Red Yellow Sabo is an off-meta Starter 13 Leader that is usually played in aggressive types of decks. ST13 Sabo is one of the three brothers Portgas D. Ace and Monkey D. Luffy who can use the kid brothers as part of their strategy, gaining Power and cheating out Characters.
Sabo can be a fun choice to bring to locals and catch opponents off guard. His aggressive playstyle can be tough for most players to anticipate and will put them in a tough spot if they can’t keep up its aggression from Rush attackers.
With Leader Sabo, you’re putting most of your resources into playing aggressively, which can leave your leader vulnerable to attacks. However, since you can gain a Life card with Leader effect, it can be used defensively to protect your Leader or even a rested Character.
Leader
Red Yellow Sabo is a 4 Life card Leader with an effect that allows you to remove one of your Characters from the field and place it at the top of your Life Area. However, there are certain conditions to be met for you to remove that Character, and it brings multiple benefits to your strategy other than just gaining a Life card.
You need to attach a Don to Leader Sabo to activate his effect. Additionally, the Character you’re removing from the field has to have 7,000 Power or more. So we might have to attach Don to a certain Character if we’re planning to remove it. Then, you can choose one of your Characters in play to give +2,000 Power until the start of your next turn. This not only increases its aggressiveness but can also make it harder for your opponent to KO it.
When it comes to removing a Character from the field to our Life Area, we’re doing two main things: making it harder for the opponent to win the game and removing one of our Characters from the threat of getting knocked out. However, a third advantage is that we can cheat out Adult brothers through our 2-cost kid brother, replaying them on the field to activate their effects or attacking with them on the spot with the Rush keyword.
Red Yellow Sabo Decklist
How to Play
Early Plays
Monkey D. Garp and The Three Brothers’ Bond are great early searchers to help you find Portgas D. Ace or Monkey D. Luffy that you’re missing for the upcoming turns. This ensures you find the right pieces you need for your strategy and can go for combo plays.
3-cost Sanji is a great aggressor in the early game, gaining +3,000 Power during your turn. However, Sanji will drop to 3,000 Power during your opponent’s turn, making it extremely vulnerable to your opponent’s attacks. This is why we’ll usually attach 1 Don to Sanji, turn it into a 7,000 Power attack, and remove it from play through Leader effect after we’ve attacked.
3-cost Roronoa Zoro is one of our best Rush attackers, offering a 5,000 Power attack on the turn he’s played. He’s perfect in this deck because of his low Don cost and the Rush keyword, allowing us to boost his Power with our Leader’s effect to 7,000 and unleash a heavy attack to force multiple Counter cards from the opposing player.
Kid Brothers
This list only runs 2-costs Protagas D. Ace and Monkey D. Luffy, cutting out the kid Sabo. The main reason to cut him out is that we’re mainly focusing on aggressive gameplay, which 5-cost Luffy and Ace offer.
The plan is to activate Leader effect to move either 5-cost Luffy or Ace from the field and onto the top of our Life Area. We’ll then play one of our kid brothers (depending on which Adult brother is in the Life Area) and activate their effect to cheat out the Adult brother on the field and give our Leader +2,000 Power.
The extra Power we gain on our Leader packs a punch when attacking and it sticks during the defensive turn, making it easier for us to Counter certain attacks.
Adult Brothers
We have three 5-cost Brothers that synergize with our game plan, all of which have the Rush keyword, which means we get to attack with them immediately.
We have two 5-cost Monkey D. Luffy, each serving a different purpose, depending on the stage of the game and one 5-cost Portgas D.Ace.
The ST21 Monkey D. Luffy is a 6,000 Power Rush attacker that when attacking gives up to 1 rested DON!! card to your Leader or 1 of your Characters. He’s a great choice in the early/mid-game, making it easier for us to Activate our Leader effect through the rested Don he gives and empower our attacks to force more Counter plays. We can keep on activating this effect every time ST21 Luffy attacks, giving us more value and pressure during our attack turns.
As for the ST01 Monkey D. Luffy, he’s best played as a finisher play when opponent is down to 0 Life cards. Attaching 2 Don to ST01 Luffy and going for the attack prevents opponents from activating their Blockers, making him the perfect choice to win the game if a blocker is standing in your way from winning the game.
Lastly, 5-cost Portgas D.Ace is your highest Power Rush attack, having 7,000 Power. However, to gain Rush on Ace, you need to have 2 or less Life cards. This means we usually rely on ST21 Monkey D. Luffy early on before shifting to the Ace win condition.
Trigger Characters
Satori and Bartholomew Kuma are Characters with +2,000 Counter which we often won’t play from hand. However, if we get the chance to activate their Trigger effects, we’ll go for it to develop them on the field, creating an extra attacker for the opponents to worry about.
Events
Blaze Slice can be played offensively or defensively, depending on what we find best. During our turn, we can use Blaze Slice to rest one of the opponent’s 4-cost or less Blockers and give +1,000 Power to one of our attackers, making it easier for us to attack the opponent’s Leader. Defensively, we can rest one of the opponent’s attackers and gain +1,000 Power to help us counter an attack.
Other +2,000 Characters
When you attack 2 Don to 3-cost Monkey D.Luffy, he’ll gain +2,000 Power during your turn, turning him into a 7,000 Power attack which you can choose to place in your Life Area after he attacks.
Koala can lower the Power one of your opponent’s Characters by 3,000, making it easier for you to attack and KO it if needed.
Mulligan
We want to have a strong early to mid-game, so 3-cost Characters like Sanji or Roronoa Zoro are great. ST21 Monkey D.Luffy is the best option to play on Don 5, making sure we activate our Leader effect if possible.
Other Cards to Include
- Kikunojo is a great addition to this list, synergizing with your Leader effect and you’ll often want to put her in the Life Area. She’s a 6,000 Power Character with a Trigger effect that lets you play her on the field, so you can continuously have her in the Life Area to force extra attacks from the opponents without sacrificing on field presence.
- 4-cost Roronoa Zoro is another Rush attacker, but his true power is his ability to play a Character with 6.000 Power or less from your hand when he’d KO’d. This ensure you get to keep a threat in play even when your opponent KO’s Roronoa Zoro.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): Monkey D Grapp or The Three Brothers’ Bond.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): 3-cost Sanji or 3-cost Roronoa Zoro.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): 5-cost ST21 Monkey D. Luffy.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): 5-cost ST21 Monkey D. Luffy or 5-cost Portgas D.Ace then place them back in your Life Area. OR 3-cost Roronoa Zoro and place the 5-cost Luffy from the last turn in your Life Area and cheat it out with 2-cost Luffy for an extra attack.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): 5-cost Portgas D.Ace and go for one of your 2-cost Kid Brothers.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Continue going for Kid Brothers plays or placing a rested Character in your Life Area so opponent doesn’t KO it. Go for ST01 Monkey D. Luffy when you have a winning line and opponent has a blocker preventing you from attacking the Leader.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): Monkey D Grapp or The Three Brothers’ Bond. You can play one of the Kid Brothers and leave it on the field if you know your opponent can’t interact with it.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): 3-cost Sanji or 3-cost Roronoa Zoro.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): 5-cost ST21 Monkey D. Luffy and activate Leader effect.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): 5-cost ST21 Monkey D. Luffy or 5-cost Portgas D.Ace then place them back in your Life Area. OR 3-cost Roronoa Zoro and place the 5-cost Luffy from the last turn in your Life Area and cheat it out with 2-cost Luffy for an extra attack.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Continue going for Kid Brothers plays or placing a rested Character in your Life Area so opponent doesn’t KO it. Go for ST01 Monkey D. Luffy when you have a winning line and opponent has a blocker preventing you from attacking the Leader.
