Heya everyone! It’s been a couple of weeks since OP12 kicked off in the West. With Blue Purple Luffy getting hit in the recent ban list, things are looking a bit different than what we saw in the East. Despite the bans, UP Luffy remains a solid choice in the Western OP12 meta, and we’ve seen it perform in multiple American and European OPTCG tournaments.
In this article, I’ll share the top tournament decks that are consistently performing and have had major success. If you’re going to play in an OP12 tournament, these are the decks to watch out for and even consider bringing one of them!
Green Roronoa Zoro
Green Roronoa Zoro is one of the new OP12 Leaders in OPTCG, quickly leaving his mark in the tournament scene. He’s been battling for second spot with GP Luffy throughout the OP12 meta and has proven to be one of the strongest choices in the game!
This Leader has an extremely strong effect, by attaching 3 Don, you can attack one of the opponent’s Characters before re-standing your Leader to go for a second attack on the opponent’s Leader or an 8-cost or more Character. This allows you to go for a board control attack while still threatening the opponent’s Life cards, combining control and aggression in one strategy.
Kuina and Tashigi enable your Leader’s effect, attaching 3 Don to your Leader and resting a Character, a perfect fit in this deck. 8-cost Mihawk turns 4 of your Don as Active, allowing you to go for heavier attacks or develop an additional Character. He’s also a blocker, so he can protect you in the late game, saving you from committing Counter resources.
Luffy Is the Man Who Will Become the King of Pirates!!! lets you re-stand your Leader to go for another attack, usually used when you’re planning an extremely aggressive turn with Roronoa Zoro, especially if you can close out the game.
Red Silvers Rayleigh
When playing Red Silvers Rayleigh, you cannot include cost 5 or more cards in your deck. This means we’re building an aggressive deck with low-cost Characters. To consistently activate Silvers Rayleigh’s effect, you need to have 4,000 Power or less Characters and a bunch of events. You have to reveal 2 events in your hand to give one of your Characters with a base Power of 4,000 or less a +2,000 Power boost.
Characters like Sanji and Luffy have low power, but once in play, their effect gives them a Power boost, turning them into aggressive attacks that can pose a threat to the opponent.
Blue Purple Monkey D.Luffy
Blue Purple Monkey D.Luffy is the most popular choice among players in OP12 tournaments. This Leader uses ramp cards like 3-cost Zoro-Juurou, 4-cost Bon Clay, and 5-cost God Threat to speed up its game plan, aiming to start the turn at Don 8 to activate Leader Luffy’s effect.
When you start the turn at 8 Don, you get to use your Leader’s effect to look at the top 5 cards of your deck and add 1 {Straw Hat Crew} card to your hand. You can then place the cards at the top or bottom of your deck in any order you want. This allows you to put the cards at the top of your deck any way you want, creating the perfect opportunity to play 9-cost Sanji and cheat out a high-cost Character. You’re developing two big bodies in one turn to overwhelm the opposing player.
You only have 3 Life cards, but your Leader having 6,000 Power + Counter Events like Gum Gum Giant, you can push the game an extra couple of turns until you set up the finishing blow.
Green Purple Monkey D.Luffy
Green Purple Luffy returns 2 Don to set 2 Don as Active, enabling you to go for heavier attacks or develop an additional Character. Since we’re returning Don to activate this effect, we rely on Sanji & Pudding to lower the Don return drawback, ramping Active Don and strengthening our turn.
With Sanji & Pudding in play, we can activate Leader effect in the mid-game without falling behind in the game. The plan is to go for aggressive attacks and try to drop the opposing player low on Life cards. 7-cost Luffy-Tarou cheats out the likes of Sanji & Pudding and 4-cost Zoro, setting up a more aggressive upcoming turn and forcing the opposing player to go on the defense.
6-cost Luffy is your strongest aggressive play, going for a Rush attack to immediately create a threat, and can switch to Active by taking a Life card and returning 2 Active Don. A two-attack turn can be aggressive enough to win you the game on the spot if your opponent doesn’t have the blockers or Counter events to protect their Leader.
Green Jewelry Bonney
Green Jewelry Bonney is a stall Leader, using her effect to rest one of the opponent’s attackers and weakening their offensive turn. This is saving you from playing as many Counter resources, prolonging the game until you get your win conditions online.
Urouge and Cavendish give you additional Don, making it easier for you to use your Leader’s effect without sacrificing your board development. Carrot aids you in your stall strategy, keeping one of your opponent’s rested Characters from becoming Active, slowing down your opponent’s offensive pace.
The Kid, along with the 2-cost blockers, are part of your Fortress strategy, creating a defensive wall that can be tough for most decks to break through. This buys you enough time to get more attacks in, eventually lining up your winning attack.
Hody Jines is this deck’s aggressive play, going for a Rush attack that can rest two of the opponent’s Characters or Don. He’s the perfect play to shut down blockers or Counter events your opponent is relying on during their defensive turn.
9-cost Shanks can KO one of the opponent’s rested Characters, perfect to remove a high-cost win condition. Some lists prefer to include 10-cost Dofflamingo, mainly to keep 3 of the opponent’s attackers from posing a threat on the upcoming turn.
Red Shanks
Red Shanks is all about playing defensively with his Leader effect, making it harder for opponents to get their attacks through thanks to your -1,000 Power reduction. It’s also saving you from playing as many Counter cards, letting you push the game longer until you have your win conditions online.
The list runs multiple removal cards, like Ben.Beckman, Silvers Rayleigh, and 10-cost Shanks to control the opponent’s side of the field and make sure they don’t overtake the game. The list has a couple of Power reduction effects, like Building Snake, to help you target bigger threats.
With your high-cost Characters in play, your opponent will struggle to keep up with them, and often they’ll try to race you before you completely shut them down.
Black Marshal D.Teach
Black Marshall D. Teach shuts you off from activating On Play effects, by trashing a card from your hand, you can share that condition with your opponent. This can prevent your opponent from making certain plays, directly weakening their strategy and forcing them to make awkward plays.
The list has control cards like 7-cost Teach to KO opponent’s 3-cost or less Characters. Using cost-reduction cards like Tempest Kick, you can put higher-cost Characters in range for your removal plays to remove.
Jesus Burgess can become your win condition in the late game, gaining 1,000 Power for every 4 cards in your trash. Eventually, he’ll become a heavy hitter, too tough for most opponents to remove, and can be challenging to counter from his attack.
The 10-cost Teach is your strongest play, preventing one of the opponent’s Characters from attacking on the upcoming turn and acting as a defensive wall to protect you from one of the opponent’s attacks.
Blue Kuzan
Blue Kuzan’s effect activates when one of your Navy cards trashes cards from your hand, letting you draw an equal number of cards to those trashed. This can filter your hand for better cards, but also enables you to activate powerful Navy effects without losing resources.
6-cost Kuzan trashes a card from your hand to prevent one of the opponent’s Characters from attacking on the upcoming turn, slowing down your opponent’s pace and making it harder for them to keep up with your plays. As for the 7-cost Sakazuki, he’s a value Character, drawing you two cards on the turn he’s played. He can also trash a card from your hand to attach a rested Don to your Leader or one of your Characters.
We have 2 late-game win conditions in this list: Monkey D. Garp and Aramaki. Garp trashes a card from your hand to cheat out a Navy-type character with 8,000 Power or less from your hand. So you get to develop Characters like Aramaki or Sakazuki alongside Garp, going wider on the field to overwhelm the opposing player.
Aramaki is a Blocker that can become a high-power attacker, gaining +3,000 Power when you activate his effect. You also get to place a 2-cost or less Character at the bottom of the owner’s deck, which can be useful if there’s a blocker preventing you from connecting with their Leader.
Closing Words
OP12 proved to be a versatile meta! We have decks like Blue Purple Luffy, Green Roronoa Zoro, and Red Silvers Rayleigh on top of the meta, but we still see various decks performing in major tournaments, capable of beating the top performers and rivaling them for the top spot. Bonney has been an amazing choice in the meta against Zoro and Silvers Rayleigh, but that doesn’t mean she’s unbeatable, especially with Teach lurking around.
