The ban of 8-cost Gecko Moria has made things awkward for many Black decks, but one deck that was hit especially hard is Black Yellow Monkey D. Luffy. Gecko Moria was the deck’s strongest card, enabling powerful late-game combos by flooding the field and setting up multiple attacks.
With Moria gone, most players have dropped the Leader entirely. However, a few dedicated fans are still bringing Black Yellow Luffy to locals—and even finding success with him! Without access to cheating out 2-cost Kids from the trash, the deck now relies more heavily on hand resources to generate value.
In this article, I’ll share a Black Yellow Luffy list that performed well at a recent OP11 local tournament and explore how you can still make this Leader work in the current meta. If you’re a fan of Black Yellow Luffy, this one’s for you!
Leader
Leader Monkey.D.Luffy doesn’t offer much in the early game. You’ll want to take as much damage as possible early into the game until you drop to 0 life cards. From there, you can attach two Don to Leader, bring back two adult brothers (Sabo, Luffy, or Ace), and put them in your life Area.
Taking damage on Leader while there’s a face-card in your Life area means it won’t go to trash, due to Luffy changing the rules. Instead, it’ll go to the bottom of the deck, which hurts our plans.
When activating Luffy‘s effect, we have to trash one card from our hand. The card we choose depends on the situation of the game. Usually, we’ll trash 5-cost Adult brothers we want to bring back through the Leader effect. Ace is perfect to Trash since we can’t use him as a counter card. Once we place those 2 Adults in our Life Area, we can cheat them out through their kid versions.
BY Luffy Decklist
How to Play BY Luffy
The Black Yellow Luffy deck is combo-oriented, aiming to drop to 0 Life cards to activate the Leader effect and start cheating out the 5-cost Adult brothers. Each Adult brings a unique strength: Rush Ace applies immediate pressure, Luffy helps you reach 0 Life faster while setting up powerful attacks, and Sabo provides reliable defense as a blocker.
The Kid brothers offer power boosts that strengthen your Leader’s attacks, making it harder for your opponent to defend. The Power boost sticks during your opponent’s turn, so they add a layer of protection. Because the combo plays are so important to your strategy, we include searchers to improve consistency and help you find the right pieces when you need them.
Searchers
Monkey D.Garp and The Three Brothers’ Bond can look at the top 5 cards of your deck to add a Sabo, Luffy, or Ace to your hand. So you can add one of your 2-cost or 5-cost Characters to your hand, depending on what you’re missing to execute your strategy. The searcher cards add consistency to your game plan, allowing you to make your combo plays.
Kid Brothers
The Kid brothers are a key part of your combo strategy, but timing their use is crucial. Ideally, you want to hold them until you have an Adult brother on top of your Life Area. While you can play them early, doing so risks them being removed by your opponent, which can set you back. That’s why it’s important to understand your opponent’s removal options in the matchup.
The goal is to pair each Kid with their corresponding Adult. Make sure to activate the correct Kid when their matching Adult is at the top of your Life Area. For example, if 5-cost Luffy is on top of your Life Area and 5-cost Sabo is underneath, you should activate 2-cost Luffy first to play the 5-cost Luffy. Then, activate 2-cost Sabo to play the 5-cost Sabo afterward. The 2-cost Kids not only cheat out their adult versions, but also give your Leader a +2,000 Power boost until the end of your opponent’s upcoming turn. So, you’re going for a heavier attack while also making it harder for the opposing player to get attacks through.
To set up Adults in your Life Area, you can rely on your Leader effect once you’re at 0 Life, or use cards like Makino and Kouzuki Hiyori, which we’ll cover later in the guide.
Adult Brothers
5-cost Monkey.D.Luffy is one of the best cards to play as early as possible. He’s a self-damage Leader who you’ll want to activate whenever possible. Even if you can’t attack with Luffy, activating his effect puts us one step closer to dropping to 0 Life Cards. Luffy gains +2,000 Power until the start of your next turn, dishing out stronger attacks while being a more pesky Character to remove. Although you’re trashing a card through Luffy, you’re still getting a draw, adding a card to your hand, and not falling behind on resources.
Be careful not to put your Leader at risk of losing the game. Only drop to 0 Life Cards when you can activate your Leader’s effect and boost up your Leader’s Power.
5-cost Portgas.D.Ace is an aggressive attacker with his Rush, joining the board and immediately creating an opportunity to attack. You’ll need to be at 2 Life cards or less to gain Rush, which isn’t difficult for this deck to accomplish.
As for 5 Sabo, he’s a valuable blocker who is crucial to not losing the game from one high-power attack. Being at 0 Life Cards puts us at risk of losing the game from one heavy attack. Even with the Power boost from the kids, it can be a challenge to Counter an attack boosted with all Dons.
This is where 5-cost Sabo comes into play, having a blocker on the board means the opponent can’t attach all their Don on one attacker to win the game. 5-cost Sabo messes up that plan and forces the opposing player to split their Don into multiple attacks or change their play entirely. This makes it easier for you to Counter their attacks and stay in the game.
5-cost Sabo‘s On Play effect lets you filter your hand for better cards, drawing 2 cards and trashing 2 from your hand. He’ll also give all Characters in play KO immunity, which can ruin the opponent’s upcoming turn depending on the deck they play.
Control Characters
Another 5-cost Rocket Monkey.D.Luffy card that we can play through Kid Luffy! This one can control the board through his effect, KOing a 4-cost or less Character and going to the trash in the process. This might not seem worth it, but you’re gaining a card draw when activating the effect, so gaining value over the opponent. Rocket Monkey.D.Luffy can remove a problematic Character or a 4-cost or less Blocker, enabling you to attack the opponent’s Leader directly without being interrupted.
The 2-cost Zeus puts a Life card in your hand, putting you close to the 0 Life card mark and activating its effect to KO a 5-cost or less Character. This can be a huge play to put your opponent behind on the field or to remove a blocker.
Self-damage
Self-damage cards are important if the opponent avoids attacking our Leader, trying to delay our Leader’s effect. Charlotte Flampe is our best choice for 1-cost only. If we’re down to 1 Life card, Flampe can deal that 1 damage to Leader Luffy, give us a card draw, and start the combo plan. You can also play Charlotte Flampe early into the game, you’re getting closer to 0 Life cards while gaining a card draw to find the cards you need.
Other options are Kouziki Hiyori and Makino. Kouzuki Hiyori can add a card from your hand to the top of your Life cards. So we could add one of the Adults to the top Life cards and activate a Kid’s effect. This allows us to cheat out an adult Character in the early to mid-game before having to rely on the Leader effect.
Makino plays differently; she’s adding a Life card to our hand, but also allows us to reorder the rest of our Life cards. This means if we find a 5-cost Adult brother, we can move it to the top of our Life Area to cheat it out with one of the Kid brothers.
Extra Blocking
5-cost Sanji is another blocker to protect us from an attack, extremely valuable when your Leader is at 0 Life cards. Sanji‘s On Play effect adds more cards to your hand. If you have 2 or less Life cards, Sanji draws you 2 cards and trashes 1 card, giving you more resources in your hand.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): Searcher card like Monkey.D.Garp or The Three Brothers Bond. Charlotte Flampe, if you don’t have a searcher.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): Searcher card like Monkey.D.Garp or The Three Brothers Bond. Charlotte Flampe to drop lower on Life cards. You can play Makino to potentially cheat out an Adult Brother.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): 5c Monkey.D.Luffy to self-damage your Leader.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): If you’re at 1 Life card. Drop to 0 Life cards with Charlotte Flampe, activate the Leader effect, and play 2 Kids to cheat out 2 Adult brothers.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Continue trying to activate your Leader effect and building up your field. You want to have a Blocker to protect your Leader if at 0 Life cards.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Continue trying to activate your Leader effect and building up your field. You want to have a Blocker to protect your Leader if at 0 Life cards.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): Searcher card like Monkey.D.Garp or The Three Brothers Bond. Charlotte Flampe to drop lower on Life cards.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): Kouzuki Hiyori combo to cheat out a 5-cost Adult using one of your Kids. Alternatively, can play Makino to potentially cheat out an Adult Brother.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): Either of the 5-cost Monkey.D.Luffys. If you want to KO a Character, use the Rocket Luffy to control the board. Ace is an option since you’ll likely be at 2 Life cards or less.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Drop to 0 Life cards, and start your Kid + Leader effect combo.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Continue trying to activate your Leader effect and building up your field. You want to have a Blocker to protect your Leader if at 0 Life cards.
Other Cards to Include
- 5-cost Sabo adds a Life card in your hand to KO a 5-cost or less Character, shifting the field presence in your favor.
- Kuzan is a cost-reduction card, helping us KO high-cost threats with 5-cost Monkey.D.Luffy or Zeus. Don 4 can be awkward, so having Kuzan on the list makes for a great play, drawing you a card and keeping the threat of a -4-cost reduction active on the field.
- 10c Kuzan is for games that stretch out too long, KOing a 5-cost card on play and presenting a threat with his high power for the remainder of the game.
