Table of Contents
Hello everyone! Today, we're diving into the popular Katakuri meta deck in One Piece Card Game, uncovering its unique mechanics and strategies. This guide will walk you through how the deck operates, its game plan, essential cards for different stages of the game, and provide some valuable tips for piloting the deck efficiently. Let's jump right in!
Gameplan
Charlotte Katakuri, our Yellow leader, holds a special ability to peek at the top card of either player's Life Area. This allows you to strategically manipulate the cards, either keeping them on top or sending them to the bottom. Although activating this ability costs 1 Don!!, the +1000 boost on Katakuri sets up for stronger attacks.
The goal is to utilize this ability whenever possible, as the +1000 Power bonus applies pressure on your opponent and often forces them to expend counter resources.
When examining your Life Area, prioritize keeping cards with trigger effects on top to get value out of them. The stage of the game affects your decision on which cards you want on the top. For example, Charlotte Perospero and Satori are great early to mid-game triggers to have on top of your Life Area. Capone Bege and Sanji are better suited for the late game as they play a more defensive role.
When observing your opponent's Life Area, aim to discard any cards that could disrupt your strategy, sending them to the bottom of their Life Area.
The Trigger Value
This deck excels in creating a formidable board presence through trigger effects like those of Charlotte Perospero, Satori, Charlotte Cracker, and Sanji. While these summons don't require Don!!, they do consume cards from your hand.
With a power of 5000, these characters serve as excellent attackers, whether confronting the opponent's Leader directly or clearing their units. Your main goal is to develop a solid board presence and use your Characters to keep that board in check.
Charlotte Perospero is one of the best characters to have in the early game since, unlike Satori, it's 3 cost character with a draw effect. On the other hand, Satori isn't a character you want to spend 5 mana to play, instead, you'll rely more on its counter effect to keep other Characters alive or protect your Leader.
Charlotte Cracker becomes particularly potent when your Life count is lower than your opponent's. Giving one Don!! and pumping up its Power will set up the Double Attack and force opponents to commit their counter cards to protect their Life.
You're not upset to see Sanji on the top of your Life Area regardless of the stage of the game. Sanji can be a great board pressure in the mid-game and can also be used for defensive purposes to protect other characters or your Leader in the mid/late game.
Unlike Sanji, Charlotte Brûlée is mostly on the board for defensive purposes and can come in clutch if it's played from her trigger effect, providing additional protection to your Characters or Leader.
Shirahoshi and Capone Bege are more suited for the late game. So if you find them on the top of your deck you'll want to move them to the bottom and increase the odds of finding better-suited trigger cards for the mid-game.
Shirahoshi offers 3 card draw and you can trash 2 unneeded cards. 5 cost can be expensive to play, which is why you'd rather play her through her trigger effect.
As for Capone Bege, this card is a valuable +2000 counter; you don't want to play it on the board as it doesn't offer any threat when played. Activating its trigger effect in the late game can catch opponents off-guard, disrupting their attack phase by shutting down an attacker and potentially buying you an additional turn to win the game.
Mid-Game Removal
Gedatsu proves invaluable for dealing with units of 5 Power or less, potentially swinging the board in your favor. However, its effect depends on the opponent's Life.
This means if you have Gedatsu in your hand in the early stages of the game, you want to avoid dropping the opponent's Life below 4 or 5, depending on the matchup. This can set up a powerful Gedatsu turn to switch the board presence in your favor by KOing a unit on the spot.
In the later stages of the game, you'll likely not find value in Gedatsu's effect anymore and can either act as a Counter, a 6000 Power attacker, or even trash fodder.
Events
The list only runs two Events with their own unique trigger effects. Thunder Bolt has a great Trigger effect that allows you to K.O. one of your opponent's Characters with a cost of 5 or less. Activating the trigger doesn't only bypass the mana cost but also doesn't require you to trash a card from the top of your Life area. This can be a great game-swinger in the midstage. It can also shut down a potential attacker, weakening your opponent's aggression.
200,000,000 V Amaru is more of an aggressive Event that allows you to Rest a 4-cost unit and give +3000 Power to your Leader or a Character. This comes in handy if you're looking to attack the Leader directly, but the opponent has a blocker on the board with 4 cost or less like Rebecca or Borsalino.
As for its trigger effect, you'll get to trash two cards from your hand and add 1 card from the top of your deck to your Life area. Technically, you're burning one card since you'll later get to draw the card in your Life area. This can make it more difficult for the opponent to close out games. However, in a lot of cases, you'll opt to not activate the trigger effect if you don't feel you're under the threat of losing the game.
+2000 Counters
You don't really want to play these Characters on the board, as they offer more value when used as +2000 Counter plays to protect Characters or your Leader.
However, Streusen can come in handy when facing aggressive decks like Zoro that rely on 1-cost Characters. The ability to K.O. one of those units can slow down their aggression and buy you enough time to shift the game in your favor.
Late-Game Winners
You don't care much about dropping your opponent to 0 card Life by attacking with your units since the 7 and 10 Linlin will do the job for you. The 7 Big Mom forces your opponent to make a difficult choice of either trashing a card from their Life area or giving you an additional Life, hence more card value. There is no win-win scenario for them here unless their Life area has no cards.
As for 10 Big Mom, she does not give opponents the luxury of choosing their poison; both 7 Big Mom effects will take place. You'll gain an extra Life card while your opponent trashes a Life card, this is a massive value swing that also puts the opponent at the risk of losing the game to your attackers.
8 Charlotte Katakuri's play effect can be used either to put a Character back in the Life Area. Depending on the scenario of the game, you'll get to decide whether you'd rather get rid of an opponent's Character or place on of your Character in your Life Area.
Placing a Character in your Life Area grants you an additional Life, making it more of a challenge for the opponent to close out the game. Additionally, you can benefit from the trigger effect of the Character you play Katakuri's effect on.
Popular Matchups
Sakazuki
- You're up against a deck that wants to control the board with its removal cards.
- Sakazuki has 4 Life, which means it can be awkward to set up a Gedatsu play. If you have him in hand, you can opt to skip your first attack and try K.O. Robb Lucci or Kuzan. However, Borsalino can be problematic since Gadesto can't K.O. it. Instead, you might adopt a more aggressive play and start forcing counters out of them.
If you do drop them down to 3 Life cards, Gadesto can still find use for K.Oing Hina. - Taking Life cards with 10 Big Mom can put them at the risk of losing to big hitters. They'll rely on their blockers to shut down your attacks.
- With 200,000,000 V Amaru, you could rest a Rebecca or Borsalino, paving the way for you to connect with their Leader and close out the game.
Enel
- You want to adopt more aggressive gameplay in the early stages of the game and drop them down to 2 Life cards.
- From there, you'll focus more on building a board and keeping theirs in check. The goal is to make it awkward for them to set up a Yamato play and create an opportunity for one powerful hit to close out the game.
- Watch out for their Gadetsu play, it's fine to drop to 3 Life cards if it means you'll get to keep Cracker and Sanji safe from getting K.Oed.
- 10 Big Mom is a nightmare for them. Trashing one Life card will force them into a more defensive play, unable to defend their 7 Enel. 10 Big Mom is extremely difficult for them to K.O. and will be a heavy hitter.
- Important not to drop them 0 Life cards for the first time a turn if you're unable to follow it up with an attack. You want to avoid allowing Enel to activate their effect and gain value.
Purple Luffy
- You'll rely a lot on your trigger cards to build a board and keep up with Purple Luffy.
- Don't hold onto 7 or more cards in your hand. You want to avoid setting up their Trafalgar Law to trash two cards from your hand.
- You mustn't let them dominate the board's presence. Use Thunder Bolt to clear their blockers.
- Katakuri is nice in this matchup to put one of your Characters in your Life Area, giving you an additional protection layer to prolong the game.
Closing Words
Katakuri highly relies on the trigger effects to set up that powerful board presence and create threatening attacks. It has a good shot at beating popular meta decks which makes it a solid contender in tournaments. It's always useful to learn how the deck operates to pilot it correctly or at least know what you're up against.
