My Opinion on "The Problem of the Digimon Card Game"

Team APS - Alec made a video of their opinion on the state of the Digimon TCG
Some points I agree...and some points I don't...
Here's a video of my thoughts~
Be sure to watch the original Video from Team APS:
• The Problem with the D...
Music Used:
Bubblegum [Remix] | QUMU
• Animal Crossing - Bubb...
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#Digimon​​​​​ #DigimonTCG

[@lVicel]

Digimon's Banlist is something to be appreciated. My +10 years of experience in Yugioh repudiates those tournaments where a Deck dominates the format (Tier 0) because Konami accidentally got out of hand with the effects. *In fact, I've had more gameplay interactions in my 3 Weeks of Digimon than my last 3 YEARS in Yugioh* (No "Add from your Deck", Massive Negates/Disruptions, Giant Monster Spamming, 15 Minute Turns, etc 😵‍💫)

[@aruscared]

The point of "playing a deck at full power isn't fun actually," is so important to me. I love Digimon. I do want to win! But my locals have the tendency to play the OTK decks all the time and it got really frustrating because as the opponent you don't really get to "play" in some cases. It actually had me stop playing Digimon for nearly a year because I don't like that feeling. It's fun to win, but I'd still rather play a lesser deck so both of us feel like we're actually capable of doing something. OTK just isn't fun for me personally.

[@treebush]

Welcome to tcg metas

[@jacebeleren1703]

Personally, i dont mind OTK decks in a tournament setting (or when any sort of reward is on the line) but i would never use one in casual play, except if testing for a tournament.

[@albertoroche9831]

Easy fix for the online regionals: Take them out as the main event structure and allow non-PTO stores to apply to be PTOs and hold their own regional-level events.

[@ADNudes]

The best solution for Apoc is for Bandai to say "oops we printed it wrong, sorry" and errata the End of turn trigger to be End of Opponent's turn

[@burpinator1]

Or errata to only work with Dark Masters and not any Lv6

[@yomaru]

As someone who picks decks they play purely based on digimon they like its always crazy to see people get upset over bans that really feel like its just common sense. My favorite deck still right now is ex4 alliance based and i lose a lot at locals but generally speaking im having a ton of fun playing, until i get an opponent that can far too easily overwhelm me on their second turn which feels way too early for me to be flat on my face.

[@airtonevch]

The security rookies took like 5 sets to be release in america compare to japan, all their meta relevance was gone when we get them

[@CoryElsen]

Honestly what kept me in the game in terms of prizing was my LGS doing things a lot differently. 3 matches, best of 3 per match, 1 booster pack per win. That way everyone has a fair shot of getting at least something. In my early days of playing this game I joined around the tail end of BT9, with all this insane stuff going on while I had a budget green hybrid deck from the bt7 stuff a friend got me. While I didn't succeed often, I still got a pack here and there which kept me invested and interested in improving. Soon enough I got 2 packs for winning 2-1 after a lot of experimenting with different cards and decks, and the first time I got 3-0 with 3 prize packs was insanely rewarding to me. It validated all my deck/theory crafting making my own custom take dragon-linkz deck. Prizing like that kept me going, and I wish it was more wide spread then just rewarding the top end of players.

[@kukuruyo5994]

I agree with the point about "full power decks". Majority of players seem to just want to play the most uber broken thing that requires no thinking and wins easy in 2-3 turns but they don't understand how frustrating those decks are to people who actually want to PLAY. Seeing people complaining because their Tier 0 deck received some mild nerf will always be funny and an easy way to spot who doesn't know how to play and just wants a deck that wins for them. The thing i don't like it's the banlist to purple things, not because i don't think the new purple decks are broken, but because the nerf almost; or none; affects the problem decks, but it instead completely blows away from the game a fuck ton of lower tier purple decks that relied on those cards. And purple has always been a very low powered color to begin with.

[@KamenRiderDragoon]

Something i appreciate about vanguard that people look at me like im crazy for is choice restrictions. Like for anubis/merca just make it so you cant have both in the deck. It stops degenerate strategies without ruining cards for every other deck.

[@nehuenmutiozabal6339]

The thing about the banlist restriction part is that is coming from a Yugioh player standpoint where you get to play your deck for about a month or so (Unless you are PEPE), personaly I think how Bandai does it is way better where it hits the cards before they become an ishue but their choices on what they restrict or not are kinda weird sometimes On another note, distribution in Uruguay has been debatable if not bad, because unfortunately our economy does not guarantee players/collectors from getting their money back from their boosters sets. So if you buy a booster box you're gonna be at a loss, the only reason we buy them is if you and your gang are looking for a specific card in the set to complete a deck. It doesn't help that TCGplayer currently has banned most of countries in LATAM

[@Direowlbear]

JP had the garuru promos, it was just distributed through a magazine so it was in short supply. It was banned in SEA because they didn't get those magazines so getting it would have been prohibitively expensive, same for the ulforce zero cards that we got as prerelease cards.

[@skoost1425]

Hey, love the content. Also I think regarding the banlist, Bandai should get more creative with how certain cards get banned. Like for the Mervamon and Anubismon it could be named as "you cannot have more than 4 (or 5) copies combined of those 2 cards in deck" or something like that. That way, I think it would hit the problem combo, but the pure build that is not broken, would be untouched

[@UncalibratedAimbot]

Complex bans (the common name for what you suggested) can work, but they ae often confusing and frustrating to mew players. It’s generally easy to understand “this card is overpowered because ___” It’s often harder for new players to appreciate how complex bans allow them to play cards in a more balanced state without totally removing cards from the format.

[@Bolvar4dragon]

+1 sim!!!!!! I like choice restrictions in theory, but I dunno about walling out an entire color. I already feel some decks are designed to work too strictly within their archetype, and I like that people were able to find and create ways to really effectively use a card like Apocalymon. The issue of course is with it being too good, too efficient, too fast, but that's a general issue I have with the pacing of the modern game. As far as Apocalymon goes, I think they designed him to be too strong and too generic without any real counterplay, not to mention the recursion when you only have to set up for him once.

[@alasto67r]

I definitely agree with you on everything regarding the banlist but i am very hesitant about choice restriction. I think in some cases it could definitely be good like allowing purple melga to use st gabu so that the consistency of the deck isn't just floored but i think because the digimin tcg has so many rogue decks this will mess up people's ability to create more rogue decks. I saw a Devas deck that used a purple mil base with anubismon, and I would hate to see decks that are so creative limited by choice restrictions.

[@Thundah_Dome]

Playing a deck at "Full power" is fine for casual, out of tourney play. If you're in a tourney, you've gotta make sure to balance things out. Digimon is so much fun, and I'm excited to get into the game more with other people outside of my current circle of friends.

[@TheFluffiestZinogre]

I honestly like there being online regionals because there's so few in person locations for the offline ones. It's bonkers to think that people should have to drop a grand to get to a location to participate in a regional event because they can't be bothered to host them in more locations.

[@TheLazzo]

MY SINCEREST AND LOUDEST -AGREE- WITH THAT VERY LAST POINT, JESUS. That aside, great video overall! You earned a sub

[@Vaeltis]

Scalping in any TCG was impossible during the pandemic times, can kinda blame the big boom in pokemon TCG pack opening interest, and so people tried to hop on that train for every TCG out there, which for Digimon it was poor timing.

[@clug3r]

100% agree with you their is a rumor that digimon tcg team haves a new card designers since correct me if im wrong bt-14 what are your thoughts?

[@B3NB3NTTV]

I believe you are correct! And it CLEARLY SHOWS every set from bt14 onwards feels so fresh, and because of how generic the cards feel, it's a dream come true from a deck builder's POV

[@gilbertcapulong4302]

My main problem with the banlist is not the banlist itself, but the timing of the banlists. They always wait until the release of cards which creates the predatory problem of people buying the new product only for support for the product to be banned/restricted.

[@FriskAzzy]

I think the best way for online tournaments would be if they were to release a simulator that would prevent cheating by using a program removes the possibility of cheating instead of having the physical cards and a simulator would make it easier to introduce new players to the game since they would be able to build their own deck before buying the cards and would make it more accessible for people who don’t have local Digimon communities

[@GrandAdmiralTentales]

As a MirageGaogamon Enthusiast, I just love my Blue Dawg

[@robertosalinas1659]

SIMS YES SIMS!!! They already updated the tutorial app to have full decks instead of half decks with the courage and friendship starters. All they have to do in input all the cards in the game on there. I like Yugioh duel links and play it on and off. Make something like that for your Digimon and I'd be satisfied.

[@albertoroche9831]

Cash Prizing for BSS was possible because it was being released as it's own edition outside of Japan. Japan popularly doesn't like to do cash prizing for their games, hence why DCG and OPCG don't have cash prizing for officially sponsored events. They've also confirmed that yes, each game has its own dedicated team of marketing, development and production. They don't have the same twenty people running five different games at the same time.

[@B3NB3NTTV]

Ah I see thank you for shedding some light on the matter :)

[@juudaiten]

As a japanese format player, outside japan, it is STILL a pain in the ass to get training cards. Other than the only way u can get it is by buying them in the online lobby, it is also EXPENSIVE AS HELL. U thought Europe had it rough, try japanese format area that are outside japan. MAKE THE SIM BANDAI!

[@hudietcg7379]

While I'm abit sad i wont be able to play my gao at 4 ofs, byt at same time I'm probably forward to making a new version of the deck more with the available bt14 blue cards than playing it with the mach at 4

[@KenshinKura]

The full power thing is definitely my biggest gripe with people at my lgs. Before moving me and my fiance had friends who just had things like yellow decks because "She loved Patamon and Gatomon" then we moved and everyone is playing Jesmon, Eyesmon, or whatever else is the best. Now my fiance doesn't even play cause she doesn't want to "Keep up" with the group of friends who buy 5 or 6 boxes when they're released and I almost just quit playing when trying my Ulforce deck and the guy I was against was playing Machinedramon, he literally got up to tell his friend across the store in the middle of my turn how great his deck was doing. Ive never been so angry at someone in my entire life.

[@DaEpic326]

As a dragonball super player. You do NOT want bandai to go down the hyper specific route (unless they just erata specific strategies). It kills creativity fast, they default to things playing only into their theme instead of giving any freedom to explore options.

[@Atlas-Kim]

I agree with a lot of what you are saying. But i don't think the choise restriction/banned list is a good thing, i always think that creativity should be awarded and limiting the amount of option for certain decks in deckbuilding isn't so fun (and mantainable). But i do think that having set roll in and out (like in the upcoming Ultimate Cup format) could be really healty for the game, at least as an alternative format. This way Anubismon could still be really good in EX5 but it doesn't have access to Mervamon.

[@martinjenkins6263]

Long live machines! Good video

[@hipstersephiroth3722]

Thank you for being so kind help and help me and these people to better understand you God amen

[@punkprinx]

I agree with so much of what b3n is saying

[@Blast112]

Bandai getting sets out on time - is still a very dicey issue at times the UK 😭

[@burpinator1]

I personally disagree with choice restrictions as its already kinda bad enough when you gotta keep your phone on hand incase someone plays with errata'd cards and you need a glossary to keep up with them. I think Bandai needs to ban some things to 2 or 3 copies. Having bans ONLY be 1 or nothing is crazy. Limiting SRs to 3 or 2 sounds alot better business wise then 1 and killing functionality of the deck itself.

[@Salty010]

13:06 im with you man. so far lots of gameplay when i won with that deck i got good hand. then I can win first brick and not getting my pieces... its already end game.... also that fakin toxic apocalymon turn 2... like its freakin cancer to the core

[@johnphileobaua]

Well, that second to last last take didnt age well... I mean, its good for balance, but bad for marketing.

[@kyoya941]

Oof in battle spirits saga bandai needs to just make promos alt art bc alot of them are meta defining looks a axbiter lol

[@DigifoxAdventures]

I think bandai really needs to lock boss digimon into there own arctype. Having the ability to just tuck craniamon for protection each turn is just unable to be delt with. im a melga player and will continue to play it but i honestly am feeling like giving onepiece a try till all of this gets sorted out. also, give me some good renamon support shes the only tamers main who still only have one tamer card.

[@animesam1000]

mmm, that BBB3NB3N reference i see. lol

[@StevenSonOfYawgmoth]

As a yugioh player waiting rougly 10years for a sim.. this is a wild wish! XD

[@ebreebre3881]

I’m curious on how to play apocalymon in another way

[@MrBlastpanda]

I can get down with choice restriction

[@atamisirli3620]

aaaaa'y we got a long B3NB3N video lets gooo. What happening with Battlespirit Saga? Also i do belive that Apocalymon is a card that needs to go over Garurumon X. Lets say that EX5 gets released and GaruruX gets limited within 1 week. In the future Bandai cannot make purple cards or level 6 digimons with "on play" effects without keeping Apocalymon in mind. I do belive Apocalymon in general is a poorly designed card. A level 7 digimon that you can drop for 3,can attach a level 6 from your trash to its evolution sources and mill 2 cards for each source its have ever end turn? Who thougth that was a good idea?

[@B3NB3NTTV]

Yeah I do feel that Apoc really is holding alot of decks back! Bt15 format feels like it could be extremely varied, if it weren't for Apoc's existence...

[@AhranMaoDante]

I'd like to say "the same people who made a level 7 that can be dropped for 3 or 0, against tamer focused or go wide decks, and gate keeps most go wide decks out of the meta" but Apocalymon was done by a different design team that told the old one to "hold my beer".

[@amakaqueru33]

I remember leaving the game for a couple of months when alphamon ouryuken was broken, and you could almost not do anything about him. Everyone was using him. It reminded me of Yugioh when you have one player doing an infinite gombo combo and playing by himself while you look at your phone. For some people, their idea of "fun" is completely destroying your opponent with a tier 0 deck, and your opponent been unable to return from it. They then get angry when the deck gets hit. Then, they move to the new "tier 0 deck" and repeat over and over. I don't get it.

[@winwi000]

I guess that from the standpoint of a casual player a tier 1 deck might seem like a "degerate" deck, but from a standpoint of a competitive player, waiting and expecting your favorite deck to get all the tools it needs to become tier 1 and having that taken away before the cards release because of another format that you are completely separate from as a region... It definitely feels like getting kicked in the nuts

[@dw8395]

go play loogamon you'll be fine

[@hakuzho5677]

I understand ur reasoning on hitting SR+ but I HARD disagree And the 'choice restriction' idea is way better direction FOR SOME cards. The apocallymon example is one. The Merva is not. There is a few reasons why I don't want to see SR+ getting hit 1st - investment I've come from ygo and I have a strict limit for how much I spend on a single card. I've always felt anxious about some cards that might get hit bc some new card starts abusing it bc of design overlook. Digimon gave me a feeling of security to invest on a card game more deeply 2nd -Theme At this point its pretty obvious of how frequent de SR+ slots will be for the Megas and even Ults of most decks. Cards that NAME the decks/strategies where its played. So that's one reason WHY I don't think Apocallymon be at 1 would feel right for most players 3rd - Versatility Some cards are 2 good bc they are 2 versatile, others are 2 good bc thye are... just not future proof designed Mervamon fits really well in the 1st example Eyesmon fits perfectly 4 the 2nd I get that Merva is a card that ALSO may fell into the 2nd example as well but, 4now its more a flaw on Anubis itself than Merva. Mine+Merva Pure Merva LilithMerva XrossMerva ... 4 me this awesome. Even Anubis Merva is something that impresses me and as u pointed out, GaruruX is just GreyX 2 so, maybe AnubisMerva isn't even the point we should put Merva at the 2nd example. With all that I'd like to put an addendum here: The "Choice Restriction" idea is good but not to be implemented for ALL decks. Part of what makes digimon great is the "digivolution freedom" it has, as well the Versatility I mentioned 4 merva. I don't want this game to become a ygo 2 where we only get prebuild strategies, with insane restriction and usage limitation where we have "you can only summon things with [archetype] in its name" The Apocallymon idea works bc of its lore accuracy, as u also mentioned as a good point. But I don't like the idea of Merva being locked up on "u can only play digimons with xross heart in its trait" thing... And that goes to many other decks A Wargreymon sure should be the face of a Greymon deck but, not being forbidden of be used as a tech for other decks. A better example of that would be the old Hexeblaumon line not be mixed with the new "trash digivolution" things from BT14... Not a good thing Welp, besides those points here, I HARD agree with everything u said, and as always, we've done a great content ^^ and yep, I do hope bandai listen more and solve those issues

[@B3NB3NTTV]

Thanks for sharing your opinion! Perhaps I should have been more clear when I mentioned choice restrictions... The apocolymon example I gave I admit was very extreme but that's because the card itself is crazy lol I also really value the deck building freedom in this game! Which is why I would only say choice restriction is perfect ONLY for when the design team didn't mean for specific cards to be used in combination: Ex: Merva choice restricted from Anubis (All other variants of Merva are fine just cannot be used in the same deck as anubismon) Something like "mervamon can only be used in xross heart" is far too extreme and even I wouldn't want anything like that Bt6 Dorugrey choice restricted from alphamon/ouryuken (Dorugrey can be used in any other deck like dorugora, it's just alphamon that cannot use it) Hope that makes my point a little more clear!

[@jimmymc1188]

UK has the problem, our supplier is terrible. Couldn't agree with the promo statement because its not true, the security rookies were box toppers then local store partisapation prizing. My locals have playsets on playsets in our trade binders.

[@christiantalero9043]

Based

[@Sickness4daThickness]

To be fair, seeing both perspectives I feel like the bigger culprit here is Bandai slowly paying less and less attention to Digimon as a future big TCG and giving it all for One Piece, which feels depressing ngl

[@leviathan12360]

My card shop went from 30 players playing Digimon to 0. The shop owner said the tournaments and the “prizes” killed it there

[@leviathan12360]

They also told me that Battle Sage and One Piece died off not too long after being released.

[@werewolfjedi38]

Uh, they hit bt 15 before it released this time. So, this gets awkward now doesn't it xD

[@B3NB3NTTV]

Lol I wouldn't say so personally (Also the hit takes place on March 1st for us, so it's technically after BT15s release) Bandai made an official post saying that they acknowledged that Apocalymon was a big problem, with little future proofing, and that they care about the health of the game. Emphasizing they were fine with the hit effecting sales for the sake of game balance, and even apologized that they had to resort to this. If anything, I'm very moved by their transparency~ Here's hoping they never have to do that again... XD

[@werewolfjedi38]

@B3NB3NTTV it was an honest mistake I think. They planned for to work with the dark masters and ignored potential meta brewing that gave it unintentional abilities.

[@B3NB3NTTV]

@@werewolfjedi38 AB-SO-LUTELY lol

[@gsnbr2023]

IMO promo cards should be alt arts of set cards, not new cards.

[@MaxTaperaGaming]

I think you may have diverted from the original point when talking about decks at full power. It seemed like you don't like playing decks that make it unfun for the opponent more than anything and I don't think that's the same critique.

[@B3NB3NTTV]

oh, I think I can see how you would think that... But my point was "I don't get, wanting to play decks at 'full power' ". Meaning - I don't understand the complaint/desire that people get on wanting to play decks at 'full power'. Coming from bushiroad games myself, they've done countless pre-emptive hits on cards (some that haven't even been released yet on EN), when the jp players were able to find a degenerate combos and strategies. Sometimes not even just tier 0 strategies, but combos that were still very strong and uninteractive (if not then just non-future proof cards). Either of those categories, IMO, make it unfun and drive more people away from playing the game, rather than create new players Most of the restrictions that I've seen for the DTCG, often fell into the latter category. So whenever I saw a restriction like it come out for DTCG, my initial reaction for majority of the hits is usually "ah that's understandable", rather than the usual outrage. (that doesn't mean Alec isn't allowed to feel angry about the hit, I'm just saying I don't share that sentiment) It is important to note that the hits on these "not tier 0, yet still very strong and uninteractive strategies" don't make them unplayable imo. I've found them often to be slight consistency hits or high roll caps to limit the decks speed (EX4 machgaoga, Ex2 Imp, shout X4). I still believe their decks are still able to accomplish their end game just fine, which is what I was trying to accomplish in explaining the hit to EX4 Machgaoga. This again, goes back to why "I don't get, wanting to play decks at 'full power' ". That said, I do empathize with Alec and I also agreed with him that the banlists should be separated, as I do agree the JP and EN formats are completely different. However, it's BECAUSE we currently don't have separate ban lists that I made my first point "I don't get, wanting to play decks at 'full power' ". Unfortunately since the ban list IS shared Bandai had to make the best ban list they could that would affect both formats, without hurting sales of product that has yet to be released. And IMO, in their eyes the game is "bugged" from looking at the JP format, so they wanted to "patch" it so the english players don't have to go through the same thing (hence my video game analogy). Is this way correct? debatable, as some games have managed to pull it off. Hence why I mentioned other methods of restrictions they can apply to the ban list, if they decide to keep it shared (Hence I mention choice restrictions) Is Alec allowed to be upset? Absolutely, and I'm not trying to invalidate his complaint, I was just trying to provide a different perspective that I didn't feel was very voiced from the posts that I've seen. I hope that made my points a little more clear! :)

[@Salty010]

17:29 that the thing im screaming they just need erata it to down power on what card they can trash... like right now its freakin toxic asf.... you know in my country when bt14 got ultimate cup with 121++ player join and then with with cancer purple out dominate scene the latest big event only 33 player join... freakin dumb bandai. player not an idiot they just want lots of deck had chance and diverse.

[@TheSpecter45]

Please no not my gallantmon cards 😢

[@ElFelocitaptor]

One piece has certainly done damage to the digimon tcg. There is still that dedicated group but its literally a third of what it once was.

[@idonotmakevidsyet]

One piece is Bandai's new favourite child and it sucks to see unequal treatment between the card games.

[@aaronstacey9612]

all aps does is make problem videos for clicks i wish they put out more positive vids

[@indigenoustruthx4828]

They don't care about Digimon that's why. Crazy lazy with Digimon, as compared to One Piece. They get all the love with all of those prizings and alt arts. Digimon recycles arts for the same card and just puts pre release or ultimate cup text on a regurgitated artwork 😮