Digimon TCG: Combat Guide - Steps, Effects, Counters, Blocks, and More!

Digimon TCG has pretty specific combat rules that can be difficult to understand. In this article, we'll cover the trickiest details so you can learn everything you need to know to play, and become more confident. If you're a beginner, this article is perfect for you.

Some of the most important combat concepts are: Combat Steps, Combat Resolution, and ACEs.

Before we see how attacks work, let's first understand what you need before you attack with a Digimon.

To attack, your Digimon needs to be in play for more than one round (even if it is in the breeding area) or have Rush, which lets Digimon that recently came into play attack straight away. If you meet these conditions, your Digimon can attack tapped enemy Digimon, or their Security directly.

To attack, just tap your Digimon, but remember, if you do that, you'll make it vulnerable to enemy attacks as well.

Another essential detail is that, unlike other games, like MTG or Yu-Gi-Oh, there is no proper "battle phase" in Digimon TCG. So, attacks happen during the main phase whenever your Digimon can attack.

Combat steps are one of the most confusing parts of the entire game because there are many ways to interpret them, and understanding when and how each effect resolves can be difficult. Let's go through the most important details in the image below so we can better understand how combat works.

After you declare an attack, three phases happen one after the other: effects related to attacks, counter timing, and, finally, block timing.

Attack Effects

Attack effects trigger when you declare an attack with your Digimon, and this includes Inherited effects. The effects of the attacker will trigger first, and only afterward the effects of the blocker will trigger.

This means that all your attack effects trigger before your opponent's, but they can also use effects as you attack.

Counter Timing

In the Counter Timing step, you can activate a mechanic in the game: ACE cards.

You can Digivolve ACE cards by placing them on top of a Digimon of the same level as an answer to an enemy attack. They'll then Digivolve for free when the attack happens, following standard Digivolution rules, but there's a drawback to make up for the "free" Digivolution.

When an ACE Digimon leaves the board, the player that controlled it loses memory according to its Overflow, which is stated at the bottom of the card. This mechanic was heavily criticized when it was released, back in BT14, but it is important to the game - it is a controlled, predictable mechanic after you get used to it.

Thanks to this mechanic, OTK decks are now rarer - simply because we can interact with an opponent while they attack. These decks still exist, but now they need to protect themselves when they attack or remove the cards on their opponent's board before they attack, which makes the game more interactive.

Blocker Timing

After Counter Timing, the defending player can block enemy attacks with Digimon that have the Blocker keyword. This keyword lets you suspend a Digimon in question to redirect an attack to it.

WarGreymon ACE, which we mentioned above, has this mechanic.

An essential detail is that a Digimon can block as many times as you want as long as you can tap it and block. So, cards that untap when you delete enemy Digimon, for instance, will be able to block multiple times.

After all effects related to attacks trigger, the combat itself resolves, depending on which card you targeted initially.

You can target tapped enemy Digimon or their Security. I believe attacking Digimon is easier to understand, and, if you understand that type of combat, you'll also understand how the Security area works.

Attacking Digimon

When a Digimon attacks another tapped enemy Digimon, or that attack is blocked, all effects and answers resolve, as we explained above.

The actual combat is decided by comparing DP. The Digimon with the most DP wins the battle and deletes the other Digimon. That's one of the most basic rules of the game, but please note that some abilities can play around it, like the Iceclad keyword.

This keyword lets you battle with the Digivolution cards attached to your Digimon instead of their DP. Apart from abilities like this, combats will resolve according to the DP of each Digimon, attacking and blocking.

There are also protective abilities and keywords that make your Digimon more resilient, like Scapegoat. This keyword lets you sacrifice another Digimon on the board instead of losing a target Digimon. One example of this is Barbamon, which you can see below.

When you defeat an enemy Digimon, it will be deleted and trashed, along with all cards attached to it. Effects that activate when you delete enemy Digimon will also trigger at this moment. For instance, the card below untaps when you delete a Digimon.

When you defeat an enemy Digimon, the combat ends, and the end of attack effects trigger.

That's the standard ruling, but there is a keyword that goes around it: Piercing.

If a Digimon with Piercing attacks, defeats an enemy Digimon, and survives, they'll check the enemy Security instead of finishing combat.

So, let's see how Security works.

Attacking Security

When you attack the enemy Security with a Digimon, your opponent reveals the top card in their Security. The battle then follows as usual according to the type of card they reveal.

If they reveal a Digimon, the battle goes basically the same as a regular Digimon battle, but the difference is that only their Security effects work when they're revealed from the Security this way.

Other than that, you'll compare the cards' DP, like in the example below:

In this case, your Digimon will De-Digivolve the enemy Digimon in a De-Digivolve phase, and the battle goes on. Furthermore, if your opponent can evolve a Digimon into this card at the end of combat, they can Digivolve them for no cost at all. Please note that, regardless if you win or lose the battle, any card revealed from the Security leaves the area at the end of combat, even if their DP is bigger than the attacking Digimon's DP.

If another type of card is revealed this way, like Tamers, the Security effect rules apply. One detail is that most of these cards have Security effects, whereas Digimon with such effects are rarer. Tamers usually go in play when they're revealed from the Security, and their effects usually trigger when you reveal them from the Security.

You can check several cards in the Security at the same time if your attacking Digimon has effects like Security Attack +1. However, it will only check the next card if they survive checking the first one. And attacks can't check cards if a Digimon is under a Security Attack -1 effect.

Another way to interact with the Security is with effects that remove cards from the top of the Security. When you use these cards, no effects trigger, and that card will simply be trashed.

Finally, if you attack your opponent's Security directly and they don't have any cards left there, you'll win the game.

I hope this guide helped you understand the game a bit better, and that your path to victory is clearer.

If you have any questions, please tell us in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!