About Booster Pack BEGINNING OBSERVER [BT-16]

The long-awaited booster pack BT-16 Beginning Observer was released on December 22nd !

In addition to main characters from the recently released Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning that caused a big reaction such as Davis Motomiya and Veemon, and Ken Ichijoji and Wormmon, movie-original characters like Lui Ohwada and Ukkomon make this an incredible set for 02 fans. We’ve also included ACE versions of Megas from the D-3 toy released in 2000: Valkyrimon, Vikemon, and GranKuwagamon. And what’s more, the set will also include special card versions for Valkyrimon ACE, Vikemon ACE, GranKuwagamon ACE, and Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode ACE!

Having gained a lot of attention in the advanced English release, BT8-112 Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode is also included as an alternate art card!

And check this out… In the first three-colored card in the card game, Magnamon (X Antibody) is presented to the maximum in his Gold Digizoid form!

The set also includes lots of Digimon and Tamers from the currently continuing Digimon Seekers, so I hope you’ll look forward to it!

About banned and restricted cards

I’d like to give you a direct explanation of the banned and restricted cards list that we announced on December 18th (Mon.).

EX5-062 Anubismon continues to use the trash if not impeded, allowing repeated play of powerful purple Digimon cards. Because of this, it’s extremely strong at maintaining effects in the battle area, making it also very hard to deal with.
When BT15-102 Apocalymon sends cards with the [Dark Masters] trait to the trash even once, it can be played easily many times for low cost, making it a hard card to deal with. Also, if this card isn’t removed the first time it’s played, a second BT15-102 Apocalymon can then easily be played, making a continuous deck-trashing effect. It was necessary to limit this trashing effect, so from an overall standpoint, we decided to restrict the number of this card that can be played.

Because both EX5-062 Anubismon and BT15-102 Apocalymon are high-rarity cards, we discussed the issue a great deal before making the decision. However ultimately, considering potential On Play effects of purple cards new cards with the [Dark Masters] trait, these two cards may be made more powerful, and if we otherwise attempted to improve the play environment by restricting and banning other cards, we would need to specify a large range of cards, so we decided on restricting the numbers of these cards to 1 each.

For EX5-015 Gabumon (X Antibody), EX5-018 Garurumon (X Antibody), and BT14-002 Pukamon, these cards provide an exceptional level of stability to decks built with them, decreasing deck-building variety and constraining one aspect of the game’s fun, which is being able to build decks with diverse concepts. In particular, EX5-015 Gabumon (X Antibody) and EX5-018 Garurumon (X Antibody) add more than stability, majorly increasing the strength of decks that make use of the trash.
Almost all of the cards specified as banned/restricted this time make frequent use of the trash, which in addition to the aforementioned reasons, adds to the number of areas that need to be checked, causing the game to become more complicated. When the game becomes more difficult to play, it creates a higher barrier for new players to enjoy the game, creating the image of a card game that’s hard for new users to get into. In order not to disappoint these players, we decided that major restrictions of such cards were necessary.

These were the reasons that went into this round of banned and restricted cards.

In regard to these changes, I’d like to offer my sincerest apologies for specifying a very large number of cards, as well as ones that had recently been released, causing apprehension from our players. In regard to the banning or restriction of cards that had recently been released or rereleased, this was caused by our development team underestimating their effect. It goes without saying that we plan releases while hoping to keep banned and restricted cards to an absolute minimum, but in order to provide a proper play environment, for cards that will significantly affect that environment, we may need to ban and restrict regardless of release/rerelease date, so we ask for your understanding in this.

About Theme Booster INFERNAL ASCENSION [EX-06]

On February 23rd (Fri.) 2024, the Theme Booster EX-06 Eternal Ascension will be released!

The set puts a focus on cards with the [Seven Great Demon Lords] and [Celestial Digimon] traits. It includes new keyword effects and the new Blast DNA Digivolve, so please look forward to it!

About BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest23-24 World Tour FINAL in JAPAN

As a massive event gathering the BANDAI CARD GAMES titles, BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest23-24 World Tour FINAL in JAPAN will be held on March 2nd (Sat.) and 3rd (Sun.) 2024 at Makuhari Messe! In addition to deciding this year’s top Digimon player in the World Championship 2023, the large pre-registered tournament Super! Tamer Battle will be held in 1 on 1 and 3 on 3 formats. With side events appropriate for all skill levels and goods sales as well, it’d be great to see you at Makuhari Messe on March 2nd or 3rd!

Finally

In the future as well, we will give our all to providing Tamers with enjoyable products and services, so I hope that you’ll all continue to enjoy playing the Digimon Card Game.