[DCG] So You Wanna Play Terriermon/Lopmon Alliance?

Introduction

I’ve been an avid Digimon Card Game player ever since Set 1.5, and I’ve long wanted to write profiles of the decks that I play at locals every week, most of which are off-meta. A lot of the fun of building off-meta decks for me is that their optimal builds are either unsolved or underacknowledged, allowing for a lot of room for innovation, creativity, and conversation about them. For example, while there’s little to be said about the Hunters deck which hasn’t already been said, there’s still a lot of disagreement and misconception about how to build and play decks like Alliance.

Not coincidentally, the Terriermon/Lopmon Alliance deck was the first deck I’ve played in the EX4 format, and I’d long been iterating on my build during the weeks leading up to it. Unsurprisingly, its performance in last week's locals was a little rocky (trying to make an Alliance deck compete with the meta is like putting lipstick on a pig, or, in this case, a rabbit), but after a few tweaks, I think I’ve settled on a build that I think represents the deck well.

This profile assumes you have some basic familiarity with the game and the relevant cards. As needed, I will signify which cards I believe are mandatory, and which ones I believe are flex spots.

Build Theory

The Terriermon/Lopmon Alliance deck is an aggressive deck that uses the Alliance keyword to swing for multiple checks with Lv 4 and 5 Digimon and evolve into higher forms for cheap. The cards also have cute artwork of dog and rabbit monsters, which is important for feeling good about yourself and your deck-building choices and demonstrating to your opponent that you have good taste.

Among the cards designed for the archetype in EX4, the Lv 3, 4 ,and 5 Digimon are decently strong, and Heaven’s Judgment is a powerful removal option that sees general usage. However, I am not the first to note that the Lv 6 Digimon and the Henry and Shu-Chong tamer are underwhelming. BlackMegaGargomon is expensive to evolve into and his best feature – his unsuspend effect – is sometimes hard to activate. Whether purple Cherubimon provides any benefit is wholly dependent upon the opponent’s plays. Yellow Cherubimon often struggles to delete other Digimon without extra help. While the DP boost and extra security checks granted by Alliance are impressive on smaller Digimon, on a Lv 6 body, they are mediocre.

Pictured: cards that will not be played in this deck

As for Henry Wong and Shu-Chong Wong, the number of stipulations on its effect makes it hard to use. Only being able to play a Terriermon or Lopmon for free when you have 1 or fewer Digimon makes the card useless when you build a wide board, which the deck wants to do. Even if you do play a free rookie, since you can’t evolve it, it will most likely only provide a +1000 DP buff for a Digimon that attacks with Alliance, which is suboptimal. The 1 memory cost reduction on evolution is nice, but there are better 4-cost tamers that grant the same memory advantage more reliably while providing stronger secondary effects (spoiler: I’m talking about Davis and Ken).

While I’ve tried to make the intended Lv 6’s and tamer work in the deck, I think a better approach is to cut down on the Lv 6’s to just three copies of yellow Cherubimon to give breathing room to the deck’s far stronger bottom-end. I have also ditched Henry and Shu-Chong for a tamer that is better for getting Alliance targets on the board: BT1 Mimi. Other distinguishing features of my build are the inclusion of BT8 Rapidmon for board control, BT8 Davis Motomiya and Ken Ichijoji for memory gain and extra attacks, and EX2 Calumon for cheap board expansion, draw and DP boosting. Overall, this version of Alliance leans into the archetype’s control aspects to complement its inherent aggression.

Here's the complete decklist up front because I am a nice person

As for the card-by-card breakdown:

The Eggs

EX4 Kokomon x4
EX2 Gummymon x1

Like any deck that runs Mimi, you will run out of eggs if you don’t run five of them. The four Kokomon are mandatory for nearly any Alliance deck – you’ll be suspending your own Digimon with both Alliance and Calumon’s effect reliably, making this a very consistent source of draw power. The fifth egg is more of a flex spot, but since we’ll be suspending the opponent’s Digimon with BT8 Rapidmon, it is a good choice for this build.

For the sake of thoroughness, I tried using EX2 Mother D-Reaper as some Alliance decks do, and it is an absolutely horrid choice for the deck. Every Mother you hatch is a turn wasted. The +15,000 DP boost is overkill, and whiffing on a chance to promote an actual attacker (which are VERY IMPORTANT) or Lv 3 (which enables your Calumon and Rapidmon plays) can be fatal. You want to promote your attackers and play your Alliance partners, not the other way around. Please do not play Mother D-Reaper in your deck.

The Rookies

EX4 Terriermon x4
EX4 Lopmon x4
EX4 Terriermon Assistant x4
EX2 Terriermon x2

Maximum copies of each of the EX4 rookies are a must – you want to see the inherited effect as often as possible. I tried running 1 fewer Lopmon to make room for other Terriermons, and I always found myself wishing I had that fourth Lopmon instead. The search effect on the Terriermon and Lopmon is very good, searching out all of your Lv 4 and higher Digimon as well as your dual-colored Davis and Ken.

Terriermon Assistant’s +5000 DP buff when it’s suspended allows your Lv 5’s to hit reasonably safe DP thresholds of 13,000 and above when attacking. The fact that it also counts as being named “Terriermon” means that it activates the cost reductions on Calumon and Rapidmon both, which is excellent.

Unlike many other lists, I run 14 rookies total, with the last two being EX2 Terriermon. While this is a thick number of rookies by current meta standards, the deck depends on reliable access to Lv 3 bodies, and when I ran any fewer than 14, I found often that I was missing a rookie when I needed one. Your rookies are the deck's lifeblood - if your supply runs out, you will lose the game.

The nice thing about the EX2 Terrier in particular is that it enables Rapidmon to suspend and swing into a 13,000 DP body without extra help, which takes out most Lv 6 Digimon in the game. I tried running BT3 Terriermon, and it feels ineffectual. Too many decks can play around it, and the lack of an inheritable on it feels bad.

The Champions

EX4 Turuiemon x4
EX4 BlackGargomon x2
EX4 Wendigomon x2
BT8 Rapidmon x4

I’m running a high-ish count of Lv 4’s in the deck at 12. Partially this is because this is a low-to-the-ground style aggro deck, but also because Rapidmon and the Alliance attackers play different roles in the deck and are not interchangeable.

Turuiemon unambiguously strikes me as the best Alliance Lv 4 in the deck. The inheritable allows you to pop small bodies and help your Cherubimon and Rapidmon remove bigger threats. You can also pair it with BlackRapidmon to de-digivolve a Lv 4 into a Lv 3, and then pop it with the DP reduction. Moreso than its colleagues, its inheritable synergizes well with the rest of the deck’s effects.

Wendigomon should be run at roughly 2 copies. Being able to pull any green Digimon from trash at the end of attack allows you to grab missing pieces for combos – yellow Antylamon for recovery, Cherubimon or Rapidmon for removal, or a rookie for your Alliance combo. However, it is less useful in the early game when your trash is empty, so the effect whiffs a lot. I would never play it at 4.

BlackGargomon is weird. You’ll often miss the activation of its inheritable effect when it evolves into a Lv 5 mid-attack, but you can trigger it by suspending Calumon after you evolve (which is just one of many reasons why we run Calumon). It’s helpful for hitting big DP thresholds and protecting your stacks from battle, but the effect isn’t as reliable as Turuiemon’s. Play as many or as few copies as you like.

Finally, there’s BT8 Rapidmon, which arguably remains the strongest card ever printed in the Terriermon archetype. It offers the best removal in the deck, being more versatile and more easily triggered than Cherubimon. People who’ve been playing Digimon since BT8 will already be familiar with its two primary applications: clearing wide boards with its DP removal effect, and then swinging into a tall stack after it’s been softened to trade with it. But there are a few other combos that Rapidmon enables in the deck, one of which is that you can abuse Calumon to allow it to swing over just about anything: promoting a Terriermon, playing a Calumon for 1 memory, evolving into Rapidmon, and gaining the memory back will lower an opponent’s Digimon by 5000 and give the Rapidmon 3000, allowing it to trade with a 14,000 DP body without passing turn. Playing a second Calumon enables it to swing into a 17,000 DP body. Not bad for a Lv 4!

Further, evolving a Terriermon suspended for an Alliance attack into a Rapidmon is often a good way to pass turn, protecting the Terriermon with Armor Purge, and maybe even finishing off an opponent’s Digimon that’s already weakened by a Cherubimon stack’s DP minus effects. Basically, Rapidmon is good in a deck that likes to have a lot of Terriermons sitting on your board. Davis and Ken grants Rapidmon access to the same swing-purge-unsuspend-swing combo that it enables in armor rush decks.

Rapidmon isn’t essential to the deck’s engine per se - dump it if it isn't to your liking - but it is a powerhouse that synergizes with the rest of the deck and is too strong not to include.

The Ultimates

EX4 BlackRapidmon x4
EX4 Antylamon (purple) x2
EX4 Antylamon (yellow) x2

The Lv 5 slots are where you have the most flexibility with your ratios. You should be running 8 ultimates, and you should be running some combination of these three in particular, but the details are up to you. Each has their own merits.

I’m currently running BlackRapidmon at 4 copies because it combos nicely with the yellow Cherubimon. You can do an alliance swing with BlackRapidmon, skip the mid-attack evolution, de-digivolve an opponent’s Lv 6 Digimon to Lv 5 at the end of the attack, and then evolve into Cherubimon to minus the target for 6000-9000 DP, most likely deleting it. If not, a single Turuiemon inheritable, a suspended Calumon, or an end-of-turn Rapidmon evolution are enough to help the newly evolved Cherubimon finish off any Lv 5. I’ve already noted how BlackRapidmon combos with Turuiemon to take out Lv 4’s. The piercing inheritable doesn’t come up as often as I would like, but it is appreciated.

I used to run the purple Antylamon at four copies since its end of attack effect plays out a free body from trash, which directly supports the deck’s aggressive playstyle, but I like it increasingly less as time goes on. The problem I often have with it was that there typically isn’t be a body in the trash for Antylamon to play in the early game, making it more of a late game card. So I cut it down to two, and it is the one card out of the three that I feel confident should not be run at a higher count.

Yellow Antylamon is also run at two copies. Being able to (conditionally) recover a security for 1 memory is powerful, and the inheritable combos nicely with Cherubimon, but as is the case with the other Antylamon, its end-of-attack effect often whiffs in the early game. However, I think the inheritable is more impactful than its purple counterpart’s, and the recovery effect is powerful in the mid-to-late game. I am considering increasing the count in my build as I write this.

This is the part of the deck that I am least certain about. Some days I think 3 BlackRapid/3 Yellow Antyla/2 Purple Antyla is correct. Some days I think a 4/4/0 split is better. Play around with it and see what suits your own playstyle.

The Megas

EX4 Cherubimon (yellow) x3

This is usually all that you'll need.

As mentioned before, all of the Lv 6’s that were specifically made for the deck are underwhelming. You still need to run something, since you want to take advantage of the inherited effects of your Lv 5’s and evolve into a big body as needed. But unlike with most decks, your Level 6 Digimon isn't your win condition.

In theory, there’s no reason you can’t run any other 2-color Lv 6 green Digimon in the slot, since they are also valid evolution and search targets, but they are either underwhelming (like with DinoRexmon) or would miss the timing of their when attacking effects (like with MedievalGallantmon). While DrZaius’ Alliance list on DigimonMeta is one of my favorite versions of the deck I've seen, I personally found the Imperialdramon package he runs to be too clunky, at least for the way that I play the deck (the Lighdramon in particular feels underwhelming for a 3 cost evolution when I am used to playing Rapidmon instead).

I already covered why I don’t play the purple Cherubimon or BlackMegaGargomon from EX4 in my deck. So why play the yellow Cherubimon? The first versions of the deck I tested actually ran everything except the yellow Cherubimon, and with those versions, I found that I often lost because I couldn’t effectively control the opponent’s board. Yellow Cherubimon is an imperfect solution to the problem, but he offers better board control than nearly any other alternative, except for maybe the BT12 Imperialdramons.

Why only three copies? Partially because BT8 Rapidmon is an honorary Lv 6, but also because Cherubimon isn’t the boss monster of your deck, but a tech card. Your Lv 4 and 5’s are the real stars of the deck. You often don’t need to go into your Level 6 until you need to wipe something off of the board. At three copies, I find that I almost always have a Cherubimon in my hand when I need one. I am rarely wanting for more, but running a fourth for extra consistency is valid.

Space in the deck is tight, but if you want to find room for a Lv 7 in the deck, ShineGreymon Ruin Mode would probably make this deck better if you’re willing and able to spend $50 on a piece of cardboard. I’m not.

The Calumon

EX2 Calumon x3

Calumon is fire in this deck.

This list runs 10 Terriermons, and most of your plays start with you promoting one of them from raising, hard playing one from hand, or playing one of from purple Antylamon’s effect. With such an abundance of Terriers, being able to play Calumon for a reduced cost of 1 is easily done. You’ll usually want to play Calumon without passing turn, but if you do, it can be a nice way to choke the opponent at one memory.

Since this deck likes evolving so much, that 1 memory play cost can pay itself back right away. Or, in a pinch, if you start with 3 memory, have a Terriermon in raising, and nothing else on board, you can promote the Terriermon, play a Calumon for 1, evolve Terriermon into a Lv 4 for 2 memory, and then trigger an Alliance swing without passing turn.

Or you can play multiple Calumon for 1 memory each, evolve into Cherubimon, suspend all of the Calus, and hit bigger numbers with Cherubimon’s DP minus effect than otherwise possible. Or you can casually drop a Calumon to add a white Digimon on the board to deal an extra 6000 DP of damage with Heaven’s Judgment.

I’ve already talked about how Calumon’s DP boost enables Rapidmon to take out nearly any threat, but the DP boosting also enables any of your 'mons to more easily reach important DP thresholds. The extra draw power is excellent, especially in the early game, and if your opponent isn’t able to remove the Calumon, then the recurring memory gain, draw, DP, and board presence can gain you serious advantage.

In short, Calumon enables or enhances nearly all of your lines of play. I wish it were searchable! Four copies feels bricky, but consider running at least two.

The Tamers

BT1 Mimi Tachikawa x3
BT8 Davis Motomiya and Ken Ichijoji x3

Mimi has a reputation for being the best generic green tamer ever printed, but she is particularly vital for the Alliance deck because its strategy requires you to have multiple 'mons on the board. Essentially, she fills the role that Henry and Shu-Chong was meant to fill but better, helping you get targets for Alliance on the board for free, except she also fixes your memory, and the Digimon she accelerates to the board can actually do things. I would never run fewer than three because starting your turn with at least three memory is crucial for the deck – if you can’t drop a Lv 3 on a moment’s notice, you’re going to have trouble triggering Alliance. Further, starting your turn with three memory means that if you play a 3 cost rookie and evolve for reduced cost with Alliance, then you'll often choke your opponent at 1 memory. Having multiple Mimi in play is a good thing since that allows you to promote two Digimon on the same turn, facilitating Alliance combos and often enabling your final swing for game.

Davis and Ken may seem like a strange choice since you don’t play any blue Digimon and can’t get the full +2 memory bonus at the start of your turn. However, 4 memory is still a very good amount to start your turn with. A lot of your plays cost a combination of 3 and 1 memory. For example, at 4 memory, you can promote a Lv 4, play a Lv 3, swing with Alliance, and evolve for 1 memory without passing turn. This then enables to you to instead pass turn by evolving into Cherubimon or Rapidmon to mop up the opponent’s board.

Also, most of your Lv 4’s have a play cost of 4, so in a pinch, Davis and Ken and Mimi together enable you to drop one as an Alliance target without passing turn.

Most crucially, Davis and Ken enables your Digimon to unsuspend when evolving into any 2-color Digimon, regardless of the colors. Since your stacks will typically evolve for 1 memory on evolution, this enables you to get multiple swings with your Digimon without passing turn, allowing for your Lv 5’s and 6’s to trigger their attacking effects multiple times. Remember that the DP and Security Attack bonus provided by Alliance only lasts for the attack, not for the turn, so you’ll need another body in play to trigger Alliance again. If you’re lucky enough to have a second Davis and Ken in play, you can evolve and unsuspend both of your bodies, allowing for that second Alliance swing. This card allows for explosive turns and should be run at at least 2 copies.

The Options

Green Memory Boost x2
Heaven's Judgment x1
Hidden Potential Discovered x1

Green Memory Boost serves the same purpose here that it does it most decks – it boosts consistency and enables combos with the +2 memory bonus. It is especially important here because it is the only way to search for your rookies, which you need a consistent supply of.

Heaven’s Judgment is a solid removal option for when you don’t have enough memory to clear board with Cherubimon or Rapidmon. Having one 2-color Digimon will have it deal -18,000 DP to the opponent’s board, but having a second body with a different color or a Calumon can let it zap your opponent's Digimon for 24k or 30k DP. The only reason I’m running it at 1 copy is because I could only fit one! If you can make room for more, do so.

Hidden Potential Discovered is easily abused with Davis and Ken, immediately restanding the suspended Digimon and allowing you to evolve into anything for free with no drawbacks. The card is restricted to 1 copy per deck for a reason.

Conclusion

Overall, Alliance is a fun deck with cute monsters, high consistency, powerful swings, and an endless toolbox of combos. It can steal games against meta contenders on a good day, but even at optimal power, this is still a casual deck. You probably won’t top at your locals with it, but you can definitely win a match or two.

Hopefully this profile provides a solid foundation for your own Alliance deck! Let me know in the comments what cards you like playing in your build or if there are any other decks you would like for me to cover.