Table of Contents
Blue Donquixote Doflamingo saw a massive rise in popularity and performance in OP08.5 meta. The release of the new Starter 17 cards gave the archetype better consistency when finding {The Seven Warlords of the Sea} type Characters. The Blue Doffy deck can be built in two ways, focusing on board control and taking things to the late game or adopting a more aggressive approach, focusing on developing multiple bodies and unleashing attacks.
The popular choice is the aggressive approach, trying to pressure opponents through multiple attack threats and bleeding opponents out of counter-resources. In this guide, I'll mainly focus on that playstyle, but I'll also share other cards you can include if you're looking for a slower-paced, control playstyle.
Gameplan
The Blue Doffy deck thrives on synergy with characters from "The Seven Warlords of the Sea" archetype, complementing Leader Donquixote Doflimaingo's ability. By using 3 Don!!! you'll get to look at the top of your deck if it's a 4-cost or less {The Seven Warlords of the Sea} type Character and play it rested on the board. Utilizing cards like EB01-023-edward-weevil, ST03-004-gecko-moria, and OP07-045-jinbe, you can create threats that the opponent can't ignore.
If you think about it, Donquixote Doflimaingo's ability could get you a 4-cost character for 3 Don!!!, provide card value, and push a +2000 Power attack with your leader.
Managing to drop 4 cost Characters for 3 Don!!! allows you to use that extra Don!!! on either empowering your attacks or developing an additional character. Along with OP07-045-jinbe, we're not creating a more threatening field without multiple Character development, forcing players to take a defensive approach to clear out our attackers. The list has multiple cards that offer card value, ensuring you don't run out of resources in the late game. Those resources can be used to protect your rested Characters whenever possible, keeping the multiple attack threat alive.
For board control, this list has OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger, removing two of the opponent's 6-cost or less Characters from the field and placing them at the bottom of the deck. This can crush the opponent's upcoming aggression and can even make it a challenge for them to KO your rested Characters.
Deck Sorters
Gaining information on the top cards in our deck is valuable knowledge to set up our game plan. Ideally, you want the second card to be one of {The Seven Warlords of the Sea} Characters, allowing you to play it on the field with Leader OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo's effect on the upcoming turn.
OP01-077-perona and ST17-003-buggy grant knowledge on your upcoming draws, from there you'll decide whether you want to keep those cards at the top of the deck and change their order or put them at the bottom to find better cards.
When rearranging cards at the top of our deck, we need to consider the game's situation. Are we activating Leader effect now? Then we want a valuable {The Seven Warlords of the Sea} Character at the top of the deck. Are we activating Leader effect on the upcoming turn? Then the "The Seven Warlords of the Sea" Character needs to be the second card on the top. We also need to keep in mind future turns (If we played OP01-077-perona), arranging the other three cards accordingly so that we ensure we can still activate Leader effect and get the best outcome.
OP01-077-perona is always the better choice to play over ST17-003-buggy. She can look at the top 5 cards in your deck, whereas ST17-003-buggy looks at the top 3 cards. Also, ST17-003-buggy is a +2,000 Counter card, so he's better played for his Counter effect.
ST17-005-marshalldteach works differently than your deck sorters but has a similar purpose. We want to have it in play and Activate its effect, allowing us to place one of the cards in our hand at the top of our deck. This gives us control over which Character we'll be cheating out through the Leader effect. ST17-005-marshalldteach can also give 2 rested Don to your Leader or one of your Characters, so you get to activate your Leader effect without worrying about Don management.
ST17-005-marshalldteach's effect can be activated once per turn, and although we're losing on extra value, we get to add more pressure on the opponent through the extra Don we're getting. So ST17-005-marshalldteach can be played on Don 3 and you still can cheat out a Character through Leader effect.
ST17-004-boa-hancock is the new addition to the Blue Doffy deck, bringing a new deck sorter card that can be used defensively or offensively depending on the state of the game. Boa looks at the top 3 cards in the deck and lets you rearrange them in any way you like. This means we can utilize her effect on Don 7+ since we need 3 Don to activate Leader effect. However, ST17-004-boa-hancock's second effect gives 1 Don to your Leader or one of your Characters, which means we can play Boa on Don 6 and still cheat out {The Seven Warlords of the Sea} type Character.
ST17-004-boa-hancock is a 6,000 Power blocker, capable of protecting Leader Doffy if we feel there's a threat of losing the game or if we want to use up less Counter resources.
Doflamingo's Best Targets
Leader Doflamingo's ability plays a Character in a rested state, making them vulnerable to attacks. While this diverts attention from your Leader, it may force you to sacrifice Counter cards to prevent rested characters from being KO'ed.
OP07-045-jinbe is the best target to cheat out through Leader effect but is also a great option to play from hand. He's letting you play one of your 4-cost or less Characters from hand for free, allowing you to develop two Characters in one turn. This creates an aggressive field that forces players to take a defensive approach.
EB01-023-edward-weevil is the go-to play when we don't have OP07-045-jinbe available. We want to play EB01-023-edward-weevil as early as possible for multiple reasons. He's a 6,000 Power Character that can be bothersome for opponents, draws you a card, and doesn't have a Counter effect, so he's not useful sitting in our hand.
ST17-002-trafalgar-law is another powerful play, better played when there's a 4-cost Character on the opponent's side of the field you want to remove. ST17-002-trafalgar-law's effect lets you return one Character to your hand to return a 4-cost Character back to its owner's hand. We can return low-cost Characters like OP01-077-perona and ST17-003-buggy to either replay or use as Counter cards.
The second effect can be used differently depending on the state of the game. ST17-002-trafalgar-law can return a 4-cost Character to the opponent's hand, weakening their board presence. This makes it harder for them to keep up with your development since they just lost an attack. However, you're not tied to returning opponent's Characters, but can also return your own. This finds use in the late game when you need the extra value from cards like EB01-023-edward-weevil or if you need a +2,000 Counter card in your hand rather than in play.
Lastly, ST03-004-gecko-moria is a value card, drawing us a card from trash. The card we choose from the trash will depend on the state of the game. We can either go for aggression with OP07-045-jinbe. draw value with EB01-023-edward-weevil, a defensive blocker with ST17-004-boa-hancock, or a +2,000 Counter card.
Other Seven Warlords of the Sea
If for some reason we don't have any of the three {The Seven Warlords of the Sea} I just talked about, we still have other options to play on the field, Both ST03-005-dracule-mihawk and OP07-040-crocodile are 5,000 Power attackers, capable of presenting a threat to the opponent. Attaching 1 Don to ST03-005-dracule-mihawk and attacking with him lets us draw two cards and trash two. This lets us filter our hand.
We rarely will feel the need to activate OP07-040-crocodile's effect, but in the scenario where we're trying to return a 2-cost blocker, then it could come to use.
Control Cards
OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc is a control event that places the opponent's Characters at the bottom of their deck. The fact that it removes Characters rather than KO means it can bypass KO immunity effects like OP02-114-borsalino and OP04-083-sabo.
OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger is played against two Characters with a cost of 6 or less. So in the mid-game, you're destroying the opponent's field and slowing them down exceptionally. This puts you ahead in the game and takes things to the late game.
Events
OP07-057-perfume-femur is a setup for a finisher play. If the opponent is at 0 Life cards and they have a blocker standing in the way,OP07-057-perfume-femur lets one of your attackers ignore that blocker. It's also giving you a +2,000 Power boost, so you're not losing on aggressiveness when spending 2 Don to play it.
Techs and Options
OP01-073-donquixote-doflamingo grant knowledge into the 5 upcoming draws, from there you'll decide whether you want to keep those cards at the top of the deck and change their order or put them at the bottom to find better cards.
Late-Game Control Options
OP07-051-boa-hancock stops one of the opponent's Characters from attacking and places a 1-cost Character at the bottom of the opponent's deck. This slows down the opponent's upcoming aggression, relieving some of the pressure. OP07-051-boa-hancock isn't a Character that can be ignored, she's an 8,000-power attacker, capable of KOing a rested Character or threatening to damage the opponent's Leader.
OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc is perfect for high-cost threats that we want to remove immediately. For 6 Don, we can remove any Character off the field, regardless of its cost. We're usually playing this in the late-game, so we'll have Don to spare that we can use to activate the Leader effect and potentially develop a Character or if we're at 10 Don, we can play one of our 4-cost Characters from hand.
We're trying to play OP05-118-kaido the turn we hit 10 Don, gaining 4 card draw and developing a big body that can be a nightmare for some decks. The card draw we gain puts us ahead in value and can be used to protect our Leader since the OP05-118-kaido play doesn't offer any field control on the turn he's played.
A 12,000 Power attacker is difficult to defend from, allowing you to KO-rested Characters or target their Leader directly. If you get a couple of attacks from OP05-118-kaido, you're likely setting the stage to win the game.
OP02-068-gum-gum-rain is a defensive Event to protect your Leader or key Characters with the +3,000 Power boost. You'll have to trash a card to get the Power boost, but it works best when you have dead cards in your hand that you don't expect to play anytime soon. If you're building a Doffy list with multiple cards that have no Counter effect, you can include a copy or two of OP02-068-gum-gum-rain to make sure you have a Counter option out of a tight spot.
General Tips
- Keep track of the cards at the top of your deck. If you look at your top cards and decide to keep them, it's important to know your options and which card Leader Doflamingo will play. This makes it easier to decide whether you want to activate his effect or develop a card from hand.
- In some cases, you might need to draw first before activating Leader Doflamingo's effect. If you know you don't have a {The Seven Warlords of the Sea} type Character at the top of your deck, you can draw first with EB01-023-edward-weevil to have a chance of finding one.
- Play for the late game since you can outvalue opponents thanks to Leader effect. Keep their field under check and eventually, you should dominate the field and start threatening aggressive turns.
Mulligan Tips
- Early cards that give you information like OP01-077-perona.
- OP07-045-jinbe and EB01-023-edward-weevil are the best cards to develop as early as possible.
Matchups
Black Rob Lucci
- We're up against a deck that can KO our Characters and weaken our attacks.
- Use OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger to put OP05-093-rob-lucci at the bottom of the opponent's deck. This prevents them from playing him from Trash. We can also remove blocker Sabo, paving the way for our attackers to connect with their Leader or rested Characters.
- OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc is for their high-cost threats, most importantly Isshou.
Black Yellow Luffy
- This deck is happy taking early hits so it can start activating Leader effect to cheat out the adult brothers. We want to hold off our attacks with Characters and go wide on the field, setting up one explosive turn to force as many Counter resources from the opponent as possible.
- OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger has a high value in this game, removing two of the opponent's adult brothers and placing them at the bottom of their deck. This means they won't be able to replay them on the field through their kid brothers.
- Pudding will play an important role in this game as well, ruining the opponent's hand and potentially getting rid of the Gecko Moria.
Green Jewelry Bonney
- OP07-021-urouge and EB01-012-cavendish are giving the opponent additional Don that strengthens their defensive plans. We want to remove them as soon as possible and OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger is the best answer to deal with them.
- If the opponent has an active Don on their defensive turn it means they can rest one of your attackers with OP07-019-jewelry-bonney. If we're planning to activate Leader Doflamingo's effect, we should attack with him first. If not, we should attack with our strongest Character first.
- The opponent will be too busy controlling the field rather than attacking our Leader, so we won't feel aggressively pressured in this matchup.
- OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc is a nightmare for the opponent, removing Characters like OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 or OP06-118-roronoa-zoro from the field. The ability to place those Characters at the bottom of the opponent's deck instead of KOing them renders OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante useless.
Yellow Enel
- You're playing a slow matchup, relying on outvaluing the opponent. Charlotte Pudding is crucial to cutting their resources and potentially shutting down their late game.
- Avoid attacking their Leader whenever possible. You don't want to attack with your Characters, instead, we want to keep them from dropping below 2 Life Cards until we've developed multiple Characters on the field. This shuts them down from gaining a Life card from Yamato and Ace early into the game.
- Ensuring the Enel player doesn't win the field presence is important. Attack their rested Characters and force Counter cards from them. OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc is a reliable answer to Yamato or Ace.
- We have to identify which turn we'll switch on the aggro mode, going full force on their Leader and forcing Counter plays. The goal here is to either win the game or force as many Counter cards as possible.
Black Gecko Moria
- They have the tools with OP05-093-rob-lucci and OP06-081-absalom to remove your characters/blockers.
- Difficult to run this deck out of resources. You want to ensure you keep their board in check as you take it to the late game and start dropping Kaidos.
- OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc is a solid answer to remove Gecko Moria or Isshou off the field.
Yellow Katakuri
- Watch out for Gedatdu KOing one of your 4-cost characters. You might opt to take the early hits and drop down to 3 Life cards.
- Keep in mind that with every attack on their Leader, you're risking a board development on their side by using the Trigger effect of cards like OP03-113-charlotte-perospero, OP04-104-sanji, and OP05-105-satori.
- Prioritize dealing with their board development. You don't want them to win the board and start freely swinging with multiple Characters.
- OP03-114-charlotte-linlin will be problematic as she takes away your Life Card. OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc is a great answer to remove her on the spot.
Closing Words
Blue Donquixote Doflamingo revolves around developing multiple Characters, prolonging games, and using your heavy hitters as game finishers. It can adopt a defensive playstyle, as it slowly takes over the field by overvaluing opponents and shifts the game in its favor.
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