Purple Black Monkey D. Luffy is a new Ramp Leader in OP09 meta, and so far, this Leader has been crushing it, winning a Flagship and multiple community tournaments, and is looking to have a future in the Japan meta.
This deck combines Purple’s Ramp tools with Black’s value tools to create a powerful combination of mechanics, trying to build up a strong late-game and start dominating the game from there.
Decklist
1xOP09-061
4xOP09-069
3xOP09-071
4xOP08-074
3xST18-001
4xOP09-076
4xOP09-072
4xOP09-068
3xST14-003
4xOP07-064
3xOP09-065
4xOP06-086
2xOP09-119
2xOP05-119
4xOP09-078
2xOP09-077How to Play
The Purple Black Monkey D. Luffy deck has multiple Deramp cards with powerful effects. These Deramp characters will put you low on Don, struggling to keep up with opponents on future turns. However, Leader’s effect will ramp you by 2 Don if he sees 2 or more deramped.
So we’re not activating those cards’ effects while maintaining our Don, working slowly to hit the late game and start throwing our high-cost carry characters. Gecko Moria develops multiple Characters, going wider on the field. As for Kaido & Linlin, it acts as a carry card, shifting the game in your favor it manages to attack.
Leader
Attaching a Don to Monkey D. Luffy will give all your Characters a +1 cost, making them harder to KO for specific decks and allowing you to include specific cards in the list that require them to see high-cost characters.
Whenever Money D.Luffy sees that you returned two or more Don, he’ll activate his effect, giving you back two Dons, one active and the other rested.
Trafalgar Law can draw cost 2 or higher {Straw Hat Crew} or {Heart Pirates} type card. So if we can draw a 3-cost Roronoa Zoro to ramp up. If we have our mid-game plays, we can favor defensive cards with a +2,000 Counter effect or Gum Gum Lightning.
This list has multiple blockers to protect your Leader and preserve Life cards. By shutting down attacks, you’re giving yourself more time to play high-cost characters and slowly take over the game.
Nico Robin is a low-cost Blocker who remains annoying on the field. Franky is another blocker, with a draw value effect, trashing 1 card and drawing two cards. You’ll return 2 Don when activating this effect, which in return will activate your Leader effect to gain back those Don.
As for Tony Tony Chopper, he’s a 6,000 Power blocker, capable of shutting down an attack more easily. What makes Tony Tony Chopper unique is his “End of Your Turn” effect, allowing you to use Tony Tony Chopper as an attacker and then restanding him to act as a blocker by returning Don.
With the Leader effect giving all your characters +1 cost, you can play 5-cost Sanji on Don 6 after you’ve attached a Don to your Leader to use his On Play effect. 5-cost Sanjo can KO a 5-cost or less character, removing an attacker from the field, and helping you maintain control of the field.
As for the 7-cost Sanji, he maintains control of the field through other means. Through his effect, you can return 1 or more Don (We’ll be returning 2 Don) to gain Rush on Sanji and rest a 6-cost or less character. We’re creating an opportunity for Sanji to attack that rested character and KO it or at least force Counter cards from the opposing player.
Gecko Moria is the strongest play on Don 8, letting you play two characters from the trash. We can go for a 4-cost Franky, offering a draw effect and a blocker. Our second character can be a searcher, providing draw value, or Nico Robin, who’ll join the field rested, but if she sticks on the field, she’ll be a blocker for the upcoming turn.
9-cost Luffy returns Don to draw you 1 card and gain Rush, posing a threat on the turn he’s played. You can either attack a rested character or go for the aggressive plan and attack their Leader.
10-cost Monkey D. Luffy is a powerful play but comes with a massive drawback. Typically, you’ll want to set up your winning turn when you play him. Before playing Luffy, make sure to attack with all your Characters, as his On Play effect will remove them all from the field. Once they’ve attacked, you can play Luffy, return all 10 Don, and send all other Characters to the bottom of the deck.
When we’ve returned all our Don, our Leader will give us back Don, one of them being active, so we can use it to attach on Leader and go for a 6,000 Power attack before ending our turn.
When your turn ends, you’ll immediately start a new one. Since you ramped and used Luffy’s effect, you’ll have 2 Don, plus the 2 Don you gain at the start of your turn, giving you 4 Don. We now have two attacks with Leader Luffy and 10-cost Luffy, presenting a threat to either put them low enough for future turns or win the game on the spot.
The 4 Don we have can be used to boost our Leader’s attack if we can win the game or to develop blockers like Franky to protect our Leader and buy more time for an additional turn.
Events
Gum Gum Giant is an insanely good Counter for the late-game, returning 2 Don to gain +4,000 Power on your Leader or one of your characters and drawing two cards.
Gum Gum Lightning is a control Event, KOing a 6,000 Power or less character. It requires you to return 2 Don to activate it, but that’ll trigger our Leader Luffy’s effect, gaining back the 2 Don.
Other Cards to Include
- 4-cost Zorojuro is a great addition to the deck for the draw effect and can be played from the trash through 8-cost Gecko Moria. However, Franky is a way better play than Zorojuro.
- 9-cost Kaido synergizes with your Leader’s ramp effect. Returning 5 Don can be costly, so with Leader giving you back two of those returned Don, we’re putting a lot of aggression with Kaido and still capable of setting up powerful plays on the upcoming turn.
- Kaido & Linlin is an investment, you play it on Don 10 and wait a full turn to activate a strong effect when it attacks. When Kaido & Linlin attacks, you’ll return 10 Don and KO all other characters. You’ll also gain a life card and trash an opponent’s life card, creating an insane shift of value.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): 1-cost Trafalgar Law
- Turn 2 (3 Don): 3-cost Roronoa Zoro
- Turn 3 (5 Don): 5-cost Tony Tony Chopper or 5-cost Sanji + 1 Don on Leader if you ramped the turn before.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): 7-cost Sanji or Gecko Moria if you ramped.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Gecko Moria + Gum Gum Lightning (If you ramped) or 9-cost Luffy.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Gecko Moria + Gum Gum Lightning or 9-cost Luffy. 10-cost Luffy if it’s worth playing, but usually turn 6 is a better turn to play him.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): 1-cost Trafalgar Law or Rico Robin
- Turn 2 (4 Don): 3-cost Roronoa Zoro or 4-cost Franky
- Turn 3 (6 Don): 5-cost Sanji + 1 Don on Leader or 7-cost Sanji if you ramped.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Gecko Moria or 9-cost Luffy if you ramped.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Gecko Moria + Gum Gum Lightning or 9-cost Luffy. 10-cost Luffy if it’s worth playing, but usually turn 6 is a better turn to play him.