We’ve had threads on MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh, and even boxing cards, and I’d love to start one dedicated to Digimon cards, old or new! I have looked around for an E4 equivalent for Digimon collectors, but had no luck as it is primarily a player’s tcg.
I have been collecting the new Digimon cards for the past year and having a blast, there is tons of artist crossover with Pokemon (even Himeno!) and the illustrations just keep getting better and better.
After seeing @Silphnaut post in the secret santa thread (from @A.P.Speeze ) I now know there are at least a few other Digimon collectors here on E4, and hopefully everyone will be motivated to share their collections and discuss other Digimon-related things.
I’ll start things off with something that literally arrived today. My first ever booster box! I haven’t even bought a pokemon one before.
So surprised at how small it is. Really looking forward to opening it at the weekend. This is the very first set released, BT-01, New Evolution, from all the way back in May 2020
Since I middlemanned a lot of them for him, I know @tonysandlin collects some of the older Digimon cards. Not sure whether he has any pictures ready to share, though.
Digimon is seeing a large revival recently. Bandai has been sinking a ton of money into their marketing budget, taking feedback from fans and the results really show with the success of Time Stranger.
@Silphnaut’s secret santa post also got me interested in the TCG, as I’m currently playing through Cyber Sleuth and (re)watching the older anime (Adventure, 02 & Tamers complete).
Still going through the different sets to find cards I like, but this pair in particular has caught my eye.
One huge thing that has really helped the Digimon tcg has been the webcomic Liberator, which is about playing the tcg in a VR setting. Also, the newest anime Beat Break is less than 10 episodes in (I think) and has been a huge hit. Hopefully Time Stranger brings back more fans.
I love these connecting alt arts, so cool that the creator of the franchise is still so involved and illustrating.
Yeah, the promotional tie-ins are very well thought out. I’ve been watching Beatbreak and it’s quite solid so far. Definitely aimed at teens/young adults rather than kids, and the dystopian sci-fi setting has pulled me in. I do like how Digimon as a franchise is willing to grow with its audience, which gives it its own life apart from Pokemon (I remember everyone used to compare the two growing up).
I try not to creep Digimon into my esoteric Wooper-weaving forum usage but Digimon has been right there alongside Pokémon all my life. Digimon World 2003 is one of my favourite games of all time and I played it to death as a kid, though I could never get passed Bulbmon until I was a bit older and understood the mechanics more.
I collect the cards and enjoy it, but for some reason Digimon has always taken a second-place to Pokémon. I think Pokémon is a lot more compelling for some reason, but Digimon will always have a place in my heart!
Also if you haven’t read it there’s a hilarious greentext floating round about how the Digimon movie caused a kids’ parents to divorce (because of Angela Anaconda).
Even funnier is that my parents got divorced the same year… Wait…
Haven’t bought in a bit though. I was a big digimon nerd as a kid in addition to Pokémon. I’ve watched every season but somehow have never played any of the games
Dang, that’s an impressive binder. I like how you laid out all the canon evolutionary lines from Adventure > Frontier. The TCG is very player-oriented, so it surprised me how cheap cards are. Can get some nice-looking full arts for a few dollars and plenty of higher rarity alt arts for under 100.
Time Stranger is probably the best starting point for a Digimon game. It’s a very accesible modern JRPG that looks and plays great.
I wish the print quality in the first few sets was a little better though. Grading anything from 1.0 has been a pain because of how easily the backs can whiten.
I used to play the new TCG a bunch, but it got a little too crazy with the Power Creep and playstyles/mechanics to be enjoyable anymore.
I collect mostly vintage Digimon Hyper Colosseum cards, which is the original Japanese TCG. It was later brought over to the west as “Digi Battle”, but due to a bunch of weird choices by the localizer (Upper Deck) was horribly butchered.
I have played both, and IMO the main reason it feels so different is
The original Hyper Colosseum game allows you to Digivolve as many times as you want during a turn, whereas Digi-battle only allows a single digivolution per turn.
To balance this, in the JP game you play 3 “option” (think YuGiOh spell / trap cards) face down at the start of a turn before the battle phase begins, while the EN game you can play them freely from your hand throughout the battle phase.
The JP game also has each player start at 100 “life” and the goal is to reduce the opponent’s life to 0, while the EN game has you start at 0 points and build to a score of 100.
What this does is dramatically slow down the game due to 1 evolution per turn, while also making decks feel way more option-heavy than Digimon-focused. Think back to the Base - Neo Pokemon TCG trainers vs. Supporters in the current game’s iteration. Additionally having to pick which 3 options to place face down before the battle phase and using them as a strategic resource rather than spamming them leads to much more interesting gameplay. Lastly due to the different point systems, in the JP game you could heal life, but for some reason in the EN game you were never able to reduce the opponent’s score to stall their victory progress.
Anyways, this resulted in DigiBattle being completely dead on arrival, with Organized Play pretty much not existing (Upper Deck also sucks at doing this FWIW). In Japan however, it was one of the more successful TCGs in the 90s-2000s alongside MTG, Pokemon, and YGO. In fact, despite the fact that Hyper Colosseum cards stopped being printed in 2005, Bandai will still release some promotional sets for it every year, and there is a community of active players still in Japan.
That all being said, I’ve collected the top trophy cards from Hyper Colosseum over the years. The “No.1 Trainer” equivalent is a card called “Glory of Victory is in my Hands!!!”, and was given to top winners from 1999-2003. There are 4 in total and I now have 3 of them, each graded by a different grading company
I have nearly 1 copy of every released hyper colosseum set card, since they’re dirt cheap in Japan (I used to buy big bulk bricks but now they are 50-500 yen singles). They’re fun to collect and stare at
I gotta say, as someone who never really collected Digimon during the late 90s/early 2000s (fad didn’t last long here and parents wouldn’t let me buy the cards), I think I understand modern Pokémon fans preferring modern card art over vintage.
The old cards are cool from a historical perspective but a lot of the newer stuff just pops more. I’ve been spending time picking out Digimon card artists who’s style speaks to me and slowly assembling a binder of their work. It’s been incredibly enjoyable learning about a new TCG and discovering artwork of Digimon I like. Feels like a calm in the storm, given how the Pokemon card market is now. Will have a fun update to share shortly.
I wasn’t into the Digimon tcg back in the day either (Pokémon made sure it never stood a chance around here), though I remember one friend did have some random cards.
Nowadays, I’ve got a handful of modern cards with cool artwork that appeal to me, plus a few that I graded myself. Here are some of my favourites:
Not sure whether he has any pictures ready to share, though.
