Choosing a Leader for OP TCG

Choosing what leader to play can be one of the hardest parts of this game, especially as a new player. There are about 70 leaders as of the release of OP-08. That's a lot to choose from! Sometimes life makes it easy as to which one to start with and that has to do with availability. When Kaila and I first started in July 2024, not a lot of stores had any One Piece TCG products available. We visited 4-5 LGSs before we eventually found a store that had some packs and starter decks available. They only had 2 starter decks which made our choice simple. However many of these sets are becoming more available and most leader cards are relatively inexpensive for the normal art versions so I wanted to try to make the decision easier if you're undecided.

The simplest way to decide without needing to know the mechanics of the game is to choose your favorite character. Considering the number of leader cards, you'll likely find one of a character you like. Unfortunately though if you are a fan of certain Straw Hat crewmembers, there aren't any leaders available yet for some. Franky, Brook, and Jinbe do not have a leader card yet while Robin is receiving her first leader card with the release of OP-09 in December for the English set. You can always check the official One Piece TCG site's card list to see what leaders are available. https://en.onepiece-cardgame.com/cardlist/

With One Piece TCG there are 6 different colors; Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, Yellow. Each color focuses on different mechanics which I'll cover in a little bit but first, there are some basics to know before getting into that. If you'd like to read more of the rules before you can read them here: https://en.onepiece-cardgame.com/pdf/rule_manual.pdf?20230623

Life: Each leader has a specified number of life denoted by the number in the bottom right of the leader card. Most leaders that have a single color have 5 life. Most dual color leaders have 4 life. Life is marked by a number of cards taken from your deck equal to the Life number at the start of the game. Each time your leader takes damage you draw a life card.

DON!!: DON!! cards are your resources. These are cards that are separate from your play deck. The first player starts with 1 DON!! card while the second player starts with 2. Each turn, 2 more DON!! cards are added from your DON!! deck to your area which can be used to spend to play cards or to boost the power of your characters or leader for your turn. 10 is the max number of DON!! cards that can be on your field.

Active/Rested: Active cards can Rested (equivalent to tapping in Magic) and rotated 90 degrees to trigger an effect (when required) or to attack. Once rested the card generally does not become active again until the start of your next turn. When your characters are rested, they can be attacked by your opponent's character.

Choosing Your Deck by Color

Red

Red decks tend to focus on the simplest of game play which is being aggressive. Red uses a lot of rush (allows character to attack on the turn they are played) as well as attaching rested DON!! cards to your characters/leader to boost their power on your turn. Red can also focus on reducing power of the opponent's characters allowing you to KO them with some cards if they are below a certain threshold. If you like to play aggressively, this color may be for you. Some popular red leaders are Roronoa Zoro [OP01-001] and Sabo [OP05-001]

Green

Green decks typically focus on resting your opponent's characters during your turn or even during their turn. In addition there are effects that green can use when the opponent's such as KOing the character or preventing the character from activating on the opponent's refresh phase. If you like the idea of manipulating your opponent's characters, choose this color. Some popular green leaders are Jewelry Bonney [OP07-019] and Yamato [OP06-022].

Blue

Blue decks like to bounce characters by either returning them to the owner's hand or deck. Blue also has many ways to cycle through your deck and to stack the top of your deck as well. Blue also features the only leader currently with an alternate win condition (aka wincon), Nami [OP03-040]. Nami can win by having no cards in their deck when that would typically lose you the game. If you want the best chance of having the cards you want in your hand, this color may be for you. Some popular leaders for blue are Nami and Donquixote Doflamingo [OP01-060].

Purple

Purple decks focus on using DON!! cards differently. They can return DON!! cards to their DON!! deck to trigger different abilities or to ramp by adding additional DON!! cards from your DON!! deck so you reach 10 DON!! faster than usual. Some of these abilities are very powerful at a high cost of returning DON!! cards to your deck. If you like resource management, go with this color. Some popular leaders for purple are Vinsmoke Reiju [OP06-042], Monkey.D.Luffy [OP05-060], and Charlotte Pudding [OP08-058].

Black

Black decks manipulate the cost of characters currently in play. This does not affect costs of cards in hand. This normally does not do anything however some black decks will focus on reducing the opponent's character's costs to trigger effects that KO them if they're below a certain cost. Some black decks can focus on increasing the cost of their own characters, effectively making them a counter to their own color and they can trigger certain abilities when you have a character with X cost or greater in play. If you want to keep the enemy's board clean, then black is for you. Some popular black leader cards are Rob Lucci [OP07-079], Monkey.D.Luffy [ST13-003], and Monkey.D.Luffy [ST14-001]

Yellow

Yellow decks like to manipulate life cards. They can add cards to their life, remove life cards from their opponent, and use life cards as a resource to trigger effects. Yellow typically plays a high risk high reward style since some powerful abilities require you to draw one of your life cards or require you to already be low on life cards. If you like the high risk gameplay choose yellow. Some popular yellow leaders are Charlotte Katakuri [OP03-099], Enel [OP05-098, and Kalgara [OP08-098]

You can also choose leaders/decks based on how well they do in the Meta. Most of the leaders I listed above are meta leaders and do well in tournaments. We'll save the Meta decks talk for another week.

For new players or ones looking to get into One Piece, I hope this post has helped you get more familiar with the different play styles of the colors and decide which color/leader to use. For the experienced players, let me know what I missed!