One Piece Card Game - European Finals Utrecht - Top 64 - Red Purple Luffy Deck Profile and Tournament Report
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A DIFFERENT APPROACH IN THE META
Introduction
Hello, my name is Christos Anestakis and I just did top-64 the European Championship in Utrecht. This is my second article regarding the One-Piece Card Game. Let me introduce myself. I have been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for 16 years with many national tops(1-2-4-8places), euro tops / YCS. In One Piece Card Game over the last year, I have 3 top-8 in regionals, 2 top-64 (1 was 7-1 into 7-3 and did not top), one 3v3 top-8 (7-0 score) and x-2, x-3 in online regionals.
Aftermath of Paris regionals
The Paris regionals were held in December, just 1 week after the release of OP05. I was sure that Saka was by far the best option for this tournament since the deck was dominant OCG, so I chose this deck. The tournament did not go well for me; however, I learned a lot from this experience which was a benefit for me in the future.
Round 3 I played vs Enel which starved me, and I had to play 35 minutes to win. Round 4 I played mirror match which lasted again 35 minutes only to lose to a Rebeca attack for 9 with hounds. Round 5 playing mirror match for 25+min only to get increasingly exhausted and not having time to take a break. One piece game is not an easy and you need to spend time thinking your moves ahead. In the end I did x-3 but mirror match was a loop and a coin flip, and other decks will also starve you or going aggro heavy.
After the tournament was over, I realized that even through Saka is the best deck, playing 12 rounds straight for the biggest tournament of the year and playing 35-min mirror matches without break or playing vs decks to destroy sakakzuki is for sure the wrong move. I always try to build outside the box and every time it pays off (Straw beard with Marco and RP Luffy in UK). A loss in the regionals motivates you if you know what caused it. The best card of regionals in Paris was 10-drop Kaido which was winning the mirror match and is good vs Enel, so I tried to search him or play him faster than Saka. I was testing blue/purple Kaido as this deck has searchers which search Onigashima / Kaido, and the leader can also ramp, and it has good cards with many 0-cost triggers as it ramps faster, and you play 2-3 Kaido in the row leaving no don active for 1don events cards. In theory the deck has brilliant cards, but it did not work. Even when I Kaido twice, I still could not win. For me Saka was not an option for the euros. I do not want to play out of 12 rounds 7-8 mirror match,2-3 anti-Saka and have people know my deck list like all Saka decks are 46-cards same. Purple Luffy being 48 cards same and same goes for yellow. I saw that from the 2 offline regionals the top16 was 8 Saka 3 Kata / Enel ,2 Zoro 1 RP Luffy but this was one weekend after the release of op5. Even players that just start to play with Saka they will become better after 40 days of playtesting.
Testing
After clearing my head, I thought that I need to play to win this event as it is the biggest tournament of the year, and I am a competitive player. I should avoid playing 35 mins mirror matches or be dependent on the dice roll (curve problems) or having a bad matchup. Yellow depends on the 1-2 first triggers, it needs first trigger to be Perospero kai the second one to be Sanji / Thunderbolt. And Saka can play around Amaru. Zoro is an aggro deck favored vs saka but that does not mean it can win vs Saka consistently and I mean the good Saka players at 8-0 score. Plus facing an Enel player in the top cut will finish the game instantly. The purple Luffy deck has such a bad matchup vs Saka which will be most of the tournament. So, my option was to evaluate the RP Luffy with which I did top-8 last month. I had to adjust the deck to the needs of the meta. This deck has the potential of the winner or at least to top. If you avoid Bello Betty, you can win all the match ups not depending on the dice roll.
Initial Deck list
I saw the 2 deck lists of the 2 offline regionals top cuts and all OCG deck lists from the site, but I felt they were lacking a lot of things. 3 diable jambe are too many especially when you play vs Katakuri or Enel or Zoro. If the format was only Saka, I would say it is perfect, but the format has 5-6 decks in the pool, so I do not want to die before killing them since my leader has 3+1 lives. Also, Hawkins is such a bad card since if you play It, he puts the don rested it, so it is useless, you lose your turn and in the end, it is 1k and only meaningful if you trigger him. Playing against Saka you need each turn to do something, to not let them have space. I was playing the 7cost kid only for do turn 4 ,7k swing and have a body but the card is bad vs purple Luffy, and it has 0 counter. Also playing too much ramp stuff only to play sun god Nika and getting ice aged felt miserably bad since I saw people maximizing the ramp only to play Nika and gets removed and then your mana is 2-5-7 if Nika dies instead of 2-5-7-8-9 if he survives so you just lose and cannot recover from the disadvantages of it. Also, all decks play many blockers like purple Luffy / Saka,
My RP Luffy Deck list
4 rush Zoro. This deck can play first and second. If I can steal the curve of Katakuri / Saka I will go for it. If not, I do not mind going first where all the other decks want to win the dice roll. Zoro vs Saka is not to be used as a 3drop. In 3 mana you go 9 swing and then go 6 and 7k Zoro. Do not waste your Zoro for 1k counter since Saka can trade him in return or -1 him for blaze.
4 rush Luffy. This is a tempo card which can kill, and it trades as well as a leader. Remember the leader has 3 lives so if they trade your character over hitting you, Luffy with 6k can withstand attacks over Zoro and if the spend removal you have more stuff coming in curve like Newgate or more rush Luffy.
Lead performer vs Hawkings. Lead performer lets you ramp on 4 since you want something for going second and lets you attack for 7 in that turn. Also, from the trigger it gives you an ACTIVE DON and draws you a card over Hawkins, so it attacks and protects betters. Also, vs purple Luffy you cannot get Paul, so they lose the perfect curve, and you attack for 7.7 is the best number vs 5k leaders. Also, if Saka takes an unnecessary damage over overprotecting, they lose easily. Remember, you can win with aggro, or newgates or Nami into jambe / Nika (3 attacks 7-10-12) or a single rush Luffy for 11. vs Enel, the matchup is also easy. Enel takes hits easily as he wants to go to 1 life. You trade his characters and then small attacks to decide how you win vs him. If he loses his hand, he loses.
TOURNAMENT
Round 1 vs Saka
I lost the dice roll and went first. My opponent did Branew into Kuzan into Borsalino but in one of my attacks in early stage he discarded 2-2-1 counter to avoid one attack. Also, he was playing 3 Sabo to fix his hands where Saka plays 1-2 and even though I had jambe I was missing one damage and for 10 turns I could not find a Nika even with Nami search. This was a close game, but I lost my favourable matchup.
Round 2 vs Red Luffy.
Even through Luffy can climb to 6 easily with his leader ability, it cannot win vs new decks.
Round 3 vs Katakuri
Zorojuru is only good vs decks that do not play removal such as yellow. You cannot play him vs Saka since you enable a good hound. But vs yellow is perfect. The faster you go to Nika vs yellow the better. Also, yellow if the 1st life is not Perospero, then they are behind because losing Sanji for attack is bad for them and also all yellow triggers are -2 only for a 5k body on the field and cracker vs 3 life leader is meaningless.
Round 4 vs Saka
I won the dice roll and went second. Saka curve going first is to attack for 8 and playing the 4drop one turn later. This game was in my favour since I played 2 Zoro 2-3 rush Luffy and its field did not matter and all.
Round 5 vs Whitebeard
Whitebeard is an easy match up since they need to play the 9cost whitebeard the turn before Nika if they do not, they die easily. Even through my opponent had Nami Izzo start, I double law him and lost 4 cards and then I force him to lose the last life when he was at 7 dons, so he was left with 2 Edwards in hand which even if you play you lose.
Round 6 vs Purple Luffy
Even through purple Luffy wants to go first and have a perfect curve I want to go second vs him only to not lose to double Magellan. Purple Luffy is like 48 cards same with the same curve all the time. You know exactly what is coming when it is coming. Also, all cards in their hand are either bricks or 2k counter and the only card that can unbrick their hand is queen. Also, if they aggressively put Kaido in the board their dons are destroyed and cannot recover. Also, you first attack leader and then if you cannot kill, you take their board.
Round 7 vs Saka
The matchup is what I build this deck for. Not depending on the die roll. If they put me first, I attack for 8 and next turn 6-7. This game I ramped with trigger lead performer into jean so when he went to 6 dons, I played my first whitebeard which he out without attacking. Next turn I played a second whitebeard which he met the same fate and then the 3rd in the row with the same result. My opponent even though he was with 6-8-10 dons he outed 3 whitebeards without letting me attack. Also, if you play whitebeard and you are at 2 lives use your don for attack over keeping one don open for trigger. 9k does not let them discard 2 2k and it can let an attack get through while Saka needs to invest 3-6 don to attack you with 1 more character. You are not defensive in the beginning but in the late game.
Round 8 vs?
I do not remember but I faced 0 Enel/Zoro in the Swiss so it is either Katakuri/purple Luffy/Saka
Round 9 vs Purple Luffy - Feature match
You can watch the feature match in the coverage, but I would like to say something that people do not know. When you play in the feature match you have your ears covered by headphones. The headphones are used to block outside sound but this time it was messed up, since we were hearing nonstop parasites for 25 minutes straight, it was like torturing. I do not know how people can play in these conditions since one piece is a move-by-move game and not making an unbreakable board to win. I thought we could communicate to my opponent with microphone, but we were doing hand signs since both were playing like hearing parasites for 25 mins. It was a close match up which I could not kill him with Edward / Zoro / Queen / Leader vs 2 blockers 1 life, and I had also diable jambe on hand. Just a tip vs purple Luffy. You can go either first or second. First you messed their perfect curve. Second, you do not get punished by double Magellan. Just to know if the purple Luffy keeps his hand, then his hand is a 4drop into Paul. Also, the only cards that it can unbrick his hand is queen, only 4 of them. If they waste their queen early to get aggressive, they lose, if they play early Kaido they lose since then they do not have goods attacks.
Round 10 vs P. Luffy
Right now, I am in the bubble since I lost round 1 so my tiebreaks are bad and only x-2 can let me in. I played vs purple Luffy. There is also one more trick to playing vs this deck. If in the first attack you protect you cannot get law-ed. Getting law is bad for all decks and you play around it. so in the 9 mana you should have played the last turn to play around it.
That was the end of day 1. The thing is I could easily play 2 more rounds since I was not exhausted compared to all Saka / Enel players.
DAY 2
Round 11 vs Saka
I played vs a cool guy who I knew him from 3v3. He knew also what I was playing, which is bad for me, but it does not matter if you are not prepared before the tournament. In the tournament when you face something that you do not know and you have little time, you make poor decisions. I think I Nika him so he could not survive 3 attacks. Saka/Enel was the reason this deck was built for.
Round 12 vs Katakuri
Unfortunately for him, his first attack triggered my lead performer + jean into God Nika. Even if they play the small mom you take the hit. Also, yellow if you put one blocker down their attack is 12-12 which is so easy to block. Also, they can only Amaru the law not the queen, also I want him to lose the last life on the Nika turn I play him and not in the next one so that I will not get Beige.
Top-64 vs purple Luffy
(Top cut were 28 Saka, 11 Zoro, 11 Enel, 5 purple Luffy, 1 Nami, 1 R/P Law, 1 Newgate)
For me this means I can win vs 40 decks, lose to 11 and 5 coinflips depending on if they see queen or know how to play exactly vs my deck.
My position in the top cut was 47 so I could not choose the dice roll. For the upcoming games my opponent would decide who will go first in game 1.
I faced a purple Luffy who was not playing sheep horn / top knot which means he could not win vs Saka. Game 1 I lost easy. Game 2 I could not kill him because 1 turn before he dies, he has one blocker and plays queen into one more blocker and cannot kill him with whitebeard / Queen / Nika / Jambe.
Conclusion
I could not have done anything more in this tournament and even if I play against Zoro in the top cut, it will not be an auto lose. I only trade Makino and go for face. Whitebeard wins this match up since nowadays Zoro go board wide with small characters and Nika allows you 3 attacks. I only lose against Zoro who search for Marco since they know this matchup. I believe if I have faced something else the top64 would have many more games to win. But it happens and the tournament is over. I made this article to help people to start thinking outside of the box and to say that if you play test well with your deck it will reward you. If the deck does not make you enjoy the game, you will not get the 100% from it.
I would like to thank all my friends who spent time playtesting with me: Achilleas, Regi, Vincent, Luca and Hina.
Best of luck for the USA championship.
My name is Christos Anestakis if you need anything you can find me on Facebook. This was another tournament report. ENJOY THE GAME.