One Piece Card Game Starter Deck Guide

The One Piece Card Game is storming shelves and has proven an immediate success.

The popular manga and anime have been almost perfectly reproduced in competitive card game form with the help of the masterful designers at Bandai, but it's leaving many players asking, "How do I get started playing the One Piece Card Game?" I've got the answers for you, and it's surprisingly easy to set sail and join up with the Straw Hats (or several other more questionable crews).

Choose Your Starter Deck Crew

You may be entirely unsurprised to hear that the best way to get started playing the game, literally right out of the box, is to pick up one of the available starter decks. Each starter deck contains the following:

• A fully constructed 51-card deck.
• 10 DON!! cards.
• A playsheet.

For many players, myself included, those numbers matter far less than the specific contents and flavor of the decks, and man did we luck out for great themes for the first batch of four starter decks. You have the following four to pick from right now, with more (like the Navy!) coming soon:

• Straw Hat Crew
• Worst Generation
• The Seven Warlords of the Sea
• Animal Kingdom Pirates

Each deck is named for the faction that it includes cards from, and they all are packed with fun and flavorful cards that perfectly represent their crew. So, let's talk a bit about each one so you can pick your favorite.

Join the Straw Hat Crew

The Straw Hats deck may be the best place for fans to start.

Packed with the iconic members of the heroic crew, including Luffy himself, this aggressive deck puts you in a great place to attack the opposition while enjoying the simple flavor of crushing your opponents with some of the most popular pirates around.

Become the Worst Generation

If you're more a fan of a rival crew, this deck is the place to start.

Less aggressive than the Straw Hats, instead this deck is designed to knock out opposing characters, buff, and reuse your own. It doesn't feel quite as evocative as the Straw Hat crew, but sometimes you just want to play as the best of the worst.

Control the Game With the Seven Warlords of the Sea

If you're feeling more downright villainous, The Seven Warlords starter may be the place to go.

This blue deck takes a lot of its design philosophy from the same color of Magic: The Gathering: control the game, return opposing cards right back to their hand, and play a defensive game full of card advantage. Time is on your side and you can definitely feel like one of the Warlords while piloting this deck.

Knock Out the Opposition With Animal Kingdom Pirates

Finally we have my favorite of the starters, the Animal Kingdom Pirates. Headed by the animalistic emperor, Kaido, this deck comes with a solid number of ways to directly knock out opposing pirates and aims to end the game with big, expensive haymakers.

This deck also takes greatest advantage of the DON!! Cards, building up some genuinely backbreaking effects in the late game. It may have some trouble getting there against more aggro strategies, but that's always a risk I'll take.

Picking the Crew That's Right for You

With all this in mind, it all comes down to how you like to play your card games.

Are you an aggressive player at heart, perhaps with a love for Luffy and his crew? The Straw Hats are perfect. Do you want to buff your pirates and play more of a midrange strategy? The Worst Generation is your generation. Drawing cards and controlling the pace of the game more your thing? The Seven Warlords, easily. Or, are you like me, and you like directly interacting with the opponent and building towards big, dumb plays? The Animal Kingdom is your home.

No choice is wrong, they're all great right out of the box.