The Starter 11 Green Uta Leader is a top pick in OPTCG, making it a favorite among new players while still holding its own in competitive play. With its versatile abilities and strong synergy with {FILM} type cards, it’s a great choice for those looking to build a powerful deck.
If you’re starting with the ST11 Green Uta deck and need some help, this guide is for you! Here’s an optimized list for the OP06 EB01 meta, designed to build a defensive board to protect your Leader, giving you time to create the winning play.
Gameplan
1xST11-001
4xEB01-014
2xEB01-017
4xOP01-051
3xOP02-028
4xOP02-034
4xOP02-036
4xOP02-040
4xOP02-041
3xOP02-043
1xOP06-118
4xST11-002
4xST12-003
2xST11-003
4xST11-004
3xST11-005
For a cost of 1 Don, Leader Uta can reveal the top card of our deck. If it’s a {FILM} type card, we can draw it. This draw effect is highly valuable, and with the Green Uta deck’s abundance of {FILM} type cards, the chances of drawing one are significantly high.
Developing More the One Character
The Green Uta deck excels at filling the board quickly with the help of characters like Dracule Mihawk, Brook, and Monkey.D.Luffy. These cards let you bring additional characters into play for free under certain conditions.
Dracule Mihawk is a great early-game card, letting you play a 4-cost or less <Slash> attribute character. You can combo this with 2-cost Trafalgar Law or 4-cost Brook.
If we go for the Dracule Mihawk + Trafalgar Law play, for 1 Don, we can put it back in our hand and play a 3-cost Character like Nami, Usopp, and Uta. So if we’re going second, we can play Dracule Mihawk on turn 2, play Trafalgar Law, and use our last Don to play another character in place of Trafalgar Law.
The ideal scenario is to go for Dracule Mihawk > Brook > 3-cost character, putting an insane amount of pressure on the opponent as early as turn 2.
All three of these cards are {FILM} type characters, so they’re part of our “go wide” game plan. 4-cost Brook and 7-cost Monkey.D.Luffy can play those characters for free. The ideal play is to play Monkey.D.Luffy > Brook > 3-cost {FILM} card, creating that wide board.
You’re now threatening multiple attacks that are difficult for opponents to keep up with. Nami is also drawing us a card every time she attacks, basically a value generation that your opponent can’t afford to leave her to do as she pleases.
Building a Fortress
The main strategy is to create a fortress that protects your Leader. This buys you a lot of time as the opponent tries going through your fortress. In the meantime, you’re able to build your board and shift your focus to attacking your opponent’s Leader rather than their weaker characters.
8-cost Eustass “Captain” Kid is central to this strategy. On Don 9, you attach 1 Don to Kid, rest him, and play a 3-cost or less character for free, ideally a blocker. This forces your opponent to deal with Kid if they want to attack anything else.
Blockers
Blockers are part of your Fortress game plan, standing beside Eustass”Captain”Kid and protecting him from high Power attacks. Your opponent will likely try a big attack to take Kid down, but your blockers will divert these attacks, shutting opponents for the turn and buying you time to strengthen your board and set up powerful strikes. Eustass”Captain”Kid can still pose a threat with his high-power attacks that could force resources from the opponent.
7-cost Monkey.D.Luffy is one annoying blocker with 7,000 Power which you want to keep alive for as long as possible. He’s able to block attacks and lower opponent’s overall offensive threats and if 3-cost Uta is on the board, you’re able to attack with Monkey.D.Luffy and then set up back as Active at the end of your turn to carry on with his blocking duties.
Aggression
I’m Invincible is our go-to for adding more aggression with Leader attacks. The plan is to pump Uta‘s Power with Don and start swinging at their Leader, forcing them to use Counter cards or lose Life Cards. Then, we can play I’m Invincible for another attack while those attached Dons on Leader Uta are still there. If we play 2 I’m Invincible in one turn, we can set up three 9k attacks with Uta, which is tough for opponents to handle.
Since we’re protected by Eustass “Captain” Kid, playing the 9-cost Roronoa Zoro is easy and sets up a win condition for the next turn with his three powerful attacks, likely clinching the game.
2k Counters
2-cost Tony Tony.Chopper and 4-cost Sanji are mainly there for their +2k counter. You don’t really want to play them on the board, but they’re searchable and can be drawn through Leader Uta‘s ability, Nami, and New Genesis.
Events
New Genesis is key for grabbing the right cards to make your deck click. Since it can draw us a {FILM} type card, we’re usually hunting for cards that fit well with what we have, letting us play multiple characters each turn.
Backlight, on the other hand, is one of our strongest Events for controlling the board and making big plays. If there’s a rested 5-cost character, Backlight can KO it. But most of the time, we use it to rest one of the opponent’s blockers, making sure we can hit their Leader without any blockers getting in the way.