Digital Gate card discussion

[lessermontamer]

Its been a while since I have been able to post here again.
But I have been looking through the Card reviews and have seen something that does not make sense to me.

Digital Gate is a Power Blast card which has 3 effects.

1. Add 50 points to your Digimon Power.
2. Send 2 cards from your hand Offline.
3. Send your opponents Rookie Digimon Offline if
more than one Digimon is in the Duel Zone.

The third effect really confuses me and others. The review I read basically said that once your opponent Digivolves to the next level you win the game when playing this card...
I refuse to believe that a card can win you the game like this, so after re-reading this card and looking over the Rule book again I have come to this explanation to what this card may ACTUALLY do.

In this card game a player is able to switch his/her Rookie Digimon with another. Once the switch occurs the previous Rookie stays under the new Rookie until the new Rookie Digimon Digivolves to Champion, which then sends the old Rookie Offline.
What Digital Gate does is that when an Opponent has 2 Rookie Digimon on the Duel Zone the player is able to send one of them Offline.

Now I know what you may be thinking... "That's such a useless effect. Why even use it?"
Allow me to explain. The effect although very situational may help you win the game. Suppose your opponent switches his/her old Rookie for Labramon (Whose effect adds 200 points to your power as long as your have less than 600 Score Points.) Needless to say this effect is a pain, however with the help of Digital Gate Labramon is out for a long while.
Here is another scenario. Say your opponent switches to Impmon or another Rookie Digimon who can Digivolve in to something gruesome. After the switch happens play Digital Gate to stop your opponent from Digivolving that Rookie any further.

Now another argument comes along. Are the next level Digimon counted as separate Digimon them selves?
My answer to that is no. The reason why is because my understanding of the game basically says that when a Champion Digimon is placed on top of a Rookie it does not mean that the Rookie is still there but is indeed transformed in to the new level Digimon. In other words, the Champion Digimon and Rookie Digimon are indeed the same being.

I hope this explanation helps others to understand how the game works and not attempt to win the game in such a easy and broken game. A card game is meant to be fun, not annoying and broken...

[chibionineko]

I have re-written the review based on the articles from the reactivated Digital Index that was not available when I wrote the review initally. I had read the article once before I wrote the review but had some issues with how I remembered it as it was several months prior. Please re-read the review and the link I supplied in my post and give my opinion some consideration as it is what I feel is correct. Personally I have never had any issues playing the game with digital gate in this way, both with it being used against me and me using it. The megas that put themselves in play are far more damaging than this card, especially in a balanced deck with 3+ rookies built with reverse tree method.

[lessermontamer]

I see, & I agree that Cyberdramon's Digital Index does indeed help alot with understanding the rules better.
However I don't agree with your review of Digital Gate. In no point in the game does a player ever have more than one Digimon in the Duel Zone except for when there are 2 Rookies. (Champion-Megas are Digimon but are not separate Digimon. They are simply your Rookie Digimon at a higher level.)

[chibionineko]

lessermontamer wrote:

I see, & I agree that Cyberdramon's Digital Index does indeed help alot with understanding the rules better. However I don't agree with your review of Digital Gate. In no point in the game does a player ever have more than one Digimon in the Duel Zone except for when there are 2 Rookies. (Champion-Megas are Digimon but are not separate Digimon. They are simply your Rookie Digimon at a higher level.)

Ah, now I understand why you feel how you do, and perhaps I can help out here since I have a bit more understanding in how Bandai desings cards and rulings, having helped in the making of a card and worked to have a few rulings overturned in Naruto. Although it is a different game the creator and mindset of the creator is the same and both games have the same project lead, James Takanaka.

In later games produced by Bandai there is a clear distinction between the card and the thing on the card. For instance something may be considered a Ninja when in play but it is a Ninja card when it is not in play or attached to something inplay but not itself active. By that same logic used throughout their other games it is reasonable to assume there are 2 digimon, active and inactive, and indeed the rules allow for that with the switching of rookies and not digivolving.

We take this one step further, since so many places in the rules reference a "Active Rookie" or "Current Rookie" one can assume that the rookie is always considered to be there. So even when it is not the "Active Digimon" with reguards to battle it is still the "Active Rookie". Basically your active Digimon is a "Digimon" and all others on the stack could be considered "Digimon Cards", they are not part of the Active Digimon but are there for game mechanics reasons.

I understand how from looking at it from a consistency with the show perspective it seems they should all be part of the same card but Bandai has often stated the "source material is secondary to game mechanics" and in a card game despite everything they are cards first and characters second.

[lessermontamer]

I see what you mean... I just wish the people who wrote the text and Rules would have been more clear. Then perhaps one would not have to go through such hassle to find an answer and only end up with more questions...

Anyways yeah... For now I'll just play with the rule I stated above, but I'll also let others use you rule against me if it ever comes up.

[lessermontamer]

Also, if I understood this correctly. James Takanaka was the project leader for Digimon Digi-Battle right?
If there any way of contacting him?
I've got a couple of questions to ask 'em XD

[chibionineko]

James has avoided every question I have tried to ask about the game with the line, "our records dont go back that far anymore."

[lessermontamer]

WELL... The nerve of that guy! lol
It's sad to know that someone who has put time and work into something cannot answer a simple question about a past project which he should have pride for...

OH well, unless we find someone else who worked on it to give answers, we're stuck with what we come up with...

[chibionineko]

Well realistically as project lead he probably had very little to do with the actual design and rules and was likely more involved with finanace, marketing and logistics so it is somewhat understandable that hes clueless on how the game was supposed to run. And even if he had known with the records being destroyed and it having been around 10 years ago its not suprising he would forget. Not many people could tell you in detail about reports they did 10 years prior and since this was work not fun its likely he had no incentive to remember, lol.

[lessermontamer]

Also very true... oh well...
But yeah like I said before. I like how Cyberdramon's Digital Index attempted to answer alot of these questions. But some things there I don't agree with and I'm sure some other fans would say the same.

I think re-writing the rules to a standard where it makes complete sense and writing out when certain cards can be played and explaining how they should work could very well attract more people to the game and give it more traffic.
It worked with some friends at college and I'm sure it could work here too.
Also the way we play online HAS to be fixed. The new sound effects are neat, but the glitches still occur...