Table of Contents
Welcome to our One Piece Card Game Meta Tier List! In this meta report, we will look at the best decks of the One Piece Card Game metagame. Leaders within each tier are listed in the order they are discussed in this article. That is not a statement to one being stronger than another in the same tier.
Two Legends (OP08) releases in English on September 2024. Make sure to check out a preview of the Japan metagame:
Tier 1 - The Best of the Best
Red/Purple Trafalgar D. Law
When it comes to decks that are the talk of the town, you don't get much more talked about than Red/Purple Trafalgar Law This leader has seen a steady rise in its usage every time a new set has released. Little buffs have added up and now, he's one of the best decks out there.
RP Trafalgar Law swarms the field with 5-6k attackers, controls the board via bottom decking, and works to overwhelm the opponent with sheer numbers.
It's a deck that has strong matchups against almost every other major leader (other than Gecko Moria) and is set to continue its dominance in OP-08. When preparing for OP-07, RP Trafalgar Law is one leader that players cannot afford to overlook.
Yellow Enel
Yellow has been a powerful color since its debut, but typically Charlotte Katakuri has been the spokesperson (spokes-character?) taking over game shops. That had mainly been due to the power of 10c Charlotte Linlin. Enel didn't really have anything on par with her, but that suddenly changed in OP-07. Thanks to 10c Portgas.D.Ace, who adds a card to the top of its owner’s life on play and gets rush if they have two or less life, Enel has stepped out of the shadows and is ready to beat down on any players who head into this matchup unprepared.
Enel players take hits early on, then use 9c Yamato, 8c Charlotte Katakuri, and 10c Portgas.D.Ace to continually stay around 2 life. Thanks to cards like Charlotte Flampe, they have a large hand size and are able to counter out of any attacks that are inconvenient to them. Interestingly though, 7c Charlotte Linlin started to disappear from most builds in favor of Charlotte Compote, who is able to more easily deal with Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy.
Unfortunately, Enel remains an expensive deck to build, so many players may struggle to obtain an optimum list. However, if your locals start to fill with big spenders, Enel tends to struggle vs Jewelry Bonney and Gecko Moria, especially if the former runs 9c Roronoa Zoro.
Black Gecko Moria
This burned out warlord still has more than a little fight in him, as without Sakazuki around, he’s finally getting the chance to shine.
Gecko Moria specializes in recycling resources from the trash pile and removing characters from the board via ko effects. Thanks to Perona and a new addition of Issho, he's able to keep up vs yellow and Trafalgar Law’s gaggle of low cost characters remain easy fodder for Absalom.
Unfortunately, while Issho has definitely made the matchup better, Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy’s attack boosts make this one tough for Gecko Moria players. On top of that, Rob Lucci tends to move a bit faster at Gecko Moria’s own game, leading to a bit of a troublesome matchup there.
Tier 2 - Hmm...Needs A Pinch of...Something
Tier 2 consists of decks that are still extremely good, but that have struggled to break into the top spots for one reason or another.
Green Bonney
Jewelry Bonney is a leader with an extremely skewed matchup profile. The deck focuses on resting one of the opponent's characters and/or their leader, so she does very well against decks that rely on swinging tall like Enel and Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy. However, the other side of that coin is that she struggles against decks that bring out many small characters like RP Trafalgar Law or Rob Lucci.
While she's certainly a strong deck, capable of stunlocking certain opponents and dropping massive threats like 10c Donquixote Doflamingo and 9c Roronoa Zoro, her weakness to some common leaders prevents her from making it into the top spot.
Black/Yellow Monkey D. Luffy
Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy was a leader many were sure would take the meta by storm and it's certainly made a few waves. Unfortunately, Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy has two major issues holding him back.
- His reliance on leader swings
- His predictability
Buffing up your own leader to 9k attack is a powerful move, but it does nothing against a blocker or if your leader is permanently rested. As Monkey.D.Luffy gained more relevance, other decks began to tech against him more. Nami started running Boodle, Enel swapped 7c Charlotte Linlin for Charlotte Compote, and other decks began to focus more on bottom decking or just building up a good board and waiting for the buff to pass.
Additionally, since Monkey.D.Luffy had to be at 0 life to begin boosting, it led to a predictable first few turns. This means that experienced players are able to learn the matchup and play around it.
While he's certainly an excellent leader in his own right, he hasn't been able to claim the king of the Pirates spot just yet.
New Rob Lucci
Oddly enough, Rob Lucci has better matchups than Gecko Moria in almost every situation, other than Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy. A case could certainly be made for those two to switch spots, but as of now, Rob Lucci doesn't see as much play as Gecko Moria and hence, has not had as many tournament wins as his warlord counterpart.
It’s my belief that the familiarity of Gecko Moria and the better matchup vs Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy have led to our carpenter friend not getting the love he deserves.
Tier 2.5 - Literally Just Katakuri
While everything else on this list would be considered rogue decks, there is one that clearly outpaces all the others. They haven't won enough to make it into tier 2, but have proven themselves to be better than their counterparts in tier 3. Welcome to tier 2.5.
Yellow Charlotte Katakuri
Charlotte Katakuri hasn't really had a massive fall from grace, as some would lead you to believe. It's more like a slight tumble. Charlotte Katakuri still gets wins consistently, especially in the flagship environment, but his exceptionally poor matchup vs Black/Yellow Monkey.D.Luffy and the addition of 10c Portgas.D.Ace to Enel, have led the mochi man to see less play than before.
Charlotte Katakuri still does Charlotte Katakuri things, so not too much has changed regarding his decklist. The main change has been a swap from the now banned Reject to Blaze Slice, which helps in the RP Trafalgar Law matchup.
Tier 3 - Rogue Decks
As the name suggests, this tier is made up of sneaky, yet charming, lockpickers and thieves...or possibly just decks that aren't dominating the meta, but are still winning some tournaments every week.
Blue Nami
Nami got a significant boost this set in the form of two new engines, Kuja Pirates and Warlords. With the additional options, she's now a bit less predictable. Unfortunately, while the biggest thorn in her side (Sakazuki) might be gone, RP Trafalgar Law and Boa Hancock have made it so she's struggled to really make it past rogue status.
Green/Yellow Yamato
Wano engine Yamato has seen a pretty good resurgence with the addition of Otama as extra search. He's a pretty aggressive deck, so he does have some decent matchups, but tends to struggle against Enel, Boa Hancock, and RP Trafalgar Law.
Blue Boa Hancock
The queen of Amazon Lily did not make as big of an impact as people expected. She debuted with two engines (Kuja Pirates and Warlords), but it seems like the Warlord one won out. However, while she's a great answer to Jewelry Bonney and BY Monkey.D.Luffy, she has a really hard time against Gecko Moria and Rob Lucci.
Green/Black Perona
About a month ago, a new Perona build started winning tournaments. Very soon after, a good portion of the playerbase started trying it out and having a lot of fun with it. Known as Eco-Perona, this build combines a wano engine with Kouzuki Hiyori, Kouzuki Momonosuke, and Otama with the recursion from 8c Gecko Moria to consistently draw cards and get out Mountain God and Ryuma. It has good win rates and is only held back by the combination of R/P Trafalgar Law and its own novelty. This could be a sleeper pick for the western meta, who would have enough time to learn the ins and outs of it before the set debuts.
Blue Donquixote Doflamingo
Donquixote Doflamingo is a leader many expected great things from this set, since he got so many warlord buffs. However, much like Boa Hancock, he hasn't been able to really carve out a spot in the meta. Another unfortunate similarity he shares is that he struggles against Rob Lucci and Gecko Moria, but unlike Boa Hancock, he also has trouble against Enel.
Blue/Purple Vinsmoke Reiju
The fact that Vinsmoke Reiju can make it on this list at all is a testament to how strong the deck is. Vinsmoke Reiju's primary counter is R/P Trafalgar Law, as he can make it so she can almost never activate her character's effects (since they require the Vinsmoke Reiju player to have equal or less don than their opponent). With how popular R/P Trafalgar Law is, she should have completely disappeared, but she remains an option for incredibly skilled players. That being said, I would still recommend against using her, as the environment is very unfavorable towards her matchups.
Purple Monkey D. Luffy
Purple Monkey.D.Luffy waited in the shadows, biding his time, until Sakazuki finally fell. Then, he jumped up, had Brook play some music, and danced on the lava man's corpse.
He really needed Sakazuki out of the way, and he does have some pretty decent matchups, but Rob Lucci seems to be his major weakness. Purple Monkey.D.Luffy has slowly been growing in usage since the ban and it'll be interesting to see how he continues into OP-08.
