Red Green Smoker is an OP10 Leader that wants to have either {Navy} or {Punk Hazard} type Characters alongside him, giving them +1,000 Power during your defensive turns. This makes it a challenge for opponents to KO your Characters, increasing the odds of keeping Characters in play and getting more value out of them.
The build has changed significantly over various metas, and will continue to change going into OP13. OP12 and PRB02 introduce multiple new cards to enhance your strategy, shifting Red Green Smoker to incorporate more blockers for a more defensive approach while still maintaining heavy hitters to pressure the opponent.
Leader
Red Green Smoker is a 4 health Leader with two effects. Smoker‘s first effect activates during your opponent’s turn, giving your {Navy} or {Punk Hazard} type Characters +1,000 Power. This makes it harder for your opponent to attack and KO your {Navy} and {Punk Hazard} type Characters.
Smoker‘s second effect can be activated once during your turn, setting 2 Don as Active only if you have a Character with 7,000 or more in play. This is your strongest effect, allowing you to make more plays in one turn or use the extra Don to increase the Power of your attacks.
Red Green Smoker Decklist
How to Play
Early Searchers
Vergo is your early-game searcher. His On Play effect looks at the top 5 cards of your deck and lets you pick 1 {Punk Hazard} type card. You can draw Characters like 3-cost Sanji, 5-cost Smoker, and 3-cost Tashigi.
As for Perona, she looks at the top 5 cards of your deck for a <Slash> attribute card or green Event to add it to your hand. So you get to draw the likes of Kin’emon, Smoker, Law, or Mihawk.
Smoker Carry
5-cost Smoker adds to your aggressive strategy. Using the 7,000 Power and Banish keyword, you usually want to target the opponent’s leader to try to trash one of their life cards. This will usually force opponents to counter your attack since they don’t want one of their cards trashed, but at times, countering a high-power Smoker attack might not be worth it or possible for them.
5-cost Smoker‘s Activate: Main sets 1 of your Don as Active, which you can use to attach to a Character for added aggression or help develop more Characters. However, you need to activate the Leader’s effect first, set 2 Active Don, and then activate the 5-cost Smoker‘s effect for the extra 1 Don.
You’re gaining 3 Active Dons in one turn, enabling you to develop more on the field or use that Don aggressively.
Control Cards
4-cost Koby is a 5,000 Power Character that gains +1,000 Power boost during the opponent’s turn. Additionally, since Koby is a Navy Character, Leader Smoker will give him another +1,000 Power boost, becoming a 7,000 Power Character during the opponent’s turn. This makes him exceptionally difficult to remove through attacks, and might put him out of range of removal effects tier to Power.
When Koby attacks, you can KO a 3,000 Power or less Character. Then, if you have 6 cards or less in your hand, you get to draw a card. So you’re gaining a lot of value from Koby attacking, removing a low-power blocker or a power-reduced Character, and gaining resources, which might force the opposing player to burn resources trying to remove Koby from play.
The 6-cost Trafalgar Law is another Punk-Hazard Character that gains a +1,000 Power boost during the defensive turn through Leader Smoker. He’s a tough Character to remove, as the first time he’s removed through an opponent’s effect, you can instead reduce his Power by 2,000, dropping him to 6,000 Power. He’s more vulnerable to the opponent’s attacks, but we’re forcing the opposing player to expend a lot of resources.
When Law attacks, he can reduce the Power of one of the opponent’s Characters by -2,000. We can target a rested Character to make it more vulnerable to our attacks, or we can go for an Active Character to put it in range for removal effects like Koby or Gum Gum Mole Pistol.
Gum-Gum Mole Pistol reduces the Power of one of the opponent’s Characters by 5,000, and if you have a 6,000 Power or more Character in play, you can KO a 2,000 Power Character. So with Gum-Gum Mole Pistol, you can KO a Character with up to 7,000 Power.
Rush Attackers
Hody Jones‘ Rush attack + ability to rest two Characters or Don enables an aggressive. Hody Jones takes a Life card and adds it to your hand, so it does weaken your defensive turn, but going for the Rush attack and resting blockers or Don can go a long way to take the opponent’s Life cards. Depending on the state of the game, you might opt to control the field, focusing your attacks on the opponent’s rested Characters instead of their Leader. If you’re up against a deck that relies on Active Don during their defensive turn, Hody Jones is perfect to rest two of their Don and shut down their planned strategy.
Blockers
4-cost Tony Tony Chopper is a +2,000 Counter card, but we can make use of his Blocker keyword. Chopper can protect us from an attack, especially since he gains +2,000 Power during your opponent’s turn, turning him into a 6,000 Power Character. Additionally, since Chopper is a {Punk Hazard} type Character, he’ll gain +1,000 Power from your Leader’s effect, becoming a 7,000 Power Blocker during your opponent’s turn.
Jewelry Bonney is a value blocker, drawing us 2 cards and trashing 1 from hand while also setting 1 Don as Active. However, we need to have 8 or more rested cards to activate Bonney‘s effect, so we’ll have to make other plays before going for Bonney to make sure we have enough rested cards (Don cards) to activate her effect.
The 8-cost Dracule Mihawk is an 8,000 Power Blocker that sets 4 of our Don as Active. Technically, we’re playing him for 4 Don, but we’re restricted to only playing a 6-cost or less Character alongside him. This means we can’t play Hody Jones as a follow-up play, but can still go for the likes of Smoker, Bonney, or Law.
Tashigi Protection
As long as Tashigi is in play, the opposing player will have a tough time removing key cards like Koby or Smoker through their effects. If they try removing any of your Characters through an effect, you can instead rest Tashigi to keep those Characters in play. Instead, your opponent will be forced to put their resources into removing Tashigi before controlling your field.
This can be exceptionally strong against decks that heavily rely on removing your Smoker through an effect, slowing down their strategy and allowing you to use Smoker‘s Banish and Don gain to get an edge over the opposing player.
Events
By resting 3 Don, Demon Aura Nine Sword Style can rest two of the opponent’s Characters or Don, great if you’re trying to go for an offensive turn and there are blockers in your path, or your opponent is planning to play Counter Events and needs their Don Active.
Demon Aura Nine Sword Style can also be played for its Counter effect, giving your Leader a +3,000 Power boost to protect yourself from an attack.
Spiderweb gives your Leader or one of your Characters a +4,000 Power, then lets you set one of your Characters as Active. In this deck, we usually want to set a blocker like Mihawk as Active to protect us from an opponent’s attack. This can be a massive defensive play in the late game, as we can use Mihawk to block two attacks thanks to Spiderweb.
General Tips
- Since we’re gaining extra Active Don from Leader Smoker and 5-cost Smoker, we can go for more aggressive attacks on the opponent’s Leader, quickly dropping them low on Life cards. Remember that 5-cost Smoker shuts off your Don gain from Mihawk and Bonney, so you want to play them first. In some cases, you’ll be forced to activate Smoker‘s Don gain to play Bonney.
- Understand which matchups you want Tashigi in play. Against decks with strong mid-game removal plays, Tashigi can be a great shutdown for them and enables you to get more value from 5-cost Smoker.
Mulligan Tips
Going First: 1-cost searcher, 5-cost Smoker, Hody Jones.
Going Second: 1-cost searcher, 4-cost Koby, 5-cost Smoker, 6-cost Law, 8-cost Mihawk.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): 1-cost Vergo or Perona.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): 1-cost Vergo or Perona. 3-cost Tashigi depending on the matchup.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): 5-cost Smoker. Play Tashigi depending on the matchup after you gain Don from Leader and 5c Smoker.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Hody Jones or 5-cost Smoker, more development from the extra Don.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): 8-cost Mihawk + 6-cost Law.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): 8-cost Mihawk.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): 1-cost Vergo or Perona.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): 4-cost Koby.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): 5-cost Smoker + Koby or Tashigi. Or play 6-cost Law.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): 8-cost Mihawk + 6-cost Law, Smoker, or Bonney.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): 8-cost Mihawk.
Other Cards to Include
- You have to rest Monet to activate her effect, giving your Leader or one of your Characters 2 rested Don, then giving one of your opponent’s Characters -1,000 Power. So we’re setting up a stronger attack while weakening an opponent’s Character. We can either attack that Character or use a control effect like Gum-Gum Mole Pistol or Benn.Beckman to remove a higher Power Character.
- 6-cost Honest Impact is an answer for high-power Characters; it reduces the Power of an opponent’s Character by 4,000 and then KO’s a 6,000 Power Character, which means you can KO a Character with up to 10,000 Power. You can use Honest Impact to remove two Characters by reducing the Power of a rested Character and making it vulnerable to your attackers and KOing another Character with 6,000 Power or less.
- The 7-cost Benn.Beckman can trash 1 of the opponent’s Characters with a power of 6,000 or less. It’s a great removal method to keep control of the field and shift the board presence in your favor, especially if there’s a Character in play with a KO immunity.
- 3-cost Sanji is a 3,000 Power Character but gains +3,000 Power during your turn, becoming a 6,000 Power attack. He acts as an aggressive Character, but during your defensive turns, he’s pretty weak to the opponent’s attacks. Being a 6,000 Power Character, you can attach 1 Don on 3-cost Sanji to get him up to 7,000 Power and activate Leader effect to stand 2 Don as Active. Since 3-cost Sanji is a {Punk Hazard} type Character, he’ll gain +1,000 Power from Leader Smoker, making it easier for you to protect him at 4,000 Power. If KO’d, Sanji is drawing you a card, so you’re not losing on resources.
- Radical Beam!! is a 1-cost Counter Event to shut down one of the opponent’s attacks. You need to anticipate when you want to play Radical Beam and save 1 Don for the defensive turn. Having 2 Life cards or less bumps Radical Beam‘s Power gain from +2,000 to +4,000.
- Because The Side of Justice Will Be Whichever Side Wins!! is 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.
- Since Leader Smoker gives you 2 Active Dons, we can afford to have Ten-Layer Igloo on the list as a Counter event. Ten-Layer Igloo gives your Leader or a Character +3,000 Power, and then one of your opponent’s Leader or Characters gets -2,000 Power. This is perfect for countering 2 attackers or 1 high-power attacker.
- Koushirou is a low-cost Blocker that can protect your 5-cost or less Slash attribute Characters from getting KO’d by an opponent’s effect. By resting Koushirou, you can protect the likes of 5-cost Tashigi, keeping a win condition in play to keep pressuring the opposing player.
Closing Words
Red Green Smoker remains a strong Leader in OPTCG and the PRB02 cards will give the Leader more tools to further strengthen his mid to late-game strategy, deviating away from the Frotress game plan. With consistent Don gain each turn, powerful attackers, and solid control tools, the deck offers versatility and can adapt well to a wide range of matchups.
