This battle is between the Dragonkin deck of former champ, Owen Dreadnought, and the Galacticmon deck of the Noah Project raid boss NPC Xeno—the current world champion, Zenith.

Owen's deck is a quintessential red deck. It favors all-out attacks, trashing security cards and triggering effects by doing so. The deck is great at deleting opponent Digimon, but it'll likely be backed into a corner in this battle.

This is because Zenith's Galacticmon deck excels at controlling the playing field with its ability to shrug off multiple attempted deletions and keep cards on the field.

It doesn't just shine in defense—it can trash a ton of security cards at once through the “Ragnarok Cannon” Option card. While this deck may be difficult to use and is tailored more toward experts, it also happens to be the deck that Zenith conquered the world with.

Once Galacticmon makes its appearance on Zenith's field, Owen needs to focus on defeating it. So...he'll want to win before that even happens... Well, would you look at that? This battle's a Situation Battle that has replicated the conditions of the world finals.

Not only has the game started with Galacticmon already on the field, but Owen has 0 security cards. Zenith, on the other hand, has 5 security cards.

This battle begins with Owen at a huge disadvantage. Can he manage to get revenge for his defeat back at the finals? Let's take a look at how this fierce match played out.

This is how Owen's playing field looks at the start of the game.

He might have 0 security cards, but he's got 2 “Red Memory Boost!” cards and a WarGreymon that has 19000 DP (which is more than Galacticmon), thanks to its inherited effects. Not too shabby at all.

Next up, we've got Zenith's playing field.

He's already got eight Vemmon as digivolution cards under Galacticmon, and a Tamer to secure 3 memory. Also, Snatchmon is standing by in the breeding area.

Galacticmon's ability to stay on the field can be used twice. Zenith has put himself in a position where he'll be able to digivolve into a second Galacticmon if Owen deletes the first.

We kick off with Owen's Main Phase, with the memory gauge at 4.

Owen starts by launching an attack on Galacticmon with WarGreymon.

Galacticmon has 17000 DP, while WarGreymon has 19000. If nothing is done, then Galacticmon should end up deleted, but its [All Turns] effect means that it won't leave the field.

Everything up to now is identical to what happened at the world finals. But Owen's deck has evolved since then.

Owen uses the Delay effect of the 2 Red Memory Boost cards to increase his memory to 8, and pays 3 to use Unique Emblem: Blazing Conductor, which allows him to play Elizamon.

Owen uses Elizamon's [On Play] effect to add Lamiamon to his hand, and then digivolves it into Dimetromon. With Dimetromon's [When Digivolving] effect he gets to play 1 Tamer card to his battle area, which then lets him digivolve Dimetromon into Lamiamon.

Lamiamon's [When Digivolving] effect makes Zenith add a card from his hand to the bottom of his security and then trashes his top security card. What's more, because this effect trashed 1 of Zenith's security cards, Owen gains 2 memory from the inherited effects of Lamiamon's digivolution cards, Elizamon and Dimetromon.

Then, for a cost of 2 memory, Lamiamon digivolves into Medusamon thanks to the effect of WarGreymon's digivolution card, Gigimon.

Medusamon's [When Digivolving] effect makes it set its sights on Galacticmon for deletion.

But, before Medusamon can sink its teeth in, Galacticmon's [All Turns] effect activates again, keeping it on the field by returning 4 Vemmon cards to the bottom of the deck. Galacticmon's ability to stay on the field has finally been all used up.

Following this, Owen sends 2 Snatchmon cards from Zenith's trash to the bottom of the deck, playing 2 Petrification Tokens to Zenith's field.

A green and scarlet gust suddenly sweeps the battlefield.

The wind is blowing just right… By suspending 2 Petrification Tokens, Owen brings out one of Shoto Kazama's trump cards—the Vortex Warrior, MedievalGallantmon.

Playing MedievalGallantmon triggers its [When Digivolving] effect through its [All Turns] effect. One of the freshly suspended Petrification Tokens is deleted, and the top card from Zenith's security gets trashed.

Deleting the Petrification Token triggers WarGreymon's [All Turns] effect, unsuspending it. Having trashed one of Zenith's security cards, Owen also gets to play Dimetromon from his hand by using the inherited effect of Lamiamon under Medusamon.

With this, the memory gauge has gone to 7 on Zenith's side. Owen finishes his turn by attacking Galacticmon with MedievalGallantmon's <Vortex>, which Galacticmon can no longer resist. By joining forces with Medusamon using <Alliance>, MedievalGallantmon's DP is boosted to 28000.

The formidable defenses of the space fortress are overcome by a single whirlwind strike from the Vortex Warrior.

By introducing Digimon that weren't in his original setup, Owen managed to take down Galacticmon, which was a bridge too far for him last time.

Owen Dreadnought—the ever-positive young man who has come so far with his friends—was able to defeat Galacticmon because of his inherent nature.

But defeating Galacticmon doesn't mean that he can let his guard down just yet.

His WarGreymon might have <Blocker>, but the fact remains that he still has no security cards.

It's Zenith's turn, and the memory gauge is at 7.

He moves Snatchmon from the breeding area to the battle area. Then, in the Main Phase, he uses Fusionize for no cost. By putting Vemmon from the trash under Snatchmon as a digivolution card, he digivolves it into Destromon for a memory cost of 3.

Destromon's [When Digivolving] effect deletes Dimetromon from Owen's field. He then pays 6 memory to digivolve Destromon to Galacticmon once again.

By placing 2 Vemmon cards from the trash under Galacticmon as digivolution cards with Galacticmon's [When Digivolving] effect, Zenith uses Ragnarok Cannon from the trash.

Ragnarok Cannon was in the trash because this Situation Battle is a re-creation of their World Championship Finals match.

The [Main] effect of Ragnarok Cannon deletes MedievalGallantmon.

The Galacticmon that Owen worked so hard to delete returns to stand before him.

But, unlike the previous Galacticmon, this one has 4 Vemmon under it as digivolution cards. It can only avoid leaving the field once. The Digimon on Owen's field now are more than capable of defeating it.

Owen's up again. He starts with 2 memory.

At the beginning of the Main Phase, the Tamer's effect brings his memory to 3.

Owen starts by paying 2 memory to use Red Card, giving WarGreymon resistance to Option cards and DP-reduction.

At first glance, the card doesn't seem to mesh with Owen's all-out offensive deck, but it's likely there to protect Digimon that don't have <Progress> (which would prevent them from being affected by the opponent's effects during attacks). Owen seems like just the person to pick and take full advantage of this Option card.

He then uses 2 of his signature Shadow Wing cards to boost Medusamon's DP by 6000. Now that the memory gauge has reached 1 on Zenith's side, he moves to finish off his turn.

His Tamer card's [End of Your Turn] effect gives his Medusamon <Piercing> before it launches into attack. The <Raid> effect shifts Medusamon's target of attack to Galacticmon.

Then, by suspending the Tamer card, he fulfills his Unique Emblem's <Delay> condition. Medusamon digivolves into Owen's new trump card.

Supporting the heavy firearms equipped across its whole body is a steel-like physique of overwhelming mass. A dynamic power fighter that's a far cry from the elegant and cruel Medusamon.

...Its name is Styracomon.

The flashy attack it unleashes from its magenta body obliterates everything standing in Owen's way.

With Styracomon's [When Digivolving] effect, Owen can pick the card Zenith just placed into security, trash it, and then unsuspend his Digimon. The trashed card was DG Dimension, which Zenith had seemingly added to prevent himself from losing if he lost all of his security cards.

Having trashed a security card, Owen's memory gauge is boosted by 2 through the effects of Elizamon and Dimetromon as digivolution cards. Following this, Styracomon would also delete Galacticmon through its [All Turns] effect.

However, Galacticmon again utilizes its [All Turns] effect to return 4 Vemmon cards to the bottom of the deck and stay on the field. This leaves Galacticmon with 0 Vemmon under it as digivolution cards. Left without any resistance, Galacticmon bears the full brunt of Styracomon's supreme <Raid>.

Zenith's trump card is destroyed for the second time in the match, with Styracomon's <Piercing> also demolishing Zenith's security. The result of the security check is Ultimate Flare.

Since <Progress> prevents Styracomon from being affected by an opponent's effects during attacks, the WarGreymon becomes the target of the [Main] effect of Zenith's Ultimate Flare.

However, WarGreymon is also unaffected thanks to the effect of Red Card earlier. Owen likely predicted that Zenith would have an Option card with a removal effect, and used Red Card in advance to negate it.

This leaves Zenith with 2 security cards. Owen kept his WarGreymon safe, and now he attacks with it. <Raid> shifts its target to the Petrification Token, which is duly destroyed. The [On Deletion] effect trashes a security card, leaving Zenith with just one more.

With the trashing of the security card, WarGreymon gets to unsuspend thanks to its [All Turns] effect. It attacks Zenith's final security card, and overcomes the security check from Vemmon. All of the security cards protecting Zenith have now been wiped out.

Styracomon is unsuspended on Owen's field, and it pulverizes Zenith with a super-heavy smash.

With that, Owen successfully overturned the odds.

Zenith had grown stronger and stronger on his own, while Owen continued to grow alongside his friends.

That is likely what decided the outcome this time.

But true skills in the Digimon Card Game aren't judged over a battle or two. Who knows which of them will emerge victorious in their next battle?

And that brings today's coverage to a close. We look forward to seeing how these two top players will blossom!