they're meant for; use this to change your opponent's color to what you're effective against! Some other Yellow cards do this too.



Elvis, that's not what we meant when we said "monkey suit". Etemon's a little weaker than Vademon with the same X effect and a boring support effect. I can't really recommend him over other options.



Jijimon...now I see why you don't fight in this franchise, your stats are worse than Etemon's and you have an anti-Black support effect! Forget this guy.



Shakkoumon's got more balanced stats than Vademon and a lot more HP, with the same Jamming effect and a...strange support effect. Your HP goes up by 100, and so does your X attack power. An okay alternative to Vademon if you really want the extra 10 DP given by this thing.



Now this is what I'm talking about. SuperStarmon is an anti-Yellow card, which means if you're using a strategy to change your opponent's color to Yellow and then take advantage of "x3 vs. Yellow" effects, consider this card your Ace.



When you wish upon a star, you will know how bad you are. Puppetmon costs 50 DP to evolve to, his stats resemble Vademon and his support effect attacks the DP slot. Wow, what a disappointing Dark Master. At least there aren't any strings attached.



MetalEtemon has a few things going for him. His strongest attack is his T, at 750 points, and he has O-counter as both his X effect and his support effect. How does that work for his support effect? Well if the opponent used O, any of your attacks act like a counter. Note that Golden Banana will do this for any attack at the cost of half your HP. He's not a horrible Ultimate, though.



Aah, this is getting good. Digitamamon's got great HP and stats, not really beating out Vademon, but he comes pretty close. His support effect is another odd one: You and your opponent swap your colors. I...don't know why you'd want to take a color other than Yellow...if you're trying to give your opponent Yellow, then taking their color could mean you can't get a Digimon out with "x3 vs. Rare" or whatever...this effect confuses me. Which I guess means it's doing its job!



And here we are. The strongest Digimon in existence. (Might be exaggerating.) Monzaemon, the teddy bear of doom, the strongest Digimon in the original V-Pets, the only Ultimate beginners get in Digimon World 1, and the most fun to dress up in Re: Digitize. In this game? He's the only Yellow Ultimate to break 2,000 HP, his attacks are as strong as Vademon's, and his X effect is "x3 vs. Black". Okay that isn't TOO helpful unless you have Darkness Altar or something, but Monzaemon also gives 20 DP and his support effect is, as I've mentioned, just like the colored Digivice cards, but without any sort of condition. A powerful Digimon with decent support abilities: a very excellent card to include in a Yellow deck.

Recommended Options

Super Recovery Floppy - Let's be honest, the Rookies have low starting HP.
Premium Steak - Same reason as Super Recovery Floppy.
Golden Banana - If your HP is very low, you won't have an issue halving it.
Mystery Egg - Okay this is a weird one. This changes the colors of both Digimon to Yellow. Great for recovering your own color while messing with your opponent, and it's better for anti-Yellow decks than Rare Altar.
Hacking - You'll be slow to evolve in Yellow, unfortunately, so use this to get a leg up.



This deck isn't too much different from what I've used throughout the LP. Mostly the best Digimon support I had at the time, with some backup Option cards, and of course, all three partners.



Junk City is up next. Joe and Zudomon are here because they had nowhere else to go, I guess, but they could have gone to Pyramid City or Sky City and I wouldn't complain. We have more Extra Arenas to get to anyhow.



Looks like he wants to take advantage of the fact that Blue can better withstand some attacks even if they're doubled.



Hilariously, he managed to negate the effect of Dark Lord's Cape due to Sharmamon's support speed being faster, yet my attack power is still doubled, so.



The usual support effects keep me alive a little longer. I'm surprised he didn't try to use the Jamming effect. Now I'm curious how the game would resolve the Jamming effect if you changed your attack to X when it wasn't X before.



Here he does something interesting: He used Mega Hand to set his attack power to equal his HP, and I happened to be using Psychemon's effect here, so I got nailed. I never thought of Mega Hand in a Blue deck, mainly because you have to throw away seven cards from the top of your deck to use it. Maybe the AI does have some inkling of knowing what it's doing.



It's all over now, though. Look, I guessed what attack he'd use!



Woah. If you can't beat Zudomon than you might as well just give me the bonus card pack and let me be on my way.



...

...

.........What's this doing here?



The usual Toy Tactics ensue.



I forget what Option card I was using, but I think Dark Lord's Cape got negated again.



With Joe beaten, that leaves only Izzy, who resides in Dark City and will be ignored for the time being.

Why? Well remember what I said about the Mutant Fusion Data? How it causes you to not know what card you're getting when a mutation happens? Izzy gives it to you when you beat him. We'll be back later.



Instead, we head to the Extra Arena, where Baronmon manages to give me an "Oh shit!" moment for the first time in a long time.



And then I drew the precise card I would need to deal with it.



The new opponent is MagnaAngemon. Due to dubbers wanting to avoid religious words (it's a freaking angel and YOU want to avoid religious words?) "Holy" has been substitued with "Magna" in every Digimon name. Then Magnamon happened and suddenly everything felt a little silly.



MagnaAngemon still hasn't gotten past "Build Anti-Black and hope my opponent uses Black" as his core strategy.



I love that ToyAgumon is a Digimon card, thereby making it resolve AFTER any Option cards you might try against it.



Hey check it out, I got to Ultimate myself.



So I beat him and headed onto Sky City after that to fight Nefertimon. Using Shadramon was probably not the best idea against her.



Oh no, she hit Ultimate.

Look what's in my hand.



Angewomon is Sky City's new opponent. Something about that name is just wrong. Was "LadyAngemon" not punny enough?



Digimon don't have genders! Even if they did you've basically been a girl the entire time.

...haven't you?



Oh you have GOT to be kidding me.



Why do opponents use decks like this?



This deck seems to be recovery-based.



Shame I have ToyAgumon here.



I screencapped the prize pack just to show that they never improve their rewards.



After that, head on over to Steep Road. Ken is finally ready to battle you, but you have to get past GranKuwagamon first. Apparently this is Wormmon's Ultimate form, but we never saw that in the show, and I've never really heard of him having a canon Ultimate form...but no matter!



Oh you're going to absorb my HP? Good effort, you absorbed zero HP.



Oh SHIT he has an Ultimate and Speed Digivolve! We gotta kill him this turn, what do I do--



Oh

nevermind

hope knocking off 280 HP was worth it



Here, let me use your own partner card against you.



You just did though.

It's not over yet though, this guy has an item for you if you beat him five times in a row without leaving the Battle Café.



It's a frigging worthless Digi-Part! This is just fabulous! How are you supposed to know this is here, and how are you supposed to have the patience to get it?!



Anyways, Ken's ready for a battle.



He still looks kinda smug in that portrait.



Well, I got to Ultimate at the start of the battle this time. I basically won right away, there. Again, however, like with the rest of the Digimon Adventure 02 people, you get to fight Ken six times, and if Wormmon is not your partner you'll get to use him in borrowed decks, etc.



Repeat this image six times if you want to imagine what it's like.



Yeah we really needed to spam these to get any sort of challenge out, right?



After the sixth win, you get another horrible Digi-Part!



Well, I feel like I could go a little further in this update, so guess what?



Round three. Magnamon was eventually made into one of the thirteen Royal Knights, a group resembling the Knights of the Round Table whose daily activities involve protecting evil monsters as they commit genocide. Lovely folks, ain't they?



So much for actually fighting Magnamon in the battle, Veemon was used as a lame support card.



Here, NiseDrimogemon lets me narrowly avoid a KO.



Anyways, those were the highlights, but the prize pack I got is AMAZING. RealMetalGreymon at LAST.



Next up is Hawkmon's Ultimate form, Sylphymon. He's kinda weird-looking to me nowadays, but not the worst outfit ever. Oh, and we have 200 wins now! Only 100 more matches to go! Because you need at least 300 wins to finish the post-game, did I mention that?



Standard-issue Green deck. Nothing special this battle.



Nice prize pack, though! My luck with these is improving.



Next up is Shakkoumon, who has never made any sense to me whatsoever.



Well, I should be able to handle this, SandYanmamon can take at least one hit from that X attack.



Then I brought in Submarimon, he handled the rest just fine. See what I mean about Armors being overpowered in this game?



Seraphimon is the final opponent in Pyramid City's Extra Arena. I actually misremembered how many times you have to repeat Extra Arenas. You do ALL of them three times, and then the first three one additional time, so it's still hilariously tedious to get through, just not as long as I thought.



Oh look, he evolved. What do you think I'll do next?



Drop him to low HP and bring in an Armor for the KO. Oh, but this isn't the end of Seraphimon, guess what, he too has a prize for beating him five times in the Battle Café without leaving. It's this:



I believe we're up to three Sevens cards now.



And the grand finale to Sky City's Extra Arena is Magnadramon, Gatomon's final form. If you've never heard of her, I don't blame you, we never saw her in the show, and her final form in Digimon Frontier is Ophanimon instead. Then when Digimon Adventure for the PSP came out, her final form changed to Ophanimon again. And now it's back to Magnadramon in Next Order. They really can't decide.



Well here we go again, this could be trouble!



It could be, but it isn't!



You and me both! Next time we do more card collection and get on with the rest of the post-game.