How Jewelry Bonney Convinced Me To Buy Into One Piece TCG

It's amazing, isn't it? How the smallest of details can convince you to completely change your perspective on a trading card game.

If I've not previously had the pleasure - Hello! My name is Scott Mines, also widely known as HowlingMines on the internet. I'm a 15-year veteran of the TCG industry. I've been slinging cardboard squares since I was still sticking polyhedral dice up my nose. I've had the pleasure of doing everything from running the day-to-day of a local game store to playing against the very best on a World Championship stage. All of that is to say... I really really like card games.

So, it may come as a slight surprise that I was never bitten by the One Piece bug. I'm not much of an anime guy so the IP didn't really appeal and I've never quite jelled with Bandai games that have three extra zeros stapled to every number for seemingly no reason. I had no qualms with the game - it just didn't excite me. I'd get around to trying it eventually.

None of that had stopped my wider circle of friends buying into the hype though. It's hard not to invest when you've grown up alongside over a thousand episodes of an anime or a similar number of manga chapters. You cannot ignore the spectacle of thousands upon thousands of players battling it out just to get a ticket to play in a Treasure Cup. It's been a pleasure to see One Piece thrive on such a scale in both the east and the west. It has rightfully earned its place on any given table.

I just so happened to be walking past one of those tables as a friend called out to me:

"Hey Scott. You've gotta give this thing a try. It plays just like Iyslander."

Iyslander is a hero from the Flesh and Blood TCG, somewhat similar to how you would choose a leader in One Piece. She revolved around creating minor amounts of disruption that forced the opponent into suboptimal plays and heavily punishing them for small errors if they ever incorrectly understood the game state.

The thing is, Iyslander wasn't just a hero. She was my hero. I took Iyslander to back-to- back World Championships. I played her for nearly two years straight at most events I went to. Iyslander provided a play experience that encompassed most of the things I love doing the most in a card game until she was no longer legal for play. If someone I trust is going to tell me there's a chance for me to play something similar, I'd be a fool not to listen.

And so, I started watching. The deck they were talking about? OP07 Jewelry Bonney - also known simply as "Green Bonney".

Green Bonney by Jesus Efrain Nuñez Reyes

Leader

• 1 Jewelry Bonney (OP07-019)

Character (47)

• 4 Jewelry Bonney (ST02-007)
• 4 Scratchmen Apoo (EB01-015)
• 4 Donquixote Rosinante (OP05-030)
• 3 Scratchmen Apoo (ST02-008)
• 3 Izo (OP01-033)
• 3 Bartolomeo (OP07-031)
• 4 Urouge (OP07-021)
• 4 Cavendish (EB01-012)
• 2 Jewelry Bonney (OP07-026)
• 4 Basil Hawkins (OP07-029)
• 4 Hody Jones (OP06-035)
• 3 Eustass"Captain"Kid (OP01-051)
• 2 Roronoa Zoro (OP06-118)
• 3 Donquixote Doflamingo (OP04-031)

Event (3)

• 3 Because the Side of Justice Will Be Whichever Side Wins!! (OP05-037)

I could immediately see the comparison. Green Bonney thrives on slowing down aggressive opponents by forcibly resting their biggest threat each turn at the cost of just one DON!!. This allows you to bank up a hand full of potent counters to protect us in the late game and progress naturally into one of two core game plans: Protect-the-queen with huge problematic roadblocks like Eustass"Captain"Kid (051) or slam the door shut with gigantic haymakers like Rorona Zoro (118) and Donquixote Doflamingo (031).

This list from Jesus Efrain Nunez Reyes's incredible run in an online regional has felt like the best fit for me so far. There's a noticeable lack of the Baby 5 (034) engine, which gives you a little less flexibility in digging up important Donquixote Pirates and significantly less turn one plays overall. Truthfully, I found the engine to be quite clunky and unreliable, often just digging up an additional +2000 counter or putting the top five cards of my deck on the bottom. In exchange, we get a plethora of free deck slots to devote to matchup specific tech choices. That's a trade-off I'm ecstatic to make.

The beneficiaries of this extra space are mostly more flexible +2000 counters that would normally conflict with Baby 5. Scratchmen Apoo (015) and Izo (033) offer increased flexibility in handling problematic blockers with the former being searchable with Jewelry Bonney (007) and Scratchmen Apoo (008) can be hilariously annoying in the Green Bonney mirror match. Having these silver bullets gives us more microdecisions during the game and that's something I want from my cards that are typically just +2k's.

We also get access to a few copies of Jewelry Bonney (026), an exceptional tool for the Black/Yellow Luffy matchup that also happens to provide splash damage in stunning DON!! in the mirror match when you're going second. There's not a ton of ways to proactively shut off an opposing Rorona Zoro (118) on turn nine but Bonney is one of them. She also just so happens to be searchable by her smaller self, an important factor when selecting your tech cards of choice.

The two cards that've really helped this deck flourish early in the OP07 meta are Urouge (021) and Cavendish (012) - two ways of securing bonus DON!! in the midgame turns so you don't need to play off-curve keeping open your Bonney Leader activation. Urouge is better suited to sitting in play so it's not randomly KO'd but Cavendish needs to get their hands dirty in order to refresh the DON!! you've spent. As a result, Cavendish is better suited to going first with the expectation of an opponent quickly answering her as soon as you give them the chance and you should carefully consider when you're willing to attack with her. Either way, these are the two lynchpins I'm looking for in my mulligans alongside Jewelry Bonney (007).

Bartolomeo (031) is a testament to how the current metagame is evolving. The non-blocker effect basically never comes up - he's just a 4k three-cost. That demands a reducer effect from Red/Purple Trafalgar Law if they want it gone and gets flipped into play by Eustass"Captain"Kid (051) creating a tough defense to clear in the late game, especially alongside any Basil Hawkins (029) you've managed to keep in play. Building this unbreakable wall and cleaning up the answers with Hody Jones (035) is the key to winning the RP Law matchup. That's much harder to do without Bartolomeo (031) as an additional roadblock.

Speaking of Hody Jones, the card is a monster. Regardless of how good you think it is, it's better. Problematic character? Rush immediately puts it in danger. Opponent left open DON!! to counter? Just pretend they didn't. It takes a special card to be able to close a game when you're ahead and handle a problem when you're behind, and locking an opposing Bonney off their all-important spare DON!! in the mirror match is so unbelievably satisfying.

Finally, we get to our key endgame threats. The exact numbers on all of these cards seems to be heavily in flux across top performing decklists. That's a healthy indicator that you can choose to prioritize any matchup of your choosing by shuffling the numbers around. Eustass"Captain"Kid (051) is the one long touted as the best green card in the game, providing a near-impenetrable defense when partnered with Donquixote Rosinante (030). Together, they prevent KO effects and a single big attacker - that's unbelievable when you remember that Bonney is shutting out another big swing!

Roronoa Zoro (118) is the option you choose to increase when you're looking to target decks like Yellow Enel, Black Yellow Luffy and the mirror match. Zoro's triple attack turn is an unrelenting amount of damage that the majority of these opponents cannot handle. If you can protect Roronoa Zoro from effects like Kingdom Come (059) until Enel is susceptible to three successive hits, it becomes trivial to break through his extra layers of defense. It's a similar story with Luffy, who is a walking target once he hits that all-important zero life. Finally, Zoro's ability to set himself to active causes no end of headaches for an opposing Bonney. The card really does a bit of everything and is often your only way to outvalue Gecko Moria (086) and Rebecca (091) against the black decks.

Donquixote Doflamingo (031) is rightfully the big finale. 10 DON!! can be a little awkward for a deck hoping to keep open its Leader ability but forcefully resting three opposing characters/leaders is as close as One Piece gets to skipping the opposing turn. That's an otherworldly effect worth relying on Urouge (021) and Cavendish (012) to remedy the nonbo and plays a large part in shutting down opposing endgame haymakers like Portgas.D.Ace (119). Once that job is done, the 10000 power Doflamingo provides is both difficult to counter out and ends games quickly.

Closing Thoughts

It's been a delight to begin my exploration of the One Piece TCG with a deck that hits so close to home. Green Bonney is the perfect deck to tickle your sensibilities if you enjoy slowing the game down and stuffing your opponents into various prisoner's dilemmas. If that also appeals to you, I'd highly recommend sleeving it up - I expect it to be a top contender for some time yet!

But what do you think? Should I have started my journey on a different deck entirely? Come let me know over at @HowlingMines on Twitter/X! Alternatively, give my other work here on TCGplayer a peek if you enjoy the ramblings of a Brit who plays too many card games.

But until next time.

I've been HowlingMines, you've been amazing.

....active one DON!!, pass?