Building a One Piece Card Game Deck From Scratch

At Level 1 you upgraded a starter. That is building with training wheels: the deck already had a plan, and you swapped a few cards. Building from scratch means making the plan yourself. The rules give you the frame: 1 Leader, 50 cards that share a color with it, no more than 4 of any card number, and 10 DON!!. Everything else is choice.

This lesson gives you a process. It does not name specific cards, because the best ones change with every set and every banned list.

Step 1: the Leader

Start here, because the Leader decides three things:

• Colors. One or two. A two-color Leader has more cards to choose from.
• Life. The number of hits you can take, and how many cards your Life gives you over the game.
• The plan. Many Leaders have an effect the whole deck should feed: a type it rewards, a cost it cares about, or something it does with DON!!.

Read the Leader and write one sentence: “This deck wins by…” Every card that follows should serve that sentence.

Step 2: jobs

Before any card names, list the jobs your deck needs and how many cards each one gets. A common set:

• Early plays. Cards you can play on your first two or three turns, with 1 to 4 DON!!.
• Card flow. Draw, search, or cards that look at the top of your deck. They make your deck more consistent.
• Removal. Ways to K.O., rest, or return opposing Characters.
• Defense. Blockers, [Counter] Events, and the Counter values on your Characters.
• Finishers. The cards that end the game: big attackers, Rush, Double Attack, or Leader support.

Then use the odds lesson. A job you need on turn 1 needs about 8 cards to show up in most opening hands. A job you need by the midgame can have fewer, because you will have drawn more by then. A finisher can be just a few copies: you only need one when the time comes.

Step 3: core cards at 4 copies

For each job, pick your best card and play 4. Four copies is the most the rules allow, and it is the only way to see a card in about a third of opening hands. Cards you play at 1 or 2 copies should be ones you are happy not to see in most games.

Step 4: count your Counters

Lay out every Character and note its Counter value. Then count:

• How many cards have a Counter value. The odds lesson shows how this number becomes Counters in your opening hand.
• How many are worth 2000. Higher values stop bigger attacks with fewer cards.

There is no single correct number. Look at recent top-cut lists for your Leader, if you can find them, and count their Counter cards. That is your benchmark. If your deck has far fewer, you need another plan for defense.

Step 5: shape the curve

Sort the deck by cost, low to high. Use the DON!! table from Level 1: you have about 1 to 2 DON!! on turn 1, 3 to 4 on turn 2, and 5 to 6 on turn 3. A deck full of 6-costs will have nothing to do on its first three turns.

Check two things. Do you have enough plays at the costs you will have early? And on a typical turn, can you spend all your DON!! with two cards from your hand?

Step 6: Triggers and Events

Triggers are a bonus that comes free with good cards. Prefer a card with a useful Trigger when two choices are close, but do not add a weak card just for its Trigger.

Events are the hardest cards to judge. An Event does its job once, then goes to the trash, and has no Counter value as a Character would. Keep the ones that do a job no Character in your colors can.

Step 7: count to 50, then test

Add the jobs up and make them exactly 50. Then play at least ten games before you change much. Keep the notes from the upgrades lesson: which cards win games, which sit in your hand, and what beats you.

Check before you sleeve it

• Every card shares a color with your Leader.
• No card number appears more than 4 times.
• Every card is legal in Standard: check the block symbol and Bandai’s Banned/Restricted Card List, which includes banned pairs of cards that cannot be in the same deck.
• Exactly 50 cards, plus your Leader and 10 DON!!.

A deck that passes the check and plays its plan in ten test games is ready for a store event.