Table of Contents
Heya everyone! OP07 release for the West is fast approaching, introducing new Leaders and cards to the game! This also means that the Sealed Pre-release event is something to look forward to!
The cards in the article are in Japanese but you can read them in English by clicking on the card.
The pre-release events will take place between June 21 and 27. The format is the organizer's choice. It can be the traditional constructed format a sealed format. The latter is what matters to us for this article.
The Rules
- Players open a set number of booster packs from specified sets and build their decks using only the cards they open.
- Unlike the standard play, you can ignore the normal deck-building color restrictions based on your leader and can include cards of any color in your deck. There are additional special rules for deck building.
- 6 Packs is the suggested number of packs. Each participant should use the same number of packs.
- You may bring your leader (including those from previous sets) to use in the event.
- Bring 10x DON!! cards.
Deck Construction Rules
After opening 6 packs, players build a 40-card deck, and a 10 DON!! card deck. There are no banned or restricted cards, and players can include as many copies of cards with the same card number as they like. (There is no 4-card limit and 5 or more copies of a card with the same card number can be included in decks.) Any cards left over from deck construction are treated as sideboard cards.
Suggested Match Format
Use a Swiss draw format to match players with the closest win rates.
Sideboard
Cards not used in decks are treated as sideboard cards. In between games, players can exchange cards in their deck with cards in their sideboard. Players can exchange as many cards between deck and sideboard as they like, so long as they have a legal number of cards in their deck.
Special Game Rules
In sealed format games, players can ignore deck color requirements based on their leader. For example: If you are playing with the Red starter deck as your leader, you would be restricted to only having red cards in your deck. However, in sealed you can use cards of any color in your deck, even though your leader is only Red.
All other card restrictions still apply as normal, including effects listed on leaders that specify names or colors.
Example 1: With your leader as OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo, you may search for [The Seven Warlords of the Sea] type of Character cards when triggering his ability.
Example 2: When using the ability of OP01-067-crocodile "Blue Event cards in your hand cost 1 less to play" would only apply to Blue Event cards - This would not apply to Event cards of other colors.
Prizes
Participation
P-067 Eustass"Captain"Kid
OP-07 Pre-Release Pack
- *2 cards per pack
- *75 types in total
- *Pre-Release Gold Stamped cards are from 500YEARS IN THE FUTURE [OP-07] Common and Uncommon cards.
Winner
P-067 Eustass"Captain"Kid (Silver Foil + Gold Stamp)
Players Application Period
June 7, 2024 Apply here!
Leaders
When choosing a Leader, we want to pick one that isn't restrained to specific deck building or type of cards. Our Leader has to have skills that we can find use of regardless of how our deck shapes up. Since players can bring their own Leader with them to the event, we're not tied to the randomness of the packs and OP07 Leaders.
OP06-022-yamato is one of the best choices for their Double Attack. You can set up aggressive attacks regardless of your deck, basically, your Leader will be solo carrying here. Blockers could hinder your game plan, shutting down those Double Attack if you don't have a removal card.
OP06-022-yamato is also giving 2 Rested Don to one of your characters, maximizing the aggressiveness of the Leader. They're probably the best choice to take to this format, and will likely see a lot of players on it.
Another strong Leader in this format is ST02-001-eustasscaptainkid, capable of attacking more than once. We do have to use 3 Don to activate his effect, so it's more tailored for the late game, allowing us to pick off rested characters, force counter cards, or adopt an aggressive plan and attack opponent's Leader.
OP03-099-charlotte-katakuri's +1000 Power when you attach a Don on him is crazy good for powerful attacks that could force 2 Counter cards from opponent. Getting to look at the top Life Card gives you crucial information. Usually, we're more used to looking at our own Life Cards to find a Trigger card. However, we might not have access to many Trigger cards in this format, so we might opt to look at the opponent's Life Cards and put it at the bottom if it's of any use to them in their upcoming turn.
The wider the board the more pressure OP01-001-roronoa-zoro imposes. 1 Don on OP01-001-roronoa-zoro will give all Characters +1,000 regardless of their color, threatening aggressive turns.
You can make use of ST01-001-monkeydluffy's effect regardless of the deck you build. Getting to give a rested Don to one of your characters
ST03-001-crocodile is a popular choice in this format since he's able to slow down opponent's pace by returning a 5-cost or less to their hand. To activate his effect, we'll have to -4 Don, so we have to be wary when to acivate it. This also means we have to be on the lookout for any cards that benefit from having less Don than opponent.
OP07 Leaders
A defensive Leader to slow down opponent's aggression. OP07 has a couple of cards that give you an Active Don, so you get to take full advantage of OP07-019-jewelry-bonney's resting effect.
On his own, OP07-001-monkeyddragon has a solid effect, letting you use attached Don on two of your characters, enabling stronger attacks.
Vanillas
Vanilla cards are great for this format, they're not reliant on specific synergies and usually have high power for their cost, capable of presenting a threat on the board. All of these cards are common, so you'll easily find a bunch of them to add to the list. We want to include as many as possible of the 4-cost Vanilla cards! There are no 3-cost 5,000 Power Vanilla cards this time around in OP07.
OP07-108-vega-force-01, OP07-007-dice, and OP07-027-jinbe are cards we can include in our deck, providing a 6,000 Power on Don 4.
As for OP07-067-tonjit he seems more suited for Leaders who can boost his power. So if you're bringing ST01-001-monkeydluffy, OP07-001-monkeyddragon, or OP01-001-roronoa-zoro that can use him as an aggressive card.
It's fine to include 6-cost Vanilla cards, they're still presenting high Power threat and can also act as +1,000 Counters if needed.
Blockers
We want to add as many blockers as we can to our deck, especially with Leader OP06-022-yamato being a popular choice in this format. With players having access to only OP07 cards, blockers can be troublesome since they can't be removed off the board easily.
OP07-021-urouge is a rare card, but we want to be on the lookout for it, it's a strong blocker, giving us an Active Don at the end of the turn, especially useful if we're going for Leader Bonney or to play an Event.
Another rare blocker is OP07-053-portgasdace, allowing us to filter our hand and find more useful cards.
OP07-054-marguerite isn't the worst to add to the list, especially since she's drawing us a card. The only downside is that OP07-054-marguerite doesn't have a Counter effect.
OP07-010-baccarat is a great inclusion, turning a card in your hand into a +2,000 Counter.
Board Control
Cards with effects on the board will always be great additions to the deck. OP07 doesn't have many board control cards, capable of KOing threats, so we'll take what we find! These are Super Rare cards and OP07-118-sabo is a Secret Rare. so if we happen to get 1 copy, we'll add it to the list.
OP07-109-monkeydluffy and OP07-118-sabo are the strongest board control cards you'll find. OP07-109-monkeydluffy will trash himself to KO a 4-cost Character and draw you a card, so we're not losing resources. OP07-118-sabo is a premium card, KOing two characters with a cost of 5 and 3, shifting the board presence in your favor.
OP07-011-bluejam can be useful in this format especially since there are a couple of 2-cost blockers your opponent could be running.
OP07-026-jewelry-bonney and OP07-051-boa-hancock can rest a character for the opponent's upcoming turn, rendering it useless. Although we're not removing those characters, keeping them rested will slow down the opponent's pace and could put us ahead on aggression.
OP07-085-stussy is a strong late-game removal card, but it can be difficult to fulfill her condition. We don't have low-cost searchers to act as targets for OP07-085-stussy to trash.
Carry Cards
OP07-015-monkeyddragon joins the battle and immediately presents a threat with his Rush attack. Giving 2 rested Don adds to that aggressiveness, making it difficult for opponents to Counter out of two of your attacks.
OP07-119-portgasdace is possibly the best card you'd want to find in your packs! He's always giving us a Life Card, adding a protection layer, but if you're down to 1 Life Card when playing OP07-119-portgasdace you gain Rush and get to remove a potential threat or go for an aggressive attack on their Leader.
OP07-073-monkeydluffy is a weird one, he's a great 6-cost with 7,000 Power, however, if opponent has 3 characters on the board, he turns into a win condition, capable of attacking twice in one turn.
All three of those cards are difficult to find, so we're lucky if we end up finding 1 copy of them, but be on the lookout because they're an immediate inclusion in the list!
Card Value
Cards that give you an advantage over your opponent in terms of resources are always great for this format. Now there are other cards that filter your hand, but I've already mentioned them in the article, so to avoid repetition I'll only talk about cards that put you ahead in resources.
OP07-093-rob-lucci forces opponents to trash a card from hand, which can be exceptionally useful in the later stages of the game. He's also a 6,000 Power character, capable of presenting a threat on the attack.
OP07-054-marguerite and OP07-044-dracule-mihawk are both offering a draw on play, at the same time, they're finding use as Characters on the board. OP07-054-marguerite is a valuable blocker to protect our Leader or key cards, whereas OP07-044-dracule-mihawk is a big body that threatens heavy attacks with his 10,000 Power.
+2,000 Counters
We want to run as many +2000 Counter as we can, ideally, 6 to 8 cards to protect Leader or key characters. It doesn't matter too much which cards we add since they're serving as Counters only.
However, certain +2000 Counters can find use outside of just counters. OP07-107-franky is one of the best cards we can find since it has a powerful trigger, drawing us a card and if we're down to 1 health, we can play it for free. It's extremely situational, but there's still a tiny percentage of that trigger finding use!
OP07-040-crocodile can bounce a low-cost blocker preventing us from striking the opponent's Leader like OP07-084-gismonda/card] or [card]OP07-030-pappa.
Events
We don't have to include Events for our deck to perform well, but running two events could still come in handy. OP07-035-karmic-punishment is a +2,000 Counter card that becomes a +3,000 if you have 3 Characters on the board. It also has a powerful Trigger, capable of triggering a 4-cost rested Character.
As for [cardOP07-075-slow-slow-beam[/card], it's a powerful defensive Event to lower the power of the opponent's Leader and a character, slowing down their aggression for the turn.
Other Considerations
OP07-005-carina is a blocker but her on play effect lets you lower the Power of one of the opponent's characters by 2,000, allowing you to attack and KO it easier.
OP07-002-ain functions similarly but will drop a character's Power to 0, impossible for opponent to use any Counter cards to protect it.
OP07-115-i-re-quasar-helllp is a +3,000 Power Counter that's tied to the number of Life Cards you have. We'll hold onto this until we're down to 2 Life Cards to get access to the power boost.
How to build the deck
We want to ensure we have a curve going for us. So after we've added our blockers, Vanillas, +2000 Counters, and Carry cards, we need to take a look at the deck and make sure we can develop on the board every turn after turn 2. We don't want to end up with a bunch of unplayable cards in hand and be forced into an awkward turn that puts us behind.
Depending on your deck, you'll decide whether you'd rather go first or second. For example, if we have a lot of Vanilla cards (especially 6-costs) then we want to go second to play them immediately.
Practice
You can use a pack-opening simulator here.
Closing Words
Pre-release sealed event is a fun way to play One Piece and the prizes usually have good value behind them! Make sure to learn the cards before going to the event, it'll help you build your deck and play optimally!
This is it from me, I wish the best for your event, good luck! If you want to keep up with my content, consider following me on Twitter.
