Table of Contents
Welcome to the infinite life OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri deck. While the name might be a bit of an over exaggeration, this deck aims to win by outlasting your opponent with boatloads of life. You’re going to benefit from replenishing your life in a variety of ways and that means, you guessed it, more triggers! We run a mix of mid and high cost bodies to both swarm and overpower your opponent’s forces.
Unfortunately, as we go into OP-07, OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri has a bit of a falling off in favor of OP05-098-enel (who has a better time dealing with ST13-003-monkeydluffy), so let’s raise a toast to the sweet general and have a last hurrah with this fun decklist.
Big Mom Engine
Many of our readers will already be familiar with how the Big Mom engine works, so I would recommend yellow veterans to hop down to the next part. However, for those who may be just starting off their One Piece journey, I’ll explain these pieces anyway.
The Searchers
Big Mom Pirates tend to run both these searchers and we’re no exception. OP03-112-charlotte-pudding is an excellent turn 1 or 2 searcher who can even grab Sanji. On the other hand, OP03-113-charlotte-perospero is a 5000 power body that benefits us with a smaller search when he’s ko’d. OP03-112-charlotte-pudding’s primary role is as a searcher, but OP03-113-charlotte-perospero is mainly there to be a character we can swing with.
The Boss Drops
Oh woe is the opponent that runs into several of these on consecutive turns. 10c OP03-114-charlotte-linlin is a crazy strong card that grants us a life, while simultaneously removing one of your opponent’s. This is not considered damage, so they are unable to use triggers, which can be truly devastating, especially in many yellow matches.
The 7 cost ST07-010-charlotte-linlin is a mini version of the 10c one. Instead of getting both effects, your opponent gets to choose. This is unfortunate, as there are several decks that can afford to lose a life. It’s even worse if your opponent is already out of life, as they can choose to have ST07-010-charlotte-linlin do nothing by picking the trash option.
However, this is where our understanding of the game state is important. If we can look at the game and correctly predict what our opponent will choose, this can be an important tool in advancing our game state. Since this can be situational, we only run 2 copies.
The 7 cost slot is important for us to play on curve and if we’re not running 4 copies of the big ST07-010-charlotte-linlin herself, there’s another big lady that can swoop in to take the spot. EB01-055-charlotte-compote is a vanilla, but she has a very important stat line. 9000 attack. Since ST13-003-monkeydluffy is a very difficult matchup for us, EB01-055-charlotte-compote serves as an important tech, being able to hit a boosted ST13-003-monkeydluffy without having to invest any don. Again, this is situational, but dropping a 9000 beater in most matches will still provide us some benefit. If not, into the trash for 1000 counter.
You know how OP06-022-yamato is really threatening with that double attack? Yeah so here you go. We run two copies because, when it works, it can be a nice way to pressure opponents. We can play him on trigger, he’s another 4 cost body, and he has 1000 counter power. That being said, this is just a tech and could be replaced with a number of possible substitutes that I’ll mention a bit later.
The 2k Counters
These are searchable characters with 2000 counter power. That’s really all we use them for.
He’s not technically a Big Mom Pirate, but this mobster did answer to a type of godmother, so I’m putting him here. He’s a 2k counter, but with the additional benefit of a stun trigger. You can use this to save yourself late game by stopping a possible lethal attack.
You’re The One Who Should Disappear
Before we can talk about the Wano engine, there’s a very important card that feels tailor made for OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri. On first glance, OP06-115-youre-the-one-who-should-disappear is just yellow’s 0 cost event that gives +3000 power. However, when we look a little closer, you’ll notice that beautiful godsend of a trigger. If this card is the last card in your life, you can trash a card from your hand and gain another life.
So what kind of leader could make sure that goes on the bottom? The Mochi Man of course! With OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri’s leader ability, you can be completely sure that this ends up on the bottom for a special surprise.
And now that we know about this special tool that’ll help us later, let’s discuss the second package in the deck.
The Wano Package
So if we happen to see OP06-115-youre-the-one-who-should-disappear in our life, we can make sure to put it at the bottom, but that still relies on chance to get it there in the first place. However, with OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori, you can put it there yourself. If you open with OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori and OP06-115-youre-the-one-who-should-disappear, you can use her on your second turn, add it to life, and then swing with OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri to place it at the bottom. Since it’s something you’re doing so early on in the game, most opponents will forget you made this move by the time it actually comes to fruition.
On top of that sneaky trick, she’s also a 2k counter and we can use her later on to cheat out OP06-104-kikunojo for 2 don.
After we’ve done the OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori play, she’s just sitting on the field, useless, but what if we could add her into life and get blocker from it. On your third turn, if you’ve got a OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke, you can plop him down, add OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori to your life, and now you’re in a pretty cool position. You can also do this to recycle your OP06-104-kikunojos after they’ve already got a swing in to gain an extra life and dodge bottom decking.
OP06-104-kikunojo is pretty darn cool. You’re likely familiar with her, but as long as your opponent has 3 or less life, you can play her on trigger and if she gets ko’d, that’s an extra life right there. You can see how, if we add this to the Big Mom engine, that’s already pretty good at giving you more life, you can really outlast a lot of opponents.
With OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri’s offensive presence, you can get most 4 life leaders down one life very quickly. It can be a bit harder with 5 life leaders, so sometimes you may miss an early trigger if she’s on top.
OP06-110-nekomamushi is functionally a worse OP06-104-kikunojo for us. We like the extra body we can play on trigger, but that ability to attack active characters can be situationally useful.
Reject
This will be banned very soon, but while it’s legal, it’s a nice card to use. I find myself using the KO effect a lot more often to remove very problematic cards like Kuzan. Once this gets banned, you can swap it for any number of possible substitutes.
Rejected Cards
These cards didn’t make the cut, but are options you could consider if you want to change the deck.
She’s a low cost blocker that grants an extra life if she gets ko’d by effects. This can be especially prudent in OP05-098-enel and black matchups, but did not make it into this deck because OP05-041-sakazuki is popular. She will not get her effect off if she gets bottom decked.
Moving into future formats, I’d recommend this if you aren’t seeing many ST10-001-trafalgar-law in your local meta.
He’s searchable from OP03-112-charlotte-pudding and can be played off a trigger, but he costs a card in our hand and we already run a blocker in OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke.
While he’s very commonly found in OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri decks for early removal, I don’t usually like to use him. I like to play OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri pretty aggressively early in the game and pushing my opponents to get to 3 life as soon as possible. This conflicts a lot with OP05-102-gedatsu, who would want opponents to stay at a higher life total.
A 2k counter that is playable off a trigger, but same issue I have with OP04-104-sanji. I don’t like dropping the card from our hand, but it’s certainly worth considering.
An extremely good card that would have instantly been put in the deck if she had the Land of Wano trait. She would be helpful late game, if we didn’t already have our own form of banish in our OP03-114-charlotte-linlins and OP06-116-reject. When OP06-116-reject is banned, she’s worth looking at as a replacement.
There’s just no room in the deck and I think OP06-110-nekomamushi’s effect has more applications than OP06-100-inuarashi’s. He serves a very similar function if you include him.
While we can reliably get this into our life with OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori, we already struggle a bit in the ST13-003-monkeydluffy matchup. I didn’t want to add more slots that would be useless vs ST13-003-monkeydluffy, so I decided not to include this one.
Mulligan Criteria
The number 1 thing you want to look for is OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori with OP06-115-youre-the-one-who-should-disappear. Getting that combo off early pays big dividends later.
Other than that, if you’re going first, you’re looking for OP03-112-charlotte-pudding and OP03-113-charlotte-perospero/OP06-104-kikunojo. This allows you to get the first turn search with OP03-112-charlotte-pudding, go for a big 3 don swing on turn two, and then 1-2 don swing + drop a body on turn three.
If you’re going second, try to make sure you have OP03-113-charlotte-perospero (and preferably OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke). You’ll have to pass on your first turn, but you can get a 1 don swing on your second + drop OP03-113-charlotte-perospero. Hopefully by your third turn, you’ll have triggered a wano body, so you can swing 1 don with OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri, swing with your bodies, and then recycle it with OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke. If you haven’t triggered that yet, you probably have other options you can go for with 6 don.
Matchups
OP05-041-sakazuki folds to leader pressure, so this is a pretty advantageous matchup for us. Be aggressive early, protect OP06-104-kikunojo from bottom decking by adding her back into your life, and put pressure on their board by targeting their bodies later. Kuzan and Sabo are nice OP06-116-reject targets and OP06-110-nekomamushi can help get rid of Rebecca before you go for bigger swings against characters.
OP06-080-gecko-moria can be a bit tough, but it’s about a 50/50 matchup. Be smart and don’t waste hand resources if you can help it. You’ll need it later on. OP06-104-kikunojo is very helpful here, but it’s not ideal to drop her before your opponent falls to 3 life. If you do, she’ll be immediately removed. If you find yourself struggling too much with this matchup, the EB01-057-shirahoshi tech will swing it back into your favor.
ST10-001-trafalgar-law is genuinely really tough for this deck to deal with. I recommend keeping the 1k counters in hand, since they’ll want to poke you with a lot of small attacks. If you can get past the early game, you can start to overwhelm them with your motherly forces later on.
ST11-001-uta is quite easy for us. We can outlast her resources. When she plays 8c OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701, you can pressure it with your big bodies, without attaching don. She’ll have to use blocks and then you can just drop another 10c OP03-114-charlotte-linlin or use 9c to play OP06-104-kikunojo and OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke to get more life again. It’s a grindy game, but you can absolutely take it.
This matchup depends a lot on your awareness of win conditions and how they draw early. If they can get rush OP05-098-enel out quickly, you’ll have a hard time. Otherwise, just make sure you build up enough bodies before you go for lethal.
This is a pretty good matchup for us. You can keep yourself pretty reliably over 3 life, so he can’t get his leader ability off. No matter the build, if you focus on draining their resources and stacking up your own, you’ll have this one in the bag.
This is a pretty hard one, but I like the strategy of keeping them at 2 life for a bit while you build up don. You want to balance delaying their boost while also not giving them a completely free pass. Keeping them at 2 life means they have to use 2 EB01-056-charlotte-flampes, OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyoris, or ST13-012-makinos (so -2 2k counters) or 1 of them + play the 5c ST13-015-monkeydluffy outright.
As I mentioned in the decklist section, EB01-055-charlotte-compote is pretty helpful here and 7c ST07-010-charlotte-linlin doesn’t do much. OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke as a blocker is pretty important here too and you may not want to worry about playing the smaller bodies, especially OP06-110-nekomamushi.
