There are very few TCGs I am more nostaglic for then Digimon. It released at such an interesting time. I was just starting my job at my local card shop. I remember getting the blue starter deck and my wife getting the red starter deck. I fell in love with this game immediately because drawing cards is awesome, but also because I really enjoyed the evolution process. I like Pokemon more overall, but I really appreciate the way the Digimon TCG handled evolving. As time went on, we did fall out of the game. A. My shop only had game nights on Sunday (A day I worked.). B. I missed instant speed interaction found in games like Magic. C. One Piece released and just simply took over. And to be fair, in 2026, I probably do like One Piece a little more still.

However, and this is true for most TCGs, the decks I wanted to play are waaaay cheaper now that power creep has left them behind. For example, cards like BT01 Omnimon and BT2 Beelzemon are dirt cheap now. We loved the BT1 and bt1.5 Meta. Big Argomon Green, Omnimon Red/Blue, Blue/Green Imperialdramon, Shinegreymon, Purple Loops (What I call Piedmon Purple not the Omnimon Zwart deck), Rookie Rush, Mega Zoo. These are such enduring decks to us. We opened boxes all the way up to around BT10 or so and bought all the starter decks along the way. Some of our favorites are the original starter deck for Blue, Green, and red, ST7 Gallantmon, Starter Deck 09 and 10. In fact, most of our gaming is simply upgraded versions of these decks. I built a Blue Green Imperialdramon back when the game started (The deck is still on this blog somewhere) so ST09 just felt like an evolution of what I had built. Starter deck 07 is probably my wife’s favorite as its jammed full of bonus security checks and ways to pop my creatures for bonus effects.

As it becomes known as I blog more, I’m working on building battle boxes that encapsulate decks we played and decks we wanted to play. So finding the perfect cutoff for a game that doesn’t rotate and a game we kept an eye on from a distance makes it tricky. For example, the first cutoff point we discussed was simply BT1.5 meta. No ban list and you have access to BT1, 2, 3, plus Starter decks 1-6 (I think. One for each color.). During this meta my wife was rocking Red Security Checks, Argomon Green, Rookie Rush, and a Mega Zoo deck. I was playing Blue Green Imperialdramon and Piedmon Purple. I wanted to play some yellow deck but hadnt landed on one. I also wanted a green deck, but I don’t think the meta supported two green decks from my memory.

Going a step further, using BT4 didn’t really interest us. The ban on green forced a pivot to Nidhoggmon. That was probably the biggest change for us. Outside of that, I think we just kept rocking our old decks. So we turned our attention to BT5. BT5 didn’t do a lot for my wife, but it did introduce the first mono blue deck I was interested in, Hexeblaumon. A player from work showed me the deck and I was captivated immediately. But as I researched a little more I think I landed on the perfect spot. BT6 with Starter decks 7 and 8.

BT6 really lets my wife have a wide option of red decks. ST7 released a whole host of security checker +1 attackers combined with BT6’s Agumon Bond of Courage and the Jesmon archetype. This should be good enough that she can mix and match cards to find the aggressive red deck she wants. Both ST7 and 8 gave Security Check more options for Digimon’s to play out of security. BT6 also gave Yellow the new option Wyvern’s Breath. Security Control now had tools to pair with it’s boss monster Omnimon Zwart Defeat. Purple Loops, Hexeblaumon, and Big Green are also kicking around doing their thing.

I’d have to try to find deck techs or do my crafting to come up with shells for Rookie Rush, Mega Zoo, and Imperialdramon but I think we can create at least 8 decks for a fun battle box using this time period.

So here’s I got cooking around in my head:

My Four Decks:

1. Blue/Green Imperialdramon. This is a deck that tries to go from BT3 Jamming Veemon and up into EX01 Jamming ExVeemon and BT3 Jamming Paildramon. It also uses jamming Frigimon and jamming Ogremon. Basically I threw all my jamming cards in. My wife will 100% also swing at my life over my digimons. This means, unlike in a normal setting, my Digimon’s aren’t actually sitting ducks. I haven’t updated my original version since BT1.5.

2. Piedmon Purple. When I was playing this I didn’t have starter deck 6. So my Piedmon was getting back blocker Vilemon and Retaliation Devimon. Starter deck 6 gave us blocker Devimon so that’s an upgrade for sure. This deck will look like a messed up Lilith Loop deck, but it will be my baby as Piedmon is my favorite card in the game.

3. Security Control. I’m really close to having this deck built. Though admittedly I need 4 Omnimon Zwart Defeat and 2 more Wryven’s Breath. So, in a way, it feels like I am far away from having it built. But you guys know the deal. Play busted options and LV 6 Digimons. Control the board, and maybe you’ll get around to swinging for lethal in this life or the next. It’s no rush.

4. Hexeblaumon. Blue was my first starter deck and I really wanted a pure blue deck and it took a while to find an archetype I like. BT6 gave this deck Kyaromon for a new egg.

So those are my four decks I have landed on when revisiting this time period. 2 of my old pet decks updated for the 2021 Meta and two decks I always wanted to build but never did.

Here’s what we have for my wife right now.

1. Security Check Red. I’m naming it that until she figures out if she wants to go the Agumon BOC, Jesmon, or Gallantmon. But the idea is to be aggressive. I remember my co-worker running Agumon BOC and bragging about how you can go for game the turn you raise it out of the of the nursery, so she may very well land on it, but we will see.

2. Big Green. Her second pet deck. This deck will look a lot different than her old Argomon Green deck of the past, but I’m excited to see what we turn it into.

Those are the ones I am confident in. From there we go in a number of ways. Gabu Blue, Diaboromon, Rookie Rush, Megazoo, Mastemon Yellow, Eosmon, a true Lilith Loops, Mastemon Purple, ChaosGallantmon. There’s plenty of other fun stuff we could add to the box.

If you played during the first six sets, let me know if there’s any archetypes I overlooked. Thank you for reading and have a great day. Next Digimon post will be looking at actual decks!