Black Marshall D. Teach is one of the strongest control Leaders who take a different approach than other Black decks. Teach is one of the few Black decks that don’t run 8-cost Gecko Moria, not because they don’t want to, but because they aren’t able to. The Leader’s effect shuts you down from using any On Play effects, so you have to keep that in mind when building the Black Teach deck.
Luckily, Black has lots of alternative cards to include with Teach, and the new OP09 and OP10 cards play into the Black Leader’s strategy, ensuring you have a consistent game plan when playing this deck.
Leader
Black Leader Marshall D. Teach shuts down all your On Play effects, so the deck has to be built with that in mind. However, if you trash one card from your hand, you can prevent the opponent from activating their own On Play effects, which depending on the matchup, might be a huge blow for them. Remember, your deck is built to not need the On Play effect, however, opponents will struggle when they can’t use their effects.
You’ll want to time this correctly since you’re trashing a card to activate it. Only use the Leader effect on turns where you expect opponents will need their On Play effects the most.
Black Teach Decklist
How to Play
The Black Teach deck can’t run On Play effect cards, so the list is heavy with “Activate: Main” cards and Events. It has tools to KO opponent’s characters through Doc Q, Finger Pistol, and Liberation. You have access to a couple of cost-reduction cards to put things in range for the removal cards. Additionally, the black deck uses Jesus Burgess and 10-cost Marshall D. Teach as carries to present strong attacks.
Early 1-costs
The list has multiple searchers to find you {Blackbeard Pirates} type cards. Laffitte‘s Activate: Main lets you rest him to look at the top 5 cards of your deck and draw a {Blackbeard Pirates} type card. You can reactivate his effect on the upcoming turn, but opponents will likely attack and KO him to prevent the draw value.
Hachinosu Stage lets you trash one card from your hand to draw a {Blackbeard Pirates} card, cycling through your deck to find the cards you need for the upcoming turn.
Lastly, This is My Age!!! looks at the top 3 cards of your deck and draws you a {Blackbeard Pirates} card before placing the rest in the trash.
Hachinosu and This is My Age!!! are trashing cards, which will be useful throughout the game as some of your cards are tied to the number of trashed cards.
Tough to remove Characters
Jesus Burgess is your strongest card in this deck, thanks to his ability to prevent KO effects from working on him and the fact that he gains +1,000 Power for every 4 cards in the trash. The Power he gains will remain on him during the whole game, so you’ll end up having a Jesus Burgess with at least 9000+ Power in the late game.
This turns him into a win condition that you must protect from any attacker. You’ll want to use his high Power aggressively and put the opposing player at risk of losing the game. The only way opponents can reliably remove him from play is through effects that place him back in your hand or deck or Trash effects.
The 5-cost Kuzan is a great play in the early game to set up for future turns. It doesn’t pose much offensive threat with only 5,000 Power, but the fact that opponents can’t remove Kuzan from the field through their effects plays perfectly into your game plan.
With Kuzan‘s Activate: Main effect, you may trash him, draw a card, and then play 1 {Blackbeard Pirates} type Character from your trash with a cost of 5 or less in his place. So a turn or two after we’ve played Kuzan, we can activate his effect and play a Character like Jesus Burgess or Van Augur. Make sure to attack with Kuzan first, force a Counter card from the opponent, and then activate his effect to trash him and cheat out a Character.
Kuzan is great because it ensures we can combo Van Augur with our removal cards like Finger Pistol or Black Hole. Usually, opponents will go out of their way to remove Van Augur through an effect before you get much value from their cost reduction. By playing Kuzan, you’re dodging those removal effects, getting an attack in with Kuzan, and then cheating out one of your cost-reducers to activate their effects.
Removal Cards
Doc Q is a 2-cost Character that, when rested, can KO a 1-cost Character. You’ll need to combo it with a cost-reduction card, so it finds use. Additionally, opponents will have to attack it on the upcoming turn, and when KO’d, you’ll draw a card, so you’re not losing on value.
Shiryu can only KO Characters with a base cost of 3 or less. So you can’t use your cost reduction effects as combo plays with Shiryu. Still, using his KO effect to remove a 3-cost or less like a Blocker or a key low-cost Character can play a role in controlling the field and disrupting the opposing player’s strategy. Shiryu remains in play as a 5,000 Power attacker that forces your opponent to use a Counter card.
As for Finger Pistol, this is your strongest removal Event, KOing a 5-cost or less Character and trashing two cards from the top of your deck. It also has a powerful trigger, activating its effect with no downside. So if the opponent has a Character on the field that falls in the range of Finger Pistol, you can KO it, which can be devastating for the opposing player if they haven’t attacked with that Character yet. Since Finger Pistol is a CP9 type, we can’t search for it.
4-cost Black Hole is more useful to counter specific decks, negating the effect of one of the opponent’s characters and KOing it if it costs 4 or less. So, cards with a KO immunity will not be safe from Black Hole.
6-cost Liberation is great if your opponent is winning the field presence, having more Characters in play than you. You can KO two Characters with Liberation if your opponent has 2 or more Characters than you. The Characters you target have to have an original cost of 6 or less and another one with an original cost of 4 or less.
You can’t use your cost reduction effects with Liberation, so you’re tied to KOing a 6-cost and 4-cost Characters.
Cost-Reduction Characters
The list has two cost reducers through their Activate: Main effects: Stronger and Van Augur.
Stronger is a +2,000 Counter, which can be used for his -2 cost reduction effect to put a Character in range for Finger Pistol or Black Hole. You have to trash a card from your hand and Stronger to activate the -2 cost reduction, but you’ll also gain a card draw, so you’re not losing 2 cards for the cost reduction.
You have to rest Van Augur to activate the -3 cost-reduction effect. So, you can start activating his effect on the turn he’s played. If Van Augur remains in play, you can reactivate his cost-reduction if effect if it’s needed, but that does mean you won’t be able to attack with him.
Late Game Teach
10-cost Marshall D Teach is your strongest play, with 12,000 Power and the Blocker keyword. You can block one of the opponent’s attacks, protecting your Leader and saving you from using Counter cards.
Through 10-cost Marshall D Teach‘s Activate: Main effect, you can negate the effect of the opponent’s Leader for the rest of the turn, and one of their Character’s effects is negated and can’t attack until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
So Leaders like Bonney and Enel won’t be able to activate their effects during your turn, forcing them to use more Counter resources. As for the negated Character, it will stick around until the end of your opponent’s turn. So if they have an Activate: Main, When Attacking, or On KO effects, they can’t be activated. Also, keywords won’t work anymore, so Blocker will be useless.
Marshall D Teach is slowing your opponent down, blocking an attack, and preventing one Character from attacking. He acts as a wall, especially if you have multiple of them in play. In the late game, you’ll have to decide whether the 12,000 Power is best used offensively or defensively. You can opt not to attack with 10-cost Teach and have him block an attack, prolonging the game until you can set up a winning turn.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): Fullalead, Laffitte, or My Era…Begins!!
- Turn 2 (3 Don): Doc Q + 1-cost card.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): Kuzan, Van Augur, or Jesus Burgess.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Van Augur, Jesus Burgess, or Finger Pistol/Black Hole. 6-cost Liberation if the opponent has 2 Characters to KO.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Van Augur + Finger Pistol/Black Hole or continue developing Characters.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): 10-cost Marshall D Teach.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): Doc Q, Fullalead, Laffitte, or My Era…Begins!!
- Turn 2 (4 Don): Jesus Burgess.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): Kuzan, Van Augur, or Jesus Burgess. If there’s a target to KO, you can play one of your removal Events.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Finger Pistol/Black Hole or Libration. Or continue developing Characters.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): 10-cost Marshall D Teach.
Other Cards to Include
- Laboon can reduce the cost of one of the opponent’s characters by 4, putting a 5-cost character in range for Doc Q to KO. If you want to combo it with your 4-cost events, you’ll either want to play Laboon a turn earlier and wait for the upcoming turn to activate the cost reduction or use them together on turn 8 to KO up to a 9-cost character with Finger Pistol.
- Tempest Kick is a -3 cost-reduction that also draws a card, helping you KO higher-cost Characters. You need to have 10 or more cards in the trash for Tempest Kick to activate its cost reduction.
- Catarina Devon can gain one of three keywords: Double Attack, Banish, or Blocker. So, depending on the state of the game, you can choose which one is best for you.
- 9-cost Kaido trashes a card from your hand to trash one of the opponent’s Characters with a cost of 7 or less, and your opponent will be forced to trash 1 card from their hand.
Matchups
Red Shanks can reduce the power of your attacker, making it harder to get your attack through. They have Benn.Beckman and Silvers Rayleigh as removal options on Don 7 and 8, so you need to use your Leader effect by turn 4 to shut off their plays. This should make it harder for them to control your field, creating an opportunity to have multiple Characters in play.
Since we’re shutting off their removal effects, they’ll rely on attacking your Characters or Divine Departure to control the field. Luckily, Jesus Burgess can’t be KO’d through an effect, so he’ll eventually have too much Power for them to KO.
Red Shanks has multiple Rush attackers, so they might try to aggro you down. Blockers will be important here to slow your opponent down and buy you enough time to stabilize the game and start pushing for the lethal.
We can’t KO 10-cost Shanks unless we’re willing to attach a lot of Don to our 10-cost Marshall D.Teach. If your opponent is holding onto a lot of cards, it’s often not worth it, and we should develop on the field instead. 10-cost Marshall D.Teach can also shut down Red Shanks‘ power reduction for the turn, allowing you to go for a more aggressive attack.
Against Blue Doflamingo, we can activate Leader effect starting on turn 3 to shut off Trafalgar Law or Jozu‘s return effects. However, your opponent can still remove your Characters with Gravity Blade Raging Tiger, a huge blow for Jesus Burgess and Kuzan.
Shiryu is important to KO their 2-cost Teach and prevent them from gaining extra Don.
They can answer 10-cost Marshall D Teach with Gum-Gum Red Roc, removing your win condition for only 6 Don.
Purple Monkey D.Luffy adds a Life card to their hand to ramp 1 Don, allowing them to play high-cost Characters on earlier turns. They have multiple Characters with On Play effects, so we’ll often activate our Leader’s effect as early as turn 2. The more important shut downs are for 7-cost Sanji, 7-cost Luffy-Tarrou, 9-cost Charlotte Linlin, and 9-cost Monkey D.Luffy.
We’ll force the opposing player to play their Characters without activating their effects, making it harder for them to remove our Characters. This will turn Jesus Burgess into a win condition that they can’t remove with Charlotte Linlin.
