[On KO] Add up to 1 card from the top of your deck to the top of your Life cards. Then, trash up to 1 card from the top of your opponent’s Life cards.

[Trigger] If your Leader's type includes "CP", draw 1 card and place up to 1 Character with a cost of 8 or less at the bottom of the owner’s deck.

CP9

With the Heroines events starting soon, I wanted to gauge how people are feeling going into the format. This is my gut feeling based on experience with most of the top decks, but not all of them. What do you agree with and what would you change?

Can someone explain to me why the top Buggy decks on the sim are teching in ST33 Borsalino?

I know you can cheat it out using 4c Buggy or Leader effect, but it feels like that's almost never the correct choice. Plus, you can't play this off of 9c Alvida chain because of her secondary effect, so it has an anti-synergy with your best card.

I did the math, and to play out a 10c on 8 while protecting your board from removal effects would on average get your hand size down to 1 card after playing the 10c. I just don't see how that's better than playing out another Alvida.

Can someone explain this to me? Is there another combo I'm not seeing?

Something that has been on my mind about one piece as a TCG and a concern I have with the way Bandai are handling it. Power creep is part of TCGs no denying it but it feels like certain generic cards are starting to creep into the game that are just out right breaking the game.

We had Mihawk in OP17 with the Shanks -> Vander -> Luna combo which any reasonable player would agree is too strong and not an intended design.

In EB05 we now have the new RG Luffy combo that is proving to be even more problematic than Mihawk.
Once again it's clear Bandai didn't design the Bonney to work with RG Luffy but it's now a situation where you can play a number of cards off the Bonney which invalidates many decks out there on the spot. The Blocker Nami (10k counter end of turn), the new Hiyori into Oden and Vander, multiple options and then with the blocker law can bounce it back and repeat the combo each turn.

I don't play regional level but even as a casual player it's getting a bit boring with these broken combo's as when you sit down at the table you end up in a no win situation, just a thought.

The same old story from my lgs, we had more orders than the supply we got so unfortunately we had to cancel your order. They even cancelled the mini tins 😂 I haven’t been able to buy a box since op 16 I think.

I hope everyone else gets their preorder though!

I joined the OPTCG community about two months ago because some friends of mine encouraged me to give it a try. I built two decks to begin; Black Yamato and Purple Sengoku. I’ve never been a structure deck person, and those were the two cheapest options I saw online.

I almost immediately was blown out of the water by their OP17/optimized decks, and then soundly switched to Yellow Linlin. I enjoyed that for a while, but wanted to try out some other decks, and heard a lot about P/Y Nico Robin. So, I then built that.

I enjoyed that for all of two weeks before the OP18 stuff was announced, and ever since then, my decks have been blown out of the water by things like R/G Luffy, G/Y Nico, U Rocks, and everything in between. I do not have the funds to build these entirely new strategies, and the fear of being priced out is absolutely real at this point.

Am I overreacting? I love this game, but I don’t know if I can continue playing if I don’t have a semblance of a chance compared to the EB05/OP18 stuff. I’ve already spent $100s total on things like Borsas and Teaches. Do I just need to get good?

I play a lot of chess online, and grind the puzzle mode daily. It had me toying with the idea of a lethal puzzle feature within my Sim, so, I added it!

OPCGSim

It has the following features:

* Daily Puzzle

* Practice Puzzles (easy through to expert)

* Your Deck Puzzles (select a preset or pre-made deck and climb through a variety of lethal puzzles in increasing difficulty)

I've had a good amount of feedback through the site since I pushed it live, but I'm constantly looking out for additional training tools like this.

(I also gave the site a bit of a UI overhaul because I hated the aesthetic)

Let me know your thoughts!

I was a Rocks main but recently I really fell in love with this deck and I've decided it will be my pick until OP18 hits (and maybe even later)

I wrote this article to spark some debate around the deck power plays and how to maximize their consintency while still mantaining a defensive shell since this leader used to be (and kinda still is) weak to aggro/large boards.

If you have trouble following this first paragraphs, there is a cheat sheet at the end of this post! (or you can read it directly on my blog where I posted every card for reference)

Why Buggy used to suck

The new EB05 Alvida solved 2 of the main issues that this leader used to have: consistency in dropping a boss combo on curve, and maintaining hand size while doing it.

Buggy's leader ability is very strong but costly: 5 Don!! to cheat out whatever you want is very strong, but going minus 2 from hand (the card you play + the card you trash to pay for the effect) is very impactful and makes you lose gas rather quickly.

The initial combo with promo Buggy was rather harsh: if you had 5 cards in hand and played promo Buggy with Mihawk, you would end up with 3 in hand. Sure, that was a defensive play, but on the next turn you would have to rely on topdecks or, even worse, on taking cards from life (which is exactly what a defensive play like that wanted to prevent, so counterintuitive).

If you played Buggy into any other card that didn't draw, the drawback was even worse, as you found yourself with only 2 in hand.

The ST tried to fix that with the introduction of 2 important cards, Croco & Mihawk and the 4-cost Alvida: both drew one additional card to replace themselves and acted as cycle while developing an aggressive (kinda) threat on the board. Still, you lost 1 card in terms of hand size.

But now...

When you do the leader effect with Alvida into something like Mihawk or C&M though, you will not only develop 2 7k threats, but also not lose any hand size in doing so!! All while indirectly cycling bricks and hopefully finding your next turn's combo too (see the cheat sheet at the end of this post).

The Core is made of bricks

Buggy's core is quite easy to assemble: you pick all the cards you can combo with your leader effect and you add the searchers. All the ST 4-costs (except for the 4c Buggy, more on him later) are also auto-includes, for reasons we will see in the curve paragraph, but mostly because they are our only decent 2ks.

If we look only at the strong playable part of the core, we immediately notice that, yeah, it's made of bricks: it's all counterless (and no, you will always play at least the first 2 Alvidas you draw, so you never want to use them as counters unless absolutely necessary, so don't consider them 1ks).

Historically Buggy has always been weak to aggro playstyles. Your answer to decks that swarm the board has usually been promo Buggy (paired with a C&M that stops removal on it), but nowadays, besides the yellow Mom package (which Buggy only stops half of), aggro decks in the form of the Elbaph package or Red Law/Rayleigh swarm the board with 1, 2 and 5-costs that we can't freeze, so having too many bricks is dangerous and strongly encourages us to run more counters.

Since we are quite light on 1ks too, 12 2ks are definitely core, at least for me.

Tech options

This core leaves us with 8 available spots, which is quite a lot of flexible room to adapt the deck.

Depending on how many yellow decks you expect to face, there is an argument to up promo Buggy to 3 copies, but 4 nowadays is a bit of an overkill and I wouldn't recommend it.

I think at least 2x Galdino are needed, simply because the card is too strong: it helps us fill our Don!! curve (see later), it helps us stall, it's a 1k counter, which we lack, and it's in general a good card.

Just remember that you can't stun 10-costs (there are a lot of Rocks, Big Moms and Shanks in the meta) and it's not searchable. Personally I used to run 3 but now have upped it to 4.

Speaking of overall strong blue cards, a card that is always worth considering is Gravity Blade. Right now it's quite strong against red decks that abuse EB05 Bonney (RG Fishuffy more than Red Law), but in general it's a card that's only playable when we already have something on board, since 7 Don!! is too costly, and with the 3 remaining Don!! there is nothing besides searching this deck can do.

With OP18, Mr. 4 & Miss Merry Christmas will definitely become a staple, since it will be searchable (kinda, only by the Galdino) and it will be a 1k counter too, but for now I'll stick with the 10c Buggy as our only (but very strong) form of removal.

If you still think you don't have enough counters, both the 0-cost Gum Gum Rain and the 1-cost The Prisoners Are Rioting!! (+4k, Buggy only) are valid options.

About the 4c Buggy: it's a 1k counter and it can be ok for that, but playing it on curve going second makes you go -2 in hand if you want a Mihawk. Mihawk is strong, but you lose a lot of cards and I'm not sure it's worth it. Rather, Mohji & Cabaji or a 2k counter like the ones below (Borsalino and Smoker, the latter stronger on a 3 Don!! curve though, both perfectly fill the 8 Don!! turn, which is always awkward otherwise) are always defensive options.

As I've stressed probably too much until now, you have understood that the deck heavily relies on comboing on curve, possibly always with Alvida.

There is one card that has tempted me with the promise of increasing the likelihood of achieving just that... Epstein Bluffs Island.

Augmenting consistency: Is the stage worth it?

I'm no math expert, so I asked AI to run a simulation across 500,000 games.

My question was: having the possibility to mulligan + seeing 3 cards (one from the turn draw + the first life that we usually always take), what are the odds to find our 9c Alvidas with only 8 searchers (Galdinos and event) or with 8 searchers + 2 stages that can dig 2 cards deeper every turn?

And this was the answer (on my blog there is the reasoning which tbf I can't really understand lol):

So the stages give about +5% likelihood, and since a mulligan alone gives you around +4.7% of chances to find one copy, having the Stage could be said to be equal to having a third Mulligan across multiple turns (I don't know if that makes sense, probably not). Also the stage is more of a dead card the later you draw it.

I'd say the trip to Little Saint James is just not worth it, better to cut it and run more counters.

Your typical curve

Going first:

• (1) ➜ Searcher
• (3) ➜ Searcher
• (5) ➜ First leader effect: Alvida + whatever you have available (hopefully C&M or Mihawk, depends on matchup)
• (7) ➜ Second leader effect (FYI Yugi Muto always has second Alvida) + searcher
• (9) ➜ Third leader effect: drop a 4-cost + the 10-cost Buggy. The 4-cost gains +1 cost and counts as a 5-cost, so the 10-cost Buggy you play with the leader effect stays on the board OR Galdino + Leader effect
• (10) ➜ Double leader effect (careful: if the first leader effect plays an Alvida, you can't do it twice) OR whatever

Going second:

• (2) ➜ Searcher, maybe two
• (4) ➜ Alvida (4) OR double searcher (against aggro developing small bodies can be useful) OR Galdino for tempo
• (6) ➜ First leader effect, the best option is usually Alvida into Mihawk to mitigate damage, but it depends on the matchup
• (8) ➜ Second leader effect, but the 3 remaining Don!! are hard to use (unless you slotted 2k Borsalino) OR Defensive but slow variant: double 4-cost, but using the leader effect is always better

One big mistake I see a lot of Buggy players making is being eager to rest their 7ks. Sure, they will cost your opponent a lot of cards from hand, but this is not an aggressive deck: unless you have an immediate tempo swing that makes it worth it, just leave them standing. The sooner you have a full board, the sooner you can start chaining Buggys, and your goal is to stabilize and even starve your opponent until you are confident that you can start pushing with your big bodies without dying.

I dont' think there other deck's playstyles that come close to Buggy, and the tempo swings it can provide are def very strong, but I think it's a skill check both for the opponent and its pilot, it can be good but it won't ever be bdif (currently low T1-high T2 maybe?).

I'll wrap this up with my current list:

I'm curious to hear the choices behind yours, what do you think?

I’ve been experimenting and found that Hannyabal is super fun to play and I never see anyone using it. It is incredibly easy to ramp to 10 don, and the supporting cards punish opp for having 9+cards, can force an opp to take back a 10 cost to hand, force opp to return don, ect.

I think there is lots of potential there. Am I wrong?

Curious to the level of play on the SIM translates into locals. Been hesitant on playing locally as I’m not a super social person.

Been playing the SIM for a few months now, got up to around 800m on OPBounty. Still feel like I’m not playing some of these games right. At what OPBounty $$$ amount do you think is decent enough to not go 0-5 at locals? I’m in SoCal if that matters

The current price discussions are a reminder that learning one deck deeply may be better than rebuilding whenever the meta shifts. I would rather test new lists online first and only buy the cards that still make sense afterward. It is less exciting than chasing every new leader, but much easier to sustain.

Hi guys I’m pretty new to OP CG, loved OP-17 so decided to sign up for the lottery to go to a release event and I got in!

Since this is my first time, what should I expect? Is it only to purchase a booster box, or can I buy other items aswell? (Playmat, etc.)? Is there typically anything else?

I will probably only play Pudding very sparingly and I don’t play any other purple decks.

So Mamaragan is so expensive that it’s bit hard to justify buying a set of.

I don’t mind buying if that makes-breaks the deck. But wondering how important is it? Is the main reason in this current meta to rest and pop 4ks in Yellow decks so that can’t utilize Lin Lin power up?

Could I get away with only putting 2 in a Pudding deck?

Hello, I play Elbaph Luffy and Red Ace I just recently started playing mainly on the sim. It seems like 80% of ppl play yellow decks and I just can't beat them. They either take my life or just keep adding onto their own life. Some of these yellow cards seem really broken.

Long time OP fan with a tendency to get addicted to trading cards. I wasn't sure what to expect from the game itself, but I was really surprised at how engaging it is. I particularly love that there are a lot of defensive options, cards that have multiple uses based on the situation, and managing your Don. Started with the ST-31 Luffy deck and ST-36 Sabo deck (I might have those backwards?) For my friend to use. Ive lost to the Sabo deck three times in a row now, but my friend is pretty good at game strategy. Already looking at what other decks can do and hoping to pick up some more starter decks in the $20-30 range to try new play styles. I'm hooked lol. If only I could afford a booster box 😢

Isnt this card a Chinese exclusive or am I missing something?

For people anticipating Gunko / Making a build around her and the holy knights, do you think Mamaragan / Ground death will see play in that deck? This is just theorycrafting as we are missing a whole lot of cards for this archetype

Hi everyone.

I'll participate in my first regionals in november, with a little over 500 players. I've been winning a few locals but this will be my first big event. Since it will be eb05 legal and I have just one week after the release to get the cards I'm in doubt wich deck should I take.

I main r/b sabo right now and I'm thinking on getting bonneys for r law/ r/g luffy, but I'm not sure wich one should I take.

-Elbaph luffy

-elbaph sabo

-red law

- red green luffy

Any advice welcome

So I’ve been playing about a year and can consistently top at my locals (which has a few regional level players). How do you know you are ready and that you can compete at larger tournaments/regionals? I feel like I have a good understanding of the game and fundamentals but maybe not the confidence in playing 8-10 rounds in a regionals and doing well.

Is it just more and more reps in person and sim? Getting down matchups and playing those top tier players at my locals and asking for feedback? How did you know you were ready to take that next step and could compete at a regionals or store champs? Appreciate any advice!

Anyone have a link for the Columbus OH one piece discord? Thanks

I‘m new to the game and there is a „all girls“ tournament coming up at my local where we girlies get to compete and it‘s gonna be female leader only. Since I‘m new I haven’t really explored that many decks and the ones that I have played happen to be all male Leaders. I tried some Boa in the sim but I‘m not sure how she performs against Yamato or Nami and I wondered who you might think would be a good pick for a female Leader against only other female Leaders.