The EB02 Anime 25th Collection expansion is coming to the West on May 9, bringing the Green Purple Monkey Luffy Leader to the game with plenty of new cards to boost the performance of older archetypes.
We’re going to use the East meta to gain an understanding of how EB02 went for them and which decks benefited from the new cards. However, we need to keep in mind that the East meta didn’t have the bans to Gecko Moria, Ice Age, Jinbe, and Kingdom Come, so things will look different for the West meta.
Green Purple Monkey D.Luffy
Before we kick things off, we’ll take a quick look at the Green Purple Luffy joining the game in EB02. This Leader deramps 2 Don to give you to Active Don, setting up an aggressive turn where you can go for stronger attacks or even develop an additional Character to overwhelm the opposing player. The Sanji & Pudding is a core card in this list, ramping you 1 Don when you return Don, so it mitigates your Leader’s drawback.
6-cost Luffy is the star of the show, enabling you to attack twice with him in one turn to pressure the opposing player and try finishing the game as quickly as possible.
This list is mainly EB02 cards, with a couple of OP05 inclusions and the popular Gum Gum Giant to protect your Leader in the late game.
Yellow
Yellow has three strong cards in the EB02 expansion. 5-cost Vegapunk and 10-cost Vegapunk become staple cards in their own decks. As for 5-cost Sabo, he’s not a must-include, but some decks like Yellow Enel include him for the Blocker keyword and card draw effect.
Yellow Vegapunk
Vegapunk fans have a new card to complement their strategy, using 5-cost Vegapunk as a blocker to protect their Leader or one of their Characters while also looking at the top 5 cards of your deck to find a {Scientist} like Atlas, Shaka, or Pythagoras to cheat out on the field.
The Vegapunk deck is all about flooding the field with Egghead Characters, overwhelming the opponent with attackers and bleeding them from Counter resources until you can line up the winning turn.
Yellow Enel
Yellow Enel took a rough hit with the ban of Kingdom Come, and it’s unlikely he’ll match the popularity of Yellow Eustass”Captain”Kid in OP10/EB02. However, the addition of 10-cost Enel gives the stall Yellow Enel a new win condition.
10-cost Enel requires your Leader to be {Sky Island} to gain the Rush keyword, putting the 11,000 Power to use on the turn he’s played. When attacking, 10-cost Enel trashes a card from your hand to give you a Life card and gain +1,000 Power, becoming a 12,000 Power attacker.
However, to gain a Life card from 10-cost Enel, you have to be at 1 Life card or less, which isn’t a tough feat for the Yellow Enel Leader, especially since your Leader effect will make it tough for the opposing player to set up a winning turn.
Purple
Sanji & Pudding is one of the strongest cards in the EB02 set and is a core part of the Green Purple Luffy deck, but none of the other Leaders add this card to their lists. We might see it in the future in other decks, especially since it has an extremely strong effect.
Red Purple Luffy
Although not a must, we have seen many Red Purple Luffy decks include Nico Robin and 6-cost Luffy into their lists. 6-cost Luffy has been the more popular choice in RP Luffy, offering an alternative win condition through his Rush attack and ability to restand and go for a second attack.
As for Nico Robin, she’s a blocker who protects your Leader or one of your rested Characters from an attack. When she’s KO’d, you can return a card to look at the top 3 cards of your deck and add 1 {Straw Hat Crew} type card to your hand.
Black
Sengoku sees play in Black Smoker and Black Gecko Moria, giving those decks a value play. Sengoku can cheat out a 4-cost {Navy} type Character from your trash, and although he’s not as strong as 8-cost Gecko Moria, he’s still giving those decks a method to find the card they need and develop two Characters in one turn.
Black Smoker
Black Gecko Moria
Blue
3-cost Vivi is a value card that synergizes with multicolored Leaders. Although Vivi doesn’t see play in EB02 meta, she becomes a popular inclusion in OP11 Blue Yellow Nami decks.
2-cost Rosinante gives Green Blue Donquixote Rosinante a better early game, allowing you to look at the top 5 cards of your deck and cheat out a 2-cost or less Character, rested on the field. The list has multiple 2-cost Characters to cheat out, and with your Leader Rosinante being a Blocker, you can potentially protect them from an opponent’s attack.
Green Blue Rosinante
Red
4-cost Sabo is a +2,000 Counter that can be played in Red Yellow Belo Betty. However, many lists didn’t include him in EB02 and OP11 meta, so you aren’t forced to have him in your list.
On the other hand, the 6-cost Yamato gives a boost to the Red Green Oden deck. Yamato gives your Leader a rested Don to activate his +1,000 Power effect. At the same time, Yamato can go for a Rush attack, enabling the RG Oden’s aggressive playstyle.
Red Green Oden
Red Yellow Belo Betty
Tony Tony Chopper can be included in Zoo-type decks like Red Roronoa Zoro or Green Red Chopper. It’s a 3,000 Power Character that can gain 2,000 Power during the opponent’s turn and gives your Leader or one of your Characters a rested Don.
Green
The 4-cost Roronoa Zoro is mainly played in Green Purple Luffy, but he has quite a strong effect that we might see in other Green decks in the future. Your Leader has to be {Straw Hate Crew} for Zoro to activate his effect, letting you rest a 4-cost or less Character before attacking and potentially KOing it.
3-cost Arlong can be played in Green Hody Jones and Green Arlong. His main goal is to help you slow down the opponent’s pace by preventing one of their 5-cost or less Characters from attacking you.
Players had hoped for the 7-cost Bonney, but she really wasn’t worth adding to Green Bonney decks. She can prevent one of the opponent’s Characters from becoming Active on the upcoming turn, but being a 7-cost, she wasn’t appealing much compared to the 5-cost Bonney that does the same.
Searcher Cards
Searcher cards for every color in the game with a trigger effect to activate their main effect. We’ve seen popular decks like Red Shanks include a searcher card to add more consistency to their game plan and find the late-game win condition the deck needs.
