How To Play the Digimon TCG in 2024 | A New Player's Guide

This is just a short little guide that goes over the barebones basics of the Digimon TCG! More advanced aspects of the game, like DNA Digivolution, DigiXros, and in-depth looks at effects and timings will be covered in another video!
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
01:20 - Setting Up the Game
02:08 - The Memory System
03:08 - Card Types
03:28 - Phases of Play: Unsuspend, Draw, & Breeding
04:21 - DigiEgg cards
05:07 - Main Phase
05:17 - Digimon cards
06:07 - Digivolving
06:30 - Digimon cards (cont'd)
07:06 - Attacking & Security Checks
08:10 - DP
08:22 - Tamer cards
08:35 - Option cards
09:24 - Recap
10:30 - Where to Start, a Look at Meta Decks
11:01 - MirageGaogamon Deck List
12:07 - Yellow Vaccine Deck List
13:56 - Red Hybrid Deck List
14:56 - ShineGreymon Deck List
16:08 - D-Brigade Deck List
16:56 - Royal Knights Deck List
18:10 - Upcoming Product
18:30 - Deckbuilding Theory
20:58 - Outro
Check out Digimoncard.io for all of your Digimon TCG needs!
► digimoncard.io
3rd Place MirageGaogamon List
► digimoncard.io/deck/raid-n-tr...
2nd Place Yellow Vaccine List
► digimoncard.io/deck/coretcg-s...
1st Place Red Hybrid List
► digimoncard.io/deck/raid-n-tr...
1st Place ShineGreymon List
► digimoncard.io/deck/latam-202...
5th Place D-Brigade List:
► digimoncard.io/deck/coretcg-s...
3rd Place Royal Knights List
► digimoncard.io/deck/coretcg-b...
I stream over on Twitch! Check it out!
► / shocari
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[@woah8984]

Always great to see more people posting DigimonTCG content! As an EX MTG Player, I have to say this TCG is fantastic.

[@Shocari]

I know right?? I’m an ex-big 3 player, and even having played a lot of the smaller TCGs, Digimon just feels like it does so much right in a way that feels refreshing!

[@TritiCale-gc8ib]

Where can I reliably buy new legitimate cards?

[@Shocari]

@@TritiCale-gc8ib tcgplayer.com is the best if you live in the US. I’m not sure for any other country

[@TritiCale-gc8ib]

@@Shocari thanks, I'll check that out. Best buy and target has typhoon so I think that should be a safe bet too. I like all the sets so I'll be happy with anything rn

[@Shocari]

@@TritiCale-gc8ib Typhoon is absolutely a great buy rn!

[@notmicah4989]

This was an amazing video! I just picked up ST15 and ST16 to learn how to play with my sister and this helped to clarify rules and help with our confusion. Excited to see your follow up videos.

[@Shocari]

Glad I could be of assistance! Most of this video just expanded a bit on most of the information found on the How to Play cards included with the decks, but the next one will dive into the real nitty gritty aspects! I hope you guys have a ton of fun playing! 🫶🏻

[@Xaintrix]

Amazing video. Just saw gameplay videos on another channel but really wanted to know so how it works. The deck summaries and also budget cuts are a massive help!

[@Shocari]

Glad I could be of assistance! That being said, there’s definitely gonna be some new top decks around now that BT16 released!

[@frostysparrow7993]

Ty very much for the vid! Me and my boyfriend been planing to play this game but have been a hard time finding a video that actually explains stuff as cohesively as this great job!!

[@Shocari]

I hope you guys enjoy it! 🫶🏻 I’ll try to get a follow-up vid out this week going into more of the minutiae since there’s a few things that tripped me up at first and probably other people as well!

[@O-01-45]

One playstyle I have a guilty pleasure for is the milling playstyle. Less focusing on trying to win in the main way and instead focusing on winning by having your opponent run out of cards to draw. Are there any options for this playstyle in digimon tcg? And if so, how does it compare in strength or viability compared to mtg or yugioh mill decks?

[@Shocari]

Millith is the main milling strat in Digimon, utilizing the red/purple Guilmon line alongside Lilithmon, and it’s quite effective! It has top cut some tournaments as far as I’m aware! Apocalymon can also mill tremendously and was limited to 1 as a result because it was very easy to slap down 4 of them in one turn and mill your opponent for 32 cards right then and there, although with the limit the deck doesn’t really care about doing that anymore.

[@Daekael]

Awesome, needed a refresher. Now to find where to buy up to date cards.

[@Shocari]

TCGplayer is always a decent choice!

[@mrmeow2297]

Always loved Digimon

[@trickyplays240]

Love how this game took the “shield”zone / trigger effect from DM (Duel Masters) Digimon is picking up in my area so definitely giving it a shot since we will never get Duel Masters

[@TheKaijudist]

RIP Kaijudo (2012-2014)

[@trickyplays240]

@@TheKaijudist Ikik, I’d die to get the game back. DM/Kaijudo is the best game ever made

[@itachi65ful]

I love the digimon card game. I'm a causal player and collector. I'm working on premade decks concept. I want to see them make more copies of certain cards.

[@TritiCale-gc8ib]

Where can I reliably buy new legitimate cards?

[@DigiFated]

Always great to see more Digimon content! This game is awesome

[@Shocari]

It truly is! None of the other TCGs have managed to encapsulate everything I could want in a card game like Digimon has!

[@Sqrtl22]

Cool video! The yellow vaccine deck in particular looks pretty fun to play with setting up the security stack and whatnot (that and I am biased because Seraphimon is awesome)

[@Shocari]

Yellow Vaccine is INSANE I don’t think I’ve ever seen a deck with such a wide range of playable cards! Really hoping to build it in the future! Seraphimon is particular can be played in a wide variety of decks itself!

[@crystalknighthgaming]

The memory is a cool rubber band mechanic for the players but i think its a little to complicated for kids.

[@Shocari]

Yeah it’s definitely a little intimidating since shared resources are very uncommon, but actually sitting down and playing it in a game makes it make like 10x more sense and is super easy to get into the rhythm of!

[@crystalknighthgaming]

@@Shocari until you made this video we didn't know how it worked the info cards are illegally. Thats a lot coming from me i play yugioh.

[@Shocari]

@@crystalknighthgaming I definitely don’t envy Bandai trying to explain the bare minimum as simply as possible on 8 tiny cards 💀 Coming over from the big 3 TCGs, the memory system was definitely a shock at first but then once my friend and I grabbed a couple of decks and tried it out, we were like “ohhhhh got it”. Although tbf we were looking at like the official rules booklet which went into a bit more depth than the start-up cards(though not that much more)

[@AdmiralParallax]

There are some kids who are dedicated. There is a kid who goes to my locals who is 11 and plays miragegaogamon

[@abcrx32j]

Kids aren't that clueless as people might think.

[@PaladinfffLeeroy]

Thanks! Just what I was looking for! I just bought my first starter deck, Ragnaloardmon, it just has to come in the mail. I have been a Yu-Gi-Oh! player since 2007 but also played some MTG. My locals is really diverse when it comes to TCGs, Pokemon, Yugioh, One Peace, Dragonball, and a little bit of Digimon and Vanguard and out of the ones that are not yugioh Digimon appealed to me the most after a friend of mine explained to me how the resource system worked but I never tried getting into it until I played it with another friend, borrowing one of his decks. I dislike rotation systems so Pokemon drops off. I dislike the art of One Peace and Dragonball. I HATE the prized cards in Pokemon. and I HATE the resource systems in MTG and Pokemon. But Digimon has crazy cool art, there is no rotation but a banlist instead like ygo, there are no luck-based and/or slow ramping resource systems like with MTG if you get manaflooded/starved after keeping your hand, I love the shared resource bar, and the inherited effects. So now I am getting into the game :D I just picked a started deck with things that looked cool and I read their effects and they seem similar in looks/effects to an archetype in YGO I love: Springans :D

[@Shocari]

Glad you’re enjoying it! Ragnaloardmon is getting INSANE new support in EX6 in June!

[@noxus2458]

Always find it hard to figure out what i wanna play goong tcg to tcg. Always ending up wanting to play many different decks 😅

[@Shocari]

Not necessarily a bad thing! Experimentation is part of the fun! I personally try to just find archetypes that are similar to ones I enjoy in other tcgs!

[@johnnypepperonii]

Really appreciated this video! I found about the game just about half a year ago but haven't made the move to get started. I found someon in my local area who also plays it. What would be the best way to get into the game and what would be the most cost efficient way to get into the game (regarding the release of ST17) ?

[@Shocari]

I’d say cost-wise, start by using digi-tcg.online to be able to build/practice different decks so you can see what you enjoy before committing to a purchase! You can definitely buy sealed product if you want, but I fully endorse and recommend just buying the singles of what you want! Although if you’re interested in ST17, then buying two copies of it will give you nearly 4 copies of everything so you can have a pretty consistent list, and if you wanted anything else to throw in it probably wouldn’t be that expensive to acquire those pieces(depending on what you want of course)!

[@johnnypepperonii]

@@Shocari normally i don't start by building meta decks directly, usually i go for 1-2 starter decks and then just play it until i feel like investing into meta decks is a right choice (e.g. i went for One Piece and got some cards just to be left with this low stock, high price card game and no meta deck at all). I will try it online for sure, but what would you recommend going to for as starter deck? 2x ST17 will cost me ~60 bucks which could also buy a meta decks, buying any other starter deck two times will cost me ~20-30 bucks with something playable. I am also cool with just 1. Just need some reccommendation what would be playable in the actual state and what not, whats easy to get in and what not :) Thanks for helping!!!!

[@Shocari]

@@johnnypepperonii as a starter deck, I’d say either ST17 or ST14 for incredibly solid decks, ST14 especially doesn’t really need anything outside the box unless you really want something. ST16(the metalgarurumon ace) deck is also pretty decent by itself and that would be on the lower price end for 2 copies. Meta-wise, around the same price as 2 advanced STs would be MirageGaogamon, Numemon, Red Hybrid, and a few others I can’t think of off the top of my head. Most of the decks I personally play(their meta-relevance is questionable) are usually very budget friendly! So it really just depends on what you enjoy!

[@johnnypepperonii]

Hey me again, I just got the chance to play it IRL and it was amazing! My local store had ST17 in stock but it got sold out before I was able to say that I want to get into Digimon (even tho it was the same day). After doing some more search I found that I could get either 2x Gallantmon starter for 12 bucks or 2x metalgarurumon ace for ~25 off of Cardmarket. Do you have any other recommendation or meta/anti meta deck for around 30 bucks I could look into?

[@Shocari]

@@johnnypepperonii for around $30 your options will be fairly limited, especially for something meta-relevant, although metalgaruru would be the closest. You could probably assemble almost an entire Numemon deck for $30(which is a top deck in Japan currently, but you’ll need to use the Armor Purge Monzaemon instead of the RB1 Monzaemon, and your options for Lv6s might be a little limited). If you use digimomcard.io to look at tournament decks and then cross-reference with like tcgplayer or a similar website, you can probably get the majority of a top deck for around that price, but you can probably substitute some card as needed for the moment.

[@facug21]

6:10 Activating when digivolving effects is not optional, the way it's written over the sample video may confuse some players.

[@Shocari]

Some of them are in fact optional! “You can” or “you may” are optional as long as they aren’t followed by “then”! It’s roughly 50/50 on When Digivolving effects, unfortunately this was notcommunicated well

[@facug21]

@@Shocari yeah, but the way it's worded makes it seem like you can choose not to activate when digivolving effects, even if it doesn't say "you may". Not the end of the world but I thought it was worth mentioning in case it generates any confusion.

[@Shocari]

@@facug21 definitely respect it! Digimon seems to have less confusion over its optional vs mandatory effects(as far as I’ve seen at least) compared to, say yugioh!

[@facug21]

@@Shocari yeah, there are no missed timings in Digimon. You have to do everything the card says. The only case in which you would not resolve an effect that doesn't state "you may" is when the source of the effect is not in the battle area anymore. i.e. while your field has -5000 DP because of Shinegreymon Ruin Mode or a similar effect and you play a rookie, it gets deleted by game mechanics before activating any "on play" effects.

[@user-hq7js2wf7h]

Ive tried to get into this i love digimon but the game is way to complicated and still dont understand effects and what order so on done research too

[@TritiCale-gc8ib]

Where can I reliably buy new legitimate cards?

[@noxus2458]

Tcgplayer has been pretty good for me. Haven't got digimon from there yet but I have gotten pokemon and yugioh cards.

[@jordanstephens4178]

I will never have anybody to play and learn this game with. Im 34 year old dad of two and my few friends are definitely not digimon fans or would play card games. Son loves digimon but even i cant explain the game to him so we could play together (we do collect though) all this just to say....Make a fuckin app for us to play and collcet online bandai!! Would be the only way i coukd actually sit and learn the game

[@angelo5560]

There is a few ways to play on line there is a site and a new auto sim

[@ShieldedLoL]

Didn't even put hunters deck, where's the down vote button smh jkjk

[@yaboyvickk5635]

Ngl bro u seem like a super nice guy, but im an experienced tcg player and u didnt explain shit on how to play the game as a brand new player to the gsme with 0 knowledge of the game.. all u told me was that turn starts off by flipping over an egg t1.. theres a mulligan and u dont draw t1.. and if memory goes past 0 turn is over.. i still have literally 0 idea what to do after flipping an egg

[@Shocari]

It was explained! After the breeding phase is the main phase, in which you play cards until the memory passes. So you can take any action and as many as you wish until the memory passes to the opponent. Turn 1 this usually means either digivolving a 3 onto the egg and/or playing one additional card, since you’re starting at 0.