The new Starter 14 deck is out for the west! This deck has a new Leader Black Monkey D. Luffy who revolves around having high-cost Characters on the field to activate his effect and gain a Power boost. Black gives you control cards to keep the opponent’s side of the field in check helping you take things to the late game.
Decklist
1xST14-001
4xEB01-046
4xEB01-049
3xOP02-096
4xOP02-106
3xOP02-114
2xOP03-078
4xOP03-089
3xOP04-083
4xOP05-091
4xOP06-086
2xOP07-118
2xST06-006
3xST14-003
2xST14-007
3xOP02-117
3xST14-017How to Play
Leader
If you attach 1 Don to Leader Luffy. he’ll give +1 cost to all your Characters. This makes it easier for you to get one of your Characters to 8 cost, allowing you to active Leader Luffy’s +1,000 Power boost. This +1,000 Power sticks on your Leader for as long as that 8-cost Character is on the field and you have a Don attacked. This means that during your defensive turn, Leader Luffy will be at 6,000 Power, making it harder for the opposing player to damage him.
Thousand Sunny aids Leader Monkey D. Luffy’s cost boost, so with both these cards, you’re now giving your Characters +2-cost boost. A 6-cost Character will be enough to get access to that +1,000 Power boost.
Early plays that draw you cards. Brannew looks for a {Navy} type Character to draw, whereas Kuza will draw the top card in the deck.
If Kuzan gets to attack, he can give a -4-cost reduction, making it easier for you to KO a Character with Brook.
This list has three cards that can remove the opponent’s Characters. Brook is the cheapest to play, a 3-cost Character that can reduce the cost of one of the opponent’s Characters by 1 and then KO’s a 0-cost Character. Brook’s job isn’t over just yet, if he sticks on the field, he remains a removal option when goes for the attack, activating both, the cost-reduction and KO effects. Usually, opponents will go out of their way to remove Brook as early as possible to shut him down from attacking.
5-cost Sanji can KOa 5-cost or less Character, which means we won’t need to hugely rely on a cost reduction card unless we’re trying to remove a high-cost target. However, Sanji requires you to have a Character with a 6-cost or more on the field for his effect to activate. This is extremely easy to achieve since your Leader or Thousand Sunny give your Characters +1-cost and since Sanji is a 5-cost, you’ll only need one of them to push Sanji to 6-cost, allowing him to activate his own effect.
Lastly, Sabo is a game shifter, letting you KO two of the opponent’s Characters in one turn. This shuts down the opponent’s plans for the upcoming turn and shifts the field presence in your favor.
We have a couple of cost-reducers that we’ll rely on to get the most out of our control tools. Tsuru is a +2,000 Counter cards that can be played for their cost-reduction.
As for Ice Age, it’s our strongest cost-reducer, 1 Don for a -5 cost-reduction makes it exceptionally easy for us to combo it with our KO cards like Sanji or 8-cost Sabo.
Finally, Nico Robin can reduce the cost of one of the opponent’s Characters by 5. This is an On Play and When Attacking effect, so she remains a valuable cost reducer throughout the game. You need to have an 8-cost Character to activate her effect, so if you give 1 Don to Leader and have a Thousand Sunny in play, you can push Nico Robin to 8-cost.
Blockers are valuable to shut down opponents’ attacks, protecting our Leader or important Characters. However, each of our blockers offers more than just taking a hit from an attack.
Rebecca is a value character, letting you bring a card back from the trash and either keep it in your hand or play it on the field if it’s a 3-cost or less. So usually, you want to bring Brook back on the field to KO a target. You can bring back a higher-cost card from the Trash and play another card from your hand. You don’t HAVE to play the card you drew from the Trash.
Borsalino is a resilient blocker that can’t get KO’d by effects. He gains 1,000 Power during defensive turns, so he can be more difficult for the opponent to remove.
Blocker Sabo can filter your hand through the draw two and trash two effect. He also gives KO immunity to your whole field, which can shut down some decks from controlling the field.
We usually want to play Issho as early as possible, especially if the opponent has 6 cards in hand. His On Play effect lets you trash 2 cards from the opponent’s hand, cutting down on their resources. If you attach 1 Don to Issho, he’ll give -3-cost to all of the opponent’s Characters, making it easier for you to KO them.
Gecko Moria is a value play, letting you play two cards from the trash. You can bring back Rebecca from the trash which will play out a Brook for free to create a removal play. If there’s nothing too problematic to remove, you can play Gecko Moria along with Kuzan and Brannew for the draw value.
Mulligan
- Thousand Sunny is the number 1 card we want early in the game.
- Kuzan and Nico Robin.
- For slow matchups, Issho is great to have.
Other Cards to Include
- 5-cost Monkey.D.Luffy can trash a 2-cost Character on the field when it goes for the attack. So we need to wait a full turn until we get to activate Monkey.D.Luffy’s effect, but on the bright side, the wording saying Trash instead of KO means we can bypass KO immunity like 4-cost Borsalino or 5-cost Sabo. This will be useful against other Black decks or again Black Yellow Luffy.
- 8-cost Monkey.D.Luffy is a 10,000 Power Character that can gain Rush. You will need a 10-cost Character to gain Rush, so if you play him on Don 9/10 and activate Leader effect + Thousand Sunny, he’ll become a 10-cost Character.
- Usopp can KO a 4-cost or less Character but it can be tough to activate his effect. His effect activates When Attacking, so you need to wait a turn to get value from him. You’ll also need to attach a Don to him and have an 8-cost Character on the field.
- Gum-Gum Diable Three-Swords Style Mouten Jet Six Hundred Pound Phoenix Cannon is worth playing in the late-game when you have an 8-cost on the field. You can give your Leader or a Character +3,000 Power, setting up a heavy attack. At the same time, you can KO one of the opponent’s Characters with a cost of 2 or less.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): Thousand Sunny.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): Brannew
- Turn 3 (5 Don): Kuzan or Brook + cost-reduction.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Nico Robin or Sanji.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Issho or 8-cost Sabo.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Issho or 8-cost Sabo.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): Brannew or Thousand Sunny.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): Kuzan or Borsalino
- Turn 3 (6 Don): Sanji.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Issho or Nico Robin if there’s nothing serious to remove or Nico Robin. Sanji or Brook if you need to KO something.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Issho or 8-cost Sabo.