New Age of Abbadomon
So, Abbadomon, am I right? The Digimon that can be most accurately described as "a biblically accurate angel by way of Nyarlathotep" first debuted in the TCG with the EX9 Versus Monster set. It sort of landed at a time when the game started speeding up and got immediately outpaced by pretty much everything else.
Unfortunately for me, a notorious pet-decker, the Lovecraftian vibes were too perfect and I had to commit. After taking the deck for a spin at a casual store tourney, the ensuing conversation went something like this: "Abbadomon is just so annoyingly close to being good. It really needs something in-archetype to reduce the turn count before Core can be played".
Something in the void stirred in response and two weeks later, on April 25th, the first new bit of support for the archetype had been announced for BT-25 Dual Revolutions in the form of a most curious orb...
The New Orb
There is so much to unpack with this card, but the tl;dr is: it does everything the deck needs*! Threaten security? Remove opponent's board? Proactively enable your own [On Deletion] effects? This goober does it all!
(* - the deck still has no innate way of protecting its big bad boss monster)
The Deck
An [Abbadomon] deck used to look something like this:
The (heh) core lineup mandates pretty much all the in-archetype cards at 4, with 12-14 [Scatter Modes] and various support. Up until now, the Abba-line's funky level distribution warranted a few extra level 5 and 6 Digimon.
I started out with [EX10 MetalGreymon] in order to taunt into [EX9 BlitzGreymon Ace].
More experienced players would run a one-two punch of [BT11 Mamemon] and [EX9 MetalMamemon]. Objectively -- the best choice aesthetically. All hail The Orb!
But now we have...
Ratios will be adjusted after testing, but the ideal setup might not even need any extra level 5s out of archetype, to keep the deck lean and efficient. On the surface, looks pretty much the same, but...
Welcome to the f̶̢̱̯͎̘̲̬̤̘̜̝̞͍̬̀a̴̧̡̛̗͖̩͖͗̽͆̌̓̈́̀̕͠m̷͔̳̯͎͉̝͖̯͚̔͑̈́̽̏͛̍̑̍́͑̃̃͘͝ͅi̵̧͈͓̤͊̓̿͂ļ̵̧̟̹̙̬̱͎̻͖̟̥̔̀̋̆̑̈̍͝y̷͖̱̎͑̈́͋̋̾͐͝, Ghoulmon!
[Ghoulmon] shifts the entire game plan into a more proactive style.
Just like its relatives, [Ghoulmon] comes with a smattering of keywords. The [Reboot] and [Blocker] combo turns this into at least a 12000DP beatstick AND solid wall. Though the deck never really struggled defensively anyway, it's nice to see it continue the family tradition.
[Rush] is an interesting keyword to put on a Lv.6, it's not like this is Xros Heart/Bagra Army/etc. where you can just drop a big digimon for free?
[On Play][When Attacking][On Deletion] Delete one of your opponent's Digimon with the lowest play cost. If this effect didn't delete, trash your opponent's top security card.
No [When Digivolving]? But also no [Once Per Turn]? Oh yeah, about that first effect:
"When this card would be played, by deleting 1 of your play cost 11 or lower Digimon with [Negamon] in its digivolution cards and [Negamon] in its text, reduce the cost by the deleted Digimon's play cost."
Paradigm Shift
Previously, the main game plan was to turtle out until you fulfill one of the conditions for playing out [Abbadomon: Core]. This put the deck on to a strict 4 turn cadence with maybe the odd chance here and there to get the big boss out ahead of schedule.
[Ghoulmon] opens up so many additional lines of play for the archetype, while also being a security trashing and board wiping machine.
As long as you can keep turn (and trust me, it's actually much easier than it seems), just a single [Ghoulmon] can on its own pop at least 2 Digimon and/or Security.
The [When Attacking] effect can potentially sidestep any Ace counter-play.
Blocker on board that can match our DP? [On Deletion]!
Last few pops cleared the board? That's a security check!
Check hit a big boss card? Even better! [Ghoulmon] shuffles off into the trash with a final middle finger aimed at any leftover Digimon or by grabbing and dragging one more Security card with it. [Amethyst Mandala] who?
Even if the opponent has a body immune to Digimon effects, all of these still go off and trash security cards.
But [Ghoulmon] isn't here to hog all the glory to itself. This oddly swole eye is a true team player by being an enabler for [Analog Youth]
I lost count how many times I've had a [RareRaremon] sitting goopily on my board, waiting for the opponent to attack into it only to be bounced to the deck or get de-digivolved without doing anything.
But now [Ghoulmon] shows up. Chomps down on the green jelly treat to reduce its own play cost, which also stacks with the [Negamon] effects. That's a minimum of 9 cost reduction!
Since this is happening on our turn, there are a bunch of shenanigans that are ready to go:
1)Since we are playing the card, [Negamon] crawls out of the raising area, leaving it empty.
2)[EX1 Analog Youth] sees the gruesome sacrifice and hatches a new egg in panic, reloading the next [Negamon] effect and gaining us 1 memory back.
3)[RareRaremon] triggers its own [On Deletion] to play out anything between level 4 to 6, depending on how many eggs have already hatched.
If you're sitting on 4 eggs out of raising: drop that grinning basketball, [Abbadomon] into the board and let's jam!
1 egg lets us throw out an [Eyesmon: Scatter Mode], who can draw you two more cards if pieces are still missing.
Meanwhile, [Eyesmon] (locked-in mode) zips out, ready to bite ankles like a non-Newtonian chihuahua with [Rush] and [Collision]. Did it get itself deleted by colliding with something on the board or in security? Excellent! We can now retrieve the [RareRaremon] that started the combo or a piece that got trashed earlier! Oh, it survived? Well nevermind. We now have an extra body to throw under the bus with the redirection effect provided by [Negamon]. Or offer it up to another [Ghoulmon]. Potentially for free.
2-3 eggs give us a chance for a second [RareRaremon]. Mostly a body or evolution target, who also happens to slime [de-digivolve] something on the board in the process.
Mr. Yggdrasil, a second Ghoulmon...
Remember that huge memory discount potential mentioned earlier?
[Parabolic Junk] and [Analog Youth] can make the card neutral or even memory positive when triggered off a [RareRaremon] or [Eyesmon].
Math time!
The ideal scenario can happen as early as turn 2. With 0 memory, 2 [Negamon] worth of cost reduction and [Parabolic Junk] in hand:
[Ghoulmon] is at 12 base -7 from RareRare or Eyes -2 Parabolic -3 Negamon =[0] no memory lost off the play!
The [Analog Youth] on board makes it a +1 gain, as long as the sacrifice was Lv.5 or above!
With the 3rd [Negamon] now waiting to go, the next cycle begins. [RareRaremon]'s [On Deletion] lets us play out up to a Lv.5 and as long as it's one of our cost 7 or more targets, we cash in that 1 memory gained from the Youth for a tidy 12-7-4-1=0.
It's still our turn. Stupid. Effective. I love it. Let's trash some more security and swing!
A wizard is never late, nor is he early
The above example happened on turn 2, but our sweet spot is actually turn 3. This is for a number of reasons.
Being on our 4th egg after the combo lets us set up an [Abbadomon: Core] in the raising area as long as we have a way to get [Abbadomon] on the board.
Playing a second [RareRaremon] from the last one being deleted gives us a target for [Abbadomon] to evolve for 3. Yes, this will likely pass turn, but the threat now exists, ready to emerge. We have [Ghoulmon] ready to block and retaliate and at least one more redirect. As long as we have at least one more card to play, to bring out the final egg.
Hard-playing [Abbadomon] for 6 memory isn't an entirely awful idea either. Since it can stack some digivolution cards at the end of turn, making itself a bit stickier against de-digivolve and popping something else in the process.
With enough [Scatter Mode] in trash, [Eyesmon] becomes a free play that can either plink security, collide with any remaining targets and fetch us stuff from trash if it explodes in the process. Good dog.
[Scatter Mode] and [Soundbirdmon] is free to play, meaning that we get to dig through our deck even further, while putting another attack redirection target on the board.
And if the above combo pieces haven't lined up? As long as a cost 7 exists on the board, we can simply drop in the second [Ghoulmon] for 0. Again, the new card gives us outs to otherwise dead-end hands.
Speaking of threats emerging...
Based on a true story.
So what's the catch?
As illustrated above, with the help of a local Fish player, the deck is pathetically weak to any kind of removal that doesn't delete.
Not a single card in the line has any good way of protecting your main stack. Another, slightly newer BBEG deck, [ExMaquinamon] solves this wobbly tower problem by propping itself up with numerous protection effect from linked cards.
[Abbadomon] has to instead rely on efficiently clearing the board, crushing any resistance before it has time to take root. Which up until now, completely contradicted the extremely reactive play pattern the various redirects and stalling required you to do.
[Ghoulmon] helps a lot, by giving multiple opportunities to either disrupt the board or chip away at security and can be considered an alternative win condition, but I suspect it might conflict a little with the other Lv.6 to 7 plays.
Can we fix it?
Probably. Our choice of support cards really matters, just depends on how you want to approach the problem.
I personally prefer keeping the evolution lines as neat and self-contained as possible, unless absolutely forced to in certain struggling decks. Looking at you Ukkomon, MedievalGallantmon, Shinegreymon Ruin Mode etc. The correct Options might make this deck viable without splashing in anything outside the Negamon family, so I present to you:
Yes, de-digivolve can still hurt us, but there are enough ways for both Abbadomon to manipulate our stack in order to mitigate that. It only costs 2, so it's relatively cheap to just pop at the end of turn, if you need to keep Core or Ghoulmon around for just one more swing. Scramble vs Training vs Boost is a difficult choice, but given the draw power from Scatter Modes, Scramble might be the winner here to allow us to keep turn the few times that we do want to start digivolving. The extra search power from Training and Boost sounds really good, but bottom-decking Analog Youths or any other key pieces, really hurts the plan.
If we were to consider mixing in some outside lines, then the following trio can help maintain your stack and offer extra crowd control:
The [Rapidmon] and [MegaGargomon] match our primary deck colour and enable Mimi to cycle our Eggs faster, while also acting as a memory setter. The lack of deck space for options and the fact that we whiff a lot of our line's effects that require certain names or Negamon in text makes this a much less appealing option for me.
My earlier build that includes Metalgreymon and Blitzgreymon can also work as a taunting/counter engine. Similarly, Etemon and Shadowseraphimin Ace can achieve this with a bit more villainous flavour.
In conclusion? I can't wait to try our the new Ghoulmon variant of the build. Will this make the deck competitively viable? Maybe. It has some interesting matchups into certain other meta contenders. Personally, I've managed to outbox Vortexdramon and ExMaquinamon a few times, simply due to [Collision] and the massive DP inherits available to our stack and swinging with Core.
Bonus: That doesn't look like a Nyabootmon to me...
