Table of Contents
Heya everyone, Sorry here! I've recently picked up OP04-040-queen again to test it out in OP06 meta. It's been a solid deck in the past but has fallen out of the meta with the rise of new archetypes. However, it still has some fight left in it, and its unique playstyle can give you a fresh feeling playing One Piece.
If you want to challenge yourself with a deck other than the current top tier, Queen is one of your best choices. It's critical to keep track of your hand size and Life card area, know how many cards you can sacrifice to get more value, and order the top cards of your deck depending on the game's situation.
Gameplan
Queen doesn't really offer much in the early/mid game, his ability is tailored for the late game, and you'll have to play your cards correctly to get value from it.
You need to drop down to a total of 4 cards or less in both your hand and Life Area to start getting an additional card draw or a Life card every time Queen attacks. This means we'll only get to activate this in the late-game, and at the same time, we have to keep our hand size low if we're looking to get value out of Queen's effect.
Managing to put the top card of our deck in our Life Area gives us an additional layer of protection that your opponent has to go through to end the game. Additionally, you're still putting that Life Card in your hand, providing you with more resource value that'll play a role in outvaluing the opponent.
The Queen deck combines Blue and Yellow colors, giving you access to low-cost blockers to help prolong the game, removal events to keep the board in check, and heavy Characters that can be difficult for opponents to handle.
This deck isn't aiming to close out games fast; the longer the games stretch out, the more you'll tighten your grip on the game with Queen's draw and healing effect. Your main focus should be on board control rather than aggressively attacking the opponent's Leader. Clear out any rested characters to weaken their attacks, use your blockers to defend the Leader's health, and take over the game using your high-cost characters.
Deck Ordering
Donquixote Doflamingo and Xdrake are valuable blockers that make it challenging for the opponent to connect with your Leader. However, their actual strength lies in their ability to look at the top 5 cards in your deck and allow you to reorder them.
This is valuable as it sets up your future turns and synergizes with Leader Queen's ability, Trigger cards, and OP06-119-sanji/OP04-112-yamato. Throughout the guide, I'll explain how we can take advantage of the top cards in our deck!
Low-Cost Trigger Blockers
Charlotte Brulee and Boa Hancock serve a similar purpose in protecting our Leader. They're not on the board to create offensive pressure; they're mainly sitting there to take some hits and protect our Life Cards.
Additionally, both of those blockers have a trigger effect that allows you to play them on the board for free. You won't have to spend any Don!!! or discard any cards from hand to play them. Now, it's amazing if we're lucky to find them at the top of our Life Area, however, Queen doesn't need luck on his side!
With Queen's ability and our deck-ordering cards, we can put those cards in the right spot on the top 5 cards in our deck, to ensure that we have them on the top of our deck when Queen goes for the attack. This allows us to place them at the top of our Life Area and get that Trigger value.
For example, if we're planning to get that trigger effect on our upcoming attack turn, we can play OP01-073-donquixote-doflamingo or OP05-055-xdrake, find a blocker, and place it on the second spot in our top cards. This will let us have it as the top card in our deck once we draw a card on our upcoming turn. We can place it even deeper if we don't want to see it on our turn. It'll depend on the state of the game and when you expect you can activate Queen's effect.
Removal Tools
Gravity Blade Raging Tiger is your strongest mid-game removal tool to put two of the opponent's characters at the bottom of their deck. This eases the board pressure your opponent is building up to and gives you more time to set up your game plan. You can play this on Don!!! 7/8, weaken the opponent's board, which gives you an easier time to play your OP06-119-sanji.
Similarly, regardless of the character's cost, Gum-Gum Red Roc can put one of the opponent's Characters at the bottom of their deck. This basically removes any high-cost threat off the board.
Both of those cards have a Trigger effect, so if you'd rather not spend the Don!!! you activate their Trigger effect to put one character at the bottom of the opponent's deck. With Leader Queen's effect, you can put them at the top of your Life Area, ensuring you get that trigger value.
The Late Game
The Queen deck runs a bunch of high-cost characters that are essential to win the game. They're difficult to remove, pack a punch, and have unique effects that synergize with your deck.
Let's take a look at Katakuri first. You make use of his ability to remove a character from the board and put it in the Life Area.
If your opponent has a win condition character that's difficult to deal with, Katakuri can put it back in the opponent's Life Area. This does give them an additional Life, but at least you won't have to deal with their character and will force them to spend Don!!! to replay it.
Alternatively, we can use Katakuri to put one of our characters into our Life Area. This gives an additional life and we can trigger the effect of the character in our Life Area. Ideally, you want to put one of your blockers in the Life Area.
As for Yamato, they're valuable when we're down to only 1 Life Card, giving us an additional Life Card and can potentially KO a low-cost character. Yamato's 9,000 Power makes them difficult to remove and can stick on the board and go for heavy attacks.
Lastly, Sanji is our strongest play, but it is difficult to set him up correctly. Since we're using OP01-073-donquixote-doflamingo and OP05-055-xdrake, we want to place either Yamato or Katakuri at the right spot so they're the top card in our deck when Sanji drops on the board.
This is a massive game swinger, putting two big bodies on the board and activating either Yamato's or Katakuri's play effect to help you survive the upcoming opponent's turn.
Other Events
You're the one who should disappear gives us +3000 Power on defensive turns, letting us protect our Leader from an incoming attack. The fact that we can trash a card from hand makes it easier for Leader Queen to activate his effect on the upcoming turn.
The trigger effect only finds use if You're the one who should disappear is the last card in your life area. If you're down to 0 Life Cards, you could put it on the top of your Life Card with OP04-040-queen or OP04-112-yamato's effects.
Techs and Options
OP05-102-gedatsu: Gedatsu finds use early on to remove an opponent's Character. he's dependent on their Life Cards and will likely not find use in the game's later stages. You can still use Gedatsu for his counter effect.
OP04-104-sanji: A blocker with a trigger effect that you can place in your Life Area through OP04-040-queen's ability.
OP01-070-dracule-mihawk: A high-cost body that can remove 7-cost or less characters off the board with his effect.
General Tips
- Keep track of cards on the top of your deck. Your game plan with OP04-040-queen, OP04-112-yamato, and OP06-119-sanji is tied to the top card in your deck.
- If you're setting up a OP06-119-sanji play and your high-cost card is the second top card in your deck, you can attack with OP04-040-queen, put the top card in your deck in your Life Area and then drop the OP06-119-sanji.
- This is a difficult deck to play as you'll plan your future turns from turn 2/3. Understanding your opponent's strengths and how many Life Cards they can threaten is crucial to mastering this deck.
Mulligan Tips
- You want to have OP01-073-donquixote-doflamingo and OP05-055-xdrake in your early hand to ensure you can play them in the mid-game and get deck information.
- OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger is a powerful removal card to keep the opponent's board in check in the mid-game.
Matchups
Black Gecko Moria
- Don't hold more than 4 cards in hand since your opponent will be looking to drop OP06-093-perona and force you to trash a card.
- You'll need OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger to deal with their 4-cost characters. Prioritize bottom decking their OP06-081-absalom or OP05-093-rob-lucci to shut them down from replaying them from Trash.
- They can KO your blockers with OP06-081-absalom or OP05-093-rob-lucci. However, it'll still require some investment like ST06-015-great-eruption to drop their cost below 3.
- Once OP06-086-gecko-moria you'll need either OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc or OP03-123-charlotte-katakuri to get rid of it.
- Multiple high-cost characters can be difficult for them to deal with. They will need OP02-117-ice-age to put their cost in range for removal.
Black Blue Sakazuki
- Sakazuki's cost reduction effect can drop your blockers to 2-cost, putting them in range of cards like OP05-093-rob-lucci, OP05-057-hound-blaze, or OP06-056-ama-no-murakumo-sword to remove them off the board.
- Once OP06-086-gecko-moria you'll need either OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc or OP03-123-charlotte-katakuri to get rid of it.
- OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger can deal with cards like OP02-114-borsalino and OP05-093-rob-lucci.
- If you keep their board development in check, they'll eventually run out of resources. From there your heavy hitters should manage to close out the game.
Green Yellow Yamato
- This will depend on which version you're up against. If it's the Sky Wano hybrid, then they're likely to adopt a more aggressive game plan. If you're up against the Fortress version, then you've got a lot of time to set up your game plan and can remove their OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 with Katakuri.
Against the Skypiea version, be wary when you attack their Leader as you might trigger one of their Life Card's effects and create an opportunity for them to develop the board. - Always go first to take away their Yamato turn 2 attack with 3 Don!!!.
- OP06-101-o-nami + Double Attack Yamato can be brutal for your resources. Having a blocker can shut down their attack.
- In the late game, they'll rely on OP01-033-izo or OP06-035-hody-jones to rest your blockers, paving the way for their attackers to go through.
Closing Words
Although Queen isn't a popular deck in OP06 meta, it's still an interesting and fun deck to pick and learn to play. It challenges you to learn how to set up your future turns, stretch games as long as possible, and force out opponents' resources until they succumb to your high-cost characters.
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