Line #52 TabletopGame/Digimon


1	[[quoteright:198:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tabletopgamedigimoncard_4652.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:198:As seen [[Anime/DigimonTamers on TV]].]]
3
4	The ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' franchise, one of Bandai's many [[CashCowFranchise cash cows]], is no stranger to the CollectibleCardGame--seven prominent official card games have existed, each with generally different rules and mechanics.
5	* ''Digital Monster Card Game / Hyper Colosseum'' was the first ''Digimon'' card game, and generally the most famous; this is the game that was featured in ''Anime/DigimonTamers'', and was depicted completely accurately in that [[TruthInTelevision there actually were digital card readers able to be used in playing the game]]. It was brought to the rest of the world, with some minor modifications, as the ''Digi-Battle Card Game''. While it was retired in the west circa ''Tamers'' presumably out of lack of interest, it kept going in Japan even through the franchise's anime hiatus, and was only retired around the launch of ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad'' to make way for ''Alpha'', but even so was revived for special prestige releases.
6	* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure: Card Tactics'' was the second Japanese Card game, designed around an electronic card reader allowing for a variety of complex mechanics and directly based on the anime. Lasted only one set though.
7	* ''D-Tector Card Game'' was the second international card game, and the first to be an entirely western creation; it was designed as a tie-in to the then-current ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' anime, and specifically Bandai's line of tie-in D-Tector Digivice virtual pets; the game's main draw was that each contained a "Digi-Digit" to input into the Digivice to add that card's Digimon to one's collection on the device.
8	* ''Digimon Collectible Card Game'' was the third international card game, also a creation of Bandai of America. It's a bit of an anomaly; it was released in a period during which there was no anime and ''Digimon'' was effectively comatose in the west, nor was Bandai of America doing any other merchandise of the franchise at the same time.
9	* ''Digital Monster Card Game Alpha''--or just ''Alpha''--was the third, and second ''primary'', Japanese card game, released concurrent to ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad''. It was something of an expansion to the gameplay of Hyper Colosseum -- most mechanics were maintained, but Digimon cards now had HP and speed values. Special game-bridging compatibility rules also exist somewhere.
10	* ''Super Digica Taisen'' was the fourth Japanese card game, released concurrent to ''Anime/DigimonFusion''.
11	* ''Digimon Jintrix'' was the fifth Japanese card game, released concurrent to ''Super Digica Taisen'' and ''Anime/DigimonFusion''. It's a fairly unusual game: cards are purchased in physical form, then codes from them are inputted into the game's website, on which the game is actually played. It's considered particularly notable by the fandom because new releases of card sets would regularly introduce completely new {{mons}}, moreso than any previous card game.
12	* ''Digimon Fusion'' was the fourth international TCG, released to promote [[Anime/DigimonFusion the anime of the same name]]. It was short-lived, lasting only one set.
13	* ''Data Carddass Appli Monster Card Game'' was the sixth Japanese card game, designed as one of the tie-ins to the ''Franchise/DigimonUniverseAppMonsters'' sub-franchise. Designed to be compatible with ''Hyper Colosseum''.
14	* ''TabletopGame/DigimonCardGame'' is the seventh, and third ''primary'', Japanese card game, released concurrent to ''Anime/DigimonAdventure2020''. It was localized worldwide about a year after its initial release. Unlike ''Hyper Colosseum'' and ''Alpha'' before it, this iteration uses entirely brand new mechanics for its system.
15	----
16	!!Tropes present in the card games prior to ''Digimon Card Game'':
17	* CoversAlwaysLie: Sort of; looking at the back of a Hyper Colosseum card, would you automatically peg that as a piece of ''Digimon'' merchandise? The appearances of the logo on it are both very small and you'd be forgiven for completely missing them.
18	* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Hyper Colosseum / Digi-Battle and Alpha follow this principle with the three Digimon attributes: Data, Vaccine and Virus.
19	* EvolutionaryLevels: As in the anime, of course; generally disregarded in Taisen and Jintrix.
20	* {{Expy}}: Jintrix has lately taken to introducing new {{mons}} based on classic literature; Set 3 introduced numerous mons based on ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', while Set 4 introduced mons based on ''Literature/PeterPan'' in addition to a few more ''Journey to the West'' ones.
21	* MerchandiseDriven: The role Hyper Colosseum played in ''Anime/DigimonTamers''; one of the better-executed examples.
22	* MetaGame: In keeping with the LensmanArmsRace of ''Hyper Colosseum'', each new release of cards would have a handful of cards that would become the centerpiece of that generation of gameplay... and it would often have a handful of cards specifically invalidating the centerpiece of the previous generation's. If your card negates the effect of a specific card, chances are that that specific card was top-tier in the preceding metagame.
23	* NoSell: Many, many ''Hyper Colosseum'' cards explicitly declare themselves immune or unable to affect certain cards of types of cards, usually those that are prominent in the contemporary metagame or that the card game wanted to promote.
24	* PowerCreep: A huge problem with ''Hyper Colosseum'' and its successor ''Alpha Evolution''.
25	** From the earliest days, every new generation of cards was sloppily designed not to [[CompetitiveBalance compete with]] so much as ''completely invalidate'' [[SoLastSeason previous cards and strategies]]. ''E.g.'' when Armor Digimon were introduced, [[WeakButSkilled they overcame the Mega Levels' power with withering special abilities]] such as reducing the foe's PowerLevel by ''half''[[note]]The numbers were not scaled for this, which meant many Mega Level Digimon ended up as weak as or weaker than basic Rookies[[/note]], and once they suffused the metagame, a new generation released and began to propagate the effect of [[AntiMagic ignoring an enemy's special abilities]], turning the Armors into useless weaklings.\
26	\
27	This turned the game into a LensmanArmsRace with itself, accelerated by the absolute ''refusal'' of the developers to produce a ceiling on the numbers of the PowerLevels and quietly imposing [[BribingYourWayToVictory the need for players to repeatedly buy the newest packs as they were released]].
28	** A good example is to compare Seraphimon cards: the original ''[=HC=]'' card didn't have a single attack with a power level above 600, but it's earliest ''[=AE=]'' card had a power level of ''1200'' for it's strongest attack.
29	* PowersAsPrograms: The Item and Program cards of ''Hyper Colosseum''.
30	* PromotionalPowerlessPieceOfGarbage: Inevitably there are plenty of examples; a standout is Digi-Battle's promotional Infermon and Diablomon cards released as part of a tie-in to ''Digimon: The Movie''. Their evolution requirements made them completely useless for several sets until cards of Keramon and Chrysalimon, their pre-evolutions, came along.

Context TabletopGame / Digimon