Preview: Examon in EX13, Return of the Dragon Emperor?

(Article Originally Written 15/09/2026)

This article is a speculative evaluation on the competitive potential of the support for fan-favorite DNA Digivolution deck Examon from the EX13: Extra Booster Chivalrous 13 set. Though this article is by no means conclusive, as to truly know how good these cards are we'll have to wait and see how they shake out weeks after the format has developed, speculation like this is both entertaining and useful for improving our card evaluation skills and furthering our understanding of the existing and future formats. 

Though I believe everything I've written here wholeheartedly, I'm by no means a definitive voice on what could end up being competitively viable (I completely misevaluated Ravemon as weak on initial reveal for example!) and my words should be taken with a grain of salt.

That all being said I've done enough theorycrafting and testing with this deck to be fairly confident in my conclusions, so let's talk about the big ol' dragon, shall we?

Examon

Examon has buckled under the weight of its consistency problems and poor ability to rebuild for years at this point. Despite oftentimes powerful support attempting to rectify many of its issues, the deck failed to have a consistent meta splash even with the astonishingly powerful BT23 Examon, seeing only fringe rogue meta play at the best of times. 

Entering EX13 however, Examon has recieved a glow-up the size of which truly befits the apex of Dragon digimon. This wave of support modernizes and reshapes the strategy into something that can easily keep up with the modern metagame.

The deck has had its combo lines streamlined enormously thanks to this wave. EX13 Bebydomon offers a powerful inherited when attacking effect allowing the deck to play or use a card with Examon in its text whilst reducing the cost by 1. This effect combos well with Dracomon (X Antibody) end of turn DNA inherit, which is the same inherit that the new EX13 Dracomon conveniently also offers! Giving the deck more copies of this effect is fantastic. On top of this Dracomon is a [When Moving] searcher, giving the deck a tonne of additional consistency that it desperately needed.

Combining Bebydomon's effect with Dracomon or Dracomon (X Antibody)'s inherited effect allows the deck to climb into Examon in new and flexible ways, such as raising a stack up and playing out the other half during the attack. Bebydomon's effect is flexible too, allowing for the use of cards like Unleash the Dragon Gene for extra cheap slams or any future option cards (or perhaps Dual Cards?) that Examon might recieve in BT27 or BT28.

EX13 Coredramon gives the deck upgrades to its draw power with its [On Play] [When Digivolving] effect whilst EX13 Coredramon gives the deck some trash recursion, allowing them to return copies of important cards to the hand or cycle resources. Both new Coredramon are, conveniently, also free of previous digivolution woes that could sometimes leave the deck in situations where a certain Coredramon couldn't evolve over a certain Dracomon due to color. 

Both Coredramon keep the highly beneficial [Your Turn] effect of their BT20 counterparts, letting them digivolve for a cost reduction of 2 whenever another of your digimon is played. Notably however these effects have been made significantly less restrictive, no longer requiring a specific color of digimon to be played to trigger the effect nor locking the digivolution to the specific Wingdramon or Groundramon. Streamlining the lines like this is a huge boon for Examon which previously found itself in awkward situations where BT20 Coredramon would be unable to use it's effect to digivolve into BT20 Wingdramon or similarly awkward hands due to mismatched pieces. 

This opens the deck for some impressively compact combo lines in combination with Bebydomon's inherited effect and Unleash the Dragon Gene. An example line could start at either Coredramon attacking, triggering Bebydomon's inherited effect to use Unleash the Dragon Gene for a cost of 1 and reduce the cost of a level 6 Digimon by 3, playing out a Mega for as little as 4 (we'll get to how this is possible soon!) and then triggering Coredramon's [Your Turn] effect to digivolve up to an ultimate stage for a cost of 1; then after the swing completes using the inherited effect of Dracomon or Dracomon (X Antibody) (since Examon's level 5s (Groundramon and Wingdramon) can treat themselves as their level 6 counterparts for Examon's DNA Digivolution!) to go into Examon quickly and cheaply!

These two Coredramons are worth praise for being both the most flexible level 4s Examon has ever had and also the first level 4s that truly improve the deck's resource management and consistency. 

The level 5s continue the excellence and provide a bevvy of utility. Both come with the classic BT20 Wingdramon/Groundramon [All turns] effect, allowing you to treat them as their respective level 6 for Examon's DNA digivolution requirements; though this isn't a new effect for Examon, its further proliferation massively assists the deck with consistency. Wingdramon offers both a helpful <Jamming> keyword (especially considering you'll be wanting to swing at the opponent's security to trigger your Bebydomon!) and some source stripping bundled with stunning for it's [On Play] [When Digivolving]. Groundramon comes with a classic green suspend-and-stun for both digimon or tamers to compliment his blue brother. All of this stunning is greatly appreciated considering the state of the current format, which features many boss monsters who hate getting stunned like Giant Slayer. 

The Inherited Effects both cards offer are extremely impressive, Wingdramon gives the deck access to an unsuspend on either turn which can be used on both attack and defense, providing an extra swing for damage pushes if turn is kept. Being able to unsuspend and block a second time is nice too, though with how much removal exists in the game its a bit of a pipe dream to expect this to occur frequently.

Groundramon's inherit is borrowed from it's BT20 Groundramon cousin, offering security trashing after deleting a digimon in battle. Despite not being new, this effect has become particularly abusable thanks to some new tools the deck has access to with it's new Megas.

Remember that DNA Digivolving effectively 'resets' the [Once Per Turn] on inherits like these since the DNA Digivolved digimon is considered a new Digimon. It's very possible to trigger Groundramon's security trashing effect two times per turn, with even a third trigger being possible as part of a massive combo if the Examon pilot has a second Groundramon in the trash. These cards do a lot for level 5s, especially by DNA deck standards, where level 5s tend to just be fodder for the laddering; pairing stun effects with some dastardly inherits has huge potential.

Perhaps the most exciting cards of this wave however, are the deck's new Megas.

EX13 Breakdramon is a frighteningly good card. Its [On Play] [When Digivolving] effect is a premium suspend-and-stun effect hitting up to two Digimon or Tamers, with stun effects being so powerful in the current meta this is a promising start already. That effect can even suspend your own Digimon, a detail that becomes relevant once we see it's incredible [All Turns] effect which, when any of your Digimon suspend lets your battle an opponent's digimon with any of your Dracomon/Examon text Digimon for some incredible removal and disruption; it is an [All Turns] after all so get excited to battle your opponent's digimon on their turn Vortexdramon style. This effect will also let you trigger the inherited effect of EX13 Groundramon to get some security trashing damage in! Even better, this [All Turns] effect is copied word for word in the Inherited Effect, meaning any Examon you DNA into will get to preserve or double up on this battling effect. Best of all, this card features an Assembly cost allowing you to slam it out for 7 with the best inherits ready to go, or even play it for 6 off of Bebydomon mid-attack for some crazy lines. 

EX13 Slayerdramon continues the excellence. Maintaining the same excellent Assembly cost as Breakdramon allowing for the same slam plays it enables but with alternative effects. Its [On Play] [When Digivolving] feels like it was custom designed to deal with the boards made famous by the EX12 and BT26 metagames, first stripping a number of sources from the opponent's Digimon up to the number of sources Slayerdramon has and then returning all of the opponent's Digimon with the lowest number of sources to the bottom of the deck. This style of removal allows the Examon pilot to pick apart their opponent's board and bottom deck a tonne of relevant threats, most notably against decks like Toho Braves that often play out many sourceless bodies. The fact this is non-deletion removal is the icing on top, denying any on deletion effects and spinning the cards back to the deck to mess up Assembly costs or trash recursion.

The [All Turns] effect of Slayerdramon is almost a souped up version of <Evade>, protecting your Digimon from removal by suspending one of your Digimon; much like Breakdramon this effect is also Slayerdramon's inherited effect. This effect is particularly notable since, in an Examon stack that includes both Breakdramon and Slayerdramon, the Examon pilot can protect the stack from being removed using Slayerdramon's inherited effect which then triggers Breakdramon's inherited effect to immediately battle an opponent's digimon; Wingdramon's inherited effect can also be used to unsuspend the stack while if the battle was won by Examon, Groundramon's inherit can be used to trash the opponent's top security. This is a tonne of synergy for all of the deck's inherits both on offense and defense.

These two offer the deck so much flexibility. The deck now has the ability to slam out either of them on an off-turn to buy time, Slayerdramon's effect can be used to buy time or clear out wide boards while Breakdramon can be used to lock the opponent's integral tamers out of the game or keep their Digimon held hostage. They combine excellently with Bebydomon and Unleash the Dragon Gene to play out for cheap and set up DNA plays. Setting up their assembly cost is made somewhat easy by their lax requirements (only 3 cards in trash that you'll probably be able to get in there anyway) and the trashing effects of Coredramon and Dracomon speed up the process.

These two really do it all and they set the stage perfectly for the Dragon Emperor's brand new incarnation.

An absolute beast of a card, EX13 Examon continues the theme of being 'the answer for things from the current format'.
Coming equipped with the old Examon classics of <Raid>, <Piercing>, <Security A. +1>, <Blocker> and <Evade>. This combination of keywords helps it pile on the pain, keep itself safe and your opponent's security scared.
Though <Evade> may not be the end-all-be all of protection in a world of Mervamon's DP negging or the rampant dedigivolve in the format, against non-DP reduction removal it can be used to trigger Breakdramon's inherit effect to battle an opponent's digimon on their turn for some awesome disruption! 

His [When Digivolving] lets Examon swing, then grants a staggering +10,000 DP to all of the Examon pilot's digimon until the opponent's turn ends before then allowing Examon to battle an opponent's digimon. Not only is this battle fantastic removal that can additionally trigger Groundramon's security trashing Inherited Effect (setting up clean kills from 1 security!), but it can also trigger Examon's [Your Turn] effect to play or use a 12 cost or lower Dracomon/Examon text card from it's sources or your hand for free. The possibilities here get really crazy, playing out Slayerdramon or Breakdramon for more removal or stunning and an additional layer of protection or all-turns-battling! Breakdramon might be particularly notable here as it can be played out and assemblied with Groundramon underneath, then trigger it's [On Play] effect triggers to suspend itself, then its [All Turns] effect can trigger to battle an opponent's digimon and trigger Groundramon's inherited effect for even more security trashing; theoretically allowing Examon to kill opponents under 2 security cleanly by trashing their security before the attack goes through!
This line gets even more ridiculous once you start doing checks and triggering Groundramon on the stack you initially build in the Main phase before DNA-ing to Examon in the end phase using either Dracomon or Dracomon (X Antibody)'s inherited effect, the damage stacks up remarkably quickly. Playing out Slayerdramon is no joke either to assist with clearing wide boards or further reinforce Examon's protection.

The +10k boardwide DP boost feels like it was custom made in response to Susanoomon's monstrous [On Play][When Digivolving] effect, putting Examon up to a ridiculous 25,000 DP whilst the Slayerdramon or Breakdramon it plays out via it's [Your Turn] effect will sit at a cool 22,000, both thresholds are comfortably out of range for the -21k maximum that Susanoomon can reach without additional effects (though -18k will be the more common threshold as TB typically doesn't run a black source!). 

To be completely clear, however, this new Examon does not replace the role of the old BT23 Examon, who still provides powerful stunning and exceedingly rare access to both Tamer AND Option removal. Instead the newest version of the Dragon Emperor acts as a compliment and more aggressive board-building option for the deck to assist it in pushing for game or removing Digimon threats with it's multi-battling capabilities and Slayerdramon or Breakdramon's [On Play] effects. The lack of <Partition> on the new Examon might also disappoint some purists, but in my opinion, the majority of the time your stack was going to be outed, it was going to get dedigivolved anyway before they deleted it (especially since its rare for any meta deck nowadays not to have access to dedigivolve in some way), so it's absence may be less felt in reality.

Overall the new Examon is a great throwback to it's classic EX3 version. Playing out another Mega for free gives the deck some resilience against single target dedigivolve that it previously (and admittedly, still does) struggled with and opens the line to some creative kill combos abusing Groundramon's inherited effect. 

The Verdict

With how much I've had to say about Examon as a deck so far, its pretty obvious that I have pretty high expectations for this deck. The deck's toolset seems uniquely poised to take advantage of various decks currently going wide (Mervamon/Toho Braves/Gear Forest), relying on immunity protection (Gear Forest/Atratusmon/Galacticmon) or who are susceptible to stun (pretty much everyone!).

The engine can get either Examon (EX13 Examon or BT23 Examon) built remarkably fast now thanks to Bebydomon and the improvements to the deck's flexibility, but better yet the deck now has a significantly more stable gameplan once the first Examon goes down, being able to use Slayerdramon and Breakdramon's assembly to control the game while they spend a turn raising.

The combo line to Examon can do ridiculous amounts of security damage, with some combos leaving the opponent with 0 security even if they started at 5. On top of all of this, BT23 Examon still exists and offers traits very few decks can claim to possess: Tamer removal and Option removal, the latter of which is exceedingly rare and potentially extremely useful with cards like Sanmyojin Arrival being so difficult for many decks to play around, while the former can cripple decks by removing important tamers like Inori Misono or any of the Beatbreak/DATS tamers. 

The deck still has a few shortcomings however. Dedigivolve is still an obvious weakness as the deck does end on a huge stack without dedigivolve protection; though the new support allows the deck to establish a second body with EX13 Examon's [Your Turn] effect so this is slightly less of an issue but still a huge hole. The deck gets a lot less scary to play into if the opponent can dedigivolve the Examon stack and simply delete it after its lost a lot of it's protection.

The deck will still have some consistency woes compared to top decks of the BT26 format as well, though this new support goes a long way to increasing the deck's consistency and decreasing the need to find as many pieces, it still won't always find it. 
Perhaps most concerning of all is the deck's reliance on Slayerdramon for non-battle removal (outside of BT23 Examon who would frankly much rather be shooting Tamers, but still can in a pinch). While battle removal is excellent at dealing with digimon unaffected by effects, there exist recent cards with powerful tools for surviving combat.

Decks with access to <Barrier> and security to spare can survive Examon's onslaught if they also have another protection effect to spare (such as Jupitermon's 2nd [All Turns] effect) for the Slayerdramon bottom deck, though granted they might need to be a bit careful so as to not let themselves get too low. <Retaliation> is also prevalent in this format due to cards like Kaguyamon's [All Turns] effect which can also be difficult to play around for decks focused on battle removal, so if the Examon player doesn't have Slayerdramon's [All Turns] or inherited effect ready to protect their stacks. Cards like Sirenmon will further complicate this issue by blanking their potential wide removal effects, though again the deck still has answers for that with clever sequencing.

Thats really what I keep coming back to with Examon: "It might struggle with X, but it can still do Y to play around it".
While the deck is far from perfect, it has really all the tools it needs to be competitive. Tonnes of removal, lots of stun, plenty of source trashing, some of the biggest numbers you'll see and its equipped with a tonne of damage output for when it needs to end the game. It remains to be seen whether it can compete against control decks like DATS Ravemon/Rosemon,  Chronomon: Destroy Mode or Mervamon, but given its wide toolkit I think it's got a good chance at breaking into the meta in a big way.

All of this is why Examon is, in my opinion, by far the most promising new deck to come out of EX13. I'd be pretty surprised if the deck didn't make it into Tier 2, given how powerful so many of these cards are.

What Old Stuff Do I Need?

If you're interested in building Examon for EX13, here's some suggestions for cards from previous sets to pick up. Thankfully, the new wave is so comprehensive that you honestly don't need much to put the new deck together.

Dracomon and Dracomon  are the deck's best old rookies. BT11 Draco is probably the more promising of the two thanks to it's useful memory gain inherit. Dracomon is also an option for it's search if you find the consistency as a necessity.

Dracomon (X Antibody) is one of the core cards of the deck, saving you a tonne of memory, effectively cycling itself for free over any Dracomon and offering that crtically important inherited effect.

Unleash the Dragon Gene is a helpful option card that combos well with Bebydomon and the new Slayerdramon and Breakdramon due to their Assembly costs and opens up cheap combos to either Examon. The <Delay> effect further punishes opponents for using removal on your stacks, though dedigivolve still remains an issue. 

BT23 Examon is still an incredible boss monster that offers alternative usecases to the new EX13 Examon, primarily in it's tamer and option hate which are tools other decks would absolutely kill for. His position in the deck is absolutely not usurped by his new version, the two absolutely need each other and fulfill different roles; where as BT23 Examon provides incredible control and removal, EX13 Examon offers powerful board pushes and damage potential.

Finally, there's a few consistency pieces worth considering: Davis Motomiya, Wisteria Memory Boost!, Alexandrite Memory Boost! and Analog Youth. Each of these has their pros and cons, but consistency pieces are still valuable for Examon even with the added reliability the new pieces add. I'd suggest experimenting with each of these to find out which works best for you.