Yellow Charlotte Katakuri refuses to fade from the One Piece card game meta, holding on tightly to remain relevant in tournaments. With the release of 6-cost Kuma in OP12, Yellow Katakuri has been seeing more play and even managed to make top-cut in a major tournament, putting the Trigger King back on the radar for many competitive players.
Charlotte Katakuri remains one of the most powerful Yellow Leaders when it comes to delivering heavy-hitting attacks and maximizing Trigger effects. His unique ability to manipulate the Life Area allows him to activate Triggers earlier than most, making him a constant threat on the battlefield.
Leader
By attaching a DON!! to Charlotte Katakuri, he becomes a 7,000 Power attacker thanks to his +1,000 Power effect. This forces opponents to commit multiple Counter cards just to stop his swing, making him a consistent pressure tool throughout the game.
Katakuri’s Leader effect also lets you peek at the top card of either player’s Life and choose to keep it on top or send it to the bottom. Most of the time, you’ll want to check your own Life first—especially early in the game—to line up powerful Trigger effects. Cards like Charlotte Perospero and Kikunojo are excellent early Triggers worth keeping on top. If the revealed card isn’t helpful, you can simply send it to the bottom in hopes of finding something better.
Placing cards like You’re the One Who Should Disappear and Capone”Gang”Bege to the bottom of your Life Area plays into your strategy, making sure you have a defensive Trigger effect for the late game when it matters the most and can potentially buy you an additional turn.
You can also use Katakuri’s effect to scout your opponent’s Life. This kind of information can be incredibly useful, especially if you understand what cards they’re hoping to trigger/find. A bit of meta-knowledge goes a long way in deciding whether to leave the card on top or bury it.
Yellow Katakuri Decklist
How to Play
Searcher
Charlotte Pudding looks at the top 4 cards in your deck and draws 1 {Sanji} or {Big Mom Pirates} type card. So we can draw cards like Charlotte Perospero, Charlotte Linlins, and Charlotte Brulee. She’s perfect for finding the cards you’re missing, making sure you can make your strong late-game plays.
Early Characters
If you’re going first, Charlotte Perospero is almost always the best play to go for. He’s a 5,000 Power attacker who threatens one of the opponent’s Life cards. On top of that, if the opponent decides to KO him, he’ll look at the top 3 cards to draw you 1 {Big Mom Pirates} type card. This can find you a card to play on later turns and won’t drop you on value.
As for Kikunojo, being a 4-cost Character means she’s best played on turn 2 if you’re going second. Her 6,000 Power puts more aggression than Charlotte Perospero and if KO’d, she’ll give you an extra Life card if your opponent has 3 or less Life cards. This adds to your value and will require more attacks on your Leader from the opponent to win the game.
Both Charlotte Perospero and Kikunojo can be played through their Trigger effects without using up Don. So you want them at the top of your Life area as early as possible.
Basil Hawkins is best played early in the game, acting as an early attacker to keep the pressure going. Your opponent won’t be too eager to KO Basil Hawkins due to his effect, letting you trash an opponent’s Life card if he gets KO’d. If the opponent decides to KO him, they’ll be in a more vulnerable spot later in the game to your attacks and will be trashing a resource that would have gone to their hand.
Blockers
3-cost Brulee is a searchable blocker, which you’ll mainly want to play through her trigger effect. She can block an opponent’s attack to protect your Leader and buy you an extra turn to win the game. In some cases, you’ll opt to play her from your hand if you don’t have any other plays and you need the block.
Removal Cards
Zeus is a low-cost play to KO a 5-cost or less Character, but you have to self-damage your Leader to activate his effect. So you’re losing a +2,000 Counter and adding a Life card to your hand to remove a Character, which in many cases is worth the trade to weaken the opponent’s side of the field.
As for O-Nami, she’s mainly strong if she’s in your Life Area for her trigger effect, letting you KO one of the opponent’s 5-cost or less Characters. This effect can switch the game in your favor, putting your opponent behind on the field since you’re not using any of your Don or attacks to remove one of their Characters.
If O-Nami is in your hand, you’ll use her as a Counter card or for the Banish keyword. You can give your Leader or one of your Characters the Banish keyword, threatening to trash an opponent’s Life card and cut down on their resources. It can be a great play if you’re worried they’ll get access to a +2,000 Counter or a trigger effect.
5-cost Nami trashes a Trigger card from your hand to KO one of the opponent’s Characters with a 5-cost or less. If you have 3 cards or less in your hand, you can draw a card. So if you have 5 cards, play Nami and trash a card, you’ll go down to 3 cards, allowing you to draw a card.
Nami‘s Trigger effect lets you activate her On Play effect to KO one of the opponent’s Characters, possibly ruining the opponent’s turn by removing an attacker.
Kuma Life
Bartholomew Kuma is one of our strong plays in the mid-game, giving us an additional Life card by trashing a card from our hand and then discouraging players from KOing him. When KO’d Kuma adds the top card of your deck to your Life Area, giving you an extra Life card, making it more difficult for the opponent to win the game.
Since opponents aren’t too thrilled to attack Kuma, they’ll often ignore him, which means we get to use his 7,000 Power offensively to pressure their Leader or KO rested Characters to weaken the state of their board.
Late Game Play
All of your late-game Characters can trash your opponent’s Life card, dropping them closer to 0 Life cards, where you could set up the decisive turn to win the game. Instead of solely focusing on attacking the opponent’s Leader in the mid-game, you can control the field and then use your late-game Characters to trash their Life cards, trashing their resources and making it even harder for them to compete in the value game.
The 8-cost Eustass “Captain” Kid is a 9,000 Power Character to trash opponents’ Life cards. On Play, you can rest 8-cost Kid to trash the opponent’s top Life card, putting them in a riskier spot to lose to your attacks and bleeding them from resources.
At the end of your turn, if your opponent has 2 Life cards or less, you can draw a card and then trash another from your hand with Eustass “Captain” Kid‘s effect, filtering your hand for better cards.
As for the 10-cost Charlotte Linlin, she’ll do both, give you a Life card and trash an opponent’s Life card, giving you extra protection while making opponents more vulnerable to your attacks. A 12,000 Power attacker is no laughing matter either; it’ll be almost impossible to shut down her attacks if they don’t have a blocker in play.
Events
You’re the One Who Should Disappear is a Counter Event that lets you trash a card from your hand to give your Leader or a Character +3,000 Power. Its Trigger effect is extremely strong during your defensive turn. If it’s the last card in your Life Area, you can activate the Trigger effect to gain an extra Life card, forcing more attacks from the opposing player to win the game.
Using our Leader effect, we can make sure You’re the One Who Should Disappear is the last card in our Life Area, getting access to the additional Life card and potentially shutting down the opponent’s attempt to win the game.
Mulligan Tips
- Going first: Charlotte Pudding and Charlotte Perospero, Kikunojo.
- Going Second: Charlotte Pudding and Kikunojo or Charlotte Perospero. Kuma for turn 3.
General Tips
- Taking early damage on your Leader is fine if you have a Trigger Character on the top of your deck. You want to take advantage of it and develop a threatening board without having to spend Don!!!.
- Katakuri’s Leader ability is important to control what gets triggered. Characters with Trigger effects that let you play them on the board are handy in the mid-game. Defensive cards should be moved to the bottom of the Life Area. You can also use Katakuri’s ability to see the top of your opponent’s Life Area, giving you information on what they’ll have in their hand and whether you want to move it to the bottom of their Life Area.
- You don’t need to over-commit attacks once they’ve dropped to 1 or 2 Life Cards. Focus on stabilizing the board and use 10-cost Big Mom to Trash the Life Card.
Turn-Based Gameplay
Going First
- Turn 1 (1 Don): Charlotte Pudding.
- Turn 2 (3 Don): Charlotte Perospero or O-Nami + Attack Leader.
- Turn 3 (5 Don): Kikunojo or 5-cost Nami.
- Turn 4 (7 Don): 6-cost Kuma.
- Turn 5 (9 Don): 8-cost Eustass”Captain”Kid or Kuma.
- Turn 6 (10 Don): 10-cost Charlotte Linlin.
Going Second
- Turn 1 (2 Don): Charlotte Pudding.
- Turn 2 (4 Don): Kikunojo or Charlotte Perospero or O-Nami + Attack Leader.
- Turn 3 (6 Don): 6-cost Kuma.
- Turn 4 (8 Don): 8-cost Eustass”Captain”Kid or 6-cost Kuma.
- Turn 5 (10 Don): 10-cost Charlotte Linlin.
Other Cards to Include
- 7-cost Charlotte Linlin forces opponents to make a tough call: either trash one of their Life cards or give you a Life card. Both choices will put you a step ahead in the value game plan, which will benefit you the longer the game takes. 7-cost Charlotte Linlin is also an 8,000 Power attacker, a high-power Character that can be difficult to KO through attacks.
- Inuarashi‘s trigger effect allows you to play him on the field if your opponent is at 3 Life cards or less. He’s a 5,000 Power Character with an effect that activates when you attach 2 Don to Inuarashi and attack with him. When attacking, Inuarashi can KO an opponent’s Character with a cost equal to or less than the number of your opponent’s Life cards. Inuarashi’s effect will mainly find use in the mid-game to potentially KO a 4-cost or less Character. In many cases, your opponent might have a 3-cost or less blocker, which Inuarashi can remove and pave the way for your attackers to go through uninterrupted.
- The 5-cost Charlotte Katakuri is usually your best play on Don 5, developing a 6,000 Power blocker that lets you attach 1 rested Don to your Leader or a Character after turning the top Life card face-up. You can attach the Don to your Leader, activating his effect to gain +1,000 Power on your attack and keep pressuring the opposing player, forcing more Counter cards out of them.
- 5-cost Monkey D.Luffy and 5-cost Gedatsu are removal options if you want to include them in the list.
- 8-cost Charlotte Katakuri can remove one of the opponent’s 8-cost or less Characters from play, placing them in their Life card.
Closing Words
The Yellow Charlotte Katakuri used to be one of the top meta performers in OPTCG. It’s been struggling to keep up with the new Leaders, but the addition of Kuma has brought the Yellow deck some breathing room, giving it a strong mid-game play to push the game longer and set up more attacks until it can close out the game.
