So, a bit of background. If you've watched our streams at all, you'll know I am a huge fan of One Piece. I've followed the anime for years.... let's see, roughly ten years now? Which is, wow, kinda insane.
My younger brother is actually the one that hounded me to give it a try. I've always enjoyed anime and manga, and he made a strong case for it despite the art style. Once I finally did, I binged it like crazy. Soon enough, it was me hounding my brother to hurry up and watch more, so we could talk about it.
Years later, I was the one that got my now-husband into watching.
But up until this point, I'd never played any form of TCGs. I knew of Magic, Pokemon, hell, Neopets had cards tossed around once upon a time. Despite my experience playing video games, I'd never given card games a try. Maybe it was due to the fact that no one in my family played. Or maybe because even bringing the cards to school was grounds for embarrassment and shame, so they never made an appearance at the lunch tables. Whatever the reason, I'd never really came across any card games until recently.
It was my husband's friend that told us about the game. Still difficult to find in stock and nearly unheard of, we decided to give it a try. Because of my love for the source work and already knowing all the characters, the game wasn't nearly as intimidating as, say, Magic was.
We grabbed a few starters to give it a try, and it was fantastic.
All the rules, play styles, themes, everything was new to me. It was a little overwhelming once I started veering from my god-awful Yamato starter deck, but it was so worth it. So for those new to the game or trying to get their friends/family into it, I've got a little extra insight.
As a new player, I'd say there's a few things I've stumbled the most on:
Card effects. Starting off, the great thing about that yellow starter was how many cards had no effects. I've never played many board or card games in the past, so these were all new concepts to me. Playing with basic cards until I had a general understanding of how to play really helped keep me motivated.
The immense variety. Despite the low stock, and how limited our initial options were to only a box of OP06, just that number of different cards was already insane to me. My main deck is Perona, as some may know. I started with this from that first box of OP06. But even then, there were so many cards, so many effects, so many options... it was impossible for me to figure out combos and impact of these effects. For this problem, I highly valued the themes sets. For example, Thriller Bark. I could initially start with primarily Thriller Bark cards for Perona, and switched cards in and out from there.
Metas. This wasn't really a new concept for me, as someone who plays MMOs and video games. I knew there would be people that highly focused on optimization and success rates. What I didn't know, was how this translated to card games. Figuring out why certain decks were so much more powerful (Lucci) compared to other same-colored decks was really challenging. And also disheartening. I couldn't figure out why I constantly lost against Warin's Reiju deck. My advice; if you're a skilled player trying to get someone into it, don't start with metas. Overfocusing on success sapped the fun out of it for me until I shifted to enjoying the play styles instead.
Themes. I know some games, such as Magic, have similar color schemes as OP does. But as someone unfamiliar with any card games prior, I didn't know this. And more, I didn't know what these themes did and their impact on the game. An example, purple. I didn't understand DON!! manipulation or how it could be used to put the opponent at an advantage. I also saw no point in blue's ability to draw cards until I constantly card starved.
I learned a lot of this with time and experience. But sites like Reddit and Bandai's card lists really help solidify my experiences and discoveries. Asking questions and reading posts on Reddit also really helped me shape my deck and card choices.
So for new players out there, take your time learning the mechanics. This is just my experience, and while I'm sure it's not fully unique, everyone has their own things they'll struggle with. For those trying to recruit friends and family into the game, patience, guides, and explanations are really helpful.
Good luck, and that's all from me today.
Kaila
