Table of Contents
Heya everyone! It's time for a guide for the aggressive Red Leader Monkey.D.Dragon in OP07 expansion! This Leader is all about maximizing the use of your Don to get access to stronger attacks while maintaining a threatening board development. The deck revolves around Revolutionary Army cards to create a powerful mid-game before transitioning to Rush attackers in the late game.
Gameplan
The effect of OP07-001-monkeyddragon is straightforward: after attaching two Don to the Leader or a Character, you can move those two Don to another Character. This allows for aggressive plays without compromising board development.
The OP07-001-monkeyddragon deck runs {Revolutionary Army} type Characters with powerful effects that enable that aggressive game plan. Those cards need to be at 7,000 Power for their effects to activate and this is where OP07-001-monkeyddragon's Don share effect makes life easier.
We rely on OP05-004-emporioivankov and OP06-003-emporioivankov as key cards to develop a threatening board and create an aggressive turn. This sets the stage for the Rush attackers to EB01-003-kid-killer, ST01-012-monkeydluffy-938, and OP07-015-monkeyddragon to crank up the pressure and create the winning turn.
Early Turns
OP05-015-belo-betty is a prime turn 1 play, especially when going first. As a {Revolutionary Army} searcher, she helps set up future turns. You’ll often seek OP05-004-emporioivankov or OP06-003-emporioivankov to enable a wide game plan. If you already have one, search for a {Revolutionary Army} that OP05-004-emporioivankov can play. If your mid-game setup is solid, plan for the late game with OP05-015-belo-betty drawing OP07-015-monkeyddragon.
OP01-024-monkeydluffy is ideal for early turns, becoming a 5,000 Power attacker through his effect, effectively creating an offensive threat for only 2 Don that demands a response from your opponent.
The Wide Plan
OP05-004-emporioivankov is your go-to play on Don 4 or Don 6. Playing it on Don 4 doesn’t yield immediate value but forces your opponent to deal with it before you attach 2 Don and activate its effect. Cheating out a {Revolutionary Army} Character puts more pressure on your upcoming attack turn and forces Counter cards.
OP05-004-emporioivankov's effect can be activated once per turn, which means if the opponent doesn't remove them from the field, they're risking another low-cost development that they have to deal with later on.
The 5-cost OP06-003-emporioivankov is a play effect which instead of playing a {Revolutionary Army} Character from hand, it looks at the top 5 cards in the deck and plays the one we choose. This acts as both a value and a board threat that puts us ahead of the opponent.
These are the cards we're looking to cheat out through OP05-004-emporioivankov or OP06-003-emporioivankov. Each one of them has a unique effect that requires you to attach 2 Don to them to activate their effects.
OP05-005-karasu is the strongest, often preferred for play. His on-play effect reduces the Power of an opponent’s Leader or Character by 1,000, making it easier for your attacks to land and forcing more Counter plays. Attaching 2 Don to OP05-005-karasu and attacking allows you to reactivate this effect, maintaining an aggressive strategy.
We almost always want to attack with OP05-005-karasu first to get the most out of the Power reduction effect. Having a -1,000 Power on a Leader means our attacks are more daunting to them.
OP05-017-lindbergh's effect lets us KO a 3,000 Power Character or less. This can come in handy to remove a blocker like OP05-091-rebecca, paving the way for your attackers to strike down the opponent's Leader. We can combo it with OP05-006-koala's -3,000 Power reduction, enabling us to KO a 6,000 Power Character.
Lastly, OP06-002-inazuma doesn't offer a lot of aggression with his effect like OP05-005-karasu but he's in the list for more consistency. If his Power is boosted to 7,000, he gains Banish, threatening to Trash one of the opponent's Life cards. This compels opponent to use their resources to Counter the attack, so if possible, we might want to boost it above 7,000.
Rush Carries
OP07-015-monkeyddragon is a powerful late-game rusher to play as soon as you reach Don 8/9. His on-play effect allows you to attach 2 Rested Dons to your Leader or another Character, boosting their Power. You can then move those two attached Don to another Character through Leader's effect, creating another powerful attack. This makes it more of a challenge for the opponent to Counter and can put them in an awful spot.
EB01-003-kid-killer is just a busted Rusher, with 7,000 Power when your opponent's health is down to 2 Life cards. Given this deck's aggressive playstyle, we'll easily have the opponent at 2 Life cards for when we plan to play EB01-003-kid-killer.
ST01-012-monkeydluffy-938 is another Rusher, capable of bypassing blockers to attack the opponent’s Leader directly, making him an excellent choice for finishing plays.
When choosing which Rusher to play, OP07-015-monkeyddragon is almost always the best choice since he's a big body that is difficult for opponents to remove. EB01-003-kid-killer is more of a secondary play if we're planning to make another play along with him. For instance, you could go for two EB01-003-kid-killer in one turn and have 2 Don left to boost the Power of your Leader and one of your EB01-003-kid-killers.
In terms of a final turn play, both OP07-015-monkeyddragon and EB01-003-kid-killer present the same Power level for a Leader + Rush Character attack. We can turn our Leader into a 9,000 Power attacker and our Rush attack can become an 11,000 Power attacker to close out the game if the opponent is at 2 Life Cards.
Events
With many cards lacking Counter effects, OP04-016-bad-manners-kick-course helps by allowing you to trash an unplayable card for a +3,000 Power boost, protecting your Leader or key Characters from incoming attacks and buying another turn to secure the game.
Gameplay Video
Techs and Options
A {Revolutionary Army} Character that can ignore blockers and attack the opponent's Leader directly if its power is boosted to 7,000.
A defensive event to protect your Leader or a key Character. If you're down to two Life cards, OP01-029-radical-beam becomes a +4,000 Power boost, capable of shutting down a heavy attack.
General Tips
- Use OP07-001-monkeyddragon's effect to its full potential. For example, if we play OP05-004-emporioivankov, we want to attach 2 Don to it first, activate its effect, and then move those 2 Don to another Character that can attack for more Power.
- We're playing an aggressive deck, so prioritize attacking the opponent's Leader and rely on your Rush attackers to close out the game.
- OP05-010-nico-robin is a meta call that finds use against matchups like Black Rob Lucci or Red Purple Law. We can KO cards like OP05-091-rebecca or EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham. In matchups where you expect you won't needed, you might as well use it as a Counter card or combo it with OP05-006-koala if possible.
- Avoid slamming Rusher attackers early on. We want to capitalize on our {Revolutionary Army} mid-game plan as they offer more pressure and are difficult to answer.
Mulligan Tips
We want our {Revolutionary Army} 4-costs and either OP05-004-emporioivankov or OP06-003-emporioivankov for that mid-game aggression. Searcher OP05-015-belo-betty to shape up our later game stages.
Important Matchups
Black Rob Lucci
- They have the tools to control the field and remove your Characters. We're hoping through OP05-004-emporioivankov or OP06-003-emporioivankov's extra development, that we get to keep one attacker on the field
- They have OP05-091-rebecca and OP04-083-sabo as blockers to slow us down. We can remove OP05-091-rebecca with OP05-010-nico-robin. ST01-012-monkeydluffy-938 can ignore all blockers and go right through.
- We'll be more focused on attacking their Leader and trying to set up the finishing play with Leader + Rush attack. So having them at 1 Life Card is the goal.
Red Purple Law
- We're up against a deck that can out-aggro us. They can reliably develop two Characters every turn while removing one of our Characters, forcing us to take a defensive playstyle.
- Use OP05-010-nico-robinto KO EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham and shut it down from attacking.
- Through Leader's effect to share two attached Don, we can empower our attacks and KO their rested Characters, forcing more Counter plays if they want to keep certain cards in play.
- We'll need OP07-015-monkeyddragon to carry the game. He's a high-power card that forces two cost reduction plays to remove with ST10-001-trafalgar-law effect.
Yellow Enel
- We want to keep them at two Life cards and start developing multiple Characters. The plan is to create one massive turn where we win the game or force lots of Counter cards.
- Having them at 2 Life Cards means they won't gain a Life Card from OP04-112-yamato, won't gain Rush on OP07-119-portgasdace, and will have to trash a Life card if they play EB01-059-kingdom-come.
- OP05-102-gedatsu can be bothersome since he can KO one of our 4-cost Characters.
- In the late game, using OP05-005-karasu to weaken their Leader goes a long way to win the game. You're planning to unleash multiple attacks so forcing them to play more Counter cards will be worth it.
Closing Words
Red OP07-001-monkeyddragon is an aggressive Leader with his Don sharing effect. We can maximize our aggression through that 2 Don and force more counter cards from opponents. The OP07 deck is solid for aggressive players who are trying to win games as fast as possible.
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