One Piece Card Game - Regionals Liverpool - Top 8 - Red Purple Luffy Deck Profile and Tournament Report

PART 1 - Introduction

Hello, my name is Christos Anestakis and I recently achieved top-8 cut in One Piece Card Game Regional in Liverpool. This was my 3rd top-8 cut this year, following Toulouse and Birmingham Regionals. I have been playing one piece for almost a year since starter deck pre-release, but I am no new to the card games. I have been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG for 17 years with many wins / tops in Nationals and tops in YCS / Euro. One piece caught my attention from a close friend, who suggested to play it. It was one of the best decisions of my life. I really like the concept of travelling with friends and meeting new people with common interests. That’s it from me for now, I will share more details about me in future articles.

I was mainly playing red decks as most of One Piece Card Game community did, but after the ban list, I need to explore new options. The first thought was to play Katakuri which I tried in the sim, but it had a 55/45 potential to win, which for sure is not ideal to play in a regionals with many competitive players aiming for the top. My next option, was to play purple Donqixote Doflamingo as this deck was solid, winning 2 online regionals before the ban list when the red decks were supreme. I tested the deck with my friends and Doffy was superior going second over first. That meant I would gamble in the games I would lose the dice roll, since most people would steal the on-draw turn from you. Both decks will be the most representative in the tournament as it is the "easy" choice for people who do not playtest a lot.

One week before the event, ultra decks 10 were released. I knew Red Purple Law was strong, but cards from op5 were missing and if people test vs that, it can lose. Red Purple Lw did marvelous in the regional proving that it is a top contestant for OP4.5 meta. Two players from France piloted the deck into x-1 finish and advanced top cut. For me, as a One Piece fan, I tried Red Purple Luffy first. I wanted to test it and although it was an underdog, I would like to give it a chance. The leader is a 6k power. After the ban of Edward Newgate, people would cut the 6k vanillas, as 5k is more mana based and equal attacker to 5k leaders. Also, paying 1 mana per turn for leader/character is not mana efficient for opponents. On the other hand, a 3-life leader was a new thing for western TCG scheme. This leader in my opinion, with OCG ban list, is more powerful than WB as it can ramp 9cost WB character on curve easier and have one more mana for events when going 1^st. I began playtest and deckbuilding from scratch since Pasadena One Piece Card Game regionals did not have the st10 allowed. My thought was that if I would create a deck list that is enjoyable and closer to my playstyle, I will have a major advantage in the tournament which in the end happened.

PART 2 – Deck list

After a lot of playtesting, I tried 10 mana Luffy, Tesoro, Kaido, WB engine, I was 100% confident to play this leader but was 80% sure on the deck list. I was thinking if blockers or events are more powerful in this meta as in the end, the opponent will attack me for 15/16 k (if Katakuri), and I will need to block it somehow. The deck list was 95% ready on Thursday. I put a final touch on Friday, by changing 1 blocker and 1 event over Hawkins and Sasaki. My deck was full of events and blockers to help me stabilize the board. The best cards in this deck that provide a ramp are Sunday / leader/ Kid / Jet Gatling (trigger effect and being 0 cost). Also, the potential of this leader to get to 7-8-9 k power depending on the Kid / WB you have played. After the final deck list, I was confided that I will have fun and enjoy the tournament to the fullest playing a deck that was not even in the map. People would not believe in 3 life leaders.

PART 3 - Tournament

Round 1 – Yellow Katakuri. I lost the dice roll and I thought that playing a deck like r/p was beneficial, as playing 1st and getting 1 ramp spell increases the don from 5-6-->8-9 on turn 4. This puts the opponent in an uncomfortable place, as having a 9-drop or even kid in turn 4, makes him to spend more Don to attack my leader. My instant keep cards were Sunday / lead performer / kid as those are the most broken cards in my deck. 0-cost event / lead performer are also broken from life. Against kata, the plan was simple. Go to 0 and defend. They had cards that cost a lot and spent most of their turns without maximizing the attack power. I dropped to 0 life; Big Moms (7, 10 cost) did nothing against that. My 7-cst Kid and blockers won me the game.

Round 2 – Yellow Katakuri. Again, I lost the dice roll. Losing a second dice roll in a row, made me believe that the deck was built in a solid way to go first. If you feel unlucky with the dice, you need to do something to counter it. Same strategy as the match up above.

Round 3 – Green Kid. 0-3 dice rolls. My opponent was playing well but kid cannot spend mana on playing characters and attacking at the same time. The correct strategy was to attack 8-10 each turn. I had kid / wire on board, which fixed my hand each turn. Especially, if you go kid on 8 mana and then on 10 do wire into kid into event, it is really gg. This deck can play 11 mana, that’s why I do not play 10-cost Luffy even through the card is broken, if you do not have kid. You cannot go to 11 mana, and you are tapped out.

Round 4 – Red Purple Luffy. Mirror match which I did not expect at all. I thought that it would be max30-40 Luffys out of 700 people. My opponent was a cool guy, and the match was close. Even though I got lawed for 2 cards he played Luffy which tapped him out and I went for game next turn as I had many events, and my deck can go 1-2 mana remaining + 0 mana events.

Round 5 - Purple Magellan. This matchup is not the best but I playtest against Magellan before ban list. For Magellan you need to know WHEN to kill the Magellan character and not focus on the new 3 mana 4k which goes to 6. This was a close game playing 35 mins and playing around hell judgment which is a hard card to play around. My opponent was also a cool guy, so I enjoyed the game very much.

Round 6 – Red Purple Law - Feature match.

I knew my opponent as a person as he is a very good player with top-4 achievements before and he was playing law. even through, I won the dice roll, I ramped in the beginning, I made a mistake in turn 4, as I thought I had 10 DON over 9. I tapped out to play a Shanks. My opponent attacked twice to my one life and not having 2 2k counters in 6 cards in hand I lost the game. For a 10-round tournament a loss is a major hit as you need max 2 loses in 10 rounds to go to top32.

Round 7 – Green Kid. I think I had like 2-3 kids on board, and kid can only go to 12k 2 times so if you know how to play, you can win easily as kid cannot play characters much.

Round 8 – Green Kid. The game was in my favor but was at 0 life. I had 2 Wires on board, and I drew twice Shanks with their ability. I could not defend the second 12k attack (had 11k) and lost. This was the only Green Kid I lost to.

Round 9 – Yellow Big Mom. My opponent had many triggers and Shirahosi fixed his hand and stacked Bege / Sanji the whole time so that my 9drops could not attack. Against my deck this was more troublesome than Katakuri but it was an easy match up.

Round 10 - Red Roronoa Zoro. I had playtest vs Zoro a lot, as a close friend of mine is playing Zoro from OP1. I won dice roll and put him first, so that I will have better ramp and he does not have the extra card. This of course makes him attack first, but it is only 1 Marco that can punish me. My opponent did turn 1 Buggy. Turn 2 Magura, turn 3 2 Makinos so he had an aggressive start. After some rounds, he had only 5-cost Marco on board, where I had 2 Kids, 1 WB, 1 Queen. I am at zero life with 8k leader. He played rush Luffy attach all dons and swing for 11, my two 2k counter sealed the deal. Top32 was guaranteed. I was placed 11^th overall after 10 rounds of Swiss.

Top 32 – Green Kid. When you enter the top32, a new tournament starts. Swiss does not matter but in One Piece, higher Swiss position allows you to choose first or second in the first game. I chose to go second for the extra card, plus more ramp cards. Mu opponent played a 10-cost Doffy but I was in control and my opponent had 0 cards in hand compared to my 2 kids on board. He did top deck one more 10-cost Doffy in his final draw which made me lose the first game. This was a bad moment for me as I was 99% close to victory. I did manage to win the other 2 games but playing Red Purple Luffy in the top cut is bad as the time rules for 3life leaders are not in my favor.

Top 16 - Green Kid again!!! I chose to go second, for ramp/extra card which in my deck is ok. Going 1st in my deck is more explosive and can out-tempo the opponent with 9 drops but going second is more efficient and vs kid my keeping hand strategy is to see 1 ramp spell or Sunday, events / kid. You only keep those cards. If your hand can now win you the game, you mulligan. You cannot play a hand that has 50% chance to win you the game especially when you have a power card like kid. I won game 1 and in game 2 I had lethal on board but then a Punk Gibson in the last life came out and from a winning position I lost the game. This was the second bad luck in the topcut (top deck Doffy in top32). Game 3, I was in control and won but playing a 3-life leader is a disadvantage for top cuts. You can lose without even playing the game if you go on time.

Top 8 – Red Purple Luffy, the winner of the tournament. I knew my opponent from discord but never met him inperson. He is a cool guy and really deserved the win. Unfortunately for me, in game 1 he had 2 kids over 0 mine and his build was greedier in comparison to mine. This is beneficial for mirror match. I already said that 10-cost Luffy is powerful but without kid, he makes you tapped out and you can lose easily. I made my build to play all matchups and when I mean all, I mean every game I want to have a proper match up. Game 2, he played WB on curve and something else which I really do not remember. Ii believe if we faced each other later in the top cut, I could have advanced more than top8. The same thing happened again in another top 8 where I was playing strawbeard vs boat, so the match up was finished before even played.

PART 4 – Thank you!

The last part but the most important. I want to say a big thank you to all the people who read my article. This is my first article in one piece, but I will try to make some more with advice/directions as one piece has a lot of potential as a card game and many routes to be explored. I would like to say a big THANK YOU to my friends who supported me in this journey, Achilleas, Regi, Vincent, Jared, Remi, Luca. They are great players with tops and more tops will come for them. Also, a big thank you to my sponsors lorecards.com and c4gamers. Thank you for your time, guys, see you in the next articles.