3 Lessons from the Double DON!! Finals

After nearly a month of qualifier events held across the US, 150 of the country's best One Piece Card Game players gathered in Milwaukee last weekend to compete in the Red Bull Double DON!! Finals.

Like the Double DON!! qualifying events these players had to pass through, this final tournament had a special rule that put a twist on the One Piece Card Game.

Each player's DON!! deck included one Double DON!! card that gave +2000 power instead of +1000 power when attached to a Leader or Character. The Finals not only showed us how the best players adapted to this unique rule, it also gave us our first look at the Western OP-15 format, which is developing differently from the East due to the new ban list changes that Bandai revealed on March 16, plus the pair ban of I Re-Quasar Helllp!! and Borsalino.

Our social media manager Lily Hawke was on scene to document this historic tournament and get the scoop from players about this format. Here's what she found.

Double DON!! Made the Best Decks Better

With the Double DON!! incentivizing players to attach at least one DON!! per turn, players gravitated toward Leaders whose game plans naturally included attaching DON!!

This led to a few unconventional picks. Notably, Green Zoro was tied for the fifth-most represented Leader. Using the Double DON!!, Zoro can attach the three DON!! necessary to activate his Leader effect and end up at 9000 power—a crucial break point requiring 5000-power Leaders to give up three cards instead of two in order to counter out. The deck's ability to swing multiple times with Zoro naturally paired well with the extra power offered by the Double DON!! card. Two other players opted to go with OP13-004 Sabo and ST13-001 Sabo, which both want to attach one DON!! to their Leader every turn to turn on their abilities.

But if Double DON!! gave these leaders a boost, it pushed even stronger Leaders over the top. Heading into last weekend, Enel and Nami were both favorites to rule the new OP-15 format, and Double DON!! fit seamlessly into their normal game plans. Nami decks were already running P-096 Girl to attach a free DON!! to Nami each turn for Nami's ability, and Enel's ramp ability attaches DON!! to attack aggressively.

If one deck's fortunes changed the most because of Double DON!!, it was probably Red Green Luffy. The deck's defensive nature and ability to run Electrical Luna made it a strong pick into an Enel-heavy format, but the deck sometimes struggles to balance attaching DON!! for big swings and keeping DON!! active for Luffy's ability. The Double DON!! relieved some of that pressure and let Luffy always swing for 7000.

Enel Is the Best Deck in Format

Even before yellow decks took an arrow to the knee with the pair ban of I Re-Quasar Helllp!! and Borsalino, Western players expected Enel to rule the OP-15 format. With its worst matchup hobbled, the deck feels especially unfair.

A whopping 43% of players sleeved up Purple Enel for the Double DON!! Finals. Even those who didn't, like the eventual finalist Daniel Masso, who ran Blue Yellow Nami, said that playing through the event reinforced their conviction that Enel is the strongest Leader in the game right now. According to Masso,

"I personally wouldn't play [Nami] for like, Regionals, or anything like that, just because it loses to like Lucy, Ace, other decks you normally see in other events, but you wouldn't see in this event."

"...I might play Purple Enel. It is the strongest deck in the format by far."

One Purple Enel player remarked that the biggest surprise from the event was that there weren't more people playing Enel, or Nami to counter it. Over in the Lille Regionals, which was held the same weekend, Enel took 46% percent of the Top 32 decks, with Nami taking 21%, for a final meta share between the two of them that roughly matched the meta at the Double DON!! Finals.

…But He Can Be Countered

Despite the preponderance of Enel in the Double DON!! Finals, Enel didn't make it to the final match. Instead, the championship came down to the two decks best equipped to counter Enel's aggressive play style: Blue Yellow Nami and Red Green Luffy.

Every decklist at the Double DON!! Finals had a plan for Enel, and while these cards couldn't keep Enel down entirely, they did end up blocking its path to the championship.

Green had the most answers for Enel's Characters, with Electrical Luna and I Know You're Strong!! working to stun Enel's boss monsters.

Yellow decks relied on Perona, which Masso named the MVP of his deck for the weekend. In his words,

"Enel doesn't have infinite card draw, so if you stall the game long enough, they just end up losing no matter what."

Nami decks are also running Zeus again, which neatly answers Holly to keep Enel from pressuring Life too hard in the early game.

By ruthlessly targeting Enel, Red Green Luffy player KZ managed to become the Red Bull Double DON!! Finals Champion, and Blue Yellow Nami player Luigi Amato took first place at the 1000+ player Lille Regionals. Expect other players to look for even more ways to hate on Enel for the foreseeable future.