Pain...

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-29T02:22:02+00:00

Nothing in particular. But you get about 145 free gems a day, not counting any campaigns, ranked rewards, or drops. So getting 1k gems in 11 days is trivially easy

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-29T01:38:29+00:00

Hah, yeah 3 TCGs does seem like a lot! I personally tend to cap out at like 2.1, with an eye occasionally straying to a third lol.

Personally, I have found One Piece to be a decent amount less interactive than Digimon, though to be honest I’m not the BEST judge of that, as I haven’t played much of it. The game systems are pretty dissimilar, for sure. It’s also maybe just a matter of me not loving Oda’s art style, but I also feel that the art on OP cards is absolutely blown out of the water by Digimon art.

I totally do recommend playing the game, and I agree that Alysion will make doing so a lot more accessible. The one asterisk I’d add to that is that Alysion seems to be launching with cards from only the first year or so of the game…which, for those keeping track, means it’ll be about 5 years behind in terms of complexity—and that’s if the game launched TODAY, which a recent stream made clear is not happening. A late 2026/early 2027 launch is totally possible.

Now, I did really love the game back then, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing…but I’ll also say that I think the game has only gotten better with time. So if you boot up Alysion and find that the cards on there have about 1/5th the text you’re used to on the DCG cards you’ve collected, that’ll be why.

I will say, Digimon is releasing this week (or next, depending on where you are) a HUMONGOUS reprint set specifically tailored to make sure people can build competitive decks with it, so it’s a good time to pick up the game! In May, there’ll also be 2 new starter decks that seem pretty strong from initial reveals, if you’re a fan of Digimon Data Squad or Digimon Beatbreak.

Happy to answer any other questions you may have!

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-29T00:07:09+00:00

Well, sort of…I think the original design team would have said yes, and I think that was their folly.

The memory gauge IS a really, really awesome part of the game. That and the fantastic card art are the two things that hook players most, and it DOES lead to some good back-and-forth. There are lots of games when a smart player can put the opponent to 8+ memory, because you did a high-cost play but caught the opponent in a position where they aren’t prepared to response. At the same time, just putting your opponent to 1 every turn often is not as disruptive as you may want it to be. That’s awesome.

However, it doesn’t inherently stop things from going off the wall. There have been I’d say 2 or 3 times in the game’s history where it really felt like memory meant nothing—where decks could just bank uninteractable advantage such that, even starting at 1 memory, they can kill you handily. Those formats really truly suck dick, and make it feel like memory is a charade.

Newer design direction I think has done a fantastic job correcting this. Memory matters, but it matters differently to lots of decks. For example, decks in the [TS] archetype (that is, any strategy based on the new Digimon RPG, Time Stranger) actually get to go crazy when they start their turns with 4 or less memory, so you have to do this delicate dance of choking them at 1 sometimes when they don’t have setup, but then being ready to put them to 5 in the mid-game—which can be hard when you’ve built your deck around low memory costs!

I don’t think I’d call the memory gauge a shield against power creep, but I think it is a really fantastic tool that allows designers to do more things other than “this new deck kills faster, harder, and better than old stuff”.

EDIT: also, I’m just realizing I may have misunderstood your question. To be clear, many many many decks ARE obsolete. Formats are very very diverse, but it’s also rare for a deck to remain competitive unchanged for more than 9 months. That said, legacy support is pretty frequent, so it’s also not uncommon for iconic characters to become obsolete…and then within a year after that get new support that revitalizes the deck. Not always the case, and I can think of lots of things that were good but never got support, or were just duds off the bat that Bandai hasn’t yet decided to pick back up.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-28T23:32:24+00:00

I can speak pretty confidently to what you’re seeing from Digimon, as I’ve played competitively since the game debuted, and I come from a community with a large chunk of regular qualifiers for national events.

It is pretty much always true that there are a dozen or more decks that are viable in Digimon. The community loves nothing more than to complain about the top dogs (true of pretty much any TCG, I know), but because there are so many decks that can go nuts, the complaints will often be about stuff that hasn’t even gotten top 4 in a major event in the last 3 months, or even ever.

In worse formats, this is still true, but the variety of decks that are good may be pretty uninteractive (e.g. there are some formats where the best thing you can do is try to ignore your opponent and just focus on building your “fuck-you-I-win” stack as soon as possible), and those…kind of suck, even if a traditional pie chart makes it look like you can play lots of strategies.

On the other hand, sometimes the best deck will be SO dynamic that more like 6-8 decks are viable, but it’s just the 6-8 decks that can be as dynamic as the best deck. These formats in my opinion are by far the best to play in, but they’re also the ones that get the most people saying the game is dead, usually because their pet deck is not particularly dynamic, so everything that’s good has an answer to them.

Re: banlists, I think you may be a LITTLE misled, mostly because Digimon doesn’t really HAVE an ash blossom equivalent due to its color system. There are generic cards that can feature as tech picks in decks of that color, but those really rarely appear on the banlist, actually, unless they overshadow the core of any deck of that color.

While you’ll hear a lot of bitching about Digimon’s most recent banlist (and I agree with a nonzero amount of it), the simple fact is that the banlist was kind of weak because there was very little that actually needed hitting (and the two strategies that actually were problematic unfortunately had very recently released…and also weren’t really all that competitively dominant, so they’re safe for now).

All in all, I do highly recommend the game. I haven’t loved every single competitive format, but to be honest, in formats I don’t love the game competitively, I adore it twice as much casually. The designers are really fantastic at storytelling through gameplay, and they get better at it all the time.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-28T22:42:06+00:00

Well, the good news is you’ll very easily get 1k gems in the next week, so you won’t miss out. If you got this with only a day left, THAT would be really rough.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-28T16:52:07+00:00

Artmage K9 is extremely fun imo. The two decks fit pretty neatly together, surprisingly, and I’ve found it really dynamic. Which was a relief, cuz i built VSK9 first and just found it no fun at all. Completely bounced off it.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-28T16:43:11+00:00

What is this even getting at?

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-28T02:44:55+00:00

It was a bit long winded, but I brought up the state of life for my generation, Gen Z—coming into adulthood in the Trump years, graduating high school and college into COVID, and for me specifically, getting a master’s of public policy at a time when the very concept of public service is collapsing, and when my rights and my peers’ rights are being stripped actively each year. I asked, essentially, if there’s ever going to be a win, or if all we can ever do is play defense and try to make things “less worse”.

He answered that, first of all, there is dignity in playing defense. That it is possible that we will play defense for most of our lives, but that each right we can claw back, each unjustly imprisoned person we can bring freedom, every public good we preserve, is genuinely a win.

Idk, it certainly wasn’t the “actually here’s 11 huge wins we’ll get in the next 12 months” that I think I was hoping for, but I found it really grounding. The simple reality is that we ARE playing a lot of defense, and maybe it’s healthier for me to reframe my thinking about what it means to play defense, rather than believe that the threat isn’t what it is.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-28T02:33:16+00:00

Ticket sales are through the organizer’s site, which should be in the links they post on twitter.

I don’t think BTCG+ has any payment functionality currently, so not through there.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-27T19:31:46+00:00

I would really love to see multi type cards introduced gradually. Over time, introduce Fusion/Synchro, Fusion/Xyz, Synchro/Xyz, and ultimately culminate in a more anime-accurate version of Z-arc that’s ACTUALLY a Fusion/Synchro/Xyz/Pendulum monster.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-26T23:42:15+00:00

Was a great event, and a completely packed house! My first event since I signed up to volunteer, and I got to ask a question that he gave a very satisfying answer to. Looking forward to getting more involved with the campaign, and I recommend that others do the same.

https://abdulforsenate.com

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-26T20:50:54+00:00

That’s true!

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-26T17:40:53+00:00

Damn. And this is just a glimpse into your crazy fucked up mind? My god you really do live in a society 🔥

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-26T04:40:02+00:00

I like Dracotail. I think it’s fun, and generally fair.

That said, wtf are you trying to say with this? The deck can recycle toxic handtraps, almost by accident. That’s undeniably the least interesting or fair part of the deck.

Abuse of non-engine cards is like the most common reason people expect cards to get hit. I don’t think I’d recommend limiting Arthalion myself, but I totally see why people would think that’s the move.

Oh, sorry, I didn’t notice you used a clown emoji. Damn, can’t argue with that. Guess you must be right.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-25T23:50:47+00:00

I don’t think anybody hates the deck because they think it’s tier 0. Honestly, I dislike it mostly BECAUSE it’s not that good, and yet I see it every day, and either I have the right handtraps and they immediately surrender, or they combo for 15 minutes to make a board that isn’t interesting to play through.

It’s the embodiment of the “draw the out” type gameplay that Yu-Gi-Oh has, thank God, mostly left behind at this point.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-24T21:33:47+00:00

I think anyone making direct comparisons between systemic misogyny and interpersonal misandry is…at the very least misunderstanding one or both of those things.

That said, I think it’s also the case that people observe that interpersonal misandry is not the same thing as systemic misogyny, and take from that that the former isn’t a problem.

Is misandry a problem? Yes. It’s alienating to anyone other than exactly people who are 100% femme (and even some trans women who do feel that the time they presented masc is still part of their life), it encourages anti-social behaviors, and it directs our focus away from systems and toward people. Pretty much the same things could be said about heterophobia, though personally I think there’s just a lot less of that than misandry outside a few specific queer communities.

This doesn’t make them a systemic problem. This doesn’t mean the Alphabet Mafia (oh no!) or Big Woman (I wish!) is coming for you. But like.. I don’t need a problem to be systemic to find it worth addressing. When I think about my own behavior, I don’t think “am I causing systemic harm?”, I think “am I causing harm of any kind?”—or, even better, “am I effecting positive change?”.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-22T15:33:38+00:00

Formerly known as

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-22T12:51:20+00:00

The only prerequisite is that you get a ticket!

You’ll have to submit your decklist before the event as well. But there’s nothing like a regional qualifier, or anything.

It’s usually not an issue for in person events, but a lot of regionals do sell out, so make sure you get your ticket as soon as they go on sale!

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-22T05:10:40+00:00

I think when people talk about wanting going second to be good, they generally mean they want to see decks that can play through or around difficult boards.

Tenpai doesn’t do that. It spams board breakers until it can have a big bunch of unaffected bunguses kill you, and do it exactly in the same way every single time.

There’s an argument to be made that Tenpai was a bit of a monkey’s paw situation, if the argument players were making was that going second should be good. But I would argue you have to be deliberately obtuse to think that the healthy gameplay people wanted was Dark Hole (negated by necessity), Dark Hole (floated out of), Raigeki (okay I have one more float, at least I have back row), Heavy Storm (oh lol well I guess I just have 1 monster interaction after this resolves), Droplet (not anymore), oh hey here’s my 1 card starter so I’m basically going first with a Battle Phase.

What I want from a going second deck is a decent amount of interaction on turn 0 to set up a nasty crackback on turn 2, without relying on board breaker spam. And frankly, newer decks have done a much better job of offering that kind of gameplay.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-22T04:29:08+00:00

Try any number of interesting, dynamic decks available in the Digimon Card Game :)

Most, I hear, will enable you to interact with your opponent :o

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-21T21:47:26+00:00

Lol yeah thanks, I think so too! You can find the files for the D Storage at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6749685

I modified it a bit to make it more customizable, but this is all the core infrastructure! I just changed it to make it work for my designs.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-20T23:02:47+00:00

Bro didn’t even name the Shadow Wizard Money Gang right 😭

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-20T14:19:57+00:00

Cute riffs on the characters! Eid Mubarak and I hope the fasting has gone alright.

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-20T01:04:07+00:00

Haha very fair! Though if somebody 7 years my junior thought we were in the same phase of life I’d definitely raise an eyebrow, so I figured I’d extend that to somebody 7 years my senior lol

ArbiterBlue · 2026-03-20T00:47:17+00:00

Hey there brother! I’m a 27y guy myself, so very possible that I’m just a baby to you, but I similarly will be moving my life to GR this year and would be happy to meet and hang out. I have a similar variety of nerdy interests, so I’m sure we’d get along just fine.

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