Digimon TCG | The Promo Problem - A Possible Solution?

[@GlobalDigitalEmpire]

More promos in ST or Advanced decks would be great too. The Memboosts in ST7 & 8 were great and I like the alt arts we get in Advanced decks but a bunch of promos would be great too

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Agreed with this! I definitely liked how the memory boosts were introduced in ST7 and ST8. And how the training options were introduced in BT14.

[@gsnbr2023]

Promos should be only alt arts of cards in sets, not special unique card with very limited stock...

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I think promos for sure SHOULD NOT be included as a dash pack that stores have to supply. Building the promos into the box was a good move on Bandai's part. But I think they need to increase the possible number of promos you get from 1 to at least 2. But the more the better in my mind.

[@biogoji8975]

I think the promo pack for bt14 was kinda glanced over, a lot of people forget how expensive shadramon, and diaboromon ace became, the simple solution to all of this really, is to provide more than one card in each promo pack included in a box

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Oh my goodness. I completely forgot about those promos too! They're also included in the BT14 box and are 1 per 6.

[@ToriloOo]

@@DIGI-PANDA the "training" boom completely overshadowed those promo's

[@SephirothASTAROTH]

All promos on the pack so 4 boxes for the playset should be the stadnard. Rememeber tamers, we ahve the power, FILL THE SURVEYS and DEMAND THIS. IMO panda this should be the call to action of this video. This is the solution to this problem.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

The surveys themselves are good, unfortunately, whenever I see people publicly posting about it, they are calling to action to increase in person events, regionals, etc. And I feel if we call to action different things, Bandai will do one and not the other.

[@CardOtakuDesu]

Great video! I wonder how it will affect box sales if they do include 1 of each of the promos per box.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I'm very curious how the combined set is going to be.

[@ClubbingSealCub]

just put all promos into the same pack bandai, it's that easy

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. BT14 was exactly the set that did this and I loved it.

[@LocoDS49]

@@DIGI-PANDA This. Also, this problem is made worse when in sets like BT14 the new promos are core support for older archetypes and supply is gonna be very limited once the box is out of circulation. Box toppers should more like BT14 or just foil Digi-eggs like in EX5, and also increase the amount they supply to stores for tournament kit, they give anywhere from 16-32 with one card each and that is going to run out pretty fast.

[@jimmymc1188]

​@DIGI-PANDA bt14 was the worse set for promos, lost some respect 😔

[@DIGI-PANDA]

@@jimmymc1188 I'm interested in why you think BT14 was the worst set for promos!

[@fybso3057]

Collecting promos is honestly a chore, but i just would like to have every card eventually

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I personally think, buying 4-6 boxes a set is the target goal you want to get to when it comes to selling your product from a Bandai perspective. Because if players can get close to a playset of everything with 4-6 boxes, promos and SRs you make your overall player base happy. True, not everyone's going to buy 4-6 boxes and singles is always the cheapest route to go but even for a collector who wants one of's, you can guarantee that with a single box.

[@besttitanosaurus7742]

. . . You were supposed to get the NYCC deck with boxes of BT-14-?

[@DIGI-PANDA]

With every box purchase. I got like 48 of them for the 2 cases I bought (while supplies lasted)

[@besttitanosaurus7742]

@@DIGI-PANDA I uh- got none. Thanks Local Game Shop-. . .

[@DIGI-PANDA]

@@besttitanosaurus7742 Ping me on discord when you get a chance.

[@Atlas-Kim]

I think the best way to let bandai know of this problem is to start filling the forms they release with each expansion and ask there to have every promo pack contain 1x of all the promo present in there. If we all do this i think they will acknowledge the problem just like they did with the Rising Wind Reprint set

[@DIGI-PANDA]

My only dilemma with the call to action to this is players are already calling to action a completely different topic in regards to more in person events and better prize support. I'm not arguing there's a priority here of one or the other because in my mind they're all equally important.

[@Atlas-Kim]

@@DIGI-PANDA i don't think Bandai should prioritize one topic. The events organization and prize support and the distrubution should be handled from different teams inside of bandai organization.

[@Leonardovideogoes]

Promos the special card that makes an entire deck work or is so powerful that it makes the deck strong

[@Dr.SamCarterPhD]

I already did buy 4 boxes of EX5, it was a box I was super excited about for several decks. I pulled only one copy of only one of the promos I wanted. And I'm not going to drop $15 on a single Champion, I'm too casual for that. Especially not when I would need between 3 and 7 copies just for full sets of 1 or 2 cards. Including one copy of all promos in each box is a terrific idea and I think it had worked pretty great in the past. Or even if they just went back to 2 per.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I feel at the bare minimum we need to go back to 2 copies per a pack. Especially if there is a pool of 6 promos.

[@cyberdragoon1432]

Honestly the 1 of for all promos could unstuck this dilemma, it’s just a matter on how meta defining they are.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

This is ultimately my opinion. Just include one of every promo per a box. I feel like people would buy 4 boxes already to guarantee a playset of promos.

[@MrMestapholese]

Promos and SR rookies killing me. x.x

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I like the rarity bump for some Digimon but with certain pull ratios introduced (especially BT15) - send help.

[@Meeplebops]

The main issue I found with EX05 was that they stuffed all the box topper packs in there to try and encourage people to buy the set and it's not really worked. Thus making Raremon, Kuwagamon, and Saberdramon rather expensive to actually buy. I'm just glad I was able to secure 2 Kuwagamon before this insane price spike. It puts people off trying a deck if it needs a promo because distribution of them is so poor, one of each person pack should be the standard, keeps 2nd hand market a bit more tame and provides all players and opportunity to get the cards they need for decks.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Definitely! I think initially promos were used to incentivize players to buy boxes as well. The only problem is the distribution has changed so many times.

[@TheDescendingChaos]

Yeah I wish stuff like the dash packs, illustrations competition or imperialdraman half-deck were put IN the boxes. Because if you order them online you are basically guaranteed not to get them, and if I buy them in person at my LGS I do get them but they charge a ludicrous mark-up of $100+ for a main set box like blast ace.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Sadly, I now have to check with the seller before I make a purchase because I want those extra goodies and if I'm buying $2000+ in product I better get them.

[@bobakitty6575]

BT14 is one of the best releases. So much value. I would either love a set of promps per box or more than one of the same promo type.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Absolutely agree. My wife and I just opened a case the other day and there was so much value.

[@angelo9024]

As a player I love seeing 1 of every promo in a promo pack like with mem boosts and training cards, and hopefully scramble cards in the future. However, we have to remember that Bandai is a company and they want money. Getting 1 of every card would make sense for something like training or mem boosts, but I think getting 4 promo cards per pack for the promos in ex5 would make more sense. If you get 4 cards you might get only 1 card you want and 3 you don’t, however maybe someone else has a card you want and you have one they want. Y’all can then make trades in order to complete your play set of desired promo. You still run into the issue of people wanting to get play sets of all the promos, but I think this is the most compromise we might see from Bandai considering.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

2-3 I think is definitely a fair compromise per a promo pack if there are 6 different promos.

[@TheDarkFiddler]

I dunno, I got a second box of BT14 specifically because of the training cards. I held off on a second box of EX5 because it was one per pack.

[@ariz1450]

Well, depends on how many promo in the box and how much you can pull per box really, It's a really is the same problem on how many sr or high rarity in the set, it can really hurt the set if unbalanced, Wow, bt14 and bt15 really different as night and day on comparison, almost unfair even. •Side note, your visual data is really helpful good work.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I agree to this statement as well! If it's 3 different promos in the box, I could justify one per a box. But if it's like 6 different ones, I think 2 is actually a good middle ground per. Personally, having 1 of every promo would be amazing.

[@TheoJay615]

I agree! All promos per pack and incentivize people to buy 4 boxes! I know people who didn't buy any boxes BECAUSE cards were so hard to pull!

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Bt15 was this example.

[@lonniethewaffle]

They should have kept the promo Into 2 set like 1.0 and 1.5 and 2.0

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Really enjoyed the set up here as well - especially because they were typically themed. Agumon with Greymon, Garurumon with Weregarurumon and V-Tamer Tai with Veedramon Zero. Don't know how they'd do it with the other promos though ha ha.

[@nvrknwsbst17]

Promos are an issue, but what's worse to me is the lack of support for any Digimon that's not a main protagonist or antagonist. I understand providing support for popular digimon, but they are the only ones to get any support at all. There are over 1400 unique digimon, many of which haven't been seen in the card game, yet there are currently 30+ unique Agumon. Why?

[@DIGI-PANDA]

This is a common question that many viewers ask. Honestly, I think the reasoning why Bandai chooses to do this is because what sells isn't new Digimon, it's what's recognizable. Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 2, Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier. Digimon Savers isn't as recognized (personally to me) and Xros Heart wasn't fully aired. So in some regards, I think that's why Appmon hasn't happened yet.

[@wakame8944]

I agree with your suggestion, and I would put down money for 4 boxes every time, or Bandai should just promise to release reprints of these promos with a half or 1 year delay or every 6 sets or so.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

It might incentivize more players to spend more on boxes if they did that. From another perspective though, 2-3 promos out of 6 is still meeting in the middle, but one just feels too few.

[@VFox27]

I completely understand your point and how to fix the promo issues but no matter what the Digimon tcg community will complain about it. They complained about having too many promos and nothing to do with them at one point. I don’t mind some cards having higher value than others, still less expensive to play this tcg than most.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Unfortunately, individuals will always have something to complain about. On one end, you have players who complain that the promos are too expensive, and then on the other end you'd have the players who like to flip cards complaining about how everything's too cheap. But I do agree that this game is very friendly on the budget in comparison to other games.

[@moxmoonstone]

Ideally one of each promo in a set per box would be the best decision Bandai could ever make regarding promos in this game.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I anticipate that in the future, the Scramble option cards will also be made available as 1 of every in whatever product they are released in.

[@GuapoGremlin]

My problem with box topper, promos as of right now is that their cards that are strong, but very niche in their application. Example being the Shadman, seadramon, zubamon, the Okuwamon for awhile, Kuwagamon and the raremon. Most of them are well over $20 a copy and since they are so hard to come by, it makes a major paywall for certain decks if you want to play them optimally. I think of the promo okuwamon specifically, as when I first started the game I wanted to play grandis, but you need 4 copies of okuwamon and at the time it would cost well over $100 to get them all. Most cards I sited are very new and hype buying for future sets is definitely impacted their price but I think it’s relevant to the conversation nonetheless

[@LocoDS49]

Promo Hawkmon entered this territory. Silphymon needs it to work and because it's now a meta deck in JP with the release of bt 16, sellers are hoarding them and gouging the price, it used to be 6$ on release and now it's 16$ and peaked at 22$ with people still buying it. Ukkomon will eventually have the same problem around the same time. While I'm no stranger to paying 6-24$ per copy for a card coming from yugioh, this is a relatively new problem to Digimon and will definitely harm its reputation of being among the cheaper side of TCGs.

[@GuapoGremlin]

@@LocoDS49 agreed! The yugioh community has been up in arms recently about the new bonfire card, diabelstar, SP and snake eyes as a whole. Thankfully outside of promos, digimon is pretty healthy price wise, but def don’t want it gain a reputation like yugioh for being a high buy in. I know we are getting taht hawkmon In an anniversary set in the summer with prettier art so we could have two versions of the same card that will have a steep price

[@DIGI-PANDA]

The other unfortunate element right now is that with our sets so far behind Japan, when a new card is released we get old cards being bought out before we even know if they'll be meta breaking or not - frankly it's more so speculation on what might be good and they're just pre-emptively buying it.

[@LocoDS49]

@@DIGI-PANDA I believe this is what is happening with RB1 Monzaemon. I personally don't know the pull rates but 13$ for an R is nuts, it was less than 1 dollar on release and then in October it spiked a to 7$ and went down to 4$ in December (BT11 biyomon had this happen to them recently as well with bt15 so I think this was around when it received support) and it got bought out al the way to 20$ in february and it is now 13$.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

@@LocoDS49 The big reason why Monzaemon spiked is largely because of Ultimate cup. Numemon had a strong match up against Apocalymon, but now with Leviamon X emerging as the dominating meta deck, it's a lot harder. The price is coming down largely because of this in my mind.

[@idle_sheep]

It's just so frustrating that they make promos so expensive to get whether you buy them in singles or as part of a box. They really should have them as packs you can buy or something. Essencial cards that have to run in their respective decks (or every deck in the case of stuff like mem boosts and trainings) should not be this limited in availability.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

The only problem is buying the single is a guarantee. The box is not and is entirely gambling.

[@BringMoreDread]

Make the promos alt arts, don’t put meta defining effects on cards that are so limited in supply that you warp the format. CFV does this, it’s AIDs. The English solution with LM, is stupid as well. You devalue the boxes that way. Especially in games with a tribal focus, 4 of promos that make a deck more than mid is stupid.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I felt mixing LM into BT15 was a poor decision but from their perspective I feel they aren't quite sure how to release a product if it's going to have minimum impact or have a low sell rate.

[@Shakzor1]

The double packs were the perfect opportunity to make LM cards a seperate "set" for purchase. 2 Boosters of LM01 and we're good to go.

[@digisplosion]

Its just a bit crazy that they release such powerful cards as 1 in 6 box toppers and only 1 copy. They need to up it to a full playset or 1 of each. Or ideally alt art reprints of meta defining cards instead of new meta defining promos. The digimon con option is an example of a promo that isnt impactful but is a whole new card

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Agreed. And I feel that by providing one of every promo per a box alleviates that need for a specific promo. You also guarantee box sales of at least 4 of for players.

[@digisplosion]

@@DIGI-PANDA feels like they're currently relying on whales to order the cases for the purpose of reselling promos rather than promoting it so the average player buys more boxes

[@RL30N]

BT14 was be best promo release thus far, one of every promo per box is the way to go. Edit: The fact that both the box content and the promo pack was good, it never felt like you had a bad box regardless of the pulls.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

If they continue doing releases like BT14 take my money Bandai! Take my money!

[@ReidvinK]

I'm gonna sound insane but i want them (to try at least once) 6 or more copies of the same card of a big promo pool just to see how the market reacts.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

If they do, it will definitely drive the secondary market down for that particular card. Navigating the balance is the hardship at the moment.

[@joecooper8527]

Every promo for each case ?

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Personally, if there are 6 promos being released, I think at the bare MINIMUM, we should be getting 2 promos per a pack. If it's 3 promos total, I can justify 1. Personally, I wanna see all the promos in a single pack released in a box. Meaning if you want a playset of all the promos, you'd just have to buy 4 boxes.

[@justinbrown9993]

I want/need the Survive promo dracmon and it is painful knowing that the Chinese release has a confirmed timeframe for them

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Sadly, there are just so many promos that we keep seeing that has us wanting more. Though to be fair, other regions outside of the North America do not get certain premium bandai cards too.

[@GlobalDigitalEmpire]

BT13 did offer a WarGreymon or MetalGarurumon ACE as a box topper

[@DIGI-PANDA]

True. My focus was more so on promos released throughout the entire sets. With Wargreymon ACE and Metalgarurumon ACE, they were at least released as starter decks and in quantities of 2.

[@GlobalDigitalEmpire]

@@DIGI-PANDA I understand just stating that there was one just not one we would have liked and could reinforce parts of your argument

[@kitsunepop1077]

here's my idea: don't change anything about HOW the promos are packaged, but what KIND of cards are promos. imo unique cards shouldn't be promos, especially if it ends up being a meta defining card. instead, have the promos be alternate arts of existing cards for example, alt art for cards that were popular in a previous set, alt art for fan favorite digimon. it still encourages buying a bunch of boxes without forcing casual players to break the bank just to play with their favorite decks plus, you can tell stories in the art of the cards! imagine a set of alt art cards for agumon and gabumon that show how they met, the challenges they faced and how they eventually jogressed into omegamon. a storybook deck would be awesome! (if not necessarily meta lmao)

[@DIGI-PANDA]

My only concern is if the card is from a previous set and is no longer seeing play, this doesn't create incentive to buy a new product. I do like the concept, I just don't know how Bandai's marketing would view this.

[@kitsunepop1077]

@@DIGI-PANDA as someone with absolutely zero idea of what goes into marketing, clearly I think this is a flawless idea and everyone who disagrees is making a personal attack on me (all of this said with a heart, omg I've watched your videos for a long time and I'm fangirling rn)

[@DIGI-PANDA]

@@kitsunepop1077 Always appreciate the support :3

[@8BitNezu]

Honestly best way to do it is put the promo inside the box as a topper pack with 1 of each promo. Promo are one of the main reason DragonBall super started dying, besides what they did with draft box one and printing mandatory promo for decks to work like King Vegeta Br and several others

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Only one card out of 6 promos is too low in my mind. 2-3 is is middle ground. All six in a pack would be really nice all around but I think this will affect the secondary market the most.

[@8BitNezu]

@@DIGI-PANDA I can see that

[@TobiGame1]

Wait?! If I bought a box from bt15 I should have gotten the promos from the movie ?!

[@DIGI-PANDA]

BT15 did not come with any promos. It was a standalone box with no additional goodies. BT14 was supplied with demo decks that contained the Ukkomon, Veemon, and Davis that are pretty good for the upcoming format (and frankly now) while supplies lasted.

[@TobiGame1]

@@DIGI-PANDA sorry I meant bt14, I got two boxes but never gotten the demo decks ?!

[@RonnieReaper13]

I would much rather have 1 pack with all the promos. Have a couple of them Holo or alt art so there is still a chase but there is more promos avaliable.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Agreed! This is the way I'd like to see promos released in the future. Like Bt14.

[@drpulcinella1870]

Feels like the game is just now starting to suffer from the same problem dragon Ball super TCG suffered from at the start of its life span. And this problem was that the promos were just way too tedious to get way too expensive and way to meta relevant. And this problem almost killed dbs. Not the first tcg from bandai to suffer from this. Won't be the last. Luckily Digimon is only just now getting this problem so it has a chance to be answered quickly but bandai will have to act

[@DIGI-PANDA]

This is definitely a problem and I think there are many ways to address. Whether it be releasing promos in the boxes in a way that players can get a playset after four boxes OR... reprints.

[@drpulcinella1870]

@@DIGI-PANDA at this rate feels like we need RB02 and it needs to just be promos ..

[@DIGI-PANDA]

@@drpulcinella1870 For sure!

[@ThePetrifiedkit]

As a former Yugioh player Just give us tins

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Themed Reprint sets would be kind of interesting.

[@ThePetrifiedkit]

@@DIGI-PANDA slap a death x, ruin mode on a tin redo the recent promos as one of and put in 4 packs of the recent set and profit

[@Leonardovideogoes]

Bit 15 It had to have the name of the worst final villain in the anime, imagine a bt that is based on Digimon World 4, it would probably surpass 15 for being bad

[@Voltra_]

Just make promo reprint sets

[@DIGI-PANDA]

To some degree I feel we need at least one reprint set a year. And interestingly, I think Bandai is still working on how to make that happen.

[@Oops-All-Agumon]

bandai has always been bad with their promos in all their games. For digimon they have been way worse with some promos especially on how much and when/where we get them. We are still missing the remaining survive promos as an example and some of those cards saw some play in JP for their respective decks. BT14 also had a secondary promo that was 1 per pack with 6 options that was omitted from the video. Then lets not even talk about the BT05 pulsemon debacle. Like bandai is always really bad with their promos and it will not change it as i dont think they care and they might not know how to fix it themselves to make it a win win for everyone so they would rather be the only winner here.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

That's unfortunate. Even with Digimon Digi-Battle, this card game was a modified version of Hyper Colosseum, and produced by Upper Deck if I recall. There weren't any promos in this game though the rules were much more... lax. Though I haven't played any of the other card games and usually got my fill of promos as I needed them.

[@Oops-All-Agumon]

@@DIGI-PANDA well naruto they had a problem because of shonen jump comics if i remember that correctly. I never played the OG battle spirits so i cannot say anything about that. But in modern times Dragon ball super (masters) is where they really started to use the model we have currently for digimon and their current batch of games.

[@hugemclargetall]

I hate Bandai, but this is the only card game that doesn't cause me to vomit in disgust.🤬

[@DIGI-PANDA]

In the end, we can flame Bandai and be angry with them or we can provide the feedback in a constructive way that creates change. Afterall, they've listened before, maybe they will in regards to promos.

[@jimmymc1188]

Bt14 was the worst set for promos, buying a case wouldnt guarantee a playset of the promos, dont worry the important promos from that set are going for silly money and are must haves

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Ah! I'm seeing this msg now. Apologies. According to my records, yes it would appear as if Skullknightmon for me was approximately 1 every case. Diaboromon ACE at 1 every 4 boxes - meaning about 3 a case. Rusttyrannomon ACE at 1 every 6 boxes or 2 every case. The overall record is interesting. I feel my focus was more so on the training options because at the moment, none of these promos are meta breaking ones - although Skullknightmon did appear in a topping Bagra list and Rusttyrannomon ACE can be used for the green format.

[@kennethbowie1828]

I'm about to give up this game. I've been having fun, but these promos are ridiculous. Bandai does not know how to run a card game correctly. The short print of these promos and these prices is the death of this game. One Piece will die too if they keep this up. They always have a promo problem or cards are just not easy to get. Hardly find enough listings for a lot of these cards. Pokémon it is lol

[@DIGI-PANDA]

I'm sorry to hear that! :( The unfortunate thing about promos in any card game is should they be as game breaking as certain released ones? The earliest problem card was Pulsemon who got a reprint. But one dilemma I see a lot of players tackling at this point is trying to play not just Digimon - but One Piece and Union Arena as well. I feel with Bandai spreading themselves out so thin, it's going to draw ire from the lack of reprints, which we still see to this day.

[@kennethbowie1828]

@@DIGI-PANDA The game was fun. It's just I don't like how Bandai runs things with their card games. I understand promos should be promos, but a lot of those cards are very vital to decks. No promo should cost 50 bucks. This is absurd. Heck, a promo shouldn't even cost 30 bucks, in my opinion. They should be much more affordable than that. I hurts the game so much. I don't even see how people continue to afford One Piece lol. I player for over a month. Bandai, do better.

[@DIGI-PANDA]

@@kennethbowie1828 Admittedly. I was going to do some OP content because I grew up on the show as well. But after the short stocks and constant elevated prices, I decided Digimon was better for me.

[@Haruxcore]

I actually like that we do have expensive promo cards again. Usually there is NO value at all in Digimon cards when it comes to promos, tournament prize cards, etc. Compared to other games. (i.e... One Piece).

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Agreed! This is where it is unfortunate that prize cards for Digimon has severely declined. Even more recent Ultimate Cup prizing despite being new is actually fairly low.

[@nucleargore8926]

Your videos are boring bro

[@DIGI-PANDA]

Noted. Would you be so kind as to provide feedback on how to improve my videos?

[@nucleargore8926]

@@DIGI-PANDA more tournament winning deck profiles

[@DIGI-PANDA]

​@@nucleargore8926 One reason I do not cover winner deck profiles anymore is that this type of content is generally done by not just one creator but multiple. As a result, you have multiple videos covering the same information to what value? It becomes a competition over views at that point. Here, I like to take perspectives at other avenues that could provide insight. Gameplay is another avenue I would like to go back to it's just a matter of tedious editing.