Invited Author: Daniel Tan
Country: Malaysia
About me
Hi once again everyone, I’m Daniel Tan from Malaysia, currently an active player for One Piece Card Game. I’ll be giving a brief intro on my winning black CP9 Lucci deck on 25th Feb in the Kourindou Flagship tournament. I would like to thank One Piece Top Deck again for inviting me to give my two cents on the deck.
This is my second invite for a written review on a deck this month post OP03 release by One Piece Top Deck, with my first article being on Yellow Katakuri, I would like to first explain why I pivoted from Yellow Katakuri to Black Lucci.
First and foremost, Katakuri is extremely weak against Red Whitebeard due to their lackluster mid-game aggression and board clearing capabilities compared to Black Lucci. It also struggles against Nami with weak board clear, allowing Nami players to be able to bounce back their key cards to be played again for draws, which is why Katakuri is put at a rather awkward spot when it comes to matchups in tournaments where Blue Nami and Red Whitebeard can be seen alot. Also, with the low amounts of green and purple (Kaido) decks in tournaments right now which black struggles against allows it to strive.
Mentioned above are my main reasons for pivoting to Black Lucci for recent tournaments. However, my predictions are that with Red Whitebeard’s topping slowly reducing lately, chances that Yellow Katakuri would move forward in tiers are high.
The Rob Lucci CP Navy Deck
The current build that I am using comprises mainly Navy based cards such as Kuzan, Akainu (my MVP), Issho, Smoker and Borsalino. Compared to some builds that play the CP9 line, I think that the Navy line is more stable and provides more control options to its player if played well compared to CP9’s rather low KO threshold, if used wisely, board clear with Meteor Volcano, 2C Garp, shock wave and Sakazuki (MVP) would give you more than enough mid game board advantage to carry you through late game and for the win.
Black, being known for its board clear abilities, has always had an issue with their hand size due to cards costing a discard for effect. Therefore, having a good balance in card ratio will often give you clear targets to discard for effect, and that requires a lot of play testing and experience with the deck. The introduction of new cards which gave the deck a new leader option and new defensive/offensive has given the deck a great boost by increasing their board clearing capabilities and lifting a rather heavy burden (discarding a lot of cards) off them. I will give a brief explanation on the new cards and what they provide to the deck:
Brennew – much needed searcher with a solid 3k base, increases the deck’s consistency.
Fukurou – An effect Ko resistant blocker, gives you a clear advantage when against decks with mainly KO effects (Red, Yellow, Black) especially against Ace and Whitebeard. You mostly only play this out on the board when against the above mentioned colors.
Bruno – Solid 6 cost 6k blocker that can spawn a 4c 6k vanilla upon KO or Khalifa for some hand renewal. You normally play this when board pressure is moderate and you don’t have sakazuki in hand to clear you opponent’s board.
Khalifa – Can be combo-ed with Bruno and Shockwave for 5c removal, solid 2k counter with hand renewal abilities on play allows you to discard dead cards in hand and replace them with other more useful cards.
Kumadori – 6k vanilla to be discarded as a counter and revived by Bruno, you normally only use it as a counter to be discarded to trash.
Issho – one of the strongest cards black has ever gotten, having a solid 9k base for an 8 cost, the discard 2 ability gives you a natural edge fighting most of current meta decks including Blue Nami, Red Whitebeard and Red Ace. The -3 cost also gives you a much higher KO threshold for even better board control and advantage.
Game Play
Next, I will explain briefly about what you would want to do early-late game with the deck. For Black Lucci, I would recommend going second if given the chance to choose because most of your key cards costs are in even numbers
Early (1-4 don) – Focus on getting useful bodies on the board, Brennew to search, Kuzan to draw, Borsa for added defenses and sometimes Garp. Kumadori should only be played when facing decks with mainly effect KO board clear, Khalifa only when you need an early hand renewal.
Mid (5-7 don) – Focus on removal of your opponent’s mid game pieces which would normally be 4-5 costs with Sakazuki, Kuzan + meteor shower, Kuzan + Garp. If you have dead cards in hand, you can always use Lucci to restand upon KO to give your opponent more pressure.
Late (8-10 don and onwards) – Your 8 don timing when going second is absolutely pivotal against above mentioned meta decks (blue, red and sometimes Yellow), playing Issho at this moment will take 2 cards off your opponent’s hand and heighten your board clear threshold. After playing Issho you can continue focusing on board clear with your board clear pieces to keep your opponent’s board pressure low.
Matchups
Lastly I will go through all the matchups I’ve faced so far
Matchups:
Kinemon – Hard – Your hardest matchup will be green because of their ability to rest your unit, try to play around it and use your board clear wisely.
Blue Ivankov – Medium – Your opponent will need to have a very good hand and draws to win, their removal can be annoying but you will almost always end up having a better board than them if controlled well.
Red Whitebeard – Medium – You have to clear their early pieces to reduce late game pressure coming from Moby Dick, find good timings to use your leader Lucci ability (not only late game) and Issho right on 8 don timing to apply more pressure to them.
Green Blue Sanji – Medium – The deck actually doesn’t struggle that hard against you especially after the event card power boost given to the deck post OP03, don’t overthink on their leader ability and continue focusing on board clear, with only 4 life there’s nothing much it can do against your relentless assault.
Blue Nami – Easy – Again same strategy when you are against Red Whitebeard, meteor shower will give them a big headache because their main draw power relies on certain 1 cost pieces. Your Sakazuki will mostly be used on their Zeff and 4c Mihawk.
Yellow Katakuri – Focus on getting board advantage mid game by clearing their mid game pieces, 10c big mom can be annoying but with enough advantage generated during mid game you can mow through his health relatively easily even with healing.
Red Ace – Medium – play your pieces wisely to play around his events, put a mental note to remind yourself what events he has everytime he searches. Issho works most of the time against him so as long as your Issho works it wouldn’t be hard.
That’s all I have for now. Once again thanks for the invite and thanks everyone for reading till the end.
If I wanted to run 4 copies of Kuzan what card would be ok to take out? I'm finding it difficult to actually get copies of Kuzan out early in the game with only 3.