How to Build Your First Deck in One Piece TCG

They always say the first step is the hardest one to take, so it makes perfect sense that building your first deck is often an incredibly daunting task for any new player.

There are years of bells and whistles you don't quite understand, a ton of game-specific lingo that could mean literally anything, and the ever-looming fear of making yourself look stupid in front of your peers. Is it really that big a surprise that some people are content just screwing around at their kitchen table?

Interestingly, confusion and concern about how exactly to build a good deck is one of the most frequent questions I get from One Piece TCG readers - more so than any other card game. That's both a blessing and a curse; it's awesome that so many people are jumping into the game but significantly less awesome that they're finding themselves stuck toward the beginning of their journey.

So, we're going to spend some time today breaking down basic tips and advanced tricks to help smooth out the difficulties that come with building your first deck - including everything you need to know about the rules, things to look for when searching for upgrades and some product suggestions that may help if you need a place to start.

Sound good? Awesome. I was hoping you'd say that.

Step One: Choosing Your One Piece TCG Leader

It's tough to stomach, but when you're just getting started, I'd encourage you not to focus on being competitive. Heck, don't even focus on winning. The first hurdle to clear should figuring out what you enjoy doing the most inside of the game; try out a couple of different styles and use those early experiences to inform the deck you'd like to build.

One Piece TCG currently has twenty (soon to be twenty-one) different Starter Decks. They're designed to be of a similar power level to each other and are playable straight out of the box. They do a fantastic job of covering the entire spectrum of colors and playstyles the game has to offer. If you've got a favorite character from the anime or manga, I'd say to start there and work backwards. Alternatively, I recently ranked all twenty starter decks to find out which is most competitively viable out of the box - feel free to use that as a framework instead.

Once you've got a taste for each color and the focus, it's time to select a leader from those colors that best fits your favorite parts. Again, if you've got a character you particularly like, there's no harm in starting with them. You can also stick with one you particularly enjoyed from your starter deck. Otherwise, browse through all the leaders on TCGplayer and pick out the one that seems the coolest inside the color you want to play - they all do very different things!

Step Two: The Essentials

The rules of the game lay out a few things you must have for your deck to be legal: a Leader card, 10 DON!!! cards and a 50-card deck containing a mixture of other card types. All 50 cards must share a color identity with your leader, so make sure you've not thrown in something you're not allowed to play!

Your DON!!! deck exists to cover the cost of playing your cards and will gradually come into play as the game progresses. Your DON!!! doesn't need to match your leader or anything; you can play ten different artworks or personalize them to make the deck feel special. It's entirely up to you - as long as you've got ten!

The remaining 50 cards contain your selection of character, event, and stage cards. Each different leader will want a curated mixture of these card types, but typically you'll find the majority of your deck will be characters - they're really important for attacking and defending. You'll want to be playing something on most turns of the game if you're going to keep up with your opponent, so try to create a "cost curve"; more cheap cards you can play at any point in the game and less expensive cards that'll be stuck in your hand during the early turns.

It's also important to include a sizeable number of Counter cards in your deck; you can't stop the opponent from beating you up without a little assistance. Again, most leaders ebb and flow on the exact number they should include, and you'll get better at grasping that as you become more experienced - but as a starting heuristic, I'd look for roughly half my deck to have some kind of Counter value. That should be plenty of safety for now! 

Step Three: Research and Refinement

Congratulations! You've now got a pile of sleeved cardboard in your hands!

...what now?

Well, that's kind of up to you. If you're having a blast? Awesome. Keep doing that. If you want to keep making what you've built into a better deck, it's time to take it to the Internet.

Tournament decklist websites like Limitless and popular community tools and coverage like Egman Events provide detailed archives of decklists that other players have built and found success with. Some will even allow you to search by Leader - so why not take a closer look at which cards are making the cut that you hadn't considered?

Alternatively, you can take the root of figuring it out yourself through giggles and gameplay. Perhaps you're playing a green leader who keeps getting stonewalled by opposing blockers? Well, a couple of copies of Hody Jones (OP06-035) will spruce that right up! Constantly running out of defensive tools? Shave some cards for more Counters instead. Maybe you can't find the cards you desperately want to see every game. Maybe there's a searcher effect like Nami (OP01-016) that slots into your archetype! The possibilities are endless - and you can slowly learn them all just by picking up your cards and having a darn good time.

Closing Thoughts

Building your first deck can often feel like a commitment, something that's quite scary if you're not actually sure if One Piece TCG is the game for you. Thankfully, we live in a world of relatively cheap cards, easy access to starter products, and an endless wealth of personalization, which helps that journey to be much more pleasant than problematic - all you've got to do is take that first step.

Need some additional help? No problem! Shoot me a message at @HowlingMines over on X (formerly Twitter) or @howlingmines.com on Bluesky, and I'll happily take care of you. Alternatively, check out my other work here on TCGplayer for another slice of everything nice about your favorite card game.

But until next time.

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

Thanks for reading!