Table of Contents
Hey everyone! The upcoming EB01 cards are set to significantly influence the OP06 meta, introducing three new dual-color Leaders to the Western scene and many cards that'll boost already established decks. Among the new Leaders is Kyros, our latest addition as a Black Yellow Leader, featuring a built-in control mechanic within its Leader ability.
Gameplan
Kyros' ability to KO 0-cost Characters shapes our strategy around board control. To trigger Kyros' effect, we must have a face-down card in our Life Area, which Kyros will then reveal.
With access to both Black and Yellow cards, our deck construction aims to synergize with Kyros' objectives. When building a Kyros deck, adding cost-reduction cards is crucial to leveraging Kyros' effect. Additionally, Yellow offers life manipulation cards, enhancing our ability to capitalize on the Leader's effect.
The focus of this Kyros deck lies in keeping the opponent's board in check through the Leader's ability. We gain an advantage in the mid-game until our higher-cost Characters, such as Gecko Moria and Kuzan, join the battle.
We're not a fast-paced deck, so games will be on the slower side as we develop bigger attackers. The deck has a bunch of cost reducers like Hina and Ice Age that work best in the mid-game.
Removal Cards
You'll rely on Kyros and T-Bone to establish board control. You do have to go the extra mile to set up Kyros' effect. Characters' costs have to be dropped to 0, so sometimes, you'll need to combo cards to do it.
On top of that, Kyros needs to see a face-down Life Card to activate his effect. So we might willingly take a Leader damage to get rid of the face-up cards. We also run Yellow cards that can put a face-down card in our Life Area.
T-Bone is a +2000 Counter, but you'd rather play it to KO threats. Having to drop a Character to 2-cost might seem easier than 0, but you're still committing 5 Don!!! to play T-Bone, limiting the options you have for cost reduction.
Cost Reducers
Central to our deck's strategy are cost-reduction cards, aimed at lowering the cost of opponent Characters to 0 or 2.
We can easily deal with 4-cost Characters, so the mid-game is where this deck wants to prove dominance. However, dealing with higher-cost Characters requires you to combo cost-reduction cards to get them in range.
Tsuru is usually used for her +2000 Counter, but she finds use in this deck as a combo cost-reduction to drop a Character in range or put a 4-cost down to two for EB01-049-t-bone to KO.
Similar to Tsuru, Helmeppo can be used as a backup cost-reduction to drop a character down to 0. It can also put 5-cost Characters in the range for EB01-049-t-bone.
Hina is your strongest cost-reduction Character. For 3 Don, you're putting 4-cost threats in range for Kyros to deal with. She's difficult to combo with T-Bone, so she's mostly used along with Kyros.
It's best to play Kuzan as early as possible, offering a card draw and a free -4 cost-reduction when he goes for the attack. Almost always, your opponent will try to deal with him on the spot, he's too much of a problem to keep around on the board.
Ice Age is the best card in this deck for cost reduction. For 1 Don, you're lowering a character's cost by 5, so basically it's KOing a 5-cost Character with Leader ability. It also can be comboed with other plays to put threats in range. Gecko Moria is one expensive play you can use Ice Age with as a backup cost reducer.
Value Cards
Rebecca is an insanely good value card to bring back cards like Hina, Sabo, and T-Bone. She'll also let you play Hina for free, which will reduce a Character's cost by 4.
Sabo is your defensive play, protecting your Leader and other characters. Drawing and trashing two cards lets you fix up your hand, keeping the most important cards in hand. You might have unplayable cards in the late-game like 4-cost Kuzan so Sabo can trash them away.
Gecko Moria is a solid late-game play to develop multiple characters on the board. You can bring back OP05-091-rebecca and ST06-010-helmeppo on the board. Blocker Rebecca will protect your Leader and lets you play Hina for free. Basically, with Gecko Moria, we're getting 3 other Characters on the board, and reducing a character's cost by 7.
Yellow Life
Since we need to have a face-down card to activate Leader ability, Yellow is the best color to get access to Life Card manipulation.
Viola is a low-cost blocker to protect your Leader or attackers, but her main inclusion in the list is to turn down the top face-up Life Card, letting you activate Leader ability.
Kouzuki Hiyori is a +2000 Counter with the effect of taking the top Life Card and replacing it with a face-down life card. You'll only play Hiyori when you need to KO a threat on the board and your Life Face happens to be face-up.
Yamato drops in the late game when you're down to 1 or 0 Life Cards. The additional life you gain and potentially KOing a threat can win you games, giving you more time to set up a powerful attack.
The Carry
10-cost Kuzan is your late-game carry. He's a 10-cost play, so we'll use all our Don to play him. His effect lowers the cost of all opponent's characters by 5 as long as he's on the board. On top of that, he can KO a 0-cost character on play. So combined with his cost-reduction effect, you'll KO a 5-cost or less character with Kuzan.
Kyros's KO ability can back up Kuzan here, letting you KO two of the opponent's characters, slowing down their upcoming turn.
As long as Kuzan is on the board, you'll be able to get rid of higher-cost targets more easily with Kyros and T-Bones KO effects.
Techs and Options
Having two colors to work with gives us a lot of room to alter the list depending on the meta and our preferences. The list I shared is more Navy-oriented, but you could go for the Dressrosa route or add more Yellow cards.
OP05-081-one-legged-toy-soldier: Plays the role of Helmeppo but as a Dressrosa type. It's also a +2000 Counter, so you can't go wrong replacing it with Helmeppo even if you're running a Navy list.
OP04-092-rebecca: A searcher for Dressrosa cards. You'll want to add Rebecca to the list if you're building Kyros Dressrosa deck.
OP04-079-orlumbus: A Dressrosa card that could replace T-Bone. It offers cost reduction and removal.
OP06-104-kikunojo: A yellow trigger card for the mid-game. Kikunojo can be bothersome for opponents and KOing her gives you an additional life card.
OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke: We want to run Kouzuki if we're including Kikunojo and Hiyori in the list. Putting them in our Life Area with Kouzuki's effect buys us more time until we set up the winning play.
General Tips
- Your Life resource is important for your game plan. Protect face-down life cards to get the most out of your Leader ability. A face-up life card is more disposable to get a face-down card on the top of our Life Area.
- We aim to take things to the late game and start dropping Gecko Moria and Kuzan. Playing Kuzan can put you in a vulnerable spot against Rush attackers, so preserving at least two Life Cards can go a long way for the late game.
- T-Bone can be used as a +2000 Counter. Rebecca can bring back T-Bone from the trash and if we have a Hina in our hand we still get the -4 cost reduction.
Mulligan Tips
- Hina and Ice Age are great cards to keep early board control.
- OP03-089-brannew is a good keep to find the Navy card we need for the mid-game.
- 4-cost Kuzan is another card we want in the early gaming. Playing him as early as possible sets us for a -4 cost reduction on our upcoming attack turn.
Important Matchups
Gecko Moria
- We can deal with 4-cost threats easily with the Hina and Ice Age's cost reduction.
- Borsalino and Sabo are a problem since we can't KO them. Sabo can completely shut us down for a whole turn.
- This might end up a value game since both decks have Gecko Moria to bring back characters from Trash.
- Don't hold onto more than 4 cards in hand if possible. OP06-093-perona will trash resources from your hand.
- 10c Kuzan is the carry of this matchup. It can be difficult for the opponent to deal with it and the cost reduction + removal he provides will help you keep board control.
Yellow Katakuri
- Preserve your health as much as possible. Your opponent can trash away your Life Cards with 7c and 10c Charlotte Linlin.
- Attack with Leader first before activating or developing on the board. You want to see if you trigger a Life Card and would rather put resources into KOing it with Leader effect.
- 10c OP03-114-charlotte-linlin is the biggest late game threat. We want to win the board and put enough pressure that playing OP03-114-charlotte-linlin can be a risk for them.
- Rebecca and Sabo will be needed to dodge attacks. They can rest Rebecca with OP05-115-two-hundred-million-volts-amaru and go for an aggressive turn.
Red Purple Law
- Law's characters are 4 and 5-cost so we can drop them down to 0 with Hina or Ice Age.
- Characters that give them Don like ST10-012-bepo and OP05-074-eustasscaptainkid are top priority to KO and slow down Law's plans.
- They can play aggressively, dropping two bodies per turn and removing one of your Characters.
- Rebecca isn't too useful as a blocker since she's an easy target for ST10-001-trafalgar-law to remove.
- If they play any of their cost-reducers early on, it's worth committing a OP02-106-tsuru to get rid of them.
Black Yellow Luffy
- All their threats are at 5-cost, this means Ice Age is the strongest card for this matchup. We need to KO their threats so they don't freely attack Kyros.
- Blockers are valuable to protect your Leader. Outside of ST13-008-sabo, most lists don't run any interaction with the board.
- OP04-083-sabo will be a nightmare for you in this matchup. Opponent can shut you down for a whole turn from KOing their Characters and can keep doing it every time they bring back Sabo through Leader ability.
- Do not drop the opponent down to 0 Life Cards unless you're certain you can present the winning attack. We want to make it as difficult as possible for them to activate Leader Luffy's ability. So keeping them at 1 or 2 Life Cards buys us more time or forces resources out of them to activate Leader ability.
Closing Words
Black Yellow Kyros can be built differently around Leader's removal ability. The main goal is to establish a powerful early/mid game by weakening opponents' aggression as you build up your board. Kyros is one of our 3 new EB01 Leaders and although he didn't see much success in the Asian meta, he might fight his way into the OP06 West meta.
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