Starter Decks 1, 2, & 3: Gaia Red, Cocytus Blue, & Heaven's Yellow

[Touya]

With Marc's permission, I'm kicking off discussion threads for the upcoming Digimon Card Game product releases. One thread per product "wave," so we'll have the Starter Decks all together, and separate threads for each Booster Pack to keep things organized. For the most part try to keep discussion of the Starter Decks in this thread, Booster 1 talk in the Booster 1 thread, etc. First post will contain the setlist under a spoiler and cards we know so far.

Releases April 24th, 2020
550 yen after tax
53 cards + 2 Memory Gauges
Each deck comprises 16 unique cards: 7 Commons, 5 Uncommons, 3 Rares, and 1 Super Rare.

Each display case of Starters has 6 decks.

Gaia Red is attack-focused, with abilities that increase DP. Features the Agumon and Piyomon lines.
Cocytus Blue is control-oriented, destroying the opponent's Evolution Sources to remove their abilities and set up their own effects. Features the Gabumon and Gomamon lines.
Heaven's Yellow decreases the opponent's DP, weakening their attackers and blockers, and recovers Security. Features the Patamon and Plotmon lines.

Some quick reminders, since the game is brand-new:

• Digimon can only evolve into Digimon of the same color, and only from Digimon one level lower.
• Digimon only inherit the effects written in colored boxes on the bottom of the card. If the effect is written over the artwork, it can't be inherited.
• Effects happen during their timing, written in [ ] brackets. Keywords are written in « » brackets. Reminder text is in () parentheses and only reminds players of what a keyword does.

Spoiler: Gaia Red Setlist

NUMBER	NAME	RARITY	TYPE	ENTRY COST	EVOLUTION COST	LEVEL	POWER
ST1-01	Koromon	Common	Digitama	--	--	2	--
ST1-02	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST1-03	Agumon	Common	Digimon	3	0	3	2000
ST1-04	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST1-05	Birdramon	Common	Digimon	4	2	4	5000
ST1-06	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST1-07	Greymon	Common	Digimon	5	2	4	4000
ST1-08	Garudamon	Uncommon	Digimon	6	3	3	7000
ST1-09	Metal Greymon	Uncommon	Digimon	6	3	3	7000
ST1-10	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST1-11	War Greymon	Super Rare	Digimon	12	4	6	12000
ST1-12	Yagami Taichi	Common	Tamer	2	--	--	--
ST1-13	Shadow Wing	Common	Option	1	--	--	--
ST1-14	Starlight Explosion	Common	Option	2	--	--	--
ST1-15	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST1-16	Gaia Force	Uncommon	Option	8	--	--	--

Spoiler: Cocytus Blue Setlist

NUMBER	NAME	RARITY	TYPE	ENTRY COST	EVOLUTION COST	LEVEL	POWER
ST2-01	Tsunomon	Common	Digitama	--	--	2	--
ST2-02	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-03	Gabumon	Common	Digimon	3	0	3	2000
ST2-04	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-05	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-06	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-07	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-08	Were Garurumon	Rare	Digimon	7	3	5	7000
ST2-09	Zudomon	Uncommon	Digimon	6	3	5	7000
ST2-10	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-11	Metal Garurumon	Super Rare	Digimon	12	4	6	11000
ST2-12	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-13	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-14	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-15	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST2-16	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Unknown card numbers: Garurumon, Ishida Yamato.

Spoiler: Heaven's Yellow Setlist

NUMBER	NAME	RARITY	TYPE	ENTRY COST	EVOLUTION COST	LEVEL	POWER
ST3-01	?	?	Digitama	--	--	2	--
ST3-02	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-03	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-04	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-05	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-06	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-07	Unimon	Common	Digimon	5	2	4	?
ST3-08	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-09	Angewomon	Uncomon	Digimon	6	?	5	?
ST3-10	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-11	Seraphimon	Super Rare	Digimon	12	4	6	10000
ST3-12	Takaishi Takeru	Common	Tamer	2	--	--	--
ST3-13	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-14	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-15	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ST3-16	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Unknown card numbers: Heaven's Gate.

Spoiler: Gaia Red Effects

Koromon
ST1-01 Common
Digitama
Level 2
[During your turn] If this Digimon has 4 or more Evolution Sources, this Digimon gets +1000 DP.

Piyomon
ST1-0? Common
Digimon
Level 3
Entry Cost 2 Evolution Cost 0
3000 DP
No effect.

Agumon
ST1-03 Common
Digimon
2000 DP
Entry Cost 3 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[During your turn] This Digimon gets +1000 DP.

Birdramon
ST1-05 Common
Digimon
5000 DP
Entry Cost 4 Evolution Cost 2
Level 4
No effect.

Greymon
ST1-07 Common
Digimon
4000 DP
Entry Cost 5 Evolution Cost 2
Level 4
«Security Attack +1». (When this Digimon attacks Security, increase the number it checks by 1.)

Garudamon
ST1-08 Uncommon
Digimon
7000 DP
Entry Cost 6 Evolution Cost 3
Level 5
[When Evolving] During this turn, 1 of your Digimon gets +3000 DP.

Metal Greymon
ST1-09 Uncommon
Digimon
7000 DP
Entry Cost 7 Evolution Cost 3
Level 5
[During your turn] When this Digimon is blocked, you get +3 Memory.

War Greymon
ST1-11 Super Rare
Digimon
12000 DP
Entry Cost 12 Evolution Cost 4
Level 6
[During your turn] For every 2 of this Digimon's Evolution Sources, it gets «Security Attack +1». (When this Digimon attacks Security, increase the number it checks by 1.)

Yagami Taichi
ST1-12 Common
Tamer
Entry Cost 2
[During your turn] All of your Digimon get +1000 DP.
[Security] You may play this card without paying the cost.

Shadow Wing
ST1-13 Common
Option
Entry Cost 1
[Main] During this turn, 1 of your Digimon gets +3000 DP.
[Security] Until the end of your next turn, all of your Digimon get «Security Attack +1». (When this Digimon attacks Security, increase the number it checks by 1.)

Starlight Explosion
ST1-14 Common
Option
Entry Cost 2
[Main] Until the end of your opponent's next turn, all of your Security Digimon get +2000 DP.
[Security] During this turn, all of your Security Digimon get +2000 DP.

Gaia Force
ST1-16 Uncommon
Option
Entry Cost 8
[Main] Destroy 1 of your opponent's Digimon.
[Security] Activate this card's [Main] effect.

Spoiler: Cocytus Blue Effects

Tsunomon
ST2-01 Common
Digitama
[During your turn] When it battles an opponent's Digimon with no Evolution Sources, this Digimon gets +1000 DP.

Gabumon
ST2-03 Uncommon
Digimon
2000 DP
Entry Cost 3 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[When it attacks] Remove 1 Evolution Source from the bottom of 1 of your opponent's Level 5 or less Digimon.

Garurumon
ST2-?? Common
Digimon
4000 DP
Entry Cost 5 Evolution Cost 2
Level 4
[When it attacks] Remove 1 Evolution Source from 1 of your opponent's Digimon

Were Garurumon
ST2-08 Rare
Digimon
7000 DP
Entry Cost 7 Evolution Cost 3
Level 5
[During your turn] While your opponent has a Digimon with no Evolution Sources, this Digimon gets «Security Attack +1». (When this Digimon attacks Security, increase the number it checks by 1.)

Zudomon
ST2-09 Uncommon
Digimon
7000 DP
Entry Cost 6 Evolution Cost 3
Level 5
[On-Entry](?) Remove 2 Evolution Sources from the bottom of 1 of your opponent's Digimon.

Metal Garurumon
ST2-11 Super Rare
Digimon
11000 DP
Entry Cost 12 Evolution Cost 4
[When it attacks] Once per turn: Make this Digimon Active.

Spoiler: Heaven's Yellow Effects

Unimon
ST3-07
Digimon
Entry Cost 5 Evolution Cost 2
«Blocker» (When another Digimon attacks, by turning this Digimon from the Active to Rest state, you may make this Digimon the target of that attack.)
[When it attacks] Move Memory (left?)

Takaishi Takeru
ST3-12
Tamer
Entry Cost 2
[During your opponent's turn] All of your Security Digimon get +2000 DP.
[Security] You may play this card without paying the cost.

Heaven's Gate
Option
Entry Cost 1
[Main] During this turn, 1 of your Digimon gets +3000 DP.
[Security] During this turn, your Digimon and Security Digimon all get +5000 DP. Then [illegible] add to your hand.

Angewomon
ST3-09 Uncommon
Digimon
Entry Cost 6, Evolution Cost ??
Level 5
(Obscured timing) When the number of your Security becomes 1 or less, «Recovery +1 (Deck)». (Place 1 card from the top of your deck into the top of your Security.)

Seraphimon
ST3-11 Super Rare
Digimon
10000 DP
Entry Cost 12, Evolution Cost 4
Level 6
[When it attacks] During this turn, 1 of your opponent's Digimon gets -4000 DP.

Sources:
https://digimoncard.com/
Suruga-ya
AmiAmi
Card Kingdom preorder flyer
V Jump
Official YouTube Channel

 

[TMS]

So what do you want to bet that we later get a green starter with Palmon and Tentomon?

The evolution source removal thing I’m a little bemused about. It’s an interesting mechanic, sure, but there’s no real precedent for it in the franchise. I don’t get what it’s supposed to represent, unless maybe it has some significance in the upcoming show.

 

[Notus]

And propably a purple one for the villains down the line. I guess both these colors are possible in the proper set.

 

[Touya]

I think they'll do at least two starters every time to give new players different introductory options, so maybe Green and Purple simultaneously. I was wondering how big the "color pie" will be, Magic and Duel Masters have five colors, Battle Spirits six, etc., but I think five makes the most sense. Currently we have two Chosen Digimon in each color, so you would only need Green to fit Tentomon and Palmon in, and Purple or Black makes sense as an antagonist/darkness color. You can kinda see where subsequent Digimon would fit in, with Wormmon in Green, Guilmon in Red, etc.

Breaking my own rule to point out that over in Booster 1 there's 10 Super Rares, which would divide cleanly by 5 into each color having two SRs in the first set. Five colors would mean three of them having more Rares than the others, but the Commons and Uncommons also divide cleanly. (I'm assuming the two Secret Rares are "bling" reprints of other cards, like Full Arts in Pokémon or Special Parallels in Bushiroad games.)

...Though I wonder where Digimon like Paildramon and Omegamon would fit in--as multicolor, or as some kind of "colorless" attribute?

I'm guessing that the source removal idea started after Bandai came up with the idea of inheriting effects in the first place, as way to interact with the opponent, and then they decided what color should have it after the fact. It gives Blue its own identity the other colors can't touch for gameplay purposes, which helps balance things by preventing players from making decks that can do everything.

 

[Nightwing]

...Though I wonder where Digimon like Paildramon and Omegamon would fit in--as multicolor, or as some kind of "colorless" attribute?

About fusions or other types of combinations of Digimon, I think the ones that could fit multiple colours can just different versions for different colours. Or at least, that's the solution I see for the super marketable Omegamon. A blue Omegamon card with the Garuru Cannon charging up in the art and a red one with the Grey Sword drawn would work pretty well in a Booster set at some point, imo. I think the question I have in that situation is if Digimon like Omegamon are Level 6 or are given a special Level 7. Back to colours, I think another kind of solution might be using red for Paildramon and green for Dinobeemon.

I also think Palmon and Tentomon are the obvious choices for the next wave of starter decks, I feel like a purple deck is also pretty fitting in that case. I guess it depends on which Digimon we see in the Adventure: anime and how quickly those will be used in the card game, but if I was to guess I'd say a DemiDevimon line will be featured in it. If they want to reach into classic Adventure, then maybe Keramon would be a good choice.

 

[Rystlnix]

Welp guess I found a reason to be active on the forums lol.

Anywho picked up all 3 starters but not sure if I wanna get a 2nd set in case there isn't a full playset of the boss card (kinda like Cardfight!! Vanguard did b4 the reboot). Also been thinking about using blue as my main due to Beast/Aquatic mons but will probs struggle a bit since it seems to be more of a technical deck.

...Though I wonder where Digimon like Paildramon and Omegamon would fit in--as multicolor, or as some kind of "colorless" attribute?

I feel like they may go the Pokemon route and just make multiple colors of a mon. Mostly cause when I think how they'll handle a boi like Dorumon he could fall into all 3 colors, 4 if there's a purple/black color cause Dexmon, depending on what criteria they see when placing it in a color. As for other colors thinking Green and Purple like Nightwing mentioned but also thinking they may put in mecha-like mons (something like Hagurumon and Andromon) into Purple? Don't really have any reasoning behind it tho ^^|

 

[Touya]

So with the first set of promos in collectors' hands thanks to the Battle Spirits collaboration, it's now being reported that the game uses standard-sized cards rather than the "mini" size used in Battle Spirits, Vanguard, and most post-Yu-Gi-Oh! Japanese TCGs. That means these cards will be the same size as Magic, Pokémon, and Duel Masters...and consequently, "mini" sleeves like those fans might've picked up from Battle Spirits won't fit them.

Going through JPN Twitter I'm seeing surprise plus a little bit of frustration. Standard-size on the whole is rather disliked in Japan. (Smaller hobby shops, smaller tables, smaller playmats.) This does bode well for a potential localization, as standard is more popular in the west.

While I'm thinking about it, the sleeves for this wave:

650 yen per pack, 60 sleeves in each pack. Angewomon, Metal Garurumon, War Greymon, or Holy Angemon, featuring the corresponding Chosen Child's crest in the background.

 

[Deep Saver]

I suspected the cards were standard size from the very first glimpse we got of them. Personally, I don’t like standard size either, I find them awkwardly large in my hands. I can understand the dislike for sure.

 

[Nightwing]

I’ve never considered different sizes in card games as a thing since the only cards I really ever owned were old Pokémon, YGO, and Digimon ones.

I’m also pretty curious how relevant these cards and the card sleeves are to the new series, since so far it almost feels more like most cards are based on the original Adventure series. Of course, I’m assuming we don’t get all the way to WarGreymon, Seraphimon, etc. within the first 13 or so episodes of Adventure:.

 

[TMS]

Didn’t know there were games that used miniature cards. Not sure how small they are, but it seems like it would hurt readability.

 

[Deep Saver]

I’ve never considered different sizes in card games as a thing since the only cards I really ever owned were old Pokémon, YGO, and Digimon ones.

I’m also pretty curious how relevant these cards and the card sleeves are to the new series, since so far it almost feels more like most cards are based on the original Adventure series. Of course, I’m assuming we don’t get all the way to WarGreymon, Seraphimon, etc. within the first 13 or so episodes of Adventure:.

YGO cards are the mini size, Pokemon has the standard size ones. I don't know about the old Digimon ones. It isn't a huge difference in size, but definitely enough to trigger strong opinions one way or the other.

 

[Nightwing]

I’ve never considered different sizes in card games as a thing since the only cards I really ever owned were old Pokémon, YGO, and Digimon ones.

I’m also pretty curious how relevant these cards and the card sleeves are to the new series, since so far it almost feels more like most cards are based on the original Adventure series. Of course, I’m assuming we don’t get all the way to WarGreymon, Seraphimon, etc. within the first 13 or so episodes of Adventure:.

YGO cards are the mini size, Pokemon has the standard size ones. I don't know about the old Digimon ones. It isn't a huge difference in size, but definitely enough to trigger strong opinions one way or the other.

See now this is throwing me off even further since I don’t remember the difference in size between them lol. I guess as a kid it was never enough for me to notice it or I just didn’t care.

it’s interesting that games like YGO and Battle Spirits use the smaller size since I feel like they have a lot of text on the cards (especially the Arc-V era and onwards of YGO lol).

 

[Touya]

In terms of legibility, it really depends on the card layout. Both YGO and Vanguard are mini, but Vanguard effects are a lot more legible because the text box is expanded to almost the entire width of the card and has a variable height that overlaps with the artwork. Some YGO cards practically demand a magnifying glass to read, whereas in Vanguard card text rarely goes below the default size because you can just add another line to the text box. (Rush Duel card design is supposed to fix this for YGO, but we'll see how that plays out.)

For Digimon I think part of the reason they're standard is that Bandai needs to maximize the use of the inheritable effects text box. They're probably limiting how much they can modify it in terms of height, because then the effects wouldn't line up properly when you stack the cards on top of each another.

I think the Hyper Colosseum era cards were mini-sized in Japan, but it might have been different in the US. One of my JPN mutuals pointed out that there are no Carddass machines for standard-sized cards, so this might be the first Digimon TCG with no gacha distribution, despite having the Carddass branding on it.

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

May I ask a question? I started to notice certain cards having much larger artworks to be see-though along with the effect card box layouts that are pretty readable lately just like Pokemon 3D cards and this newer Digimon card game. What started this in first place? Usually the cards used to have artwork frames but now I see artworks no longer have box frame instead, it's much larger artworks and effect card boxes are easy to read despite being see-though under its artworks.

 

[Touya]

So this is actually something that's been ongoing in the industry for some years now, but it took a long time to catch on. The very first games to expand artwork to cover the whole card, and make text boxes transparent and imposed over it, were licensed TCGs using art that wasn't originally made for trading cards. These were the Shin Megami Tensei TCG (1997) and Takara Tomy's Kingdom Hearts (2004) TCG. With both of these games, they were using stock art by Kaneko Kazuma and Nomura Tetsuya, originally made for the video game manuals, guides, and artbooks. There were no "original" made-for-this-game illustrations, and the card frames and text boxes were built around combining that stock art with a digitally-created background inserted behind the hand-drawn art. A similar approach was used in the licensed anime games of the mid-00s, Lycée (2005) Project Revolution (2007) Weiss Schwarz (2008) and Victory Spark. (2009) The idea was basically to take screencaps from anime series or promotional artwork used for magazine covers and fliers, and create trading cards from them. Up until Fire Emblem Cipher came out in 2015 and raised the bar for licensed games this was still somewhat acceptable, which is why more long-lived TCGs like Weiss and the Final Fantasy card game still use stock art.

Bandai's Dragon Drive and Legendz card games (2004) also experimented with pushing the boundary on card frames, but despite using original art, they were still being made with the same approach. The foreground monsters were designed to overlap with the frame of the card (which was still fairly thick compared to now) and the backgrounds were digitally inserted after the fact, rather than drawn alongside the forground as scenery for the monster to pose in.

The game that really got us to this point was Bushiroad's Cardfight!! Vanguard, back in 2011. Even in 2007~2009 Pokémon and Battle Spirits were experimenting with cards that "exploded" out of the frame (look up some LV. X Pokémon cards to see what I mean) but CFV really changed what players expected from a TCG by having fully original art that extended across the entire card. What Bushiroad did was commission popular Pixiv artists like NINNIN and DaisukeIzuka, but allow them to retain some rights to their work rather than having it be purely work-for-hire, so they would publish their art online and players would look up the "full art" after seeing it on a Vanguard card. CFV put this idea of expecting "full art" in players' minds, that there was some kind of art beyond what was inside the frame, and after Vanguard became a runaway success in Japan (it was #3 for a long time) other games started following suit. That's how we got Z/X, Force of Will, selector infected WIXOSS, and ultimately Digimon imitating this approach to card layout. (Bushiroad also pushed the same design ideas in Future Card Buddyfight and Luck & Logic.) It's one of the issues I felt the Appmon TCG had--even though it tried to expand beyond the borders of the old Digimon cards, almost everything about the layout from the size of the text boxes to the thickness of the frame felt like it was designed for the wrong generation. I couldn't really imagine a kid looking at Globemon's card in a store case, seeing something like Tyrant Cerberus next to it, and being more interested in Appmon than the alternative.

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

Damn that Tyrant Cerberus is freaking awesome to look at.

Deep history, I see. Didn't know the most card games... Thanks. Still odd I find Jintrix got terminated. I guess maybe card games' appeal may be all creative planning battles or Roflstomp? Ehh hard to say for sure.

 

[Sarabande__]

I hope the cards get an English translation. I will prob still buy them for my collection. But wish there were places where I am able to meet up and play against other people. Hopefully this takes off and becomes a big thing. Even if it doesn't still wish there were some people to play with.

 

[StarDragonJP]

Definitely thinking the Green type is likely, it's kind of suspicious that Tentomon & Palmon were missing from the promo pack. Though who would represent black color? I was thinking DemiDevimon-Devimon-Myotismon-VenomMyotismon as one line, & maybe Gazimon-Apemon-Etemon-MetalEtemon as another. And what would their focus be? Green I was thinking maybe growth or recovery so maybe they'd be focused on evolving Digimon quicker, so like search effects or adding to memory, or getting back destroyed cards. No idea what black would be though

 

[GraveBride]

Oh, it's good to know they're standard size. I'm not very fond of the smaller sized cards personally, especially after I bought a rather large stack of standard sized sleeves for my Buddyfight and WIXOSS cards, haha.
Though I guess I made it here too late, the pre-orders I saw for the starter decks have shot up to over 400 dollars per deck?! I really hope that's a mistake, that's insane!
Guess I won't be importing a deck this time, wow.

No idea what black would be though

Well, at least in the TCGs I've played, Black usually has a large focus on discard, from milling out one or both players, searching and retrieving cards from the discard pile, alongside weakening and sabotaging the opponent. So that would be the safe assumption I guess, especially since the Red and Blue Digimon decks seem to be following the traditional example of "aggression" and "control". Though Yellow seems like a bit of an unexpected one, so I'm not sure, since I would assume Yellow here is the equivalent of "White", but has different abilities than I'm used to for that kind of color, so they could throw curveballs with the other two Colors if they're introduced.

 

[ShikaSS]

The new learning app allows for a great look at each deck's mechanics and even shows plenty of new cards.