Green Jewelry Bonney remains a popular deck in the OP10 tournament scene, using its stall tactics to prolong the game as it starts dropping high-cost Characters.
If you like playing defensively, controlling the field, and slowly shifting the game in your favor, then this deck is for you! Bonney has proven herself as one of the strongest Leaders, and with multiple support cards, this deck isn’t going away anytime soon.
Leader
Bonney‘s effect is simple: you can rest one of their characters for 1 Don during your opponent’s turn. You’ll need to wait for your opponent to commit to an attack before activating this, effectively shutting down one of their characters or leader from attacking. This works best when your opponent has multiple attacks, as it won’t stop the first attack.
The goal of the Green Bonney deck is to drag the game into the late stages and bring out your high-cost threats. Bonney‘s effect, combined with multiple defensive cards, helps slow down your opponent’s aggression, giving you time to play your win conditions.
The Fortress is your strongest wall of defense, and opponents will have to commit resources to break through. From the backline, your Leader and other Characters control the board and even strike their Leader.
Green Bonney Decklist
How to Play
1-cost Draws
Jewelry Bonney is your early-game searcher. She can look at the top 5 cards of your deck to find the right cards for upcoming turns. Jewelry Bonney can draw a {Supernovas} card, like Cavendish, Basil Hawkins, or Eustas “Captain” Kid. While rested, your opponent will have to attack Jewelry Bonney and KO her to prevent you from reactivating her effect.
Extra Don
Leader Bonney‘s ability needs 1 Don to activate during your defensive turns. Urouge, Cavendish, and Smoker help by setting rested Don to active, letting you develop the board and keep Don for Bonney‘s ability.
These characters can reactivate their abilities, giving you multiple chances to keep Don active and ensuring Bonney‘s effect is available each turn to slow your opponent down. Your opponent will go above and beyond to remove them from play, so when possible, protect them to keep using the extra Don they provide.
Urouge is the go-to play on turn 2 if you’re going second, setting one of your rested Don as Active at the end of your turn. This allows you to activate your Leader’s effect without losing on Character development. You often won’t attack with Urouge unless necessary, making it harder for the opposing player to KO him and ensuring you get the most out of his 1 Don effect.
Since Urouge has the Blocker keyword, he can be used to protect your Leader or a rested Character.
When you play Cavendish, he’ll set 2 of your rested Don as Active, so you can use 1 Don to boost the power of your attack and hold onto the other Don for the defensive turn. Cavendish can reactivate his effect when he attacks, so make sure to develop a Character first and rest your Don before attacking with Cavendish to set 2 of them as Active.
As for Smoker, he can set 1 Don as Active but will shut off any of your other Characters from giving Don. So, if you have Canvendish in play, make sure to activate his effect first and gain 2 Don, then activate Smoker‘s effect for the 1 Don.
The 7,000 Power + Banish keyword will force opponents to use up Counter cards when you target their Leader. We must prioritize attacking their Leader with Smoker to force out Counter cards or trash one of their Life cards. However, if there’s a rested Character that we have to KO, we’ll shift Smoker‘s attack to that Character.
Mid-game Stall
5-cost Carrot stalls out the game by keeping one of the opponent’s Characters with a cost of 7 or less rested, stopping them from attacking you on the upcoming turn. This is an On Play effect, but you can reactivate it when attacking with Carrot, making life miserable for the opposing player if they don’t KO her.
As for 5-cost Jewelry Bonney, she can keep one of the opponent’s rested Characters from becoming Active on the upcoming turn. She’s similar to Carrot but can target higher-cost Characters, and her effect activates only once. So you’ll use her for win conditions to stop them from attacking on the upcoming turn, buying you more time to win the game.
Combined with your Leader’s effect, these stall Characters can be frustrating for the opposing player, making it harder for them to aggro you down.
Fortress Strategy
Eustass”Captain”Kid enables your Fortress strategy also known as “Bird Cage”. On Don 9, we can play Eustass”Captain”Kid rest him, and cheat out one of our low-cost blockers, Donquixote Rosinante or Bartolomeo. We also want to attach 1 Don to Eustass”Captain”Kid to activate his effect, preventing the opposing player from attacking any card other than Eustass”Captain”Kid. An 8,000 Power Character isn’t easy to KO through attacks, especially with blockers in play that can protect him from high-power attacks.
This could shut down the opponent’s aggressive turn and force them to attach more Don to their attackers instead of playing Characters on the field. Donquixote Rosinante is the better choice to accompany Eustass”Captain”Kid since he can keep him safe from KO effects.
You can play Eustass”Captain”Kid on Don 8 if you have Cavendish or Smoker from the previous turn, gaining the extra Don to attach to Eustass”Captain”Kid and rest him, forcing opponents to deal with him if they wish to target your Leader or other Characters.
Low-cost Blockers
We have two low-cost Blockers in this list: Donquixote Rosinante and Bartolomeo. They can protect us from one of the opponent’s attacks, and since they cost 3 or less, they can be cheated out on the field through Eustass”Captain”Kid.
Donquixote Rosinante is a key card in this list since when one of your rested Characters is KO’d, Donquixote Rosinante activates his effect to sacrifice himself and keep that Character in play.
Bartolomeo‘s effect only triggers with Hody Jones, letting you draw a card and trash a card from your hand, filleting for better cards. You often won’t activate the effect, but you’ll use Bartolomeo for the Blocker keyword.
3-cost Tashigi is a +2,000 Counter card, which we might find ourselves playing through Eustass”Captain”Kid to protect our Fortress strategy. If we’re worried the opponent might remove Eustass”Captain”Kid though an effect and 2-cost Donquixote Rosinante is nowhere to be seen, Tashigi can fill its place. Tashigi‘s effect activates when one of your Green Characters would be removed due to the opponent’s effect, instead, you can rest Tashigi and keep that Character in play.
Keep in mind that 2-cost Donquixote Rosinante is limited to KO effects, whereas 3-cost Tashigi protects Eustass”Captain”Kid from any type of removal effects (effects that place your Character in your hand or deck).
Rush Aggro
Hody Jones‘ Rush attack + ability to rest two Characters enables an aggressive turn, stopping opponents from using their blockers to tank hits targeted toward the leader. You can also use Hody Jones‘ rest effect to attack the rested Characters, potentially KOing them and weakening opponents’ board.
If there is no meaningful Character to rest, Hody Jones can rest 2 of the opponent’s Active Don, preventing them from activating their Counter Events.
Control Option
9-cost Shanks is a strong option in the late game, joining the battle and KOing a rested Character. We can consistently find value with Shanks since Leader Bonney will rest one of the opponent’s Characters during your defensive turn.
The 11,000 Power can be tough to KO through attacks, so your opponents will likely ignore him or resort to one of their removal effects.
Donquixote Doflamingo can keep three of the opponent’s rested Characters + Leader from becoming Active, preventing them from attacking you on the upcoming turn. If you’re unable to control the opponent’s field, 10-cost Doflamingo is a great play to slow down their offensive turn, buying you enough time to win the game.
Counter Events
We’re only using one event: Because The Side of Justice Will Be Whichever Side Wins!! It’s a 0-cost +3000 Power Counter that forces you to trash a card from your hand. This is usually to protect your leader or keep the Fortress up. The list has a lot of Characters with no Counter effect, so Because The Side of Justice Will Be Whichever Side Wins!! can be used to trash dead cards we won’t need.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): 1-cost Jewelry Bonney.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): Activate Jewelry Bonney and play a 2-cost Blocker or go for a 7,000 Power Leader attack. You can bank 1 Don if there is a Character in play to KO or if you expect your opponent to want to play a Character before attacking.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): 5-cost Smoker and activate effect for 1 Active Don or 5-cost Cavendish gain 2 Active Don, attack 6,000 Power with Leader and save 1 Don for defense.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Hody Jones. Or Carrot, Smoker, or Cavendish.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Eustass”Captain”Kid or Shanks.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Eustass”Captain”Kid, Shanks, or Doflamingo.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): 1-cost Jewelry Bonney
- Turn 2 (4 Don): Urouge.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): 5-cost Smoker and activate effect for 1 Active Don or 5-cost Cavendish gain 2 Active Don.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Hody Jones. Or Carrot, Smoker, or Cavendish. Or Eustass”Captain”Kid (If Smoker or Cavendish are still in play).
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Donquixote Doflamingo, Eustass”Captain”Kid, or Shanks.
Other Cards to Include
- Killer blocks an opponent’s attack while having a Don attached to it, it’ll draw you a card. However, you only draw a card if you have 3 or more Characters in play.
- Roronoa Zoro is for tough games. If he stays on the board until your attack turn, you can attack three times with Zoro, each with 9,000 Power, which can be game-winning.
- 8-cost Donquixote Rosinante is your best play on Don 8, allowing you to rest him and play a 5-cost Green Character from your hand. So you can go wide with Characters like Carrot, Smoker, or Cavendish. The Character you choose to play will depend on the effect you need. Carrot to keep an opponent’s Character rested, whereas Smoker or Cavendish for the extra Don. As long as 8-cost Donquixote Rosinante is on the field rested, he prevents opponents from KOing your 5-cost Characters through effects, forcing opponents to remove Donquixote Rosinante if they have a KO effect to deal with your 5-costs.
Matchups
Red Shanks can KO a Character a turn through Benn.Beckman and Silvers Rayleigh, so having Rosinante or Tashigi in play can protect your key Characters. However, Rosinante isn’t useful against Benn.Beckman‘s trash effect.
9-cost Shanks is how we remove their 10-cost Characters, but if we don’t have him, we’ll try to keep them rested using 5-cost Bonney and 10-cost Doflamingo and focus our attacks on their Leader to close out the game before they do.
Against Black Marshall D.Teach, Shiryu can KO our low-cost Blockers, making it easier for them to break through the Fortress. Jesus Burgess will end up becoming a problem in the late-game, so we’ll try to KO him early on or keep him rested through Carrot‘s effect. We can rest Jesus Burgess and Kuzan with Hody Jones and attack to KO them.
They can easily KO our 5-cost Characters, but will need to use cost-reduction effects to remove Eustass”Captain”Kid. Having Tashigi or Rosinante in play can protect and make it harder for them to break through the Fortress.
9-cost Shanks is a key card to KO their 10-cost Teach, eventually winning the late-game if they can’t rush us down.
Blue Donquixote Doflamingo uses 2-cost Teach for the extra Don. When they attack, we want to rest the 2-cost Teach so we can attack and KO him on the upcoming turn, cutting them off from the additional 2 Don they gain.
It’s best we go first against Doflamingo, taking their preferred curve, and we won’t need to play Urouge, a 4-cost Character that can be returned to our hand by their 4-cost Law.
Doffy decks have 7-cost Gravity Blade Raging Tiger and 6-cost Gum-Gum Red Roc to remove your Characters, so Tashigi will play a key role in shutting those effects off.
Red Roronoa Zoro plays aggressively, so we’ll mainly focus on removing their Characters and weakening their upcoming attacks. They’ll have a rough time aggroing us down, especially when the Fortress drops.
OP08 Tony Tony Chopper generates value for them whenever it attacks, so we’ll either attack and KO or keep it rested through Carrot.
Monkey D.Dragon is their best way to threaten 8-cost Kid, but having a Blocker in play can prevent them from attacking it. We can then play Shanks to KO it and cheat out another blocker through Kid. If we don’t have Shanks, we can use 5-cost Bonney to keep it rested.
