Purple/Yellow Pudding Survivalist Guide (08 and 08.5 Metas)

Leader Overview

Do you have Mommy issues? Well so does OP08-058-charlotte-pudding, and if you play her as your leader, your opponents will too! OP08-058-charlotte-pudding is a very fun leader that focuses on ramping up quickly and playing massive boss drops over and over again. There are a lot of variations on this leader, but today I'm bringing you a list that will focus more on surviving the long game, starving out your opponents, and then beating them when they’re down. 

With the banning of ST10-001-trafalgar-law and with OP07-079-rob-lucci getting weaker, she’s in a great position to take on the meta, at least until OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo gets his upgrades. Even then, I think she can still compete somewhat well. 

The general plan is to ramp up to 10 don real quick, drop OP03-114-charlotte-linlin to soften up your opponent, and then continue dropping big bosses like OP07-119-portgasdace to go for the kill. It denies your opponent resources, slowly drains their hand with swings, and ends well for you if you can keep control of the board. 

It’s a beginner friendly deck, but it can be a little expensive, as you need to pick up some yellow staples. You can find the current cost in the decklists down below. 

The Deck in 08 Meta

The Deck in 08.5 Meta

If you'd like to see the deck in action, you'll find some gameplay with the deck in this video.

The Decklist: Core Cards

OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri’s effect is simple, but incredibly effective, as he allows us to get up to 10 don by our fourth turn, if we’re going first. If you’re going second, you don’t need the extra don, but it’s nice to have him as an option. 

After you’ve gotten up to 10 don, he’s mainly just a 6 cost beatstick, but you won’t be using him too much. 

We’ll go into the sequencing in a later section of this article [see How to Play the Curve], but you’ll find this card being very important in certain games. 

ST13-004-edwardnewgate is a card that basically does the same thing for us as OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri. He lets us rearrange our life to make sure we can ramp for a second time. If you’re going second, this tends to be a better play than OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri, but if you’re going first, playing him will let you get to 9 don, since you need OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri's extra ramp on that curve. We run 3 copies instead of 4 for that reason. 

But what if you don’t draw ST13-004-edwardnewgate or OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri in time? Well that’s what EB01-052-viola is for. She’s yet another way to ensure we get the ramp we need, as she can turn our life face down. On top of that, she’s a blocker and, once we don’t need to worry about our life being face down, we can use her to gain information about our opponent’s life. We run 3 before the starter decks come out, since we also want to run EB01-057-shirahoshi, but once we’re facing more OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingos, we add in an extra copy. For 2 don, she provides quite a lot of value. 

Now let’s talk about what we’re ramping up to! 

She doesn’t need much explanation, but let me introduce you to the woman who is 100% that [redacted]. She heals, she trashes opponent’s life, she has 12k attack. What’s not to like about this? As long as you sequence correctly, you should be able to start dropping her on your fourth turn and that’s the big draw to using OP08-058-charlotte-pudding. But what if you don’t like Big Mom? That’s fair. Quite a lot of people have been traumatized by her trashing crucial cards. So here’s our next card! 

OP03-114-charlotte-linlin, BUT PURPLE. Since using her effect costs us a card in hand, she can be pretty draining on our resources, hence why we’re running 3 copies instead of 4. However, she offers a heal and a mini way to remove some cards on the field. Honestly, she’s the budget version of OP03-114-charlotte-linlin and OP03-123-charlotte-katakuri, but she’s incredibly important to include, especially for the ST13-003-monkeydluffy matchup [see How to Play VS Black/Yellow Luffy]. 

But okay okay, no more moms.

But what about a daddy? OP07-119-portgasdace is another way that we heal life and he works well as a cleaner, once you’ve weakened your opponents with your big moms of course. There’s not too much to say with him, but we run 4 copies. 

Now to get to these pieces we’re running 6 total search cards. 4 OP03-112-charlotte-pudding and 2 copies of OP07-077-were-going-to-claim-the-one-piece Since OP03-112-charlotte-pudding is a body on the field, I’ve prioritized running more of her, as she allows us to get an extra turn 2 swing at our opponents. Once we get going, we’re mainly just looking for more linlins, so I find that 6 total searches is enough, especially with our card draw and getting resources from life. 

The Decklist: Tech Cards

The number 1 issue I felt like OP08-058-charlotte-pudding needed solved was her lack of card draw. Many OP08-058-charlotte-pudding builds rely too much on getting resources from life, but eventually that puts the player in a position where you need your opponent to swing at you to give you the resources. If we have an opponent that focuses on our characters or chooses to starve us, it puts us in a tough spot.

The first card we’re running to solve this is ST04-005-queen. He’s searchable with OP07-077-were-going-to-claim-the-one-piece, blocks, let’s us draw 2 and trashes a dead card in hand. He’s also quite helpful in the OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju matchup as he can’t be removed by Niji. Typically, you want to use this later in the game, as going don minus early can slow down our momentum by quite a lot. 

The second form of card draw I added was OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju. With ST10-001-trafalgar-law gone from the meta, the only other deck that will continually stay low on Don is Reiju. In any other matchup, once your opponent gets to 10 don, they’re gonna stay there, which makes OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju a Pot of Greed with 5000 attack. This significantly improves our survival rate for longer games, as we can continually replenish our resources. This deck runs OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju at 3 copies, but the ratio is flexible. If you’re finding you struggle to keep up with your opponents in long games, bring this up to 4 copies. If you face a lot more quick and aggressive decks, dropping this down to 1 or 2 is fine. 

These two cards solve the resource problem, but the second problem OP08-058-charlotte-pudding has is a lack of good removal. To solve this, we run two main cards. 

Essentially, treat this like OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger for OP08-058-charlotte-pudding decks. This allows you an easy way to remove mid cost bodies and can be especially helpful in matchups like OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo and Bonney. We run 2 in the initial deck, but once OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo gets his buffs, we bump the ratio up to 3. 

The second form of removal I used to run in the deck was OP08-119-kaido-linlin. This was in the deck to help deal with OP07-079-rob-lucci. OP07-079-rob-lucci can be an issue, as if he gets a lot of characters out on the field, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. In the eastern meta, the way to win the matchup was to drop more high cost characters than he could remove, so OP08-119-kaido-linlin both worked as a board wipe when you were in dire straights, and as another 10 cost beatstick that they had to find a way to remove. 

Now that OP07-079-rob-lucci is stageless, I’ve swapped that slot for OP04-112-yamato, as he can still provide a form of removal and a high cost body. However, if you find that OP07-079-rob-lucci is still an issue, you can certainly swap OP08-119-kaido-linlinback in. You’re not going to be using their effect a lot, but the threat of their effect puts a lot of pressure on your opponent and makes them prioritize removing it. 

Then we’ve got my two favorite triggers, OP04-100-caponegangbege and OP06-115-youre-the-one-who-should-disappear. Both of these are pretty self explanatory, as they mostly work towards the same end…surprising your opponent and stopping them from getting lethal. Keep an eye out for these when you play ST13-004-edwardnewgate, as moving them to the bottom can save you a game later on. On top of that, since we’re adding so many cards to our life, you’re likely to see at least one OP04-100-caponegangbege trigger in most games. 

Blocker OP07-064-sanji is an excellent card. 2k counter and he’s searchable with OP03-112-charlotte-pudding. We’re running two copies. He’s a fantastic card that I was close to running more of, but the deck is a bit tight and I felt that other cards were needed to patch up the deck’s weaknesses. OP07-064-sanji doesn’t really help us towards our end goal, but he just provides a nice bit of defense and utility. 

EB01-057-shirahoshi is mostly a tech against OP07-079-rob-lucci. We can play her early for cheap, gain a life when they ko her with an effect, or we can save her for a crucial moment later. In matchups where your opponent’s leader can ko low to mid cost characters, you’ll find a EB01-057-shirahoshi on the board is a special tool for later in the game. We run two copies in the pre-starter deck meta, but once OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo gets his upgrades, I expect we’ll be facing a lot more OP06-058-gravity-blade-raging-tiger. EB01-057-shirahoshi would become much less useful in that kind of meta, so once that happens, I swapped them for another copy of EB01-052-viola and OP08-077-conquest-of-the-sea. 

Other Options That Were Not Included

She’s a 2k counter that’s searchable with OP03-112-charlotte-pudding and OP07-077-were-going-to-claim-the-one-piece, as well as offers another emergency way to ensure we get ramp. However, we have plenty of ways to manage life without EB01-056-charlotte-flampe and there are better 2k counters and other utility cards we could include. I prefer having more blockers in this deck over having EB01-056-charlotte-flampe. I also feel that, in a meta where blue decks dominate, using EB01-056-charlotte-flampe will just lead to an opponent playing OP06-047-charlotte-pudding on us. 

I would like to run ST07-010-charlotte-linlin, but she doesn’t fit into the curve very neatly. Due to the way we ramp [see How to Play the Curve], we skip the 7-8 don part of our normal curve. Once we’re at 10 don, there are a lot of better plays we could make and, once our opponent is out of life, she’s just a worse vanilla card. On top of that, in matchups like ST13-003-monkeydluffy, she can be actively detrimental. 

This is a card that I genuinely enjoy running in decks where you can control what ends up in your life. While OP08-058-charlotte-pudding can keep healing, she doesn’t really have a way to ensure certain cards end up in her life, so running ST07-015-soul-pocus is a bit too much of a risk, as the effect is certainly not worth 5 don. 

How to Mulligan

Mulliganing is extremely easy with this deck. Your primary goal is to have a OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri or ST13-004-edwardnewgate in your hand by your 6 don turn. In almost every game, you want to meet any of the following criteria to keep it: 

1. OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri, ST13-004-edwardnewgate, (or EB01-052-viola if you’re going second)

2. 2+ Searchers

3. 1 Searcher and OP03-114-charlotte-linlin

If you have any of those conditions met, then you should keep the hand. Otherwise, mulligan. 

How to Play the Curve

The sequencing is important if you want to get to 10 don as quickly as possible. Those who are experienced with ramp can probably already figure this out and can skip to the next part, but for those who are newer to the purple playstyle, let’s go over the steps. 

If you’re going first, here’s the general plan. 

Turn 1

• Start: 1 don 
• Play OP03-112-charlotte-pudding or OP07-077-were-going-to-claim-the-one-piece
  • Grab OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri if you don’t already have him or OP03-114-charlotte-linlin if you do. 
•  End: 1 don 

Turn 2

• Start: 3 don
• If you played OP03-112-charlotte-pudding last turn, 5k leader swing and leader ability to ramp 1 don. 
  • Then attach the remaining 3 don to OP03-112-charlotte-pudding and swing for another 5k.
• If you did not play OP03-112-charlotte-pudding last turn
  • And you have EB01-052-viola in your hand, 6k leader swing and leader ability to ramp 1 don. Then play EB01-052-viola to turn your life face down. 
  • And you do not have EB01-052-viola, 8k leader swing and leader ability to ramp 1 don. 
• End: 4 don and either 0 or 2 life face up. 

Turn 2.5 (your opponent’s turn) 

If you have OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri in your hand, and you have two life face up, take 1 damage. If either of those conditions is not met, it’s your choice whether to take the damage or not. 

Turn 3

• Start: 6 don
• If you have exactly 1 life face up, play OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri and use his ability to ramp 1 active don. Then, swing 6k with your leader and use her ability to ramp another don. 
• If you have any number of life face up and do not have OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri, but you do have EB01-052-viola or ST13-004-edwardnewgate, play them first.
  • If ST13-004-edwardnewgate, move your good triggers to the bottom. Make sure the top two cards are face down life. 
• If you have no face up life, swing 5k with your leader and use her ability to ramp. Then, play OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri and use his ability to ramp 1 active don. Use a searcher if you can. If not, pass. 
• End: 7 don if you did not have OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri. 8 don if you did. 

Turn 4

Start: 10 don (or 9 don if you didn't use OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri) 

If you’re going second, the steps are pretty much the same, but you have a lot more flexibility. You need 1 less ramp to get to 10 don, so you can skip one of the ramp steps or play like you don’t have OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri in your hand.  

Some General Advice

Your end goal with OP08-058-charlotte-pudding is to play the resource game. This version of OP08-058-charlotte-pudding is designed to survive for a long period of time, so you want to target your opponent’s characters as much as possible and play in ways that force your opponent to drop cards from their hand to counter. OP03-114-charlotte-linlin will be removing resources from their life whenever you play her, so even if you’re not targeting their life, you’ll still be wearing it down little by little. If you lose control of the board and allow your opponent to get a lot of characters out, you’re going to start having trouble. Once you’ve softened them up with OP03-114-charlotte-linlin, OP07-119-portgasdace is a great way to wrap up the game.

How to Play VS Lucci

When OP07-079-rob-lucci had the stage, it really came down to who ran out of resources first. OP07-079-rob-lucci needed to use a lot of resources to remove each of your boss drops, but because of Enies Lobby, they had a consistent source of -2 cost. On your end, you needed to focus on dealing with their characters while dropping down threats. Now that they no longer have access to the stage, they need to make up the 2 cost difference every time they want to remove one of your characters, which means you will have a much easier time winning the resource war.

Make sure to bait out their removal. If you have both OP08-069-charlotte-linlin and OP03-114-charlotte-linlin in your hand, consider playing OP08-069-charlotte-linlin first. That way, they will use resources to remove her and then will have less to get rid of OP03-114-charlotte-linlin.

Also, try using OP08-069-charlotte-linlin to remove crucial characters like OP05-093-rob-lucci from the game without putting him in the trash. If you put him on the bottom of their life, it can definitely slow down their momentum.

Make sure to focus down OP08-084-jack when he's played. The longer he stays out, the better of a time your opponent will have, as they'll continue cycling through their deck and grabbing the cards they need. He's also a pretty big source of removal.

How to Play VS Enel

OP05-098-enel is a great matchup for us if we see OP03-114-charlotte-linlin and terrible if we don’t. Basically, your goal is to put them into a situation where you have 2 big bodies on the field, and they have 4 or less cards in hand. Then, you force them to use their leader ability and play OP03-114-charlotte-linlin to trash whatever they added.

A fun leader interaction happens in you're running OP08-119-kaido-linlin. If they've already used their leader ability and they are at 1 life, you can swing with OP08-119-kaido-linlin and use their don minus effect. OP08-119-kaido-linlin's ability activates before you deal damage, trashing the life they gained with their leader ability. Then, they are at 0 life and have to deal with a 12k attack to the face.

How to Play VS Black/Yellow Luffy

ST13-003-monkeydluffy is actually not that bad for OP08-058-charlotte-pudding. We have enough blockers and enough healing that we can just deal with their field, build up a big board, and wait until they run out of resources to boost. Then, you overwhelm them and win the game. This should not be a difficult match for us, but make sure to be target whatever is going to make them drop more counters. If your opponent's leader is boosted to 9000 attack, attack their characters. If it's lower, then swing at their face and force them to block/counter. The smaller their hand gets, the closer you are to winning.

If you use OP08-069-charlotte-linlin to put one of their characters (not named Luffy, Ace, or Sabo) in their life, you get a really nice interaction. Since ST13-003-monkeydluffy's leader ability makes face up life cards go to the bottom of their deck, instead of their hand, they will have to play one of their 2k counters in order to remove the character from their life. Otherwise, they will be unable to use their leader effect. This is a nice way to drain some hand resources from your opponent and slow them down. Of course, if they have ST13-015-monkeydluffy out, then this is not effective, but it can still be useful to remove something like ST13-013-monkeydgarp. That way, they have one less body on the field they can attack you with.

Additionally, if your opponent has played ST13-012-makino, consider using EB01-052-viola to rearrange their life order, thus wasting the ST13-012-makino play.

How to Play VS Bonney

OP07-019-jewelry-bonney isn't a bad matchup if you're mindful (and demure) of their leader ability. Your aim is going to be to get 3 big boss drops on the field before you start trying to go for game. She can only rest 1 of them with her leader ability and, if she wants to freeze your characters with OP04-031-donquixote-doflamingo, he only has 10k attack. You can pressure him with your boss drops.

This game is likely to go long, so OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju is great here, as she can make sure you have enough resources to last.

OP08-077-conquest-of-the-sea is another excellent card in this matchup and it can be worth disrupting your normal curve to remove two of your opponent's important cards like EB01-012-cavendish, OP07-021-urouge, or OP04-029-dellinger.

You can also use OP08-077-conquest-of-the-sea on OP07-029-basil-hawkins if you have no active characters, but he should be a lower priority. You can make your opponent remove him by just pressuring your opponent with big attacks. Removing the cards that give your opponent extra don are much more important.

How to Play VS Kalgara

I don't have much more to add to this that hasn't been covered in Sorry's fantastic guide, which you can find here

Purple Yellow Charlotte Pudding OP08 Deck Guide

How to Play VS Zoro

The key to dealing with OP01-001-roronoa-zoro (especially the new Animal OP01-001-roronoa-zoro) is to survive the first three turns without losing too much life. Once you can start dropping big characters, you'll be able to start clearing their field and taking back the momentum. However, OP01-001-roronoa-zoro is an aggressive deck and if you let them overwhelm you early, you'll have a hard time crawling back.

Lean on your blockers early and don't be afraid to use OP08-077-conquest-of-the-sea early to remove their searcher OP08-007-tony-tonychopper and other threatening characters.

If they leave a don open, it is likely that they are planning to use EB01-009-just-shut-up-and-come-with-us to bring out more characters. In that situation, it can sometimes be worth it to avoid attacking, especially if you're unsure that you could remove more than 2 characters with your attacks.

How to Play VS Pudding Mirror

Remember what I said about OP08-058-charlotte-pudding's weaknesses in the tech section [see The Decklist: Tech Cards]. She has trouble maintaining hand resources. OP06-069-vinsmoke-reiju is a very important card here.

Be wary of playing too many 6 cost or lower characters. It can often be better to play one and use the rest of your don to swing at their leader.

EB01-052-viola can be very helpful to rearrange their life, especially after a ST13-004-edwardnewgate or if you think they're trying to go for a OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri play. A neat trick you can do is to swing at them when they have 2 face up life cards. They want to take the hit to stay on curve. Then, use EB01-052-viola to rearrange their life so the top card is face down, the middle card is face up, and the bottom card is face down. This prevents them from using their leader ability or using OP08-063-charlotte-katakuri until they take damage or put their life face down with their own EB01-052-viola.

How to Play VS Reiju

OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju is certainly a tough matchup. Much like OP01-001-roronoa-zoro or OP08-098-kalgara, she will try to rush you down with her OP06-061-vinsmoke-ichijis. Unfortunately, as he's a 7 cost character, he's just a little out of OP08-077-conquest-of-the-sea's reach. While it can be an effective card, it's often better to stick to using the don to attack into their characters or play more of your own.

Be wary of the OP06-047-charlotte-pudding play. Try to keep your hand at no more than 6 cards. You want to prevent that play from being too rewarding, which lowers the incentive to go for it. Additionally, don't ignore the OP06-047-charlotte-pudding once she's on the field.

Remove OP08-074-black-maria as soon as possible with OP08-069-charlotte-linlin. They will never attack with her and leaving her on the field allows the OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju player to stick close to your don level, which is a tragic situation on our end. If you can't remove her with 9 Mom, then OP08-077-conquest-of-the-sea is a good option.

Remember that they run a lot of 2k counters, so you really need to make sure you drain their hand resources before you try to go for game. If they have 5 cards in hand, it's still relatively likely than 4 of those cards are 2k counters.

How to Play VS Blue Doflamingo

For OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo post starter deck, the key is attacking the rested characters and making good use of OP08-077-conquest-of-the-sea. He can get a good start, but his characters are still around 5-6k. They can't really counter out of a OP03-114-charlotte-linlin or an OP07-119-portgasdace swing most times.

You don't need to focus on his life cards. Let OP03-114-charlotte-linlin do that work for you. Instead, just be sure that his characters don't stick on the board.

Like with OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju, be wary of OP06-047-charlotte-pudding. It's also likely that you'll run into OP04-056-gum-gum-red-roc, but that's their only way of removing your boss drops. You can outlast those and win in the long run.