Ranking Every Starter Deck For The One Piece Card Game

Summary

• Start with pre-constructed starter decks for One Piece Card Game to learn gameplay basics easily.
• New starter decks feature reprints and offer valuable cards to enhance existing strategies.
• Different decks, like Animal Kingdom Pirates and Worst Generation, provide unique playstyles and diverse card effects.

Like with any card game, the best and easiest way to get started with One Piece Card Game is with one of its pre-constructed starter decks. Not only are starter decks a great way to start, but, like Yu-Gi-Oh!, some of these decks might be worth a good chunk of change in the future.

They will teach you the basics of the game with a deck that best encapsulates what playstyle each color tends to have, but that is just the beginning of your journey to becoming the King of the Pirates.

Updated on February 7, 2025, by Jesus Morales: The new wave of starter decks are here! These new decks include incredible reprints for old strategies like Purple Luffy from OP05 and even Doflamingo from OP01. With this release, we felt like the list needed an update, reflecting some of the best decks to play right out of the box.

20

Monkey. D. Luffy (Black)

The First Character-Based Deck

• Key Cards:
  • ST08-005: Shanks
  • ST08-004: Koby

Black finally gets its own leader that isn’t a villain. Making it the third leader card with Straw Hat Luffy printed on it — the second one from starter decks alone — ST08 compiles a group of characters that have molded and inspired Luffy throughout his journey to become the next king of the pirates.

The deck and leader ability feel like a combination of red starter deck Monkey.D.Luffy leader and black Smoker leader, mixing the cost reduction abilities of black with the flexibility of rested DON!! cards.

19

FILM Edition

All The Movie-Exclusive Characters!

• Key Cards:
  • ST05-004: Uta
  • ST05-006: Gild Tesoro
  • ST05-014: Buena Festa

The first starter deck to be released after the initial four was a bit of a disappointment. It only doubled down on the DON!! minus strategy that the Animal Kingdom Pirates decks already does so much more efficiently. While the deck does have a few fun tricks up Shanks’ sleeve, like the massive Douglas Bullet character and the Union Armada event, it leaves much to be desired.

Luckily, since the deck is focused on movie-specific characters, as long as One Piece keeps churning out movies, this deck will continue getting support. Hopefully, we can get a real Red-Haired Pirates deck soon.

18

Zoro And Sanji

The Wings Of The Future Pirate King

• Key Cards
  • ST12-003: Dracule Mihawk
  • ST12-016: Lion Strike

The highly anticipated first dual leader deck came in as a bit of a flop. The leader’s effect is nothing to write home about. It can return one of your characters back to your hand to reactivate one of your more powerful characters. This effect can be really great to pair with excellent characters with on play effects and high counters on them.

The biggest boon that this starter deck carries is that it comes with two copies of Dracule Mihawk, a generic card that can be splashed onto just about any green deck that plays a handful of Slash attribute cards.

17

Yamato

“I Am Oden, I Will Protect You!”

• Key Cards:
  • ST09-014: Narikabura Arrow
  • ST09-012: Yamato

Just like ST08, the Yamato starter deck feels like a pile of jumbled up cards from different archetypes. Sadly, the color yellow suffers from being the newest color in the game, meaning their card pool is quite small compared to the rest of the colors in the game.

The deck makes up for its poor card choices by giving you an excellent leader card that can be extremely defensive — similar to Edward.Newgate — at the cost of your life cards. Not only is this deck an excellent choice to pick up the color yellow, but it also includes the yellow version of one of the best defensive counters in the game, Narikabura Arrow.

16

3D2Y

Two Years In Sabaody!

• Key Cards
  • ST14-003 Sanji
  • ST14-007 Nico Robin
  • ST14-016 I Have My Crew!!

After the Straw Hat’s defeat at Sabaody Archipelago, they must regroup after training for two years. This deck showcases each of the member’s training arcs while introducing a new mechanic into the game in the shape of adding cost to cards.

With Black having some of the most powerful removal in the game, adding cost to your characters with cards like I Have My Crew!! can help you stay in the game way longer.

15

Straw Hat Crew

The Future Pirate King’s Crew

• Key Cards:
  • ST01-014: Guard Point
  • ST01-006: Tony Tony.Chopper
  • ST01-015: Gum-Gum Jet Pistol
  • ST01-012: Monkey.D.Luffy
  • ST01-011: Brook

The deck featuring the leading cast of characters in One Piece is not bad by any means; the deck will teach new players how aggro works and the main core of the game, which is battling. Its only downside is that, in a constructed format, the Straw Hat deck lacks certain options that make it a less well-rounded and cohesive deck.

The deck does a lot of neat things, with it being able to use combos that can use rested DON!! to power up your next hit. It also includes big character cards that decks tend to have a hard time against like Franky, but it being a card with nothing to note besides its whopping 6,000 power leaves something to be desired. If aggressive play and huge, unstoppable characters are your thing, then the Straw Hat Crew deck is the way to go, but you’ll need a few more cards from Romance Dawn to round it out a bit more.

14

Animal Kingdom Pirates

Ruling Wano With An Iron Club

• Key Cards:
  • ST04-003: Kaido
  • ST04-004: King
  • ST04-005: Queen
  • ST04-017: Onigashima Island

Purple always tends to be the “gimmicky” color in most color-based card games. While it is also true in the One Piece Card Game, the Animal Kingdom Pirates deck does things a little differently from most. In the One Piece Card Game, you can draw two DON!! cards from your DON!! deck every turn. Purple pushes that further with cards like Onigashima Island, which you can rest once per turn to draw an extra DON!! card.

Even though Onigashima Island draws an extra DON!!, the card comes into play rested, so you are unable to use it to pay any play costs. That’s another small gimmick in the Purple deck; many cards include effects whose cost requires you to return a DON!! card back to the deck, constantly cycling your resources in a never-ending engine with an incredibly strong top end to clean up games quickly when played properly.

As the meta progresses, it seems like the real game begins when both players have their maximum allotted DON!!, so a deck that can ramp up quickly and reach that threshold by turn four can be quite deadly.

13

Absolute Justice

“Evil Cannot Be Forgiven!”

• Key Cards:
  • ST06-010: Shockwave
  • ST06-015: Great Eruption
  • ST06-006: Tashigi

Bandai’s first foray into a new color archetype is with the Navy-themed Absolute Justice starter deck. Absolute Justice and its leader, Sakazuki, focus on lowering the play cost of your opponent’s character in play and deleting them depending on how low their costs are. In a game where removing cards with massive power values is difficult, lowering their cost is a great way to circumvent that issue.

An interesting way of removal new to the One Piece Card Game and not so common in other card games, the cost-lowering effects in Absolute Justice falls in theme with the Navy in the One Piece universe holding a high and mighty attitude towards civilians and lower cost pirates.

12

The Seven Warlords Of The Sea

Pawns Of The World Government

• Key Cards:
  • ST03-017: Love-Love Mellow
  • ST03-009: Donquixote Doflamingo
  • ST03-005: Dracule Mihawk
  • ST03-007: Sentomaru

Every starter deck has its own identity, and the Warlords deck’s game plan is control. With tons of tools like the seven-cost Doflamingo and cheap blockers like Trafalgar Law, the Warlords deck can play an oppressive and slow game that will frustrate your opponent. Not only does the deck do well at controlling your opponent’s board by bouncing characters back to their hand or even redirecting attacks to your blockers, but it is also the only deck that can draw a lot of cards.

Due to the counter mechanic in the One Piece Card Game, card draw is few and far between, albeit during the draw phase. Cards that have card draw effects come at a steep price or need to meet specific conditions. Cards like Dracule Mihawk and the Love-Love Mellow event cards, while conditional, can offer players that extra counter that can save their lives. Control-heavy cards and unique card-drawing blockers and attackers are what make the Seven Warlords deck a force to be reckoned with in the One Piece Card Game.

11

Big Mom Pirates

The Biggest Pirate Family On The Sea

• Key Cards:
  • ST07-010: Charlotte Linlin
  • ST07-007: Charlotte Brulee
  • ST07-003: Charlotte Katakuri

The newest addition to the Four Emperors in the card game, Charlotte Linlin, otherwise known as “Big Mom,” is the Soul-Soul Fruit user. This deck is the first introduction to the color yellow in the One Piece Card Game, which tends to be a more defensive color, with healing as its main gimmick.

Linlin, when attacking, can add a card from the top or bottom of your Life, and if you have two or less Life, you can add a card from your hand to it. This effect is very powerful, since yellow tends to have many cards with a Trigger effect. Combined with cards like Charlotte Brulee and the seven-cost Character Charlotte Linlin, this deck will heal more often than you can attack.

10

Uta

A Deck Full Of Reprints

• Key Cards
  • ST11-002: Uta
  • ST11-005: I’m Invincible
  • ST11-003: Backlight
  • ST11-004: New Genesis

Although this starter deck is primarily made up of reprints, it includes some excellent cards to include in any green FILM strategy. This leader can search for a FILM card every time you attack, making it one of the most consistent decks out there. The only downside is that one of the most important cards in the deck, OP-02 Nami, was not reprinted in the starter.

Event cards like New Genesis make the deck draw even more cards while maximizing your DON!! curve. As long as One Piece keeps releasing movies, this deck will continue to get support.

9

Charlotte Katakuri

See The Future

• Key Cards
  • ST20-005: Charlotte Linlin

Katakuri was once one of the strongest decks in competitive play. With its ability to look at your, or your opponent’s, life cards, and their massive amount of trigger cards, Katakuri was a menance if you were lucky.

With his own starter deck now, his game play is much faster, especially with cards, like Charlotte Linlin, that can burn your opponent’s life from as early as your six DON!! turn. If you’re a fan of yellow and aggressive decks, then consider buying a copy or two of this one.

8

Smoker

Reduce Play Costs

• Key Cards
  • ST19-003: Tashigi
  • ST19-004: Hina

Smoker’s reprints weren’t dire, but welcome nonetheless. Hina was the only card that desperately needed a reprint, but by the time the deck came out, the Navy officer did not see as much play as before.

The good stuff in the deck is actually Tashigi. The card has an interesting ability where it has to be activated, but it will only work if it’s the turn that she was played. It works like an on play, but it gets around negating effects, like Marshall.D.Teach.

7

Uta (Reprint)

Even More FILM Support

• Key Cards:
  • ST16-004: Shanks
  • P-029: Bartolomeo

As opposed to the rest of the Starter Decks from this wave, Uta was already previously a starter deck. This version of ST16 is mostly reprints from the original Uta deck, with a few small, yet significant upgrades.

More notably, the Shanks card is an auto include in just about any green deck. Even if you’re not looking to play Uta, you’ll want to pick up a couple of these just for the Shanks alone. But don’t worry Uta fans; the new alternate arts for all the song cards are to die for!

6

Edward.Newgate

The Original 6,000 Power Leader Is Back

• Key Cards:
  • ST15-005: Portgas.D.Ace
  • ST15-002: Edward.Newgate

Edward Newgate was a dominant force during the early days of the One Piece Card Game, but it has been a while since there was a powerful red deck in the meta. Now, with the release of OP09, Shanks has taken up the mantle and propelled red players to almost guaranteed victory.

While Shanks is a great deck on its own, the thing that makes it so powerful comes from this very red Starter Deck. Both the Ace and Newgate cards featured in this deck are must includes in the Shanks deck if you’re looking to control their board.

5

Monkey.D.Luffy (Purple)

Ramp All The Way To Glory

• Key Cards
  • ST18-001: Uso-Hachi
  • ST18-005: Luffy-Tarou
  • ST18-004: Zoro-Juurou

Even though the red Starter Deck Luffy was initially known as THE generic leader, the coveted title now belongs to Purple Luffy. Even since its release, the deck was known to play a giant pile of seemingly random purple cards, but as new Straw Hat support continues to release in the color, Purple Luffy now has searchable cards that can push their advantage even further.

With cards like Luffy-Tarou and Zoro-Juurou, the deck can go wide really fast and out tempo your opponent.

4

Donquixote Doflamingo

Amazing Support For An Old Leader

• Key Cards:
  • ST17-004: Boa Hancock
  • ST17-005: Marshall.D.Teach
  • ST17-002: Trafalgar Law

This was the most anticipated deck out of the wave. As soon as the cards included were revealed, players realized what monstrosity Doflamingo could become. And they were right. With cards like Boa Hancock and Teach, missing Perona or Doflamingo blocker doesn’t feel as bad, as you’ll be able to reliably use your leader effect every turn.

The deck continues to win tournaments since its engine feels never ending. You remove a body and the Doflamingo player will somehow spawn three more next turn.

3

Worst Generation

The Start Of The New Era

• Key Cards:
  • ST02-007: Jewelry Bonney
  • ST02-004: Capone”Gang”Bege
  • ST02-009: Trafalgar Law

While they are known as the Worst Generation, they are easily the best when it comes to the One Piece Card Game. Not only is the Leader effect in Eustass Kid one of the most powerful effects in the entire game, but the deck includes powerful search cards like Jewelry Bonney, which can search almost the entire deck, and Killer, a monster of a card that can K.O. any three-cost or less unit.

Most of the power of this deck comes from the synergy that all the Supernovas have with each other and the myriad of effects that they bring to the table. K.O. effects, setting rested characters to active, resting your opponent’s characters, high damage output, you name it, this deck has it.

The Worst Generation is not unbeatable by any means. Bandai has designed and balanced the game quite well, to the point that it feels like each deck beats the next one. If you’re ever caught in a pickle against the Worst Generation, try bringing a Blue Warlords deck.

2

The Three Brothers

New Yellow-Centered Playstyles

• Key Cards:
  • ST13-013 Monkey.D.Garp
  • ST13-015 Monkey.D.Luffy
  • ST13-011 Portgas.D.Ace.

Just like the previous Ultra Deck, the Three Brothers deck includes three leader cards with a core that can be used with any of them. This deck includes Sabo, Portgas D. Ace, and Monkey D. Luffy. The decks’ main gameplay revolves around life cards and your ability to manipulate them. Luffy can get huge power boosts, Ace can continuously heal, and Sabo can use rush cards to heal and gain advantage.

The retail version of the deck also comes with a promo card, on which you’ll find alternate art versions of three random cards from the deck.

1

The Three Captains

The Pirates Who Will Carry The Next Generation Forward

• Key Cards:
  • ST10-013: Eustass”Captain”Kid
  • ST10-010: Trafalgar Law
  • ST10-006: Monkey.D.Luffy
  • ST10-012: Bepo

Just like the Beelzemon Advanced Deck Set in Bandai’s other card game, Digimon Card Game, The Three Captains deck is a premium product that comes at a higher MSRP than most starter decks. The deck comes with extra goods to make up the extra cost, such as a plastic deck box and a full set of foil DON!! cards.

The deck comes packed with three different leader cards featuring Trafalgar Law, Eustass Kid, and the future pirate king himself, Monkey D. Luffy, all surrounded by foil cards of their precious crewmates. Not only is the deck jam-packed with amazing meta-defining cards, but it also includes alternate art reprints of OP01 Nami and OP01 Zoro!