Table of Contents
Leader Overview
Let’s talk about the most unique leader in the game, OP03-040-nami. OP03-040-nami is the only leader that wins by decking herself out, and as such, she’s focused much more of defending and drawing cards than attacking your opponents.
I’ve talked a lot about her before in previous metas, so today we’ll be focused on what’s changed for OP03-040-nami and how she fits into the 08 meta.
Nami’s Place in the Meta
In the eastern version of OP-08, she had a lot of trouble, as the horde of ST10-001-trafalgar-law players would continually spam out characters and bottom deck her OP03-044-kayas. While she could handle the other two main threats handedly, OP07-079-rob-lucci and OP05-098-enel, the prevalence of ST10-001-trafalgar-law were just too much to land her a solid spot in the meta.
However, with the banning of ST10-001-trafalgar-law, the clouds have parted and OP03-040-nami players can sail towards a new horizon. Of course, a new world comes with new threats, but the meta is certainly more favorable for her.
Kuja VS Impel Down
Unfortunately, with the widespread use of black decks, the Warlords Build is just not viable, as 7c OP01-067-crocodile will not stick on the field long enough to be worth the don spent on him. That leaves players with a choice between the Kuja Pirates and Impel Down variants. While many tend to prefer the kuja pirates variant, often citing the consistency of drawing with OP07-054-marguerite and having better search targets, I believe the ceiling for the deck is a lot lower than the Impel Down variant. Kuja is certainly an easier deck to learn, but I take issue with OP07-054-marguerite's lack of counter and removing OP02-069-death-wink from the list, as I believe many players undervalue its significance. I am not here to disparage the Kuja variant, as I have played it plenty and see its benefits, but I have found much more success with Impel Down.
Deck List
Deck List: Core Cards
All of these cars are essential to any OP03-040-nami deck and should be run at 4 copies. I won’t spend too much time discussing them in-depth here, as most players will already be familiar. However, if you’re new to the deck, here’s a short explanation.
OP03-044-kaya is one of the best cards this deck could ask for. 1 don to remove 2 cards from the deck is a hell of a steal and the 2k counter on top is just icing on the cake.
An unconditional draw 2 effect is hard to beat. While the 3 don cost is a little costly and must be taken into consideration, it’s too strong not to include a playset of. On top of that, you can get the effect for free off of triggers.
Speaking of triggers, that’s the main use for this card. Draw 2, trash 1 from your hand gets you a free 2 cards out of the deck. However, it would be a mistake to view its trigger effect as its only use. The ability to preview the next 3 cards can be an extremely useful combo enabler, allow you to decide what you want to mill, or even help you set up your endgame.
Another very powerful card. Just like with OP03-044-kaya, using 1 don to remove 2 cards from the deck is a big benefit. It helps that this card also gives us twice the normal amount of counter (usually 2k per don spent), but we need to trash a card from our hand to make up for it. That can sometimes seem limiting, but more often than not, you’ll find that it’s actually a plus in this decklist.
It’s a 1 for 1 trade. 1 don for 1 card off the top of your deck. It’s weaker than OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel in all regards except 1. Its trigger is another free minus 2 cards from the deck.
2 cost for +4000 counter and a free draw. It’s very easy to meet this card’s draw condition, especially since the number of cards in your hand is counted after you play it, so if ST03-017-love-love-mellow is the fourth card in your hand, you still get to draw.
This card is one of the few events in the game that give you +1000 power for the entire turn. That brings the breakpoint, which our opponents need to hit to make us use more than 1 card, up from 9000 to 10000. For decks that go wide, playing this early in the turn makes a huge difference. It can result in one less attack or even just completely nullifying some turns against decks like OP01-001-roronoa-zoro. On top of all that, it even gives us an extra card from the deck.
The Deck List: Impel Down Cards
While OP02-058-buggy can be an excellent 1 don for 1 card trade, we need to keep in mind the chance he’ll miss. We run 14 total targets in this version of the deck, which is not enough for him to be consistently reliable. You’ll find that he works well in the early game to grab a 2k counter, a OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez, or even an OP02-066-impel-down-all-stars. In the late game, you can use him to grab a guaranteed OP02-069-death-wink (assuming you count how many copies are in your trash). This is why we run him, but only at 2 copies. If we run more, we increase the amount of games where he will be useless. 2 copies means you’ll probably see at least 1 copy in about 2 out of every 3 games. I would not recommend changing this ratio, unless you are choosing to lower it down to 1 copy.
While many would consider this a core card, not all decks run it. Since our leader does not have the Impel Down trait, we are unable to make use of its main effect. However, it has an incredibly powerful trigger that makes it more likely that our life will contain cards that remove 2 cards from the deck. (If you’re curious, there are 12 cards that do this, so you can calculate the probability that your life will contain some based on how many are in your opening hand).
However, if you draw it from your deck, fear not. It won’t remain in your hand for long. We have several wonderful cards that require discards as part of their effect. Even if you don’t have one of those in your hand, you can still pay the 1 don to “use” the card and have its effect fizzle out, thus removing it from your hand. You can also do the same thing and pay its trash cost to remove 2 unwanted cards from your hand.
Additionally, since we’re running OP02-058-buggy, you can grab this with search at optimal times, instead of getting surprised by it during your opponent’s turn.
OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez has been a common card in OP03-040-nami decks for quite a while, as he allows us to recycle OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel to use it again. However, because OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel requires us to trash a card to use it, and OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez has to be played to grab it, that means you spend 2 don and 3 hand resources to trash 2 cards from the deck. That’s still a pretty good trade if you have the resources for it, but I feel that, in this build, we don’t often run into situations where we NEED to use OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez to remove a troublesome card in our hand. Because of this, we can reduce the number of copies from 4 to 3 and still have access to him a decent amount of the time. This gives us more space for the next card.
We run exactly 1 copy of OP02-068-gum-gum-rain and this is how we avoid needing to have OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez at specific times. This is basically going to act as a searchable, mini OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel, allowing us to get +3000 in counter for the price of one extra card from our hand. While it doesn’t mill, and will often just be something you discard, it allows us to get the extra counter power when we’ve already spent quite a bit of don. This is the major reason why we want to have this instead of the 4th OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez. OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez and OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel’s 2 don cost makes a difference when you’re playing a OP02-069-death-wink. There are going to be some situations where you use OP03-056-sanjis-pilaf on your turn, and you plan to use a OP02-069-death-winkon your opponent’s, That only leaves you with 4 don to defend yourself. You can do that pretty well. For instance, OP01-088-desert-spada, ST03-017-love-love-mellow, and OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel is 10000 counter with only 4 don. This order would allow you to check the top 3 cards, make sure that you’re going to draw something you want to discard with OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel or grab a 2k counter if you’ve already got the card you want to discard in your hand. However, if we had to play OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez, now we can’t check the top of our deck with OP01-088-desert-spada and have to blind draw and mill.Is that a scenario you’ll face often? Surprisingly, yes. I’d say having a turn where I have to OP03-056-sanjis-pilaf and OP02-069-death-wink is something I run into at least once every twenty games or so. If instead of OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez, I have OP02-068-gum-gum-rain, then I save myself 2 don. I can’t mill the 2 cards, but I have 9000 counter with 3 don and can go from there.
Is this an absolutely game-breaking change? No. However, OP03-040-nami is a deck where the small changes matter over the long run.
This is where I tend to differ from the community. OP02-069-death-wink is a card that gives you a OP03-056-sanjis-pilaf on your opponent’s turn and 6000 counter. Beyond just the counter, it extends your hand. In a game where your opponents are judging how much to attack you for based on your hand size, OP02-069-death-wink is a fake out. It makes you seem like you can’t counter for much, but the draw 2 effect allows you to grab more resources and defend for, what will seem to your opponents like, a ridiculous amount of counter value.
All you have to do is have it be the last card in your hand when you play it. Those who run the Kuja variant will often run 1 copy, as they don’t feel like they will be able to get its full effect off often. This is because the primary way they remove cards from their hand comes from OP03-044-kaya, OP04-041-apis, and OP03-055-gum-gum-giant-gavel. Only 1 of those can be used on your opponent’s turn. This is why, when they run OP07-054-marguerite or draw into something like an unusable event, they are unable to use OP02-069-death-wink effectively.
By running the Impel Down engine, we make OP02-069-death-wink (and our primary “dead card” OP02-066-impel-down-all-stars ) searchable. This allows us more control over when we have access to a good OP02-069-death-wink play. We also run the 2k counters and OP02-068-gum-gum-rain to give us the right amount of hand control, so we are more easily able to get down to 1 card when we want to.
If OP02-069-death-wink is so amazing, then why do we only run 3 copies? Unfortunately, we must run 1 card for the mirror match. We’ll talk about it in the tech options [see Deck List: Tech Options]. Thanks to that, we do not have room for a 4th copy.
These two have exactly the same purpose. They are searchable 2k counters that can be removed from our hand whenever we want. You can run 3 of either of these if you’d prefer, but I run 2 of OP02-064-mr2bonkurei-bentham and 1 EB01-026-prince-bellett to make it harder for my opponents to guess how many counters I run.
Your opponent will usually ask to see your trash at some point in the late game. Most of the time, they will be checking for specific events, but occasionally they look to see how many 2k counters you’ve used, so they can guess how many you have in your hand. If they see 3 of 1 card, they can guess that we only run 1 other copy at most. If they see 2 of 1 card and 1 of another, we could be running anywhere from 0-5 more 2k counters. It’s a small change, but it helps to make your opponent’s math harder
Deck List: Other Tech Cards
Without ST10-001-trafalgar-law around to bottom deck, OP03-050-boodle got a lot better. 2 don to block one attack and trash a card is a great trade. Even if black decks are popular, rendering the block useless, they still have to ko it. That gives you a 2 don for 1 card trade. I find that he’s really helpful in aggressive matchups and especially against ST13-003-monkeydluffy. If the meta ends up leaning more towards bottom decking, you’ll need to change this slot for something else.
OP07-055-snake-dance is a great card for bouncing helpful characters like OP03-044-kaya, OP02-058-buggy, and OP02-063-mr1-dazbonez. However, it doesn’t directly advance your gameplan, as it doesn’t mill or let you draw any cards. Since the meta leans towards black decks, you can’t expect these characters to stay on the field for long. This is why we cut the number of OP07-055-snake-dance copies down to only 1.
This card has one purpose, to be good in the mirror match. In any other game, he is a subpar card that can barely even function as a pseudo-blocker, as he can be ko’d by any character, even searchers. He’s a bad don value trade, as two cards and two don for one draw is not worth it. So what does he do in the mirror? Essentially, he forces your opponent’s OP03-040-nami to attack into him. If they don’t, you gain an extra card draw every turn. If they do, you can use all your counter events to mill cards from your deck and get ahead of your opponent. It’s a win-win.
In other matchups, there are niche situations where you’ll find him handy, but more often than not, he’ll be Mr. Hanging Out in Your Trash. If you are very certain that you will not be running into the mirror, I would highly recommend changing this card for something like another copy of OP03-050-boodle or OP07-055-snake-dance.
OP04-041-apis' main purpose is also for the mirror, but she provides a bit more utility overall. In the mirror, she can work to search out OP04-050-hanger, OP03-044-kaya, OP03-056-sanjis-pilaf, or really any other East Blue card. In other games, she’ll alternate between being a 2k counter and a way to dig out OP03-044-kayas that get bottom decked or OP03-056-sanjis-pilaf that are hanging out in the final chunk of cards. You can also use her to be proactive if your opponents are passing their turn and just building up their board or waiting to hit you with a OP06-047-charlotte-pudding.
Changes To Make As The Meta Evolves
An effective OP03-040-nami build will vary depending on the surrounding environment. As the meta changes, you may want to consider some of the following cards.
OP03-051-bell-mere is an excellent card when the meta revolves around ko effects. She provides a minimum of 3 cards milled for the price of 4 don. On top of that, she can provide tons of pressure when she’s on the board. She’s a personal favorite of mine to include, but as OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju is currently rather popular, along with OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo and his OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger, there are too many ways for opponents to out her. If OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju becomes less used, I think she could be a very powerful card to include.
If the meta moves more towards bottom decking again, OP04-041-apis provides a solid way to grab our OP03-044-kaya and close out games. If that happens, I would recommend dropping the OP02-068-gum-gum-rain for another copy of OP04-041-apis.
Cards That Weren’t Included
While it is searchable, since it’s an activate main effect, you are unable to remove it from your hand on your turn. This means that if you draw into it from another card, when you’re trying to set up a OP02-069-death-wink play, suddenly you draw 1 less card. That’s really the main reason. It’s not a bad card, but doesn’t mesh well with this build.
Does anyone else get annoyed that it’s spelled Roc and not Rock? Anyways, this is a great card specifically for OP07-019-jewelry-bonney and green matchups. It’s fantastic if you can use it to bottom deck a OP06-118-roronoa-zoro, but I find that it doesn’t offer an equal value to don used in other situations. If the meta was dominated by OP07-019-jewelry-bonney, I think this would be decent to add in, but the situation doesn’t come up enough.
Note: When deciding when to add a card into the deck, try to think of it like this
(% of all games where this card would be useful) x (probability that you can draw the card) = how often you would use the card
Value of a mill card = [(cards milled)/(don cost)] + (any other benefits it provides)
If it isn’t a mill card, does it provide a greater amount of value than adding in something else?
If it’s useful in a lot of games and provides a good amount of overall value, it’s probably worth including. If it doesn’t meet 1 of those criteria, then you’re better off without it.
The mill card that’s unironically better in other blue decks. Let’s face it, you’re not getting this attack off. 11k max attack, which isn’t hard to counter out of the attack against a OP03-040-nami and he’s completely stopped if your opponent has even one blocker active. Don’t use OP03-041-usopp. Just don’t.
Matchup Advice
- OP06-059-white-snake is great generally, but you should start prioritizing the 4k counters over the 2k counters now. More of their attackers start at 5k, so you’ll often see them swing 7k with the leader buff.
- Swing at their characters only when they don’t leave a don open.
- Most OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingos run a couple copies of OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger and OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc, but usually don’t run a playset of each. Don’t hesitate to play characters that net you at least a 100% return on don investment.
- OP03-050-boodle is a great play on the two don turn or later in the game when you have a OP06-059-white-snake in hand. When they bottom deck him with aOP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger, they won’t have much don left, so you can still buy yourself a turn of defense with the OP06-059-white-snake.
- Before the starter deck releases, you need to be aware of OP07-047-trafalgar-law. If your hand size is 6 or above, they can make you bottom deck something.
- If you don’t have a OP03-044-kaya, OP04-041-apis, OP04-050-hanger, or OP03-056-sanjis-pilaf in your opening hand, you should mulligan. You don’t want those to end in your life and an early advantage can make a difference.
- OP03-040-nami doesn’t usually attack in the mirror, so it’s okay to be aggressive and leave yourself at 0 don sometimes.
- Once you have OP04-050-hanger on the field, try to defend him with counter events if you can, as every turn he’s going to give you an extra draw and force your opponent to try to deal with him.
- Make sure you have at least 4k in counter for 2 don or less in your opening hand (or OP03-050-boodle). You REALLY want to avoid taking that double attack 8k swing early, as it can put you at a big disadvantage for the rest of the game.
- Watch how they manage their don. If they’re setting 2 aside, they may be planning on going for the OP06-101-o-nami banish play.
- Protect your life well early on so you can have extra defenses against the 9c OP06-118-roronoa-zoro.
- On their 7-8 don turn, they like to play OP06-035-hody-jones and it’s pretty well known now that he can rest don, so plan your defenses with 2 less don in mind on that turn.
- OP03-050-boodle is your best friend. Western players do tend to run more of a control focused ST13-003-monkeydluffy, but that’s slower than the aggro version. If they run that, OP03-050-boodle may not be able to block, but he’ll still get his effect off.
- When they boost their leader, it is usually worth it to let that attack go through and use your resources to block the character swings.
If you’d like to see some gameplay, I’ve included 3 games in the video below:
Closing Thoughts
I think OP03-040-nami is in a pretty good position with ST10-001-trafalgar-law banned. If you are playing on the ranked sim, I would highly recommend keeping an eye on the power rankings each week. This will give you a better idea of how to adjust the deck and when it’s the right time to use her. When decks like OP07-079-rob-lucci are popular, it’s a great environment for OP03-040-nami. While she didn’t get any new tools this set, OP-09 is bringing a whole handful of fun changes! It’s quite exciting!
In addition, I would also recommend checking out this guide, written by Foster Dawson. It was written for OP-07, but it’s very comprehensive and another excellent resource.
