Table of Contents
The fastest ramp Leader, Hannyabal, is joining the One Piece card game in EB01. The Blue Purple leader uses early {Impel Down} Characters to start the ramping game plan as early as turn 1 (if you're going second), letting you drop higher-cost Characters on earlier turns.
There are different ways to build a Hannyabal deck. The list I'm sharing here includes multiple blockers, Jailer Beast Characters, and Sanji + (Kaido or Dracule Mihawk) as late-game win conditions.
Gameplan
Blue Purple EB01-021-hannyabal is a ramp Leader, that synergizes with {Impel Down} Characters. At the end of your turn, Hannyabal's ability lets you return a 2-cost or more {Impel Down} Character to your hand and gain an additional Don. This means we can activate it on turn 1 if we're going second and on turn 2 if we're going first.
The ramp Hannyabal deck wants to gain that early don on the first two/three turns to set up its higher-cost plays. Low-cost {Impel Down} Characters set up the Hannyabal Don gain ability, before transitioning to the late-game heavy hitters. Since the Leader's only ability is to ramp, we'll be on defense in the early game, relying on blockers to protect the Leader's health and make sure the opponent doesn't get an opportunity to rush us down.
Early Impel Down
Your early Impel Down Characters to start taking advantage of the Leader effect. The plan is to play them as early as possible and return them back to hand with Leader effect at the end of our turn. This gives us an additional active Don that we can't use on our turn but can find use on the defensive turn. We're aiming to ramp two turns in a row to drop our 9-cost Characters as early as turn 4.
EB01-026-prince-bellett and OP02-081-domino are your turn 1 {Impel Down} Characters to get that early ramp. You'll get to use EB01-026-prince-bellett as a +2000 Counter later on in the game. As for OP02-081-domino, she can serve as a blocker or a +1000 Counter, depending on the state of the game.
OP02-073-little-sadi is our Don 3/4 carry! She drops on the board, lets you play one of your Jailer Beast Characters for free as a follow-up, and then Leader ability puts her back in hand at the end of the turn for that extra-active Don. OP02-073-little-sadi can either be played on the upcoming turn to redo the play or be kept as a +2000 Counter play.
Jailer Beast
OP02-073-little-sadi + Jailer Beast combo ensures you play a character and keep up with the opponent's board development as you work on your ramp game plan.
Each of the Jailer Beast characters has 5000 Power, meaning they're able to attack the opponent's Leader or threaten to KO any of their rested characters.
OP02-087-minotaur and OP02-086-minokoala are your best characters to drop in the mid-game. OP02-086-minokoala is a valuable blocker to protect your Leader and help reach the point where you can drop your high-cost win conditions safely.
Whereas, OP02-087-minotaur is a rush attacker, dropping on the board and immediately going for the attack. In most cases, you'll opt to attack rested characters, in an attempt to stabilize the board or force Counter cards from the opponent.
Defense-wise, OP02-087-minotaur is the weakest of the three. It does have Double Attack, so you could take advantage of setting up an aggressive attack on their Leader. However, you'd rather focus your attacks on weakening their board.
If any of your Jailer Beast gets KO'd, you'll gain a rested Don. So we're fine with them getting KO'd in the early game to benefit from that extra Don.
Deck Sorters
OP01-073-donquixote-doflamingo and OP05-055-xdrake act as blockers to help protect your Leader and key Characters. However, both these characters are deck sorters, looking at the top 5 cards of your deck and allowing you to rearrange them.
Our main goal when rearranging the top cards in our deck depends on the Sanji, as we'll want to set up to play him on turn 4 and get one of our high-cost characters on the top of our deck.
Heavy Hitters + Removal
ST04-003-kaido-400 and OP01-070-dracule-mihawk are your powerful 9 drops, allowing you to remove a threat off the board, weakening the opponent's upcoming turn. ST04-003-kaido-400 goes the extra mile, offering a Rush attack to either play aggressively on the opponent's Leader or remove a potential threat.
Sanji is your strongest play if you have one of the other high-cost characters at the top of the deck. The deck sorters enable us to set up the Sanji play, ensuring we develop two big bodies on the board.
On turn 3, we should be able to play OP01-073-donquixote-doflamingo along with an {Impel Down} card to keep the ramp plan going. If we already have a Sanji in hand, the plan is to place either Dracule Mihawk or Kaido in the second top card in our deck. On our upcoming turn, we'll draw a card, putting Dracule Mihawk or Kaido at the top of our deck. We play Sanji and we get to drop a second big body.
If we don't have a Sanji in hand, our deck sorters can look for a Sanji and place him at the top of our deck to play him as soon as possible.
Events
Desert Spada is our defensive counter card which we'll want to use in the mid-game. We can take advantage of the +1 Don that Hannyabal offers us during our defensive turn. Desert Spada is also a deck sorting card, to set up our future turns. It's limited to only 3 cards, but could create an opportunity for a Sanji play.
Gum Gum Jet Gatling is to protect Leader or key characters. We'll trash a card we'll need the least in the game for that +3000 Counter effect.
Gameplay Video
Techs and Options
This version of the deck is geared more toward the draw mechanic, making sure you have a resource engine working while you develop the board.
ST12-010-emporioivankov: An Impel Down character that offers a card draw on attack. Emporio Ivankov is a resource value card to keep the engine rolling.
EB01-022-inazuma: Another draw resource that wants to see 2 or less cards in hand. Running Inazuma means we want to use our Counter cards early on to get advantage of Inazuma's draw potential.
OP02-051-emporioivankov: Lets you develop a second big body on the board, basically getting play Inazuma as a follow-up. You can chain-play Sanji into Emporio Ivankov into Inazuma, creating 3 big bodies in one turn.
General Tips
- We want to play defensively in the early stages of the game. Try to keep the opponent's board in check until your heavy hitters start dropping.
- When playing a deck sorter, keep track of the cards you're placing at the top of the deck. We're usually focused on the top 3 cards in our deck, but the other two cards are still important. We could either put another high-cost character we want to play on the upcoming turns or put a +2000 Counter that'll come in handy on defensive turns. Your decision on the order of the cards will change depending on the situation of the game.
- If you think your opponent is trying to close out the game, return an {Impel Down} character like OP02-086-minokoala or OP02-087-minotaur to your hand so it can be used as a Counter card.
Mulligan Tips
- Look for early {Imp Down} Characters like ]EB01-026-prince-bellett, OP02-081-domino, OP02-073-little-sadi. If you're going second, ]EB01-026-prince-bellett and OP02-081-domino are a keep. If you're going first, OP02-073-little-sadi is enough to do the job.
- A Jailer Beast Character along with OP02-073-little-sadi should help shape up your mid-game.
Matchups
Black Gecko Moria
- Try to use Counter cards early on to avoid trashing resources if they drop Perona.
- If they end up holding too many cards in hand, Pudding can destroy their resources.
- Your high-cost threats are difficult for them to deal with, forcing them to have an Ice Age + another cost reduction to put them in range.
- In most cases, we'll ignore the Moria, try to remove lower Power threats or go for our Leader attack to win the game.
- Their Borsalino and Sabo can slow us down. Kaido can KO a Sabo with no effect active.
Red Purple Law
- An aggressive deck that can develop two bodies in one turn. The goal is to KO their rested characters and rush down your Kaido or Dracuke Mihawk.
- Prioritize KOing their Don generation cards like Bepo.
- We want to force them to play their power-reduction cards to remove our Characters with Leader ability. This means OP02-081-domino's 2000 Power won't be useful in this matchup as a blocker since she falls in Leader Law's removal range.
Black Yellow Luffy
- Blockers are valuable in this match since most BY Luffy lists don't have reliable answers for them outside of Sabo. The blockers can take hits and defend your leader, buying you enough time to build up your heavy hitters.
- Keep opponent at 2 health. We're not trying to rush them down, the goal is to drop Sanji + Dracule Mihawk or Kaido and threaten massive hits with them.
- Dracule Mihawk can be more reliable in this matchup than Kaido due to blocker Sabo's effect. You won't be able to KO threats with Kaido if the Sabo's effect is active, whereas Dracule Mihawk can still remove those threats.
- They don't have methods to deal with your heavy hitters, so you're able to win the game if there's two of them ready to swing.
Yellow Katakuri
- The goal is to defend your health until your heavy hitters drop on the board. The opponent can take away your life cards with Big Mom or Reject.
- Blockers come in handy and you want to take advantage of them early on. In the late game, your opponent can commit an Amaru to rest a blocker, paving the way for them to full aggro.
- We can create a threatening board presence before 10c Charlotte Linlin hits the board. This makes it challenging for them to commit to their 10 Don play.
- Dracule Mihawk is the perfect answer for either 7c Charlotte Linlin or Kikunojo.
Closing Words
Blue Purple Hannyabal deck is all about ramping early on and dropping big bodies that are bothersome to deal with. The two main versions that are floating around are the Jailer Beasts and draw engine Emporio.Ivankov.
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