As many of you may know (or if you don’t, you’ll learn now) I’ve never been much of a control player. I’ve always favored aggressive decks, and so when I was looking for a deck to play after my recent stint of a billion red decks BT21 decks, I decided to switch things up a bit. I decided to try out some control-style decks that I at least had a passing interest in. I messed very briefly with Omnimon ACE (stream video of some of my matches coming soon. They DO NOT dissappoint lol) and afterwards I focused on the little angel that could, Lucemon, which brings us to today.
I also played a couple of games on stream with Lucemon, just throwing some cards together haphazardly, and since then have REALLY thought about the deck a lot. After a couple of days of self-testing and tweaking, I think I had a list that I was comfortable enough with to bring to my locals, so with this as my goal, I set out to 2 locals today to put my build through it’s paces. So in this post, I’ll talk really briefly about my matches, what I can remember (unfortuantely I didn’t have time to take notes. Control games are usually pretty long, and my table was usually the last game to finish), and my overall thoughts on the current build and where I think I’ll go from here.
1st Locals
Game 1 – vs. Sakuyamon
My opponent for game 1, was actually one of the more well known Japanese players, named Deginogen. He posts up a lot of information about the Japanese version of the game, is really passionate about Digimon is a great player to boot. If you remember back when LordKnightmon got popular in Asia, he was the cause behind that because he won a large scale event just after it’s release with the deck. I thought that I would originally get completely destroyed, but this game was close. Like REALLY CLOSE. He managed to build up a Sakuyamon X-Antibody Stack, and Sakuyamon Stack, and Valdur Arm stack and I managed to take care of all of them with a few well-timed ACE’s and the help of some of the Gallantmon cards (Promo and Medieval). I was really impressed by his play during the game, but finding ways NOT to play token’s because of an early Biting Crush that he checked in security. It got to the point where he had already decked out, but was extending himself with scrambles on the board, and he got to 1 scramble left. I had 2 Lucemon Chaos Mode’s on the board, and thought I could get a 3rd one up, so I attacked with both of them. It wasn’t until after the attack, that I realized my plan didn’t work and so I left myself no blocker for Seraphimon ACE to redirect with, so unfortunately I lost the game. Big blunder on my part. Super unfortunate.
Something that I thought was really interesting is that early on in the game, he had a remaining token blocker on the board, and I had a rested Lucemon Chaos Mode. I think most players would have ran the token either into security or just left it there for an extra hit later on, but he had the foresight to attack into my Lucemon to destroy his own token. In hindsight, I think this move changed the entire trajectory of the game as it actually prevented me from using it as a way to reduce cost for a MedievalGallantmon. This play really stuck with me because it shows the kind of good game sense that a player like Deginogen has.
Game 2 – vs. Omnimon ACE
I actually had a decent opening hand, and decided to go the early route of evolving Lucemon in raising on turn 1. This comes with the unfortunate side effect of giving my opponent 5 memory on their opening turn, and decks like Omnimon love me for it. I actually played and took early control of the game, but the result of my heavy cost cards in things like Gallantmons and Lucemon Chaos Mode evolves finally caught up with me during the mid game, and my opponent managed to evolve one of their Lv6’s, directly into the new BT21 Omnimon X-Antibody, AND THAT WAS A PROBLEM. I managed to get a Lucemon Lv5 up, but it was the one that could prevent it’s own removal from board rather than playing a Demon Lord or Lucemon Satan Mode from the trash. He wiped my board entirely and from there, I couldn’t build up back fast enough before I died. He played this REALLY well even when I was in control, he always made sure to leave me on 1 EVERY TURN, so that he could build back up an advantage with all of the memory I gave him. I was really impressed by that. 0-2 for the day, yikes.
Game 3 – vs. Blueflare Greymon
This was the last game of the first locals. I’m not gonna sugar coat it, I BRICKED. The problem with Lucemon though is that when it does brick, it BRICKS HARD. My opponent did all manner of punching with 3 ukkomon and blue flare cards while I built the Pyramids of Giza with the large stones in my hand and draws. I didn’t play a card until turn 3, and the game was 4 turns long. Mulligan did not save me.
2nd Locals
Game 1 – vs. Appmon
I learned in this match why Lucemon has such expensive costs, and thats because on turn 2 I moved my Lucemon out of raising, forced him to drop a security, and then evo’d into Chaos Mode and forced him to drop a second security and then recover. If you could do this with normal memory costs, the deck would be absolutely busted, having double the security of your opponent on turn 2. He was able to build up a Globemon and wipe out my first Chaos mode, but luckily I was able to get a Syakomon down in raising and then the turn after use Revive From The Darkness to bring the first Lucemon Chaos Mode back onto the board. He slowly chipped away at my advantage and put me on the defense, but he played fast and loose with his inheritance cards when evolving into a Lv5 and 6, and using them to Link into. When he finally attacked with a Gaiamon, I took my moment and Blast Digivolved into ShadowSeraphimon ACE, De-digivolving his Lv6 into a Lv4, and then a Lv2 to wipe it off the board. I got lucky here, but the following turn he was able to use a second Globemon to take out the ACE and overflow me, which gave him enough memory to win the game. It’s a shame because I thought I had a good position when I wiped that first Gaiamon out. I just wasn’t able to follow it up with a way to close the game out afterward. I was 0-1 for this locals and 0-4 for the day. But the struggle continues.
Game 2 – vs. Examon
This game had me scared, because there was a point where my opponent had not 1 but 2 Examon ACE’s on the board, and somehow, I came back from that. When he had fully suspended an Examon and utilized the unsuspend effect, I had built up a good amount of trash, so I managed to play Promo Gallantmon to actually destroy the big boy, and then I used a Darkdramon ACE hard play to de-digivolve the 2nd one, and wipe it from the board. Quick, aside, if Darkdramon isn’t on your radar for decent ACE cards, please let this serve as your warning. That card is amazing. And despite all of this, I still wasn’t able to close out the game, having not been able to output any offense early on (just control deck tings -_-) and he managed to get a 3rd Examon up. He suspended all of my Digimon and was just about to declare his attack, and at this point, when things were just reaching the crescendo, time was called. The last thing he did was declare an attack on my Darkdramon ACE, but because we both had 2 Digimon on the board, I could have used Scapegoat on Darkdramon to delete my own Lucemon Chaos Mode instead and use it’s effect to bring out Leviamon. I could have used those the following turn to win the game. This was a really fun match, and I wish we could have finished. But oh well, Japan rules state a tie is a double loss ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Game 3 – vs. Royal Base
This match kinda felt like the perfect storm because I got down 2 Lucemon early in the game, and kept forcing my opponent to either discard security or let me recovery, and because he had to keep his security, because Royal Base uses it as a hive of effects, I think I went to 8 security. From there though, I was able to build up to Lv5 Chaos Mode’s and Medieval Gallantmon to wipe out his Digimon and Tamers. From there, I just bullied with alliance swings on the board and pulled too far ahead for my opponent to come back. It’s not relate to Lucemon, but something I didn’t realize about Royal Base until I saw it in action, is how easily they recycle X-Antibody Proto Form. The Lv2 Puroromon’s effect lets you draw the top security, so whenever Protoform is put on top of security by it’s own effect, they can just get it back immediately by moving their Digimon from the Raising Area to the Battle Area. Kinda neat. You know what’s also really neat? My first win of the day.
Game 4 – vs. ACCEL
I forgot about this deck, but when my opponent opened Pinamon, I got real scared. Lucemon is pretty weak in general to De-digivolve, especially when the Lv5’s are just exposed, so their BanchoLeomon posed a real threat. Fortunately, I think my opponent had some trouble finding the BanchoLeomon, and ended up evolving into the Valdourmon and tried to attack into my Lucemon Chaos Mode when I had a Leviamon in the trash, and so the gator came out, and CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP. It was really hard for my opponent to come back from this because checking 2 security is the one offensive bump this deck has, and I took full advantage of it.
Deck and Post Game Thoughts
If I had could summarize my games today, I would use the phrase “feast or famine” because it really did feel like that, sometimes even within the same game. It’s really difficult to keep up with other decks that are so much more efficient with memory. My current list goes with a gameplan of utilizing the Lv5 Lucemon Chaos Mode’s fluidly as potential ACE’s. Earlier this week, I kept telling myself when going over the deck, that I need to find a way to give blocker, but after a lot of meditating on it, I realized that the fact that Lucemon Chaos Mode doesn’t have blocker IS THE POINT. The deck is all about making your opponent make choices. Explicitly on the cards when they have to choose between 2 bad effects, but also implicitly, when they make an attack. Do they hit the Chaos Mode and risk him bringing out whatever may come, or do they risk the potential ACE coming down. That’s how I felt about my current buid anyway. I took this idea and ran with it, and I had some success, but not enough. I think Revive From The Darkness is really interesting for the deck, because with one of your purple Digimon it’s an easy trade for a Lv5 that would be much more expensive otherwise. Unfortunately I don’t get the on-play effect so that’s kinda rough, but the All-Turns effect from both Chaos Mode’s is good enough to warrant them just being in play.
Honestly the Larva, Satan Mode, and Cherubimon didn’t feel very impactful, but at least 1 of these choices is because I didn’t run enough Lv3 Lucemon to always have 1 in hand when I wanted to use a Cherubimon ACE. I think it’s absolutely imperative to run at least 8 Lucemon, if you want to consistently get value from him, and will definitely be a change moving forward.
I also found myself always needing to have more cards in the trash, and is one of the considerations for changing Amber Memory Boost to Mist Memory Boost, and then making room for more Ukkomon as well. I think this could help me more easily bridge earlier turns with lower memory plays while also letting me take advantage of my trash numbers in the late game.
All of these changes may mean that I need to also get rid of the Revive From The Darkness package (Lv3’s included) because the option can only target purple Digimon for it’s effect, so without the Lv3’s things get expensive. Finally, I thought Creepymon was an interesting addition to the deck, as a way to play free Lv5’s AND get their On Play effect, but he was not useful even a single time, so I may consider changing him out, if I can’t find another way to do it.
So that about wraps up everything up. Thanks for reading all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed reading this event report. Despite becoming a Digimon TCG YouTuber, I really enjoy writing, and reading other people’s stories of their games and events, and so I hope to do more written content as well. If you really liked this and would like to see more, please become an official YouTube member on my channel. It really does go a long way in helping me create better Digimon Card Game content, be it videos or written blog posts like this. You can also be proud of the fact that your memberships will toward actively trying to help grow the scene.
Until next time, Thanks for reading!
