Table of Contents
Welcome! We're taking a look into OP-07's most competitive leaders in this preview tier list!
The OP-07 meta has been going on in Japan for about two months now and the picture is crystal clear! Some decks are a cut above the rest, so today we’re ranking all the major leaders from 0 to hero! These tiers are entirely based on tournament results, but you'll find my input in the explanations of each leader. My understanding of each deck comes from playing against every archetype in this list in various competitions, discussing the meta with experienced players, and from spending far too many hours tracking data on how the meta has evolved over the past two months. Your opinion on these placements may vary and I welcome your input.
Note: We will not be including Sakazuki. While he was present for the first month of OP-07 in Japan, he will be banned around the time 07 releases in the west.
Tier 1 - The Best of the Best
Red/Purple Trafalgar D. Law
When it comes to decks that are the talk of the town, you don't get much more talked about than Red/Purple ST10-001-trafalgar-law This leader has seen a steady rise in its usage every time a new set has released. Little buffs have added up and now, he's one of the best decks out there.
RP ST10-001-trafalgar-law swarms the field with 5-6k attackers, controls the board via bottom decking, and works to overwhelm the opponent with sheer numbers.
It's a deck that has strong matchups against almost every other major leader (other than OP06-080-gecko-moria) and is set to continue its dominance in OP-08. When preparing for OP-07, RP ST10-001-trafalgar-law is one leader that players cannot afford to overlook.
Guide:
Yellow Enel
Yellow has been a powerful color since its debut, but typically OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri has been the spokesperson (spokes-character?) taking over game shops. That had mainly been due to the power of 10c OP03-114-charlotte-linlin. OP05-098-enel didn't really have anything on par with her, but that suddenly changed in OP-07. Thanks to 10c OP07-119-portgasdace, who adds a card to the top of its owner’s life on play and gets rush if they have two or less life, OP05-098-enel has stepped out of the shadows and is ready to beat down on any players who head into this matchup unprepared.
OP05-098-enel players take hits early on, then use 9c OP04-112-yamato, 8c OP03-123-charlotte-katakuri, and 10c OP07-119-portgasdace to continually stay around 2 life. Thanks to cards like EB01-056-charlotte-flampe, they have a large hand size and are able to counter out of any attacks that are inconvenient to them. Interestingly though, 7c ST07-010-charlotte-linlin started to disappear from most builds in favor of EB01-055-charlotte-compote, who is able to more easily deal with Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy.
Unfortunately, OP05-098-enel remains an expensive deck to build, so many players may struggle to obtain an optimum list. However, if your locals start to fill with big spenders, OP05-098-enel tends to struggle vs OP07-019-jewelry-bonney and OP06-080-gecko-moria, especially if the former runs 9c OP06-118-roronoa-zoro.
Guide:
Black Gecko Moria
This burned out warlord still has more than a little fight in him, as without OP05-041-sakazuki around, he’s finally getting the chance to shine.
OP06-080-gecko-moria specializes in recycling resources from the trash pile and removing characters from the board via ko effects. Thanks to OP06-093-perona and a new addition of OP03-078-issho, he's able to keep up vs yellow and ST10-001-trafalgar-law’s gaggle of low cost characters remain easy fodder for OP06-081-absalom.
Unfortunately, while OP03-078-issho has definitely made the matchup better, Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy’s attack boosts make this one tough for OP06-080-gecko-moria players. On top of that, OP07-079-rob-lucci tends to move a bit faster at OP06-080-gecko-moria’s own game, leading to a bit of a troublesome matchup there.
Guide:
Tier 2 - Hmm...Needs A Pinch of...Something
Tier 2 consists of decks that are still extremely good, but that have struggled to break into the top spots for one reason or another.
Green Bonney
OP07-019-jewelry-bonney is a leader with an extremely skewed matchup profile. The deck focuses on resting one of the opponent's characters and/or their leader, so she does very well against decks that rely on swinging tall like OP05-098-enel and Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy. However, the other side of that coin is that she struggles against decks that bring out many small characters like RP ST10-001-trafalgar-law or OP07-079-rob-lucci.
While she's certainly a strong deck, capable of stunlocking certain opponents and dropping massive threats like 10c OP04-031-donquixote-doflamingo and 9c OP06-118-roronoa-zoro, her weakness to some common leaders prevents her from making it into the top spot.
Guide coming soon!
Black/Yellow Monkey D. Luffy
Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy was a leader many were sure would take the meta by storm and it's certainly made a few waves. Unfortunately, Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy has two major issues holding him back.
- His reliance on leader swings
- His predictability
Buffing up your own leader to 9k attack is a powerful move, but it does nothing against a blocker or if your leader is permanently rested. As ST13-003-monkeydluffy gained more relevance, other decks began to tech against him more. OP03-040-nami started running OP03-050-boodle, OP05-098-enel swapped 7c ST07-010-charlotte-linlin for EB01-055-charlotte-compote, and other decks began to focus more on bottom decking or just building up a good board and waiting for the buff to pass.
Additionally, since ST13-003-monkeydluffy had to be at 0 life to begin boosting, it led to a predictable first few turns. This means that experienced players are able to learn the matchup and play around it.
While he's certainly an excellent leader in his own right, he hasn't been able to claim the king of the Pirates spot just yet.
Guide:
New Rob Lucci
Oddly enough, OP07-079-rob-lucci has better matchups than OP06-080-gecko-moria in almost every situation, other than Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy. A case could certainly be made for those two to switch spots, but as of now, OP07-079-rob-lucci doesn't see as much play as OP06-080-gecko-moria and hence, has not had as many tournament wins as his warlord counterpart.
It’s my belief that the familiarity of OP06-080-gecko-moria and the better matchup vs Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy have led to our carpenter friend not getting the love he deserves.
Guide coming soon!
Tier 2.5 - Literally Just Katakuri
While everything else on this list would be considered rogue decks, there is one that clearly outpaces all the others. They haven't won enough to make it into tier 2, but have proven themselves to be better than their counterparts in tier 3. Welcome to tier 2.5.
Yellow Charlotte Katakuri
OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri hasn't really had a massive fall from grace, as some would lead you to believe. It's more like a slight tumble. OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri still gets wins consistently, especially in the flagship environment, but his exceptionally poor matchup vs Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy and the addition of 10c OP07-119-portgasdace to OP05-098-enel, have led the mochi man to see less play than before.
OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri still does OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri things, so not too much has changed regarding his decklist. The main change has been a swap from the now banned OP06-116-reject to OP07-116-blaze-slice, which helps in the RP ST10-001-trafalgar-law matchup.
New guide coming soon!
Tier 3 - Rogue Decks
As the name suggests, this tier is made up of sneaky, yet charming, lockpickers and thieves...or possibly just decks that aren't dominating the meta, but are still winning some tournaments every week.
Blue Nami
OP03-040-nami got a significant boost this set in the form of two new engines, Kuja Pirates and Warlords. With the additional options, she's now a bit less predictable. Unfortunately, while the biggest thorn in her side (OP05-041-sakazuki) might be gone, RP ST10-001-trafalgar-law and OP07-038-boa-hancock have made it so she's struggled to really make it past rogue status.
Guide coming soon!
Green/Yellow Yamato
Wano engine OP06-022-yamato has seen a pretty good resurgence with the addition of OP07-022-otama as extra search. He's a pretty aggressive deck, so he does have some decent matchups, but tends to struggle against OP05-098-enel, OP07-038-boa-hancock, and RP ST10-001-trafalgar-law.
Guide:
Blue Boa Hancock
The queen of Amazon Lily did not make as big of an impact as people expected. She debuted with two engines (Kuja Pirates and Warlords), but it seems like the Warlord one won out. However, while she's a great answer to OP07-019-jewelry-bonney and BY ST13-003-monkeydluffy, she has a really hard time against OP06-080-gecko-moria and OP07-079-rob-lucci.
Guide coming soon!
Green/Black Perona
About a month ago, a new OP06-021-perona build started winning tournaments. Very soon after, a good portion of the playerbase started trying it out and having a lot of fun with it. Known as Eco-Perona, this build combines a wano engine with EB01-013-kouzuki-hiyori, OP01-041-kouzuki-momonosuke, and OP07-022-otama with the recursion from 8c OP06-086-gecko-moria to consistently draw cards and get out EB01-018-mountain-god and OP06-036-ryuma. It has good win rates and is only held back by the combination of R/P ST10-001-trafalgar-law and its own novelty. This could be a sleeper pick for the western meta, who would have enough time to learn the ins and outs of it before the set debuts.
Guide:
Blue Donquixote Doflamingo
OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo is a leader many expected great things from this set, since he got so many warlord buffs. However, much like OP07-038-boa-hancock, he hasn't been able to really carve out a spot in the meta. Another unfortunate similarity he shares is that he struggles against OP07-079-rob-lucci and OP06-080-gecko-moria, but unlike OP07-038-boa-hancock, he also has trouble against OP05-098-enel.
Guide:
Blue/Purple Vinsmoke Reiju
The fact that OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju can make it on this list at all is a testament to how strong the deck is. OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju's primary counter is R/P ST10-001-trafalgar-law, as he can make it so she can almost never activate her character's effects (since they require the OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju player to have equal or less don than their opponent). With how popular R/P ST10-001-trafalgar-law is, she should have completely disappeared, but she remains an option for incredibly skilled players. That being said, I would still recommend against using her, as the environment is very unfavorable towards her matchups.
Guide:
Purple Monkey D. Luffy
Purple OP05-060-monkeydluffy waited in the shadows, biding his time, until OP05-041-sakazuki finally fell. Then, he jumped up, had Brook play some music, and danced on the lava man's corpse.
He really needed OP05-041-sakazuki out of the way, and he does have some pretty decent matchups, but OP07-079-rob-lucci seems to be his major weakness. Purple OP05-060-monkeydluffy has slowly been growing in usage since the ban and it'll be interesting to see how he continues into OP-08.
Guide:
