Highlights

  • Starter decks are the best way to get started in the Digimon Card Game, providing a basic understanding of the game and different play styles.
  • The Venomous Violet starter deck introduces purple cards and deletion effects, while the Machine Black deck focuses on setting up powerful blockers for defense.
  • The Giga Green deck suspends opponents' Digimon and deals damage using the Piercing effect, and the Heaven's Yellow deck stalls opponents with the Recover mechanic.

The best and easiest way to get started with any card game is with a starter deck. Whether it is with buying two different decks to play with a friend, or buying two of the same deck to make it competitively viable and take it to your very first local tournament, the Digimon Card Game starter decks give you a basic understanding of the basics of the game and how different archetypes work.

Related
Digimon Card Game: The 10 Best Cards From EX4: Alternative Being
Here are the best cards from EX4: Alternative Being in Digimon Card Game!

As the card game grows and introduces new mechanics, newer and better starter decks are released to ease players into these new ways of battling their opponents. Given the number of play styles found in the Digimon Card Game, exploring your options between all the starter decks is a must when starting the game.

ST-11 was only officially released in Japan. It was not a proper starter deck, but rather a set of reprinted cards from the first starter deck plus various red cards from the first couple of booster sets.

Updated November 29, 2023 by Jesus Morales: The power of friendship and courage have been unleashed in the Digimon Card Game. The Wolf Of Friendship and The Dragon Of Courage starter decks are out now and they come jam-packed with a new mechanic and old faces. This gives us a chance to revisit the list and slot in the newest Digital Monsters.

15 Venomous Violet

A Great Introduction, But With An Outdated Mechanic

cresgarurumon st6 digimon card game with blur and logo
  • Key Cards:
    • ST6-03 Gabumon
    • ST6-08 Devimon
    • ST6-15 Death Claw

Part of the second wave of starter decks, the Venomous Violet starter deck features the mighty CresGarurumon. If you're new to the purple color of cards in the game, this deck will show you how purple gains advantage by deletion effects and playing Digimon out of the trash from CresGarurumon's DigiBurst effect.

Being the first purple starter deck, it also includes staple cards like Death Claw and Blocker Devimon. These cards are an amazing addition to any player moving forward.

14 Machine Black

Defeat The Giant Wall Of Blockers

blitzgreymon from machine black starter deck from Digimon Card Game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST5-03 Agumon
    • ST5-11 Megadramon
    • ST5-14 Tai Kamiya

Paired alongside Venomous Violet and Giga Green, Machine Black focuses its game plan on setting up powerful blockers for a more defensive playstyle. With cards like Blocker Agumon, DarkTyrannomon, and Megadramon, you'll have no problem quickly climbing up your Digivolution stack into your Level six boss, the Machine Digimon, BlitzGreymon.

While the deck can set up some impressive defenses, it can have a bit of trouble keeping up with modern deck as BlitzGreymon's DigiBurst effect is underwhelming. The deck has some good bones, but it falls short of its top end Digimon.

13 Giga Green

The Insectoids Make Their Debut

herculeskabuterimon from giga green starter deck digimon card game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST4-04 Palmon
    • ST4-08 Kabuterimon

The last of the trifecta of the second wave of starter decks. This deck specializes in suspending your opponent's Digimon and dealing damage by using the Piercing effect of HerculesKabuterimon. The second wave of decks relied on the new DigiBurst mechanic, but the game rewards Digimon with powerful inheritable effects, making the mechanic intuitive.

Related
Digimon Card Game: 10 Most Valuable Cards From BT14: Blast Ace
Blast Ace introduced new Ace cards to the Digimon Card Game, but which are the most valuable?

By using DigiBurst on one of your Digimon stacks, you have to trash the required amount of Digivolution sources to activate a certain buff. For HerculesKabuterimon, DigiBursting two sources lets you suspend one of your opponent's Digimon, meaning you'll lose the DP buff that Palmon gives you or the Security trashing that MegaKabuterimon can give you.

12 Heaven's Yellow

Recover Your Security And Stall Your Opponent

angemon st3 digimon card game with blur and logo
  • Key Cards:
    • ST3-04 Patamon
    • ST3-15 Holy Flame

In the Digimon Card Game, Yellow's biggest game plan is to stall the opponent by using the Recover mechanic. Most of the cards in the Heaven's Yellow deck have effects that trigger when Digivolving or when played that let you rebuild your security stack by placing the top card of your deck on top of it.

The Heaven's Yellow deck is the easiest way to get started if you like decks with a stall game plan. Even though this deck was one of the first to be released, some cards in the deck, like Patamon, still see play in other yellow decks at the moment.

11 Cocytus Blue

The Ice-Cold Wolf

metalgarurumon st2 digimon card game with logo and blur
  • Key Cards:
    • ST2-13 Hammer Spark
    • ST2-15 Kaiser Nail
    • ST2-16 Cocytus Breath

Ever since its inception, the color blue in the Digimon Card Game has been one of the most versatile colors in the game. With powerful tools for memory gain, effects that strip Digivolution cards from your opponent's Digimon, and removal cards that return Digimon to the opponent's hand or deck, Blue consistently stays at the top of the metagame with every set that is released.

Although a bit older, Cocytus Blue is still a fun and powerful deck to play with, if only for its powerful staples like Hammer Spark, Cocytus Breath, and Kaiser Nail.

10 Gaia Red

Everyone's Favorite Armored Dragon

wargreymon st1 digimon card game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST1-07 Greymon
    • ST1-11 WarGreymon
    • ST1-16 Gaia Force

Red decks in Digimon Card Game like to hit fast and hard, and Gaia Red is no different. The basis of every red deck that came after it, Gaia Red's game plan is as simple as Digimon Card Game can get. You slowly build up a powerful stack of Digimon to delete your opponent's security in one go.

Related
Digimon Card Game: The Most Valuable Cards In BT13 – Versus Royal Knights
Here are the most BT13 – Versus Royal Knights valuable cards in Digimon Card Game!

With WarGreymon and a Greymon in its Digivolutions card, you can check up to four of your opponent's security cards in one attack. Greymon, being a generic red card that can trigger its Security Attack +1 effect at all times, makes Gaia Red an extremely valuable starter deck.

9 UlforceVeedramon

The Fastest Royal Knight

ulforceveedramon with blur and logo digimon card game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST8-02 Gabumon
    • ST8-06 Coredramon
    • ST8-08 AeroVeedramon

Veemon is one of Digimon's fan-favorite characters, but despite that, the UlforceVeedramon deck is a bit underwhelming compared to others. The deck relies on UlforceVeedramon's ability to unsuspend itself and using low Digivolution costs to climb up as soon as possible.

The best part about this deck, and what puts it above the rest, is the inclusion and first-time introduction of Memory Boost cards. These cards allow you to search for each color of Digimon and give you two more memory to work with next turn, speeding up the game immensely.

8 Gallantmon

Aggro Has Never Looked This Good

gallantmon st7 digimon card game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST7-06 GeoGreymon
    • ST7-11 Lightning Joust

The Gallantmon deck does almost the same as the Gaia Red deck but does so in a slightly different way. While the deck still focuses on gaining Security Attacks on a single Digimon to wipe your opponent's security, it does so with different option cards like Lightning Joust or through its inheritable effects.

This deck also has many effects that net you board advantage while deleting your opponent's smaller Digimon. This deck also comes with Memory Boosts cards for every color packed in, enhancing the deck's consistency, which is one thing that red continuously struggles with while playing.

7 RagnaLoardmon

The Tallest Digimon Stack You'll Ever Make

ragnaloardmon st13 digimon card game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST13-06 RagnaLoardmon
    • ST13-09 Ludomon
    • ST13-08 Chikurimon

RagnaLoardmon was released as a standalone archetype in a set previous to this deck, but at the time of release, the archetype was a bit underwhelming and a bit hard to play with only a base core as support for the deck.

Related
Digimon Card Game: The 10 Most Valuable Promo Cards
Promo cards are among the Digimon Card Game's most valuable ever released.

With the introduction to the Ragnaloardmon deck and the DNA Digivolution mechanic, the deck becomes much faster and lore accurate with fusing both BryweLudramon and Durandamon. Different from most DNA decks, Ragnaloardmon uses On Play effects from lower-level Digimon to search and play out Digimon directly from the deck.

6 Dragon Of Courage

Ace Digimon Are Here To Stay!

wargreymon ace digimon card game st-15
  • Key Cards:
    • ST15-01 Koromon
    • ST15-02 Agumon
    • ST15-08 Greymon
    • ST15-14 Tai Kamiya

ST15 is the first introduction to Digimon Card Game's Ace cards. These Digimon cards can be used as a "handtrap," ala Yu-Gi-Oh!, when your opponent declares an attack. With Wargreymon Ace, you can bait your opponent into attacking your suspended level five Digimon, only to be met with an 11,000 DP wall of courage.

The deck introduced many great Greymon cards, especially those of the black variety, but as a strictly sealed product, the deck falls apart when facing newer and faster decks.

5 Parallel World Tactician

The Perfect Fusion Of Angels

mastemon digimon card game with blur and logo
  • Key Cards:
    • ST10-04 Gatomon
    • ST10-06 Mastemon
    • ST10-14 Chaos Degradation

With this wave of starter decks, dual-colored cards were introduced, opening deck-building up to many more possibilities. The Parallel World Tactician, also known as the Mastemon Deck, is the best way to introduce dual-colored cards.

Focused on the DNA Digivolution mechanic, the Mastemon deck uses purple's removal and resource management with the trash, and yellow's recovery to control your opponent's board while increasing your security stack with powerful new removal effects like Chaos Degradation.

4 Ultimate Ancient Dragon

Ken And Davis' Ultimate Dragon

paildramon image with blur and logo digimon card game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST9-05 Paildramon
    • ST9-06 Imperialdramon Dragon Mode
    • ST9-14 Megadeath

Unlike the Mastemon deck, Ultimate Ancient Dragon, a deck centered around Veemon and Wormmon's DNA Digivolution, Imperialdramon, tends to be a tad more aggressive.

Related
Digimon Card Game: The Best Cards In BT13 – Versus Royal Knights
Here are the best cards from BT13 – Versus Royal Knights in Digimon Card Game!

The Imperialdramon deck tends to close out the game by utilizing the Ultimate level Paildramon for its aggressive plays. If worse comes to worst, this deck can go into Imperialdramon: Dragon Mode, to play out two Digimon from its Digivolution cards, forcing your opponent to deal with three Digimon at the same time or be forced to lose the game.

3 Jesmon

The Royal Knight Disciple

jesmon digimon card game with blur and logo st12
  • Key Cards:
    • ST12-12 Sistermon Blanc
    • ST12-10 Jesmon
    • ST12-15 From Master To Disciple

Jesmon was especially popular during its introduction in BT6 Double Diamond. One of the first OTK decks in the Digimon Card Game besides WarGreymon, the Jesmon deck was capable of deleting your opponent's security while gaining advantage by playing Sistermon Digimon for free that gain Blocker once in the Battle Area.

After the restriction to BT6 SaviorHuckmon, the deck was stuck in limbo without a viable Ultimate level Digimon to replace Savior. The Royal Knight deck not only gave players a new SaviorHuckmon, but it leveled up the deck to the top tier with the addition of a brand new Jesmon and new Sistermon cards with Decoy, and even more powerful effects.

2 Wolf Of Friendship

Take Back Your Turn By Trashing Cards

metalgarurumon ace digimon card game st-16
  • Key Cards:
    • ST16-03 Gabumon
    • ST16-08 Garurumon
    • ST16-11 WereGarurumon
    • ST16-12 MetalGarurumon Ace

Unlike the Wargreymon counterpart, the MetalGarurumon deck released alongside, is one of the better decks that you can play straight out of the box. Not only is the trashing engine quite powerful, the cards included are generic enough to stay relevant in many purple decks for sets to come.

Even though the Digimon Card Game is jokingly known as "Greymon Card Game" due to the vast amount of Agumon/Greymon support, Gabumon and MetalGarurumon get just as much love, but it is an even more consistent archetype.

1 Beelzemon Advanced Deck Set

One Of The Best Sealed Product You Can Buy

beelzemon alt art from starter deck digimon card game
  • Key Cards:
    • ST14-08 Beelzemon
    • ST14-02 Impmon
    • ST14-12 Rivals Barrage

The Beelzemon Advanced Deck Set is not only the best starter deck right out of the box, but it is also one of the best products that Bandai has released so far. With an MSRP of double what a regular starter deck costs, the Beezemon deck includes a competitive experience without adding many cards to the pre-built, a pack of sleeves, and a set of reprinted cards with brand-new artwork.

Investing in this deck leaves you in a great spot to start playing the game with one of the best mill decks in the format, but you will also have a chance of pulling a coveted Beelzemon Alternate Art that is worth a hefty amount.

Next
Digimon Card Game: The 10 Best Cards From BT14: Blast Ace
From Cargodramon to Brigadramon, here are the best BT14: Blast Ace cards in the Digimon Card Game.