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All 13 released starter decks tiered! Let's figure out which are the best for their price!
Are you looking to get into the game? Trying to find a starter deck that'll give you the best bang for your buck? Well then, you're in the right place! Today, we're going to be ranking every starter deck released so far, including starter deck 13, so you know exactly what to pick up!
How Were These Tiers Decided?
There are several types of starter decks, all at different price points, so these will be ranked based on the following criteria: price, strength out of the box, and ease of upgrades. While some starter decks contain a few meta-relevant cards, the decks themselves are not very good. In situations like those, you might be better off just buying copies of the important cards. With all that out of the way, let's get started!
Tier A - The Best of The Best
ST13 - The Three Brothers
This will come as no surprise to experienced players, but starter deck 13, The Three Brothers, stands at the top of the list! This is part of the Ultra Deck line and comes in at a rather expensive price point (34.99 USD), but it comes with three strong leaders (Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy, Blue/Yellow ST13-002-portgasdace, and Red/Yellow ST13-001-sabo).
At the moment of writing, (Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy is set to be a tier one deck that mostly contains cards from the starter deck itself, although a person would need to buy two copies to get a playset of the SRs and Garp.
Out of the box, the deck is quite strong, especially when you get a full playset of ST13-015-monkeydluffy, ST13-008-sabo, ST13-011-portgasdac, and ST13-013-monkeydgarp. In order to make the most of it, you might need to get some upgrades, two of which will bring the deck's power from good to great.
OP06-086-gecko-moria allows Black/Yellow ST13-003-monkeydluffy players to pretty much infinitely cycle their brother cards and keep their leader at 9k attack every turn. Getting your hands on four copies of this card prevents you from burning through too many of your resources and helps to ensure that you can deal with decks that like to take things a little slower. Unfortunately, this card is a 4 of in any black deck, so it may be a little expensive.
Thankfully, the other main upgrade is a lot easier to procure since it's been around for a while.
Maybe you look at Black/Yellow Luffy's effect and you're a little worried about being at 0 life. Well OP04-083-sabo is the card that solves that. Of course ST13-008-sabo that comes in the starter deck is decently strong, but OP-04 OP04-083-sabo is just an overall better target. He does three main things for this deck.
- Draws you cards and helps you get to the kid versions of each of the brothers
- Blocks attacks so your opponent can't take advantage of your low life count
- Stops effects from KOing your character, which prevents you from losing to black control decks.
After those main updates, every other upgrade is either cheap or makes a small difference. Cards like OP06-106-kouzuki-hiyor and EB01-056-charlotte-flampe help you deal with opponents who don't attack your life. OP07-109-monkeydluffy gives you a better removal option than ST13-008-sabo. If you get all those, then you've got the perfect version of the deck (as of writing this). However, maybe you're looking for something that doesn't require you to buy 4 copies of OP06-086-gecko-moria.
ST13-008-sabo is the budget leader of the three. He has an easy to understand effect and can be upgraded with rares from several sets. He also doesn't require two copies of the starter deck to run effectively. In fact, while he enjoys using ST13-011-portgasdac, you don't even have to have that. You could just buy the leader and build the deck from scratch. However, that means that, using the cards he comes with, ST13-008-sabo is not that strong. He much prefers cards like OP05-005-karasu from the revolutionary army or OP06-104-kikunojo and other yellow Wano cards who can be played off of a trigger. That being said, the ease of use and budget upgrades earns this a few extra points. For players on a tight budget, look to see what rush cards you have that can hit 7000 attack easily.
ST13-002-portgasdace is one that will feel a little underwhelming until OP-07 releases. He is playable out of the box, but is pretty reliant on luck. Since his effect requires the card to be in the first 5 cards of the deck, it can be easy to miss. Compared to ST13-003-monkeydluffy's effect, who can grab his targets from the hand or trash, Ace can find himself missing a lot more.
However, once OP-07 releases, he gets two important cards to boost his consistency: OP07-053-portgasdace and OP07-109-monkeydluffy. Really, just having 8 more targets to hit with your leader's effect makes a big difference.
ST11 - Uta
While starter deck 13 was an expensive deck that came with a lot of options, starter deck 11 is much more limited, but also much cheaper. This was originally marketed as a side deck, including reprints of several cards and sold for half the price of a standard deck. However, when it was released in the west, Bandai realized that customers don't like discounts and it now sells for 11.99 USD.
ST11-001-uta is easily the most playable deck, out of the box, on this list. She revolves around the film engine and includes enough copies of almost every part of it. If you're just looking to get into the game with friends, this will give you the most value per dollar. However, the flip side is that she doesn't have quite as much potential strength as starter deck 13 provides, so players who want to put a lot of time and effort into upgrading one deck may want to steer clear of this one. There are still a couple upgrades we can do to make the deck better.
Remember how I said it contained almost every part of the film engine? Yeah, this is the main part missing. For whatever reason, Bandai decided not to reprint OP02-036-nami, the main searcher of the deck. Adding a playset of OP02-036-nami into the deck makes the deck more consistent, but it comes at a price.
Thankfully, the other main upgrade ST11-001-uta players can make is a relatively easy one. The deck comes with two copies of ST11-004-new-genesis, another search card. Buying yourself two more copies is pretty cheap and adds more consistency.
While EB01-014-sanji hasn't released yet in the west (he's a rare in the next set), he provides the Uta deck another card with 2000 counter that's searchable. He's a nice boost to the deck's defenses and worth picking up a playset of.
That set also comes with EB01-017-blueno which is just a common blocker that has the Film type, so he's also searchable (and playable) by a lot of cards in the deck. He's the cheapest upgrade you'll find. However, when playing the Green ST11-001-uta deck, there's one more upgrade to consider. The boss drop.
Generally, ST11-001-uta players pick one of these as their big threat in the deck: OP04-031-donquixote-doflamingo, OP06-118-roronoa-zoro, OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701, P-061-monkeydluffy, and OP06-035-hody-jones. It mainly depends on your playstyle.
OP04-031-donquixote-doflamingo can be a great way to take control of the tempo of the game by locking three of your opponent's cards out of refreshing.
OP06-118-roronoa-zoro is just an insanely strong threat. If he goes unchecked, the opponent is getting hit with at least 3 9000 power attacks. However, you have to wait a turn after you play him to gain that benefit, so he pressures your opponent to remove him.
OP01-051-eustasscaptainkid-701 is a defensive option that pairs well with the plethora of blockers in the deck, as opponents will have to target him instead of your leader.
P-061-monkeydluffy is a vanilla card, but he has the film tag, so he is searchable by a bunch of cards in the deck.
OP06-035-hody-jones comes with the ability to rest two of your opponent's cards or don, along with rush, so he can make for surprise wins.
ST10 - The Three Captains
Other than starter deck 13, there's been one other Ultra starter deck released, starter deck 10. While it may not be as competitively viable (at the moment) as starter deck 13, one of these leaders is set to take the post-Sakazuki meta by storm! Another one is one of the easiest leaders for beginners to pilot, and one of them...has a metal arm. That's cool enough to be included here, right? So let's get into the Three Captains: ST10-002-monkeydluffy, ST10-001-trafalgar-law, and ST10-003-eustasscaptainkid!
ST10-002-monkeydluffy is my favorite of the three and who I lovingly refer to as, the Unga Bunga man. ST10-002-monkeydluffy is a 6000 power leader that does a lot better without the cards in this starter deck (other than ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid). Since he's naturally stronger than almost any other leader, he loves cards that boost his attack power even higher! ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid's effect means that any opponents will have to have 7000 power on any of their attacks to threaten you, but even then, a simple counter can deal with those. 2000 counter character cards like OP05-073-miss-doublefinger-zala or OP05-070-fra-nosuke can be quite beneficial for this leader. However, for those unable to get a hold of these specific ones, almost any 2000 counter characters will do. There is one major update that can make a world of difference with this rubber man.
A couple copies of gear 5 OP05-119-monkeydluffy replacing ST10-006-monkeydluffy allows players to ramp up to 10 don, drop down a 10c OP05-119-monkeydluffy, use their leader's effect to get to 1 don, use the [card]OP05-119-monkeydluffy's effect to get to 2 don, and then get their extra turn from OP05-119-monkeydluffy's effect to swing and ramp again. This boss drop is made to go with this leader and boy is it fun to give yourself an extra turn. Thankfully, this is only really used with the ST10-002-monkeydluffy leader, so prices are not terribly expensive.
After adding that, most upgrades are very flexible. OP05-067-zoro-juurou is a nice card that ramps, along with being a Straw Hat, but you could replace him with ST10-009-jean-bart from the starter deck or someone like ST05-002-ain from starter deck 5. ST01-014-guard-point and OP01-029-radical-beam are excellent counter events, that also happen to be Straw Hat cards. 1 or 2 copies of OP03-072-gum-gum-jet-gatling can also be quite helpful, since OP05-119-monkeydluffy and ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid don't have any counter and can clog up your hand. Since we run a lot of Straw Hat cards, we can make the most of the OP01-016-nami-220 searcher that comes with the deck. If you find that you really enjoy the deck, one final upgrade can be 4 copies of OP02-004-edwardnewgate-511 which can boost your attack up to 8000 until your next turn.
While ST10-002-monkeydluffy is my personal favorite, it's undeniable that ST10-001-trafalgar-law is the most competitively viable leader. In fact, in Japan, he's currently used more often than even ST13-003-monkeydluffy. Thanks to a series of buffs he's received over the past few sets, he's now one of the best leaders in the game. ST10-001-trafalgar-law players take a very wide approach and spam out characters, while trying to remove their opponent's characters with ST10-001-trafalgar-law's effect. He does use three of the cards from the starter deck, ST10-010-trafalgar-law, ST10-012-bepo, and ST10-008-shachi-penguin, but poor ST10-009-jean-bart doesn't get to hang out with his captain. Unfortunately, upgrading the deck can get a bit expensive and budget versions are very noticeable downgrades.
P-013-gordon was a promo released with One Piece Film Red, which makes him quite expensive. While Bandai tried to alleviate this issue with OP06-016-raise-max, who has the same effect, it actually just resulted in ST10-010-trafalgar-law players using both. Thankfully, most only use a total of 6 copies between them, so newer players can save a little bit by only buying 2 P-013-gordons.
In the west, EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham has not been released yet, but he's the secret rare in the upcoming set Extra Booster: Memorial Collection. His ability is a free ramp on play and he can copy the attack stat of any opponent's character when he attacks. He's also a 4 cost card, which fits perfectly in with ST10-010-trafalgar-law's leader skill. The bad news is, that since he's a secret rare, he's very expensive and ST10-010-trafalgar-law players, universally, run 4 copies.
For budget alternatives, ST05-002-ain exists, but isn't nearly as strong. The extra booster set does have one, much cheaper, upgrade that can be made in EB01-003-kid-killer.
The starter deck already comes with 4 copies of OP01-025-roronoa-zoro-649, but think of EB01-003-kid-killer as an extra, better OP01-025-roronoa-zoro-649. Adding 4 copies of EB01-003-kid-killer to the deck gives it more offense in the late game. Since it's just a rare, this isn't too bad price wise.
OP06-009-shuraiya is another upgrade that's pretty important, as he helps deal with leaders that boost their own attack (like ST13-003-monkeydluffy). Since he matches whatever the leader's current attack is, he can block the attack and allow the ST10-010-trafalgar-law player to counter with one card. Once starter deck 13 releases, OP06-009-shuraiya is necessary to deal with that matchup. On top of OP06-009-shuraiya, there are two other super rares that need to be added to really feel the power of ST10-001-trafalgar-law: OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju and OP07-064-sanji. OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju provides the deck consistency, with her draw 2 effect, and OP07-064-sanji is a very powerful 2k counter and blocker, who can be cheated out with ST10-001-trafalgar-law's effect (provided the opposing player has at least 2 more don than you).
I really wish there was more to say about ST10-003-eustasscaptainkid, as he has quite a unique spot as the only multi-colored leader that starts with 5 life AND can attack. Unfortunately, even with various buffs to the Kid Pirates since this deck came out, he's just worse than many other leaders. Maybe this will change in the future, but for now, playing ST10-003-eustasscaptainkid is not recommended.
Tier B - Power With Limitations
For tier B, you're looking at starter decks with cards that synergize pretty well together out of the box or ones that need minimal upgrades. While they can be strong, they tend to fold against meta decks or the leaders above.
ST01 - Straw Hat Crew
The very first starter deck released focuses on the Straw Hat Crew and includes cards like rush ST01-012-monkeydluffy-938, ST01-011-brook-705 with 2k counter, ST01-014-guard-point, and ST01-016-diable-jambe! Plenty of these are still quite strong, as Red Straw Hats have continued to be a decent archetype. One of the biggest issues with this deck is actually the leader. ST01-001-monkeydluffy's effect is severely outclassed, even in the opening set, but especially now that OP07-001-monkeyddragon is a strictly better version.
Changing the leader to Zoro is one of the easiest upgrades a person can make to this deck. Outside of that, adding some common Straw Hat staples like searcher OP01-016-nami-333 and rush OP01-025-roronoa-zoro can be a great boost! For those struggling against Black decks, OP05-010-nico-robin can be a lovely way to remove blocker Rebecca.
Of course, one of the best upgrades to this starter deck, or almost any red deck, is a couple of copies of OP01-029-radical-beam. However, this is a bit expensive, so beginners should wait until they're sure they enjoy this deck's playstyle before buying a playset.
ST07 - Big Mom Pirates
Recently, in Asia, ST07-001-charlotte-linlin has gotten a minor resurgence in play. As OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri fell from being the best yellow deck, Big Mom Pirates fans started exploring other options. Starter deck 7 has some relatively decent Big Mom Pirates support, but it arguably supports a sub-archetype even more, Homies. Starter deck 7 comes with 4 copies of ST07-013-prometheus and ST07-011-zeus. Both of these have a similar effect. Rest them and give one Charlotte Linlin card Double Attack or Banish. They also can be played on trigger. One only needs to look at the prevalence of OP06-101-o-nami to see how good Banish can be.
Unfortunately, this deck only comes with a mini boss version of the 10 drop Linlin, ST07-010-charlotte-linlin, so players will only be able to give these effects to their 7c cards (or the leader). However, that can still be quite a threat.
Thankfully, ST07-001-charlotte-linlin's leader effect is also quite good. Once you've hit 3 or less life, you can attack with her, grab a life from the top or bottom of your life pile and then place a card from your hand on top of the life pile. Experienced yellow players will see the value of guaranteeing specific triggers and Linlin makes the most of that.
The most obvious upgrade for this deck is a playset of OP03-114-charlotte-linlin, as she gets the benefit from the homies, adds life to you, removes life from your opponent, and all of that is on a 12k body. However, there's another lesser-known card that can provide almost as much benefit to this deck.
OP04-111-hera makes it so that 12k Linlin, with Banish or Double Attack, can just go ahead and attack again. OP04-111-hera consumes one of the other homies, but this can be done after they use their effects, so it's hardly a loss.
Outside of those, generic Big Mom Pirates support cards like OP03-112-charlotte-pudding and OP03-113-charlotte-perospero can be a big help.
ST05 - One Piece Film Edition
This one might be a bit of a surprise, as ST05-001-shanks sees almost no play. However, that's mainly due to ST05-001-shanks's extremely limited effect. Starter deck 5 is focused on purple film characters and provides a pretty decent framework to build other decks off of, especially compared to other starter decks. The deck includes a 2k counter with search in ST05-014-buena-festa, a good blocker in ST05-004-uta, and draw power in ST05-006-gild-tesoro. Out of the box, this is one of the better starter decks.
The downside is that, when upgrading, the power of the deck plateaus much earlier than other starter decks. OP-06's OP06-071-gild-tesoro and OP-02's OP02-075-shiki are decent upgrades, but for those looking to improve their starter deck over time, this is not the deck to choose.
ST04 - Animal Kingdom Pirates
Linlin isn't the only emperor of the sea in this tier, ST04-001-kaido can be quite a strong deck as well. Starter deck 4 focuses on the Animal Kingdom Pirates and is most well known for providing one of the better purple staples to the game, ST04-005-queen. However, the deck actually provides a lot of decent purple cards that are still in use today. ST04-002-ulti and ST04-012-page-one is a combo seen in Purple Luffy decks. 9c ST04-003-kaido-400 finds a spot in a plethora of purple ramp decks and ST04-016-blast-breath even sees use as a tech in a few other decks.
With all that in mind, this starter deck has two main issues.
1. ST04-005-queen makes this deck very difficult to find at market price, and the deck as a whole is not worth the upscaled prices.
2. There are just other purple decks that do what ST04-001-kaido wants to do, but better.
However, out of the box, this one can compete relatively well with other decks in this tier.
ST12 - Zoro and Sanji
This is a bit of an oddity to talk about. It's one of the most recent decks to be released, but it has a very niche strategy. The general idea of the deck is to get 2 cost ST12-011-sanji out, swing with him for 2k more power, swing with the leader to make ST12-011-sanji active again, and finally to swing for another 2k. So the deck focuses on getting 2 cost cards out and making the most of the leader's bounce effect.
Out of the box, the deck competes on an even playing field with anything else in this tier. However, the strategy is so niche that it makes upgrading it a bit...difficult. It took until mid-OP-07 here in the east to figure out a way to make him work, and it was by using Warlords.
Personally, I would recommend this deck only to contrarians and Soro shippers*
Note: I have no idea if that is the ship name for SanjixZoro, but I'm going with it.
ST02 - Worst Generation
I bet you thought I forgot this guy, huh? ST02-001-eustasscaptainkid is infamous for being one of the best leaders to bring to pre-release events and that's for a good reason. He's got a leader ability that can fit in with most strategies and that alone would have earned him some points here, but the deck as a whole is not that bad.
It contains very powerful pieces that are used in other green decks like ST02-007-jewelry-bonney, ST02-008-scratchmen-apoo, and ST02-004-caponegangbege. That makes upgrading the deck very easy and it opens up multiple leaders for players to choose from.
As one of the first starter decks that came out, he's aged quite well, but he has aged and that's what keeps him from being in A tier. It's a good deck and it's worth the price, but the none of the important pieces that come with this deck are boss drops. Instead, this deck provides pieces that are more structural in nature to build into other Supernova decks, so it's a bit hard to consider those other decks as variants of ST02-001-eustasscaptainkid.
Tier C - Get Some Air Freshener In Here
If tier B contained decks that can provide value, but are not must buys, tier C is where I'm putting the decks I would not recommend. These decks may provide a few valuable cards here and there, but it's usually a better idea to just buy those as singles than to buy the deck.
ST03 - The Seven Warlords of the Sea
This one might be a hot take, since I've heard that western players really love this leader, but this deck is terrible. Outside of ST03-017-love-love-mellow (and ST03-005-dracule-mihawk + ST03-004-gecko-moria for Warlord decks), this really doesn't offer much of value. Ironically enough, this is one of the first starter decks I bought two of, since the price of 4 ST03-017-love-love-mellows was the same as just buying both decks, but many of the cards I got then have been sitting in a box for almost a year.
ST06 - Absolute Justice
This deck provides a lot of decent cards for the Navy engine, but the leader is the One Piece equivalent of a flaming bag of garbage currently being tossed into a dumpster filled with oil. Unless the cost of buying the good singles outweighs getting copies of this, save yourself the hassle of looking at this abomination in your collection.
ST08 - Monkey D. Luffy
Yeah I can't even say there are valuable singles in this one. Once in a blue moon I've faced a person using ST08-006-shirahoshi, but basically none of these cards see play. Maybe that'll change with starter deck 14, but it's doubtful.
ST09 - Yamato
ST09-001-yamato is not a bad leader. He's just worse than pretty much any other yellow leader and the cards that come with this deck don't really make up for that.
And that's everything! If you're interested in finding out more information about the One Piece TCG, let us know in the comments!
