Image credit to the author/Bandai
Normally when a key piece of a combo deck is restricted or banned, the deck will fall to the wayside until some new tech props it back up. The most recent ban and restriction announcement took out Kuzuhamon, a key component to the Taomon Loop deck. This deck would recycle Taomon ACE over and over with Kuzuhamon, flooding the board with level 6s and ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode to lock the opponent out of the game. With Kuzuhamon restricted, the deck has reverted to a more traditional Sakuyamon shell that goes wide with tokens rather than level 6s.
Sakuyamon Updated Deck List
Here’s the deck list:
1 Kyubimon BT10-036
4 Renamon BT17-031
4 Taomon BT17-035
2 Sakuyamon BT17-038
4 Kyubimon BT19-034
1 Taomon BT19-037
2 Sakuyamon BT19-040
4 Rika Nonaka BT19-083
2 Chaosmon: Valdur Arm BT20-037
4 Viximon EX2-003
3 Renamon EX2-019
3 Digivolution Plug-In S EX2-070
2 ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode EX4-074
2 Starmon EX7-026
1 Renamon (X Antibody) EX8-031
2 Sakuyamon (X Antibody) EX8-037
4 Yellow Scramble LM-029
3 Yellow Memory Boost! P-037
2 Pause Plug-In P P-095
4 Physical Training P-105
How Does the New Sakuyamon Deck Work?
This deck aims to set up a stack for as cheap as possible through the use of Yellow Scramble and Digivolution Plug-In S. The early portion of the deck digs for these cards, such as with Renamon BT17 or Rika Nonaka BT19. You can then play these Options for free off of the [When Digivolving] effects of Taomon BT17, Taomon ACE, Sakuyamon BT17, and Sakuyamon BT19.
These Sakuyamon give the deck a defensive presence, either through removal or making a token with blocker, to mitigate any comeback the opponent might mount against your combo turn. With Sakuyamon X you can make tokens with rush to pressure the opponent, and when one of your Digimon attack you can play an Option for free and unsuspend one of your Digimon to continue your attacks.
From there, the deck has two different Yellow level 7s to lock down the board. ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode is the tried and true all-star against smaller decks. Several of your Digimon have inherited effects that shrink an opponent’s Digimon when an Option is played, so stacking an additional -5oooDP from ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode can act as a board wipe. Since the trigger from Ruin Mode floats through the opponent’s turn, it also prevents them from triggering any [On Play] effects from smaller Digimon since they immediately get trashed without triggering.
The second and spicier level 7 is Chaosmon: Valdur Arm BT20. When you digivolve into Chaosmon you can suspend an opponent’s Digimon or Tamer and gain a memory for each level 6 in its sources. Then the opponent’s Digimon or Tamers and trigger [On Play] effects or unsuspend until the end of their turn. This digivolution cost is already discounted when using Yellow Scramble or Digivolution Plug-In S, so this memory gain means you’re going into a level 7 Digimon for just one memory, and if you went Sakuyamon into Sakuyamon X first, then that digivolution cost ends up being free!
What Makes Sakuyamon a Good Meta Call?
Sakuyamon is a great metagame call right now because it has tools to tackle several of the most popular decks. Royal Knights, Purple/Red Imperialdramon, and Galaxy Toolbox are all huge players in the tournament scene, and Sakuyamon can handle these through the use of its level 7s and Plug-In package.
Royal Knights
Royal Knights is one of the dominant forces in the metagame right now, so the inclusion of Chaosmon: Valdur Arm is a fantastic counter to their entire strategy. Shutting off [On Play] effects prevents you from getting blown out by Omekamon BT20 coming out of security, and it even works to prevent the Omnimon BT13 combo kill. This one turn is often all you need in order to survive long enough to set up your own win.
Royal Knights can also be a bit slow since it’s more of a reactionary toolbox deck, so there are plenty of opportunities to find a window to get Chaosmon online and shut them down.
Purple/Red Imperialdramon
Purple/Red Imperialdramon is able to quickly build up into Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode through [When Digivolving] effects that retrieve its DNA fodder from the trash, and they can do this from just one rookie in play. The trick here is that so many of your inherited effects can decrease an opposing Digimon’s DP when you play an Option that you can keep them off of rookies.
Accelerating into ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode can keep them from getting a level 4 in play to start DNA digivolving, so if you’re proactive you can keep them from establishing a board while you build up your own stacks.
Galaxy Toolbox
Galaxy Toolbox is in a similar vein to Imperialdramon in that they look to rapidly build up into a level 6 using effects like Lunamon to gain memory and repeatedly digivolve, although their top end is much more varied. Usually they’ll go into Hexeblaumon EX07 to shut off your token aggro plan, but they can also use Invisimon to de-digivolve your threats and keep tempo in their favour.
Here the play is usually to use Pause Plug-In P to shut off their [When Digivolving] effects just long enough to build up your own stack. Pause Plug-In P is a lingering DP reduction like ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode, so if they try to use their Lunamon inherited effect to tuck their top card to gain memory, they can accidentally delete themselves because they’ll now be smaller.
If they don’t go for the memory, their digivolving effects are still shut off for the turn. This gives you the window to build your stack and put pressure on them.
Which Decks Are Difficult for Sakuyamon?
Sakuyamon can often struggle against faster decks and decks that can delete their board at will. Gallantmon X is exceptional at doing both by rapidly building up into a level 6 through Options like Offense Training and Red Scramble, and many of their [When Digivolving] effects delete an opposing Digimon. Gallantmon BT17 and Gallantmon X are also immune to your effects when they have 0 or less memory, which can often make it difficult to interact once they’ve gotten going. This matchup often boils down to who is able to keep the opponent off of building their stack first, so there’s little room to stumble.
The ban and restriction announcement hit Fenriloogamon: Takemikazuchi pretty hard, but the deck has already figured out a way to maintain its status as an alpha dog in the meta. The deck has gone back to its roots by incorporating Fenriloogamon BT14 which can flood the board with bodies as well as deleting Digimon when it attacks, and Kazuchimon BT20 can suspend and lock down Digimon on your turn when they tuck the new Tamer Code Cracker Fang & Hacker Judge underneath.
Now that Fenriloogamon: Takemikazuchi has access to an ACE boss monster, it’s a lot harder to just swing in since the new ACE’s effect is so devastating to our board, so Sakuyamon really has to be careful attacking into a level 6. This is a matchup where ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode is a must-have to mitigate Fenriloogamon BT14.
Finally, another hard matchup for Sakuyamon is Leviamon X, which has been gaining in popularity due to its Royal Knight matchup. This deck can be tricky to play against since the very nature of their deck plays against Sakuyamon’s token plan.
A Biting Crush in play or a level 5 with X Antibody Proto Form underneath is just begging for a Digimon to get played by an effect so they can play Leviamon or Leviamon X from their trash and devastate the board. As such, you really have to play around their traps by avoiding playing your tokens and praying they can’t force you to play by effect with Dragomon. If you can build up into Chaosmon without triggering their traps, you can shut off Leviamon’s [On Play] for a turn cycle, but you still have to get to that point.
Final Verdict – Why Play Sakuyamon Right Now?
The biggest reason to play Sakuyamon is that the deck is able to accelerate into their stack quicker and more efficiently than most others through its synergy with digivolution-reducing Options. With enough of these Options you can set up a level 6 or even level 7 as early as the second turn, and the tokens generated with your level 6s help establish both a defensive presence with blocker as well as swarming the board if the opponent fails to interact.
Sakuyamon has the tools to stave off some of the most popular decks in the metagame, so it’s an excellent call to play competitively.
Want more Digimon content? Check out my guide to making the most of the memory gauge.
