Set Information
Release Special Booster Ver 1.0: The Launch of the Digimon TCG
After the Digimon TCG launched in Japan in sets BT 1-3, the new game made its debut in the West with Release Special Booster Ver 1.0. It started with a test release on 27 November 2020. Combining some of the most impactful cards from BT 1-3, like MetalGarurumon and Lilithmon, the set not only launched with a bang on 29 January 2021, but has cards that continue to dominate the game.
Cards Selected to Showcase Each Color
Introducing any new TCG requires giving players a taste of what the various factions – colors in this case – will do. Ver 1.0 does this through the Tamers. Tai Kamiya makes it clear red is all about aggression because it grants Security Attack +1, but only if the Digimon attacking has four or more Digivolution cards. Aiming to go into a single, powerful attacker to burn through the opponents five Security allows red to end games quickly.
Yellow, on the other hand, looks to draw the game out, using Recovery effects to replenish their Security Stack. With access to MagnaAngemon and MagnaDragmon, yellow can easily force opponents to attack through seven or more security a game, at the expense of paying high memory costs to do so. To prevent key resources getting stuck in Security, yellow also made user of their Tamer, T.K. Takaisi, searching out whatever they needed to keep extending the game.
Rookie rush strategies use Armadillomon and Elecmon to pressure your opponent, lock down their board with Puppetmon in order to set up the win, while minimizing the amount of memory the opponent has access to. The option to go tall or wide is open to every deck, but very few could make use of shared Memory system like this!
The Iconic Omnimon
No launch set is complete without including a classic chase card, and Ver 1.0 did that with Omnimon, bringing the character from anime into the TCG. Originally formed when WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon fuse together, it is little surprise that finds a home with MetalGarurumon in blue.
To reach the payoff of destroying the opponent's Digimon, and attacking twice by Unsuspending, blue decks use their cheap Digivolution Costs to ramp into Omnimon quickly. Unlike red, which requires a full stack to get value, blue is happy to play their level five Digimon, Monzaemon and Zudomon directly onto the field, taking a shortcut, and drawing cards in the process. Combined with cards from ST2-Cocytus Blue, it is not uncommon to see blue decks play their first Omnimon as early as turns two or three! But in the mirror, it is often the second Omnimon that matters most, and the mirror will be a key match up to keep an eye on in the Ver 1.0 format.