The Green Purple Luffy is the strongest deck in EB02 meta and rivals Blue Purple Luffy in OP11 meta. This deck can play aggressively thanks to Leader effect, giving you 2 Active Don along with the 6-cost Luffy going for two attacks in one turn to add more pressure on opponents. Most of the GP Luffy decks have shifted to a glass cannon list, going for full aggression and trying their best to ignore the field.
Although this can be punishing, Electrical Luna has proved to be a strong option in the GP Luffy lists, shutting down multiple attackers and slowing the opposing player immensely until the GP Luffy player can line up its winning play. Sanji & Pudding is a core part in this deck; the ramp it gives you allows you to go for your Leader effect without worrying about the drawback, so most decks want to remove Sanji & Pudding from play as quickly as possible to control the opponent’s ramp value.
The Deck to Beat!
Green Purple Luffy’s Leader effect allows you to return 2 rested Don and set 2 of your Don as Active. So you’re falling behind on Don to create a stronger turn where you can go for more aggressive attacks or develop another Character.
Since this effect has a massive drawback, players will usually hold off on playing it until the late game. However, with Sanji & Pudding on turn 3, they can start going for Leader effect to activate Sanji & Pudding’s ramp effect. Instead of gaining 2 Active Don when you activate Leader effect, you’re not gaining 3 Don and only falling 1 Don behind, allowing you to maximize your plays in the mid-game.
They’ll use their 6-cost Luffy for aggressive attacks, going for a Rush attack, and potentially activating his effect for a second attack. However, to activate Luffy’s second attack, you have to return 2 Active Don and take a Life card, so it has an expensive price to pay.
Most lists have shifted to pure aggression, focusing on aggroing down the opponent’s Leader and closing out games as fast as possible while relying on Events to prolong the game. Electrical Luna can prevent all 7-cost or less Characters from becoming Active on the upcoming turn, halting the opponent’s aggression on the upcoming turn. Gum Gum Giant and Gum Gum Jet Gatling can save them from your attacks, keeping them in the game longer to push for a finisher play.
Black Rob Lucci
Black Rob Lucci 5 Life Card Leader, so he’s not easily aggroed down by GP Luffy. We have access to removal cards like Brook, Rob Lucci, and Jack to KO the opponent’s Characters and keep them from aggroing us. We will prioritize KOing Sanji & Pudding to prevent them from gaining the extra Don. To KO Sanji & Pudding we’ll need to have Kuzan or Laboon played on the previous turn, and with their -4 cost-reduction, we can KO Sanji & Pudding through Brook or 4-cost Rob Lucci.
This should slow the GP Luffy player, making it even harder for them to build aggressive attacks without falling behind on the upcoming turns. However, Going Merry can increase the cost of one of the opponent’s Characters by 2, which will make it harder for us to KO a certain Character. We should still be able to put their Characters in range thanks to cards like Hina and Tempest Kick, but it does mean we’re using more of our resources to control the field.
The plan is to control the board and bleed them out of resources. We’re not in a rush to win the game, and they’ll eventually run out of steam. Rebecca and Sabo are great blockers to protect you from an attack. However, your opponent can rest Rebecca through 4-cost Zoro, and they also have Uso-Hachi to rest Rebecca or Sabo for a more aggressive turn.
Green Jewelry Bonney
Green Bonney is a stall Leader, capable of resting one of the opponent’s attackers and saving Counter resources. The stall game plan will slow the opposing player, buying more time to build up your board and switch the game in your favor. Carrot is perfect to add to your slow strategy, keeping Characters like 5-cost Sanji & Pudding or 6-cost Luffy from becoming Active on the upcoming turn.
Cavendish and Smoker are giving us additional Don, which might force your opponent to try and remove them rather than attack your Leader. If Smoker attacks the opponent’s Leader, you’re threatening to trash their Life card and put them behind on resources.
It’s difficult for us to attack their 7,000 Power Characters like Sanji & Pudding and 6-cost Luffy, so we’ll often ignore them and focus our attacks on their Leader, trying to put them low on Life Cards and force them to rely on Gum Gum Giant to survive. This is where Hody Jones comes into play, resting two of their Active Don to prevent them from activating their Gum Gum Giant, potentially winning you the game.
9-cost Shanks can remove their win conditions, helping you shift the field presence in your favor and lowering their upcoming aggression. As for the 8-cost Kid, he can prolong the game through the Fortress strategy, buying you more time to set up the finishing turn. Most GP Luffy decks are adding Gamma Knife to their lists, so they can reduce the Power of Kid to 3,000 Power, which should make him an easy target for their attackers.
Red Green Smoker
Red Green Smoker is a strong option against GP Luffy for multiple reasons. The ability to gain 2 Active Don through Leader effect and 1 Active Don through Smoker means you can match the opponent’s aggression and keep up with their plays. You also have access to Gum Gum Pistol to KO Sanji & Pudding on the spot. However, you will need to have a 6,000 Power Character in play to activate Gum Gum Pistol’s KO effect, but 3-cost Sanji is perfect to set it up.
Alternatively, we have Monnet or Otama + Benn.Beckman to trash Sanji & Pudding on the spot. Our removal effects are tied to the Power of the Character, not its cost, so Going Merry isn’t a problem for us. The number 1 strategy is to remove Sanji & Pudding to shut down the ramp effect, and from there, we can start taking over the game.
Hody Jones can rest 2 Don to prevent them from playing their Counter Events, making it harder for them to survive our attacks. On top of that, we have the Kid Fortress strategy to protect us in the late game and prevent the opposing player from aggroing us down.
Red Yellow Belo Betty
Red Yellow Belo Betty focuses on overwhelming the GP Luffy deck by going wide on the field and lining up multiple attackers to start forcing Counter cards. The plan is to develop multiple Characters on the field with the help of Emporio Ivankov and Koala. Your opponent will try to control the field using EB02 Zoro to rest one of your 4-cost Characters and attack it.
2-cost Kuma and Lindbergh can KO low-cost blockers like Nico Robin or Tony Tony Chopper, paving the way for the rest of your attackers to go through and strike down the Leader. Using Belo Betty’s effect, you can boost the Power of 3 of your Characters by 3,000. The GP Luffy will usually be at 6,000 Power, so the Power boost will be essential to forcing Counter cards out of them. If we combine that with Karasu’s Power reduction, GP Luffy will fall back to 5,000 Power, making it easier for our attacks to go through.
This will feel like a race, but in most cases, your opponent might be forced to take a defensive approach. Keep in mind that we also have Emporio Energy Hormone to Counter an attack while developing a Character on the field, perfect in the later stages of the game to protect a Life card while developing an attacker to keep pressuring the GP Luffy player.
Red Blue Marco
The Zoo Red Blue Marco plays more aggressively in the early to mid-game, capable of going wider on the field through OP08 Tony Tony Chopper, 3-cost Emporio Ivankov, and Just Shutup and Come with US.
The early aggression can overwhelm opponents, however, this is a strong deck against Green Purple Luffy because of the Leader’s built-in Power reduction effect + removal cards. Leader Marco can reduce the Power of an opponent’s Character by 2,000, allowing cards like Benn.Beckman, Edward Newgate, Silvers Rayleigh, and Gum Gum Pistol to remove higher Power Characters. This means it’ll be almost impossible for the GP Luffy to keep a Sanji & Pudding in play for too long, and removing it early into the game will put your opponent behind in terms of Don acceleration.
On top of that, we have 9-cost Sanji to cheat out a high-cost Character like Silvers Rayleigh, developing two big bodies on the field while also maintaining board control. Eventually, your opponent won’t be able to match your field and will fall behind in the game. From there, you can start planning your winning turn to close out the game.
It might take a couple of turns to go through all their defensive cards, but forcing them to deramp with Gum Gum Giant will weaken their upcoming turns if they drop behind on Don.
Red Shanks
Red Shanks has an extremely close matchup against GP Luffy, but the main problem is that Ben.Beckman and Silvers Rayleigh can only remove 6,000 Power Characters or less on their own. So you’ll need to have Power reduction cards like Otama, Hongo, or Red Force to help you remove their Sanji & Pudding as early as possible.
If they play their Sanji & Pudding on Don 5, Divine Departure is the perfect play to KO it, removing their ramp ability and slowing down their pace. You want to protect your Life cards in the mid-game, trying to prolong the game for as long as possible until your 10-cost Shanks starts taking over the game. We also have access to Rush attackers to aggro down the opposing player, but their Counter Events will make it difficult for us to immediately set up the winning turn, even if they’re at 0 Life cards.
I wouldn’t call Red Shanks favored against GP Luffy, but it’s a close matchup where you have a good chance at beating the deck!
Closing Words
Green Purple Monkey D.Luffy is the strongest deck in the EB02 format, and it will be the deck to beat in the upcoming weeks. Understanding how this deck works, its main strategy, and its weaknesses enables you to play better against it and plan your turns correctly. Although it’s the strongest deck in the format, the deck has its weaknesses and punishable drawbacks from activating certain effects, and we usually want to make sure they can’t mitigate those drawbacks. There are strong Counters for Green Purple Luffy that are solid choices to play in tournaments!
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