Table of Contents
Green Jewelry Bonney has a built-in stall mechanic, allowing you to control the game and build up to powerful late-game plays. This deck is about using your Don efficiently, trying to hold onto 1 Don for the defensive turn to can keep the Leader effect on the table.
This guide will help you grasp the basics of the stall deck, what it's trying to accomplish, and how to approach different matchups. Let's get started.
Gameplan
OP07-019-jewelry-bonney is a 5-health Leader with the effect to rest one of the opponent's Characters during their turn. This effect requires you to use 1 Don to activate it, which means we have to be mindful of which turns we want to activate OP07-019-jewelry-bonney's effect on to bank that 1 Don. However, the list includes cards like OP07-021-urouge that offer an extra Don to make life easier for us.
With Leader's ability to rest one of the opponent's Characters, this deck can slow down the opponent's aggression, which saves us from playing more Counter cards. We can stall the game until our high-cost Characters drop on the board, and from there, we'll rely on them to carry the game.
There are two main strategies:
- Build a Fortress and protect your Leader and other Characters from getting KO'd. This forces the opponent to expend resources to deal with OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 rather than attack your Leader.
- The other strategy is through the heavy hitters. Managing to develop a OP06-118-roronoa-zoro threatens a barrage of attacks if the opponent doesn't have the answer for him.
Early Searchers
ST02-007-jewelry-bonney and OP05-034-baby-5 are early game searchers to help shape up your later turns. To activate their effects, you'll need to spend 1 Don and rest them. This forces the opponent to commit one of their attackers to KO them to prevent you from activating their effects again.
ST02-007-jewelry-bonney searches the top 5 cards for a {Supernovas} type card, helping you find key cards early. So we could draw cards like OP07-021-urouge, EB01-012-cavendish, or OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 that we might be missing.
OP05-034-baby-5 searches for {Donquixote Pirates} type cards like OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante or OP04-031-donquixote-doflamingo.
The cards you choose depend on what you already have in hand and what you're planning to play in future turns. If you already have everything you need, you can still choose a +2,000 Counter card to protect your Leader or key cards.
Extra Don
Having to bank 1 Don in the mid-game can be difficult at times, especially when aiming to build up your field. This is where OP07-021-urouge comes into play. For as long as he sticks on the field, OP07-021-urouge sets one of your rested Don as Active, giving you that needed Don to activate the Leader effect. Keep in mind that you need a rested Don for OP07-021-urouge to switch to Active, so if you attach all your Don to boost your attacks, you won't get that Active Don.
Since OP07-021-urouge is extremely valuable for our stall gameplan, we'll avoid attacking or blocking with him except when necessary, to ensure the opponent doesn't KO him easily.
EB01-012-cavendish offers two Active Don, she's more suited if we're going first. Opponents can't afford to leave EB01-012-cavendish on the field for too long since every time she attacks, she's giving you another 2 Active Don. This means if we have a EB01-012-cavendish that can attack, we want to spend Don first before attacking to make use of her Don effect.
Fortress
The fortress game plan is our strongest defensive wall, forcing opponents to find answers to deal with it. On Don 9/10, we're planning to play OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701, attach 1 Don to him, rest him, and play OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante for free through OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701's effect. Having OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante along with OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 protects him from KO effects and 1 big attacker.
As long as there's a blocker on the field along with OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701, the opponent can't go for 1 massive attack boosted by Don attachments to KO the OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701. They're forced to split their Don attachments, weakening their attacks and making it easier for you to Counter out of them to protect the OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701.
OP04-031-donquixote-doflamingo can be a massive follow-up play, keeping three of the opponent's attackers rested for their upcoming turn. This relieves a lot of the pressure they're imposing, buying you more time to control the field or get to that lethal turn to win the game. He's also a 10,000 Power attacker, which goes for heavy attacks that are difficult to Counter.
Combined with Leader OP07-019-jewelry-bonney's rest effect, the bird cage can be a nightmare for some decks, creating a strategy that prohibits them from posing a threat to your Leader.
OP07-031-bartolomeo is a blocker that OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 can cheat out. He's usually the card we'll go for in case we don't have OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante available. Whenever OP07-031-bartolomeo sees you rest one of the opponent's Characters, you can draw a card and trash one from hand, helping you filter your hand.
Although we're heavily reliant on OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante to protect OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701, there are cases where we won't find the 2-cost blocker or we might need an extra blocker. This is where blockers OP07-021-urouge and OP07-029-basil-hawkins can come to use.
OP07-029-basil-hawkins can be challenging to remove with his 7,000 Power and defensive effect. If the opponent tries to remove him through an effect, you can instead rest one of the opponent's Characters, shutting down their aggression and keeping your blocker on the field.
Although OP07-029-basil-hawkins is a blocker, in many cases, we want to attack with him to use that 7,000 Power offensively. Either putting pressure on their Leader or trying to KO rested Characters.
If your opponent is in trouble if they fail to remove OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 early on. OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 can go for the attack on the upcoming turn, putting them behind on the field.
Heavy Hitters
The defensive game plan is great, but we need aggressors to help us close out games. OP06-035-hody-jones joins the battle and immediately creates opportunities for an aggressive turn. His effects let you rest two of the opponent's Characters, which we'll use strategically. If we're trying to close out the game and the opponent has blockers on the field, then we're resting those blockers and paving the way for our attackers to strike the opponent's Leader. If we're more focused on field control, then we're resting threats that we plan to attack and KO.
Be wary that OP06-035-hody-jones will damage your Leader on play, so it might put you at risk of an offensive attack on the opponent's upcoming turn if we drop too low on Life cards.
OP06-118-roronoa-zoro is the strongest offensive card in this deck's arsenal. Although it doesn't offer anything on the turn he's played and can put you behind on your defensive turn, if OP06-118-roronoa-zoro sticks on the board, he's presenting an insane offensive turn that could win you the game.
For 3 Don, OP06-118-roronoa-zoro can attack three times in one turn with heavy hits, difficult for the opponent to Counter. With 7 Don left, we can even boost OP06-118-roronoa-zoro's attacks to make sure opponents can't Counter. Depending on the state of the game, we can either go for a full triple attack on their Leader or choose to clear out rested Characters, putting us ahead on the field and setting the stage for stronger upcoming turns.
Techs and Options
OP07-026-jewelry-bonney is useful to slow down the opponent's upcoming turn by keeping one of their Characters rested.
A {Supernova} +2,000 Counter which we can add if we're cutting out OP05-034-baby-5.
+2,000 Counter that can rest a 4-cost blocker when going for an aggressive turn or to remove a key character for the opponent.
General Tips
- Since we can't always rely on OP07-021-urouge for a free Active Don, it's crucial to manage our turns wisely and possibly reserve 1 Don for defense. This strategy will help us maintain our Counter resources.
- Depending on the matchup, we should decide whether to pursue the Fortress game plan or deploy OP06-118-roronoa-zoro as soon as possible for a triple attack turn. This comes down to the opponent's removal capabilities and whether they're presenting too much aggression that a Fortress is a must as soon as possible.
- It's important to always have a blocker ready for OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701. We should avoid sacrificing any of our existing blockers to protect OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 in future turns.
- When OP07-029-basil-hawkins is on the board, we must ensure there is an Active Character on the opponent's side to activate his protection effect. Consequently, we will often choose to use Leader Bonney's effect on the opponent's Leader rather than their Characters. This is only applicable depending on the matchup and whether we expect the opponent to have the removal effects to deal with OP07-029-basil-hawkins.
Mulligan Tips
If we're going second, we want to have OP07-021-urouge so we can play him on turn 2 and get access to that Active Don. Going first means we'll prefer EB01-012-cavendish instead for turn 3. Searchers are always great to have early on to help shape our game plan.
We only run 2 copies of OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 so having one in the early game is good to ensure the Fortress strategy.
Important Matchups
Red Purple Law
- We're trying to keep up with the opponent's early/mid game aggression. Focus on attacking and removing their threats until the Fortress is up.
- Once the Fortress is up the R/P Law player needs to have two cost reduction cards to remove the OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701. It's exceptionally difficult for them to just attack and KO it if you have a blocker on the field.
- Resting one of their Characters every turn with Bonney's effect is extremely important to slow down their pace and buy you enough time.
- OP07-029-basil-hawkins is extremely annoying since they can't remove him with Law's effect for as long as they have an Active Character.
Yellow Enel
- We are heavily reliant on OP06-118-roronoa-zoro to carry this matchup for us with his triple attack turn.
- Avoid dropping them below 2 Life Cards until you've established a threatening board capable of setting up the winning turn. Even if you don't win the game on a specific turn, forcing them to commit Counter resources and using their upcoming turn to gain a Life Card is a win.
- Having them at 2 Life Cards means they won't gain a Life Card from OP04-112-yamato, won't gain Rush on OP07-119-portgasdace, and will have to trash a Life card if they play EB01-059-kingdom-come.
- OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante is extremely important in this matchup to protect OP06-118-roronoa-zoro or OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 from EB01-059-kingdom-come.
- Gedatsu can KO OP07-021-urouge and shut down your Active Don generation.
Black Yellow Luffy
- Avoid attacking their Leader to slow down their game plan. Leader Luffy wants to drop to 0 Life Cards and start the combo game plan, so we want to force them into using their resources to get there.
- The Fortress is how we protect our Leader in the later stages. OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 along with blockers can be extremely difficult for the opponent to go through.
- OP06-118-roronoa-zoro is the carry for this matchup, patiently waiting for the opponent to drop to 0 Life Cards. With his triple attack, it's almost impossible for them to survive the barrage of attacks. They'll rely on multiple blocker Sabos to protect their Leader and slow down OP06-118-roronoa-zoro from closing out the game.
Black Rob Lucci
- This is a tough matchup since Black Rob Lucci can KO your Don generators, weakening your defensive game plan.
- OP05-030-donquixote-rosinante is key for this matchup to protect important cards like OP06-118-roronoa-zoro and OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701.
- They can outvalue you in the late game with Gecko Moria and Rebecca, so you want to try and win the game before you run out of steam. OP06-118-roronoa-zoro's triple attack is the only way we can get there.
Closing Words
This is a slow-paced deck, planning to set up the Fortress plan to keep control of the board and rely on OP06-118-roronoa-zoro and OP06-035-hody-jones as game-winners. Understanding matchups is crucial to knowing the limitations of the opponent's deck and which steps you'll need to take to protect key cards.
This is it from me, if you want to keep up with my content, consider following me on Twitter.
