Heya everyone! In this article, we’re covering none other than the Blue Yellow Koala from the OP12 expansion! This Leader is all about gaining a resource edge over the opposing player through extra card draw and trashing the opponent’s resources.
8-cost or more Characters play a critical role in how this deck operates, so the list is built around that in mind, making sure we get the most out of our Leader’s effect as early as possible. In this guide, I’ll explain Koala‘s general game plan and how she synergizes with the Characters in this list, and I’ll include other strong options you can add to the list depending on the meta and your preference.
Leader
Black Yellow Koala is a 4-Life Leader with two powerful effects—one that activates during your turn, and another during your opponent’s.
Let’s start with Koala’s first effect. During your turn, if you control two characters with a cost of 8 or more, Koala lets you draw a card when she attacks the opponent’s Leader. This effect only triggers when attacking the opponent’s Leader, not characters. While having two 8-cost characters might sound difficult, this deck includes several cards, such as Hack, Karasu, and Nico Robin, that can increase their own cost to meet the requirement. This makes it much easier to enable Koala’s draw effect on earlier turns consistently.
Her second effect activates during your opponent’s turn. Whenever they play a character with an original cost of 8 or more, or cheat a character into play through an effect, they must take the top card of their Life and add it to their hand. This makes your opponent reluctant to make certain plays, as they lose a Life card and put themselves in a more vulnerable position to lose the game to your attackers.
Black Yellow Koala
How to Play
Black Yellow Koala is a value Leader, relying on you to develop two 8-cost or more Characters to start drawing a card when Koala attacks the opponent’s Leader. This means we’ll prioritize attacking their Leader for the card unless we have to KO a Character in play.
You’re also punishing the opposing player when they play an 8-cost or more Character or cheat out a Character, dropping them lower on Life cards and making it harder for them to make certain plays.
We’re relying on Monkey D.Dragon to go wider on the field, the second Character we cheat out should be a defensive Character like Kuma or Nico Robin, helping us protect our Leader and push for the late game. We’ll mainly focus on attacking our opponent’s rested Characters to control the field, but if our opponent falls low on Life cards, we can shift for an aggressive strategy and rely on blockers to protect our Leader.
Since we’re punishing them for playing a high-cost Character, they will eventually fall low on Life cards and allow us to plan the winning turn without having to focus our attacks on their Leader in the mid-game.
Searcher Cards
1-cost Koala and 1-cost Captains Assemble can look at the top 3 cards of our deck and add 1 Revolutionary Army type card to our hand. The majority of the cards in our list are Revolutionary Army. We can search for a mid-game or late-game Character, a Counter Event, or a +2,000 Counter Character. 1-cost Koala can also search for Nico Robin, so she’s a better searcher in this case if we need the Blocker Character.
Both the 1-cost searchers will trash the other two cards, which will play into our strategy when we’re going for the 8-cost Monkey D.Dragon play.
Mid-game Blockers
3-cost Karasu acts as a low-cost blocker, capable of protecting our Leader or a key Character from one of the opponent’s attacks. He earns a spot on this list for several reasons, starting with the fact that he’s a Revolutionary Army type Character. We can also cheat out Karasu on the field through his trigger effect, which can come in handy later in the game when we need to block one of the opponent’s attacks to push the game an extra turn.
Additionally, since we’re running the 5-cost Nami in this list, having multiple Trigger cards in the deck adds to the consistency of activating her KO effect.
As for 4-cost Hack, he can increase his cost by 4, becoming an 8-cost Blocker that enables our Leader’s effect and can be tough for certain decks to remove through an effect. When KO’d, Hack’s effect triggers, allowing you to KO a 4-cost Character, which will help control the field and even prevent one of the opponent’s Characters from getting an attack through. Since Hack is a blocker, we can choose the right time to sacrifice him and activate his KO effect.
Resource Burn
5-cost Karasu is our best play when we hit Don 5, becoming an 8-cost Character when he hits the field. He’s a 6,000 Power Character that forces your opponent to trash a card from their hand when he goes for the attack. However, for this effect to activate, your opponent has to have 5 or more cards in their hand, which, in most cases, they will be in range for Karasu‘s effect when he attacks on turn 4. He’s enabling our Leader’s draw effect while also forcing the opposing player to trash a card, further increasing the resource gap between you and the opponent.
6-cost Nico Robin is another blocker to protect us from an opponent’s attack. She’s a 7,000 Power Character, so we can use her as a blocker and keep her in play to continue defending us throughout the game. Nico Robin gains 3 cost when she hits the field, becoming a 9-cost Character to enable our Leader’s effect. If your opponent is holding on 5 cards or more, Nico Robin‘s On Play effect lets you trash 1 card from your hand to force the opponent to trash 2 cards from their hand, putting them behind on resources.
5-cost Nami acts as a control card, allowing you to trash a card with a Trigger effect, like 3-cost Karasu or Captains Assemble, from your hand to KO a 5-cost or less Character. This helps shift the field presence in your favor. On top of that, if you have 3 or less cards in hand, Nami draws you a card, meaning you’re not losing resources. For example, if you have 5 cards in hand, playing Nami and trashing one drops you to 3, activating her draw effect.
Nami‘s Trigger effect can also be a game changer, letting you activate her On Play effect to KO a 5-cost or less Character, shutting down a potential attacker, or removing a key blocker.
Life Card Gain
6-cost Bartholomew Kuma‘s On Play effect lets you trash a card from your hand to add the top card of your deck to the top of your Life cards. This adds more protection to your Leader, forcing your opponent to commit an additional attack to win the game. Kuma will also increase his cost by 2 for the turn, becoming an 8-cost Character to activate your Leader’s draw effect.
Kuma is going for 7,000 Power attacks, but your opponents will usually avoid KOing to avoid activating his KO effect. During your opponent’s turn, if Kuma gets KO’d, you get to add another card from the top of your deck to the top of your Life cards.
Bartholomew Kuma acts as an attacker, a Leader Koala enabler, and gives you Life cards, adding more survivability to prolong the game.
Going Wide
8-cost Monkey D.Dragon is our strongest play to go wider on the field and enable our Leader Koala‘s draw effect. When played, you may place 3 {Revolutionary Army} type cards from your trash at the bottom of your deck in any order to cheat out a Character with a cost of 6 or less from your trash.
You can cheat out the likes of 6-cost Nico Robin for the Blocker keyword and the trash effect, or Bartholomew Kuma for the Life card game. You’re developing 2 Characters in one turn with a cost of 8 or more, activating your Leader’s effect, and putting a defensive Character on the field to help prolong the game. Cheating out Nami is another option if you need her KO effect to remove one of the opponent’s attackers.
With Monkey D.Dragon, we want to have a lot of cards in our trash, enough to place 3 {Revolutionary Army} type cards at the bottom of the deck and to cheat out the Character we need. Cards like 1-cost Koala, 1-cost Captains Assemble, 6-cost Nico Robin, and Bartholomew Kuma put more cards in our trash to enable Monkey D.Dragon.
Control Stussy
Stussy is a meta choice to answer high-cost win conditions. When played, you may trash 1 Character on the field to KO one of the opponent’s Characters, regardless of its cost or power. You’re usually choosing to trash a low-cost Character like 1-cost Koala to activate Stussy‘s KO effect.
She’s a great play to remove a win condition in play and shut down the opponent’s strategy. She’ll also remain on the field as a 9,000 Power attacker, capable of going for heavy attacks to threaten the opponent’s Life cards or KO a rested Character.
Counter Events
Waxing Fist is a searchable Counter event, giving your Leader or a Character a +2,000 Power boost and another +2,000 if you have an 8-cost or more Character. So, Waxing Fist can become a +4,000 Power boost to protect you from a heavy attack.
+2,000 Counters
We aren’t really looking to play our +2,000 Counter Characters, but there are times when we might need them. Morley can act as an 8-cost Character to activate our Leader’s effect. Baby 5‘s Trigger effect draws you two cards and synergizes with your 5-cost Nami to KO a 5-cost or less Character.
General Tips
- Make sure you’ve played your 8-cost Characters before attacking with your Leader to get the draw effect.
- Nico Robin and Bartholomew Kuma‘s trash effect means we can choose the Character we want in the trash to later cheat out with Monkey D.Dragon.
Mulligan Tips
Going First: 1-cost searcher, 3-cost Karasu, 5-cost Karasu, 8-cost Dragon.
Going Second: 1-cost searcher, 4-cost Hack, 6-cost Nico Robin or Kuma.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): 1-cost searcher.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): 3-cost Karasu.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): 5-cost Karasu.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Nico Robin or Kuma.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Monkey D.Dragon.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Monkey D.Dragon or Stussy.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): 1-cost searcher.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): 4-cost Hack.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): Nico Robin or Kuma.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Monkey D.Dragon.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Monkey D.Dragon or Stussy.
Other Cards to Include
- Charlotte Linlin is a strong play in the mid-game, forcing the opposing player to make a tough choice between trashing 2 cards from their hand or trashing their top Life card.
- Black Vortex is a meta choice, negating the effect of the opponent’s Leader or one of their Characters and reducing their Power by 4,000. This is usually an answer for the Green Roronoa Zoro, shutting down their ability to attack a second time after they’ve attacked one of your Characters.
Closing Words
Black Yellow Koala is an interesting Leader with a unique playstyle. You’re not trying to rush the opponent down; instead, you’re trying to gain as much value as possible and play the game slowly. Against decks that rely on 8 or more Characters as their win condition, they’re self-damaging their Leader and doing the heavy work for you, eventually falling low on Life cards to allow you to set up the winning turn.
