Training Tuesdays: Zephagamon/Vortex

Hello everyone, and welcome to Training Tuesdays, the (not-so) premier bi-weekly Digimon series where we take a look at some lower-power decks and how to build them. Now that we're back from a (not-so) short hiatus for.... checks notes a whole two formats, let's take a look at the God of Wind, and the Divine Tempest of Liberation, Zephagamon.

Zephagamon swooped onto the scene with ST-18 and EX-7 shortly after and like Icarus before, immediately fell back to earth. However, due to several powerful support cards in EX-8s iteration of MedievalGallantmon, P-166 Galemon, and finally BT-20s Zephagamon ACE, the divine god of wind finally lives up to his name and is a powerful rogue option.

The deck focuses around the signature <Vortex> keyword, which allows you to attack your opponents suspended digimon at the end of your turn, even on the same turn that digimon is played. As a result, there are sometimes when you can hard play some of the top end and swing in the same turn with <Vortex>. To facilitate this gameplan, many of the decks cards suspend your opponents digimon, or provide benefits when attacking into them. A great example and your preferred Ultimate can be found in EX-7 GrandGalemon, suspending any one digimon on field, and if you suspended your own allowing you to become invincible to effects for a turn. With all of these suspending effects and swinging into your opponents digimon, the deck lends itself much more to a control style of gameplay, sweeping up anyone who dares to defy you in the winds of liberation.

However, that's not to say that the deck has no offensive capability and isn't also a powerhouse in its own right. Due to powerful cards like EX-7 Shoto Kazama, you also have a

large amount of power in his [End of Turn] unsuspend for any Vortex Warrior as well as <Blocker> and <Piercing>. When combined with either GrandGalemons inherited effect, you can get multiple swings on your opponents security while also leaving your own digimon unsuspended to serve as a defensive body for whatever threat may be lurking in the Raising Area. This is complimented by frankly, one of the most powerful cards to see print in the Digimon TCG. EX-8s MedievalGallantmon is not only a pseudo floodgate for any deck that plays bodies down, but can also be played for reduced cost by suspending multiple digimon, in which you can then use <Vortex> to clear an opponents digimon as well. This has led to MedievalGallantmon being a surprisingly generic tool, but is especially powerful in Zephagamon, where the opponent is forced to play digimon or wait in the Raising Area, allowing for even more aggression. This balance of offensive firepower and defensive capabilities through cards like EX-7 GrandGalemon, MedievalGallantmon, and Zephagamon ACE allows for a pseudo-toolbox style of gameplay where you can control the field.

Overall, this deck is a very good rogue option, being able to put up some formidable board states. While the deck is not bad right now per se, it definitely needs some more options to truly break through into the upper echelons of the meta. However, there is good news as Zephagamon is the ace digimon of Shoto Kazama, protagonist of the ongoing Digimon Liberator web-comic series (small plug to say that it is a fun read, you should check it out if you haven't yet) so it is bound to get more waves of support as the story progresses and they push the deck more. Since this is a more rogue option, it hasn't topped any major events so this weeks decklist is ユリウ-さんs winning list from April 21st. On a more personal note, I'm happy to report that articles should return at a (mostly) regular pace now that the semester is over!! This has been Training Tuesdays, and I hope to see you for next weeks Meta Mondays, covering Royal Knights!