[JP]Laurrie Funelas: 1st Place Flagship with Black-Blue Rebecca

Invited Author: Laurrie Funelas

Country: Philippines

Introduction

Hello, Im Laurrie Funelas from Philippines. I recently won

the Flagship tournament at UniAqua Hobbies last June 4, 2023.

I just want to give a short intro of my deck.

I choose Rebecca deck because it fits my playstyle.

The deck inside can answer even the highest cost character on the field.

The Deck

I usually mulligan either Rebecca or Corrida Coliseum.

Doing an early counter is the best to do since you need your handsize to be atleast 6 or below so you can use the ability of your leader.

Card Choice

Kyros

– almost immortal in your deck you can just rest your leader / stage so it won't be KO.

– synergy with Orlumbus/Suleiman to make minus cost on your opponent's character as Orlumbus/Suleiman also fills your trash to feed Luffy so it can be restand.

Orlumbus/Suleiman

– making minus cost to your opponents character plus making your trash count fast.

Leo

– synergy with Orlumbus, Suleiman and Hajrudin.

– can be bounce via Kaido10 blue effect so you can repeat it's ability.

Sabo

– synergy with Orlumbus when Sabo makes on play ability.

– a great card to fixed your dead cards in your hand since it has a draw discard ability.

Luffy + Gum-gum King Kong Gun

– this can deal 4 damage on opponent's life if you have 15 cards above on your trash. As GGKK Gun will have a double attack ability and Luffy can be restand by its ability.

Trueno Bastardo

– can remove even the highest cost in the field with the help of Orlumbus/Hajrudin/Suleiman minus ability.

Kaido Blue 10c

– a very great card with no negative side.

– can bounce Rebecca for getting more cards

– can bounce Leo for repeating it's ability.

– can bounce even the 10c character with the use of Orlumbus/Suleiman/Hajrudin.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The flagship tournament that I joined was a small event with about 15 players or less. During this tournament, Rebecca and I won the matchups against Yellow Katakuri, Red Whitebeard and Blue/Yellow Queen. However, it was a good experience in early meta and I will have more chances to strengthen my play style.

This will be the deck i'll use this coming Prelims (June 11, 2023 here in the Philippines by Aqua Card Games.

Kudos to my friends Jec and Jude for playtesting and brainstorming while making this deck.

[EN] Marco Morales: Won LATAM Regionals with Red Luffy

Invited Author: Marco Morales

Country: Latam

Introduction

Hello, my name is Marco Morales, and on May 13th, I won the One Piece Latam Regionals, which had 350 players from different countries. I have played various TCGs throughout my life, achieving good results in most of them. I've been playing this game since the launch of OP01, alongside my friends with whom I test and prepare for most of the tournaments.

The Deck

After a frustrating result in the treasure cup in February, where I played purple Kaido, I realized the need to prepare better and bring a deck that was consistent above all else. I wanted a deck that allowed me to showcase my skills and wouldn't hinder me by losing against itself. I initially started playing a lot of Green Kinemon, but I discarded it due to its low power level and difficulties facing Red Newgate (in any of its iterations).

After testing nearly all the meta decks with my team, we decided that taking a Red Luffy deck would be the best choice. It was strong and consistent, had favorable matchups (especially against Zoro and Law), and would give me the best chances of winning the tournament. As my friend said, it was a "high risk, high reward" decision, and boy, was he right.

I believe the deck is quite strong, featuring the best card advantage in Nami and Curly Dadan, the strongest removal in Jet Pistol and Nico Robin, and of course, the best card in the format: Edward Newgate. Here is the decklist I played:

Regionals Day: Match Ups

Upon arriving at the tournament, we were informed that it would be fully played on the same day, consisting of the nine Swiss rounds and the top 16. Considering the potential exhaustion, I appreciated having a strategy that allowed for quick game finishes, regardless of the result.

Though I don't have vivid memories of all my matches, I have a summary of my matchups (in no particular order):

vs. Red/Green Law (2-0)

vs. Red Zoro (2-0)

vs. Green Kinemon (2-0)

vs. Red Newgate-Boat (1-1)

vs. Red Newgate-Strawat (0-1)

These results led me to a 7-2 record and the ninth seed in the top 16.

TOP 16 vs. Red Newgate-Strawat

This match was the most important of the day, as the winner would take home a serial Luffy. It was a rematch against the player who had defeated me in the Swiss rounds, a matchup I considered difficult for my deck. To make things worse, I was playing against an excellent player, a recipe for disaster. The first game started poorly as he claimed victory. However, during the second and third games, I executed my planned strategy of attacking their leader as much as possible with 6k power to reduce his hand size. I then launched several strong attacks at the end, drew more copies of Edward Newgate than him, and managed to secure the victory, claiming the long-awaited prize. The final result was 2-1 in my favor.

TOP 8 vs. Red-Green Law

Heading into this match, I felt more mentally relaxed. However, my opponent had been undefeated thus far. Fortunately, I knew it was a favorable matchup for me. This became evident quickly as I gained control of the board using Nico Robin and Masked Deuce, making it difficult for my opponent to activate their leader ability. In this matchup, it is crucial to both control the board and attack the opponent's leader to prevent them from burying us in card advantage. I emerged victorious with a score of 2-0.

TOP 4 vs. Red-Green Law

Thanks to my previous success and with my confidence soaring, I approached this match as if I were playing at my kitchen table. I was able to demonstrate the strengths of my deck by effectively controlling the board and destroying almost every important character my opponent played. The game became slightly more complicated as my opponent was using Green Izou, something its not taht common, and made my Nico Robin less effective. However, this only prolonged the game and caused my opponent to miss some searches with Nami/Bonnie. So it sticked to the plan and secured the win with a score of 2-0.

FINAL vs. Green Kid

This match took me by surprise, as it was a matchup I had not tested before. However, luck was on my side as I drew back-to-back-to-back Edward Newgate in the first game. This applied significant pressure on the 8-cost Kid, forcing my opponent to waste most of their cards in hand to procect his character but eventually i was able to destroy it and win the game. In the second game, I drew Otama along with Jet Pistol to counter my opponent's Kid, and then played two Edward Newgate to seal the game and become the Latin American champion.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I believe I had a solid performance in the tournament. As the rounds progressed, I refined my gameplay, and the deck never disappointed me. It remained consistent, strong, and dominant. Additionally, whenever challenges arose, Edward Newgate proved to be the solution. I am confident that the deck still has potential in OP03, and I'm waiting to see how it performs in the new meta.

I would like to express my gratitude to my friends Phillipe and Cristian for their endless hours of testing and advice, especially regarding which deck to play in this tournament. I would also like to thank my girlfriend for her patience and unwavering support during my preparation, even when I encountered difficulties.

Thank you, and see you soon.

[EN-OP2] Shannon: 5th Place OCE online treasure cup with Green FILM Kid

Invited Author: Shannon from Team PX3

Country: Australia

About me 

Hey, I’m Shannon from Team PX3. At the OCE online treasure cup this list placed 5^th going undefeated until the finals, ending 7-1.

Previous event placements:
DLB: 6^th
In-person treasure cup: Top 64
Online Regionals: 5^th

Check out the deck profile here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS6kYGdBlTU&ab_channel=TeamPX3

Why Film Kid?

I was originally going to play Zoro for this upcoming event but was getting bored and made a last-minute switch to Magellan the week before hand. The night before this event at 7:30pm I made an even more last-minute switch to this deck! I played 5 games on the sim and 2 on discord before sleeping and getting up for the event.

Although I had limited time testing this deck, the concept seemed simple enough to me and I felt like it would have a good matchup into the meta red decks out there. The ability to cheat out units or generate card advantage can win you games if you get lucky and even if you don’t get lucky your leader ability allows you to change your game plan.

Bonnie

I almost exclusively used bonnie as a turn 1 or 2 play against most decks. I don’t care if they want to swing at it, that’s just a +1 in my head. It isn’t your engine like it is in law. However against a deck like smoker or WB if you can start a bonnie train then it can be a way to outvalue your opponent.

Brook

This card can win you games just by giving you a strong early game, a killer turn 2 when you go second.

Luffy

An important card that can win you back the board, apply pressure, and give you some extra defense. Don’t fall into the trap of always having to play this card, I trashed it plenty of times even when I had the combo; if I thought leader ability was a stronger play.

Nami

A great tool to generate more cards, but once again don’t fall into the trap of activating her ability every turn. Sometimes one don elsewhere can be crucial to clearing board or adding more pressure.

Punk Gibson

An absolute must have 4x in the deck. For 2 don you can cancel out 2x attacks from your opponent or rest a blocker that sets up lethal. A common late game play for me is to swing 9k or 10k twice and leave just enough open for punk Gibson which will protect me to do 2x 12k swings next turn.

Izou

An amazing 2k counter that can be played too. If you need to clear a priority character early or rest a blocker later, it can win you games. I won a smoker game because I rested his Borsalino with Izou.

Paradise Totsuka

This was my deck-tech against Marcos that you would find in Hybrid-Beard and Boat-Beard as I thought I would run into a lot of these. Only investing 1 don to rest a blocker means you can do 2x 11k swings. I ran into zero Marcos this tournament, but the card did win me a game against a Kinemon.

Mulligan/Turn Order

I choose second against all decks (except Luffy). Going first or second is fine though. A premium hand has your combo pieces like Brook + Nami, or Luffy + Zoro as well as a bonnie. If you have a decent curve (eg. going first you have a Nami into Franky) it can be worth keeping.

Tournaments Matchups

Win Law
Win Film Kid
Win Luffy
Win Zoro
Win Kinemon
Win Strawbeard
Win Smoker
Lose Law

How to play each matchup

Zoro/Luffy – These are some of your easiest matchups. Take life early down to 3 or 2 if you are comfortable, but if they pressure with lots of 5k’s you should counter some of these. Focus on clearing board early and getting your key combo pieces down. You want to deal 2/3 points of damage to their life with cheap hits. Once they give this to you start swinging with large double swings using leader effect and any characters on board. These decks don’t run many blockers so they can’t handle these swings, and even with their leader buffed to 7k from 9c WB they won’t have enough counter.

Whitebeard – If you know this matchup it should be in your favor. It’s important to find out if your opponent is playing Straw-beard, Hybrid-beard or Boat-beard. You like to go tall(hitting for large numbers) against straw-beard and wide (multiple low numbers) against boat/hybrid. A bonnie can get you lots of value if they don’t play a Nami as it can soak up a 6k swing. Brook/ Luffy are great for filling board to get multiple swings into WB. If they are going to drop a Marco it’s important to hold a Paradise Totsuka/Izou/Punk Gibson so you can rest it.

Smoker – This matchup can be difficult. As you run lots of plain bodies, your characters being K.O. can really hurt. If you were to play a Franky at 5don and your opponent plays a Sakazuki then you are in rough waters. I would look for cards like bonnie and brook, as these cards give you value for a low cost and then you can try and run them out of cards. If you are in a tricky spot I would start going for their leader with double swings and hold a resting card like Totsuka/Izou/Punk for a Borsalino.

Kinemon – This matchup can also be difficult. Brook is good here, but also big bodies are as well, like Zoro, Franky and Luffy. It can be a battle of how many blockers they draw to defend your leader attack hits. Doing two large attacks with leader the turn before they play Oden can put them in a very difficult spot, as they won’t have don left over for events or blockers, meaning they are in danger of another double swing.

Law – This was the most difficult matchup for me. You don’t have too many great options to shut down their board, and with how many searchers they run they are just playing their own game. Brook is a must in this matchup, getting two attackers out early will be what can keep you in the game. Because they run so many blockers, doing multiple attacks is how you will beat them. If they run out of small blockers, then you can turn to your leader effect to pressure them or force them to block with blocker-law.

Any changes I would make to the deck?

Check out the Deck profile for what changes I would make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS6kYGdBlTU&ab_channel=TeamPX3

Shoutout:

Inspiration was taken from CrossAi, check him out!

[EN-OP2] Seinav: 2nd place LATAM Treasure Cup with Zoro

Invited Author: Sebastian Avila (or Seinav)

Country: Chile

About me 

Hi everyone! My name is Sebastian Avila (or Seinav) from Chile who recently got the 2^nd place at the Treasure Cup organised by LATAM TCG Events last Sunday, May 14th. My only and brief competitive experience in any strategy game was in Team Fight Tactics, so this is the first TCG I play and I'm very happy for getting the serial Luffy and the other prizes.

I wanted to share in this post the deck I used and how was the process to get to it, from the leader's decision to the matchups I played.

Zoro Leader

Since the beginning of OP02 I was in doubt about which leader to use, the choice came down to Law or Zoro. Finally, I ended up opting for Zoro because of his incredible ability and the simplicity of the gameplay. I was playing law in all the OP01 format, and I always felt that I had a very poor decision making which made me to be punished a lot for a mistake at the time of playing, instead, using Zoro I could improve more the basic concepts of the game and start making less mistakes. This allowed me to look from another perspective the things I was doing incorrectly and to be able to recognise them to work on them, from how to plan a game based on what I want to achieve always considering what other deck I'm playing against.

The Deck

In addition to my personal situation regarding the leader's decision. I consider Zoro as one of the best in the OP02 format, the value that the skill provides is very great for the cost that it has. It gives you the possibility to generate free "DON" in each one of your characters for the cost of only one, being the best case to pay 1 DON for the skill and get 5 free in the form of power for your characters.

But of course, it is an ability that depends on having a field that can use it, and OP02 took care of reinforcing this aspect by delivering cards that are very good for this purpose.

The following is the list I played and the justification for my card choice.

2k Counters: Otama, Makino and ST1 Brook

The counter 2k in Zoro's deck not only fulfil this function, but also have very powerful abilities that depending on how the game is played will be used by his counter or by his ability. Starting with Otama (the best card of OP01) the approach of this is very simple, if my opponent has characters with 6000 power that have importance in the game as Law blocker or Queen blocker, I will only assign Gordon to fulfil the task of lowering power and Otama will be used as a counter. On the other hand, if my opponent has cards with 5000 power, is where I will use Otama for his ability, leaving Gordon to generate pressure on the table and deflect attacks, without using the ability off the latter. In the case of Makino, contrary to what one might think, the main use it is given is as a counter. There are very few situations where I will choose to use Makino for his ability, since by doing this, I am leaving two characters in my field ready to be cleaned by my opponent, and in case I only have, for example, a sunny, I am giving both this and Makino to my opponent. The moves that must be chained with Zoro are always to have an available target to buff with Makino, only in these situations is where I see correct to use his ability before using it as a counter, in any other case, it will always be better to counter 2k. Finally, we have Brook, which we will only play if we need a character in the field to have one more attack to our opponent, on the contrary, it will only be used as a counter.

Searchers: Nami and Dandan

The engine of the deck and very good characters on the field, which are constantly generating pressure thanks to the ability of the leader and that with the ability of Makino or Magura, Nami will be hitting the lives of your opponent for free. The targets of each one varies according to the moment in which they are in the game. For Dadan the perfect search would be Nami, but it can vary depending on the turn in which the game is, at the beginning I usually prioritise cards that generate pressure as Sunny or Magura for the first two turns. After these turns the decision depends on what my opponent has on the field, for example, if I am playing in a matchup in which my opponent has cards with 6000 power, I would look for Gordon over others. For Nami the thing is a little simpler in my case, always in the first place I have cards like Jet Pistol, Red Hawk and Nico Robin for the field control that they deliver which allows me to play more quietly until turn 5, in second place is Brook and Radical Beam because in the same line of getting to turn 5, allow me to arrive with the most lives and in case of having nothing else to play, Brook is a very good card to use. In last priority I have Zoro and Sunny which I only choose if there is nothing of the above, there are situations where they are necessary to generate pressure and deflect attacks towards them, but generally I prefer the other cards.

Field Cleaners: Nico Robin and Vista

Two of the best cards in the deck that allow us to clear the field of big threats by using them together with Gordon, or also to clear the opponent's searchers that could easily clear our Nami, Makino, Sunny, etc. Despite fulfilling the same function, Vista and Robin have very different values in the game, which can be interchanged depending about the game. Vista is a bit superior to Robin because his ability is on play, thus, besides fulfilling his function, he also remains a character with 3000 power ready to generate pressure in the next turn. But we must not underestimate Robin, which in its favour is a card with 4000 power that costs more to remove from the field, so it forces other decks like Law and Zoro to spend their removers on it.

Attackers: "Rush" Zoro and Sunny-kun

For Zoro rush I have only good words, one of the best cards of OP01 and still very strong in this format, it can be played in three ways that differ from each other. First of all you can use it to take a life from your opponent in the first turns in an easy way and then he has to spend resources to clean the Zoro rush. Secondly, it can be used to make your opponent spend counter at any time of the game by making two 6000 attacks for 4 DON (your leader's and the Zoro rush's). And lastly, you can keep them in your hand to use them as finishers after Shirohige is on the field, in the best case, for 9 dons you would have four 6000 attacks. Regarding Sunny, this seems to me a very good card that if it is not played in turn one or two, it just becomes a counter 1000 that at the first instance where I can use it, I do it. Using Makino or Magura plus the ability of the leader is a 7000 attack that is very difficult to stop in the first turns, but when you do this, you lose the tempo of the game and despite having taken a life from your opponent, you start to lose ground in the game.

Events

Jet Pistol is an incredible card that can clean up almost any threat when combined with Gordon or Otama. In addition to having trigger, it forces our opponent to spend more DON to protect his important cards of 6000 power, which makes him slow down his game a little bit. If I know that my opponent does not have targets in which it is an obligation to use Jet Pistol, if I get out of lives, I use it immediately even if I have a low power character as a target, this allows me to divert attacks to my characters that if I had not cleaned the low power character of my opponent, they would have been eliminated by them. In the same line of Jet Pistol, RedHawk is a card that allows me to gain ground in the first turns when I must start second, besides eliminating the low power characters of my opponent, I can protect my Robin, Zoro or Sunny that I have on the table in a simple way, forcing my opponent to spend more resources. Another strong point is that against the Law decks that gains ground in the local meta it is a priceless tech. Using RedHawk in the first turns just to eliminate a character of my opponent and delay him to fill the table makes the difference in this matchup. Finally, Radical Beam is a card that I like a lot, but I would change the Deck for another copy of Shirohige and another 2k counter or the third RedHawk. While it is a card that helps to get to turn 5 in a good way, the only instances where it really makes a difference is when using it with the DON left over when playing Shirohige, outside of this specific situation, it is a card that stays dead in your hand if it comes out at the beginning of the game and takes away the space of a card to really get value out of throughout the game.

The MVPs: Magura and Promo Gordon

Possibly the two cards that allowed me to play very well in all the matchups. On the one hand we have Magura (the real Makino of the deck), he is an incredibly strong card, that besides turning Nami and Sunny into threats, he also becomes a threat by not having to subtract him to activate his ability. The first three turns of the game I always try to chain a series of Sunny/Nami, Magura, Makino, which generates me many attacks per turn that leave for the next turn a threat on the table that must be covered somehow by the opponent, meanwhile he is cleaning my characters that already attacked. And on the other hand, we have Gordon. The fact that he drops 3000 power means that all characters of 6000 or less get into kill range for vista and robin which makes him a very essential card to eliminate opponent's threats in the midgame. In case the opponent does not have 6000 power targets worth eliminating, Gordon is still a 2000 power card that with Magura reaches 5000 and that if or if it will be eliminated by our opponent, making us not receive a possible attack less to our leader.

Shirohige (9-cost Whitebeard)

As the last card (and the best card of OP02 in my opinion) we have the heart of the deck. Our objective before this is to arrive in the most optimal way possible using the cards mentioned above to finish the game playing one or two Shirohige that thanks to its ability can clean small blockers or combining it with Gordon can eliminate almost any blocker that is in front of it. It is also important to mention that the +2000 power to our leader makes it easier to defend the opponent's attack post Shirohige and that in our next turn we can play another one or finish the game if we are in range to win.

Deck Guidelines and Mulligan

The objective of the deck is simple, to reach turn 5 and play Shirohige having as many lives as possible and having taken a minimum of 2 lives from the opponent up to this point of the game. The counter cards are worth more at the beginning of the game than at the end, so do not be afraid to use them to cover attacks that are not optimal for your opponent, if in your field there are no characters that receive the attacks of your opponent (I mean that he has to clear your table) do not hesitate to use counters to cover those attacks. Many times in the initial turns you don't need more cards to know how your game plan is until turn 5 and therefore, you can perfectly use the Otama/Brook/Makino to cover the inefficient 6k attack of your opponent to your leader, remember that holding a card in your lives has more value than that 2k counter that you just used (always depending on the situation).

There are times when you can defend your characters on the table, especially if your opponent is doing attacks that are not ensuring the death of your character, for example, if you are playing against Doffy and you play Nami turn 1, you must attack on turn 2 even if your opponent has played Perona, in such a way that when he wants to use his ability and attack your character, he may first attack you with his Perona and lose that attack, diverting the attack of his leader also to your Nami and you avoiding that damage that you could not have covered with the same counter that you gave to Nami. It is very important the order of things in this game, there are many cards and moves that have different values depending on the order in which they are played, especially attacks on your opponent's lives.

Regarding the mulligan, the curve of the deck means that starting first is always the best option, since we can lower Shirohige on turn 5 and also that when we start first, it is the opponent who has to be responding to our attacks and clearing the field (which is what we want with Zoro).

Some examples of starting hand when we go first are:

Both are good starting hands and have two things in common, they have drops to play on turn 1 and they have Shirohige. These are the most important aspects that I look for in the deck, above all to have a guaranteed drop on turn 5 which is Shirohige, in case I don't have Shirohige in hand but a very good curve start I will keep it if I see the possibility of chaining a series of attacks of 5000 and 6000 from turn 2 to 4 using my cost 1 characters and their abilities. An example of the latter could be the following hand:

On turn 1 I would play Nami to generate more options by looking for a new card. Then I would play Dadan and Magura to boost Nami, attack with Nami to generate a new target for my opponent's leader and next turn I would go with a 5k attack with Dadan, 6k with my leader and finally I would use Makino + 1 DON in Magura to have a last 7k attack. This would be the approach with this hand, where from turn 1 to 3 generate pressure that my opponent must be responsible for cleaning to continue playing, which benefits me in getting tempo to reach turn 5 and lower Shirohige or in case of not having it, start preparing a large table with which to attack several times of 7k.

When we have to start second is not as problematic as it may seem, we have very good answers to many openings of opponents in turn 1 and 2, for example against the Okiku in turn 2 of the green deck or the Robin of the red deck, we can eliminate them very effectively with Vista + Otama, leaving a character with 3000 power and another that can be buffed by Magura (it is a very bad idea to boost Otama with Makino, do not do it please). The problem of going second is mainly noticed in the mirror and against Strawbeard's deck. The factor of getting Shirohige down early has a big weight, but there is always a very good answer to this play… Play another Shirohige and win the fight of who fills the table with more mustaches.

Another card that is interesting to consider going second is RedHawk, which allows us to play nothing on turn 1, defend an attack and clean up the low-powered character our opponent has played on his turn.

Some examples of starting hand when we go second are:

We start playing Dadan and looking for another card that generates pressure such as Magura, Nami, Sunny or Gordon. In the next turn we can lower Sunny and the card obtained with Dadan leaving 2 DON open to be able to use RedHawk and once in turn 3 attack with all our characters combining 6k and 7k attacks.

Other hand that is not ideal in general but can make the difference in the match (especially against decks like Law) is the following:

we can generate pressure with the cards we find with nami and also eliminate the characters played by our opponent from turn 2 to 4 in an effective way.

What can we conclude from this section? Look for Shirohige in the mulligan! In case it doesn't come out, a Nami/Dadan and characters to chain attacks in the first 3 turns is a more than decent hand. Ultimately, everything will depend on what deck your opponent has and whether you go first or not, but these are the general lines to follow.

Tournaments Matchups

Finally, I would like to comment on some of the matchups I played in the tournament. My score was 7-1, facing the following decks in that order:

Shirohige Boat  Win. The confrontation that cost me the most. Shirohige's deck with the boat unlike Strawbeard is that he doesn't care much about letting life pass him by. His goal is to get a table that can finish me off after he has drop his Shirohige down and he can cover my attacks with his Marco. I was able to win the game because I blocked the last attack (16k) on my leader with events and counter.

Law  Win. I won the dice roll and chose to go first, and unlike the optimal hands to go first, I didn't look for shirohige in the mulligan, but several characters that I could chain attacks with (Magura, Nami, Sunny), and I also wanted as many Vista, Robin and RedHawk. Finally, I ended up having 1 Nami, 2 Magura, 1 Redhawk and 1 Vista. I followed the basic game plan, delaying as much as possible the filling of the field and preparing a Gordon + Vista as soon as I got Law. It was a simple game without complications.

Law  Win. I had to go second in this one. So as in the previous one, I looked for cards to generate pressure and to be able to clear his table. I was lucky enough to get two Redhawk from hand and two Dadan, which allowed me to look for Sunny and Gordon. My opponent was bricked at the beginning so it was easier than it should have been, but even so, I had an answer for any move she made.

Zoro  Win. A mirror where I lost the die roll and had to start second. The mulligan was to Shirohige and hold on as long as I could. What really made the difference were the RedHawks that allowed me to control the field and reverse the roles, changing the roles so that my opponent was the one who had to clean the table and not me, this allowed me to arrive with 4 life to his first Shirohige, lower mine the next turn and win the moustache fight when I played a second and my opponent did not.

Strawbeard  Lose. Play the game as it should be played, constantly hitting the leader with 6k, making him spend his hand. But when he played his Shirohige I didn't have mine, and then when he played the second one, I had no way to take his last life and win. My opponent played really well. Congratulations to my compatriot Juan Aldunate who got the first place in this tournament!

Strawbeard  Win. Not much to comment here, it was a textbook game against Strawbeard, I won the competition of who has more Shirohiges on the table and I won.

Strawbeard  Win. The closest game I had in the tournament. My opponent played perfect and the big difference was that I managed to get to turn 5 with 4 life, spending in almost every turn events and counters, besides using Jet Pistol and Nico Robin + Gordon to lower their characters from 6000 power. When we both had our Shirohiges on the table, my opponent attacked with intentions of ending the game, but I managed to block with counters and events one of his attacks which made me take the game finally.

Law  Win. The final game and the one I was most confident about. My opponent won the dice and chose to go second. I looked for Shirohige in my mulligan and tried to attack constantly from 7k so that he had to spend his small blockers. When we were both out of lives, he was left with only one card in hand (Brook 2k counter) and me with nothing on the table, I had only 3 cards that had come out of my lives, a Gordon, a Magura and a Vista, the card I drew that turn was also a Vista, so I was able to clean up the blocker I had on the field and attack him with 12k to his leader, finishing the game and getting the second place in the treasure cup.

Conclusion and Acknowledgments

I still can't believe that I could come second in a tournament of 355 players from all Latin America, I'm an intermediate player who wants to improve but still makes many mistakes, I like the game too much and every day I get more into it, learning new things and giving different perspectives to things that before I had not even thought about.

My goal for this tournament was to reach top64 to get the chopper card, but once I realised that I could reach top16 and then top8, I didn't stop, I convinced myself that I could win all the remaining matches, no matter who I played against. In the end it came true, and I finished second.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has read this review and that it has helped you in something (yes, I'm talking to you, the person who is reading this). I also want to thank my family who supported me the day of the tournament, and of course my motivational coach Vicente Juan and my team friends (the SPB guys).

Thank you very much.

[EN-OP2] Elliot: Top-4 Brisbane Regionals with Strawbeard

Invited Author: Elliot Charters

Country: Australia

About me 

Hi Everyone, I am Elliot Charters, also known as Skwiggle. I am from Australia and I have backgrounds in Pokmeon TCG and Yugioh TCG and high-level video games (LoL, TFT, WoW). I have been playing OPTCG for 5 months now and have loved every minute!

I made top 4 at the brisbane regionals on the weekend as strawbeard. My deck profile was recorded by my LGS the day after the tournament and is currently being edited, so keep an eye out for it online!

I would like to give a shout out to my friend Stephen Kam who brought me into this game and was a wonderful supporter/mentality coach throughout the event. He kept me calm after my losses and has made my whole experience of OPTCG amazing. I would also like to give a shout out to Doovelle Soe for grinding so many hours of games to get ready for the Brisbane Regionals and the upcoming treasure cup. Last shoutout to Stephen Iskander, this list is very closely copied from his from the last regional in Melbourne.

Deck Choice:

Upon entering the OPTCG world I loved how much variety there was with the decks at a local/casual level. Multiple viable decks, decks that could do well with mastery such as Doflamingo and Ivankov. I was planning on maining smoker in op02 having bought a maximum rarity deck myself. However, I felt that strawbeard had all the tools to make it an incredibly consistent deck regardless of circumstance.

In early days of OP02 I tried a pure boatbeard build, and albeit strong when it hits it's stride I noticed a few things: It lacked consistency, the counter patterns were case by case, it relied on coin flip and even though one had to deal with these things it could straight up fail to counter check late game.

Coming into my first major tournament for OPTCG I tried a basic strawbeard list running cards such as zoro, vista, guard point and chopper, but I noticed one underlying flaw about the list in testing: my opponent at locals swung for 8k with Yamato and I couldn't counter out of it due to the nature of my build, resulting in a swift loss. However, after playing Stephen Iskander's list I could see the merit in his ratios, and worked on them slowly over time to get the right build for my playstyle. My final lists felt great in testing, and I felt comfortable with any game/matchup coming up.

My thoughts and impressions

Coming into the tournament various people had questions about my list. The main one being "why not simply run moby dick? It gives all of your characters +2000, that's insane! It is also banned in next format!" My main justification for not running a boat version of the deck is that this version has cleaner mulligan patterns, cleaner counter patterns and a much easier time going first and second. In my opinion it also has decent matchups across the board going first and second, however one could feel defeated playing a moby dick version, losing the diceroll and not seeing moby dick in the opening hand.

Another question people ask me is "Why Nico Robin over Vista?" and to this I bring up 2 main points. Firstly, nico robin is searchable with nami, which gives a lovely turn 1 curve of 1-3, which can then be coupled with a nico robin +1 don for the effect and a level 4 vanilla on 5 don. Secondly, Robin being 4k attack is a very annoying number for luffy/zoro/law decks to deal with, as they must commit gordon/otama+vista or jet pistol to kill it, which ends in basically a "turn skip", with the alternative being them losing their whole board whilst you still have 2-3 characters on board. Lastly, Nico Robin can be played into a bare board and apply pressure, whereas vista would only manage to kill one 1 cost red unit most of the time and would also not provide any damage pressure due to being a mere 3k attack.

I do however think my list has some changes going into the treasure cup in 2 weeks. Although an incredibly consistent version of whitebeard, I felt that the main weakness of the deck falls on it's reliance on the 9 drop whitebeard which can only be run at 4 copies. Hopefully I do okay in that event as well so I can share the sauce with you guys!

Mulligans, turn order, and counter pattern:

Since this deck has curves designed for going first and second, the main strategy is to put your opponent on the turn order they do not want to be on. One example of this is when versing Ivankov. Since Ivankov wants to go first, I have put ivankov on second, forgone playing my 4 drop vanillas, and focussed more on developing 5 drops such as kingdew and luffy. This puts your opponent in a boardstate where they cannot remove anything, and from there you can take favourable trades due to hand advantage.

In my 8 rounds of swiss I mulliganed for Whitebeard. Due to the ratios of the deck allowing me to run 14 4 drop vanillas (nami being a pseudo 4 as she can search some) I felt good knowing that no matter what hand I threw away chances are I would be able to play something on 4/5 don. I managed to win my first 4 rounds of swiss without seeing a single whitebeard (mulliganed for him every game), however my luck on the top tables and in the final cut was much better.

In my first match of the top cut I knew versing zoro that I needed to have good hands to guarantee top 8. Games 1 and 2 I mulliganed looking for nami and/or nico robin and hoping to see Whitebeard in my first few cards, and thankfully this was a success. This mulligan pattern was further reinforced by my opponent putting me on first and choosing to go second.

For countering, make sure to counter out of anything to life if it will only take you 1 card. If it will take 2 you can take one life but no more.

Tournaments Matchups

My swiss matchups were as follows:

Zoro W

Smoker W

Strawbeard W

Kid W (Mitch is my friend from locals and a great player, he lost dice roll and bricked)

Smoker (Shoutout to Tyson Haynes for making top 16!) W

Straw/boat beard Johan Le (had a wonderful game on stream) L

Law (SFK member Alfred) W

Zoro (SFK member Han Yong Tee, insane player) L

Top Cut:

Zoro (David Huang) 2-0

G1: Was made to go first, and was able to play nami+robin on curve. Having these 2 cards early allows me to control the early board vs zoro, from here it is very hard from them to come back. This was still a very close game and David was playing very well around my characters (otama/gordon onto my units to trade efficiently) However I barely got the round 1

G2: Made to go first again, had the most insane hand (nami, robin, newgate +2). I knew that if I stayed calm and played my game plan properly I had the game in the bag. This victory was further reinforced when David unfortunately whiffed his second nami search, which I would not wish on anyone in such a spot. This was the first game where I relied on luck to win, and it was a huge game with a lot of emotions tied as the top 8 prizing included a Serial Luffy.

Shout out to David who played very well in the tournament going 7-1 in swiss but getting unlucky in top 16. May we cross paths again and best of luck in future tournaments.

R2 Zoro (Han Yong Tee 2-1)

G1: My opponent made me go second with the higher seed, noting that they did not want to see me play whitebeard on 9. I used similar mulligan patterns this game, however with the onslaught of 6k attacks followed by a whitebeard late game I lost despite having a good start.

G2: Knowing my opponent wanted me to go second I chose first and mulliganed for the whitebeard once again. I managed to drop one whitebeard this game, and since I had done decent chip damage to him all game was able to round it out and defeat him.

G3: Made to go second, however I ended up having 2 whitebeards and 1-2 radical beams in hand so I was chilling. I also managed to secure both of my life coming into the final turn with 3 cards in hand. My opponent had 2 whitebeards on the field, and he attacked first with a 12k whitebeard swing into 8k (I had 2 in hand 1 don active). I calculated that he only had 3 attacks, maybe 4 but zoro would be too innefficient to finish the round if any of my cards off life were counters/triggers (I run 40). My opponent's only out was that my radical beam was a bluff and one of his attacks could connect, however after countering out of the first attack we both knew it was GG. I needed a lot of luck to win this game and it was down to the wire, so shout out to Han Yong Tee for being an amazing player.

R3 Kid (Jiawei 1-2)

G1: I was made to go first as the kid strategy relies on building a massive hand advantage and stalling out the game with 8 cost kid. I saw 3 ace this game and no whitebeards, with my nico robin getting rested by neko and swung into for 7k. Reluctant to use my Otamas which are pivotal in the matchup I had to let it die and got further and further behind.

G2: I went second and managed to set up a good board before my whitebeard turn. Due to the pressure of the 4 drop vanilla and 5 drop Luffy I was able to burn through the resources of Jiawei. When it came to his kid turn he did not have enough blockers and hand to protect him, and I simply ended the game with a buffed up rush luffy.

G3: First once again and no whitebeard. Felt like a very similar game to game 1 except no aces. My hot streak and my luck had definitely run out, and having no ways to bust through his 8 cost kid (2-3 blockers 10+ hand) I saw the writing on the wall and conceded the game. Congratulations to Jiawei (Gary) for his first place! Crazy smart guy and look forward to vsing him more in the future.

Conclusion

Thanks to everyone who read my article and thanks to all my friends and family for the support. I couldn't have done it without you!

Thanks to everyone who came to the event and the community who are enjoying OPTCG as much as I am.

[EN-OP2] Edward Newgate (Hybrid-beard) Deck.

Invited Author: Nicholas Koh

Country: Australia

About me 

Hi all! I’m Nick (or Px3_TheKlet on twitter). I’m with the team PX3, mainly known for their achievements in Dragon Ball Super and now branching into the OnePieceTCG! Relatively new to the OPTCG only starting at the end of OP1, but not new to TCGs (been playing MTG for many years).

I went undefeated in a 40-person win-a-box/pirate party yesterday and my Twitter post has gotten a lot of attention and questions. We just recorded a deck profile on YouTube, forgive me if I spoke too fast! First time doing a deck profile and was nervous (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgsO-Kn5dZA), have a watch give a like and subscribe to the channel! I’ll mainly go into my thoughts and impressions of the deck. I’ve only played 1 locals, a win-a-box and testing with the team in the past week, so bear in mind that my personal data is rather limited.

Before I start, I want to credit Garrett Farrington from the WorstGeneration, (https://www.youtube.com/@TheWorstGeneration-OPTCG) this list is completely from him and I just swapped out the whitebeards pirates searcher for a third guard point. My thoughts and impressions might be completely off from him, if so have mercy on me XD

Why I played this deck

I have been mainly playing red since I started the game, and don’t think I’ll be playing other colors soon. I’ve been trying different decks since OP2 came out, whitebeard, Zoro and Luffy and have felt the most comfortable with whitebeard so far. There were 2 main builds initially strawbeard and boatbeard I tried both and always felt something was lacking.

Pure boatbeard played cards that I didn’t really like (Squard and seaquake) and felt that I was bricking more than I’d like to. The deck felt strong when it’s going off but felt lacking in some consistency.

Strawbeard, the current menace of the format felt like a “noobstomper” deck, an anology that I think a lot of people would get would be playing Kirby in SmashBros with someone new to the game (feelsbadman). You curve out, counter out, smash face. Simple yet strong but once your opponent decides to play around you and force you into plays you do not like, you’re stuck. The deck is linear but I guess that makes it easy to pilot as well.

I did try a build prior to this and had changed some cards around to add marco and felt that it was cool, but it wasn’t fully there. So when my teammate KayC linked the list to me, I knew I had to try it.

The list does seem weird, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how consistent the deck has been. The numbers feel right and I have no complaints.

The secret tech is that your opponents like to put you on the draw thinking you are strawbeard. Accept it with a sigh, only to show them boat on turn 1 😉

My thoughts and impressions

I think the question I’ve gotten most is why 3 boat? Apart from “Idk, I just netdecked this”, I do think this is a nice number. The deck does not need boat to win, and I think people do tunnel vision into the idea that without boat the deck cannot work. Strawbeard often wins games just by playing on curve, so that’s something to keep in mind. Playing boatbeard previously, there were too many times that I drew 3-4 boats in hand and it felt bad. Sure, I can pitch them to marco, but you don’t always have marco. I’m sure Garrett has his reasons when he constructed the deck.

The same question comes up for Vista, why only 2? After playing games with the deck, I realized that I only wanted to play vista on turn 2 as there are more powerful cards being played from turn 3 onwards. Vista is still a 1k and marco food.

The deck feels very versatile as you can adapt to the situation and cards you’ve drawn relatively easily. In the games I've played so far, I tend to take the first hit as I want as many cards in my hand. The faster you get to marco and active boat the faster you take over the game. If I do see one of my two wb characters in hand I will still take the first hit, but maybe protect life so that I can play it on T5. This deck allows you to construct the magical turn of having 1 life on T5 and playing wb character and have boat out. It is a chef kiss moment and while it does not happen every game, it happens more often than you’d think.

You still have the tools and card to curve out and smash face like strawbeard and have counters and defensive capabilities that boatbeard has.

Mulligans and going first/second

I believe you always want to go second as the curve is better for you, T1 boat, and curving into your odd cost characters and still being able to hold up 1 don!! For events to protect your board. You don’t feel bad going first as well as you can still go strawbeard things to your opponent.

For mulligans, you want to look for boat (obviously) and nami, nami is especially good versus Zoro as you want to be able to contest their 1 drops early. You want to look for curve, but I guess that is self-explanatory. Ace, boat, marco and nami, you love to see them in your opening hand.

Tournaments Matchups

I don’t have enough games to give reliable data yet, but it never felt bad into the decks of the meta (Zoro, Law, other WBs). I believe these are the 3 decks you would in the coming treasure cups/regionals apart from the occasional outliers. As I do not have much data I am only going to give my thoughts on Zoro and strawbeard as of now.

Zoro:

This match up feels favored as you take hits early, build a hand and pressure their life while playing more powerful cards. If they are using Makinos and Otamos early to pressure and as removal assists, it is easier to end the game once boat is active.

Strawbeard:

Marco and boat are killers for this match up, if you see both, you feel good. You want to play aggressive into them swing for 10k on turn 2 if you go second and they start thinking of 3 cards are worth it to make their turn 5 wb good.

Kinemon:

This match up feels relatively easy. You’d like to see nami early so that you can pressure their searches. You want to pressure them early as so they don’t have the opportunity to play oden comfortably. Prioritize removing okiku as that handles marcos easily.

Wrap up

This was quite the impromptu write up to go along with the deck profile on YouTube. Feel free to msg on Twitter if you want to chat about the deck! I have an online treasure cup on the 20^th of this month and might do proper article if I do well Thank you for reading and am looking forward to all the feedback!

Garrett if you are reading this, please tell me where I am wrong I would like to hear your opinions and thoughts!

[EN-OP2] Micheal E: 1st Place Peoria Regionals (USA) with Law

Invited Author: Michael E, (aka CrossAi)

Country: USA

About me 

Hello, I am Michael E, also known as CrossAi. I recently won the Peoria regional, got top 8 at Long Beach, and 3rd place in deck limited battles! Today I will be breaking down the red/green Law deck I used to win Peoria.

The Leader

For those of y’all who haven’t seen Law before it’s effect may seem mediocre, and the 4 life may be a turn off, but this leader is extremely powerful. There are plenty of powerful 5 cost units to call, and plenty of low cost units to flood the board with! 4 life is kinda lame, but this leader might be tier -1 if it had 5 life. Realistically this deck's defensive options easily makes up for the 4 life.

Why Play this Deck?

This deck is ridiculously strong in this meta, I believe if piloted at a high level it can potentially beat any deck. The deck is complex but because there’s so many different lines it feels like you can potentially play out of any position.
If zoro floods the board with units, Vista their board.
If Whitebeard had a billion events, hit them for a billion twice with restand Law.
If 8 cost Kid comes out, Otama + Jet pistol. If control tries to pop your bored, utilize Makino, cheap attackers, and big bodies off shamble to rush them down.

There’s just so many different options, obviously it’s not as simple as the scenarios I gave but there really are a wide range of answers to any situation. This deck is basically an EVERYTHING deck, it can do control, aggro, midrange, etc..

Bonney

Bonney is easily the best searcher, this card searches all of the units you want to shamble into. A huge note I need to leave for ANY Law player is to use your bonneys wisely. Do not field it early game against a matchup where it can get popped, because you will be losing your engine for the rest of the game until you see another. Even if bonney is the only other 1 cost unit I can play, I won’t field it unless I can’t help it early game. I typically like to bonney on turn 3/turn 4 and return it back to my hand with shambles.

Nami

This is another one of the key searchers in this deck, being a 1 cost unit that instantly replenishes our hand is very strong. It’s search isn’t as powerful as bonneys, but with the inclusion of radical beam, it’s become a very powerful defensive searcher. This card can also help grab jet pistol against green, and it grabs Zoros to play off of blocker Law. At least for the first 3 sets, I would never run less than 4 of this card in Law.

Chopper + Bege

These are just 1 cost blockers, due to Laws leader ability it’s nice to have many 1 cost units to flood the board with. The only blocker between these two that could ever be reduced atm is bege. I am a big fan of it at 4, and having 8 1 cost blockers was relevant a lot for me at peoria, but if you figure other cards or systems to provide a crazy amount of defense for the deck, then it may be worth reducing.

Otama

Otama is the most insane 1 drop in this deck utility wise, being able to shrink cards on the board is relevant against too many matchups, and you can combo it with Law and Jet pistol in order to pop bodies greater than 8k. I don’t think I could ever run a Law deck without this in the forseeable future.

Dadan

Dadan is another key card to the deck, being able to search out otama this format is one of the most ridiculous buffs to this deck, and being able to dadan > nami > chopper/brooke, is essentially 3 bodies off of 1 card which is always very broken. I personally think that this card is always a 4 of, and it’s very powerful defensive option late game, as you can grab 7 2ks, 4 blockers, or 4 namis that can also search for defense.

Zoro(s)

Zoros are another crucial part to the law deck. These cards are always staple because they provide so much pressure when called off of blocker Law. I liked the 2 rush Zoro 1 st Zoro, but there’s definitely merit in either 3 rush Zoro or 3 st Zoro.

Vista

Vista is a very strong card in this deck, it wasn’t active all day because I played no mirror matches, and only one Zoro. Honestly this card probably should have been at 4 in the case where I played against a lot more Zoro, so if you are expecting more Zoro definitely bump this card up.

Blocker Law

This is the heart of the deck, never run less than 4 of this card. This is the card that allows us to do all our comboing, it can bounce searches back to hand that can be replayed for advantage when we lose our board. It can play Zoro in order to produce more attackers in the board. It can reuse Vistas to pop a bunch of weenie cards. It can combo with Otama in order to shrink down big units. The list just goes on and on and on and on and on.

1 thing I do want to mention about this card for new Law players is that you should not be afraid to swing with this card, of course you need to evaluate the situations where you shouldn’t swing with it, but for the first half or maybe even 3 quarters of the game I would definitely be attacking with this card.

Jet Pistol

This is one of red’s strongest control cards. Japan doesn’t use it in set 2 but that’s because there’s virtually no green in their meta. If you aren’t expecting green you can cut this card, but if you are expecting green you should definitely have this.

Radical Beam

This card was one of the huge mvps of the tournament, since the board sometimes gets too full having a pseudo 1 cost blocker, that I could play out of hand was absolutely amazing. I’m reevaluation how many of this card I wanna use just because I would also like to adopt some utility 2k counters, but I think this card is very strong.

Mulligan rule

The mulligan strategy for this deck is very very simple at its base. You basically want to keep blocker Law + Searchers, or you want to keep Bonney + anything (because Bonney can search for Law). The first unit you want to shambles into is almost always ideally blocker Law, so a mulligan that allows you to achieve that is great.

This mulligan expands a little bit based on matchups, like you can get a little greedier if you open a good hand into the matchup, such as Vistas against Zoro and the mirror. But with the exception of Vista in those matchups, this mulligan is more or less what I said.

Tournaments Matchups

Zoro W
Kaido W
Smoker L
Kid W
Smoker W
Smoker W
Doffy W
Doffy W
Strawbeard W

Top 16

Doffy W

Top 8

Strawbeard W

Top 4

Kinemon W

Top 2

Moby Dick Whitebeard W

These were my results for the days, I only took one L in swiss to smoker, but then I beat it twice later that day.

Matchups

Regardless of the matchup, I would generally only start defending and pressuring once your opponent has taken you down to 2 life.

Zoro – Slightly Disadvantageous (Go First)

Zoro is probably the hardest matchup for this deck, imo this matchup is very coinflippy, i believe that whoever goes first has the advantage. 9beard on curve is very troublesome for Law to deal with, and they force so many attacks early on, that we were forced to defend with key units out of hand. If you draw into vista I believe you can potentially sauce this matchup, but without vista it’s kinda rough.

Whitebeard – Slightly Advantageous (Go Second)

If you poke 6ks throughout the whole game while producing bodies with the remaining don I think you can win this matchup. The hardest part to play in this matchup is the end of the game, where you need to do close to perfect math or else you will lose. If you are inexperienced in this matchup, then it might be overwhelmingly whitebeard favored, but if you learn how to play it and practice then I think the matchup is Law favored. The Strawbeard version is harder to beat than the Moby Dick version imo, just because they string so many 9beards together. In the last round of swiss, homie played 3 9beard back to back to back and I thought I might’ve lost!

Kaido – Advantageous (I always lose dieroll to Kaido so I’ve literally only went first)

Last set Kaido was easily Laws worst matchup(although I did manage to beat Kaido a lot whenever I tested or played at locals with Law), with this new build of Law including 4 restand Law, I think that this matchup has become very very easy. The only way you lose is if you only draw all ur low end, but your goal is to spam blocker laws to reuse rush zoro, and restand laws to restand blocker laws and just keep hitting face.

Smoker – Slightly Advantageous (Go second)

Smoker is a favored matchup once you understand what they can pop, and when they can go for game. For example, if you have only 1 blocker on board and your opponent has 2 units you will lose to a meteor volcano to pop your blocker into, a 9k, 9k swing, so just make sure you have enough counter value in your hand. This is one of those matchups where it’s common to shambles smth back to hand late game and play nothing, just so you have additional counter value in hand. Outside of that rush zoro is very strong in the midgame, and its common for me to swing 5s with dadans and vistas in order to pressure the opponent. In the game I lost in swiss( I saw only 1 top end unit(which instantly got popped)), but I almost won the game because I kept pressuring with my dadans and vistas.

Kinemon – Slightly Advantageous (Go Second)

A lot of people think Kinemon is Laws worst matchup, but I think it’s favored once you learn the matchup. I was clapping up some of my friends trying to learn Law with Kinemon, but then I did some test games against Thomas Nguyen(who has topped multiple times between law last set and this set), and I lost the majority of the games by far. The only way Kinemon consistently beats Law, is if the Kine New list goes crazy. But, in this matchup you want to use pistol, and otama + pistol, in order to clear units, if you saw my game 2 in top 4, I otama’d his Law, even though I knew he was going to play kid later on, but that was fine because I can just otama Kid and swing into it. So if you are in a situation where you get a lot of value out of pistoling, even if they have oden, 7kid, or 8kid, just use the jet pistol. Otama + Vista is also very powerful early game in order to pop Okiku. The goal in this matchup is to just build a board so powerful that the green player simply can’t respond to it.

Doflamingo – 80% Free (Go First)

When I played 8 cost Kid in Law in set 1, this matchup was 100% free, but without 8 cost Kid I would say it’s only about 80% free. In this matchup once you see otama it becomes pretty free because you simply clear their board too easily. Make sure to swing at board whenever they have a rested unit, the only exception is a) if they’re at 2 life or less, then you can start pressuring face more, or b) the unit has a billion power(so if mihawk is rested, typically just ignore it).

Kid – Advantageous

Law has to easily be Kid’s worst matchup, otama + jet pistol is just too strong against Eustass Mid(manga joke). When I got top 8 at Long Beach, I played Kid and I actually lost to the only Law player in top 16. Kid hasn’t really had any new tools from set 2, and Laws only gotten stronger.

Shoutouts

Huge shoutouts to everyone in the Lab, these are a group of players from Arizona and they are all very strong players. As well as Egman (youtube.com/@TheEgman/) , who is another AZ player, for streaming the event and gassing me up. I also have a prediction that another AZ player will do extremely well in an upcoming tournament…

Huge shoutout to my Uncle Abim for helping me get to and back from the tournament.

Shoutouts to my homie Karrar for making top 16, and the homies Jackson Hoang and Thomas Nguyen for inspiring me to take Law, so I could show them I’m also cracked at the deck.

Lastly shoutout to my youtube channel CrossAi, youtube.com/@Crxssai/ , https://twitter.com/Cross_Aii , Law guide coming soon, and I’ll also be doing a super in-depth guide on patreon so stay tuned for whenever that’s released.

With that being said, Kine New, and I’ll catch y'all in the next One. Piece.

[EN-OP2] Naasir Jusab: 1st Place Offline Regionals in Montreal (Canada)

About me

Hello, my name is Naasir Jusab and I took 1^st place at the offline regionals in Montreal. I started playing TCGs in November 2022 with Digimon. I had results at locals with Xross Heart but then a sudden banlist targeted at Xross left me bitter. So with the release of OP1 I started playing One Piece TCG.

In OP1, I played Zoro/Luffy and had good results in our locals. I participated in my first big event at Treasure cup Niagara. I brought Luffy to the tournament and lost in the second round in the mirror match. I got tilted after this loss and ended up losing many more matches after that. Coming into this tournament a lot of people expected me to do well and I expected that from myself as well. I was very unhappy with my performance and once I got home, I started practicing for OP2 right away.

Having played OP2 since early February, I had enough time to try all the different decks and pick one to bring at the offline regional. The leader I decided to go with for the tournament was Zoro.

Zoro Leader

Having tested all the decks, I found Zoro to be the most consistent deck in terms of results and if you happen to brick early then you can rely on the best card in the format in 9 cost Whitebeard to close out games. Zoro’s consistency comes from the fact that it has double searchers. Not only are these searchers adding cards to your hand, but they are also bodies on your board which can attack your opponent with little investment because of your leader ability. Zoro is also a really good leader whether you’re going first or second. I don’t think it has any really bad matchups. Certainly, there are difficult matchups like Whitebeard but it’s not impossible by any means and I felt that a lot of bad red players moved to Whitebeard. You have to show some level of creativity when playing against Whitebeard and this will allow you to win against them.

A lot of people misinterpret Zoro as an aggressive rush leader, but I believe that it is best played as a midrange deck. All my matches at the regionals were won because I was winning on the board. When you have plenty of characters on the board and the opponent only has their leader, there is only so much they can clear. This is where the leader’s ability shines and overwhelms your opponent.

The general strategy of Zoro is to go wide on board. Take life it’s okay to go down to 2/3 lives. If you’re going first swing with all your characters, the turn before you drop Whitebeard. Now they have to clear your board and you’re dropping Whitebeard on them the following turn.

I want to start off by giving a special thanks to the guys from TeamSeafoodKing (https://twitter.com/TeamSeafoodKing)

The list above, which is the list I used at the regional, is taken from TeamSeafoodKing’s content. Having tested different variations of the deck I felt this was the best choice.

My friend Nickolas Tsagatakis got 9^th at the TopCut online regionals with a similar list.

Nick’s list was good, but with the increasing popularity of Whitebeard I felt the choices made by TeamSeafoodKing were correct. These choices include an additional radical and jet pistol. Sunny being cut to 3 may seem weird to most Zoro players but the card is not good into whitebeard. You want to see your big bodies such as Robin and Zoro which in turn also act as pseudo-blockers. This buys you time until you can drop 9 cost Whitebeard to close out the game. If you want more details about the decklist I would suggest checking out TeamSeafoodKing. I will talk about matchups below.

Mulligan

Your mulligan strategy is basically the same in any matchup besides Whitebeard. You want to see any searcher such as Nami or Dadan.

Additionally, I put a lot of emphasis on Robin going first, it’s a really strong card on curve. It’s prob not going to survive but if it does, then it’s a free 5k swing with no don investment.

I also like keeping hands where I have early plays and a Whitebeard. Any game where you see Whitebeard is usually a win so it’s okay if you don’t see all your searchers, but you have plays for the early game. Rely on Whitebeard to win those games.

Against Whitebeard leader, I mulligan for my Robins, Zoros and Gordons. Robin + Gordon is really strong to take care of their vanillas. Zoro is a free swing every turn forcing your opponent to deal with it. With your Dadan’s try to get more Gordon’s otherwise a 2k counter is also good. With Nami, try to find Zoro’s if you don’t already have one otherwise a 2k or radical beam is good too.

Matchups

Kinemon

Ash’s match vs Kinemon that was on stream in the Tokyo 2nd preliminary CS helped me understand how the matchup should be played. I had a feeling that Kinemon and Whitebeard would be the two most popular leaders, so I had to make sure that I knew how to play against those decks. If you’re having trouble with Kinemon I would suggest watching Ash’s match at the following link.

【1月14日(土) 東京第二予選】ONE PIECEカードゲームチャンピオンシップ 2023.01 東京第二予選〈アーカイブ配信〉

The Kinemon matchup boils down to their early game opening. If your opponent starts Raizou turn 1. As the Zoro player, you should be dancing with joy. If however, they open with Okiku. You can either go sideways with your characters or keep them standing. Depending on your hand both strategies are valid. I like to go sideways if I have Whitebeard in my hand. Staying healthy on life count and dropping Whitebeard is usually enough to win the game. Kinemon has a really hard time dealing with Whitebeard.

Alternatively, you can keep playing your searchers and ignore the Okiku. Deal with it when you can, most of the time you’ll be doing this because you don’t have the perfect answer to Okiku and I’d rather not slow down my development by jet pistoling it.

Additionally, Kinemon usually loses if they are losing on board, so if you have good trades into their characters then you should perform those battles. However, it’s important to calculate how much of your board can they clear on their turn and whether this damage would have been better going face rather than clearing the board. You need to make sure you have enough damage to close out the game so you can’t gas yourself out by endlessly clearing the board. The longer the game is stretched out the favorable it is for Kinemon.

The best tip I can give while piloting Zoro into any matchup is to think about your opponent’s power turns. For example, Kinemon’s power turns are turn 1 Okiku going second or turn 4 Oden. You should deploy your threats around those power turns. If you know your opponent is going into their Oden turn. That is the perfect time to swing with your characters. Drop your Makinos and Zoros, swing with all your characters. Maximize damage by swinging for as many magic numbers as possible. This makes your opponent reluctant to play their Oden. Additionally, they have too many targets to clear such as Makino, Zoro, Sunny, Robin, etc.

I pulled off this sequence in my semi-finals match against Doflamingo. For the first few turns, I kept taking damage and developing bodies. The commentators found it strange that I went down to 2 lives, but I felt comfortable because I had a radical beam in my hand. Once, I had a satisfactory board I started swinging with all my characters. This puts a lot of pressure on my opponent, and it takes pressure away from my life. On my opponent’s turn it’s difficult for him to know what to clear exactly, there are too many good targets.

One Piece Card Game – Day 2 Semi Finals – Nassir Jusab Vs Josh Oniate

Zoro

The next matchup I was very worried about was the mirror match. In my locals, I would win against every color. My only losses during a month of playing were in the mirror match. This had me thinking a lot about what I could do to outplay my opponent. Zoro is such a strong deck that I felt I was losing to less skilled Zoro players in the mirror. This is where Natsume’s matches at the Osaka championship enlightened me.

【11月23日(水・祝) 大阪予選】ONE PIECEカードゲームチャンピオンシップ 2022.11 大阪予選〈アーカイブ配信〉

In the Zoro mirror, it is important to go first. Dropping Whitebeard on curve is too strong and if your opponent doesn’t see theirs then you win the game. Additionally, it is okay to go down to 3 lives. I see many Zoro players defending their lives as much as they can and in the long run, they are losing out on damage that can help them close the game out. Try to collect as many 2k counters as you can off your searchers. If you have a lot of them in hand, feel free to play them as they are bodies on your board.

In the matchup you try your best to control your opponent’s board use your Vistas and Robins and clear as many bodies as you can. They can have more life than you but if their board is empty, they’re not going to be winning the game. Once you feel you’re losing on board, it’s time to just go swing face and try to win. Your opponent might have seen more removals, so you’ll run out of gas if you keep fighting for board thus, try to setup lethal.

You can find my finals match which was a mirror match here:

One Piece Card Game – Day 2 Finals –Anthony Micallef Vs Nassir Jusab

Whitebeard

A lot of people asked me about the Whitebeard matchup. I played two Whitebeards Day 1 and a BO3 on day 2. The matchup is definitely not easy. Having 0 blockers makes is so that the Whitebeard keeps swinging at your life. Thus, it’s important to see your pseudo-blockers. These cards are Robin, Zoro, Makino.

It is important to go first in the match as Whitebeard on curve makes it easier to defend life and deal damage. In the mid-game, with your searchers try to collect as many 2k counters. Additionally, have a robin setup and try to do 6ks with robin, Zoro and your leader. If you have a 1 drop, then boost them up with Makinos. This will make your opponent’s turn difficult as they have to clear these bodies otherwise, they are taking 4 6ks every turn. I feel Gordon is huge in this matchup as well. I try to use my Otamas and Gordons aggressively to clear the board. Eventually, your opponent will run out of rush characters which allows you to pressure their lives.

Law

The Law matchup is either the easiest or the hardest. If they open godly then it’s hard to get through all those blockers and you need to stall the game until you can drop Whitebeard. Pressure your opponent with your Robins and Zoros. Law usually wins on board after the first shambles so try to delay their shambles as much as possible. Use your removals to eliminate valuable bodies. It’s hard for them to clear the board as well as develop their own units. Take as much life as possible. You can go down to 2 lives and do well against Law. It’s hard to keep up with card advantage against them so taking lives is the only way to keep up with their hand. Their valuable units are 5 cost Law, any blockers, Zoro and Vista. It is important to clear Vista early game either with Robin or your own Vista as they can get a lot of value out of them by combing with leader ability. If the Law player pops off and sets up a wall of blockers at a healthy life total, then rely on your 9-cost Whitebeard to close the game.

Smoker/Kaido

Both of these matchups are super free. Go wide on your board and swing for magic numbers. There isn’t much to say for it other than that. If they clear your characters, refill your board up and do it all over again. It’s very hard for these leaders to win against you. The only way you lose is if they are aggressive and swinging at your leader. If they try to race you, make sure you’re calculating how much potential damage you’re taking every turn and what you need to stay alive.

Ivankov

Ivankov can be fairly difficult if they’re going first. Remember the power turns mentioned above. Keep your Zoros for the turn before they drop Ivankov. Thus, you want to go wide with your board and pop off on the turn before they are going to drop Ivankov. It makes it awkward for them to clear the board and they have no choice but to drop their Ivankov. Try to deal with their Luffy once it’s tapped as it’s their only win condition in most scenarios. If you feel the Luffy doesn’t pose a threat, then keep swinging life as other bodies aren’t worth swinging over. Keep your Gordon’s for when Luffy is tapped so all your little bodies can swing over it.

Tournament Matches Day 1

Round 1 Law O

Round 2 Kinemon O

Round 3 Kinemon X

Round 4 Ivankov O

Round 5 Ivankov O

Round 6 Whitebeard O

Round 7 Whitebeard O

Round 8 Luffy O

Round 9 Zoro O

Day 1 was honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. I was very dominant in all my matches, even the round 3 match vs Kinemon. The only reason I lost was because I had miscounted dons and didn’t keep one up for radical beam. If this was me at Treasure Cup, I probably would have tilted again and spiralled. Thankfully, my friends were there for me and told me to keep pushing forward. I kept playing the rest of my matches as if I was undefeated. I was really happy with my play following that Round 3 match. I wish I had them recorded because I felt it was the best I had ever played. None of the matches felt remotely close, I was pretty dominant against most people. At this point, I was very happy with my Day 1 performance. It showed that I had improved as a player mechanically and mentally since treasure cup.

Tournament Matches Day 2 BO3

Round 1 Smoker O O

Round 2 Whitebeard O O

Round 3 Doflamingo O O

Round 4 Zoro O O

Smoker

When I saw that Smoker was my first round, I got super happy. I thought to myself this was going to be the easiest serial Luffy. The game started and my hand was not very strong so I mulliganed. This time around my hand was even weaker. Since I was a higher seed, I had decided to go second to put the smoker off his curve. My turn 1 play was Brook. I was getting nervous because it was the only playable card I had in hand. The rest of my hand was Otamas and Makinos. I feel that I had no business winning game 1. My opponent had two impact waves in hand and saw a third one of trigger in life.I only had 1 or 2 characters on board the whole time. I feel like he might have made mistakes somewhere which allowed me to rush him down and close the game.

Game 2, my opponent decided to go second. This time I had a stronger hand, but my opponent kept countering early. This left him with a very weak hand size, so I kept clearing board and went for lethal at some point. That’s how I received my serial luffy.

Funnily enough, what is said to be Zoro’s best matchup was my toughest series of the day.

Whitebeard

Game 1, I was a higher seed, so I decided to go first. I had a good hand with Robins, Gordons and Zoros. This helped me pressure life and control the board and I was able to close out the game with 9 cost Whitebeard.

Game 2, my opponent decided to go first, I mulliganed for the usual targets which are Gordons, Zoros, Robins and at least 1 Whitebeard. This game my Nami bottom decked two of my Whitebeards which had me stressing a bit. However, I was able to establish a few 1 cost units which were able to pop off because of Makino. I believe the board overwhelmed my opponent and it became very difficult for them to rush life because they were taking too much damage every turn.

Doflamingo

Game 1, this was my first time on stream, and it made me super nervous. The nerves got to me while I was seated under the stream camera. I was thinking to myself, “Can the viewers see my hand?”, “Will the viewers judge my play?”, “Will they think I am undeserving of being a top 4 regionalist player?”. All of these thoughts were racing in my head while two judges were seated at our table and my opponent was sitting across from me. I was overwhelmed by the pressure. My opponent was a higher seed, so he decided to go first. I was so nervous I drew two cards by accident. The judge saw that and gave me a stern warning. Another warning would result in a game loss. Then, the same turn I played a Sunny and passed. As soon as I passed, I asked myself, why did I play this sunny? It was going to get bottom decked by my opponent’s 1 cost Doflamingo. I started to think that my friends and the viewers on twitch are going to think I am so bad at the game. So, on my following turn, I took a second to calm myself down. I told myself that I couldn’t correct the mistakes I had made so far but I could try to play perfectly from here on out and win the game. I believe that from turn 3, I had not made any mistakes and I even got my opponent to concede the match.

Game 2, my confidence was high, and I was comfortable playing on stream. I played as if I was at my local and won the match with relative ease. My opponent couldn’t get much going with their leader ability. I kept clearing the board and eventually when I saw his hand size decreasing, I went for game.

Zoro

This was a match that I would have dreaded if I hadn’t studied the mirror match. I had a clear game plan, control the opponent’s board as much as you can and if you’re losing control of the board then calculate how much damage you can inflict in order to setup lethal.

Game 1, I went first, I saw everything I needed. In this matchup, searchers are very important. I was constantly searching, establishing bodies but also adding 2k counters to my hand. I saw more searchers than my opponent and Whitebeard. I felt that he didn’t have much of a chance, but he almost countered out of a 15k swing, the game turned out to be very close.

Game 2, my opponent put me in second, but I kept my game plan in mind. My opponent saw Whitebeard but hadn’t inflicted much damage to my life. So, I was able to close out the game before the Whitebeard could do much work. I believe this series was my best series of the day and I am happy with the way I played. I believe all my turns were optimal and I am glad that it was recorded on stream.

Here are the matches for those who want to watch:

Semi-Finals

One Piece Card Game – Day 2 Semi Finals – Nassir Jusab Vs Josh Oniate

Finals

One Piece Card Game – Day 2 Finals –Anthony Micallef Vs Nassir Jusab

Appreciation

I want to finish off by thanking all of these people:

1. Big thanks to Carta for building the scene, it is hands down my favourite local in Montreal.

2. Thanks to Alexander Saint-Louis and George Folden for putting together the awesome event that was the offline regionals, I hope our city gets to host plenty more.

3. Thanks to all my friends who helped me prepare for this event and everyone in our Montreal group chat that cheered me on during the games that were livestreamed, you guys believed in me and pushed me, so I appreciate all of you

4. A big thanks to everyone at my locals, I believe we have a really strong scene so thank you for the games leading up to the event, im excited to see who else qualifies for nationals, I want to see us all at worlds!

[JP] Kendo Matsuda Zoro Deck Article

Invited Author: Kendo Matsuda

Country: Philippines

About me 

Hello, I am Kendo Matsuda from the Philippines, who recently won the TopDeck Games and Hobbies One Piece Flagship battle. Held here in Cagayan de Oro City, a southern island in the Philippines. I am using an aggressive Zoro deck for the event.

I will be sharing with you guys my thoughts and this deck-building process as they work for me. I've already won three straight tournaments with this build. I just adjusted a few cards for tournaments with this list.

The Zoro Leader

I have been a Zoro main since OP02 and now into the OP03 meta, and the first reason I chose Zoro as a leader is that he is my favorite character in OP and also because of his ability to give plus 1K to all characters, which is very simple and powerful, and achieving the 5K power is a big deal and hitting the opponent's leader is very easy to achieve.

Why Play this Deck?

The Zoro deck is very simple to use, as its leader skill gives plus 1K to all characters. So basically, your goal is just to keep on attacking and hitting that 5K or 6K power without spending an extra don. When building a Zoro deck, I have a lot of choices on what to prioritize in this build. I can go super aggro, mid-range aggro, or defensive.

There are a lot of different builds that are topping right now. But personally, I prefer my super aggro build for Zoro. The goal of this deck is very simple: build a board while adding cards in hand for guarding and extra attack. End the game quickly and attack everything at the leader so that they can discard their key cards for guarding, and when they try to build a board and attack your character, you can easily replace them and do a counterattack.

Key cards

Buggy – We call it better sunny because it has the same attack and cost and can also search any event card on the top 5. I run 8 events in my deck, so I am pretty sure I can get one when doing his skill. You cannot afford to rely on Nami alone. On adding an important event card such as diable jambe, radical beam, or a jet pistol. There are times when using Nami

You will prioritize getting Zoro Rush, Luffy Rush, or Brook for the 2K shield. With Buggy, you can add more cards to the deck. Buggy also has a second skill that everyone seems to forget or ignore. It is also immune to the slash attribute, which is a very powerful skill.

especially when you are facing slash attribute cards.

Vista – This card is perfectly here for the reason that I might face a Zoro mirror match, and as for the recent Zoro build. They are dropping Vista and putting in the Marco 5 Drop for a more midrange tank build. Vista helps me a lot, especially in mirror matches. We all know it can KO 3000 power on play. It helps me kill blockers against yellow, R/G, and WB when they have marco blockers.

I just use otama and vista to ko them and attack their marco when they decide to revive it. This card shines in mirror matches. While the opponents' zoro are setting up their field for the next turn, attack. They can't do that like I usually do. I attack their chara and play vista for that easy 1 unit kill.

Sanji Rare – This card exists for two reasons: it is an extra 2K shield and a perfect card to counter Nami in this format. Nami doesn't swing to the leader, so you cannot gain any hand cards from your life, but Sanji fixes that problem. You play Sanji.

Take 1 card from your life and attach rested Dons to him. This is what I usually do. I won't attack Sanji. I will just keep on spamming.

He takes one life skill and gets extra cards for my onslaught on Nami With this tech they can't deny your life. If you are not facing a nami

It is just a simple extra 2K shield that can help you survive attacks.

In two years at sabaody archipelago – An event that can add a straw hat character. The combo for this is very simple. If you have no Nami and you have Buggy, play Buggy, and check the top 5. If the Sabaody is there, get that event and use it, then check the top 5 for Nami. Now you have a nami in hand, ready to search, and a buggy on the field.

Uta – If you get this midgame, then you can easily recover your field and hand cards. the combo of this card would be. Play Uta, get Dadan in the trash, play Dadan add nami, then play Nami add any strawhats. The chain combo of searching begins with uta.

You easily rebuilt your board and got a 1 card from the Nami skill.

Radical Beam – Since buggy is in the deck right now we can easily get radical and it helps us defend big attacks.

Diable Jambe – No blockers allowed

Zoro, Sanji,Luffy – Rush we need more rush characters for the super aggressive build.

Mulligan rule

The ideal hand in this deck is that you must have either Nami or Dadan. If you cannot get one of them, then mulligan right away.

If you get both, then for me, that's the perfect hand card. If you are going first, Nami is the perfect play. If Turn 2 Dadan is the perfect Play the priority These two must be among your starting hands. The other keycards will come with you.

Tournaments Matchups

Top Deck Games and Hobbies Flagship Battle Matchup

R1 Sanji Win going second: in these matchups, I am well aware that I have an advantage; they start at 4 lives while I am at 5, and I can aggro them — which is the key to winning. This game is killing their film Nami. I searched for the pistol right away and waited for him to play the film nami before I use it. Just keep on aggroing, but in this matchup you should focus on killing. their characters before going for the leader when they have no hand cards anymore to guard your attacks. That's how I won.

R2 Katakuri Win going 1st: In this match, my main focus is just building my board. Nami will search for Chara that has rush for extra attacks later in the game, and Buggy will search for a radical beam for a defensive counter. I just keep on attacking the leader and ignoring his characters. My goal is to aggro him as much as I can before he reaches 10. Once he is able to play Big Mom 10 twice, I already lose the game. So I did not wait for that and focused everything on the leader.

R3 Zoro Win going 2nd: This one is a game of who can build the board first and can aggro first. These were back-and-forth battles. The game-changing moment for this game was when I triggered a radical beam in my life by adding the plus 1k to my leader.

So it is now a 6K leader during his turn. Now his other character cannot hit my Zoro; there was one attack he tried; I took it and got a 2K counter; and for his next attack, it was 7K; good thing I got the 2K counter; so I guarded, and he ended his turn with 5 active dons.

He has no attackers left. I am thinking he might have a lot of events in his hand, so in my turn, I just hit with magic numbers 5K and 6K; he used both of his radical beams, so I already know he doesn't have a 1K or 2K counter in his hand, so I went all in on my last attack and won it.

R4 Zoro: Win going 1st I am facing a different build of Zoro here; he uses the Zoro with Marco SR and Fiery Doll events. The same build as what the Zoro champ is using in the Singapore one piece event. I already knew his deck's build, so I know his deck has a lot of events and is strong in the mid- and late-game. I managed to go first and got my Nami buggy in my starting hand, so I just built my board right away.

I know he runs Marco 5 and he can use it midgame, but I also run Vista, which I can play right away in turn 3. I kept my vista in hand. Once he plays his 1 cost unit and tries to build a board, that's the time I play vista and kill it right away. So in the game, I was able to attack and aggro him first. I just keep on killing his character first before attacking the leader.

R5 Nami: Win going 1st, Honestly, this is the easiest matchup for me in the tournament. The keycard in this matchup is my Sanji, but I was not able to get him. But still, Sanji is just an option. I haven't lost to a Nami player once while I am using Zoro so I am really confident of the matchup. Just doing my usual thing, keep on attacking. Swinging for 6K or 7K.

Nami was not able to catch up with the aggressor, and he cannot guard the rest of my attack.

Summary

Zoro is still one of the best decks in the current format, and the addition of the Buggy to the deck improves its performance by making it easier to access event cards and having a better Sunny in deck. You can adjust your deck build depending on your playstyle and the current meta in your locale. Though for me, Zoro really shines as a super aggressive deck. I am currently on a three-week winning streak right now, winning two standard battles and one flagship battle this month. I am very satisfied and confident in my build.

You can follow me in twitter @MatsudaKendo

You can also subscribe to my youtube channel https://youtube.com/@dragkendo5871

I am uploading OPTCG Finals on my channel.

— messages

I would like to thank Myles for introducing me to this game. I am really enjoying this card game.

TopDeck Games and Hobbies for supporting the game and giving us a place to play.

To my discord friends who I playtest with.

The most important thing is that I wanna thank God for the skills and guidance.

[JP] Tien Kai: My Flagship Journey with CP9 and Nami

Invited Author: Wong Tien Kai

Country: Malaysia

Introduction

Hello all, my name is Wong Tien Kai. I am an active OPTCG player from Malaysia. Today, I would like to share the decks that I used and helped me to win 3 times Zoro Flagship Main Event in Feb and March 2023. Before I begin, I would like to show my gratitude towards the author for giving me the opportunity to share my deck ideas & playstyle via this platform.

My Flagship results in OP3 meta:

13^th Feb 2023 (Apex Bladers) – Deck used: CP9 [Score 5-0]
11^th Mar 2023 (Dueling Nexus) – Deck used: CP9 [Score 5-0]
12^th Mar 2023 (Pichubros) – Deck used: Nami [Score 5-0]
17^th Mar 2023 (Armory TCG) – Deck used: CP9 [Score 4-1]

Decklist sharing and analysis

First of all, I would like to introduce my favourite deck, which is CP9 Lucci Deck. I have made some adjustments to the list in between three games.

i) 13^th Feb 2023（Apex Bladers Flagship Main Event）

ii) 11^th Mar 2023（Dueling Nexus Flagship Main Event）

Adjustments to the deck are as follow:

Increase amount in 2k counter card

The 2k counter card help me to strengthen my defensive ability in the early game which allows me to play 8C-Issho / 10C-Kuzan during late game with healthy life. If you can't keep your life healthy in the early stage, you will have no way to land these characters to build your advantage later on.

Adding “10C-Kuzan”

10-C Kuzan can further strengthen your advantage especially during late game.

Landing 10C-Kuzan after the effect of 4C-Kuzan, allows you to easily KO one of your opponent’s 9-cost character while building up your field. Hence, if you don’t have Issho during 8-cost turn, you can consider to play 4C-Kuzan + Borsalino / Air Door.

Removing “Tempest Kick Sky Slicer”

I realize that this event card is only effective against Whitebeard deck. Most of the deck, it just stays in my hand without much usage so I have decided to remove it from the build.

Adding “2C-Brannew”

“Brannew” greatly increases the consistency of the deck as many cards are his search targets. This allows you to smoothly landing correct characters every turn, especially if you go second.

Ideal play if going second:

Why CP9?

The reason why I would choose this deck to fight in this environment is because Lucci is in a certain way much favorable against Whitebeard deck. Early on, 4C-Borsalino with a 6k power is essential to block leader’s attack. 6C-Akainu can KO any 4-cost vanilla. 8C-Issho is always guarantee to drop 2 hand cards from all Whitebeard players. Most importantly, Lucci's powerful leader effect can always close the game effectively with 2-hits combo. Personally, I am very confident against any Whitebeard matchup. Even if I am given first to go, I can use CP cards to get through early game. For example, 5C-Blueno who excel in both offensive and offensive, as well as 3C-Fukurou who is literally an indestructible blocker.

Lastly, let me share with you the recently adjusted deck build which also helped me to score 4-1 in this Flagship Main Event.

iii) 17^th Mar 2023（Armory TCG Flagship Main Event）

You will realize that I replaced both copies of “Impact Wave” with one 2k counter and one “6C-Rob Lucci”. This deck is unfavorable against yellow deck. To gain advantage early on, I would much prefer to use 6C-Lucci to rush opponent’s life instead of 6C-Akainu’s KO effect.

When playing against yellow deck, reducing their life early on and keep pressuring them is one of the ways to prevent them from playing big cost character during late game. And most of the time we do not really have enough Dons to use Impact Wave from hand. We will just pray that it can be triggered from life…..

To wrap up, I think CP9 deck is a very strong and versatile deck. The deck build could vary flexibly based on the environment. I always scored at least 4-1 using it in Flagship Main Event.

OP3 Nami Deck

Above is my deck build. You can see that I didn’t use “Mohji” and “Cabaji” duo.

Well, initially I did put them into the deck. But it just doesn’t feel right as most of the time, I always find myself in a situation that the duo always missing one another which caused hand brick and delaying the deck speed. Hence, I decided to play more “Bell-mere”, “Nojiko” and “Death Wink”.

“Nojiko”（OP03-048）

This is a highly disruptive card. Spending only 2 Dons to remove a 5-cost character will make your opponent hard-spent Dons goes to vain and it is very cost-effective to stop an opponent's attack with only 2 cost.

“Bell-mere”（OP03-051）

Playing 2 copies of “Bell-mere” helps a lot in matchup against yellow deck. Yellow deck players often choose to pass turn during early-mid game until they have enough Dons to land 10C-Big Mum to burn my life and launching final attack. To avoid such situation, I will choose to go offensive by having “Bell-mere” attacking opponent’s life. This will force opponent to drop their hands to block the attack, else I will benefit from Bell-mere’s milling effect and pressuring their life.

Why Nami?

I chose to play this deck because this deck could go up against Whitebeard deck, and also I found out that Whitebeard players decrease significantly in recent tournaments, so I would love to try out Nami in Flagship Main Event.

Piloting the deck:

Early game to Mid game – Mill deck as fast as possible by utilizing “Kaya”, “Pilaf” and “Zeff”.

Late game – Utilize various event cards to protect yourself and thinning out deck at the same time.

Here’s a little tip to share with you guys. Say if you have only 1 life left, and opponent attack you with very high BP. You can actually activate event card to thin your deck and take that life afterwards. This results to the thinning of your deck and saving some Dons to activate event cards next turn.

My thoughts on next environment:

Following the announcement of ban list, we can foresee a significant drop in Whitebeard deck. I personally think that the below decks have potential to be the meta decks:

– Yellow Katakuri

– Red Zoro

– Red/Green Law

Summary

Before wrapping up, I would like to once again bidding my gratitude towards this platform which allows me to share my thoughts and ideas. And a big shoutout to all of my friends who always play with me and motivating me from time to time. And not forgetting my local shop, Apex Bladers who provides players with all kinds of tournaments and encouraging us to test out different decks and it is a great community to meet different friends and players.

Hereby, I would like to take this opportunity to promote my FB page and YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe to get more interesting contents of OPTCG! All your supports are greatly appreciated!

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@_tkwong6064

FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083946010397&mibextid=ZbWKw

Apex Bladers FB Page:
https://www.facebook.com/apexbladers?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Lastly, thanks to Chris for helping me to amend and edit this articles which make it easier to read and follow. Cheers!

Introduction

The Deck

Card Choice

FINAL THOUGHTS

Introduction

The Deck

Regionals Day: Match Ups

FINAL THOUGHTS

About me

Why Film Kid?

Mulligan/Turn Order

Tournaments Matchups

Shoutout:

About me

Zoro Leader

The Deck

Deck Guidelines and Mulligan

Tournaments Matchups

Conclusion and Acknowledgments

About me

Deck Choice:

My thoughts and impressions

Mulligans, turn order, and counter pattern:

Tournaments Matchups

Conclusion

About me

Why I played this deck

My thoughts and impressions

Mulligans and going first/second

Tournaments Matchups

Wrap up

About me

The Leader

Mulligan rule

Tournaments Matchups

Shoutouts

About me

Zoro Leader

Mulligan

Matchups

Appreciation

About me

The Zoro Leader

Mulligan rule

Tournaments Matchups

Summary

Introduction

Decklist sharing and analysis

Why CP9?

OP3 Nami Deck

Why Nami?

My thoughts on next environment:

Summary

[EN-OP2] Shannon: 5th Place OCE online treasure cup with Green FILM Kid

[EN-OP2] Seinav: 2nd place LATAM Treasure Cup with Zoro

[EN-OP2] Edward Newgate (Hybrid-beard) Deck.

[EN-OP2] Elliot: Top-4 Brisbane Regionals with Strawbeard

[EN-OP2] Micheal E: 1st Place Peoria Regionals (USA) with Law

[EN] Sanco: Garp Control: Underrated Deck in the New Meta

[JP] Tien Kai: My Flagship Journey with CP9 and Nami

[JP] Jude: Kaido wins flagship in OP3 meta.

About me 

About me 

About me 

About me 

About me 

About me 