The Starter 14 Black Luffy has had his ups and downs in the One Piece card game, and the bans on Gecko Moria and Ice Age definitely took their toll. However, the deck has received support cards that have given the archetype a boost in performance, providing it with the value cards it needed, along with late-game win conditions to pressure the opposing player.
In this guide, we’ll go through the general game plan of Black Monkey D.Luffy, how cards synergize with one another and with the Leader effect, and the best approaches to controlling the board and keeping it in check.
Leader
Black Luffy is a 5 Life card Leader that requires you to attach 1 Don to activate his effect. He’ll give +1 cost to all your Characters, which makes it easier for you to get one of your Characters to 8 cost, allowing you to activate his second effect to gain a +1,000 Power boost on your Leader.
The +1,000 Power sticks on your Leader for as long as that 8-cost Character is on the field and you have a Don attached. This means that during your opponent’s turn, Leader Luffy will be at 6,000 Power, making it harder for the opposing player to get an attack through. We’re gaining an offensive and defensive boost through Luffy’s effect, and making it harder for the opposing player to control our field if they heavily rely on the cost of our Characters to remove things.
Decklist
How to Play
Early Plays
Brannew is perfect for the early stages of the game, letting you look at the top 3 cards of your deck to add 1 {Navy} type card to your hand and send the other 2 cards to your trash. Cards going to your trash will play into our strategy, as we can later activate certain effects that rely on our trash. We can later use Brannew as an attacker, either to clean up a low-power Character or attach 2 Don to him to attach a 5,000 Power Leader.
I’m Gonna Be a Navy Officer!!! works the same, looking at the top 3 cards to add 1 {Navy} type card and trashing the rest.
The 4-cost Kuzan is the go-to play if you’re at Don 4/5, drawing you a card and remaining a threat that forces the opponent to answer as long as he’s in play. When Kuzan attacks, he gives one of the opponent’s Characters a -4 cost reduction, which comes in handy to KO them through cards like Brook and Sanji.
Mid-Game Control Cards
We have multiple methods to KO Characters in this deck. Brook and Koby are valuable since they synergize with Rebecca, letting you cheat them out of trash. Brook reduces the cost of an opponent’s Character by 1, and then KO’s a 0-cost Character. So you’ll need to combo Brook with one of your cost-reduction cards to get a KO on a threat on the field. The neat thing about Brook is that he remains a threat as long as he’s in play. Attacking with him activates his -1 cost-reduction effect and KO a 0-cost Character, making him a must-remove for the opposing player.
As for Koby, he forces you to trash a card from your hand to activate his KO effect, but he gets to KO a 3-cost or less Character, which makes it easier to remove bigger threats when combined with a cost reduction effect. Koby is also a Navy-type Character, so he’s searchable and can be played through SenGoku.
5-cost Sanji can KO a 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 gives your Characters +1-cost, and since Sanji is a 5-cost, you’ll need to be at 6 Don to activate his effect, attaching 1 Don to your Leader first and then going for Sanji to KO a Character.
Cost Reduction
We have a couple of cost-reducers that can put Characters in range for our removal plays.
Tsuru and Tashigi are Navy +2,000 Counter cards that can be played for their cost reduction. For 1 Don, Tsuru reduces a Character’s cost by 2, which can be just enough to put a Character in range for a removal effect. Tashigi also gives a -2-cost reduction, but you can continue activating her effect on future turns, which forces the opposing player to remove her.
Hina is probably our strongest cost reduction play, giving a -4 cost reduction to one of the opponent’s Characters through her On Play effect. She also remains on the field as an attacker, putting pressure on the opposing player. Hina doesn’t have a Counter, so we usually prefer playing her or having her in the trash. When she’s in the trash, cards like Rebecca or Sengoku can cheat her out for the cost reduction.
Blockers
Ripper is a low-cost Navy Blocker, perfect for tanking a hit for us, especially in the late-game, which can be enough to buy an additional turn and set up the finishing attack.
Rebecca is a value blocker, allowing you to add a black card with a cost of 3 to 7 from the trash to your hand. You can then choose a 3-cost or less Character in your hand to play, and in most cases, we’ll be deciding between Brook, Koby, or Hina, depending on the scenario. Brook and Koby, if we need to KO a Character, whereas Hina is great for the cost-reduction, letting you set up a removal play.
Nico Robin is a 7,000 Power Character who gains the Blocker keyword since we’re playing a Leader with the name Monkey D.Luffy. So we can use her to protect our Life cards or a key rested Character, or have her attack offensively to pressure the opposing player. If our opponent is holding onto 5 or more cards, we often want to go for the Nico Robin play to cut down on their resources, trashing one of our cards from hand to force them to trash 2 cards from theirs.
Sengoku is another value blocker, capable of cheating out 1 Navy-type Character with a cost of 4 or less from the trash. We get to play the likes of Kuzan, Hina, or Koby, each useful in their own way, depending on the state of the board.
When it comes to Sengoku and Rebecca, a lot of times, we can combo them with other cards. Rebecca is easier to combo since she only costs 4 Don, as you’re able to play a second card along with her to make use of the Character she cheats out. As for Sengoku, you can combo him with Tsuru or one of your 3-cost Characters.
Late Game Removal
The 8-cost Monkey.D.Garp is our strongest late-game play! By placing 3 Navy cards from the trash at the bottom of the deck, you can attach 1 rested Don to your Leader and then KO up to one of your opponent’s 7-cost or less Character. However, to activate Garp’s effect, you need to have a 9-cost or more Character, and luckily, the rested Don we’re attacking to Leader Luffy will trigger his effect to turn Garp into a 9-cost Character, self-activating his effect.
Since Gap costs 8 Don, we’re only able to use Tsuru for the cost reduction, letting us KO a Character with up to 9-cost.
Mulligan
- Going First: I’m Gonna Be a Navy Officer!!!, Brannew, Kuzan, Sanji.
- Going Second: Brannew, Kuzan, Sanji, Nico Robin.
Other Cards to Include
- Thousand Sunny aids Leader Monkey D. Luffy’s cost boost, so with both these cards, you’re now giving your Characters a +2-cost boost. A 6-cost Character will be enough to get access to that +1,000 Power boost.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 against Black Yellow Luffy.
- 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): I’m Gonna Be a Navy Officer!!!
- Turn 2 (3 Don): Brannew.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): Kuzan or Brook + cost-reduction.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): Nico Robin, Sanji, or Sengoku
- Turn 5 (9 Don): Monkey D. Garp or Sengoku. Or Rebecca + combo play.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): Monkey D. Garp or Sengoku. Or Rebecca + combo play.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): Brannew.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): Kuzan.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): Sanji.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): Monkey D. Garp or Sengoku. Or Rebecca + combo play.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): Monkey D. Garp or Sengoku. Or Rebecca + combo play.
Closing Words
The Starter 14 Black Luffy is a strong Leader, capable of going for heavier attacks and keeping the board in check. You can pick up the Starter deck and start testing around with it, and upgrade it from there if you’re trying to play it more competitively.
