Tag: #deckreviews #guide

[DeckReview] THGoddog: Won 7 times with 7-cost Kid blocker

Invited Author: THGoddog
Country: Thailand

Introduction

Hello everyone, this is my first writing so I will be very happy if this article can help you more or less.
I am a player from Thailand and I started to play when Championship event was launched. I joined 5 championships end with "X-2" 5 times so I never hit the top cut( X-1 to make a cut ) . After
that I joined the local store tournaments ( Flagship/Standard ) 10 times and finished at 1st place 7 times.
You can follow me on my twitter ( @ThGoddog ) for tournament report and please feel free to ask if you have any question about decklist and strategy.

My record from 2 tournaments with no 8-cost Kid
Jakarade shop:
R1 vs RG law W
R2 vs Purple Kaido W
R3 vs Red Zoro W
R4 vs Purple Kaido W

Iplay card shop:
R1 vs BluePurple Kaido W
R2 vs Red Zoro W
R3 vs Green cost8 Kid W

Lucky that I didn't face any Blue deck and I also have never tested against this deck as well. I think it will be hardest match up because I don’t play 8-cost Kid so Blue can kick my biggest character( 7-cost Kid blocker) so Hawkins and Oikiku must be ready to deal with Blue Doflamingo.

DECK strategy

While people keep focusing on 8-cost Captain Kid and board control, I tried to play more aggressively and focus less on board state.

4-cost Drake will take position at turn-2 set up and followed up by a 5-cost untap Law ST2 for an aggressive turn with 2 7000 power attack and 1 6000 power then drop 7-cost Kid the next turn and I can still hit with 2 7000 power and 1 6000 power again if Law and Drake survive.

This deck need to go second because you need to set up the 4-cost Drake on turn-2. A great line up would be turn-1 blocker, turn-2 Drake or Okiku, then turn-3 Law or Hawkins, followed by a turn-4 drop of 7-cost Kid. On turn-5, I will use my Dons for Leader Kid, as his ability is too overpowered when compared to other leaders (except Red-Green Law), a 12000 power (with 7-Don under) making 2-hits when opponent has only 1 life left and no blockers is very lethal, or I can just attack my opponent’s character with 6000-8000 power. With his restand ability, you can do things that always surprises your opponent.

DECK structure

8x 1-cost must-haves Capone and Jewelry

4x Apuu: 2000 counter and can shutdown opponent's DON!! sometimes.

4x Cat Viper: Rest and hit with your leader during early game and also to rest oppenent's low-cost blocker, Robin, Oikiku, or some 3-cost stuffs. 

4x 2-Cost Killer: Blocker that draws a card when blocking so no reason not to run 4 in any Kid deck.

4x Okiku: Best 3-cost attacker for green ever since it was printed. You can use her for the first attack in every attacking turn to rest your opponent's characters for board state advantage or to rest blockers for consecutive wave from your leader and Hawkins. Anyway, the follow up always depend on situation.

4x Izou: Izou has more range than Cat Viper and you can reuse her by 5-cost shambles Law.

4x 4-Cost Drake: The very reason why this deck was built, 1 DON!! to boost every Supernovas by 1000 power. Drake followed-up by Untap Law makes very aggressive turns!

4x Hawkins: A big threat for any deck that needs to build up a board state like RG Law and Blue Doflamingo, and makes a nice 8-cost Kid attacker.

4x Shamble Law: A 6000 blocker he can attack in some situations and used to recover Bonney, reuse Cat Viper and Izou or swap Okiku with some blockers.

2x Untap Law: A flexible card you can use in any situation, such as to restand blocker to protect your Character or to do consecutive attacks, bringing fourth unexpected situations to surprise your opponent!

4x 7-Cost Kid: Strongest character (if blue deck doesn’t exist) free 8000 power attacker that can protect himself by untap at the end of turn. A 7000 blocker is strong enough to make for free blocks and it is a key card for wining purple Kaido matchups in late game.

2x Punk Gibson: 4000 counter and rest an opponent's 4-cost character is a very stong effect that can be set up to hit opponent's leader by resting blocker or controlling board state by rest opponent's key characters.

2x Straw Sword: Resting 1 of your opponent's characters is reason enough to run it in this deck. Combo with Hawkins or as game finisher.

* The 4 event cards in this deck can be picked up by Bonney.

summary

In overall, when playing this aggro Kid deck you will still need to think about the board state because we don’t have cards like the unblockable Luffy (like red decks do) so you need to build up your board then start attacking after set up.

Okiku and 4-cost Drake will be effective but One Piece Card Game very much depends on your hand hence you will need to set up your game plan depending on hand and board matchup.

I urge you to test this yourself because who knows maybe I said something wrong or did not give the best advice or the deck list in this version.

And finally thanks for reading and hope you have fun with One Piece Card Game!

[DeckReview] Khai: Blue Doflamingo Deck

Introduction

Hello everyone.

I participated in Brunei’s  Gamer’s  Tavern Pirate Battle Tourney that was held on 2nd September, 2022.

There were 10 participants, but it was a healthy environment with 3 Red, 3 Purple, 2 Blue/Purple, 1 Green and myself the only mono Blue deck.

With Bruneian players favouring more on Kaido and Zoro decks, I decided to bring a different variant with Blue Doflamingo. I will now explain the basic strategy and game flow of the deck, and will proceed with explaining on how to counter the match ups I faced.

Click into image for the deck info in decklist

Essentials of the deck

1-Cost Perona and 3-Cost Doflamingo (To control your deck)

4-cost ST3 Gecko Moria, Dracule Midhawk, Marshall D. Tech and OP1 Boa Hancock to abuse the deck's leader Doflamingo effect.

With the above, I have incorporated a deck to deal with my opponents of each of the other colors.

Basic Strategy

Mulligan

You will always want to mulligan to make sure you have 1-cost Perona or 3-cost Doflamingo.

If you’re against Green Kid, it’s better to mulligan for a 9-cost Mihawk.

(Blue currently has no better strategy against OP1 8-cost Kid other than Mihawk to out power)

Match Start

When starting the match, the best opening is to play the 1-cost Perona, to set up for your next turn. The idea is to setup the next card you will be drawing for the next turn, and the second card would be a Shichibukai to cheat out with Doffy Leader’s skill.

Manipulating order of the cards drawn with Perona or 3-cost Doffy will always be in the odd number (1st, 3rd and 5th) and any 4 cost Shichibukai is even number (2nd and 4th).

By the second turn you would have drawn into a card for setup or an event card to stabilize. You will have 3 Dons ready so when battling with Doffy, Don x2 him and attack, and using the 1 Don to play our top card Shichibukai down rested.  

The strength of this deck is to cheat out bodies for the low cost of 3 and the fact that the power of 7000 is advantageous on our side. With Shichibukai bodies cheated out rested, it gives the opponents the choice to attack our rested characters which saves our leader or leave those characters only to be attacked by them.

The Will Of 7000

I have discussed this with other players, 7000 power is a magic number in this game, opponents will usually have to waste 2 or more cards if not a +4000 counter to protect characters or leaders.

Tournament Matchups

Against Purple Kaido Deck 

When attacking: Hit with 5000 or 7000 power.

Go aggressive! Set up your characters for a full onslaught. There is a high possibility that there are many +2000 Counters used in purple decks

Therefore, attacking with just 6000 would just get countered by a single +2000 counter, which doesn’t do much. Keep hitting with 5000 power if you want, but try with "The Will of 7000", it will reduce a lot of the opponents hands and you can press the advantage.

It’s usually a race when going against purple, cut their life down before their high cost characters appear. 

Do your best to protect your characters on field, as the early stages of Purple Kaido wouldn’t really go for your leader, so it’s best to protect and keep attacking.

It’s best to counter their Kaido Board wipe, have Kuma on the field and keep it alive when opponents try to remove him. A Pacifista replacing Kuma after a board wipe gives us the upper hand.

Blue-Purple Kaido will fall in the same play-style as Purple Kaido.

Against Red Zero Deck

Protect your life, set up blockers

What I realize about Zoro decks is that they cannot counter properly, and they are always in desperate need of bodies on the field. In my opinion, their strength is Hasty characters, 3-cost OP1 Zoro and 5-cost ST1 Luffy are a menace.

DO as much as you can to preserve life, set up blockers and dominate their board. As a basic fighting method, save dons with Doffy leader effect to place characters. Always continue to remove their characters and eventually with an almost empty board and almost empty hand, they will not be able to defend against our Shichibukais on board. 

Their weakness is hand replenishment, which we have with Boa Hancock and 5-Cost Mihawk.

Another thing to note is that when fighting against any Red decks, if you see OP 1 Nico Robin, try your best to KO Nico Robin. Do not leave that card unchecked.

The will of 7000 comes into play against red decks too. 7000 power characters can avoid the ever powerful event of red decks: Jet Pistol.

You can watch my game against the Zoro deck on the youtube link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lY62Km91VM&t=846s

Our match actually went to overtime, and I won since I had the most life. My opponent wanted to finish the game anyway to see the outcome and I still won.

Against Green Kid

9-cost Midhawk VIP

I did not get to face a Kid deck that night, but I did prepare a strategy and I have play tested against them.

The only problem faced when against the Green Kid decks is, of course, the 8-cost OP1 Kid.

Unfortunately, there are not much counter measures at the moment against that, so Mihawk is the only one which can fight with power now.

Therefore it’s necessary to put in 3-4 Mihawks in the deck to make sure you can draw them.

One strategy to adapt is to save your attacks, against these matches, your Perona can actively attack herself, then use Perona to knock out the opposing ST2 searcher Bonnies.

It’s also a race when fighting Green Kid. Actively remove opponents life before 8-cost kid comes down, and remove their characters when you can.

Play a bit of a tempo route and bounce their characters back to their hands, especially their blockers (for example: St2 Capone Gang Bege).

Also to note, against Green Kid, don’t expect to be able to block occasionally, there are so many "Resting" ability characters in their deck, so expect to use more of your counters when defending.

Summary

Blue will still be one of the weakest colors for this current OP1 meta, but that does not mean it cannot fight back.

It takes a lot of practice to master the blue deck, especially getting to know the cards and effects. It’s never easy to play out a tempo deck properly.

Blue Doflamingo is not as popular as the other decks, especially with Green and Purple dominating the scenes a lot these days, not just in Brunei, but in other Asia countries as well. But the idea is to practice and have fun with it!

Give the deck a try as I highly recommend it. Let’s hope for better blue cards in OP2 and even more 4-cost or less Shichibukais!

[DeckReview] Mono Green Kid: Tier-1 Deck in OP1 meta.

Introduction

Even though we are seeing a balanced, or so called triangle OP1 meta (red, green, purple), we cannot deny that green Kid is the stronger deck  in the OP1 meta, thanks to its consistency against different decks.

In this article, we would like to introduce a green Kid deck, created by a player in Thailand. This deck took first place in a tournament of 126 players.

Unlike rush decks such as mono red Luffy, and slow late-game big hitters like the purple Kaido, this is a tempo deck specialising in board control: from essential cheap blockers to expensive big blockers, an engine that rests the opponent, and a leader that attacks twice. This entire system is more lethal than it sounds.

Click into the image to view deck in decklist.

Main Combo - Deck Strategy

Cheap blockers: The 1-cost ST02 Capone Gang Bege and 2-cost OP01 Killer are very important to this deck, as they help to block big attacks from without exhausting your "counter" character cards. On top of that, Killer gives draw power when you have 3 or more characters in play.

Combo rest and KO: This is what I like about this deck. OP01 Okiku's "when attacking" effect rests a character with 5 cost (or less), while OP01 Izou 3-cost to play that rests a character with 4-cost or less, and OP01 Cat Viper is a 2-cost to play to rest a 3-cost character. With our leader ST02 Kid, up to 2 rested characters can be dealt with even when we have no other characters on board, which makes this combo extremely effective and easy to pull off. As an icing on the cake, OP01 X Drake can always be played after Izou to KO your opponent's 4-cost.

These will allow us to immediately eliminate double-attack characters such as 4-cost OP01 Gekko Moria and 5-cost OP01 Yamato, and cards with a strong board presence such as 3-cost OP01 Nico Robin. In addition, resting the opponent's cheap blockers and cleaning them up using your now-dispensable low-powered characters such as Izou and Cat Viper makes good use of card efficiency. 

For utility, these resting effects run amazingly with ST02 Basil Hawkins as he can unrest himself to do another attack, and the 5-cost OP01 Trafalgar Law can be used to recycle Izou or Cat Viper's resting effects or to recover a rested ST02 Jewelry Bonnie to hand. 

The big blockers: At turn-4 or 5 onwards it becomes possible to play OP01 Eustass "Captain" Kid, which is undoubtedly the star of this deck. Because your opponent MUST attack him, they will need to charge their DON!! onto their leader/character to get to at least 8000 power, which we can block using an abundant of cheaper blockers or counter using a card or two. His "Activate:Main" effect is also wonderful with almost the rest of this deck, throwing out blockers or resters efficiently each turn. As for the blocker ST02 Eustass Kid, I don't think I enjoy the idea of having 4 copies in this deck (I would use 4 copies of blocker Law instead). However, at a 10-Don!! late game this 7-cost Kid can be run effectively with Leader Kid (7-Don!! to play blocker Kid and 3-Don!! to restand leader Kid). 

The big counters: This deck runs maximum copies of the big counters ST02 Scratchmen Apoo and OP01 Bepo which doesn't do anything much other than buffing your blocker Kids. Sometimes, Apoo can be used to stop your opponent's counter event cards. 

Multi-attack leader: Our ST02 Eustass Kid leader card can restand for 3-DON!!s, and this is very effective in a variety of situations. Against aggro decks like red Luffy, he can immediately clean up characters rested by your Cat Vipers and Izous. Against big hitters like Kaido, throw 7 DON!!s at Kid to make him 12000 big and if he is blocked or countered, use your remaining 3 DON!!s for a second big swing! Similar to "double attack", any DON!! that you put on leader Kid will have double the effectiveness, but better than "double attack" since your opponent cannot block both attacks using a single blocker or counter cards. When your opponent is without blockers, 2 big swings at your opponent's leader's life can be too lethal for any counter cards!

Summary

Overall I feel that this deck is easy to play, with many synergetic systems providing solutions for almost any situations. It has enough draw power coming from Bonnie, has a slow hand output thanks to leader Kid's 3-cost multi-attack, and a variety of blockers and resters to give you board control throughout the game. Until OP02 comes along, Eustass "Captain" Kid's attack redirecting is perhaps one of the most broken single effects in the game.

[DeckReview] Abuan Binoe – 1st Place Flagship PH with Kaido ST4

Short Intro

Good day folks, this is Binoe and here’s my review of my Mono Purple Kaido deck that topped an OPCG Flagship Main tournament here in the Philippines last Aug. 27. The decklist is shown in the image below. 

Click into the image to view deck in decklist.

My Build

Why purple? At first, my answer to this is because it is the cheapest color but as the game progresses and I have seen the different mechanics, I saw that Purple has the potential to be the best control centric mechanic in the game because of the combination of KO skills and high-power characters. It is not that easy to pilot but the goal of the deck is simple – control the board and call the big guys!

The core card of the deck is the stage card Onigashima, this card enables the deck the play the high-cost cards earlier than the opponent resulting to a change on the tempo of the turns. The rested don from its effect also compensates for the minus don cost of the purple character’s effects. I usually take the Mulligan if I don’t have Onigashima in my hand, it is that important for the deck. It is also the usual early play for purple, making the deck a slow starter but very powerful mid game and late game. 

Purple has some of the best characters in the game. Here are the key cards of the deck and my reasoning on why I chose them:
1. ST Kaido –  9 cost, 10K power with a very powerful effect – don minus 5, KO opponent’s character with 6 cost and below and then gains rush. One may think that the cost is really large as it is don minus 5 but with Onigashima and the free 2 dons at the refresh phase, it is not as painful as it looks like. Having a 10K character on your side means you have a big hit every turn that they need to block/counter, making the opponent waste resources with just one attack. It is also hard to remove on the field because of its high cost and high power level. It is also the answer of purple to the Kidd-Law combo of green as it can KO law on play and then attack the rested Kidd. 

2. ST King – this is my favorite card of the deck. If you go first with Onigashima in hand, you can play this on your third turn and can KO the 4 cost character your opponent played the turn before. It has good stats with 6 cost which evades removal cards like Lion’s breath and 7K power making it out of range of the notorious Jet pistol. 

3. ST Queen – 5 cost, don minus 1, draw 2, discard 1, 6K blocker. It’s cycle effect lets you filter your hand as there is a high chance that you’ll draw into multiple onigashima and load your hands with possible good cards and counter. Its stats are also good, a 6K blocker forces the opponent  to load dons to their leader just to go over its block. The only downside is that it is within the range of common removal cards. 

4. ST Uta – 4 cost, 5K blocker with an on block effect to rest an opponent character with 5 cost or less for don minus 1. Versatile card, this usually forces the opponent to waste removal cards on it as it has a very good defensive effect. 

5. Blast breath – 1 cost, +4K counter event for the cost of don minus 1. I think the design of this card is really busted. During late game, the minus don cost is negligible and the +4K counter is big. This card in combination with the large counters in the deck makes the defensive mechanic of the deck. The deck I used has 11 +2K counter cards – Sasaki, Ulti and Drake. 

As for the build of the deck, this follows the standard build but with the addition of ST Ulti and Page One, I used these two instead of the Film cards Buena fiesta as Having Ulti and Page One on the board can add pressure to the opponent. I opt to not play Buena Fiesta as the deck is not film centric. This build also uses hand disruption in the form of OP1 Jack and OP1 Drake. 

Matchups

Here are the matchups I had during the tournament:
Elimination Rounds (5-0)

Rd 1: vs Mono Red Luffy (1-0)

Rd 2: vs Mono Red Zoro (1-0)

Rd 3: vs Purple mirror (1-0)
This is a really close game as both of us established our boards really well. It gets down to the wire and I won because I can protect my Kaido on his last attack.  

Rd 4: vs Mono Red Zoro (1-0)
The result could’ve been different if the whos who in life didn’t KO his early rush ST Sanji. This shifted the tempo of the game and I kind of recovered from his early rush attacks. 

Rd 5: vs Mono Green Kidd (1-0)
I’m against a really good Player and the game is really back and forth. My second 9 cost Kaido sealed the deal as he can’t guard 2 10K Kaidos on the board. I talked to him after the game and he told me he opt not to take a Mulligan even though he does not have Bonnie in his opening hand. 

Top 16 – top cut (4-0)

Rd 1: vs Purple Mirror (1-0)
This is really close as well. He managed to board wipe me with 10 cost Kaido when I had established my board earlier with ST Kaido and ST King. My Queen blocker came it clutch as he can’t close the game during the end game. 

Rd 2: vs Blue Doffy (1-0)
I controlled the board early with King KO-ing most of his special summons. The goal against blue is to remove most of his characters and to set some blockers for the constant 7K attack of the Doffy leader. 

Rd 3: vs Purple Mirror (1-0)
I’m against a friend and this is the most fun game I had. I have an established board with king, Queen and Kaido rush. He is waiting for the 10 cost Kaido to reverse the game but his deck gave him Bullet SR instead. I believe that Bullet is not so good as you have to wait another turn to utilize its power. ST Kaido is a lot better. 

Rd 4: vs Mono Red Luffy (1-0)
All I can say is that blast breath is the best counter event in this format. I managed to claw up from an early onslaught because I can guard his game finishers with blast breaths

Abuan Binoe, an OPTCG player.

Philippines

[DeckReview] Sam – A Deck Review: Full Defense Kaido!

Short Intro

I decided to build Mono Purple Kaido as my deck because of the unique playstyle and interactions it gives. Your type of gameplay with Purple Kaido will depend on what deck your opponent plays. This deck requires you to think of what to do in your next turn since you manipulate your don during and after your turn so making the best use of your Don! is very important. 

Deck Strategy:

I mainly play heavily on Tempo and Blockers until I Ramp up my Don's for the game. I use at least 14 blockers on my deck as it gives me room to ramp up and manipulate my Don! with the effects of my Characters that require me to lessen my Don! 

When going first, I always mull to get a 2-cost Ulti and 6-cost Queen in my hand. This is an important combo because it accelerates your Don! to 6 in your 3rd turn to drop the 6-cost queen that gives -2000 and has rush. The -2000 is important because you can start giving pressure on your opponent's board since Ulti can attack your opponent's 5000 with Queen. If going second, I play ramp and rely on my blockers since I am usually the first to get 10 Don! and just play the 10-cost Kaido to reset the board and control the game.

Also, don't forget to use active Don! first before using an ability that will give you -1 Don! It is economical that way because you're just putting back 1 used Don! already.

For finishing the game, I always like using Kaido's Ability if the remaining life of the opponent is 1 because I can just fully swing at the opponent's leader.

Meta Game:

There is no current "Meta" format in One Piece Card Game as players are just starting to brew decks. But Green is getting some recognition because of their "hit and stand" type of play. This deck struggles in Blue Control. So to counter it, I play 4x 3-cost Who's Who to get rid of Sentomaru and Ms.All Sunday.

For Green, I teched in x1 of Sheep's Horn to rest their 7-cost Kid as I struggle in its hit and stand.

 For red, I just spam blockers and wait for them to empty their hand before attacking. There will be times when you have to make tough decisions on what card to play next because you will be a Don! short and you will be forced to pass the turn to get resources for your next turn.

Closing Thoughts:

 Mono Purple Kaido is very fun to play because there is no "fixed" gameplay to it. You need to get different pieces in different matches to win. It's just a wait-and-see game until your opponent misplays and you take that opportunity to get wins

Sam Regalado, an OPTCG player.

Philippines

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