The Best Cards From OP-09

Most of the time whenever a One Piece Card Game set releases, there is a shake-up in the meta for the first couple of weeks, but then players get comfortable and return to their favorite decks. OP09 Emperors In The New World is quite different. The amount of highly competitive meta decks is outstanding.

With new leaders like Shanks and Marshall.D.Teach, the game is now played completely differently. You’ll be attaching DON!! cards a bit smarter to avoid Shanks’ ability or playing around Blackbeard’s On Play shutdown shenanigans. Make sure all of your cards are ready to fight these strong Emperors Of The Sea.

10

Gum-Gum Giant

The Best Defensive Event

With aggressive leaders being such a big part of the meta, Gum-Gum Giant is one of the best cards to save for the late game if you’re playing a purple deck. Most purple decks don’t mind returning DON!! back to the deck, so the card’s cost is insignificant when in a pinch.

The effect of Gum-Gum Giant fully resolves during the counter step, so you’ll still be able to use some of the cards that you draw from it as counter if you need them.

9

Shanks

Reduce The Board’s Power

This 10-drop monster is one of the key cards of the Shanks deck. The deck doesn’t do much until the eight DON!! turn, but once its engine becomes online, Shanks is almost unstoppable. This boss character will reduce the power of every character on your opponent’s board by 1,000, making it even harder for them to get an attack through.

Combined with Shanks’ leader effect, this card will create a massive defensive wall that will be tough to overcome. Let’s hope you top deck the Red Roc.

8

Marshall.D.Teach

Shut Down Your Opponent’s Leader

As soon as the Blackbeard Pirates cards were released to the public, players immediately thought of them as meta-warping and possibly the next-best deck in the format. Luckily for newer players, the deck is quite hard to pilot, and with Doflamingo still around, Marshall.D.Teach has a hard time against aggro decks.

Sure, the deck is difficult, but once you drop one of these 10-drop Blackbeard, the tide of battle will change in your favor. Especially if you are playing against a Nami player.

7

Jesus Burgess

Good Luck Removing Him

It could be argued that Jesus Burgess is THE key card of the Blackbeard deck. You can bank your win on 10-drop Marshall.D.Teach, but the card that will help you stretch the game long enough to play him will be this beefy character.

Burgess will get stronger as you discard cards for your leader effect, making it one of the stickiest cards in the game, as he cannot be removed by K.O. effects. Once you slam this card down on your four DON!! turn, your opponent will immediately begin scrambling on how to remove him.

6

Franky

Queen Or Franky? The Choice Is Yours

The Purple Queen card from the Animal Kingdom Pirates Starter Deck has been the go-to blocker for purple decks that need to cycle their deck for cards they might need, but now, with this Franky blocker, you can achieve this faster at your four DON!! turn.

You can argue for Queen’s usage since the card is a bit stronger at 6,000 power and it only requires one DON!! to be returned, but Franky being a Straw Hat Pirate, gives it the best typing in the entire card game.

5

Sanji

Rush Your Opponent Down

OP05 Purple Luffy was one of the strongest decks in the meta upon its arrival, but with the support in OP09, the deck becomes even better. The deck can ramp up DON!! at a rapid pace and draws cards while doing so, making it a defensive and offensive jack-of-all-trades.

With this Sanji, you’ll be able to penetrate even the toughest blockers by resting them and attacking them on the same turn with its powerful Rush ability. As long as purple Straw Hats get printed, this deck will stay on top.

4

Monkey.D.Luffy

Flexible Top End For Purple

All three purple Monkey.D.Luffy decks will welcome this Secret Rare card into their arsenal. They can ramp to their biggest characters in a few turns, making this 10,000-power Rush card invaluable.

This Luffy card can not only send a huge attack your opponent’s way, but it’ll replace itself by drawing one more card from your deck. If you’re looking for a midrange deck that has tools for just about any situation that your opponent might throw your way, then purple will be your flavor of the week.

3

Benn.Beckman

Dodge All The K.O. Effects

Sometimes all you need is a single line of text to make a card great. Benn.Beckman is an excellent removal tool for just about any Red deck. This type of removal targets a character without K.O.ing it, dodging any On K.O. or protection effects, making it highly effective against cards like Sabo or Jesus Burgess.

The only restriction is the 6,000 power caveat, but as a red deck, I’m sure you can get that power lowered without a second thought.

2

Gol.D.Roger

Alternate Win Condition

Outside of the Nami leader, there aren’t any other alternate win conditions, this changed with the Pirate King himself, Gol.D.Roger. While on the surface, this is just another Rush top end for red decks, Roger comes with an added effect that as long as either you or your opponent have zero life left, if your opponent activates a blocker, they will lose the game.

It can be quite tricky to activate Roger’s game-winning ability, but if set up correctly, your opponent will have to either take a massive 13,000-power attack to life or lose the game.

1

Trafalgar Law

Best Search For The Best Crews

If you’ve read previous lists on the One Piece Card Game on TheGamer.com, then you know how we feel about searcher characters. This OP09 Trafalgar Law is one of the best by far. Not only can the card search two different archetypes with Straw Hat Crew or Heart Pirates, but it is in the purple color, which already loves to make decks as a huge hodgepodge mess of cards.

Sadly it can’t find other searchers in the archetype, like Nami, as it only finds two cost or higher. They had to make it at least a little fair.