The new Red Hybrid cards introduced in BT21 consists of Flamemon, Agunimon, BurningGreymon, and Aldamon along with the new Takuya Tamer and the Spirit Evolution option card. Technically the new promo EmperorGreymon is in there as well, though not part of the BT21 set, the design of the promo card feels very synergistic with the new cards. In this post, I’d like to talk about the new cards, their interesting points, and how they fit together with the already current card pool for Red Hybrid.
To get you up to speed, let’s give a breakdown of each of the cards. Their effects in a nutshell are below:
- Takuya Kanbara: At start of main, evolve into a Hybrid/Hero for cost -1 for each different named red tamer. Inheritance plays a tamer when your opponent’s security is reduced.
- Flamemon: Rest him, and play a tamer from hand, then put him in sources.
- Agunimon: On Evo, put a Hybrid from trash/hand in this card’s sources, or another tamer’s sources. On attack, evolve into a Hybrid in hand for cost -1
- BurningGreymon: Gain +3K and Piercing for the turn. Whenever an opponent’s security is reduced, you can evo at cost -1
- Aldamon: Sec+1. On Deletion, play a tamer from hand or trash. Inheritance is same On Deletion effect. If it evolves onto a card with Agunimon or BurningGreymon in the sources, cost -1
- Spirit Evolution: Trash 1 Hybrid, Draw 2. On Delay, when a Tamer is played, you can trash the option to evolve a Tamer into a Hybrid for free.
- EmperorGreymon: Blocker and all turns gets +1K for each color in sources. On evo it deletes something weaker than itself and unsuspends at the end of your turn.
The cards were made with a really specific combo in mind that lets you use them all together for some low-cost turns and defensive follow-up play. Below is an example:
Combo:
- Takuya’s “Start of Main Phase” effect allows it to evolve into Agunimon for 1 cost (assuming only 1 tamer on the board, but if you have Takuya & Koji Tamer it can count for up to 3).
- Agunimon stacks another Hybrid from hand or trash in sources (usually just another +2K)
- Agunimon attacks the opponent’s security or Digimon and evovles into BurningGreymon in hand for 0 (Agunimon effect cost -1)
- BurningGreymon gains +3K and piercing. Then the attack finishes, and you either check security, or delete the opponent’s Digimon and then check security because of the piercing.
- On Security reduction, evo into the new Aldamon for 2 (BurningGreymon cost -1, Aldamon cost -1)
- Aldamon has Sec +1, so the attack checks another security (Yes, this works. Search
BT21-014on the official rules site) - Takuya Inheritance plays Tamer from hand for free.
Total Memory Used: 3 = 1 (Agunimon Evolve) + 2 (Aldamon Evolve)
Total Security Checked: 2 = 1 (Aguni) + 1 (Aldamon Sec+)
Total Cards Used: 4
What you do with the rest of the turn is kind of up to you, but with the Aldamon already having attacked, that stack is spent. Probably the 1 option you do have at your disposal is the EmperorGreymon, to unsuspend, and gain Blocker, but it’s a 4-memory cost. Some slightly less costly plays might be playing another 3-cost Takuya tamer or the 3 cost Spirit Evolution card to end the turn.
What’s kind of interesting about the cards and the combo that I mentioned above, is that if you’ve played Red Hybrid a lot in the past, the set of effects might feel mysteriously similar. That’s because, for all intents and purposes this all kind of works similar to the BT17 AncientGreymon cards. Where in that combo you evolved your Takuya into BT17 BurningGreymon, who attacked with Raid, and mid-attack evolved into BT17 Agunimon for free. The Agunimon’s evolve effect, then let it further evolve into BurningGreymon for 3 memory, giving you typically a 16k DP 2-check Digimon that destroyed itself at the end of the turn (unless you do some shenanigans) to play another tamer and recycle cards to hand.
The whole new combo just feels like a new flavor of the old AncientGreymon. So the real question then is, well which is better? To answer that, let’s look at some of the facts and compare them for each.
| BT17 Cards (AncientGreymon Ender) | BT21 Cards (Aldamon Ender) | |
|---|---|---|
| Security Checked | 2 | 2 |
| Checked DP | 12k Base + 2k (BurningGreymon) + 2k (Agunimon) = 16k DP | 8k Base + 2k (Burning) + 3k (Burning) + 2k (Aguni) + 2k (Aguni)* = 17k DP |
| Resulting Board | 1 Tamer | 1 Aldamon (Deletion Effect: Play a Tamer) + 1 Tamer (Tamer effect) |
| Useful effects | Raid (BurningGreymon), 1 Card returned to hand | Piercing (BurningGreymon) |
| Digimon Destroyed | 1 (16k DP or less) | 0 |
* This assumes you pIaced one of the many +2k DP inheritance cards in your sources from the Agunimon’s evolve effect
I think if you’re just doing a single point-for-point analysis here, the BT21 cards actually come out on top, but I think this doesn’t tell the whole story, and honestly the missing parts are probably the most important.
Some Missing Pieces of the Puzzle
Takuya Kanbara
The BT21 Takuya Kanbara is interesting for it’s ability to really accelerate your Digivolves and Tamer plays. The Start of Main Phase effect will almost always net you a cost -1 Digivolve (seeing himself as a cost reduction count) but if you have the BT18 Takuya & Koji Tamer also in play, it will at most give you cost -2 on the Digivolve, essentially making your Digivolution to level 4, cost 0 to 1 memory total. Honestly this seems great, especially when you compare it to the BT17 Takuya Kanbara, because the BT21 has the possibility to get more value (max cost reduction: -2), isn’t reliant on your opponent’s board state for the +1 memory at the start of the Main Phase, and plays other tamers when you check security for free (3 – 5 memory value for 0), it feels like the decision here is a no-brainer.
If I’ve sold you at this point, then I’ve done my job, because the devil is really in the details, and that is the timing. I had a great conversation with my Discord server’s resident Red Hybrid player, Rango (Hi Rango!) and he really brought this point to my attention, and then it was later hammered home during my testing with the BT21 cards. To really get the value out of the new Takuya, the silent cost is that you need to have everything ready by the start of the Main Phase. This means no searching with Bokomon or Flamemon, or attacking and getting a card draw off of the Koromon egg. You have to have all of the necessary cards from the start, and if you don’t, you lose out on the memory benefit of the Takuya.
I want to really emphasize here that I’m not saying whether the BT21 Takuya is good or bad, because if you’re set up, then you can get up to 7 memory worth of value (2 from evolution, 5 cost tamer when security reduced) out of it, and I think there is absolutely value in that free tamer play regardless. But I do want you to be aware of all of the costs associated with it. Whether you decide to use it is something you’ll need to carefully consider.
Aldamon
The Aldamon being the basic offense for the deck seems nice. Unrestricted Security Attack +1 and play a Tamer from hand/trash on deletion as a card effect and inheritance effect seems like a great way to recycle your tamer. Combined with the fact that you can play him for 2 cost is also great, but like the Takuya above, there are some hidden issues that you really should be aware of especially when considering the leftover board state at the end of your turn.
As the game has become a bit more complex, I think most players can agree that an intrinsic value of hybrid decks is that they can leave no Digimon up for the opponent to interact with. Conversely, the Aldamon sticking around means that you lose one of the Hybrid brand’s patented defensive tools. Your opponent can now use your board for their benefit. When you look at decks like Gallantmon, your Aldamon sticking around will amount to free memory for them when they delete it. This could be what they need to extend and win the game. Also the kind of deck your fighting against will also vary the mileage you see from Aldamon. Decks with color focuses like Blue, Green, Black have ways to circumvent your deletion effect whether by bouncing the Digimon back to hand/deck, rendering it unable to suspend or unsuspend to make it a useless pile, or simply de-digivolving it to remove the effect entirely.
AncientGreymon only leaving up a Tamer in contrast makes it much harder for your opponent to use your board for their benefit. AncientGreymon ensures that you always see your effect whereas Aldamon is a bit more dependent on the opponent working with you to achieve the desired outcome.
Flamemon
The Flamemon might be one of the best cards to come out of BT21 for red hybrid. It’s ability can really set you up well, but I think in order to get full value out of it, you need to be able to cycle through your eggs quickly or have high-cost tamers to utilize it’s effect. With a cost of 3, anytime you have 3 memory or more, just playing a Flamemon down, and suspending it to play a tamer is great. My recommendation is that if you pulled the Flamemon out of raising and use it’s effect, playing any tamer is okay. But if you hard play it to simply rest it and play a Tamer in the same turn, That tamer needs to be 4 cost or more, otherwise, you haven’t gotten any value from the play itself.
Something else I think is worth considering is the a question I think we should all have on our minds for any deck which is, “What is the value of checking 1 security?” This question often came up in my testing (and I’m sure it will in yours if you use this card) when I moved my Flamemon from the Breeding Area to the Battle Area, and had to decide whether I wanted to check a security, or use the Flamemon’s Main effect and rest it to play the tamer. The check gets me closer to winning the game now, and gives me card draw (Thank you Koromon egg), whereas resting it can give me a great setup for the following turn, but I lose my Digimon on board and the card draw. I don’t think there is a blanket answer you can give here about what is right, but rather it will evolve with the current state of the game. I really do think the Flamemon is an interesting card, and this conundrum is one of the reasons why.
Wrap-Up
I think there is a lot more I could talk about here, but I’ll finish this post up for now (between typing, practicing piano, and boxing, my hands hurt lol). I’ll be creating a video on YouTube talking about some of the other cards in the deck which you can think of as the 2nd half of this post. It’s an idea that I’ve been thinking about for a while, and honestly considering the deck, this “Hybrid” content seems pretty fitting. ; D
I do want to give one final shoutout to Rango, the Red Hybrid connoisseur in my Discord for the great conversation and letting me bounce ideas off of him, when talking about the new cards and their use as a whole. By the way, if you’re looking for a fun DigimonTCG community to hang out and have fun with online, my discord is a pretty great place. If you’re looking for some cool folks to talk about the game with, you won’t be disappointed!
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Thanks for reading and see you in the video!
