7 Great Decks for the One Piece Card Game

It's an exciting time in the card game world, as the One Piece Card Game has recently been released and stores around the country are already holding weekly events.

I know it can be daunting to jump into a brand new game with so many new cards to learn, so today I wanted to lay out some of the more prominent decks that exist in the game's standard format so you can understand what each of them is trying to do and then decide which you would like to bring to your local events.

#1 Crocodile Tempo

Blue in One Piece strives to maintain a superior board through bounce effects and cheap interaction to maximize mana (or in this case DON!!) efficiency. The two leaders in blue accomplish this in very different ways, so let's start with the more straightforward of the two, Crocodile.

Crocodile's ability is a general purpose bounce effect that can be used alongside other tempo-oriented cards to create explosive board-swinging turns. Because DON-X!! effects can use rested DON!! to pay costs, you can play a card like ST Donquixote Doflamingo or OP1 Dracule Mihawk and then activate the leader's ability to get two creatures off the board in the same turn. If you're the type of person who relishes continually sending your opponent's board back to their hand, then Crocodile is very likely the leader for you.

Another important element of the Crocodile deck is protecting powerful standalone threats like ST Sentomaru and OP1 Boa Hancock that can take over a game by accruing a large amount of value over time. In addition to these powerful card advantage engines, Crocodile also has access to strong value cards like ST Gecko Moria, ST Love-Love Mellow, and OP1 Ms. All Sunday. Pair those with the pinpoint interaction provided by cards like OP1 Jinbe, OP1 Crescent Cutlass, and OP1 Alvida you get a game plan that will be quite familiar to those who have found themselves comfortable with blue-colored cards in other card games.

1 ST03-001 Crocodile
4 ST03-008 Trafalgar Law
4 OP01-079 Ms. All Sunday
3 OP01-071 Jinbe
4 OP01-064 Alvida
4 ST03-007 Sentomaru
2 OP01-075 Pacifista
4 OP01-078 Boa Hancock
4 ST03-004 Gecko Moria
4 ST03-005 Dracule Mihawk
3 ST03-012 Pacifista
2 P-009 Trafalgar Law
3 ST03-009 Donquixote Doflamingo
3 OP01-070 Dracule Mihawk
4 ST03-017 Love-Love Mellow
2 OP01-089 Crescent Cutlass

This is a general build of Crocodile that has a reasonable amount of tools to deal with any matchup, but can certainly be tweaked in accordance with whatever your particular goals might be. Crocodile is a very open archetype that offers a great deal of freedom in deck building, something that cannot be said for his blue counterpart who is a bit more constrained.

#2 Doflamingo Warlords

Doflamingo offers a more aggressive flavor of blue relative to Crocodile thanks to his incredibly powerful leader ability. Unlike Croc's DON!! ability that requires him to send DON!! back to the DON!! deck, Doffy only requires the requisite DON!! to be attached to him during an attack to activate.

This leader wants to make big attacks early while setting up the deck to put four-drops into play on the cheap. Being able to develop your board while also making strong attacks is something you normally can't do until the later turns of the game in One Piece, but Doffy gets to start doing that as early as turn two.

You may think it's pretty high variance to just blindly flip over the top card of your deck every turn hoping it's a warlord, but fortunately we have cards like OP1 Perona, OP1 Donquixote Doflamingo, and even OP1 Desert Spada to set up the top of our deck instead of leaving things to chance.

It's important to note that you have to either put all of the cards these cards look at to either the top or bottom together, you can't split it. You still need to include a healthy amount of Warlords during deckbuilding, but Perona and company allow that count to remain manageable.

1 OP01-060 Donquixote Doflamingo
4 ST03-008 Trafalgar Law
4 OP01-077 Perona
4 OP01-064 Alvida
4 OP01-073 Donquixote Doflamingo
4 ST03-014 Marshall D. Teach
4 OP01-074 Bartholomew Kuma
4 OP01-078 Boa Hancock
4 ST03-004 Gecko Moria
4 ST03-005 Dracule Mihawk
4 ST03-012 Pacifista
3 ST03-009 Donquixote Doflamingo
3 OP01-070 Dracule Mihawk
4 ST03-017 Love-Love Mellow

As you can see there is a fair amount of overlap in the cards played by both blue decks, but Doffy is obligated to play Perona alongside his character counterpart to help set up the deck in addition to a couple additional warlords in ST Marshall D. Teach and OP1 Bartholomew Kuma. If your idea of tempo is playing four-drops for what is functionally 1 DON!!, then you're sure to have a fun time with Donquixote Doflamingo.

#3 Kaido Ramp

Purple in One Piece combines ramp effects that allow you to put more DON!! in play ahead of schedule alongside powerful removal and other interaction that requires you to return some amount of DON!! back to your DON!! deck as a cost.

Destroying your own resources may seem like a steep price at first, but in practice you have a lot of tools to offset that downside that make your ramp cards useful at all stages of the game.

Kaido as a deck isn't built around the leader ability so much as it is built around the most powerful cards in purple and how they synergize with one another. Accelerating your DON!! with cards like ST Onigashima Island, OP1 Ulti, and ST Jack allows you to get massive threats like OP1 Kaido into play as soon as possible in order to overwhelm your opponent's board. Most of these big threats like ST Kaido, ST King, and OP1 King also double as removal if you're willing to set back your DON!! development by the required amount.

Keep in mind all of these effects are optional, so if you just want to play ST Kaido as a big body without the removal or rush in order to maintain your DON!!, you can do so.

1 ST04-001 Kaido
4 ST04-011 Black Maria
3 OP01-093 Ulti
4 OP01-100 Kurozumi Higurashi
4 OP01-101 Sasaki
4 ST04-002 Ulti
4 OP01-114 X.Drake
4 ST04-005 Queen
3 ST04-004 King
2 OP01-096 King
2 OP01-110 Fukurokuju
2 ST04-003 Kaido
3 OP01-094 Kaido
4 ST04-016 Blast Breath
3 OP01-119 Thunder Bagua
4 ST04-017 Onigashima Island

This is what a fairly basic ramp-focused build of Kaido would look like, but there is certainly room to flex things if you find yourself lacking certain answers. For instance, if you're having a hard time answering opposing five-drops on curve, then ST Brachio Bomber becomes an appealing option at six. If you're more inclined to win a resource battle, then few cards would better facilitate that then OP1 Jack.

An honorable mention goes to the other purple leader King, who is not widely used, but I think serves a purpose for players who aren't yet sure how to leverage Kaido's leader ability. Not timing the -7 DON!! cost correctly can be incredibly punishing, so if you want a more straightforward bonus from your ramp leader, then King's passive effect should do the job quite well until you feel more comfortable with Kaido.

#4 Zoro Red Rush

If you like attacking as early and often as possible, then I'm sure you'll be happy to know that One Piece offers another outlet to turn red cards sideways.

As you may have guessed, red is the most aggressive color in the game, with several cards that have access to the keyword "rush" allowing those characters to attack on the same turn they enter play. Red can set up explosive turns where you attack with a full board of characters or even get multiple surprise attackers in play from hand while having an empty board.

Zoro enables both of these play patterns very well.

As long as Zoro has at least 1 DON!! attached to him, all of your characters gain 1,000 power, incentivizing a swarm strategy that red certainly has the tools to facilitate. There are a plethora of strong two and three-cost cards you can fill the board with to set up a devastating all-out attack on a later turn. Even if your opponent survives that onslaught, you can play a large rush threat like ST Monkey.D.Luffy or OP1 Shanks to bypass blockers and finish the game.

1 OP01-001 Roronoa Zoro
4 OP01-006 Otama
4 ST01-006 Tony Tony.Chopper
4 OP01-016 Nami
4 P-015 Sunny-kun
4 OP01-004 Usopp
4 OP01-012 Sai
4 ST01-004 Sanji
4 OP01-017 Nico Robin
3 OP01-005 Uta
4 OP01-025 Roronoa Zoro
4 ST01-012 Monkey.D.Luffy
3 OP01-120 Shanks
4 ST01-015 Gum-Gum Jet Pistol

This iteration of Zoro is built as low to the ground as possible for maximum aggression without being fully all-in on your first wave of attacks. If the swarm of cards like PROMO Sunny Kun, OP1 Sai, and ST Sanji don't get you all the way there, then you can rebuild a bit with OP1 Uta.

Some of the better cards to get back with Uta are OP1 Nico Robin and OP1 Zoro as they are your premier midrange threats. Robin is able to K.O. most small blockers on attack, giving her pseudo unblockability, and Zoro's 5,000 rush statline for just three DON!! is the best raw rate in the game. ST Sanji also functions in a similar capacity, but is more flexible as it can be played to develop the board on turn two or saved until later in the game to functionally be played as a four-cost 6,000 rush.

As touched on earlier, you want to try and attack in waves of multiple characters with the Zoro deck, because attacking one at a time makes it much easier for your opponent to attack down each of your threats.

#5 Luffy Big Red

If you like red, but don't want to go full-on "Red Deck Wins," there is a slower, more controlling build available to you in Big Luffy.

Whereas Zoro's ability requires a DON!! to be spent on it every turn you want it to be active, Luffy's ability lets you reuse a DON!!! you have already spent this turn to power up one of your characters or leader. This allows you to play some expensive cards with DON!! abilities more efficiently than you would normally be able to.

The prime targets for this are the two Luffy characters, P01 Luffy and P06 Luffy, who benefit greatly from having extra DON!! around to attach to them.

1 ST01-001 Monkey.D.Luffy
4 OP01-006 Otama
4 ST01-006 Tony Tony.Chopper
2 ST01-007 Nami
4 OP01-016 Nami
4 OP01-019 Bartolomeo
4 OP01-011 Gordon
4 P-006 Monkey.D.Luffy
4 OP01-017 Nico Robin
4 P-017 Trafalgar Law
4 ST01-012 Monkey.D.Luffy
3 P-001 Monkey.D.Luffy
3 OP01-120 Shanks
2 OP01-026 Gum-Gum Fire-Fist Pistol Red Hawk
4 ST01-015 Gum-Gum Jet Pistol

This build also utilizes (OP1 Nico Robin), but more as a control tool to remove opposing threats alongside OP1 Otama and P17 Trafalger Law to K.O. things that are much larger than she would normally be able to. OP1 Red Hawk and ST Jet Pistol also help you control your opponent's board while you try to move into the later stages where massive threats like Shanks and both big Luffys can help you close out the game.

#6: Kid Midrange

While all decks in One Piece can shift gears to some degree, no color plays midrange better than green. The color boasts incredibly strong attackers like (OP1 Yamato) alongside some of the best defensive cards in the game, highlighted by OP1 Eustace"Captain"Kid.

Keep in mind this card is misprinted in English and has been officially errata'd to not allow attacks against your leader in addition to characters not named "Eustass Captain Kid". That said, let's talk about the Leader Eustass Kid and the deck played around him.

Kid's leader ability is one of the stronger ones in the game and plays very well into the midrange strategy of green. Attacks are a valuable resource in One Piece, and being able to get another one for the cost of three DON!! and a card from hand is about as good as it gets, especially when you consider Kid retains any DON!! used to pump his power on the previous attack.

Say for example you have five active DON!! You can attach two to Kid bringing his power to 7,000, attack, and then use his ability to attack for 7,000 again. This is a common line of play when you're trying to take the aggressive role in a matchup or if you happen to have too many expensive cards without counter value in hand you don't think you'll have time to play.

1 ST02-001 Eustass "Captain" Kid
4 OP01-041 Kouzuki Momonosuke
4 ST02-004 Capone"Gang"Bege
4 ST02-007 Jewelry Bonney
4 OP01-039 Killer
4 ST02-008 Scratchmen Apoo
4 OP01-033 Izo
3 OP01-052 Raizo
4 OP01-035 Okiku
3 OP01-121 Yamato
4 OP01-047 Trafalgar Law
2 ST02-010 Basil Hawkins
2 ST02-013 Eustass "Captain" Kid
4 OP01-051 Eustass "Captain" Kid
4 OP01-058 Punk Gibson

That can certainly happen, as this iteration of the deck has 11 cards that cost five or more without counter value, and most builds would likely be in a similar range. It seems like a lot, but cards such as OP1 Trafalger Law and OP1 Eustass Captain Kid are simply too powerful to exclude and, as I said, the leader ability goes a long way toward mitigating dead draws. Then there are a couple important role-playing cards in ST Basil Hawkins and OP1 Okiku that can combine to devastate your opponent's boardstate while being solid threats on their own.

Kid also has access to some of the best card draw in the game though ST Jewelry Bonney, OP1 Momonosuke, and OP1 Raizo. These cards looking at the top five also really helps you find one or two-of inclusions, freeing up a lot of deck building space if you want to get creative.

The last card from this deck I want to talk about is one that most iterations of Kid have not included to this point: OP1 Yamato.

I believe this card to be massively undervalued based on my experience playing with it in both testing and locals. There is simply no other card in the game that threatens to beat your opponent as fast as Yamato does while not giving them extra cards for doing so because of the banish keyword.

As long as she is in play, your opponent can never tap out without a blocker less they risk you attaching several DON!! to Yamato and sending two of their life cards to the trash unless they discard most of their hand. She is also very comfortably at home in the Kid deck, which has a multitude of ways to clear blockers out of the way through OP1 Okiku, OP1 Izo, and even OP1 Nekomamushi if you wish to include them.

All that said, if you don't agree with my assessment, playing OP1 X.Drake in that spot instead would be perfectly reasonable.

#7: Law Combo

Our last archetype combines many cards from the previous two colors to enable powerful synergies and combos that are made possible by the leader ability of Trafalgar Law.

For anyone familiar with Trafalgar Law's character, you'll immediately appreciate how thematic this top-down design is, and for those who are just card players I'm sure you're excited by how powerful this ability looks. That power is one of the reasons why multicolored leaders start the game with four life cards as opposed to the normal five.

To put it simply, the Law deck is trying to fill the board with cheap value characters to meet the leader ability's requirement and then put five-cost cards into play for just 2 DON!! It ends up playing in a way that is reminiscent of creature combo decks from MTG like Birthing Pod. It offers some of the more complex and thoughtful gameplay in One Piece, so if you like solving puzzles to navigate through a combo, then this may be the deck for you.

There are two main ways to build this deck that both have their own strengths and weaknesses, with neither being clearly better than the other: the two searcher and three searcher builds. Searcher refers to the synergistic card-drawing one drops, OP1 Nami, ST Jewelry Bonney, and OP1 Momonosuke. Each of these is only able to find cards of the corresponding types, so there is a deck building cost for each one you add to your deck.

Here is an example of the two-searcher build.

Law Combo, Two-Searcher Variant

1 OP01-002 Trafalgar Law
4 OP01-006 Otama
4 ST01-006 Tony Tony.Chopper
4 ST02-004 Capone"Gang"Bege
4 ST02-007 Jewelry Bonney
4 OP01-016 Nami
3 OP01-048 Nekomamushi
4 ST01-011 Brook
2 ST02-005 Killer
3 OP01-017 Nico Robin
2 OP01-025 Roronoa Zoro
4 OP01-047 Trafalgar Law
2 ST01-012 Monkey.D.Luffy
1 ST02-009 Trafalgar Law
2 OP01-051 Eustass"Captain"Kid
4 OP01-029 Radical Beam!!
3 ST01-015 Gum-Gum Jet Pistol

In my opinion, the main draw to the two-searcher build is having the space to play OP1 Eustass"Captain"Kid alongside OP1 Radical Beam!! to create a near unbreakable defense in the late game that gives your engine the space to go off. It's also possible to play more copies of Zoro and ST Trafalgar Law if you want to play a more aggressive combo-oriented build of the deck.

Putting a few DON!! on ST Monkey.D.Luffy to make him unblockable and then reactivating him with Law's on-play ability can finish off a lot of opponents who weren't expecting it. A similar play can be made with OP1 Zoro and OP1 Trafalger Law due to you being able to replay the same character you just picked up with Law's on play ability if you want. The main difference being that Zoro would not retain any attached DON!! for the second attack because he leaves play during the process.

Law Combo, Three-Searcher Variant

1 OP01-002 Trafalgar Law
4 OP01-006 Otama
4 OP01-041 Kozuki Momonosuke
4 ST01-006 Tony Tony Chopper
4 ST02-004 Capone "Gang" Bege
4 ST02-007 Jewelry Bonney
4 OP01-016 Nami
3 OP01-048 Nekomamushi
4 ST01-011 Brook
3 OP01-017 Nico Robin
2 OP01-025 Roronoa Zoro
2 OP01-035 Okiku
4 OP01-121 Yamato
4 OP01-047 Trafalgar Law
2 ST01-012 Monkey.D.Luffy
2 ST01-015 Gum-Gum Jet Pistol

This is not only an example of what a three-searcher build would look like—it also happens to be my personal build of Law that I have won two locals with so far.

As explained above, I am much higher on Yamato than most, and I believe this deck is where she shines brightest. Having both OP1 Nico Robin and OP1 Okiku to clear out blockers after putting Yamato into play for just two DON!! allows you to present incredibly imposing boards to your opponent very early. Since OP1 Nami and OP1 Otama are your best targets to bounce back with the leader ability, you're heavily incentivized to have access to proactive green five-drops, and I believe Yamato to be the second best one of those behind OP1 Trafalgar Law.

Traditionally Law also has a challenging matchup against Purple Kaido due to the power of cards like OP1 King and OP1 Kaido, but Yamato dodges most of their removal on curve allowing you to pressure them at stages of the game they aren't used to being pressured during.

* * *

The One Piece Card Game offers an incredibly deep creative outlet to explore deckbuilding. This article is just a collection of the most prominent archetypes you will encounter—it's by no means a complete list of what the game has to offer. Take what you've learned here to build a solid base of knowledge and create whatever you think would be best to succeed in your local metagame. But above all, enjoy the journey, and have fun!