New One Piece TCG Starters Drop Tomorrow 6/6/2025

If you haven't heard, One Piece TCG is dropping 6 new starter decks tomorrow (ST23 - ST28). Similar to the previous set of starters, ST15 - ST20, these decks will support leaders that are currently available instead of introducing a new leader. Not sure which one to get? I'll break each one down for you!

I'll rate the deck on the following criteria on a 1-10 scale to come to a rating for new players; playability out of the box, ease of use, cost to upgrade, usability of cards for other decks. Typically you'd buy 2 starters since you only get 2 copies of the SRs in each just to make sure you have a full playset, but I will be rating this based on a single starter. The criteria are not equally weighted and I will use other factors to rate the deck for new players.

Criteria

Playability out of the box: I will use this to rate how competitive the starter is out of the box. A 1 would mean you're relying on sheer luck to win. 5 is okay and can win sometimes in a casual environment. 10 means the deck could consistently win in casual play.

Ease of use: This is a rating of the complexity of the play style for the deck in regards to new players. Are there a lot of combos you need to use? Do you need to manage a lot different mechanics? 1 means the deck relies on combos and multiple mechanics and 10 means it's very straight forward or a sort of set and forget style play.

Cost to upgrade: How much does it cost to upgrade the deck to be the most optimal?

1 means you're going to need to drop $100+ to upgrade, while 10 means you only need to spend around $5 - $10.

Usability of cards in other decks: Can you use these cards in other decks? 1 would mean you would not use any of the cards (other than the vanillas) outside of this leader. 10 means there are multiple cards that can be used for other leaders and is not locked by type.

To start, each starter deck is based on one of the available colors; Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, Yellow. Although there are 2 multi-color leaders, the majority of the cards will be of one color. Each deck introduces 5 new cards, a unique foil leader card, and 9 cards previously released that are thematic to the leader. You can find the full list of cards for each deck here: https://en.onepiece-cardgame.com/cardlist/. Now lets get into the decks.

Shanks ST23 (Red)

New Player Rating: 6/10

New Cards

Playability Out of the Box

Rating: 7/10

This deck deck contains some staples for Shanks decks; Hongo, Limejuice, Lucky.Roux, and 5 cost Yasopp. The cards in the deck have standalone effects which do not require the use of other cards outside of Uta and Monster. Couple that with a strong and consistent leader ability allows this deck to be playable right out of the box. One of the downsides of the deck is that Uta and Monkey.D.Luffy cannot be searched by the searcher event.

Ease of use

Rating: 9/10

This deck is fairly straight forward. The leader ability is simple and easy to use. It essentially gives you a free +1000 counter every turn which means the opponent needs to use more resources to actually be able to hit you. The only cards that rely on conditions to use their ability are Uta and Shanks and as mentioned above a lot of the other effects are standalone.

Cost to upgrade

Rating: 2/10

This deck is the one of the pricier of the new starters to upgrade. Most decks run Silvers Rayleigh (OP08-119) which runs about $23 per copy as of 6/5/2025, and most decks run 3-4. Other upgrades that some decks use are 3-4x Marco (OP03-013) and/or 3-4x Monkey.D.Dragon (OP07-015), both of which run around $7-9. All in all the upgrades for this deck could run over $100+ to come close to the more common meta builds.

Usability of cards in other decks

Rating: 2/10

The new 9c Shanks' On Play effect is locked currently to 3 leaders; Shanks, R Uta, R/P Uta. The Luffy and Uta could both be run in R Uta or R/P Uta as well. Most of the other cards are either leader locked or would not be useful in other decks. 5c Yasopp could find a place in some rogue decks.

Jewelry Bonney ST24 (Green)

New Player Rating: 4/10

New Cards

Playability out of the box

4/10

This deck is propped up by the strong leader ability and the 10C Law & Bepo. This deck has a lot of blockers but not many bodies that can be used for offense. This deck lacks the end game bodies that play off Bonney's excellent ability to extend the game.

Ease of use

6/10

Unlike Shanks, this Bonney requires you to rest an active DON!! to use her ability. Knowing when to use this ability and when you need to save a DON!! can be crucial and takes some experience to learn. Some of the cards in this deck allow you to stand down at the end of your turn (X.Drake, Urouge, Basil Hawkins) or on opponent's attack (Kid & Killer) though that will help you use Bonney's ability while maximizing your DON!! use each turn (just remember that attached DON!! are not rested). There are a few cards with conditionals like Luffy, Zoro, and Bege which you need to pay attention to to use effectively.

Cost to upgrade

1/10

One card gate keeps this deck from those that don't want to spend a lot of money to make the more common meta builds to this deck: Cavendish (EB01-012). This card is currently going for $45 each and most decks run 3-4. Not only that, you would need to replace most of the cards in the deck, but luckily most of those cards run under $5 a piece.

Usability in other decks

4/10

Most of these cards would not be usable in other decks. Some of the cards could be used in rogue decks. However the best card in the starter deck, Law & Bepo can be used in many green decks as a good top end because the effect is not leader locked. This would be particularly good for Carrot decks as it includes the Minks tag.

Buggy ST25 (Blue)

New Player Rating: 8/10

New Cards

Playability out of the box

8/10

This deck is one of the more complete decks out of the new starters. With only a few cards that need to swapped out, this deck can be competitive out of the box in casual play.

Ease of use

8/10

The biggest issue this deck runs into is running out of cards in hand. Keeping track of when to counter can be tricky for new players as not only do you need characters to play, you also use cards as a resource for leader ability, particular to play out Crocodile & Mihawk, 7C Buggy, or 10C Buggy for only 5 DON!!. The other thing to keep in mind is when to attack since attacking leaves your characters vulnerable to being KO'd in battle making it harder to play 10C Buggy. Other than that, the strategy is simple. Keep enough characters with cost of 5 or more on the board to play 10C Buggy as soon as possible.

Cost to upgrade

10/10

As this leader is currently not in the Meta, the cost to upgrade this deck is very minimal. You can pick up 4x Crocodiles (OP09-46), 4x Dracule Mihawk (OP09-48) for under a dollar each. And if you want, you can add 1-2x Gravity Blade Raging Tiger and/or Gum Gum Red Roc for $1 - $2 each.

Usability in other decks

1/10

There are a few cards that do not have leader locked abilities but none of these cards would be useful in any deck other than an extremely rogue deck or a meme deck.

Monkey.D.Luffy ST26 (Purple/Black)

New Player Rating: 5/10

New Cards

Playability out of the box

9/10

This deck synergizes very well and has one of the best counter events in the game, Gum-Gum Giant. It is so good that some people are calling for it to be banned (myself included). In addition to that, the deck has the ramping power to get to your big bodies. Not only that but the new Luffy character's effect is On Play and When Attacking potentially giving you multiple uses of the ability.

Ease of use

3/10

Resource manipulation is one of the hardest mechanics of the game in my opinion. Although the leader ability helps counteracts the DON!! -2 for a single effect, doing it again would set you back another turn resource-wise. This is okay if you were at your 10 DON!! turn, but it is very detrimental on turns before then. So knowing when to use your effects is crucial.

Cost to upgrade

5/10

Like Buggy, this leader is currently not in the Meta so the cost to upgrade the deck is not very high. There are many interchangeable cards between decks but the most expensive card you could add to this deck is Monkey.D.Luffy (OP09-119) which is currently going for $12 each and you don't necessarily need to run 4 of. The next most expensive card you would likely want to add is Sanji (OP07-064) which is around $10 each. The rest of the cards to upgrade would be under $5 each.

Usability in other decks

3/10

Other than Jinbe, Fra-Nosuke and Gum-Gum Giant, most of the cards do not have a place in other decks. The new Luffy character could find a place in some off-meta builds for any purple Strawhat leader.

Marshall.D.Teach ST27 (Black)

New Player Rating: 2/10

New cards

Playability out of the box

7/10

This deck contains many of the staples of most Blackbeard decks. Although this deck is missing one of the big body staples in the 10C Marshall.D.Teach (OP09-093), the deck does have Jesus Burgess (OP09-086) which gets stronger the more cards you have in the trash. The new Marshall.D.Teach can also recur any card to hand from trash when he is KO'd, either bringing back Jesus Burgess or any other card including himself that you need for the situation. The leader ability is also very strong, shutting down your opponent's On Play effects. Although your own On Play effects are negated, the only On Play effect is from SanJuan.Wolf which is a negative effect anyways, so the negation of that is a positive.

Ease of use

1/10

Blackbeard is a deck with a high skill floor. To effectively use the leader ability, you need to know the common cards used in other decks otherwise you will run out of cards in hand or opponents will use the negation of on play effects as a boon. For example, if you negated on play effects against a Buggy leader, they could still use the leader ability to play the 10C Buggy character for 5 DON!! without 4 other 5+ cost characters on the board and he would remain on the board.

Cost to upgrade

6/10

The most expensive cards that most Blackbeard decks run is Finger Pistol (EB01-051) which is running around $10 each. Some decks also run Laboon (EB01-048) which are around $27 each, but it isn't a "must add" card.

Usability in other decks

3/10

Marshall.D.Teach (ST27-05) would be the only card in this set you would use in another deck. He would be an alternative to Jack (OP08-084) as both cards are 7C 8000 power and can rest to KO a 3 cost or less. Jack lets you cycle a card and is harder for other black decks to remove but Blackbeard can keep coming back unless trashed or bottom-decked.

Yamato ST28 (Green/Yellow)

New Player Rating: 8/10

New Cards

Playability out of the box

9/10

Outside of Portgas.D.Ace (OP09-035) all cards in this set are are Land of Wano. This means there is no way to whiff your Yamato searcher. Not only that there are several cards that can combo with Yamato's second ability to attach 2 rested DON!! cards to a character if the opponent has 3 or less life. You also have Kouzuki Momonosuke who can gain rush, which not many cards outside of Red have, by removing two attached DON!! cards. The new 1C Yamato searcher also makes themselves a threat due to their ability coupled with leader ability. This is a fast deck that gets stopped by blockers, but you have different ways of getting through blockers in this deck.

Ease of use

9/10

Yamato (OP06-022) is an easy leader to use. Be aggressive and swing face. Some of the abilities and triggers require the opponent to be at 3 or less life but due to the leader having double attack, this is not difficult to achieve early on.

Cost to upgrade

7/10

This leader is currently not in the meta so the cost to upgrade this deck is not very high and can be done under $80 and under $40 if you cut out Dracule Mihawk (ST12-003) which is going around $12 per card. The next most expensive card most Yamato decks have is 4x Hody Jones (OP06-035) for around $4 each.

Usability in other decks

6/10

This is mostly because of Kikunojo who is used in many yellow decks. The effect is not leader locked and they have a very good trigger. The next most usable card is Nekomamushi who has the same trigger but is a threat to attack those pesky characters that don't need to rest to use their ability. He is not used in many decks but can be used in decks that rely on triggers. The next card would be Kouzuki Momonosuke. His two abilities are not leader locked so it may find it's way into other yellow decks. As mentioned above yellow does not generally have rush so this could provide the extra "umph" to some yellow decks.