Table of Contents
The Blue Yellow ST13-002-portgasdace is one of our new Ultra Deck ST13 Leaders! It's a fast-paced combo deck that aims to drop ST13-002-portgasdace, ST13-015-monkeydluffy, and ST13-008-sabo as early as possible. The value your Leader creates will play a massive role in keeping up with opponents and forcing them to find answers to your board development.
This deck requires you to find the right pieces to start creating a threatening board, so I'll explain everything you'll need to know when playing ST13-002-portgasdace!
To learn to play the other brothers' decks:
Gameplan
Portgas.D.Ace's ability lets you look at the top 5 cards in your deck and add 1 card with a cost of 5 to the top of your Life Cards face-up. So we'll be looking for ST13-011-portgasdace, ST13-015-monkeydluffy, and ST13-008-sabo to place face-up on the top.
However, this ability allows you to have that face-up card in your Life Area until the end of the turn. This means you'll want to take advantage of it through your three kid Brothers, ST13-014-monkeydluffy, ST13-007-sabo, and ST13-010-portgasdace to play their adult versions on the board.
Rearrange cards with Leader's ability so that the cards you want to draw first are placed at the top of the 4 bottom cards. Activating Leader ability multiple times could cycle through the whole deck, letting you draw those cards.
The Blue Yellow Portgas.D.Ace is a combo deck that shines in the early/mid-game. With Leader's ability and the three kid brothers, you can develop a powerful board for less Don!!!, while threatening heavy hits with your Leader.
This deck needs the right pieces to set up its plays, so having kid brothers in hand is essential as we search for the adults through Leader ability. The Leader and adults are the carry of the deck, especially ST13-011-portgasdace and ST13-015-monkeydluffy. You can set up high-power attacks that can be difficult for opponents to play counters for.
The Adults
The adult brothers are cards you want to find through Leader ability and place at the top of your Life Area. This lets your kid brothers activate their abilities and play them on the board.
ST13-011-portgasdace applies pressure on the opponent and forces out counter cards with his Rush ability. In most cases, you'll prioritize finding and playing ST13-011-portgasdace over the other brothers since his 7,000 Power makes him difficult to KO, and he has no drawbacks to activate an effect.
He'll also act as your late-game finisher. With 10 Don!!! and playing ST13-011-portgasdace through kid ST13-010-portgasdace, you'll have a Leader with 9000 Power (2 Don!!! + ST13-010-portgasdace effect) and ST13-011-portgasdace with 7000 Power. Holding 6 more Don!!!, you can use them to boost the Power of both attackers and close out the game if the opponent is down to 1 Life Card.
As for ST13-015-monkeydluffy and ST13-008-sabo, they can trash one Life Card to activate their abilities. ST13-015-monkeydluffy is the heavy hitter, threatening 8,000 power attacks that are difficult to counter out of. ST13-008-sabo is a control tool for KO mid-game developments that shifts the board's presence in your favor.
If you can't play the face-up card Leader ST13-002-portgasdace placed, ST13-015-monkeydluffy and ST13-008-sabo can trash it and activate their ability so you don't end up dropping low on Life Cards. ST13-015-monkeydluffy's ability also draws a card from your deck, so you're technically gaining value.
The Kids
The kid Brothers are a crucial part of your game plan and will play a role in which card you decide to put in your Life Area through Leader ability.
Depending on the kid you have in hand, you'll pick which adult brother to put in your Life Area. So when we're playing search cards like ST13-013-monkeydgarp, you'll prioritize choosing a kid brother.
The +2,000 Power boost on Leader allows you to set up a 9,000 Power attack with Leader that will likely go through. The Power boost sticks on your defensive turn as well, making it more difficult for opponents to damage you.
Life Resource
Primarily, we want to use our face-up Life Card from Leader effect to activate kid Brothers' ability. However, we can still take advantage of the Leader effect through other means.
Low-cost cards like ST13-012-makino and OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori can put that face-up top card in your hand instead of going into the trash.
OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori can either re-add that 5-cost character face-down to the top of our Life Area or replace it with another card. This gives us an extra Life Card and can set up a combo play with another kid brother.
OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori is insanely good in this deck because she can also place cards like OP05-105-satori and OP03-056-sanjis-pilaf at the top of your deck, letting you activate their trigger and play them for 0 Don!!!
As for ST13-012-makino, she puts that 5-cost card in our hand so we can play it on the board later on, but she also lets us rearrange the cards in our Life Area. This gives us information on the cards we have in the Life Area and if we find one of the adult brothers, we can place it at the top of the Life Area to activate our kid brothers' abilities.
ST13-004-edwardnewgate is a bit high-cost to set up, but he replaces that face-up card with the top card in our deck, keeping that extra Life Card while giving us information on our next draw.
Techs and Options
OP03-121-thunder-bolt: A low-cost Event to KO a 5-cost or less Character. It's useful to keep control of the board, but the downside is that you have to trash the top card in your Life Area. It synergizes with Leader ability, letting you trash the face-up card.
ST13-019-the-three-brothers-bond: A search card to find your kid brothers.
EB01 Cards
EB01-056-charlotte-flampe: Serves a similar purpose to your value Life Takers. It puts the face-up card in your hand and lets you draw a card. A must-include once EB01 cards are out to gain additional value.
General Tips
- Activate your kid brother's ability before you attack with Leader. The +2000 Power boost gives huge offensive power; taking advantage of it is a must!
- You're playing a deck that can set up powerful attacks with Leader and ST13-015-monkeydluffy. Make sure to slam the opponent's Leader at every opportunity and force them into finding answers for your board. Dropping them down to 1 Life Card ASAP enables you to threaten to win the game with ST13-011-portgasdace + Leader attack.
- Take advantage of Leader's ability at every turn possible. Your goal is to get that value out of Leader, so finding the kids ensures you get to play their adult version. Even if we fail to find the right adult for the kid we have in hand, we still want to use that face-up card with our Life Takers ST13-012-makino, OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyori, ST13-004-edwardnewgate.
- When picking a 5-cost card through Leader's ability, make sure to choose an adult that you have their kid version in hand.
- Since the deck doesn't run high-cost cards, you'll find yourself with a lot of Don!!! left in the late game. You want to use that Don!!! to empower your attacks and make it more difficult for opponents to counter out of.
Mulligan Tips
- The three kid brothers ST13-014-monkeydluffy, ST13-007-sabo, and ST13-010-portgasdace are cards you want to see the most in your opening hand as they'll allow you to develop a stronger board presence.
- ST13-013-monkeydgarp is also a card you want in the early game that helps you find one of the kids.
- This deck wants to have the 5-cost adult brothers in the deck so Leader ability can search for them.
Important Matchups
Black Gecko Moria
- Prioritize attacking Leader and forcing out Counter cards. You won't be able to win the value game once OP06-086-gecko-moria drops.
- ST13-011-portgasdace is the strongest adult for this matchup. You want to have him on the board when you're at 2 Life Cards to use that Rush ability. Protect him with Counter cards; the 7,000 Power can be annoying for them to attack and KO. You want to force the opponent to commit cost reduction and removal cards to deal with him.
- Protect your last 2 Life Cards as long as possible. The +2,000 Power boost will make it difficult for their 5,000 Power characters to attack, forcing 2 Don!!! from the opponent.
- OP06-093-perona can trash resources. Try to stay at 4 cards in hand to play around it.
- OP02-114-borsalino is bothersome, and we want to force the opponent to block with him and get him KO'ed.
Yellow Katakuri
- Since your Leader is 4 health, you don't have to worry about OP05-102-gedatsu KOing your 5-cost characters.
- Your main goal is to win the board presence and develop multiple attackers. You want to make it difficult for them to set up and [card]OP03-114-charlotte-linlin without being at risk of a barrage of attacks.
- If you're down to 1 Life Card, avoid dropping Katakuri below 2 Life Cards. This lets you play around OP06-116-reject.
- They run a bunch of Trigger cards, so expect you'll activate one with every attack, especially if the Katakuri player keeps the card at the top of their Life Area after they've attacked.
Black Blue Sakazuki
- They can easily deal with our board development, making it difficult for us to set up multiple attacks.
- OP05-041-sakazuki only has 4 health, so adopting an aggressive plan is the way to go, forcing out those Counter cards.
- OP02-114-borsalino, OP04-083-sabo, and OP05-091-rebecca will slow down your aggression. We could use ST13-008-sabo to KO Rebecca and pave the way for a heavy hit on their Leader.
- OP02-096-kuzan is another target for ST13-008-sabo to KO.
Purple Blue Vinsmoke Reiju
- You're up against a deck capable of drawing a lot of resources with OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju and OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju.
- Some lists include OP06-047-charlotte-pudding so be wary and don't hog cards in your hand. Your own OP06-047-charlotte-pudding can demolish their hand resources.
- OP06-065-vinsmoke-niji doesn't really have much value since your threats are 5-costs.
- OP06-061-vinsmoke-ichiji can be bothersome with the -2000 Power and Rush, making it easier for the opponent to pick off your rested 5-costs.
Red Purple Law
- Difficult matchup since your opponent can out-aggro you and develop two characters per turn.
- ST13-011-portgasdace is an MVP card for this matchup. The 7,000 Power means the opponent can't use P-013-gordon or OP06-016-raise-max to put ST13-011-portgasdace in range for Leader ST10-001-trafalgar-law to KO. This either forces two cost reduction cards out of the opponent or to swing at it with a 9,000 Power attack.
- ST13-008-sabo wants to KO Don!!! generation cards like ST10-012-bepo and OP05-074-eustasscaptainkid. This slows down their future turns every time they activate Leader ability.
Green Yellow Yamato
- Always go first to take away their Yamato turn 2 attack with 3 Don!!!.
- Don't let Double Attack + OP06-101-o-nami go through; it'll trash valuable resources.
- The Skypiea version runs a bunch of Trigger cards, so expect something whenever you go for a Leader attack.
- Use ST13-008-sabo to KO threats like OP06-107-kouzuki-momonosuke or OP03-108-charlotte-cracker.
- The +2000 Power boost will make it difficult for Yamato's double attack to go through. This will force them to choose to commit their Don!!! either for a stronger attack or board development.
Closing Words
Blue Yellow ST13-002-portgasdace is a fun deck to pick up! Leader ability is faster at taking advantage of the adult three brothers and having them on the board compared to ST13-003-monkeydluffy and ST13-001-sabo.
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