Table of Contents
Heya everyone! Red Purple Luffy received new cards in the OP09 meta, changing the deck's build and playstyle entirely from what we're used to. RP Luffy is a ramp deck, with built-in ramp ability in your Leader alongside multiple cards that give you extra Don, this will speed up your game plan, ensuring you play your high-cost win conditions as early as possible.
This deck has a fun fast-paced playstyle, especially since you're ramping up and playing your threats at earlier turns. Starting with fewer Life Cards means we’ll often have fewer card resources than our opponents.
Gameplan
Leader
Despite Red Purple Luffy only having 3 health, the 6,000 Power gives additional protection, forcing opponents to commit more Don on their Leader/Characters to get their attacks through. The additional 1,000 Power on our Leader also makes it easier for you to Counter out of those attacks. The 6,000 Power isn't only useful defensively, but also offensively. Your Leader attacks will force out more Counter plays if opponent wishes to protect their Leader or Characters.
You can activate ST10-002-monkeydluffy's +1 Don Ramp ability if you're at 0 Don on your field or have 8+ Don. Basically, we'll first aim to hit 8 Don as fast as possible, with the help of our Ramp cards like EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham and OP08-076-its-to-die-for. This lets us gain an Active Don through ST10-002-monkeydluffy a turn earlier, which means we get to play a higher-cost Character like OP09-119-monkeydluffy.
With the ramp cards we run, we can accelerate that game plan, and get our high-cost characters a turn earlier than usual. Those high-cost characters pose a threat and can create a stronger attack with your Leader. We can still find use of ST10-002-monkeydluffy's ramp effect in the later stages of the game, especially when we deramp with OP09-119-monkeydluffy or OP08-069-charlotte-linlin.
Early Nami
OP01-016-nami-333 is our early searcher, helping us find {Straw Hat Crew} type cards. The card we choose will depend on our hand, but we're usually trying to find our late-game plays like OP09-119-monkeydluffy or OP09-065-sanji to help us control the field and make use of the Rush keyword.
OP01-016-nami-333 can also find us {Straw Hat Crew} Events like OP09-078-gum-gum-giant and OP01-029-radical-beam that help protect our Leader from incoming attacks.
Ramp
Ramp cards played early into the game advance our game plan and allow us to play our higher-cost Characters a turn earlier than usual. We want to play them as early as possible, as they won't find much use in the late game.
EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham is perfect to play if you're going second, immediately giving you an Active Don on turn 2 that you could use with your Leader offensively. Playing EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham if you're going second means we'll be at 7 Don on the upcoming turn, allowing us to play OP09-065-sanji or OP09-009-bennbeckman.
OP08-076-its-to-die-for can be played on turn 2 if you're going first, ramping you up by 1 Active Don. If your opponent has a 6,000 Power or more Character, OP08-076-its-to-die-for will ramp you another Active Don, however, it's unlikely they'll have a 6,000 Power Character early in the game, so we'll have to suffice with just 1 Don.
A new inclusion players have been testing around with is ST04-014-lead-performer-disaster, ramping 1 Don and drawing you a card, so you won't lose on resources when ramping.
Both OP08-076-its-to-die-for and ST04-014-lead-performer-disaster have a Trigger effect that ramps up 1 Don without having to use Don to activate them.
Blockers
Blockers are valuable to protect our Leader from incoming attacks. The opponent has to commit additional Don on their attackers to put them at 6,000+, this makes your Blockers exceptionally annoying as it's slowing down their attempt to aggro you down.
ST04-005-queen is both a blocker and draw resource Character. This keeps us from running out of future plays and could even find us the right card to play on the upcoming turn. We're drawing 2 cards and trashing 1 card, the trashed card will be the one we'll likely not play or find use for in the upcoming turns.
For the most part, OP07-064-sanji will be used for his +2,000 Counter, and he's a searchable card through OP01-016-nami-333. There might be situations where playing OP07-064-sanji if we're forced to protect our Leader from attackers, or if there's no other play to make. If we have 2 less Don than our opponent, we can play OP07-064-sanji for 3 Don, making him an easier setup.
Control Cards
OP09-009-bennbeckman is one of our strongest plays the opponent has a 6,000 Power Character or less on the field. OP09-009-bennbeckman can trash the Character (KO immunity doesn't work), removing a threat that could have attacked you on the upcoming turn.
As for OP09-065-sanji, you're forced to deramp by 1 Don to activate his effect, gaining Rush and resting one of the opponent's 6-cost or less Characters. We can then attack that rested Character with both Leader and OP09-065-sanji to make sure we can KO it or have the opponent play their Counter cards to protect it.
Deramping with Sanji on Don 7 means we'll be at 8 Don on the upcoming turn, so we can use Leader effect to go up to 9 Don to play one of our 9-cost Characters.
Leader Boost
We're aiming to play our Leader Power boost cards as early as possible to empower our Leader attacks while also adding a protection layer that's difficult for opponents to go through.
ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid returns 1 Don to give your Leader +1000 Power boost, turning ST10-002-monkeydluffy into a 7,000 Power Leader until the end of your opponent's upcoming turn. So we can now go for stronger Leader attacks and make it harder for the opponent to land a hit on our Leader.
When Attacking, ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid can activate his effect again, giving you the +1,000 Power boost to stay ahead of your opponent, which will force them to find an answer to ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid.
Late-Game Plays
If we're at 9 Don, OP09-119-monkeydluffy is the best play to make as early as possible, having Rush to attack with his 10,000 Power and will draw you a card, adding more resources in your hand.
OP08-069-charlotte-linlin is a better play if the opponent has an Active 6-cost or less Character that we can't remove with our attackers, giving us the ability to place it in their Life Area and we'll gain a Life card for ourselves. Both players are gaining a Life card with the OP08-069-charlotte-linlin play, but you're developing a 9,000 Power Character while they're losing a Character.
OP09-004-shanks is the strongest play in this deck, having Rush to attack on the turn he's played, and will also reduce the Power of all your opponent's Characters by -1,000. This makes it even harder for the opponent to get their attacks through, and if you manage to have two OP09-004-shanks in play, your opponent will struggle to threaten your Leader with their attacks.
Since we're reducing the Power of the opponent's Characters, we can ignore the less threatening ones and focus more of our attacks on the opponent's Leader, trying to win the game as early as possible.
Events
OP01-029-radical-beam is one of your strongest defensive events, which you'll easily get the +4000 Power boost out of. It does require you to bank 1 Don for the defense turn, so it's important to identify on which turns we're planning to play OP01-029-radical-beam and save 1 Don for it.
OP09-078-gum-gum-giant is a massive defensive Event, returning 2 Don and trashing 1 card from your hand to give your Leader or one of your Characters a +4,000 Power boost and draw 2 cards.
The 2 cards you just drew can be used for their Counter effect or played on upcoming turns.
Techs and Options
OP05-010-nico-robin is a meta call to KO a 1,000 Power or less character that poses a threat to our game plan. So cards like EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham or OP05-091-rebecca are premium targets for OP05-010-nico-robin to KO.
If we're going first, OP05-067-zoro-juurou is the perfect card to play on turn 2. On turn 3, we get to attach a Don and attack with it, ramping 1 Don and posing an attacker threat.
ST10-010-trafalgar-law can trash 2 cards from the opponent's hand if they're at 7 cards. So this will come down to whether or not your opponent is holding a lot of cards in hand.
The +2,000 Power boost that OP02-004-edwardnewgate-511 is pushing your Leader to 8,000 Power, making it extremely difficult for opponents to commit more than one powerful attack on our Leader and it will slow down their field development. It could also force players into completely avoiding an attack setup, focusing their resources on building up a field or removing your threats.
OP09-013-yasopp gives your Leader +1,000 Power until the end of the opponent's upcoming turn. Additionally, when OP09-013-yasopp attacks, he can reduce the Power of one of the opponent's Characters by 1,000, making it easier for you to knock it out or KO it with OP09-009-bennbeckman.
By playing OP05-119-monkeydluffy and activating his effect, we're returning 10 Don to our Don deck, which can be scary for future turns, but our ramp capabilities will still keep us in the game.
In most cases, we're aiming to close out the game with OP05-119-monkeydluffy, but we could end up a bit short of winning. The plan here is to attack with our characters before we play OP05-119-monkeydluffy. This includes our blockers as well (if by any chance we have any on the board), we want to take advantage of them before OP05-119-monkeydluffy puts them at the bottom of the deck.
We're now at 0 Don, which means we can activate Leader ST10-002-monkeydluffy's ability to gain an Active Don if we haven't activated it yet. Additionally, for 1 Don, 10c OP05-119-monkeydluffy's second ability gives us an Active Don, and then we can use that 1 Active Don to attack with Leader for 7,000 Power.
The ramp might only seem useful on the upcoming turn since we're resting a Don to gain an Active Don, but with OP05-119-monkeydluffy's ability to give us a full new turn once we end our turn, we're activating that rested Don, putting us on 2 Don, getting to draw 2 extra Don, now we're on 4 Don, gaining a card draw, and then reactivating OP05-119-monkeydluffy's effect to go up to 5 total Don.
With a full new turn, our Leader can go for another attack, and we have 4 Active Don at our disposal to either boost up our Leader attack or save as a defensive Don to activate Events. OP05-119-monkeydluffy can now also go for an attack, threatening a 12,000 Power attack.
So although we put back all our 10 Don, on our upcoming turn, we'll have 7 Don, still able to make plays or use that Don offensively. If OP05-119-monkeydluffy remains on the board, we can activate his ramp effect again, pushing us to 8 total Don, which allows us to activate Leader Luffy's ability, giving us an Active Don. This leaves us with 8 Active Don to work with.
General Tips
- With only 3 health, it's important to keep defensive turns in mind when committing our plays. Some of our Events provide a lot of defensive Power, but we need to identify which turns we're playing them and save enough Don for them.
- If you're at 8 Don and planning to play one of your -1 Don cards, make sure to activate Leader ability and take advantage of the ramp before playing your card.
- We're not primarily aiming to control the board, attacking opponent's Leader is a priority to aggro them down. If opponent has a bunch of 5,000 Power characters, and we play a OP09-004-shanks or ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid, those 5,000 Power characters don't pose much threat, and can be ignored if we're able to set up threatful attacks on their Leader to win the game.
- If we're at 10 Don and decide to play cards with a -1 Don effect like ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid or OP09-119-monkeydluffy we can activate Leader effect afterward and gain back an Active Don.
Mulligan Tips
- Nami is good to have early in the game to help us look for {Straw Hat Crew} type cards and shape up our upcoming turns.
- Ramp cards are extremely helpful to drop our high-cost characters on earlier turns. So finding either EB01-061-mr2bonkurei-bentham or OP08-076-its-to-die-for can accelerate your game plan.
- OP09-065-sanji or OP09-009-bennbeckman to make sure you have control of the mid-game.
- OP09-119-monkeydluffy is the best play for your first Don 9 play.
Important Matchups
Blue Doflamingo
- We're up against an aggressive deck that can play multiple Characters in one turn. Those Characters typically have 5,000 or 6,000 Power, so your opponent will have to attach Don to them to attack your Leader.
- Don't hold onto too many cards in your hand, Doffy players can play OP06-047-charlotte-pudding to cut down your hand size.
- ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid and OP09-004-shanks are great in this matchup, making it harder for your opponent to get their attacks through. This will force them to attach more Don to their attackers, weakening their development on the field.
- Try to remain at 1 Life card since your blockers won't be useful if Doffy players use OP07-057-perfume-femur.
Red Shanks
- Red Shanks has control cards like OP09-009-bennbeckman and OP08-118-silvers-rayleigh that can remove one Character. However, all your Characters have 7,000 Power or more, which means your opponent has to combo their removals with Power reduction cards like OP09-008-building-snake and OP01-006-otama.
- OP09-015-luckyroux won't find much use for them outside of blocking an attack.
- We have the stronger late-game thanks to our Ramp capabilities. They'll eventually struggle to deal with our Characters and will redirect their attacks on our Leader, in an attempt to aggro us down with Rush attackers OP07-015-monkeyddragon and OP09-004-shanks.
Black Marshal D. Teach
- OP09-081-marshalldteach can shut off our On Play effects, which means Characters like OP08-069-charlotte-linlin, OP09-119-monkeydluffy, OP09-065-sanji, and OP09-009-bennbeckman will be affected.
- We'll prefer playing ST10-013-eustasscaptainkid and OP09-004-shanks in this matchup, as they don't rely on On Play effects.
- They have multiple KO cards to remove our Characters, however, they're forced to play cost-reduction cards to put them in range. EB01-048-laboon and OP09-083-van-augur are a must remove before opponent gains too much value from them.
Black Yellow Luffy
- Don't drop them down too low quickly. They want to fall to 0 health so they're able to activate Leader ability and start cheating out their adult brothers on the board through Gecko Moria.
- Blockers are extremely bothersome for opponent and will slow them down from winning the game.
- The only way they can remove your high-cost Characters is through EB01-059-kingdom-come, but it will shut them from playing a Gecko Moria. Other than that, they'll only have their attacks to KO your Characters, which we usually want to protect them to keep the pressure on them.
- Having multiple high-power Characters in play is how we generally win the game, forcing them to block with their Sabos and start getting the Counter cards out of their hand, eventually, they won't have the resources to protect their Leader, even with the +4,000 Power boost.
Gecko Moria
- This is a tough matchup since opponent can generate a lot of value with 8-cost Gecko Moria. Them having 5 health also makes it difficult to aggro them down.
- Try not to hold onto too many cards since Perona will trash those resources.
- The Power boost is extremely valuable, most of their cards are at 5,000 Power, so opponents will usually aim to give each of their attackers 1 Don and force out a Counter play. A damage boost will force more Don commitment to their attacks or avoid attacking and focus their resources on developing the board.
Closing Words
Red Purple Luffy might take a bit of time to get used to the low health, but the Leader's playstyle and setting up those Power boosts bring a different playstyle that requires a deep understanding of the state of the games to decide whether to go full aggro or control the board.
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