One of Each: Limited Cards, and Ones Soon to Follow?

Introduction

While the Digmon Card Game has a pretty impressive balance for this point in its lifetime, eventually the designers are going to make a mistake. On April 1st, 2021, we were given the first Restricted List, limiting 2 of the major pieces of BT4's top deck to 1 copy. These cards limited the design space for all Green cards, especially Level 3 and Level 6 Digimon, and the community worries that more cards limit the design space of other colors, and should be restricted as such.

Currently Restricted Cards

Hidden Potential Discovered (BT3-103)

Hidden Potential Discovered, or HPD is an option card that allows you to reduce the Digivolution cost of 1 of your Digimon by suspending 1 of your Digimon. Seems pretty simple, right? Well, you would be right, but sometimes the simplest cards can have the biggest effect. It allows you to make any Green Level 6 Digimon have a Digivolution cost of 0, making Digimon like Nidhoggmon (BT4-062), whose whole balance depends on a high cost, practically free. Nidhoggmon (BT4-062) suspends all Digimon with 5000 DP or less, and then sends all suspended Digimon to the bottom of the opponent's deck in any order. That is a free board wipe, especially with Green's incredible suspension power outside of this card. Beyond current cards, however, HPD would have made nearly any Green Level 6 Digimon incredibly powerful, as there is very little that is stronger than free top-end cards, and to design around it, Green's top-end would have massively inflated in memory cost, discouraging any player who didn't use this card. In my opinion, this card is best left restricted, it just circumvents the entire memory system, allowing you to have amazing cards in the Battle Area, for no cost.

Argomon (BT2-047)

Now, Argomon here has Digisorption, which allows it to reduce its Digivolution cost by 3 by suspending one of your Digimon (very similar to how HPD works), and has an Inherited Effect that allows you to play 1 Level 3 Green Digimon card from your hand, suspended, for no memory cost when attacking. You may already see where this is going, but Argomon allows you to build up to Level 6 very cheaply, even more so, if you have another Digimon on the field. For example: at the start of your turn you draw a card, and move a Terriermon (BT3-046) out of the Breeding Area into your Battle Area, right next to your Woodmon (BT1-072). You evolve Terriermon into Vegiemon (BT1-071) for 1 memory cost, and then into Argomon (BT2-047) for no cost, by suspending Woodmon. Now you have a choice to make, depending on the cards in your hand, if you have Nidhoggmon, you can wipe out much of your opponent's board, using HPD making Nidhoggmon's evolution free, all by only spending 1 memory. That isn't mentioning the multitude of other combos that Argomon enables, including a massive board presence.

Cards That Could Be Restricted

Blinding Ray (BT4-104)

Blinding Ray's power requires a bit of a discerning eye, but in the right deck, it can lead to powerful combos. It simply gives you 2 memory by trashing your top security card, which at first glance, seems counterproductive. You want to keep your security so you don't lose, right? Well, Yellow has plenty of tools for adding cards to your security stack, keeping you in the game, and allowing you to pull from it using cards like T.K. Takaishi (BT1-087). Yellow adds to their security all the time, making this card's cost seem quite low in contrast to its effect. Comparing it to a similar card, Hammer Spark (ST2-13), you see that Blinding Ray gives twice as much memory with its main effect, for a cost that can very easily be worked around. Now, an argument against this card being restricted is the lack of a Security Effect, making the card useless to you if it's in your security. But with T.K Takaishi, you can work around that drawback, making the card quite powerful, with all of its costs and drawbacks having an easy fix in most Yellow decks.

SlashAngemon (BT1-062)

This Digimon wasn't very powerful up until BT5. When you Digivolve one of your Digimon into SlashAngemon, one of your opponent's Digimon loses 8000 DP. It always had potential, but it was simply too slow, and too weak in terms of DP to be of much use, not to mention Yellow's lack of a Level 7 until BT4. But LordKnightmon (BT5-045), Knightmon (BT5-042), and to a lesser extent Chaosmon: Valdur Arm (BT4-091), changed all of that. LordKnightmon can play a Warrior Type Digimon from your hand when attacking for no cost, allowing you to play Knightmon for free. You can then Digivolve Knightmon into SlashAngemon and get a powerful -DP effect, -12,000 DP, the DP of most Level 6 Digimon, for only an attack and 3 memory. Chaosmon: Valdur Arm then allows you to reduce your opponent's Digimon's DP by a further 14,000 DP, deleting pretty much anything that isn't 2 Omnimons. Each of the reductions can be targetted separately as well, so you aren't limited to deleting 1 Digimon, allowing you to delete 4 of your opponent's weaker Digimon instead, making this combo dangerous against both Rookie Rush and decks that rely on Level 6 Digimon.

Conclusion

The Digimon Card Game may have some problem cards, but it is a well-balanced game, with every color having multiple viable strategies they can use, and Bandai seems like they do care about fostering a welcoming competitive environment. We don't know if Blinding Ray and SlashAngemon will be restricted, or if HPD and Argomon are ever leaving the restricted list, but I think the game is moving in the right direction, giving every playstyle powerful and unique cards to work with, even if they occasionally make them a touch too powerful.