The whole DCG community talking about how the game is dying is just a self fulfilling prophecy. Who wants to invest into a game where all they find is "is this game dying" posts when they look it up?
Yeah I echo this 100%. Though I feel like these kinds of posts happen to every non-big 3 game. I enjoy the game so I do my best to spread the gospel in an honest but positive way.
I don’t play it, but I do collect the cards, they look beautiful, and compare to other tcgs, getting most cards is rather cheap, only rare championship ones are actually insanely overpriced. So I plan on master setting it as much as I can.
To me, most people saying that are just doomposting and exaggerating. There are some valid criticisms such as the hands-off approach to restricting problematic cards, the lack of prize support, and the lack of premium irl events. But that doesn't necessarily mean the game is dying. Another thing to add is that many players regurgitating this rehtoric were already on their way out to play different card games. Just within the year, BSS, One Piece, Lorcana, Grand Archive, Shadowverse and a myriad of other TCGs have released. Card games aren't cheap. So one way to justify playing a new game is dumping the old one. But I promise you that players leaving for these new TCGs is not a Digimon exclusive challenge.
Okay, im a teenager myself and got into the digimon card game almost two years ago. At my local shop me and my younger brother are the only kids who play locally. And yes the age demographic is definitely focused on adults as already known. Just thought it be cool for yall to know kids love and play this game too
If only they gave Digimon the same love they give to One Piece TCG, Digimon TCG would be going wild, I get that OP has a bigger fanbase atm but there is no reason to let Digimon starve, they could be doing tons of money if they give Digi a little bit of what they give to OP
The game isn't dying, it's just getting left behind to starve. The gameplay is original, there are lots of viable strategies (although one could say that they are all unfun or too fast) and there is tons of nostalgia and a a lot of desire for new stuff. Bandai is just handling the card game poorly, and also the franchise isn't doing so well imo. I don't know if Ghost Game was localized on the west, Seekers is in an emberassing state when it could have been great, Survivors was kinda niche. There aren't enough events, people want to play, but not on an online environment. People want to gather is a sweaty and hot hall and slam cardboard on a table, it shouldn't cost more to print decent promo cards and have maybe a decent sized irl event every week, or even two times a month per region (and please don't count LATAM and eu as a unique region, as if people all speak the same language and have access to an airport to play a tournament where they win sad prices)
I agree with this. The game is doing well, but it could be doing a lot better. The issue is Bandai simply putting in the minimum amount of effort to keep the game afloat. I can understand Bandai supporting One Piece so heavily vs Digimon - One Piece is the bigger IP. However, that Battle Spirits shilling from earlier this year made zero sense to me. Outside of Japan, few knew what BSS was. And yet, Bandai wanted that game to be their next big hit and they dumped tons of capital into that game! Now, they're being punished with stores fire selling product and dropping the game. I hope it's a wakeup call for Bandai and they realize they have a good thing going with the Digimon TCG. It deserves more respect and more resources from them.
honestly, i agree with what you've said, but id like to add that there is a Huge amount of people who would love to play the game through online and can't because every simulator that isn't TTS or other manual ones gets nuked as soon as development starts an official sim would do wonders, but without one we're stuck in a hard place where both irl and digital play is cumbersome for no real reason
I get your points, I would also add a couple more: A big strength for me is the price, that you just briefly mentioned, it’s a super cheap card game, there are (even meta) decks you can build for cheap (around $50 usd like Beelzemon, Bloomlord, Hunters, MirageGaogamon, Belphemon) and even some cheaper viable or fun ones, I bought a fully functional D reaper deck for $10 usd, or stuff like Red hybrid, Darkknightmon, and some other fun decks. Another thing I would add is that there are honestly a lot of viable and fun strategies, while there are decks that are above the top and some that are clearly Bandai’s favorites (looking at you Greymon), many decks and strategies are viable and that is very fun to play with. Also I might be very lucky but I feel like the community as a hole is way more fun, friendly, and mature compared to other TCG’s I’ve played before like Yu-Gi-Oh. Another small thing I would add is that it seems like Bandai is noticing that the players are asking for better prices, since although the price system per say is basically the same -cards, event packs, deck box, etc- at least they added some original alternative artwork for some highly played cards in their new regional prizes. I hope they improve the prizes every time. I think the game is very fun, and I don’t care about the anime at all, I just enjoy the tcg. I love this game and want to keep seeing it grow, I hope more people get into this.
I DID like this video, and it's good to have around every once in a while, i honestly was mostly unaware to some of the "negatives" listed here and i feel way better KNOWING these facts than just ignoring them completely, it's great to understand how things are actually shaping out to be outside of the massive enjoyment i've been having with the game
I just started playing dcg last month, and the reason why I chose it in the first place is the creativity in mechanic u have like DNA xros and many signature evolving ways. And unlike yugioh which u hold your whole deck to play with your opponent I love the rng things in digi, the searching, the security stacks so many things can happen in a dcg duel
They should've made an Online version 2 years ago. For a TCG that lauched during the height of covid you'd think they'd understand the potential for an Online game.
It's a shame we don't have a digimon tcg online game as it would greatly increase interest in the game, even so I know many people who only play it online through tabletop simulator
Yeah after my video about not wanting an online client, a lot of folks comments changed my opinion. I think doing it similar to how Pokémon does it with their online client and then having events be physical only is a great blueprint for success!
I LOVE this game but I can't get into printed cardboard. I have played Shadowverse through mobile and switch for example, same with vanguard. Wish Digimon got something similar!
I wish I could meet some people who play this tcg. I have yet to find a shop who supports digimon events or anything beyond just selling packs. Havent found one that even carries singles, either.. i travel a lot, but I guess it's possibe I'm having horrible luck. Until then, I continue with Pokemon and Mtg, but I always have a digimon deck with me, too.
DCG is a fun game that has a strategy for any player to feel at home. What it needs is to be treated as the big 3, meaning: events, prizes, coverage, global distribution, and being all over the media. Everywhere you look there are shows and channels for MTG, which shows the community how big the game is. Digimon should be just as ubiquitous to keep its presence and relevance.
You always have the best timing for your videos and the content that I need to watch. I wanted to know how the game is doing from an unbiased POV and here you go, uploading the perfect content. I'm a player from Cebu City Philippines, and all the points that you've shown in the video are truly on point, even for a city as small as ours. I have played yugioh, MTG, Pokemon and even cardfight vanguard, and what got me interested in the game is truly the resource system/chrono clash system. It is truly unique and it brings out a lot of fun. I've only joined for half a year but I've fallen in love with the game despite not getting into the show/anime when I was younger. For those who want to try Digimon, it is nothing like any other game you've played before
Lorcana launch was crazy. This list is gonna look differently next time. Shout out to Vanguard. Recent sets have been great. Also I really wanna try Shadowverse Evolve.
Two years ago, i felt in love with this Game. But a big problem for me is that im a German player xD We dont have Tournaments or Locals or Regional or anything. Its hard to find some dudes to play with. But i will keep it up with this Game. Maybe we get some more love in 2024
On the topic of prizing, I agree digimon prizing bloody sucks. When the prizing you get for topping an event is a useless memory gauge that you probably already have on your playmat you got off etsy or aliexpress, or a cardboard deckbox that doesn't even fit a sleeved deck, it feels really bad. As for digital access to digimon, Bandai isn't even attempting to compete with platforms like Duelingbook, Master Duel, VG Deardays, etc. which sucks because the anime was always catered to children (at least it was when I was a kid in the early 2000's) and there's no free way to play the game, to attract a younger audience to (convince their parents) to buy shiny cardboard. Bandai ought to pull their shit together and give out better prizing so it feels more rewarding for investing into product to get the next best deck, and start competing against bushi and konami in the digital space.
i htink its too early for them to be makng a digital card format like the others. Maybe after the game has been out for 5 years. i mainly say this because i feel it would cannibalize the community atm. I would like a vertual card app myself, i just dont think its the right time yet. but yeah prizing absolutely needs to be better
The reason Digimon is struggling is not because it's a bad game or anything, it's because Bandai hates this franchise for some reason. From the games to anime to the TCG, they don't give this franchise any attention then wonder why nobody is into Digimon.
On weaknesses and opportunities, I think you missed a big one, namely that Bandai has not provided a good playspace for casual players or group play. I come from an MTG background where the pinnacle format that drives sales is Commander, a 3+ player free for all format that is far more friendly to casual players and those who do not have time to grind tournaments (your weekend warrior types). For the lack of competitive support Digimon is getting, a major problem in my view is that there isn't a commander-style format for players to turn to in order to fill that gap. Having a game mode that allows more than 1v1 matches is also important for play groups with mismatched power levels and odd numbers of players, because it gives newer, weaker, and/or extra people something to do rather than wait around for the round to end in that week's local tournament or have a chance to play a longer game if their level of investment isn't up to par with what other people are bringing. Which leads to a major opportunity for Bandai to develop something like commander that supports 3+ player games and introduces rules that facilitate a more casual play environment.
@@East_ML yeah, I'm not sure how common alternative, group formats are in other TCGs, but it's something that has really helped keep MTG afloat during times when competitive prizing wasn't up to snuff and I'm not sure it's the kind of thing players coming from games like Yugioh and Pokemon realize can be so helpful for a game, so I try to evangelize for the group casual format whenever possible
Yes, you should! It's the most fun I've had playing card games and It keeps on giving. It's not perfect, but it's worth all the sometimes problematic aspects, for the overwhelming Number of positives!
I just got into the game last week, bought the Beelzemon starter deck and went to a local tournament. Im lucky that there is a decent community for the game in my area. A few things I've noticed to its fault is that actually buying cards seems hard. Like I said, my area has a community of dozens of players, and yet most of the game stores barely have any stock of cards. Big box stores, you might be lucky to find a couple of packs. I'm surprised I found the Beelzemon deck. Even amazon is mostly 3rd party sellers with inflated prices. Yugioh, in comparison, has always seemed easy to grab a structure deck, booster packs of multiple boxes, or special boxes at any point at msrp. The only other pain point I'm seeing is that the game is overall very cheap (especially compared to yugioh) but there's still so many decks I'm seeing where the overall cost would be like $20 if it's weren't for one or two cards driving the cost of the deck up over $100. I'm talking about Rina for Ulforce as a great example.
Love the analysis! where did you find all of that information? I couldn't find anything about demographics or growth statistics when i was researching this topic.
with so much card game bandai handle this day i feel scare they will abandon digimon TCG. Especially after the annaunce Union Arena with 5 diffrent TCG they handle "Digimon, One Piece, Battle Spirits, Dragonball and Union Arena" also not to mantion other like lorcana and shadowverse evolve. I don't know if they can give fair tread to digimon or not. For now the only way to know was just wait. Hope bandai not make the same mistake like bushirod with make to many card game back than.
@@East_ML btw about online clients, if they make one it would be cool if it had some kind of code bar interaction like chaotic tcg had where you scan the card and can own it online or something ( it works better in chaotic tcg because each duplicate of the same creature was different because one could have for exemple high speed and another copy could have a little bit less than another version)
if i remember rigth does Ghost Game get a second season after the last Eps it would be weird if we dont get one beside we get a new Movie later on with the Digimon 02 cast a new game is in working too so the future for the franchise is pretty good and the Seekers Novel is not bad yes translation is not the best but i dont think that is the importent point imo gecause its a project that exist for us Digimon fans and its really good oh and we have a new Manga too with the Name: Digimon Dreamers so yeah Digimon is not dead imo but the card game struggeld hard beside my locals will play it till there is no support so yeah Europe is already out of sight from Bandai so who care sorry for my bad english i hope its fine and ncie video really enjoyed it ^^
i didnt know Duel masters was popular in japan, technically it was my first card game anime but the dub was weird i dont even remember much about it xD
The biggest problem with Digimon is bandais way of handling events…..impossible to get signed up bc there’s almost no in person outside of locals and so few of the online it’s impossible to register
Yeah I’ve heard this is a problem in the west. There just needs to be more events overall. Hopefully they can make that happen going into the end of this and next year
I played when the purple green black starter decks came out. It was easy to understand, fun and not super expensive to get into. Then I stopped. But I recently went to a LFG where I watched a game and saw a digi evolution with like 10 digimon under it with 10 different effects happening, and just general I felt lost and so behind to want to get back into it.
Yeah over the past few years the game has scaled up in complexity, but this has opened the doors to loooots of different decks you can choose to play. I think if you're looking for something really simple as an entry point to get back into the game, I would recommend Red Hybrid. The deck is really straight forward, not complicated, and packs one hell of a punch. If you're interested, I did a complete deck profile video on it as well.
Odds are that was a deck based on one of the xroswars seasons, which was a season known for just fusing a bunch of digimon to go upwards in levels and that got reflected in their deck. The game isnt that much more complicated nowadays, they just decided to put in more of the digimon lore into card effects and playstyle.
Really surprised to see One Piece at number 4 in that list. There was a good little group of players that were pretty excited about it when it first came out but it fell off almost immediately and I don't think I've seen or heard anyone playing it recently at all. That said, Lorcana will certainly be above Digimon soon enough and I would expect the list to look more like 1.Magic, 2.Pokemon, 3/4.Lorcana, 3/4.Yu-gi-oh, 5.Digimon within a year or 2.
I think Yugioh will be on 4th. I read/hear about SO MANY yugioh players leaving the game, because it's just so expensive and overly convoluted to play, that they just don't want to anymore
Lorcana sales will spike for the first set or two just because of the buyers who think it'll be an investment. Jumping on a new thing just because they want to make a quick buck. I don't know anyone playing it in my area. I'm guessing it won't last 3 years
@@travisbuschette8609 That's interesting. It was bigger than Digimon in my area from day 1 and given that it's Disney I really don't see it going anywhere any time soon. But I guess we'll see. It depends on how the sets play out.
@@ThatJaymsWisdom I'm not surprised that people are buying it over Digimon. It's the hot new thing. I just don't think it'll have the staying power it needs once the initial hype wears off. Either that, or it's going to have to get a big foothold in the international market.
I see things like shinegreymon and greymon at the top everytime, I stopped playing the game after greymon became a tier 0 deck and I see them making the same issues again and again. Would you say playing a non-greymon deck is worth it?
Speaking from BT14 and EX05, greymon feels very fair. It took a while to get there but other decks caught up. Right now Greymon and Shine Greymon are strong but they are contested by decks like Fenriloogamon, the new Garurumon decks and the EX05 Anubismon deck.
Something that I feels merits acknowledgement is the meta. The meta is ridiculous and strong decks stay strong for too long. I also disagree with different restriction time frames between English and Japanese. I know the card pool is slightly different from one another but I feel that making something last so long in Japan that gets restrictions a lot sooner in English is dangerous and will cause player loss. The balancing as a whole needs to be reworked so the meta in both sides of the game is more enjoyable for all players.
Game is Dying, no doubt about it, no banlist almost 2 months into BT13 and Prizing being ass, the only ray of hope is the October-November Participation prizing actually being cool new alt arts of actually meta relevant cards, if they dont pick up the pace soon and start realizing they need to hit the banlist harder we are going to have a problem, 80% of the meta decks if not all of them can kill you in 1 turn from 4 or 5 security, its insane, that is what is killing the game for me, every deck does the same thing, kill you from 4 security, with almost 0 counterplay.
I'm pretty sure digimon tcg is done at the west(just a matter of time), same with most of Bandai's tcg product. Consumers feel scamed and the game experience is getting worse.
Oh and...F!!! One piece...i still dont understand what ppl enjoy about this franchise...its just...nahh waay to weird...iieeww...almost makes JoJo's look Semi-normal...
Ehhh!! I had to stop the video..really, right at the point about it's "weakness"...and well, sigh...does everything really, only, allways need to revolve around tournament's, competitiv scene etc..? Meta is expensiv, in every tcg. Complex, gives headache and is stressfull...i completly quit yugioh bc NO ONE wants to play casual, table 500, i enjoy commander format in magic the gathering..with friends not at a tournament...and now i see the digimon tcg getting blamed by..competitv player's...why? Does everything need to be on allways such a level? Cant we just have fun?? No, seriously..stop hurting the games i like! Go to yugioh if hardcore, merciless competitiv savagery is what you are looking for...that game know's no mercy and takes no prisoner's..😭😭
Honestly digimon is in a very bad position in the West. The promo situation has left entire archtypes unplayable indefinitely and the extreme amount of sketchy ruling situations that come up here is disheartening, and US players bending the rules enough to pressure bandai into changing the base rules of the game was not great. Speaking globally, set design has gotten worse for a year straight with the archtype focused design and secret heavy decks that are the Mainstays of the game. Combine that with a hands off approach to the banlist and badly designed keywords and you have a situation where it really does look like digimon won't turn the corner past 2024. As someone who really played the game a crap ton since before and after it came out in the West, seeing bandai fail again was not fun.
I don’t know if I agree with nearly anything said here. I think the promo situation gets better with resurgence booster. It would have already been out but because Bandai made the change to actually include things like memboosts in reprints because of player feedback is a good sign. Idk about rulings, and have never heard about it from anyone, does anyone have any examples? I don’t understand best decks needing secret rares sentiment, in fact I think it’s the complete opposite. ShineGreymon, WarGreymon, miragegaogamon, hunters, red hybrid, and beelzemon make up the upper echelon of powerful decks, and all of them can be built to not use any secret rare cards. We haven’t seen a banlist update in a few months but you’d get a 1000 different opinions from everyone about if it should happen and what cards should be touched. I don’t think the game is perfect but all things considered it’s a hell of a lot better than the way it’s portrayed above.
@@East_MLthe only promo issue we have is stuff like training cards and cards like the saberdramon with raid retaliate. Instead of getting those in a timely matter during metas that matter, we get long after the fact. But he's lost his mind on everything else. Lmao
The whole DCG community talking about how the game is dying is just a self fulfilling prophecy. Who wants to invest into a game where all they find is "is this game dying" posts when they look it up?
Yeah I echo this 100%. Though I feel like these kinds of posts happen to every non-big 3 game. I enjoy the game so I do my best to spread the gospel in an honest but positive way.
I don’t play it, but I do collect the cards, they look beautiful, and compare to other tcgs, getting most cards is rather cheap, only rare championship ones are actually insanely overpriced. So I plan on master setting it as much as I can.
@@East_MLI'm grateful for videos like yours that look at the facts and allow us the make informed decisions.
To me, most people saying that are just doomposting and exaggerating. There are some valid criticisms such as the hands-off approach to restricting problematic cards, the lack of prize support, and the lack of premium irl events. But that doesn't necessarily mean the game is dying. Another thing to add is that many players regurgitating this rehtoric were already on their way out to play different card games. Just within the year, BSS, One Piece, Lorcana, Grand Archive, Shadowverse and a myriad of other TCGs have released. Card games aren't cheap. So one way to justify playing a new game is dumping the old one. But I promise you that players leaving for these new TCGs is not a Digimon exclusive challenge.
@@East_MLActually, I found the yugioh community complain about the game dying on a daily basis lol
Okay, im a teenager myself and got into the digimon card game almost two years ago. At my local shop me and my younger brother are the only kids who play locally. And yes the age demographic is definitely focused on adults as already known. Just thought it be cool for yall to know kids love and play this game too
Sometimes i feel like kids dont know about digimon
If only they gave Digimon the same love they give to One Piece TCG, Digimon TCG would be going wild, I get that OP has a bigger fanbase atm but there is no reason to let Digimon starve, they could be doing tons of money if they give Digi a little bit of what they give to OP
Imagine bandai grabs battle spirits prize money and brings it to digimon instead. That and starts making lotto cards as prizes
Bandai, hire this man.
Bruh. That would go crazy and the game would explode! No offense to battle spirits 😅
The game isn't dying, it's just getting left behind to starve. The gameplay is original, there are lots of viable strategies (although one could say that they are all unfun or too fast) and there is tons of nostalgia and a a lot of desire for new stuff. Bandai is just handling the card game poorly, and also the franchise isn't doing so well imo. I don't know if Ghost Game was localized on the west, Seekers is in an emberassing state when it could have been great, Survivors was kinda niche.
There aren't enough events, people want to play, but not on an online environment. People want to gather is a sweaty and hot hall and slam cardboard on a table, it shouldn't cost more to print decent promo cards and have maybe a decent sized irl event every week, or even two times a month per region (and please don't count LATAM and eu as a unique region, as if people all speak the same language and have access to an airport to play a tournament where they win sad prices)
I agree with this. The game is doing well, but it could be doing a lot better. The issue is Bandai simply putting in the minimum amount of effort to keep the game afloat.
I can understand Bandai supporting One Piece so heavily vs Digimon - One Piece is the bigger IP. However, that Battle Spirits shilling from earlier this year made zero sense to me. Outside of Japan, few knew what BSS was. And yet, Bandai wanted that game to be their next big hit and they dumped tons of capital into that game! Now, they're being punished with stores fire selling product and dropping the game. I hope it's a wakeup call for Bandai and they realize they have a good thing going with the Digimon TCG. It deserves more respect and more resources from them.
honestly, i agree with what you've said, but id like to add that there is a Huge amount of people who would love to play the game through online and can't because every simulator that isn't TTS or other manual ones gets nuked as soon as development starts
an official sim would do wonders, but without one we're stuck in a hard place where both irl and digital play is cumbersome for no real reason
I get your points, I would also add a couple more:
A big strength for me is the price, that you just briefly mentioned, it’s a super cheap card game, there are (even meta) decks you can build for cheap (around $50 usd like Beelzemon, Bloomlord, Hunters, MirageGaogamon, Belphemon) and even some cheaper viable or fun ones, I bought a fully functional D reaper deck for $10 usd, or stuff like Red hybrid, Darkknightmon, and some other fun decks.
Another thing I would add is that there are honestly a lot of viable and fun strategies, while there are decks that are above the top and some that are clearly Bandai’s favorites (looking at you Greymon), many decks and strategies are viable and that is very fun to play with.
Also I might be very lucky but I feel like the community as a hole is way more fun, friendly, and mature compared to other TCG’s I’ve played before like Yu-Gi-Oh.
Another small thing I would add is that it seems like Bandai is noticing that the players are asking for better prices, since although the price system per say is basically the same -cards, event packs, deck box, etc- at least they added some original alternative artwork for some highly played cards in their new regional prizes.
I hope they improve the prizes every time.
I think the game is very fun, and I don’t care about the anime at all, I just enjoy the tcg. I love this game and want to keep seeing it grow, I hope more people get into this.
I DID like this video, and it's good to have around every once in a while, i honestly was mostly unaware to some of the "negatives" listed here and i feel way better KNOWING these facts than just ignoring them completely, it's great to understand how things are actually shaping out to be outside of the massive enjoyment i've been having with the game
I love digimon but I would really love a mobile app game like masterduel with in game purchases for digital cards and digital artwork of cards.
I just started playing dcg last month, and the reason why I chose it in the first place is the creativity in mechanic u have like DNA xros and many signature evolving ways. And unlike yugioh which u hold your whole deck to play with your opponent I love the rng things in digi, the searching, the security stacks so many things can happen in a dcg duel
They should've made an Online version 2 years ago. For a TCG that lauched during the height of covid you'd think they'd understand the potential for an Online game.
It's a shame we don't have a digimon tcg online game as it would greatly increase interest in the game, even so I know many people who only play it online through tabletop simulator
Yeah after my video about not wanting an online client, a lot of folks comments changed my opinion. I think doing it similar to how Pokémon does it with their online client and then having events be physical only is a great blueprint for success!
I LOVE this game but I can't get into printed cardboard. I have played Shadowverse through mobile and switch for example, same with vanguard. Wish Digimon got something similar!
I wish I could meet some people who play this tcg. I have yet to find a shop who supports digimon events or anything beyond just selling packs. Havent found one that even carries singles, either.. i travel a lot, but I guess it's possibe I'm having horrible luck. Until then, I continue with Pokemon and Mtg, but I always have a digimon deck with me, too.
DCG is a fun game that has a strategy for any player to feel at home. What it needs is to be treated as the big 3, meaning: events, prizes, coverage, global distribution, and being all over the media. Everywhere you look there are shows and channels for MTG, which shows the community how big the game is. Digimon should be just as ubiquitous to keep its presence and relevance.
I love video essays and analysis like these! Thanks East!
i met ryan miller during the kaijudo nationals. really cool guy. glad to know he has some influence on the game
You always have the best timing for your videos and the content that I need to watch.
I wanted to know how the game is doing from an unbiased POV and here you go, uploading the perfect content.
I'm a player from Cebu City Philippines, and all the points that you've shown in the video are truly on point, even for a city as small as ours.
I have played yugioh, MTG, Pokemon and even cardfight vanguard, and what got me interested in the game is truly the resource system/chrono clash system. It is truly unique and it brings out a lot of fun. I've only joined for half a year but I've fallen in love with the game despite not getting into the show/anime when I was younger.
For those who want to try Digimon, it is nothing like any other game you've played before
Lorcana launch was crazy. This list is gonna look differently next time. Shout out to Vanguard. Recent sets have been great. Also I really wanna try Shadowverse Evolve.
What a good analysis! Very head-on-place. Good job, and lets play Digimon!
Two years ago, i felt in love with this Game. But a big problem for me is that im a German player xD We dont have Tournaments or Locals or Regional or anything. Its hard to find some dudes to play with. But i will keep it up with this Game. Maybe we get some more love in 2024
On the topic of prizing, I agree digimon prizing bloody sucks. When the prizing you get for topping an event is a useless memory gauge that you probably already have on your playmat you got off etsy or aliexpress, or a cardboard deckbox that doesn't even fit a sleeved deck, it feels really bad.
As for digital access to digimon, Bandai isn't even attempting to compete with platforms like Duelingbook, Master Duel, VG Deardays, etc. which sucks because the anime was always catered to children (at least it was when I was a kid in the early 2000's) and there's no free way to play the game, to attract a younger audience to (convince their parents) to buy shiny cardboard.
Bandai ought to pull their shit together and give out better prizing so it feels more rewarding for investing into product to get the next best deck, and start competing against bushi and konami in the digital space.
i htink its too early for them to be makng a digital card format like the others. Maybe after the game has been out for 5 years.
i mainly say this because i feel it would cannibalize the community atm. I would like a vertual card app myself, i just dont think its the right time yet.
but yeah prizing absolutely needs to be better
The reason Digimon is struggling is not because it's a bad game or anything, it's because Bandai hates this franchise for some reason. From the games to anime to the TCG, they don't give this franchise any attention then wonder why nobody is into Digimon.
On weaknesses and opportunities, I think you missed a big one, namely that Bandai has not provided a good playspace for casual players or group play.
I come from an MTG background where the pinnacle format that drives sales is Commander, a 3+ player free for all format that is far more friendly to casual players and those who do not have time to grind tournaments (your weekend warrior types). For the lack of competitive support Digimon is getting, a major problem in my view is that there isn't a commander-style format for players to turn to in order to fill that gap. Having a game mode that allows more than 1v1 matches is also important for play groups with mismatched power levels and odd numbers of players, because it gives newer, weaker, and/or extra people something to do rather than wait around for the round to end in that week's local tournament or have a chance to play a longer game if their level of investment isn't up to par with what other people are bringing.
Which leads to a major opportunity for Bandai to develop something like commander that supports 3+ player games and introduces rules that facilitate a more casual play environment.
Thanks for the insight! This is a good point! Another way to play the game would be really cool, a great way to expand the audience!
@@East_ML yeah, I'm not sure how common alternative, group formats are in other TCGs, but it's something that has really helped keep MTG afloat during times when competitive prizing wasn't up to snuff and I'm not sure it's the kind of thing players coming from games like Yugioh and Pokemon realize can be so helpful for a game, so I try to evangelize for the group casual format whenever possible
Yes, you should! It's the most fun I've had playing card games and It keeps on giving. It's not perfect, but it's worth all the sometimes problematic aspects, for the overwhelming Number of positives!
It’s actually a genuinely fun game!
Hey! I play red hybrid... and yeah without ancientgreymon for the spice it's pretty simplistic
I just got into the game last week, bought the Beelzemon starter deck and went to a local tournament. Im lucky that there is a decent community for the game in my area.
A few things I've noticed to its fault is that actually buying cards seems hard. Like I said, my area has a community of dozens of players, and yet most of the game stores barely have any stock of cards. Big box stores, you might be lucky to find a couple of packs. I'm surprised I found the Beelzemon deck. Even amazon is mostly 3rd party sellers with inflated prices. Yugioh, in comparison, has always seemed easy to grab a structure deck, booster packs of multiple boxes, or special boxes at any point at msrp.
The only other pain point I'm seeing is that the game is overall very cheap (especially compared to yugioh) but there's still so many decks I'm seeing where the overall cost would be like $20 if it's weren't for one or two cards driving the cost of the deck up over $100. I'm talking about Rina for Ulforce as a great example.
If you want to by cards, TCGPlayer is the way to go. That's where I get all of my stuff.
My friends got me into Digimon TCG like a month ago. I've been having a blast. Picked up Omnimon Alter S. It's very 😎.
Based first deck 😎😎
@@East_ML thanks brother
I like this type of video.👍
Love the analysis! where did you find all of that information? I couldn't find anything about demographics or growth statistics when i was researching this topic.
Anytime I used data, I mentioned where it was from in the video. Just go back a few seconds.
cool topic!
with so much card game bandai handle this day i feel scare they will abandon digimon TCG.
Especially after the annaunce Union Arena with 5 diffrent TCG they handle "Digimon, One Piece, Battle Spirits, Dragonball and Union Arena" also not to mantion other like lorcana and shadowverse evolve. I don't know if they can give fair tread to digimon or not.
For now the only way to know was just wait. Hope bandai not make the same mistake like bushirod with make to many card game back than.
Digimon Seeker should have been a Tv Series i would have watched it with my bros and cousins xD
HARD AGREE
@@East_ML btw about online clients, if they make one it would be cool if it had some kind of code bar interaction like chaotic tcg had where you scan the card and can own it online or something ( it works better in chaotic tcg because each duplicate of the same creature was different because one could have for exemple high speed and another copy could have a little bit less than another version)
if i remember rigth does Ghost Game get a second season after the last Eps it would be weird if we dont get one beside we get a new Movie later on with the Digimon 02 cast a new game is in working too so the future for the franchise is pretty good and the Seekers Novel is not bad yes translation is not the best but i dont think that is the importent point imo gecause its a project that exist for us Digimon fans and its really good oh and we have a new Manga too with the Name: Digimon Dreamers so yeah Digimon is not dead imo but the card game struggeld hard beside my locals will play it till there is no support so yeah Europe is already out of sight from Bandai so who care sorry for my bad english i hope its fine and ncie video really enjoyed it ^^
Thanks for the clarification and the good insight into the media side! I didn’t know about the new game or manga!
i didnt know Duel masters was popular in japan, technically it was my first card game anime but the dub was weird i dont even remember much about it xD
The biggest problem with Digimon is bandais way of handling events…..impossible to get signed up bc there’s almost no in person outside of locals and so few of the online it’s impossible to register
Yeah I’ve heard this is a problem in the west. There just needs to be more events overall. Hopefully they can make that happen going into the end of this and next year
@@East_ML agreed. I love how for yugioh I can decide to attend a regional the day before or sinetging
Not to mention Genshin Impact have their in game tcg, Genius Invocation tcg.
I played when the purple green black starter decks came out. It was easy to understand, fun and not super expensive to get into. Then I stopped.
But I recently went to a LFG where I watched a game and saw a digi evolution with like 10 digimon under it with 10 different effects happening, and just general I felt lost and so behind to want to get back into it.
Yeah over the past few years the game has scaled up in complexity, but this has opened the doors to loooots of different decks you can choose to play. I think if you're looking for something really simple as an entry point to get back into the game, I would recommend Red Hybrid. The deck is really straight forward, not complicated, and packs one hell of a punch. If you're interested, I did a complete deck profile video on it as well.
Odds are that was a deck based on one of the xroswars seasons, which was a season known for just fusing a bunch of digimon to go upwards in levels and that got reflected in their deck. The game isnt that much more complicated nowadays, they just decided to put in more of the digimon lore into card effects and playstyle.
Really surprised to see One Piece at number 4 in that list. There was a good little group of players that were pretty excited about it when it first came out but it fell off almost immediately and I don't think I've seen or heard anyone playing it recently at all. That said, Lorcana will certainly be above Digimon soon enough and I would expect the list to look more like 1.Magic, 2.Pokemon, 3/4.Lorcana, 3/4.Yu-gi-oh, 5.Digimon within a year or 2.
I think Yugioh will be on 4th.
I read/hear about SO MANY yugioh players leaving the game, because it's just so expensive and overly convoluted to play, that they just don't want to anymore
Lorcana sales will spike for the first set or two just because of the buyers who think it'll be an investment. Jumping on a new thing just because they want to make a quick buck. I don't know anyone playing it in my area. I'm guessing it won't last 3 years
@@travisbuschette8609 That's interesting. It was bigger than Digimon in my area from day 1 and given that it's Disney I really don't see it going anywhere any time soon. But I guess we'll see. It depends on how the sets play out.
@@ThatJaymsWisdom I'm not surprised that people are buying it over Digimon. It's the hot new thing. I just don't think it'll have the staying power it needs once the initial hype wears off. Either that, or it's going to have to get a big foothold in the international market.
I dont want to be a pessimist because i love this game but bandai only use wacko logic when it comes to digimon 😂
in Asia one piece kinda just took over digimon. everyone is crazy for one piece now
I see things like shinegreymon and greymon at the top everytime, I stopped playing the game after greymon became a tier 0 deck and I see them making the same issues again and again. Would you say playing a non-greymon deck is worth it?
There are tons of viable decks bruh, if you stop playing a game when something stronger arises you might as well stop playing tcgs altogether 😂
Speaking from BT14 and EX05, greymon feels very fair. It took a while to get there but other decks caught up. Right now Greymon and Shine Greymon are strong but they are contested by decks like Fenriloogamon, the new Garurumon decks and the EX05 Anubismon deck.
Something that I feels merits acknowledgement is the meta. The meta is ridiculous and strong decks stay strong for too long. I also disagree with different restriction time frames between English and Japanese. I know the card pool is slightly different from one another but I feel that making something last so long in Japan that gets restrictions a lot sooner in English is dangerous and will cause player loss. The balancing as a whole needs to be reworked so the meta in both sides of the game is more enjoyable for all players.
Game is Dying, no doubt about it, no banlist almost 2 months into BT13 and Prizing being ass, the only ray of hope is the October-November Participation prizing actually being cool new alt arts of actually meta relevant cards, if they dont pick up the pace soon and start realizing they need to hit the banlist harder we are going to have a problem, 80% of the meta decks if not all of them can kill you in 1 turn from 4 or 5 security, its insane, that is what is killing the game for me, every deck does the same thing, kill you from 4 security, with almost 0 counterplay.
I'm pretty sure digimon tcg is done at the west(just a matter of time), same with most of Bandai's tcg product. Consumers feel scamed and the game experience is getting worse.
One Piece is the current love child 🤢
Oh and...F!!! One piece...i still dont understand what ppl enjoy about this franchise...its just...nahh waay to weird...iieeww...almost makes JoJo's look Semi-normal...
Ehhh!! I had to stop the video..really, right at the point about it's "weakness"...and well, sigh...does everything really, only, allways need to revolve around tournament's, competitiv scene etc..? Meta is expensiv, in every tcg. Complex, gives headache and is stressfull...i completly quit yugioh bc NO ONE wants to play casual, table 500, i enjoy commander format in magic the gathering..with friends not at a tournament...and now i see the digimon tcg getting blamed by..competitv player's...why? Does everything need to be on allways such a level? Cant we just have fun?? No, seriously..stop hurting the games i like! Go to yugioh if hardcore, merciless competitiv savagery is what you are looking for...that game know's no mercy and takes no prisoner's..😭😭
Honestly digimon is in a very bad position in the West. The promo situation has left entire archtypes unplayable indefinitely and the extreme amount of sketchy ruling situations that come up here is disheartening, and US players bending the rules enough to pressure bandai into changing the base rules of the game was not great. Speaking globally, set design has gotten worse for a year straight with the archtype focused design and secret heavy decks that are the Mainstays of the game. Combine that with a hands off approach to the banlist and badly designed keywords and you have a situation where it really does look like digimon won't turn the corner past 2024. As someone who really played the game a crap ton since before and after it came out in the West, seeing bandai fail again was not fun.
I don’t know if I agree with nearly anything said here. I think the promo situation gets better with resurgence booster. It would have already been out but because Bandai made the change to actually include things like memboosts in reprints because of player feedback is a good sign. Idk about rulings, and have never heard about it from anyone, does anyone have any examples? I don’t understand best decks needing secret rares sentiment, in fact I think it’s the complete opposite. ShineGreymon, WarGreymon, miragegaogamon, hunters, red hybrid, and beelzemon make up the upper echelon of powerful decks, and all of them can be built to not use any secret rare cards. We haven’t seen a banlist update in a few months but you’d get a 1000 different opinions from everyone about if it should happen and what cards should be touched. I don’t think the game is perfect but all things considered it’s a hell of a lot better than the way it’s portrayed above.
A large number of our missing promos are coming with ex5 as well. I feel they wouldn't bother if they meant to just let the game die.
@@East_ML you answered him better than I could :D
@@East_MLthe only promo issue we have is stuff like training cards and cards like the saberdramon with raid retaliate. Instead of getting those in a timely matter during metas that matter, we get long after the fact. But he's lost his mind on everything else. Lmao