STORE CHAMPIONSHIP WINNING GRANDIS DECK TECH
What the hell do you mean I just hyper focused for almost five hours to slam this deck tech out?
Crap, that was not my goal. But, hey it’s done and I put WAY more effort in than I meant to.
But, here we go, my Grandis list, partially inspired by Nick D’Angelo’s from the August 7th Gen Con Regional, with some of my own tweaks. This odd little monster managed to take 1st at my local store Championship, 21st at the Top Cut Regional on August 13th and 86th, still not happy about that one, at the Core TCG Regional on the 20th.
Oh, uhhhh also I forgot, I may have made a channel explicitly for all my Digimon TCG content, which might be why I feel so weird about how significant the backlog currently is.
Oh and if you want to see the deck play, you can find my final match of the championship over at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Eap8oihfg
Ok, but what is the list I hear you asking, yes, yes give me a second.
4x BT5-004 Yokomon
2x BT1-064 Goblimon
2x BT3-046 Terriermon
4x BT9-046 Kokuwamon (X Antibody)
4x P-032 Palmon
2x ST4-03 Tentomon
4x BT5-050 Weedmon
2x BT7-047 MetalKabuterimon
3x ST4-08 Kabuterimon
2x ST9-10 Snimon
4x BT9-052 Okuwamon (X Antibody)
4x P-075 Okuwamon
4x BT9-055 GrandisKuwagamon
4x P-025 GranKuwagamon
4x BT1-089 Mimi Tachikawa
4x P-038 Green Memory Boost!
1x BT9-109 X Antibody
Or you can just go to the Digimoncard.dev link if you prefer thier system.
And finally, for those who don’t want to watch the video but want to know why I made my choices, please, please watch the video, it was a lot of effort, but also here’s what you desire!
I am running the standard Grandis eggs, BT5 Yokomon, and while I don’t love them that has more to do with not loving the OTK focused meta of BT9, especially Alphamon, who is really the only reason to run Yokomon, since as of this moment there are only two Digimon Grandis doesn’t swing over, Alphamon: Ouryuken, and Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode. And let’s be honest with ourselves, only of of those is seeing any real play in the English format. Yes, next set the new Omnimon X Antibody will also be that large, but they’re not here yet. If Alphamon weren’t the ubiquitous monster that it is I would gladly be running Pinamon and Gummymon because what Grandis, and all Green decks really need is card draw.
My Rookie base is pretty standard, Kokuwamon X Antibody to search, though, as I point out in the video, I think a large portion of playing Grandis comes down to knowing when to not search, since Kokuwamon will bottom deck some of the more vital champs, Weedmon and MetalKabuterimon, as well and Mimis and Green Memory Boosts, though nothing my deck is running avoids bottoming those. But Kokuwamon does hit X Antibody, which while not an uncommon card in Grandis lists, I am running because of my extremely weird luck to consistently have a Grandis in my opening hand, but often go entire rounds without seeing a GranKuwagamon.
My only real spice in the Rookies are my ST4 Tentomons, run so I can have a pseudo search while only risking a single card, instead of two or three with Green Mem Boost or Kokuwamon, plus the goofy bug is, well a bug, so unlike most rookies Kokuwamon can hit him, and his search isn’t type locked so he can grab my MetalKabuterimons any rookie, and Weedmons. The other little piece I like is Goblimon. Sure, he looks goofy, but for only two memory and a 0 cost evo he can function as unconditional card draw, instead of extra conditional search. See, I can evo him in raising if I have no other rookies, play him for 2 to memory screw my opponent, or if I have a memory setter, play him, then evo him into say, Kabuterimon, to draw a card and still not have passed turn, while now gaining a blocker. The Palmons also do good work, but more often than not, I find the jamming to be niche at best, the only thing Grandis loses to in security is Alphamon: Ouryuken, and the Yokomons already fix that problem, though I should probably use their ability to give other Digimon jamming, and it can help against weird situations like a Flame Hell Scythe that doesn’t kill the Grandis, just weaken it mid attack. I suppose it also does good work if I have to swing with a GranKuwagamon.
In the Champs I have a bit more variation. See, I wanted the insectoid build to be better, but it turns out, there are basically zero good Kuwagamons, and while Kuwagamon X Antibody has a decent inheritable, it’s really only good if it can go onto a vanilla Kuwagamon, who just kind of honk. So instead I gave in and ran the Weedmons for memory gain, then threw in Kabuterimon, both for the Blocker, and 1 cost evolutions, and I went in a slightly silly direction by throwing in Snimon. See, they’ve always been one of my favorite Digimon, and they have beautiful Koki art, but they’re kind of meh? The On Play effect is solid, when it happens from security, especially if promo Okuwamon’s effect is in play, but paying 6 memory for it? Nooooooooo way is that ideal. But, he’s still and insect, so he’s a back up search target, and weirdly, his 2 cost evolution actually makes it easier to memory screw the opponent with that Goblimon play I mentioned earlier.
Finally, I have the MetalKabuterimons as well. I know many folks prefer Arbormon because he’s a more consistent price, but I have Snimons for that, they’re never in security, so if I need a 2 cost evolution they’ll assuredly be around. Meanwhile MetalKabuterimon has the niche benefit of being playable onto other level 4s, letting me build bigger Digi-Burst stacks and cycle through the deck better. Also in the extremely niche benefits, if there is a Mimi in play, I can technically, start a turn with three memory, evolve Mimi into MetalKabuterimon, then evolve that one into another MetalKabuterimon to get the suspend effect, and draw two cards. I said it was niche, not great.
Ok, I actually don’t have the energy to explain the Level 5s and 6s but that’s mostly because, I’m running the normal package, eight total, four Okuwa, four Okuwa Promo, four GranKuwaga promo, four Grandis. One of these days I’ll do that thing I threatened to do where I explain all the meta decks in a write up and video, but that is not today.
The only real tech choices in the last few cards is my single X Antibody, again because I have weird luck that always puts Grandis in my hand, but less frequently GranKuwaga, so I play around the weirdness and have X Antibody to make sure Grandis can make two swings a turn, and usually kill something before it can become annoying. And lastly, Mimi. Ok, so she’s not really tech, so much as a lot of folks really want to run Davis instead, but dang it I hate that overpriced boy. Well I hate him for this deck.
See, yes, he searches, but as I said, a lot of Grandis is about NOT searching when you shouldn’t, because there is too much risk of bottom decking important pieces. Davis comes out, searches, and then does nothing for the rest of the game. Best case you’re also running Blue Hybrids, and he hit one of them on his search so you only had to bottom deck a single card, and now congratulations, you have a blue hybrid sitting in your hand that the opponent knows about, and you can’t even use it to build a stack, because it’s Blue and nothing else in the deck interacts with it.
Mimi on the other hand, enables you to take extra breeding actions once you have a level 5 in play, giving you another way to get lethal, as you can see from the Primitive video that’s even how I won game 2 for the store championship, since Digimon pushed out of raising are not summoning sick. But she also just enables more card draw. By allowing for extra breeding actions a single Mimi can accelerate a Grandis player, and let them get multiple free rookie draws a turn to power secondary stacks.
But with that, I am DONE.
But, I’ll be honest, this has taken ALL my energy today, well, really the hours of calling banks and insurance while looking for documents I was never sent, that actually wore me down.
So now I shall go….I don’t know, crash? convince a partner with a working car we should get inebriants?
(To avoid concern, yes obviously I mean we should go get them, then enjoy them at home)
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