Table of Contents
Welcome to our One Piece Card Game Meta Tier List! I’m Trec, a card game lover, and in this meta report we will look at the best decks of the One Piece Card Game metagame. I will also bring you my vision of these decks and alternatives ways to play the deck or adapt it for specific matchups.
| Tier | Leader |
|---|---|
| Tier S | • Sakazuki |
| Tier A | • Luffy Purple • Red Purple Luffy • Enel • Katakuri • Rebecca - The Hidden Gem |
| Tier B | • Red Purple Law • Edward Newgate • Zoro |
Meta Overview
The big news recently came out, English players around the world will play the same game as in Asia. The ban list update dropped one week ago, welcoming back the red cards: Nami, Dadan, Radical Beam, Marco4, Marco5, Edward Newgate leader and character. Same cards? Yes, same metagame? Not sure. There is one expansion delay between Japanese cards and English cards, so we always play with their knowledge and more time to try and test cards with proxies and online simulators.
Besides that, we never have the same metagame, Kinemon that worked well in Asia and didn’t see that much success in the English game. Even in the English metagame we had differences: Blue Doflamingo and Katakuri worked well alongside the tier 1 decks (Zoro, Law, Newgate) in America, in Europe we had... the red color. In the recent OP-4.5 Metagame, Europe was crushed by the ST10-Three Captains while America was more varied.
Our metagame will obviously start with the end of Asia metagame: The boss Sakazuki versus the other decks. We will look at the undermentioned decks. But the main goal for everyone will be to find the best deck for their Championship Finals. Prepare yourself, take your cards, during OP-05 we will win our precious ticket for Japan to become the King of the Pirates!
Tier S
Sakazuki
The king of OP-05 Sakazuki wasn’t crowned that quickly, it won everything at the second half of the metagame. Like Rebecca in OP-04, it’s a more complicated deck and it took time to master and refine a good decklist. We had to drop big characters and build around the powerful Lucci4.
The best way to do that was the RHL loop: Rebecca Hina Lucci. We can even start it with Mansherry. You generate cards, you destroy opponent cards, and you have a wild, offensive and defensive, board. This deck will obviously stay at the top of the Metagame. However, be careful, you have few 2k counters and a lot of bricks.
I want to focus my deck on the loop and, if possible, on the protection of Mansherry (6K blockers and Sabo effect). If Mansherry stays, we have infinite blockers.
We have a lot of good options for the 3Don turn, depending on the match up. For the mirror, we want Hina3. For decks without removal, Ulti3 is really strong.
I’m not a big fan of boss monsters like Mihawk or Kaido, Borsalino7 should be enough to deal with everything in the game with the leader effect and a cost reduction.
Guide
Tier A
Luffy Purple
Luffy is an amazing deck, played during the whole OP-05. He was the number one deck at the beginning and number two after the advent of Sakazuki. Can he take back his crown?
He is the more stable deck of the metagame. You have a 5 Life Purple leader with a better, auto-included, Onigashima in your leader. Kaido is jealous.
Do not hesitate, you always use your Leader ability to take one Don on 3 or 4. After, you adapt with your hand if you need one more Don. The way to play Luffy is simple, put two minions each turn if possible and try to overwhelm your opponent. Can Sakazuki clean your board if you put that much pressure each turn? Yeah, it will depend on how much Lucci he has.
No Kid7 here, I don’t think it’s a good idea in the Metagame. He is easy to clean for most decks and the 6K leader is not that good when you have 8 6k Blockers. Kyoshiro was not played, but a really good card when you need to put two characters each turn.
Purple Luffy doesn’t have a searcher, so we just play good stuff.
Red Purple Luffy
Red Purple Luffy is a very interesting deck because there is two ways to play it:
- Aggressive way: Me go Face, my characters go Face.
- “Ramp on 5 and Newgate one turn earlier” way.
Both are viable, but not in the same match-up. To beat Sakasuki, you need to go face and be aggressive. But you will be weaker versus decks like Enel who can survive early aggression. The funny thing is your opponent not knowing what your direction is and maybe, doing a bad mulligan. Your board will die quickly, but it’s not a problem, we have Gear5 Luffy.
6K base stat is really good, both to attack and defend, in OP5 there are less 2k counters than usual (Sakazuki has only eight 2k counters). So even if you don’t go for the aggressive decklist, you can put a lot of pressure and end the game with a Diable Jambe on your leader or Gear5 Luffy.
Yes, it’s a Zoro Cosplay. Go face, put characters, and go face again.
Slamming the more Newgate and Kid you can, works very well versus large boards with 5k characters.
Enel
After Black Yellow Big Mom and Queen, Enel is the new “you can’t kill me leader”. Not the best deck versus Sakazuki or Purple Luffy, he is the rock in the Rock Paper Scissors. He will beat the aggressive deck wishing to be smart and be good versus the top tier named above.
You have a resident sleeper gameplay, do not go face, trade your opponent board and build a big one. You have to starve your opponent and use your Gedatsu / Yamato / El Thor-trigger at their best power. Do not forget that your opponent needs to hit you three times in a row to kill you, thanks to your leader ability. If he fails and for example hits you two times, you can Yamato9 or Katakuri8 to heal you and let your opponent try again.
There are two ways to build this deck, you can build around the Sky Island cards or Big Mom Pirates. Actually, both are good.
Shura let you have the cards you need, in particular Gedatsu or your combo Ohm – Holy. Shiraoshi is very important for the stability, you can use her a lot with Katakuri.
You can take damage easily, your opponent will try to lower your hand and not do big swings. That’s why I’m not a big fan of blockers in this deck but you can try, it’s the more popular version of the deck.
Guide
Katakuri
The beloved, or hated, Casinokuri. Still one of the top decks of the game, with OP5 he gains good cards, especially Amaru. A wall of blockers was the weakness of Katakuri. Now you have Streusen for 1-Cost blockers, Amande for 2-Cost, Amaru for 4-Cost, ThunderBolt for 5-Cost.
Your leader ability allows you to put pressure and gain information, you still have the biggest threat of the game: Big Mom10. Always a lot of triggers, so you can beat everything if you have the jackpot.
We cut the OP3 vanillas because they are weak against Sakazuki. Some versions put more triggers, more Smoothie or even the 7-Cost Trigger Olin. With a lot of “discard one to play” triggers, you can filter your hand. If you see Olin with your leader ability, you can put her at the bottom of your life and do a wonderful surprise at the end of the game.
Rebecca - The Hidden Gem
Rebecca is, for me, the biggest disillusion of OP-05 Metagame. Why is she not at the peak anymore? She totally vanished. Rebecca was the OP-04 Queen and, with OP-05, she gained so many good cards. Like Sakazuki you can play the RHL Loop and you know what? Mansherry and Rebecca are Dressrosa cards.
You can use them to bring back your key cards from your trash, like Kyros, Orlumbus or Luffy7. Hina3 (black one) was a really good addition in the Sakazuki deck to control and put pressure at the same time. Why not play her in Rebecca too? You have Kyros and Leo to clean alongside Hina or even the Hina – Trueno Bastardo combo.
Rebecca is a very hard deck to master but I’m sure some people will try and will succeed.
Tier B - Contenders
Red Purple Law
Law was the big surprise and best deck of the 4.5 Metagame. In op5, he gains a lot of good cards: Law3, Kid5 and Gamma Knife. However he will not be the best deck because the new Lucci4 crushes him, HARD.
Edward Newgate
Daddy is back, at full power! 4 Newgate9, 4 Radical Beams, 8 Marcos. He was the king of the game, from OP2 to OP4. Can he reclaim his throne? He is a really good contender.
In the same way as RP Luffy, you can build an aggressive or “ Newgate9” deck. You can also mix both and become the famous Jack of all trades, master of none.
Guide
Zoro
Zoro is always here, from OP-01 to OP-05. We return his cards to him and like other red decks he needs to choose where he will go and you know… Zoro and orientation is a big story.
“Nami build” to go face, “White Beard Pirates” to have more resilience.
It really depends of the Match Up, Marco is still overpowered but he doesn’t like to go at the bottom of your deck.
Guide
Conclusion
Thank you for reading this article, it represents my vision of the metagame and I hope it will help you for your tournaments.
