15 Starter Deck cards revealed in official Digimon TCG video, first promo cards coming through Battle Spirits collaboration

An introductory video published by the official Digimon Card Game YouTube channel revealed over 25 cards from the first two Starter Decks, including the Yagami Taichi Tamer card and the boss card of Cocytus Blue, Metal Garurumon. The video goes over the basic rules of the 2020 TCG, confirming and elaborating upon what was recently revealed in V Jump magazine.

It was also revealed through the official website today that the first promo pack, Ver 0.0, will be given out to those that buy the latest Digimon x Battle Spirits TCG Collaboration Booster, Last Evolution. One promo pack will be given out with every five packs of the Battle Spirits booster customers purchase. The promo pack features six Level 3 Digimon with different artwork and effects from their Starter Deck counterparts. Promo packs will also be packed in with the Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Complete Selection Animation Digivice.

Agumon
P-001 Promo
Digimon card
3000 DP
Entry Cost 5 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[On-Entry] Destroy 1 of your opponent's 3000 DP or less Digimon. (Non-inheritable)

Piyomon
P-002 Promo
Digimon card
2000 DP
Entry Cost 3 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[During your turn] When this Digimon destroys an opponent's Digimon by battle, «(Illegible Keyword)». (Draw 1 card from your deck.) (Inheritable)

Gabumon
P-003 Promo
Digimon card
3000 DP
Entry Cost 4 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[On-Entry] Remove 1 Evolution Source from the bottom of 1 of your opponent's Digimon. (Non-inheritable)

Gomamon
P-004 Promo
Digimon card
1000 DP
Entry Cost 3 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[During your turn] Once per turn: When your opponent's Digimon's Evolution Source is removed, you get +1 Memory. (Inheritable)

Patamon
P-005 Promo
Digimon card
2000 DP
Entry Cost 4 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
(Illegible timing) When your Security becomes(?) 1 or less, «Recovery +1 (Deck)». (Place 1 card from the top of your deck into the top of your Security.) (Non-inheritable)

Tailmon
P-006 Promo
Digimon card
4000 DP
Entry Cost 4 Evolution Cost 2
Level 4
[During your turn] If your Security is 3 or greater, this Digimon gets +1000 DP. (Inheritable)

Note that some effects have changed slightly since these cards were first eased. For example, this Patamon appears to be the same one revealed in V Jump back in January, but it has 1 more Cost, 1000 less DP, and a non-inheritable effect rather than an inheritable one.

The play area in the new Digimon TCG is divided into six zones: the Hand, Deck, Trash, Security, Raising Area, and Battle Area. At the start of the game five cards are placed face-down from each player's Decks into their Security. You win the game by attacking the opponent while they have no Security remaining, and remove their Security cards by attacking them with your Digimon, turning them from Active (vertical) to Rest (horizontal) to declare attacks. While in the video's example the opponent didn't have any Digimon in play at the time, the existence of the Blocker ability implies that Digimon cannot be used to block attacks without it. (Considering that the Digimon TCG reuses elements from Chrono Clash, which was in turn influenced by designer Ryan Miller's previous work on Duel Masters, players probably can't attack an opponent's Digimon unless it's Rested, and power ties will result in both the attacker and defender being destroyed...probably.)

Players enter Digimon into the battlefield by paying their Entry Costs, moving a marker along the Memory Gauge (here depicted in the center of the playmat, but also countable using a pair of accessory cards) towards their opponent's side. When the marker crosses past 0 and over to 1 or higher, it becomes the opponent's turn. Alternatively, players can pay the Evolution Cost to evolve a Digimon on the field into one of the next level and same color.

In addition to what was explicitly stated, several points about the game can be gleaned from careful observation of the cards shown:

• A Digimon with no effects has 1000 more DP and 1 less Entry Cost than a same-level Digimon with effects.
• In general, Level 3 Digimon have no Evolution Cost, so it's possible to play two cards on the first turn before play passes to the opponent.
• Discarded Baby Digimon go to the Trash, rather than returning to the Raising Area.

We now know 10 of the 16 unique cards in Starter Deck 1: Gaia Red, and 5 of the 16 in Starter Deck 2: Cocytus Blue. Currently from Gaia Red the unrevealed slots are slots ST1-02 and 04 (one of them likely being Piyomon, whose number isn't legible) as well as ST-06, 10, and 13 through 15. From Cocytus Blue, the unrevealed slots are 02, 04~07, 09~10, and 12~16.

The Big Reveal: Metal Garurumon

Metal Garurumon
ST2-11 Super Rare
Digimon card
11000 DP
Entry Cost 12 Evolution Cost 4
[When it attacks] Once per turn: Make this Digimon Active. (Non-inheritable)

Were Garurumon
ST2-08 Rare
Digimon card
7000 DP
Entry Cost 7 Evolution Cost 3
Level 5
[During your turn] While your opponent has a Digimon with no Evolution Sources, this Digimon gets «Security Attack +1». (When this Digimon attacks Security, increase the number it checks by 1.) (Inheritable)

Metal Garurumon's effect allows it to attack twice in a turn, automatically becoming Active after Resting to attack. While this can snowball with it inheriting «Security Attack +1» from Were Garurumon, allowing it to destroy up to 4 Security in a single turn, Were Garurumon's effect doesn't activate unless the opponent has a Digimon with no Evolution Sources in play, which is primarily achieved by using Gabumon and Garurumon's effects to gradually strip away Sources. In other words, Metal Garurumon requires setup to become this dangerous; the Blue color as a whole revolves around removing Evolution Sources from the opponent's Digimon to trigger other effects.

While the War Greymon line is less directly damaging, it also doesn't require much setup to happen and can't be reigned in by the opponent evolving their Digimon. War Greymon gets «Security Attack +1» for every 2 Evolution Sources beneath it, and can inherit an effect from a previously-revealed print of Metal Greymon that can make it Active again after it destroys an opponent's Digimon by battle. With Koromon, Agumon, Greymon, and Metal Greymon in the Source, War Greymon can attack twice and check two Security just by evolving normally, but because it has to attack a Digimon to go Active again, it can't check four in one turn like Metal Garurumon. The Gaia Red Starter Deck is thus for players that want something stable and aggressive, while Cocytus Blue is designed for more tactical play. (e.g. deliberately not attacking one of the opponent's Digimon so that it can be reduced to 0 Sources and keep the Security Attack effect active, allowing Metal to dish out more damage.)

Note that Were Garurumon's effect implies you can declare attacks on Security even if the opponent has Digimon in play, as otherwise the effect would be completely useless.

Gaia Red cards

Koromon
ST1-01 Common
Digitama card
Level 2
[During your turn] If this Digimon has 4 or more Evolution Sources, this Digimon gets +1000 DP. (Inheritable)

Piyomon
ST1-0? Common
Digimon card
Level 3
Entry Cost 2 Evolution Cost 0
3000 DP
No effect.

Agumon
ST1-03 Common
Digimon card
2000 DP
Entry Cost 3 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[During your turn] This Digimon gets +1000 DP. (Inheritable)

Birdramon
ST1-05 Common
Digimon card
5000 DP
Entry Cost 4 Evolution Cost 2
Level 4
No effect.

Greymon
ST1-07 Common
Digimon card
4000 DP
Entry Cost 5 Evolution Cost 2
Level 4
«Security Attack +1». (When this Digimon attacks Security, increase the number it checks by 1.) (Inheritable)

Garudamon
ST1-08 Uncommon
Digimon card
7000 DP
Entry Cost 6 Evolution Cost 3
Level 5
[When Evolving] During this turn, 1 of your Digimon gets +3000 DP.

Metal Greymon
ST1-09 Uncommon
Digimon card
7000 DP
Entry Cost 7 Evolution Cost 3
Level 5
[During your turn] When this Digimon is blocked, you get +3 Memory. (Inheritable)

War Greymon
ST1-11 Super Rare
Digimon card
12000 DP
Entry Cost 12 Evolution Cost 4
Level 6
[During your turn] For every 2 of this Digimon's Evolution Sources, it gets «Security Attack +1». (When this Digimon attacks Security, increase the number it checks by 1.) (Non-inheritable)

Yagami Taichi
ST1-12 Common
Tamer card
Entry Cost 2
[During your turn] All of your Digimon get +1000 DP.
[Security] You may play this card without paying the cost.

Gaia Force
ST1-16 Uncommon
Option card
Entry Cost 8
[Main] Destroy 1 of your opponent's Digimon.
[Security] Activate this card's [Main] effect.

Cocytus Blue cards

Tsunomon
ST2-01 Common
Digitama card
[During your turn] When it battles an opponent's Digimon with no Evolution Sources, this Digimon gets +1000 DP.  (Inheritable)

Gabumon
ST2-03 Uncommon
Digimon card
2000 DP
Entry Cost 3 Evolution Cost 0
Level 3
[When it attacks] Remove 1 Evolution Source from the bottom of 1 of your opponent's Level 5 or less Digimon.

Garurumon
ST2-?? Common
Digimon card
4000 DP
Entry Cost 5 Evolution Cost 2
Level 4
[When it attacks] Remove 1 Evolution Source from 1 of your opponent's Digimon

Other cards

Seraphimon, Zudomon, and the Option cards Shadow Wing and Starlight Explosion were all briefly shown in the introduction to the video, but are not clearly legible. Starlight Explosion has a Main Phase effect that affects the end of the turn, and a Security effect.

Starter Decks Gaia Red, Cocytus Blue, and Heaven's Yellow, will launch April 24th in Japan for 500 yen each, and will be followed by Booster Set ver. 1.0: NEW EVOLUTION on May 15th. No English release has been announced at this time.

Want the card game released overseas? Subscribe to Bandai's official TCG channel on YouTube, like their videos, follow their Twitter, and leave comments! Marketing departments pay attention to where their followers are, and getting the TCG a bigger following overseas than it has in Japan would send a strong message to Bandai.