The Red PRB01 Sanji deck is all about aggression, giving Rush to key Characters and attacking the moment they hit the field. It keeps up relentless pressure, aiming for multiple attacks each turn to wear down the opponent’s Leader.
While the deck thrives on aggression, it also includes a few removal options to KO enemy Characters. This makes it harder for opponents to keep up in the aggression race or remove your rested Character.
The older version of Red PRB01 Sanji ran cards like Roronoa Zoro, Pell, and Wapol. However, with the release of PRB02 cards, Red Sanji has shifted to a mix of Straw Hat Pirates and Punk Hazard Characters, relying on Koby and Trafalgar Law as aggressors with a control aspect that benefit from the immediate attack on the turn they’re played.
Leader
Red Sanji is a 5 Life card Leader with an effect that lets you give an 8-cost or less Character without an On Play effect the Rush keyword. This means we’ll favor cards with When Attacking, Activate: Main, and Vanilla cards to get the most out of our Leader effect. You don’t have to use any of your Don to activate the effect, so we can be extremely aggressive, immediately attacking with the Character we play.
The Rush attack adds more aggression to our strategy, dropping the opposing player low on Life cards quickly, and lining up a strong turn to close out the game.
This deck plays fast, and your opponents will often find themselves low on Life cards, shifting to a defensive play pattern and trying to stabilize the game.
Red Sanji Decklist
How to Play
Early Searcher
Nami looks at the top 5 cards in your deck and lets you add a {Straw Hat Crew} type card to your hand, such as Sanji, Franky, or Gum Gum Mole Pistol.
As for Vergo, he looks at the top 5 cards to add 1 {Punk Hazard} type Character to your hand. This means we get to search for cards like Trafalgar Law, Sanji, Franky, and Chopper.
Low-cost Aggressors
2-cost Sanji is a +2,000 Counter card, but we’ll often play him as an aggressor. Sanji is only a 3,000 Power Character, but activating his effect will self-damage your Leader to give +2,000 Power and attach 2 rested Don. So for 2 Don, you’re setting up a 7,000 Power Character, which will gain Rush through your Leader effect.
Since Leader Sanji is a 5 Life card Leader, we’re not too worried about losing a Life card to create an aggressive turn. The 2-cost Sanji can be played early or late game to help close out games.
As for 3-cost Sanji, he’s a 3,000 Power Character who gains 3,000 Power during your turn. So you’re able to use him aggressively for a high-power attack, but he will be a vulnerable target during your defensive turn.
Control Characters
4-cost Koby is a 5,000 Power Character that gains +1,000 Power boost during the opponent’s turn, becoming a harder target to remove. 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.
Since Koby doesn’t have an On Play effect, we can use Leader Sanji to give Koby the Rush keyword, attacking with him on the turn he’s played to pressure the opposing player and activate Koby‘s When Attacking effect to gain value immediately.
The 6-cost Trafalgar Law is another Punk-Hazard Character that synergizes with Leader Sanji. 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 5,000 Power. This means in most cases, your opponent will opt to remove Law through attacks rather than commit a removal effect.
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, Gum Gum Mole Pistol, Benn.Beckman, or Silvers Rayleigh.
Thanks to Leader Sanji‘s effect, Law can gain the Rush keyword to use his 7,000 Power aggressively while giving a -2,000 Power reduction to an opponent’s Character, perfect for helping us control the mid-game.
Benn.Beckman is great for removing a 6,000 Power Character. He has an On Play effect, so you can’t give him the Rush keyword, but removing a Character, especially since he trashes instead of KO can be extremely good to slow your opponent down.
Silvers Rayleigh also has an On Play effect, so we can’t give him Rush, but he targets two of the opponent’s Characters, giving 1 Character a -3,000 Power reduction and the other a -2,000 Power reduction. He then KO’s a 3,000 Power or less Character, helping you remove a threat from the field. Since we’re reducing the Power of another Character, we can either KO it with Koby‘s KO effect, attack and KO it, or ignore it. Ignoring it is still not the worst outcome since the Power reduction will stick on the opponent’s upcoming turn, which means it will present less offensive pressure for that turn.
Vanilla Characters
The 5-cost Nami and 6-cost Franky are vanilla cards with high stats. You can use Leader Sanji’s effect to give them the Rush keyword, allowing you to attack with them on the turn they’re played and use those high stats aggressively. They both are {Punk Hazard} Characters, which means Vergo can search for them.
+2,000 Counters
The ST21 Sanji can be used for his On Play effect, letting you choose a Character with 6,000 Power or more, and during this turn, that selected Character can’t be blocked. So now you have a great finisher to win you the game on the spot if your opponent is at 0 Life cards.
4-cost Tony Tony Chopper can come in handy as a blocker to help protect us from one attack and give us an extra turn to win the game.
Events
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.
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.
Mulligan Tips
- Going First: 1-cost searcher, 2-cost or 3-cost Sanji, 5-cost Nami.
- Going Second: 2-cost Sanji, 4-cost Koby, 6-cost Law.
General Tips
- Play aggressively, but don’t fully ignore the board. We’re an aggressive deck, trying to take Life cards and drop opponents low on Life cards. However, if there’s a Character worth KOing through an attack, we can still commit to it.
- Sequence attacks and plays correctly. When it comes to Law’s Power reduction, we’ll need to attack with him first if we’re planning to follow it up with a Koby attack or dropping cards like Ben Beckman or Gum Gum Mole Pistol.
- Protect key Characters. Often, your opponent will try to control your board to weaken your upcoming turn. Cards like Law or high-power Characters are worth protecting to keep an additional attack in play that can take a Life card or force counter resources.
- Be wary when sacrificing Life cards. We don’t want to fall too low to the point where the opposing player can rush us down, so keep that in mind if you’re planning to go for a 2-cost Sanji play. Additionally, if we’re planning a 2-cost Sanji finisher, we will need to protect our last Life card.
Other Cards to Include
- The Nico Robins are here to KO low Power Characters, especially blockers, allowing you to attack the opponent’s Leader directly. Since they don’t have an On Play effect, you can give them Rush and attack with them on the turn they’re played. However, you can have them on the field and hold off their attack for the upcoming turn when you can attach Don and have a Power reduction card to combo with them.
- OP01 Robin requires you to attach 1 Don to KO a 3,000 or less Power Character. As for ST21 Robin, she has a harder effect to activate, requiring you to attach 2 Don to her before attacking, but she can KO a 4,000 or less Power Character, so a better option against high Power Characters.
- Wapol‘s When Attacking effect reduces the Power of one of the opponent’s Characters by 2,000, while gaining 2,000 Power on himself to become an 8,000 Power attacker. That Power increase sticks until the end of the opponent’s turn, so he’s a tough Character to KO through attacks. We can give Wapol the Rush keyword through Leader Sanji‘s effect to make use of the -2,000 and +2,000 Power immediately. This should help us remove a Character either through attacking it or combining Wapol with one of our removal plays.
- Gol.D.Roger keeps the Rush attacks going! His 13,000 Power Rush attack is the strongest in this deck and hard for most decks to Counter. We usually wait to play Gol.D.Roger until you or the opponent are at 0 Life cards, making their Blockers useless. If the opponent uses a Blocker while Gol.D.Roger is in play, they’ll automatically lose the game.
- 4-cost Roronoa Zoro is a 5,000 Power attacker that gains Rush if you attach 2 Don to him. However, since he doesn’t have an On Play effect, we can give him Rush through our Leader effect, allowing us to attack with him without the 2 Don attachment. Zoro can be a nuisance for the opposing player, since they usually don’t want to KO him. On KO, Roronoa Zoro activates his effect to cheat out a 6,000 Power or less Character from your hand, which means you can play 5-cost Luffy, 5-cost Pell, or 6-cost Wapol, developing a bigger threat on the field after Zoro is KO’d.
- We want to attach 1 Don to Chaka to activate his Main effect, letting us attach 2 rested Don to our Leader or one of our Characters, which enables an extremely aggressive turn. Your opponent can’t afford to leave Chaka on the field for too long and will likely shift their focus to removing him.
- As for 5-cost Luffy, he’s a Rush attack that attaches 1 rested Don to your Leader or a Character when he attacks, enabling a stronger offensive turn that forces more Counter plays from the opponent. If Luffy sticks on the field, you’ll keep gaining that Don attachment, forcing more Counter cards and making it harder for your opponent to survive your offensive attacks.
- Pell‘s KO effect activates when attacking, but you have to attach 1 Don to him. When attacking, Pell can KO a 4,000 Power or less Character, perfect if you’re trying to remove a pesky blocker in play. The list has multiple cost-reduction effects like Wapol, Silvers Rayleigh, and Gum-Gum Mole Pistol that you can combine with Pell to KO higher Power Characters. You can activate Pell‘s KO effect on the turn he’s played, giving him Rush through your Leader Sanji‘s effect.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): 1-cost Nami or Vergo.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): 3-cost Sanji, 2-cost Sanji.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): 5-cost Nami or 4-cost Koby.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Benn.Beckman, Law, or Franky.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Silvers Rayleigh.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Silvers Rayleigh or a Character to give the Rush keyword.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): 1-cost searcher or 2-cost Sanji and wait till the next turn to attack.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): 4-cost Koby.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): Law.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Silvers Rayleigh, Benn.Beckman, or Law.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Silvers Rayleigh or a Character to give the Rush keyword.
Closing Words
Red Sanji has been gaining popularity recently with the addition of PRB02 Koby and Law to the list, benefiting from the Rush keyword to immediately activate their When Attacking effects on the turn they’re played.
If you’re a fan of aggressive decks that take the Rush game play to another level, then Red Sanji is the deck to pick up, capable of aggroing down any deck it goes up against and stealing wins in tough situations.
