As the number one globally selling manga in the history of the medium, it’s inevitable for One Piece to get back into the trading card game market. As the newest TCG from Bandai, there are plenty of expectations for this game to succeed, and a dedicated community and official tournament support are starting to take shape. This guide will give you all the information you need so you’ll know how to get started with the One Piece TCG and set sail.
One Piece TCG Beginner Tips
The official One Piece card game website is the perfect starting place and outlines all of the products and news that fans can look forward to, and you can also download and try the tutorial app available online. Similar to Bandai’s Digimon TCG, this game will always see new cards released first in Japan, giving United States players an idea of what to expect from the evolving competitive meta.
The first set, Romance Dawn, has been released through a series of promo decks in the US during September conventions and events, and the official release date for North America is December 2, 2022. One of the best ways to start with any TCG is by picking up a starter deck for each player and a few booster packs. The One Piece starter decks come with a nice variety of cards to help you start playing right away.
One Piece Starter Deck: Straw Hat Crew
Luffy leads his crew of straw hat pirates in this deck that focuses on the primary strengths of the red color; offensive power and rush characters that can attack the same turn they’re played. All of your favorite characters like Sanji, Zoro, Nami, Robin, Franky, Jinbe, and Chopper are included in this deck to some degree along with a card featuring their new iconic ship the Thousand Sunny.
This deck plays fast and hard with plenty of attackers and some good ways of lowering your opponent’s battle power and removing their characters. You’ll be happy to see your Nakama in the battle area when playing with this deck.
One Piece Starter Deck: Worst Generation
Featuring rival pirates from the world’s worst generation, this deck is led by Eustass Kid and has a mix of characters from his crew along with Trafalgar Law, Smoker from the Marines, Capone Bege, and X Drake. Green has a good balance of offense and defense with plenty of cards that let you reuse your characters multiple times a turn, increasing your battle power, and knocking out your opponent’s characters.
One Piece Starter Deck: The Seven Warlords of the Sea
Led by Crocodile from Alabasta, The Seven Warlords of the Sea deck has a mix of powerful enemies from Luffy’s travels like Gecko Moria, Don Flamingo, Buggy, Boa Hancock, Dracule Mihawk, Bartholomew Kuma, Marshall D. Teach, and Sentomaru. In the same style as Bandai’s other TCGs, the color blue is mostly a defensive archetype, and this starter adheres to that philosophy with effects that return your opponent’s cards to their hands and give you an extra boost of card draw.
One Piece Starter Deck: Animal Kingdom Pirates
The bestial Kaido, one of the most destructive of the four emperors, has his own starter deck that features his crew of Ulti, Page One, Sheepshead, Ginrummy, Who’s Who, Black Maria, Jack, King, and Queen. This deck wants to get to the late game and use expensive effects that will overwhelm your opponent. There are a good amount of defensive options with ways to directly knock out your opponent’s characters, play some blockers, and add +2000 counter effects.
In the One Piece TCG, purple is the color that manipulates your Don! resources and you’ll do that to build up your dominance and play your most bomb cards.
Which Starter Deck Should You Choose?
With this being the very first wave from the One Piece Card Game, it would be a great idea to get one of each starter deck, but if you’re going to pick favorites, you already know which ones you want to try out.
From a pure gameplay perspective or if you’re new to the One Piece anime and enjoy TCGs, it would be ideal to start with the Straw Hat Crew and Animal Kingdom Pirates. These two starter decks will give you a good understanding of the game’s mechanics and the flow between offensive and defensive strategies with the potential to end games quickly or go into the late extended game.
From there, you can customize your decks based on how you think you can improve your strategies or win rates against other decks, and then you can hone in on key cards by trading for them or buying singles. The world’s the limit now that you know how to get started with the One Piece TCG and set sail, and soon you might end up becoming the king of pirates! If you’re up for another fun and challenging game, try our hardest One Piece quiz to test your knowledge and fandom and don’t forget to find out more about the One Piece Film.
