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.
Black Teach Decklist
1xOP09-081
4xOP09-089
4xOP09-095
4xOP09-090
2xOP09-091
3xOP09-088
3xEB01-048
4xOP09-086
4xOP10-082
3xOP09-083
4xOP09-093
4xOP09-096
3xEB01-051
3xOP09-098
2xOP10-098
3xOP09-099How 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.
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.
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 Characters 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 Laboon 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.
The Kuzan is great because it ensures we can combo Laboon or Van Augur with our removal cards like Finger Pistol or Liberation. Usually, opponents will go out of their way to remove Laboon or 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.
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.
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 by developing multiple Characters in one turn. You can KO two Characters with Liberation if the 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.
Cost-Reduction Characters
The list has two cost reducers through their Activate: Main effects: Laboon and Van Augur. This means we can use their effects on the turn they’re played, but we will have to rest them, which means they are vulnerable to opponent’s attacks.
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.
Van Augur‘s cost reduction is lower, only reducing a character’s cost by 3. However, it’s a 6,000-Power Character, making it difficult to KO. If KO’d, it will draw you a card, so you won’t lose any card value.
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 activated. Also, keywords won’t work anymore, so Blocker, Banish, etc won’t be of use.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): One of your 1-cost cards, prioritize cards that trash.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): Doc Q or one of your 1-cost cards, prioritize cards that trash.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): Kuzan, Van Augur, or Laboon if there’s a target to KO or Jesus Burgess.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Van Augur, Laboon, Jesus Burgess, or Finger Pistol. 6-cost Liberation if the opponent has 2 Characters to KO.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Van Augur + Finger Pistol or character development + removal.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): 10-cost Marshall D Teach.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): Doc Q or one of your 1-cost cards, prioritize cards that trash.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): Laboon or Jesus Burgess.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): Kuzan, Van Augur, or Laboon if there’s a target to KO or Jesus Burgess or Finger Pistol.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Laboon + Finger Pistol or Jesus Burgess.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): 10-cost Marshall D Teach.
Other Cards to Include
- 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.
- Jack is a strong 7-cost to KO a 3-cost or less Character through his Activate: Main and will also filter your hand.
- 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.
