Introduction
My name is Pavel, I live in Japan and attend 1-3 standard battles weekly, ever since I started playing One piece, I focused on a blue deck (First Crocodile then Doffy and then back to Crocodile), it always felt like I could gain control and deal with most of the characters on the field, but, when it came to 8 cost Kidd, 8 cost bullet and 9/10 Kaido, it felt like I had no option other then just attacking and hoping the opponent would not counter or block it.
Having only being able to deal with up to 7 cost (or below) characters (Return to the bottom of the deck, return to hard) did not feel enough, that is until I saw the Black cards and the huge protectional it had dealing with the previously mentioned characters and even the new ones (White beard, Oden) allowing me to easily K.O them using 3-cost Koby, 7-cost Sakazuki and 10-cost Kuzan and gain control rather easily.
matchups and strategy
Here are some examples of the experiences I had; Playing against red Zoro is the most difficult so I will start there. What I learned is that you always want to find your 2-cost blocker and place it early and make sure to use it as soon as possible if you do not it can be easily destroyed. By placing and using your blocker early you can slowly stall to late game, if you make it to late game with 3-4 life cards you are golden at this point. Moreover, using your 2-cost Garp as a bait for the user to try to destroy (Jet pistol and such) is also a great way to stall, if you do not get to place him on field, he is still a 2k counter which is crucial for the matchup, Another card that you want on your field is 4-cost Borsalino, 6k body that cannot be K.Oed by effects is simply insane and I wish I could use more than 4(lol). That is a simple explanation to red Zoro battle from my perspective.
Moving on to a tad easier battle would be Purple and Green. This is just a free match for Black decks if you can stay above 3-life at late game. Against Green you always want to make sure to use your K.O effects on Robin and if needed on Yamato (4 and 5 cost) and after that save your K.O effects for Oden (do not let him reach the next turn or allow him to attack).
Purple is trickier, by turn 6-8 you want at least 2 Borsalinos on the field (to avoid Kaido's KO effect) and make sure to try to find your stage. At turn 10 you can simply -1 cost to King and K.O with your Kuzan.
And finally, the last deck that I wanted to save for the last is Whitebeard. This match up is very tricky: as you would with Zoro, get your 2-cost blocker in early and use it early and stall for late game. Make sure to K.O Marco before whitebeard has 2 life card left and after you reach late game your best friends are your blockers. Populate your field with blockers and take the game slowly from there, make sure to be in control and stay above 1-life at least in late game.
conclusion
One final note, I noticed that it does not really matter if you go first or second, as it mostly depends on your hand. Since you can see your hand before choosing to go first or second, I always choose to go first, although it might be a small disadvantage for me, most of a time is also a disadvantage for the other player.
Any questions, please email pavelzilb@gmail.com or add me on Discord Pasha#7489 for questions.
Thank you for reading, I hope you find this information useful.