BT-09 Gabubond - Local Winner

Took this list to a first place finish at my local. I truly believe this deck is positioned well in the BT-09 meta with the presence of big stacks. X-Antibody decks are incredibly powerful and nearly 50% of decks in this weeks local were some variant of X-Antibody. With the limiting of Tommy Himi it makes your security much weaker to fight the X-Antibody decks with their big check turns. Prior to the limiting, Tommy was a phenomenal card to have in security because you could strip sources without

Took this list to a first place finish at my local. I truly believe this deck is positioned well in the BT-09 meta with the presence of big stacks. X-Antibody decks are incredibly powerful and nearly 50% of decks in this weeks local were some variant of X-Antibody. With the limiting of Tommy Himi it makes your security much weaker to fight the X-Antibody decks with their big check turns. Prior to the limiting, Tommy was a phenomenal card to have in security because you could strip sources without investing any memory. 

Round 1 WIN - (2) Gabubond vs. (0) Metal Garururmon X-Antibody

Round 2 WIN - (2) Gabubond vs. (0) Grandiskuwagamon

Round 3 WIN - (2) Gabubond vs. (1) Alphamon X-Antibody

With Tommy down to 1, I put higher priority on having to play on my turn and not relying on hitting anything of value in security. With that I added a third Howling Memory Boost to help combat big stacks. 

This was the first tournament I added Leomon into the list. I put 4 Leomon into the list and it was an absolute powerhouse against the aggressive decks. One notable thing about the list having Leomon is I am not running Jeri. I don't believe Jeri is necessary in this list with the amount of drawing and digging we do with Strabimon, Davis, Gabumons and Matt. I just find the draw engine does not become relevant enough to justify paying 4 memory rather than digivolving into Leomon for 2 onto our Strabimon, BT-1 Gabumon or EX1 Gabumon. We also want the Leomon to be digivolved onto the EX1- Gabumon in order to enable the inherited to help us dig. The list also does not have the room to dilute the Gabubond package. If this were a pure hybrid list, I would add the Jeri, but being a deck that requires so many spots to be deligated to the Gabubond package it does not provide enough value to justify the space. 

If I had to make any changes from this week to next week, I'll probably drop the Innocence Blizzard from 2 down to 1 and add another Modoki. Modoki was a powerhouse at being able to keep Alphamon X-Antibody at bay. Yes, I dropped a game to Alphamon, but I only found Modoki in one of the three games (game 1) and it halted their growth to a degree that enabled me to start stripping sources and stunning because they were ever able to go for the win and by the time they could deal with the Modoki they were controlled beyond repair. 

Against X-Antibody decks, you must understand that you're going to be pushed into having to play a more controlling game. That means slowing yourself down and playing for the long game and establishing a Leomon early and trying to get Korikakumon and Howling Memory boosts ready. You will be forced into having to use 2 to 3 different source strips and stun effects in a turn just to keep them at bay. The hardest part with a deck like this is knowing exactly when to flip the switch in these matchups where you go from on the back foot to taking over completely. 

I do believe that Strabimon at 4 is the correct choice still even cutting Kumamon from 4 to 3 and having Tommy limited at 1. Strabimon is a rookie that finds you a tamer to enable Leomons blocker and helps find Korikakumon to secure late game stuns and damage. 

There were two massive winners in this deck for the week and they were Sora/Joe and Leomon. To be honest, I believe Sora/Joe should have been limited rather than Tommy. Tommy can be dealt with once you hybrid onto him, but Sora/Joe is a hard to deal with tamer that just consistantly strips sources and takes over boards to enable stuns. Leomon being a card that can be offensive and defensive is insane. In matchups you want to be aggressive you can go rookie in breeding on turn 1 then turn 2 promote and put Leomon onto it, swing and if you die you get that 2 memory back and draw a card so for 0 memory you drew 2 cards and got a security check.

** IMPORTANT NOTE ** If you're playing against a big stack deck. If you have Sora/Joe in your starting hand, it is optimal to get that onto the board turn 1. The only real exception to this is if you can pin your opponent to 1 memory by playing something else. 

Have fun with this deck!