Invited Author: Julio Farfan
Country: Chile
Introduction
Hi guys, my name is Julio Farfan from Chile. I'm a classic player who enjoys card games, board games, and a little bit of legal gambling.
I recently attended the Santiago de Chile Treasure Cup event, which featured a total of 256 players from all over Latin America. I went with the Red Leader Monkey D.Luffy from the Starter Deck, which, after a lot of playtesting, I found to be the most balanced and mid-range leader, something that Zoro lacked if you don’t establish a clear advantage early in the game.
Deck Build
My deck was aimed at a favorable match against green and red decks, focusing on Kid and Zoro, as they are the most popular decks in my region. During the tournament, the mirror match became more relevant, but I devised some strategies to gain an advantage.
Key cards that stood out in the tournament were:
3x Ben Beckman: it was a last-minute addition to the deck. Before this card, I was using the Brook Drop 4, but it was too slow for certain matchups, so I decided to swap it.
2x Bepo: a defensive card that, in certain cases, can function as an emergency removal to clear low-power units, and in conjunction with Otama, can even remove important cards like Nico Robin.
3x Law Promo: nice combo with Nico Robin or Jet Pistol, this card wasn't seen much at the event, but it helped me consistently take control of the board.
2x Red Hawk: even if I didn’t have it in my hand, letting 2 Dons in active mode was enough to force my opponent to play around it. The bluff was real.
Treasure Cup Day: Match Ups
Standing Rounds
R1: my opponent didn’t show up, so it was a free win for me.
R2: mirror match Luffy. I started second, and thanks to some defensive misplays by my opponent, I controlled the board, hitting constantly with magic numbers of 7k, 9k, and 10k for the win.
R3: another mirror match Luffy. Again going second, I was able to flood the board with characters and secure a fast win.
R4: R/G Law. Once again going second, Nico Robin and Bepo were the MVPs. The opponent couldn't establish a board, and that really hurt Law.
R5: Green Kid. You guessed it, I went second. This match was a spam of Luffy Drop 5; I used the 4 copies of it, and my opponent couldn’t believe that I always got another one after removing it. Well, that card's ability to bypass blockers really helped. Win for me.
R6: Green Kid, matched against a friend. Once again, I went second, and 2 Jet Pistols showed up early to remove the green control cards Okiku and Basil, forcing him to play Kid Drop 8 on a suboptimal board, and winning me the grinding game. It was a tough match, but I got the win.
R7: Kaido. Guess what… yep, I started second again. My opponent got afflicted with the Kaido curse and didn’t get the Onigashima stage card in his opening hand. Instead, he decided to use Who's Who Drop 3 to remove a Drop 2 Sanji that I played on my first turn, destroying his tempo as I was 2 Dons up, and he couldn't keep up with the spam of rush characters, leading to my win.
R8: Mirror Match Luffy – Loss. This time, I finally got to choose who went first and decided to try going first to test how well my deck would perform in that situation. My opponent surprised me by using vanilla cards from the Film Pack, securing his tempo due to the sheer power of the cards.
Top 16
Mirror Match Luffy
Game one, was tough from the beginning. I won the dice, but I decided to go second. During the match both of us focused on hitting characters to control the board, but in a decisive turn my opponent did a misplay in the last attack by declaring a diable jambe on Ben Beckman, card that is unaffected by it… I called the play and blocked with chopper, prompting my opponent to concede game one.
Game two, going second and my opponent was noticeable affected by his game one misplay influencing his plays. Was a quick game and took win 2-0. W
Top 8
Kid, staring second with Jet Pistol being the indisputable MVP card in both of games. The strategy was to focus on controlling the board to force my opponent to play kid drop 8 or law drop 5 inefficiently.
Was a long match, because I played the grinding game to reduce card by card his hand and securing the game. Win 2-0
Top 4
R/G Law Lose 0-2, sticking to the game plan by going second. The strategy was to play Nico Robin and blockers to protect her, but it was impossible to accomplish that. Basically, he drew the right cards to control the board on both games and I was unable to turn the table.
Later this opponent won the tournament.
Conclusion
It was a great experience, shout out to my friends and their support at every round giving me feedback to improve my game and matches.
Now time to wait the next big tournament, with the goal to take the first place home.
Julio Farfan
Great article!! And great run through the tourney! Really well deserved!