Introduction

November 23 was the second Aichi Challenge Cup in Nagoya, and the last one that would happen before BT8 dropped on the following Friday. The event was restricted to players within Aichi, but we still ended up with about 50-something people that got cut to 32 in a lottery. I missed out on the lottery in the first event that happened at the start of the month (which had a good 75 people show up), so I was pretty elated to get in this time. The format was single elimination. There wasn’t really a cut to top 8, since the format naturally decided it. Single elimination might sound a little crazy if you haven’t played in Japan before, but it’s not that uncommon. Events tend to be quicker over here, so you either end up in 5 rounds of Swiss (which is pretty much just everyone that’s 4-0 at round 4 going on to the top) or single elimination. Each game is always a best of 1, so you don’t really have time to adapt to your opponent’s playstyle in later games. I ended up taking top 4 with a Mastemon/Zwart combo deck.

The meta within Aichi, and most of Japan, tends to be pretty diverse. Events are smaller, and locals are more numerous, so you get a lot of things crawling up to the top. The expected decks for this particular Challenge Cup were:

Blue/Green Paildramon

Yellow/Purple Hybrid Control

Mastemon and its variants

Red Hybrid

Jesmon

There are also a few dedicated Machinedramon players, but I don’t think any of them got in through the lottery this time. There were also a few Blue Hybrids there as well, but I didn’t run into any of them. The deck itself is very formidable, but struggles against slower decks like Hybrid Control and Mastemon since a large chunk of it’s disruption is based around bouncing lower-cost Digimon to the bottom of a player’s deck or their hand, which neither Yellow Hybrid nor Mastemon typically focus on.

Maste/Zwart is a very strong deck that can perform well at any stage of the game if given the proper setup, and can absolutely close out on the last turn before deck out if your opponent fails to kill you. Early, mid, or late: Maste/Zwart is a safe choice if you tempo your plays properly. The deck has a lot of working parts to it, so I’ll break down each on individually. First though, the list:

Deck List

First, let’s look at Mastemon and what she can do. She’s a level 6 13000 that can digivolve off a yellow or purple Digimon for a cost of 5, but she can also DNA Digivolve off a yellow lv5 and a purple lv5 for a cost of 0, which is typically how you want to bring her out. On Digivolve Mastemon can pull a Purple or Yellow Digimon from the player’s trash and put it on top of their security. Then, if Mastemon was DNA Digivolved into, she can play a lv5 or lower yellow or purple Digimon from the Security Stack. Then finally, on either player’s turn, when a Digimon is put into her controller’s field by an effect, she destroys an opponent’s Digimon of equal or less cost to the played Digimon.

A basic Mastemon deck tends to combine her with Lucemon, since he happens to be a level 5 purple that carries his own destruction effect, allowing the player to get rid of two bodies for the price of one. In a Zwart combo deck Lucemon is normally kept at 1 copy, and rarely played. Zwart-Maste typically wants to grab lv5 Yellow cards to help continue the deck’s main combo and close out for game, rather than try to exhaust the opponent and clear out their field presence.

“Mega Digimon Fusion!” reduces the next digivolve cost of a lv6 into a lv7 by 6. Which makes Zwart a 0-cost off Mastemon. Zwart, when digivolved into, mills the top 3 cards of the deck then lets the player put 2 different 8-cost or lower Purple or Black Digimon into the field. Zwart can also return a lv6 Digimon in his material stack to the player’s hand to destroy an opponent’s 12-cost or lower unsuspended Digimon on attack. If the main devastating combo here isn’t fully clear yet:

DNA into Maste for 0 > revive a lv5 yellow Digimon > Play “Mega Digimon Fusion!” and go into Zwart > Zwart gets back at least 1 lv5 purple > attack with Zwart and return Mastemon to hand > rinse and repeat with the revived yellow and purple Digimon.

DNA Digivolution comes with a few added bonuses to it that make this a potential 1-turn kill. First, a Digimon that’s DNA’d into does not have “summoning sickness,” and it can attack when it’s digivolved into even if both of its materials were just put into play on that turn. DNA Digivolution also resets any once per-turn effects on material cards… although that’s not really abused with Mastemon, but can be relevant depending on what’s in her stack. DNA Digivolution will also erase buffs or debuffs any of the material cards had, as the DNA target is considered a “new” Digimon. So, if your opponent hit you with a [Security Attack -], that effect will vanish when you DNA up.

The engine used to get to Mastemon normally starts on ST10 Gatomon with either BT3 LadyDevimon or ST10 Angewomon. LadyDevimon lets the player quickly filter through their deck and setup their grave for Mastemon and Zwart, and Angewomon comes with a material effect that grants and extra security check as long as the player controls a yellow Digimon. If you’re doing the combo properly, then it shouldn’t be to particularly difficult to meet the yellow Digimon requirement even if you’ve already digivolved up into Zwart.

Gatomon is an incredibly powerful starter, and is a solid turn 1 play, even if she costs 5. On play, she reveals the top 3 cards of the deck and lets the player add a purple and yellow Digimon from the revealed cards to their hand. She reduces the costs of any “Angel,” “Fallen Angel,” or “ArchAngel” played on top of her by 2. She also has a material effect that let’s the player DNA Digivolve her at the end of the turn. If you throw out Gatomon on turn 1, on turn 2 you can digivolve into just about any lv5 in your deck for a cost of 1, play whatever other color you need, go into Mastemon, and hopefully get another Digimon onto the field and start applying pressure. It’s very difficult and cost intensive to get Mastemon off the field once she hits, and she’ll almost always be entering with the threat of a 2-card security check thanks to Angewoman.

Some players tend to flex in other lv5 options like BT1 MagnaAngemon for his on-play recovery effect, or BT5 NeoDevimon, who can hard control Tamer-centric builds. I’m personally a bigger fan of ST3 Angewomon as my flex yellow, since she can be played on top of Gatomon for a similar cheap recovery as MagnaAngemon, and I also like EX1 LadyDevimon since she helps mill the deck a little faster and has a material effect that increases memory when a Digimon is played from the trash… which the deck does a lot.

The main combo in the deck has a lot of potential hang-ups and ways that it can be slowed down, so a lot of the leftover space is dedicated to cards that can help answer these problems. The Eyesmon Package is almost standard for any purple decks thanks to it’s quick milling, low play-cost, and ability to self-play from the trash, but I ended up not using it and instead used some of the Oni cards. The most important of these is Ginkakumon Promote.

Promote is a level 4 Purple Digimon that comes with [Rush], letting him attack the turn he’s played. He can also grab a Ginkakumon and Kinkakumon from the trash to place under him as materials, letting the player draw a card and gain +1 memory if they do. Ginkaku and Kinkaku are generic lv4 Digimon, but each has a material effect. Ginkakumon will, once per-turn, give the player +1 memory when they discard a card, and Kinkaku allows the player to discard a card when they attack to destroy an opponent’s lv3 Digimon. Control cards like Shakkomon, Gazimon, ModokiBetamon, Cutemon, Terriermon, and Gaossmon have become more popular in the meta, and Kinkaku lets you get rid of any of them with ease.

Your opponent doesn’t even need to have a lv3 Digimon to activate Ginkaku’s effect since this is an “<x> by <y>” effect. As as long as you have a card to discard for Kinkaku, you can resolve the effect. This makes a double Ginkaku Promote pull a potential +4 in memory, helping set up further plays, or giving you a nice safety barrier against cards like BT4 Kari, Ice Wall, or Vulcan’s Hammer.

I also gave one flex spot to BT6 Ogremon, just because he gives another way to answer low-cost disruptors.

I cut myself down to 9 lv3s, which seems pretty low, but keep in mind that this deck’s main starter is supposed to be Gatomon, and you rarely want to get to her by Digivolving up. Four copies of Gazimon is pretty much required. You can stunt other decks running Memory Boost cards, which most current meta decks do. Blue in particular has a lot of memory gain outside of Tamer effects, and choking a blue deck’s memory gain is the quickest way to wrest control from it.

The other lv3s are mostly just to speed up drawing and discard. ST6 Gabumon gives a draw and trash on attack, and BT4 Labramon let’s you do the same when he’s played. Tsunemon is a solid Digitama choice for the deck because there are plenty of effects in it that will trigger the +1 draw effect it has, and having multiples out can quickly restock your hand.

I know I’ve been going in reverse order of level here, but I want to bounce back around to lv6 Digimon since the deck is running a rather healthy amount of them. While Mastemon is obviously the intended starter for the deck’s main combo, having other ways to reach Zwart can be useful. BT7 Nidhoggmon can serve as a very useful bridge in the case of not hitting everything needed for Mastemon, and it comes with the added benefit of granting +1 memory when it’s discarded from your hand by an effect. I also ran a 1-of Titamon.

He’s a pretty steep lv6, having a 4-cost Digivolution cost, but the benefits he grants can really help out Zwart assuming you have your memory amount under proper control. When you Digivolve into Titamon, he trashes a card in hand and then revives a lv4 purple Digimon from the trash. This means he can grab back a Ginkakumon Promote, and recovery 1 memory and draw or grab a Gatomon to do some more searching. He also has a once per-turn that gives him +2000 DP and [Security Attack +1] when an effect trashes a card in the player’s hand. If you digivolve up into Zwart, he’ll retain the boosts Titamon received, making him a 17000 double-check that turn.

Tamer cards are very important in this deck. Four Analog Boy is pretty much a requirement, since he’s needed to play “Fuse Into the Ultimate Digimon!” due to his color, he helps set up the trash for combos later, and also provides a way to gain memory if your opponent somehow pops Mastemon or one of your digivolved lv5s. I guess you could also run Menoa from BT6 if you wanted, but her only purpose is to act as a memory fixer, since you won’t be using any Eosmon cards. Another player from Aichi has their own writeup on their version of the deck that uses Menoa here. I’d highly recommend it, even if there’s a paywall to read it all. They’re one of the strongest players in the region, and do a lot to support the scene here.

My fixer was a single copy of Matt. Matt’s ability to grab something back can be very helpful if you end up losing a Mastemon to Analog Boy’s effect or because she got stuck in your security cards. The downside to Matt is that his On-Play effect is not optional, so if the only cards in your trash are cards you want IN your trash, then too bad. If you just want the memory fix, go Menoa. If you want a little more potential utility, go Matt.

Starting on 3 memory can be a godsend sometimes, since it will let you naturally progress a Digimon from lv2 up to a Ginkaku and Kinkaku Promote for easy Digimon destruction. As I had said before, having more control of your starting memory in this particular format can be very important with cards like BT4 Kari, ST2 Vulcan’s Hammer, and EX1 Ice Wall being able to punish you for clearing away security cards.

The decks Option options are sort of limited. It’s a very Digimon-heavy deck, but you obviously need 2 or 3 copies of “Mega Digimon Fusion!” since it’s a centerpiece of the deck’s main game-ending combo. I also like Purple Memory Boost, since it gives you the ability to dig a little as well as a +2 to memory on any following turn in case something goes wrong. Calling in the darkness is another nice recovery card option to get back a Mastemon, Titamon, or Nidhoggmon while potentially setting up your grave with things for the former to revive.

Matches

This Article has already gotten pretty dang long, so I’m just going to summarize my matches from the Challenge Cup, and just give the general thought process on how to handle specific matchups. If a player has shared their deck online somewhere (or whatever their most recent shared version of it is), I’ll put a link to it in their name.

Round 1 Kyonpi’s (きょんぴ) B/G Paildramon

I actually debated taking a Paildramon deck before the event as well. The deck can be very fast and also get away with running a lot of control-heavy option cards to prevent your opponent from interacting with you. The deck’s biggest weakness is that it’s very reliant on either getting extremely lucky on security pulls due to the deck’s main beater being an 8k, or crafting the perfect Paildramon so it has [Jamming]. Paildramon can easily get in 3 swings in 1 turn, putting it on about even footing with Red Hybrid or Jesmon in terms of clear power.

Another weakness the deck has is being susceptible to more removal than Mastemon is since its field often ends in a collection of lv3 or lv4 Digimon. I ended up playing this matchup really slow. He didn’t hit a Tamer early, so I was able to keep his starting memory low by not overcommitting and forcing him to leave his DNA targets out in the open. Some Paildramon decks also avoid running hard removal, since Paildramon can do that for the deck when he comes out. This is another reason why I opted to use ST3 Angewomon over MagnaAngemon. Angewoman has 7k attack, putting her out of range of Paildramon’s bounce. I was able to chip away at his security a bit early on, so I was able to close the game out quickly once I hit the Maste/Zwart combo.

Round 2 Jyankuua’s (じゃんくーあ) Y/P Hybrid Control

Yellow/Purple control was kind of the deck I was most scared of, and probably the deck I like seeing the least. It is a very, very, slow deck that maximizes out on Tamer cards, Digimon, and Option cards that provide recovery effects while slowly advancing towards the conditions needed to play Susanoomon. The deck also uses “Mega Digimon Fusion!” but it most powerful card is easily “Schwarz Lehrstaz,” which destroys lv5 or less Digimon your opponent controls up to the number of Tamers you control. You Ideally get Schwarz in your security stack after having a few Tamers hit the field, blow up your opponent’s board, and then gain an insane amount of starting memory to begin pelting them with Digimon like Kazemon or Silyphimon before going in for the kill with Susanoomon.

This is another matchup you want to take slowly, since destroying security cards tends to just help them out and fill up their field. He played a lot of early “T.K and Kari,” which only give extra memory while their controller has less security cards than their opponent. I thought “just don’t attack, and you don’t have to worry about him playing anything.” The strategy mostly worked, and he was capped at playing 1 Tamer a turn or getting 1 Digimon out.

This match came down to the wire though, and I ended up decking myself out in the process. However I was able to sustain my memory on my last turn thanks to a double Ginkakumon Promote Grab, Calling in the Darkness to destroy one and grab a Mastemon back, and then grab it again off a second Zwart to swing for game after a long and convoluted turn.

 

Round 3 MugiMugi’s (むぎむぎ) Zwart/Mastemon (Top 8)

A mirror match of sorts, and one against the player who probably knew the deck better than anyone else. I was honestly expecting my run to end here, but luck heavily favored my side. The way to approach any Mastemon deck, is to keep track of their trash. No one is going to risk goin in early if their trash isn’t setup in at least some kind of favorable way. It also helped me that he didn’t see a memory fixer, so once again, this turned into a back and forth of who could squelch the other player out of the turn, or get them to overcommit before they could reasonably secure a win. I hit a LadyDevimon early, letting me setup my trash and go into Mastemon on about turn 4. I had also been chipping away at his memory, since I knew it was a Zwart deck and that he wouldn’t have recovery cards to come back with. Lots of Gazimon, hitting a my Matt early, and good discard fodder in hand helped my secure the win here, but the match could have easily flipped around in a single turn had he drawn well.

I had opened with a full Mastemon combo in hand, while I think he was mostly stuck with bits and pieces, but not the ones he needed. I saw a lot of lv3 Digimon coming at me early, but never a full on commit to the combo. He ended up sitting on a Gatomon in his Raising Area for a solid 3 or 4 turns, presumably because he could never get either an Angewomon or Mastemon in his hand.

 

Round 4 Mikitani’s (みきたに) Red Hybrid (Top 4)

It’s a little bittersweet knowing this is the deck that bopped me, since it was the first deck I wrote about for this game. Red Hybrid is a super aggressive glass cannon, but can also be run at a slightly slower mid-range. This particular variant was going all in on EmperorGreymon as it’s boss, completely forgoing AncientGreymon and promo Agunimon for more control options.

Once again, I went into this match prepared to mostly play memory control so he could never digivolve and attack me in the same turn. I also needed to keep his trash low, since He was able to get a Takuya out very early. I think playing slowly here is what led to my defeat, as I wasn’t expecting to get hit by 5 different field control cards. When I eventually did hit a Mastemon I had been playing too slowly and couldn’t go up into a Zwart. I didn’t get an Analog Boy on the field, and never drew into any “Mega Digimon Fusion!” copies. It ended with a big fat swing off Emperor and then a finishing blow from Agunimon.

Mikitani ended up getting 2nd place, but he was super relaxed and friendly, and I really enjoyed my match with him.

Conclusion

I do think Mastemon will continue to be a potentially strong contender going into BT8, even if she won’t be the best. She’s got mostly decent matchups against everything in the pre-8 meta, but Armor Digivolution could probably present a problem for her with it’s ability to dodge destruction effects. One of the new options cards set 8 introduces prevents the player’s opponent from playing Digimon via card effects, completely halting Mastemon’s gimmick. While a single card isn’t always enough to stop a deck, it can certainly slow it down, and will make any potential red deck match a nightmare. There’s still a few months before most of the cards needed in this deck make their way into the English version of the game, but I think it will still be strong in that format as well whenever ST10 releases.

BT8 doesn’t really give Mastemon that many new cards to work with, but something like Deamon can be a good replacement over Titamon within my specific build, and Ophanimon’s new Option card can give the deck a decent form of removal that doubles as a revival card.