Digimon Card Game (2020)

Digimon Card Game (デジモンカードゲーム Dejimon Kādo Gēmu^?) is a card game developed by Bandai Namco. It was released in Japan in April 2020 and released in English in January 2021^[1] though select stores held a pre-sale on November 27, 2020.^[2]

FUN! DigiCa, a YouTube show promoting the Japanese version of the game, started airing on March 23, 2020.

A smartphone game that allows players to play the card game is currently in development, Digimon Alysion.

On April 25 2025, BT-21: World Convergence was released. This was the first set which saw a simultaneous between Japanese and English releases, bringing the English and Japanese release schedules into line with each other.

Gameplay[]

Each player's deck consists of 50 cards, along with a Digi-Egg (デジタマ, DejiTama^?, lit. "Digi-Tama") deck consisting of 0-5 cards. A deck cannot contain more than 4 of any given card number, with the exception of restricted cards (1 card per deck), banned cards and cards with special effects that allow extra copies (e.g. BT6-085 Eosmon Lv. 5, whose effect allows a player to have 50 copies in a deck).

Object of the Game[]

Each player starts the game with 5 cards on their security stack. The object of the game is to successfully attack the opposing player when there are no cards left in their security stack. A player can also lose by being unable to draw during their draw phase.

Areas[]

There are several zones/areas on the playing field:

Deck: Contains the player's 50-card main deck
Trash (also referred to as the "recycle bin" on some early cards): Deleted, discarded and played cards
Security Stack: A defensive wall that protects the player. When the security stack is checked by an attack, battle is conducted with the revealed digimon and any security effects activate on revealed cards
Battle Area: The main area of the playing field where active Digimon, Tamers and some option cards sit. Anything in the Battle Area is said to be "in play"
Digi-Egg Deck: Contains the player's secondary deck containing 0-5 Digi-Egg cards. This is the only deck that can contain Digi-Egg cards and cannot contain any other type of card.
Breeding Area: Where Digi-Egg cards are hatched from the Digi-Egg deck. Cards in the breeding area cannot activate any or be targeted by effects unless specifically stated by the effect
Memory Gauge: Tracks "memory", the primary resource of the game. The gauge has 0 in the centre and goes up to 10 on each player's side. When a player pays a memory cost, the counter counts down and moves towards the opponent's side of the gauge. Once the counter passes 0 and all effects have resolved, the current player's turn ends and the opponent starts their turn with the amount of memory the counter ends on. A player cannot pay a cost that would move the memory gauge beyond 10 of the opponent's side.

When something references the "field", it means both the battle area and the breeding area.

Cards[]

Every card in the Digimon Card Game has common features:

Memory cost: When a card is played, the memory gauge is changed according to the cost of the played card.
Code/Card Number: The unique code of the card. A card's code is made up of a set identifier (ST? for starters, BT, EX, or RB for boosters, P for promotional cards, LM for limited set cards) and a 2 or 3 digit number, separated by a dash. For Example: Coredramon from the red starter deck "Gaia Red" has the code "ST1-06", and Blasted Disaster from the Double Diamond booster set has the code "BT6-103".
Rarity: There are 5 levels of rarity: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare and Secret Rare. There are also alternate art versions of many cards that are much more rare which, since ST15 and ST16, are indicated with a star, two stars or "SP" next to the normal rarity icon.
Block Icon: Indicates the time period when this card was released.

Colours[]

Cards are also divided into seven colours, with some cards having multiple colours. Each colour has a vague theme that guides card development with some overlap. Certain digimon types also tend to be associated with certain colours, but the rule is not hard and fast:

Red
- Theme: Aggression and Power.
- Common types: Fire, dragon
Blue:
- Theme: Hand and digivolution card control
- Common types: Water, ice
Yellow:
- Theme: Security control and DP reduction
- Common types: Holy, angel
Green:
- Theme: Digivolution speed and suspending digimon
- Common types: Vegetation, insectoid
Black:
- Theme: Toolbox and defense
- Common types: Machine, cyborg
Purple:
- Theme: Trash manipulation, sacrificing own digimon.
- Common types: Demon, undead
White:
- Theme: General support
- Common types: N/A

Card Types[]

Cards are divided up into four types:

Digimon[]

The core of any deck, digimon cards are the main battling cards of the game. Every digimon card has the following features:

DP (Digimon Power): This functions as both attack and defence in battles. When two digimon battle, the one with the lower DP is deleted, or both if it is a tie. If a digimon's DP is ever reduced to 0, it is deleted.
Traits: classifications and characteristics of the digimon card. Usually made up of the following parts:
- Digivolution stage (Rookie/Champion/etc.)
- Attribute (Data/Vaccine/Virus/etc.)
- One or more descriptors that describe the digimon's other characteristics. These are usually the digimon's type (e.g. Insectoid, Dragon, Angel) along with with a family or affliation (e.g. Ten Warriors, D-Brigade, Blue Flare)
Level: A digimon card's level generally lines up with its form (Lv.3 = Rookie, Lv. 4 = Champion, and so on), although there are exceptions. There are also digimon cards with no level (Listed as "Lv.–")

There are also features that only appear on some digimon cards, but not others:

Digivolution requirements: The level, colour, and digivolution cost required for a Digimon to digivolve into the card. Most digimon cards have at least one set of digivolution requirements and some have multiple. Names or traits may also be used as alternative requirements on some cards.
DNA digivolution requirements: Similar to digivolution requirements, except that it details the requirements of the two digimon required for DNA digivolution.
Card effects: Many digimon cards have effects that apply either constantly or on certain triggers. There are also keyword effects, which may have their descriptions written afterwards on the card.
Inherited Effect: Effects that a digimon card grants to a digimon it is under. The inherited effects of all digimon underneath the top digimon card (termed "digivolution cards") are applied to the digimon and their effects may stack.
Link information: Appmon digimon cards have extra information used in linking:
- Link trait and cost: The trait this digimon can link to and the cost to do so
- Link DP: The extra DP that is added to the DP of the digimon linked to that card
- Link effect: A persistent effect applied while the card is linked to a digimon, and/or and effect that triggers when the card is linked.
App Fusion requirements: Similar to DNA digivolution requirements, except that any two of the listed digimon can be used for App Fusion.

Options[]

Option cards provide one-off supporting effects, and in some cases a secondary effect that can be triggered after playing. Most option cards also have a security effect that triggers when the card is checked from the security stack. For the majority of option cards, the security effect is to activate the card's main effect, however some have a different security effect.

Option cards can only be played from the hand if the player has a digimon and/or tamer card of the same colour as the option card in the battle area or the breeding area. This is called a "colour requirement". If the option card has multiple colours, all of the card's colour requirements must be met, although a single, multi-colour card can fulfil all requirements on its own.

A few option cards also have an inherited effect like digimon cards. These cards usually also have an effect that places the card under a digimon.

Tamers[]

Tamer cards are played into the battle area and usually provide ongoing supporting effects. Many tamer cards also have one-off effects that trigger when the card is first played. All tamer cards have a security effect that plays them at no cost when the card is checked from the security stack.

Some tamer cards also have inherited effects like digimon cards. These tamer cards are usually associated with a particular mechanic such us Hybrid digimon as seen in Digimon Frontier or the Mindlink concept from Digimon Seekers.

Digi-Eggs[]

Digi-eggs cards special cards with a different, white card back that reside in an optional "Digi-Egg deck". While similar to Digimon cards, Digi-egg cards only have a subset of the features of digimon cards, namely traits and inherited effects.

A few digi-egg cards also have main effects and in one case DP. These digi-eggs are special, archetype-specific cards that act as central pieces to their repective decks.

Mechanics[]

Digivolution[]

A core mechanic of the Digimon Card Game, in line with being a core concept in the Digimon franchise, digivolution allows a player to put a digimon card into play for a lower cost than just playing it while drawing an extra card and possibly gaining extra effects at the cost of replacing any main effects of the original top card.

If a digimon card can be digivolved into, it will have digivolution requirements printed on the card. For example:

BT6-066 PileVolcamon can digivolve from a Black Lv. 5 digimon for a cost of 3 memory.
EX1-022 Imperialdramon Dragon Mode can digivolve from either a Blue or Green Lv. 5 digimon for for a cost of 3 memory.
BT5-015 MetalGreymon: Alterous Mode can digivolve from a Red Lv. 4 digimon for for a cost of 3 memory or from a Red Lv. 5 digimon for for a cost of 1 memory.
BT8-038 Magnamon can digivolve from a Yellow or Blue Lv. 3 digimon for for a cost of 4 memory or from Veemon for 3 memory.
BT18-011 Agunimon can digivolve from a Red or Purple Lv. 3 digimon or a Red or Purple tamer for a cost of 3 memory, from Takuya Kanbara for a cost of 2 memory and from BurningGreymon for no cost.
BT21-043 Sociamon can digivolve from a Yellow Lv. 3 digimon or any colour of "Stnd." trait digimon for for a cost of 2 memory.

To digivolve, a player pays the digivolution cost and places the card that is being digivolved into as the top card of a digimon in the battle area or breeding area that meets the digivolution requirements, stacking the cards in such a way that any inherited effects are visible. The player then draws a card as a "digivolution bonus". Any cards underneath a digimon are referred to as "digivolution cards".

Digivolution cards can grant the digimon they are under extra effects called inherited effects. For example: when a digimon with ST3-08 MagnaAngemon in its digivolution cards attacks, it reduces an opponent's digimon's DP by 1000.

DNA Digivolution[]

Introduced in the Digimon Adventure 02 themed "New Awakening" booster set (BT8), similar to what is seen in that series, DNA Digivolution combines two digimon that are already in play and then digivolves them into a new digimon.

If a digimon can be DNA digivolved into, it will have DNA digivolution requirements printed on the card in the special digivolution area. DNA digivolution requirements show the colours and/or levels of the digimon that the can be digivolved from as well as the cost to digivolve, written as "DNA Digivolution: {cost} from {colour} Lv.{level} + {colour} Lv.{level}".

To DNA digivolve, a player stacks the digimon that matches the left side of the DNA digivolution requirements on top of the digimon that matches the right side of the requirements, then plays the new digimon card on top just as in normal digivolution, paying the displayed cost. The resultant digimon is considered to be a newly played digimon except that it is able to attack straight away without waiting until the next turn.

For Example:
A player has in the battle area ST9-04 ExVeemon suspended with ST9-03 Betamon underneath it, and ST9-09 Stingmon with ST9-08 Wormmon and ST9-01 Minomon underneath it. ST9-05 Paildramon's requirements say "DNA Digivolution: 0 from (blue) Lv.4 + (green) Lv.4". The player unsuspends the ExVeemon and stacks it and Betamon on top of the Stingmon and its digivolution cards, then the player places the Paildramon on top on the ExVeemon. The newly DNA digivolved Paildramon now has ExVeemon, Betamon, Stingmon, Wormmon and Minomon under it, it is unsuspended and can attack if it is still that player's turn.

DigiXros -X[]

A mechanic introduced in the Digimon Fusion/Digimon Xros Wars themed "Xros Encounter" booster set (BT10), DigiXros allows a player to reduce the cost of playing certain digimon by placing the specified digimon from their hand or battle area underneath it as digivolution cards in the order listed on the card. Each digimon that is added reduces the play cost of the digimon by the specified amount. If a digimon from the battle area is used, any cards under it are discarded. Certain Tamers (Usually with the trait "General") also allow digimon under them to be used for a DigiXros.

For Example:
A player has in the battle area BT10-008 Shoutmon with a BT10-003 Pickmons underneath it and has BT10-034 Dorulumon in hand. BT10-009 Shoutmon X4 has the DigiXros requirements: [DigiXros -2] [Shoutmon] × [Ballistamon] × [Dorulumon] × [Starmons] and a play cost of 9. The player can play Shoutmon X4, placing the Shoutmon from the battle area and the Dorulumon from hand under the Shoutmon X4, in that order, trashing the Pickmons, to reduce its play cost to 5. The Shoutmon X4 that was just played now has Shoutmon and Dorulumon under it in that order.

Linking[]

Based on the Applink process from Digimon Universe App Monsters, this was introduced in BT-21: World Convergence. This allows a player to play a card with link requirements sideways (referred to as "plugged in" in the comprehensive manual) under a matching digimon in the battle area granting it more DP, and either a persistent effect or effect that triggers when linking. Digimon can only have 1 card linked and a new link will cause the old linked card to drop off, however effects can increase that limit.

For Example:
A player has in the battle area BT21-009 Gatchmon and has BT21-047 Navimon in hand. Gatchmon has the Appmon Trait and 2000 DP, and Navimon has the link information "[Link] [Appmon] trait: Cost 1", +2000 DP, and "Piercing". The player can pay 1 memory to plug Navimon in sideways to Gatchmon. Gatchmon will now have 4000 DP and Piercing. That's 2000 DP from itself, an extra 2000 DP and piercing from the linked Navimon.

App Fusion[]

Introduced alongside Linking in BT-21, App Fusion allows a digimon and its linked card to combine to digivolve into a stronger one, usually for a reduced total cost. If App Fusion can be used to digivolve into a particular digimon card, it will have App Fusion requirements printed in the special digivolution area. Regardless of how many digimon are listed in the requirements, only two of them are required

To perform an App Fusion, one of the required digimon must be in the battle area and one of the others must be linked to it. The cost is paid, the linked card is taken from under the digimon and placed on top, then the new digimon card is placed on top and a card is drawn, as in normal digivolution.

For Example:
A player has in the battle area BT21-009 Gatchmon, has BT21-047 Navimon in linked to it and BT21-018 DoGatchmon in hand. DoGatchmon has the App Fusion requirements "[Gatchmon] & [Navimon] & [Tweetmon]: Cost 0". The player can stack the Navimon from under Gatchmon on top of it, then stack the DoGatchmon from hand on top, drawing a card as usual.

Suspending[]

Attacking, blocking and various effects can cause a card in the battle area to become "suspended". When a digimon or tamer becomes suspended, its top card is turned sideways to show that it is in a suspended state. All of a player's suspended cards unsuspend in the Unsuspend Phase at the start of that player's turn. Suspended digimon can be attacked by an opponent's digimon.

Attacking[]

At any time during a player's turn, that player can have make attacks with their digimon. A digimon can either attack one of the opponent's suspended digimon, or the opposing player. If the opponent has an unsuspended digimon with blocker in the battle area, they can opt to suspend that digimon to have the target of the attack redirected to it.

If a digimon attacks a player directly, and the opposing player has at least 1 card in their security stack, the top card is flipped over (known as making a security check). if the card has a security effect, it is activated. If the checked card is a digimon card, it battles hte attacking digimon. If the checked card's effect didn't place it anywhere, it is placed in the trash.

If a digimon attacks a player directly, and the opposing player has no cards left in their security stack, the attacking player wins the game.

If a digimon attacks a suspended digimon, the two digimon battle.

When two digimon battle - whether because the opponent's digimon was attacked, was selected as a blocker or was checked from the security stack - their DPs are compared and the one with the lowest DP is deleted and sent to the trash. If there is a tie, both digimon are deleted. Digimon checked from the security stack are always deleted after battle, regardless of the result of the battle.

Effects[]

All option and tamer cards, as well as many digimon cards have effects that trigger when they are played, when something happens while they are in play or both. Some cards may even have effects that can be triggered multiple ways, such as On Play and When Digivolving. There are several triggers that determine when a card's effect takes effect, however the text may impose further conditions on when the effect can be used:

Start of Your Turn: Triggers at the very beginning of the player's turn, before any other actions are taken
Start of Your Main Phase: Triggers after the Unsuspend, Draw and Breeding Phases, but before the player can take any Main Phase actions.
On Play: Triggers when a card is played directly into the battle area.
When Digivolving: Triggers when a digimon card is digivolved into.
When Linking: Triggers when a card is linked into a digimon in the battle area.
When Attacking: Triggers when a digimon card declares an attack.
End of Attack: Triggers after a digimon card has finished its attack and has survived.
On Deletion: Triggers when a digimon card is deleted from the battle area.
Security: Triggers when a card is checked from the security stack.
End of Your/Opponent's Turn: Triggers at the end of the given player's turn. These effects can trigger multiple times per turn, if an effect causes the memory counter to move back to 0 or more.
Counter: Triggers when one of your opponent's digimon attacks.

Some keywords affect where an effect can be activated or be active from:

Breeding: Takes effect only when the card is in the breeding area and can affect the rest of the field.
Hand: Activated when the card is in the hand. This differs from normal effects in that you don't pay the normal costs of the card and the effect instead lists any costs required.
Security: Takes effect only when the card is face up in security.
Trash: Activated when the card is in the trash.

There are also several keywords that are present on cards that represent common effects. Many of these keywords have the effects expanded afterwards in brackets on the cards, but some reminder text was removed from BT8 onwards. Current Keyword effects are:

Name	Description
Alliance (連携, Renkei^?, lit. "Cooperation")	When the Digimon attacks, by suspending 1 of your other Digimon, the attacking Digimon adds the suspended Digimon's DP and gains Security Attack +1 for that attack. Multiple instances of Alliance allow the you to suspend multiple other digimon to add the total DP, and Security Attack +1 for each suspended Digimon.
Armor Purge (アーマー解除, Aamaa kaijo^?, lit. "Armour release")	When the Digimon would be deleted, you may trash the top card of the Digimon to prevent that deletion.
Barrier (防壁, Bouheki^?, lit. "Protective wall")	When the Digimon would be deleted in battle, by trashing the top card of your security stack, prevent that deletion.
Blitz (進撃, Shingeki^?, lit. "Charge")	Usually paired with the "When Digivolving", or the "On Play" trigger. During the given trigger, this Digimon can attack when your opponent has 1 or more memory.
Blocker (ブロッカー, Burokkaa^?)	When an opponent's Digimon attacks, at block timing, you may suspend this Digimon force the opponent to attack it instead.
Collision (衝突, Shoutotsu^?, lit. "Crash")	During the Digimon's attack, all of the opponent's Digimon gain <Blocker>, and the opponent must block if possible
De-Digivolve X (退化, Taika^?, lit. "Degeneration")	Trash X card(s) from the top of one of your opponent's Digimon. If it has no digivolution cards, or becomes a level 3 Digimon, you can't trash any more cards.
Decode «Colour Lv. X» (デコード, Dekoudo^?)	When this Digimon would leave the battle area other than in battle, you may play 1 Digimon card from its digivolution cards of the given colour and level without paying the cost.
Decoy «X» (デコイ, Dekoi^?)	When one of your other X Digimon would be deleted by an opponent's effect, you may delete this Digimon to prevent that deletion. Some cards were originally printed stating that this effect occurred when the digimon was deleted in any way; this has since been corrected with errata updates.
Delay (ディレイ, Direi^?)	Used on some option cards to give them a second effect that is usable on a later turn, by trashing the card in the battle area activate the specified effect at the given timing.
Digi-Burst X (デジバースト, Deji Baasuto^?)	Trash X of this Digimon's digivolution cards to activate the specified effect.
Digisorption -X (吸収進化, Kyuushuu shinka^?, lit. "Absorption evolution")	When one of your Digimon digivolves into this card from your hand, you may suspend 1 of your Digimon to reduce the memory cost of the digivolution by X.
Draw X (ドロー, dorou^?)	Draw X cards from the deck.
Evade (回避, Kaihi^?, lit. "Evasion")	When this Digimon would be deleted, it may be suspended to prevent that deletion.
Execute (エグゼキュート, Eguzekyuuto^?)	At the end of the turn, this Digimon may attack. At the end of that attack, delete this Digimon. Your opponent's unsuspended Digimon can also be attacked with this effect.
Fortitude (不屈, Fukutsu^?)	When this Digimon with digivolution cards is deleted, play the card without paying the cost.
Fragment «X» (フラグメント, Furagumento^?)	When this Digimon would be deleted, by trashing any X of its digivolution cards, it isn’t deleted.
Iceclad (氷装, Kourisou^?, lit. "Ice Suit")	Other than against Security Digimon, compare the number of digivolution cards instead of DP in this Digimon's battles
Jamming (ジャミング, Jamingu^?)	This Digimon can't be deleted in battles against Security Digimon.
Link +X (リンク, Rinku^?)	Adds the specified number to the maximum link cards of the Digimon with this effect.
Material Save X (マテリアルセーブ, materiaru seibu^?)	When this digimon is deleted, you may place X cards in this Digimon's DigiXros conditions from this Digimon's digivolution cards under 1 of your tamers.
Mind Link (マインドリンク, Maindo rinku^?)	Place this Tamer as that Digimon's bottom digivolution card if there are no Tamer cards in its digivolution cards. Based on the Mindlink concept from Digimon Seekers.
Overclock «X» (オーバークロック, Oubaakurokku^?)	At the end of your turn, by deleting 1 of your Tokens or other X trait Digimon, this Digimon attacks a player without suspending.
Partition X & Y (パーティション, Paatishon^?)	When this Digimon with each of the specified digivolution cards X and Y under it would leave the battle area other than by your own effects or by battle, you may play 1 each of the specified cards from its digivolution cards without paying the costs.
Piercing (貫通, Kantsuu^?, lit. "Pierce")	When this Digimon attacks and deletes an opponent's Digimon and survives the battle, it performs any security checks it normally would.
Progress (プログレス, Puroguresu^?)	This Digimon isn't affected by your opponent's effects while attacking.
Raid (突進, Tosshin^?, lit. "Charge")	When this Digimon attacks, it may then redirect its attack to the opponent's unsuspended digimon with the highest DP.
Reboot (再起動, Saikidou^?, lit. "Restart")	Unsuspend this Digimon during your opponent's unsuspend phase
Recovery +X «Deck» (リカバリー, rikabarii^?)	Place the top X cards of your deck on top of your security stack.
Retaliation (道連れ, Michidure^?, lit. "Travel companion")	When this Digimon is deleted after losing a battle, delete the Digimon it was battling.
Rush (速攻, Sokkou^?, lit. "Swift Attack")	This Digimon can attack the turn it comes into play.
Save (セーブ, Seibu^?)	Paired with the "On Deletion" Trigger. You may place this card under one of your tamers.
Scapegoat (スケープゴート, Sukeipugouto^?)	When this Digimon would be deleted other than by one of your effects, by deleting 1 of your other Digimon, prevent that deletion.
Security Attack +/-X (セキュリティアタック, Sekyuriti atakku^?)	Abbreviated to Security A. +/-X (Sアタック, S-Atakku^?) from ST15/16 onwards This Digimon checks X additional/fewer security cards. If a digimon has extra security attacks, each attack is resolved separately and only if the attacking digimon survives the previous attack If a digimon has zero or fewer security attacks, it can still declare a security attack, however no cards will be checked and the attack cannot win the game. Combinations of Security Attack + and Security Attack - are cumulative. For example, if a digimon is given Security Attack -1 and later gains Security Attack +1, it gets 1 security attack as normal but it is still considered to have Security Attack effects active.
Vortex (ヴォルテクス, Vorutekusu^?)	At the end of your turn, this Digimon may attack an opponent's Digimon. With this effect, it can attack the turn it was played.

Ace Digimon[]

Introduced in the starter decks ST-15: Dragon of Courage and ST-16: Wolf of Friendship, Ace digimon have lower play costs than digimon of the same level, and can be digivolved into in response to an opponent's attack for no cost (Blast Digivolve), at the cost of losing memory when they leave the field (Overflow). EX6: Infernal Ascension introduced "Blast DNA Digivolve" which allows a digimon to DNA digivolve along with a matching digimon card in hand.

Rule Text[]

Introduced in the booster set BT-14: Blast Ace, Rule text contains details about the card that always applies to the card, regardless of where the card is. The biggest difference between Rule text and normal effect text is that normal card effects do not work in the Breeding Area. For example: Panjyamon (BT14-052) has the Rule text "Name: Treated as having [Leomon] in its name."

In August 2024, many cards that had effect text were given errata to make those effects Rule text. Cards that contained the effects "The XX of this card/Digimon is also treated as [YY]" or "You may include up to XX in your deck" released prior to BT-14 now have those effects considered to be Rule text.

Companion app[]

The Digimon Card Game Tutorial App (デジモンカードゲームティーチングアプリ Dejimon Kādo Gēmu Tīchingu Apuri^?, lit. "Digimon Card Game Teaching App") is an app designed to teach the rules of the card game. It allows the player to select one of the first three starter decks (ST-1, ST-2, and ST-3) and play through a series of tutorials. On October 12, 2023, the app was updated to allow the usage of ST-15 and ST-16 as well.