Card Slash

Card Slash (カードスラッシュ Kādosurasshu; Dub: Digi-Modify) is a technique in Digimon Tamers, in which Tamers swipe ("Slash") trading cards from the Digital Monster Card Game, or certain other special cards, into their D-Ark Digivice to generate temporary power-ups, equipment and other modifications for their partner Digimon.

=Overview=

Basis
Digimon Tamers depicts Digital Monster Card Game cards as having a metallic stripe along their side, containing code pertaining to that card's gameplay effects. This code is meant to be read by Card Fighter Ex devices that are used to play the game, by Slashing cards through a long slot in the device, but the D-Ark Digivice is able to use the code from the cards to generate augmentations for partner Digimon. (Card reading functionality of a sort would later be added to the real Digital Monster Card Game, but it used barcodes along the base of some sets of cards instead, and was exclusively used with the D-Scanner toy line rather than to play the card game itself.)

Card Slashing works similarly to how it does with D-Arks in an American Digimon computer game that Lee Jianliang once played, where he met Terriermon. This game uses a card reader peripheral that is plugged into the computer; Jianliang's card reader became his D-Ark when he Slashed a Blue Card.

Mechanics
The effect that a card has when Slashed is based on its own properties, and what type of card it is:


 * Digimon Cards: Basic cards depicting individual Digimon, which are used in the card game to fight against other Digimon cards. When Slashed in a D-Ark, they instead allow the partner Digimon to use one of the featured Digimon's attack techniques.
 * Option Cards: Support cards which invoke additional effects. In the Digital Monster Card Game, these come in three main types that are denoted by an icon in the top left of the card. Two of these types are used in Tamers for Card Slashing:
 * Item Cards: Cards which add to some aspect of the Digimon's strength and abilities. They serve this function both in the card game and when Slashed. For the purposes of Slashing, Item Cards can be divided into three further categories:
 * Equipment Cards: Cards which equip the partner Digimon with a physical item that has abilities that the Digimon did not previously have.
 * Plug-In Cards: Cards which boost the attributes of Digimon. They can be used to increase a Digimon's offensive, defensive or speed stats, can recover a Digimon's energy and stamina, or can induce evolution to the Adult level. Each is named with a single-letter suffix.
 * Device Cards: A type of item card that Akiyama Ryo describes as a "wild card" that is usable only by "truly strong Tamers".
 * Program Cards: Cards which execute a more complex procedure involving the partner Digimon.

D-Arks are also able to read and execute effects from certain other cards which are not from the Digital Monster Card game, but do carry particular algorithms that are in some way intended for use with Digimon, such as Blue Cards.

Jianliang observes that the only reason Card Slashing has any effect at all is because the Tamers believe that it will, and that the D-Arks transfer the power of that faith into their Digimon. He claims that if they did not believe the cards would do anything, the cards would just be cards with no effect at all.

Multiple cards can be Slashed one after another to create combos, where a Digimon can use the powers of all of those cards together at once. However, the cards that a Tamer uses for a combo must be chosen carefully to avoid the cards' effects undermining each other. For example, when Takato tries to combo with the "White Wings" and "High Speed Plug-In B" cards, the increase to Guilmon's speed makes it harder for him to control his flight.

Production
The mechanic of Card Slashing came about in Digimon Tamers due to a directive from Bandai to incorporate the Digital Monster Card Game into the series, as part of their larger directive to depict Digimon as an in-universe media franchise. According to Chiaki J. Konaka, he, at least, had difficulty with this directive, both due to it clashing with his own worldbuilding style and due to difficulties coming up with on-screen functions for the cards beyond the obvious application in evolution. As far as he can remember, Kaizawa Yukio may have been responsible for the concept of the D-Arks being created by Slashing Blue Cards through card readers.

The cards that were used for Card Slashing in Tamers have since been reprinted and sold in several special-edition anniversary collections. They include cards which had only been identified by name and not by ID number (i.e. by having its face shown on-screen) in the series, in which case they select one pre-existing card that has that name. However, different collections do not always select the same card of the same name.
 * The D-Ark ver.15th Edition release for the Digital Monster Card Game features reprints of every card that was used for (including in Takato's Card Fighter Ex and Jianliang's computer reader) in Digimon Tamers, as well as cards for the partner Digimon. It also includes replicas of the Blue and Red Cards, and also a brand new Re-83 High Speed Plug-In D card in reference to the episode "Culu Culun! Playing with Culumon!", which temporarily renamed the St-51 High Speed Plug-In B to this.
 * The three Super Complete Selection Animation D-Ark sets each include, along with the replica D-Ark, a set of 10 cards. All three sets include a replica Blue Card and a reprint of St-100 Super Evolution Plug-In S, while the remaining eight cards in each set are selected from cards that that individual Tamer matching the D-Ark used. Like the D-Ark ver.15th Edition, the Lee Jianliang edition set also includes Re-83 High Speed Plug-In D.

=Appearances=

"Card Slash" is a menu option within the D-Ark submenu, both in and outside of battle, through which the player uses items (as all items are characterized as cards). It becomes usable once the player has obtained Matsuda Takato's D-Ark.

=Additional Information=