Today I went to play at a place called Dima Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After tirelessly testing this deck, I found a way to play that makes it incredibly annoying, and above all, I feel it's MY way of playing this deck, but I've decided to share it anyway for anyone who wants to try it.
To begin, I'll talk about the decks I faced, the result, and how the game felt:
The first match (which I won 2-0) was against a Gaiomon/Wargreymon deck. It might not seem like a great deck, but if it catches you off guard, it can really give you a headache.
Everything unfolded naturally; I didn't even have to use a Mulligan. My hand came out perfectly.
On the second turn, Belphemon was already on the field, ready for action. This happened in both matches, resulting in an OTK when it went into Rage Mode.
I don't have much to say, the deck performed as expected, the ratios didn't betray me and worked well at all times, not to mention that the opponent had to deal with Belphemon from very early on, which is already something to take into account.
The second match was against a Mastemon deck (I lost 2-0). Their deck wasn't the CS build, but the classic Mastemon.
I have to say, I don't usually have problems against this style of play due to Belphemon's inherent aggressiveness.
The problem arose when, through my own fault, I didn't shuffle properly, and even though my hand was good, I spent three turns just throwing Gizmon into the trash and nothing else.
I just needed to see an Astamon, but the deck just wouldn't work (if I had shuffled it correctly, this wouldn't have happened).
The situation repeated itself in the second match despite shuffling well, resulting in a painful loss.
The third and final match was a head-to-head against a ShineGreymon (I won 2-0). It was pretty straightforward; my biggest concern was figuring out how to remove his Security cards from the field. Although he had a good hand, the player hadn't been so lucky in the first match because I managed to clear the field quickly and attack to finish him off.
During the second match, ShineGreymon built up a solid stack so that his first check was Gift from the Darkness. I activated its effect, played my Apocalymon from my hand, and destroyed his stack.
After that, all that was left was to watch Belphemon switch from Sleep Mode to Rage Mode (EX10). I brought up a Psychemon from the Breeding Zone, and along with the Eyesmon that had been played by Astamon's inherited card, that was it for him.
After that, the winner was announced, and I came in third. But hey! I got a Digital Gate Open, which I ended up trading for a Phascomon Promo plus the money difference in my favor.
Speaking of the deck itself, it felt smooth, everything was right and fair, and it always found or achieved what it wanted.
Regarding some things you might be wondering about, like... Syakomon? Well, it was meant to address the problem of having too few cards in hand, and it worked well.
As for another card, Apocalymon, it didn't get much of a chance to shine, but its moment will come when I run into a deck that out-decks quickly and I can pull off the combo that requires it. However, during the testing phases, it worked well, so I decided to keep it in the final version of the deck because it's a powerful finisher for games that dragged on too long or when the opponent got careless by discarding too many cards.
I decided not to include things I felt were unnecessary, like two more Ukkomon, because the old Phascomon worked fine, especially for Astamon's hard play if I had a critical moment.
Another thing I decided to remove was Gizmon XT, which I reduced from four copies to three because it was causing too many bricks, but now I'm debating whether to leave it at two.
It might also seem strange not to have Dobermon, and honestly, I think I'm going to add it since Deltamon isn't very useful. Dobermon could be better utilized, but I went with Punkmon this time, and it performed well.
Honestly, the deck can still be improved, but its composition might not change much beyond a few simple things like minor techs.
Honestly, at this point Belphemon is capable of winning against high-level decks. The problem is that, despite having played it for a long time, I still make some small mistakes when making certain decisions. This tournament wasn't one of those, but I'm taking all of that into account for my next local appearance.
I was going to use Cupimon (BT16), but I only had Syakomon to compensate for the small number of cards, so I opted for DemiMeramon (BT15) and it worked perfectly.
Below, I'll give a review of how the deck felt in terms of stats (5 points Max.) with this build in the testing time and local tournament.
Power: 5
Speed:4
Consistency: 3.5
Punish: 5
Win Rate: 4
Meta-Specific Adjustment: 3
Best Matchup:
ShineGreymon, Royal Base, Beelzemon, Omnimon, Royal Knights, Sakuyamon, CS.
Mid Matchup:
Pyramidimon, Beelzemon-Purple Hybrid, Jesmon.
Worst Matchup:
Purple Hybrid, Gallantmon, Megidramon, Galaxy Toolbox, Yellow Vaccine.
