Comprehesnive Intro to OP07: THE OP07 Primer (by @ikailakai)

OP07 Primer (by @ikailakai: https://x.com/ikailakai)

OP07 is right around the corner, and for many, it’s a happy time as Sakazuki is going to be banned. For others, it’s a sad time, as Sakazuki is going to be gone soon.

In this article, we will be looking at OP06’s meta, the bans, the new cards, and how the Japanese OP07 meta developed so that you are not only fully informed of Japan’s 3 months of testing, but also some cards or decks that I thought were underexplored that have potential in OP07 with some more spice.

Let’s get straight into it.

OP06 is a meta dominated by Sakazuki, followed by decks like Moria, RP Law, Enel, and Katakuri. Though some of these decks seem to function better if you resleeve your deck mid-game, it is undeniable that these were the decks that you would expect to hit at some point, with the odd Doflamingo, or Nami etc here and there. Sakazuki was a bit too dominant in OP06, and while I think that there could have been better bans, this is the world we are living in. Let’s check out the bans first.

In a card game where draw and hand manipulation is scarce, a free hand refresh is crazy strong. On top of this, the on attack effect to -1 cost has permanently damaged many of the cards in the game. What I mean by this is that leaders that don’t have a -1 cost on their leader effect feel like they’re at a disadvantage as they can’t use cards like Lucci as well as other leaders who can. I would have hoped that there are no leaders with this effect, as now if your leader doesn’t have an effect like this, it feels very bad to clear the board. However, there was one leader that was prevalent in the meta despite not having this kind of effect, Moria. Moria gains his power from being able to cheat costs consistently every turn to gain board while still clearing the board with the power of 8c Moria and Great Eruption. However, Great Eruption is also gone now.

Great Eruption was one of those cards that was around forever, but people didn’t fully utilize it until black was all about board clear with Rebecca, Hina, Lucci etc. Great Eruption will leave a big hole in decks that wanted to have minus cost, but didn’t have a leader ability like Sakazuki, or the new Lucci to minus 1. Great Eruption was banned alongside Sakazuki to be wary of a scenario where Moria would just take Sakazuki’s place as the best deck. While they certainly succeeded, it may have been too much, as in Japan, you will almost never see Moria.

The last card is Reject. If Reject only had the first part of the effect, KOing a 5 cost or less, I think it would still be used in OP07 in decks like Enel, just to a lesser extent. I don’t think this card was the most broken card, but it was one of the most feelbad cards in the game to play against. You can calculate your opponent’s attacks perfectly, and randomly lose to a Reject, Amaru, Amaru through all of your defense. The cost of Reject was too low for the effect of ‘dealing 1 damage.’ As such, the card was banned I believe.

Like how Great Eruption mainly targets Moria, Reject targets Enel and Katakuri. Enel is still perfectly fine in the 07 meta, but Katakuri is very rare to come across. However, I think that this is less to do with the bans, and more to do with the meta, as all of the top decks from OP06 took some kind of hit, but one deck dodged them all…

The new big bad in town.

A lot of people hated Red Green Law due to his ability to cheat out 5 costs for 2 don. However, Red Purple Law, with some hoops, can essentially play a 4 cost for 0 don, while clearing the opponent’s board.

EB01 gave this leader massive buffs, and OP07 with the bans, has put him firmly in A+ or S tier. The issue with this leader is its universal effect. You’ll notice that there aren’t many extremely powerful archetypes, or users of specific archetypes except for Moria. Moria needs to have some level of Thriller Bark Pirates in his deck, but thanks to the power of his leader ability, and of his cards, he is in a good place. Sakazuki, Enel, and Katakuri on the other hand, have very open-ended leader abilities that do not force the user into a specific build. Although Katakuri and Sakazuki still utilize packages such as the Big Mom Pirates package due to 10mom, or Navy, they are not technically forced to.

RP Law similarly does not need to have a specific archetype in the deck, meaning that they can simply add the strongest cards in the game in Red and Purple and make a deck. However, without an archetype, the consistency of a deck will drop. But why is Law still so dominant?

Red Purple Law has the unique ability to run very similar cards in the deck to result in a deck that feels like you are actually only playing 30 cards, in a 50 card deck. By having a smaller deck, it makes it much easier to draw what you need. Gordon and Raise Max are the most obvious example of this as they are literally the same card, but cards like Reiju and Queen that draw cards, Zoro and KidKiller that have rush, Bon Kurei and Ain that speed up your don are also examples of cards that do this. So many of these cards have similar substitutes. While you would obviously prefer to draw KidKiller over Zoro, having a rush card in that specific situation, or having enough to more often draw 2-3 per game makes the deck consistent without searchers.

This being said, Queen and Reiju are not exactly on equal footing, as one can be played off of leader ability, and one cannot. The one factor that this deck can sway on is the number of Reiju that you draw. If you have an unlucky game and draw 0 Reiju, that could simply be the end of your game. These sorts of things happen, and is why I do not enjoy playing RP Law. My right hand is not as strong as other people’s right hands (excuses).

We have established that RP Law is the deck to beat in OP07. If you want to win a tournament, expect to hit RP Law a few times. 

That being said, as it’s a new set, with over 100 new cards, There will (should be) new cards that can deal with RP Law.

In this next section I want to look at each color’s new leader, as well as the archetype support, or key cards that it received to help paint a picture for those who like to build their own decks, or want to find underexplored decks, but don’t really know how to gauge the power of some of these new cards

OP07 Card Rundown

Red

People were raving about this leader’s effect prerelease as cheating 2 don sounds very strong. Perhaps it is, but in a board clear heavy meta, there just aren’t the targets to utilize the leader ability well. Unlike Law, Dragon doesn’t have ways to regain resources, and gets run over when he runs out of fuel. I fought this deck multiple times throughout OP07, and it felt the same every time. He would pressure me hard with characters such as 5 cost Ivankov to make targets for his leader ability, I would survive, and then he would die. If the leader finds ways to gain resources in new ways like the 5c Ivankov, or a card like Reiju, I can see the leader being strong in a different meta, but it did not feel like now was his time.

Ain is an interesting card as with RP Law’s leader effect, it will get rid of anything on the board no matter what. However, the reason it was not used is that compared to Ace, who has 7000 power, Ain only having 6000 power leaves her in range of getting cleared by Gordon + Leader effect in the mirror. Against slower decks, it can be a very versatile card, that can maybe shine in some meta down the line, or if some sudden bans or nerfs are enacted.

Outlook III

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone run this card before, but it is somewhat similar to 7 cost Ace’s effect, but for 2 Don and no body on the board. Perhaps it can have similar use cases where it lets you hit one easily, and clear another easily with leader ability in the RP Law mirror. Regardless, I think that this card has some interesting potential in some more controll-y decks down the line, and is something to keep in mind.

Red saw lots of ‘film’ support, which many people will gloss over as filler for the set. However, Baccarat is actually a very interesting card. While I don’t rate 0 cost events too highly due to them essentially being +2000 counter with no extra effects, Baccarat turns your cards with effects into 2000 counters. The only question now is what deck can actually use it?

Red Purple Luffy.

Believers in this deck may find this card a very helpful tool for not only being a low cost blocker, but also a card that can help you get rid of bricks in your hand while being greedy with the actual number of 2000 counters you run. While I don’t think RP Luffy is an excellent deck in OP07, I don’t think it’s bad by any means, and this is a very fun card to experiment with.

Ace believers wake up. This card is essentially an errata on Buggy. Buggy being 3000 power was nice as oftentimes you wouldn’t have a play the next turn, and Buggy would be an attacker in the early game, not having counter was difficult to with. Now, with Masked Deuce, some of his counterless problems are fixed, as Buggy now in a way has 1000 counter, and has access to Ace himself. This card more consistently allows you to play Ace over and over, which is actually a viable strategy for clearing the board against RP Law. RP Law actually had a very low winrate against Red Ace statistically at the last Miyagi Championship in Japan (but with a very low sample size). The issue with Ace still lies in his inability to deal with Yellow, but this is a good card in the right direction for making Ace a good deck, and is an interesting card to look out for in the future especially with the Whitebeard Startdeck coming in the future.

Dragon is unfortunately, the only new red card that actually saw play in OP07. While Zoro was rare, this new tool allows Zoro to have a powerful top end that can help him overcome decks like Enel. 8 cost 9000 rush is already somewhat scary, but being able to put 2 don anywhere allows for versatility and strong traditional red aggro decks to have a finisher. Consider teching this card if you’re struggling with closing the game out against Yellow or Black.

Green

Bonney is a leader that many people thought was going to take over the OP07 meta. The leader effect is, simply put, insane. I also put this leader together, and played it more than anyone else did pre-release. I am quite confident in this fact as I had nothing to do at the time and played over 100 games before the deck came out. (And remember we don’t have the sim for the first few weeks so this was with proxies). This deck is extremely strong… against things that aren’t top tier. Perhaps with adjustments to the list, the deck can find ways to deal with the top of meta, but as it currently stands, Lucci and RP Law are hard matchups. I uploaded many lists below that have some interesting ideas, so don’t lose hope in Bonney yet. Lucci can still be fought with 6 cost Hawkins, a new card I’ll showcase soon, but RP Law is such a bad matchup, that the deck is generally gated from being high tier. If RP Law is ever banned, I can see this leader taking over as one of the top deck, assuming she can deal with black better with more decklist targeting.

As it stands, Bonney is a solid pick, and those who simply like green, will love this leader. With a high skill level, you can fight with black and even RP Law to a proficient level. However, it is very hard to notice, and hard to obtain skill level as the discrepancy between good and bad Bonney players is subtle. If you do manage to become a good Bonney player though I think there’s not much cooler status than that.

At first glance, this card is strong, 1 cost searcher with 2000 counter. At second glance, you see the targets in Wano, and realize it’s not all that strong. At third glance, you remember that ‘You Can be My Samurai’ exists, and suddenly, this card is very strong. However, that being said, there still aren’t many cards you actually want in Wano, meaning that this card and archetype is mainly used for resource gain.

The one powerful card in Wano that is worth searching your whole deck to find all 4 copies of is Ryuma. As Ryuma is really only utilized in Perona, Wano Perona was made. I will write a guide on this deck soon, but explaining why the engine works will help people cook up other Wano decks. Otama allows the Wano engine to be powerful, and decks such as Yamato and Perona both came back from the grave thanks to this card.

Bonney on paper may not seem too strong, compared to something like Moria where there’s so many things going on in one effect. However, Bonney has the ability to prevent cards like 8 Katakuri, or 8 Moria, or 10 Ace from coming out on curve from her unique ability to lock the opponent’s Don. Not only this, but you can also lock a character in the event that they do manage to play their big things, making her a very versatile, early game mini 10 cost Doflamingo. In a meta where people play cards on curve, such as Black or Yellow, this card is absurd, but against decks that are more technical with their don, such as RP Law, locking a Don is not very significant.

Hawkins is a very nice card, that unfortunately may be weaker than you first think. If the opponent has no rested characters, Hawkins will simply disappear. This means that RP Law can in fact bottom deck Hawkins if his characters are rested, and Lucci can use cards like Finger Pistol to clear Hawkins as well. Hawkins is still a huge obstacle that many times cannot be dealt with, but it is not immortal. Keep this in mind if you are struggling against Bonney and find timings that you can clear it, or notice where you are trying too hard to clear it when you don’t need to.

A 3 cost 4000 blocker is very high value in this meta. Sakazuki is banned, so no longer will 3 cost blockers get fried by 5000 leader + Hound Blaze. RP Law would need to use a minus power card and leader ability to clear a 3 cost 4000 blocker, so this is a good card to play to create early board pressure. Not only this, but the effect is more versatile than one would expect. As it is only on ‘your turn’ it does not work off of Bonney’s leader ability. However, it does work off of Perona’s leader ability, as well as any ‘Activate Main’ searchers, 7 cost Hody, 8 cost Kid etc, that can rest cards on your turn. As such, being a searchable Supernova 3 cost 4000 blocker with an occasionally usable effect warrants it’s inclusion in some deck, and could open up doors for a ‘Supernova Perona’ some day down the line to do some things reminiscent of Sakazuki.

The last green card to spotlight is Demonic Aura Nine-Sword Style Asura Demon Nine Flash. I thought this card was really bad at first. However, in combination with 3 cost Izou, you can rest a 4 cost and a 5 cost for 5 don, and give a leader or character +3000 power. This card is a significant buff for Yamato, but I think there is potential to explore with this card in other decks as well.

Hancock is the blue leader of the set. It’s a very simple effect, but the hand size restriction makes it slightly hard to use in some cases. People will remember Rebecca back in OP04, where you could hit for 8-9000 on turn 2 to make their hand too big to use Leader Ability. While Hancock can still play cards like Jinbe to dump cards out of her hand to get below the 5 card threshold, it is still a bit hard to manage if your opponent knows what they are doing. Due to the 1 card draw, the RP Law matchup is slightly winning, which cannot be said for many other leaders. The RP Law matchup alone is a reason to pick this leader up. That being said, although with the current version of Doflamingo being slightly losing to RP Law, I do believe that there is higher potential in making a viable Doflamingo than there is in making a viable Hancock. While Hancock can fight with RP Law, she suffers against Lucci. My friend went to a locals the other day (op08) with Hancock, beat the RP Laws, and immediately scooped when he saw his opponents were Lucci. While this is le’ relatable Hancock moment, don’t be that guy. 

Perhaps cards like 9Sanji can help tip the black matchup… but then at that point, you should play Blue Doflamingo. Food for thought though, and people who like simple gameplans, and want to make a miracle run dodging black can actually do some damage with Hancock.

Amazon Lily and Kuja Pirates is the new archetype in blue, and while it seems like a meme (the searcher isn’t even a rare) this card unlocks potential for a new version of Nami. With cards such as Marguerite (3 cost 2000 blocker, on play draw 1 card), this allows Nami players to explore outside of the Impeldown version that they have become so accustomed to. However… this doesn’t solve the fact that the RP Law matchup feels unwinnable. If you can manage to dodge RP Law, Nami actually has a good matchup vs some of the other decks in the meta.

I wanted to show this card out of order just to show the 2 new searchers that blue got. (By the way, did you know that the order of cards in the card list is in Japanese alphabetical order). Sengoku is another card that unlocks a new version of Nami, and also makes the Seven Warlords Package more consistently searchable for Hancock. Sengoku in Nami allows for 7 cost Crocodile to be searchable, as well as Overheat, Desert Spada etc.Of the 2 new blue engines Nami can utilize, the ‘Seven Warlords’ package seems to be the stronger version, but due to the RP Law matchups, the difference between these 2 packages were quite a bit underexplored.

In Hancock however, this card allows you to draw most of the important cards in your deck, increasing the consistency. Doflamingo on the other hand, would rather have his deck set up than his hand, so I do not think it fits into Doflamingo. Regardless, having more searchers in any color unlocks opportunities for the future.

There are too many blue cards to showcase all of the good ones, but this is a huge star. Sakazuki wasn’t banned at the start of OP07 in Japan, and Sakazuki was abusing this card so much. A vanilla statline locks any character is very very good. On top of this, the ‘throwaway’ second effect that bottoms a 1 cost allows Hancock to draw a card. This is the midgame card that blue was missing, and is certainly a card to look at closely as blue gets more cards each set.

One more blue card to highlight is this Doflamingo. While this card on paper feels very slow, in a meta where you need to spread hard, I think that this card was under-tested. Doflamingo, with the new Jinbe, allows you to make a board of 5 in one turn as Leader Doflamingo. While I agree there can be consistency problems, I still think that this card should be looked at closer. Blue Doflamingo keeps getting buffs, now and in the new Doflamingo start deck that the deck may seriously come into the meta eventually.

For a meme deck, Foxy functions better than you’d expect. But it’s still a meme deck. My friend was trying to make this deck work for a while, but in the end moved to RP Law…

What were they cooking - Part 1

Sanji, while it seems like he should be made for Reiju, is not searchable by the stage, and instead, is an excellent RP Law card. It is essentially a 3 cost 6000 blocker with 2000 counter. It’s seriously not ok and is also out of the range of many removal, or resting events, making it very hard to actually race RP Law if you want to try to take this plan.

Slow-Slow Beam Sword is a Super Punk Gibson, but importantly, it can help RP Luffy (again!) survive in the later game by defending 2 attacks for one card. This card is solid all around, but not many decks can use it. Still, if you have a deck that can, like RP Luffy, or GP Doflamingo, don’t forget about this card.

Onigashima is now searchable. I did the math with a friend and you are extremely likely to draw Onigashima by turn 2 thanks to this event. Purple Kaido players rejoice. Big Mom Pirates cards also being searchable means that in OP08, 9 cost Charlotte Linlin is also searchable. All in all, this is a very good card that seems to be setting up for sets to come, but being a search 5 for 2 archetypes is a very good effect and cannot be overlooked.

Remember when we said that having a leader that minuses cost is enough to make it viable? With the eradication of Sakazuki, Lucci fills the hole that he leaves as a slightly more balanced version, as he cannot control his draws as well, and can’t use Blue. CP doesn’t actually have huge buffs in this set, but cards in the past can now be used to their fullest potential, similar to Great Eruption. Enies Lobby was always a strong looking card, but as OP03 Lucci didn’t have efficient board removal, Enies Lobby couldn’t be used too well. However, now with the new removal, and the leader ability, Enies Lobby can now shine to allow you to minus 3 cost for free. Spandine is also powerful as it allows Lucci to use Moria stronger than any other leader. With Moria, Lucci can now play Moria → Rebecca / Spandam → Spandam Effect, Search a card, Rebecca Effect → Call Spandine → Spandine Effect → Call Lucci.

With this combo, you can play an 8/9000, 4/6000, Blocker, Search, and KO an opposing character with leader ability and Enies Lobby for easy cost reduction. This leader honestly has it all. So why is RP Law rated higher than him? It’s because if you look closely, Enies Lobby is not a CP type card. This means that Lucci’s core, in Moria and Enies Lobby are not searchable, making him a high risk high reward deck. If you draw what you need, you are unstoppable. If you don’t draw what you need, you just roll over and fold.

Lucci is one of the top tier leaders of this set in OP07, and is held back only by his consistency. I believe that there is potential to cards like Hina, or even a more Navy focused Lucci rather than CP that can be good, but were underexplored in Japan.

On paper and in practice, this card seems very strong. However, I do not rate it too high. In OP07 Lucci, being searchable is a big merit, and a reason to use her. However, she cannot do anything for Lucci’s hardest matchup, Black Yellow Luffy. Additionally, it’s too slow against RP Law, and as such I think that in this meta it is not versatile enough to be used effectively.

One of the cards that Lucci players have been experimenting with to be able to fight with Black Yellow Luffy is the 5 cost Monkey D. Luffy. As he is 5 cost, he firstly, cannot be cleared by 5 cost Egghead Luffy, meaning that if you can find a timing to drop Luffy, he will stay on the board until you rest him in the Black Yellow Luffy Matchup.

As his on attack effect trashes the target, rather than KOs them, it can get rid of Sabo regardless and create pressure on Black Yellow Luffy. 

As a Black Yellow Luffy player, I still found this card not too much of a pain, as you simply needed to leave 2 blockers, or a blocker and a life. Still, this card can catch people off guard, and will force BY Luffy players to change their plan, and occasionally make them mess up.

I lied when I said that Lucci didn’t get too many powerful CP cards in this set. He got Great Eruption, but minus 3 cost instead of 2. However, as you need to have 10 cards in trash, it gates many leaders including Lucci from using it in the early game. Still, from around 8-9 Don, Lucci will have enough cards in trash to start using the effect. Tempest Kick helps Lucci reach high thresholds, and in tandem with stage and leader ability, it can feel really unfair trying to make a board.

Remember that this card can still simply draw 1, and in the early game, it can / should sometimes be used to cycle your deck and look for cards such as Enies Lobby or Moria.

Sabo is the reason I do not rate Stussy as high. Sabo can, most of the time, allow you to KO the same targets you wanted to KO with Stussy, while also having the ability to take a 2nd target. The difference is that Sabo has a hand cost, and Stussy has a board cost. Hand costs generally hurt more, but board costs are generally harder to fulfill. If you are both clearing each other’s board, it is hard to have a good target to activate Stussy’s effect. However, thanks to cards like Spandine, or Spandam, it’s not actually that hard to have a target for Stussy in Lucci. That being said, because you’re not Sakazuki, you will often find yourself with an extra Enies Lobby, or 4 cost Lucci etc in your hand that you don’t need anymore. In these cases, Sabo’s hand cost is not very painful, while allowing you to potentially target 2 characters. Stussy can only ever KO 1 target, but as Sabo can target 2, it is an excellent card to keep midrange boards under control. Cards that can KO 2 targets with only 1 card, like Sabo, Gravity Blade, Fire Fist, Rayleigh in OP08 are cards that all help in the RP Law matchup. If you struggle with RP Law, see what kinds of double removal cards exist and see if they can be teched in. There aren’t many, but they are a good place to look at if you’re a bit stumped.

Vegapunk is the newest weird Yellow leader. It is the first monocolor 2 life leader. It sounds really bad, and it kind of is. With the right support, it can almost become playable, but in OP07, it is not there yet at all. People see Vegapunk’s leader ability and assume it’s a deck that wants to keep increasing his life every turn, and play an extremely slow game. I remember when Vegapunk was first revealed, and people were doing early testing, people were saying ‘It’s strong, it's just guaranteed to go to the time limit.’

I don’t know wtf they were talking about because Vegapunk is an aggro deck.

You want to be using your leader ability to play a character onto the board every turn. Due to it only costing 1, you can easily play 2 cards per turn like Lilith + a 5 cost from leader ability, or 5 Ace + Leader Ability. The 2 life is not too much of a problem as they need to focus on your board or else they’ll lose. However, this leader suffers from a lack of resources, and will lose when it runs out of fuel. In OP08, many of these problems are solved, and perhaps you can be excited for the leader. People will always underestimate this leader due to the 2 life, but if you make the mistake of hitting him on turn 2, and he triggers out a character, it can quickly turn from normal to disastrous. 

When you play a card, you are technically reducing your hand size by 1. That’s why card’s like 4 cost Kuzan are strong, as they do not reduce your hand size. Franky is a 2000 counter that if you get from your trigger, makes a body and draws a card, effectively spawning a 5000 power attacker for free. While you won’t always get this out of trigger, it’s just solid in general, and 2000 counter in hand in the event that you don’t get it out of trigger. It’s a very good card in Enel as he has 1 open 2k spot. Bege and Flampe take 4 spots each, but the last spot was contested between Hiyori, and occasionally extra counter events like Elthor.

Egghead Luffy is a great buff to Black Yellow Luffy. People who have been wanting to play this deck will now have the joy of being able to play it at full power. BY Luffy generally suffers with increasing hand size, and clearing the board, and this card does both while increasing your leader’s power. It adds lots of versatility, and in a meta with no Sakazuki, he can really shine. Additionally, in Enel, the trigger and on play effect are good enough to warrant running Luffy as a move like double Luffy, or Gedatsu + Luffy on 10 don to clear 2 bodies against RP Law is unexpected and strong. This card was not utilized much in Enel in Japan, but I have always run it, and rated it very highly.

LOOK AT THE TRIGGER ON THIS CARD. It might not seem crazy given the targets, and that’s fair, but as soon as there are more good Egghead 5 cost (which there will be) this card will pop off. Trigger characters were always strong against RP Law and Lucci as they are sudden obstacles that they didn’t calculate for. This is the reason that people used to run Kikunojo. However, if you don’t play Kikunojo on turn 2 or 3, it feels like it gets stuck in your hand for the rest of the game. I Re-Quasar Hellp!! Is still a +3000 counter event, that if triggered, can pull out, at the very least, egghead Luffy in this meta. In OP08 with Vegapunk buffs, the effect gets even stronger, so keep this card on your radar.

Finally, the last card of OP07. THE Enel card. This card unconditionally increases your life, which was not possible before in Enel, and additionally, has the opportunity to gain Rush as well. It is great for stalling out games, and will surely be a wallet breaker on release if many people want to play Enel. This card allows for the starve Enel plan to work much more consistently than it used to, and create very toxic games where the match was decided 10 minutes ago, but Enel doesn’t want to mess it up, so he plays another 10 Ace and passes. This card is strong on paper and in practice, and it’s surprising that they let this through testing. It’s more surprising, in retrospect of the OP07 meta, that this wasn’t the strongest deck in the format, as Enel was already a decent deck, got a extremely powerful core card, and was still barely in the discussion for top 3.

All in all there are many cards, both utilized, and not, in OP07 that create new decks and opportunities. I didn’t cover them all, as for example, there are many powerful blue cards. But please take a look and feel encouraged to try your ideas, even if you didn’t see anyone in Japan, or your locals, do it.

As Japan started OP07 with Sakazuki enabled, the meta was relatively short for Japan. On top of this there was only 1 championship during the entire format in the form of a 3v3. This means that OP07 is perhaps the most underdeveloped meta we have ever been through, and it shows as we ended the meta with 5 decks in the top tier.

FIVE.

Banning Sakazuki created such a well balanced meta where any leader had a chance to do well and meta reading and deck building were crucial to doing well in tournaments. It is due to this fact that I wanted to recap the new cards, as there is surely something that Japan and the rest of Asia missed when playing the set.

Next, we will move on to what these 5 decks are, and how they stack up against each other, with sample deck lists, and general notes on the deck.

Relationship Graph

The chart that everyone waits for. Once again as a reminder, you read it from left to right, so BY Luffy is hard winning vs Lucci and Moria, as an example.

So many people didn’t like OP07 because some of the matchups were polarizing, and the spread was too wide. Some people were wishing we still had Sakazuki in the meta so that they knew what to tech for. I disagreed with this then, and even more so now. I think that OP07 is one of the most interesting metas we’ve had. While there are technically 5 strongest decks that are all on a similar tier, there are many decks that are not necessarily bad, just not quite on the same level as them.

A+: RP Law

I think that OP07 uniquely does not have an S-tier deck. There is no deck that is so dominant that all roads need to revolve around them. That being said, RP Law is the winningest deck of the set. 

The deck realistically only struggles against Lucci, and if you go a bit down the tierlist, Hancock. However, as Lucci has consistency issues, the matchup is certainly winnable. The main worry that RP Law players will find themselves having are how they are going to win the mirror. 

Here are a few sample deck lists for RP Law.

As mentioned in my RP Law guide posted last month, there are 2 main types of RP Law decks, a slower version, and a faster version. The main difference maker card is 7 cost Ace.

Talking specifically about 7c Ace: 

Ace is a card that’s very polarizing in the community in terms of if it fits into the build, as it’s not a card that is great in the mirror.

7c Ace helps you create a board that sticks better against Lucci and Enel, but in the mirror, as you will be constantly lowering your don, you may not be able to find an opportunity to play it. This being said, you still ‘can’ find time to play it in the mirror, just many people see it as a tempo loss.

However, if you are not particularly struggling with the mirror, then perhaps consider 7c Ace as a good anchor that helps you clear the opponents boards, and lets you create a board that’s harder to deal with.

If you are teching for the mirror specifically, there are 2 stars.

3 cost Chopper, and 4 cost Promo Law.

The mirror can be very grueling, and having more power lowering than your opponent can spell defeat for them. As such, Chopper, a card that is 4000 power (meaning that it’s harder to remove in the mirror) and Law, which both have effects to minus power, act as additional Gordon or Raise Max in the games where you fail to draw them.

Keep these techs in mind as you play one of the most flexible, and interesting decks of OP07. The deck is absurdly powerful, but has about 80 cards that it can use. Choosing the correct card for the environment, and playing with a 50 that you are confident with will give you the best chance at winning. I think that if you want to win in OP07, that this will give you the best odds of doing so. 

Matchups such as Lucci can be difficult, but the winrate of Lucci vastly sways on whether he could, or couldn’t draw Enies Lobby. If Lucci manages to draw Enies Lobby, and has the board clear to keep the game under control, then it can become a difficult time. However, as Lucci is kept in check by BY Luffy, RP Law is still a cut above the rest by a slight margin.

A+: BY Luffy

I think Cross will disagree with me on this. Yes, there are ways for black to overcome BY Luffy. Yes, he is weak to some lower tier decks. However, I believe that BY Luffy is slightly winning vs RP Law. The reason I have him at 50/50 is because BY Luffy can lose to not drawing what he needs to. In the event that he does draw his Hiyoris, and Baby / Adult combos, it is very hard for RP Law to overcome. Additionally, BY Luffy has a very good matchup against black. Not only are decks like Moria and Lucci, who can spread their board wide while KOing weak to leaders whose power is above 5000, playing Sabo every turn makes it so that they cannot even KO. There will be many people who play Lucci just for its good RP Law matchup, and I suspect that BY Luffy will be generally unpopular, but still top a disproportionate amount compared to its overall share in the tournament.
(Random Comment by Cross: I actually agree with Kai here. For everyone, when y'all test against BY Luffy, just know there are A LOT of BAD BY Luffy players. The deck is very hard to pilot well.
I put blinders on when it came to BY Luffy in the past, because I've played mostly against BY Luffy bots.
But after seeing Victor (the same Victor who topped with a spicy RP Luffy list last nationals) pilot the BY Luffy deck. I decided to give the deck a real chance, and I think it's crazy strong.
 I still think it's the easiest meta deck to build your deck to beat, but it's raw power is so strong, that you can build to beat it, and still get fried.
I wouldn't be surprised if Blue vs BY Luffy isn't as free as people believe.)

This is THE standard BY Luffy list. There is not too much to cook with this deck. However, that makes it easier to go through some potential changes that could be made.

Most of this deck cannot be moved around. However, 2 cards that you may want to tech in can be 3c Ivankov, and Ice Age.

In the RP Law matchup, Hiyori is one of the most important cards in the deck. Without Hiyori, you run the risk of being run over by Law’s numbers as your leader will be at 5000 power for too long. Hiyori is used in the RP Law matchup to make BY Luffy’s life go to 7000 so that it’s harder for RP Law to attack and force resources out of BY Luffy’s hand. However, as Hiyori isn’t searchable, it is purely up to chance if you draw the card or not. Ivankov acts as extra Hiyori in that he lets you use your leader ability earlier in the game like Hiyori does. Although he trashes life instead of adding it to hand, he is a blocker with 4000 power, which we have mentioned is strong in the RP Law meta. Ivankov increases the consistency of the BY Luffy vs RP Law matchup, and generally finds itself as a 2 of in place of 2 Makino in the list above.

On the other hand, there is Ice Age. I am not a fan of Ice Age. However, one matchup that is absolutely brutal for BY Luffy is Bonney. As BY Luffy cannot clear the board, and wants to stay low on life, 9 Zoro will run over BY Luffy. If you find yourself hitting many Bonney, especially in the early meta, Ice Age is the better tech choice over Ivankov. With Ice Age and Egghead Luffy, you can take up to 9 cost, which is exactly the threshold needed for 9 Zoro. Clearing even 1 9 Zoro can throw Bonney off and win the game. It will rarely be helpful in other matchups, but as Luffy can trash cards from hand, as well as search through his deck with 5 Sabo over and over, adding just 1 of these cards to break the Bonney matchup is a viable deck building strategy.

Most of the cards in the list above are template, and hard to move, but the pieces that you will most often see moved around are Makino, from 2 to 4 copies, Ace, from 3 to 4 copies, and Egghead Luffy, from 2 to 4 copies. Make these adjustments as needed, and keep in mind the most important thing when playing BY Luffy: Although there is a template of best moves each turn, they won’t always be the best move in the situation. This is to say that you don’t want to play so many BY Luffy games that you find yourself doing the same thing each game, as you will lose to not being able to find X card. Keep your options open, and be flexible with the moves, and you will find yourself being able to deal with more situations than you would expect.

While of course, black isn’t a free win, if you get this deck down really well, you can take a sigh of relief when you hit a black deck, and keep your stamina high through a long game day.

A: Enel

I'm not on good terms with the person who popularized this list, but it is the most popular version of Enel in OP07 so I need to post it here. I know for a fact that the guy who made this list recommends hitting rather than starving in the mirror though, and that’s helped me manage a 13 winstreak in the Enel mirror during OP07.

Speaking of good decks for keeping your stamina up, Enel is the next deck I want to discuss. Enel is a deck that has benefited immensely from the addition of 10 cost Ace. Oftentimes, you used to be able to counter Enel by holding him at 2 life, not allowing him to gain life off of Yamato. However, Ace has no condition on life gain. No matter if Enel is at 0 life, or 6 life, 10 Ace will still give him a life.

However keep in mind, as the Enel player, and people playing against Enel, that he doesn’t need to add a life. The card reads that he can add up to 1 life, then if he has 2 or less life, he gains rush. Sometimes, the rush is more valuable than the life increase, like when you are making a final push against black. In these (to be fair, rare) cases where you are at 2 life, and need the damage on leader rather than the survivability, Ace can choose to not add life, and still gain rush. Some people may get caught off guard by this so don’t take a cheeky 5000 leader thinking you’re safe. 5 cost Ace exists after all, so it’s always risky to assume they have no rush.

Enel is a surprisingly complex deck. Compared to a deck like Sakazuki and Lucci, where you are managing and manipulating your hand and trash every turn, Enel, who tends to play 1 card each turn and pass, seems very easy. However, Enel has a unique playstyle due to his leader ability where he plays aggressive, or defensive and the flick of a switch. Knowing when to turn the corner, how far to go with your hits, and how and when to use your counter is very specific to Enel, and can be a surprisingly hard skill to master. The floor for Enel is very low, but the ceiling is higher than expected. 

This ceiling truly shows in the mirror. I intend to make an Enel guide soon, so I will try my best to explain the stages of the mirror, but keep in mind that many times as Enel, and also against Enel, starving is a very powerful strategy. 

If there was an ‘Enel Starve Iceberg,’ then it would be something like this 

• BY Luffy: Everyone knows to starve BY Luffy. If you are not starving BY Luffy as most leaders, it’s probably a reason for why you are losing.

• RP Law: Not everyone will immediately realize they need to starve RP Law, but after trying it, most people will agree that starving RP Law is better

• Mirror: Many people do not starve the mirror, but really should. People think that the added pressure of the opponent being low on life, and you having 3-4 big monsters on board is great for the mirror to slowly require counter out of the other Enel’s hand. However, due to Raigo, and other cards like Yamato, being on low life can help Enel slowly gain the advantage and push back in the end

• Lucci: Most people will not know to starve Lucci, as trying to starve Moria is a death sentence. Lucci is a deck that can suffer from consistency issues, and not hitting them exploits that factor. If Lucci fails to play multiple big bodies on the board each turn, or clear Enel’s board, it will slowly get worse and worse. 

Starving as Enel in OP07 is a crucial aspect to playing him. The games can get long due to this factor, but it is thanks to this strategy that Enel will know he will 100% win games 10 minutes before he actually wins them. Starving as Enel is not hard, and hitting as Enel is not hard either. However, knowing when to switch between these 2 ‘modes’ is one makes or breaks a good Enel player. Turning this corner too early means that Enel will not have a strong enough board to finish the game. This means that you will be giving your opponent free resources and an opportunity to take back your board. Turning the corner too late means that you’ve probably already lost many resources to countering small attacks, and you would need multiple turns to end the game while only having a few turns left in your as the Enel user. It is very hard to put into words, but the most important thing is to experiment. Try turning the corner from defensive to aggressive at different timings and feel the result of doing so. Trial and error can make you a very cringe Enel player. But cringe isn’t so bad if you win, no? Enel is a deck that was underrated at the end of OP07 in Japan, but I still rate it very highly.

This is a list I ran for a tournament in OP07 and went X-1 with. I KNOW CROSS HATES 2 COST SHIRAHOSHI IN ENEL.

However, the meta being extremely Enel, BY Luffy, Lucci and RP Law centered was my justification for running the card. Blocker Shirahoshi is very good agaisnt 3 of these matchups. Against BY Luffy and Lucci, they simply aren’t allowed to clear it as it would end up giving Enel an extra life. In the mirror, on a turn with 8 cost Katakuri, or Raigo, it helps pad out Don and make a blocker than makes it very hard for the opponent to take your resources. A common move in the mirror is to hit with 14000 (4 don on Ace) and Raigo something, allowing you to clear 2 characters on the board. However, with the Shirahoshi blocker, you can prevent half of these things from happening. I agree with Cross that the card is redundant with Enel’s leader ability and may not be necessary, but I cannot deny that it has helped me immensely during OP07 to secure wins vs some tougher opponents.

I eventually lowered the Shirahoshi blocker as she was absolutely useless against RP Law, and instead added a few 7 cost Enel to still be strong in the Lucci matchup.

Cards like 7 cost Enel, 5 cost Ace, Amaru, and blocker Shirahoshi are very strong cards in the black matchup, and cards like Gedatsu, Onami, and Egghead Luffy are very good for keeping RP Law’s board under control. As RP Law spreads the board faster than Enel can clear it, putting in many triggers that KO characters help keep RP Law’s board under control. Mathematically in this deck that I ran above, I should be flipping at least 1 trigger KO a game. Even one of these can make a difference as Enel’s leader ability is very specific with how you need to approach attacking.

Pick up Enel if you want a generally even matchup spread across the board. There are very few auto-lose matchups, and very few auto-win matchups. It will come down to your draws and your skill to win out with Enel consistently. Also stick to Enel if you are fine with being flamed for playing a ‘low skill’ deck. People were actually getting mad and throwing their decks after games with me and I couldn’t really handle it so I swapped my deck in the end. I would have played Enel to the end of OP07, but I had some bad experiences with people getting mad that I had ‘a second 10 Ace,’ and ultimately dropped the deck for the next choice. My mood plays a factor in how I play, and feeling shitty after a game was bad for my stamina in tournaments.

A: Perona 

I might have a bias for Perona, but I think this is being fairly reasonable for her spread.

My Perona list, 7-1 at Tokyo 3v3 Championship.

I think that Perona is the first best deck in the format, but for most people she is not even in the question for top 5. Let me explain why some people think that, and why I think otherwise.

As we mentioned before, Otama with the Wano engine makes for some really interesting possibilities. This deck has the ability to loop through her deck up to twice or three times in some very rare cases, and make a massive resource advantage that is currently unmatched. Alongside these resources, Perona can use Ryuma extremely well. In Perona, it simply read 4 cost 6000, On play KO a 4 cost. The ‘On KO’ side of the effect is sometimes usable, but it’s mainly the On play effect that we use the card. One issue that this deck had in OP06 was the need to prepare your trash for 8c Moria using the 0c Event, or Sabo to drop Ryuma into trash. However, Hiyori makes this a whole lot easier, and opens new combos as well. As 8 cost Moria, and the cards that he plays all activate at the same time, it was not possible to play Tsuru and Ryuma off of Moria, and KO an active 6 cost. However, with Hiyori, you can now play Tsuru and Hiyori, use the on play effect of Tsuru, use your leader ability, and then activate Hiyori’s Main effect to play Ryuma out of hand. Hiyori made many parts of Perona significantly easier to pull off, and is another target for the new Wano engine with Otama, Momonosuke, and You can be my Samurai.

All this being said, Perona is very combo-centric. If Perona simply cannot find Ryuma, it is hell. If she keeps bottoming her boss monsters, it becomes difficult. Many parts of Perona need to align to be able to function at full power, making it a deck that, like Rebecca, needs a lot of set up to get going. But once she does get going, she is essentially Lucci, but with A LOT more resources. It is for these consistency problems that people rate Perona lower, but I find it confusing that they do not apply the same logic to Lucci’s ranking in tier lists. Both decks can have consistency problems, but at the end of the day, I was able to go 7-1 with a deck meant to beat RP Law, without hitting RP Law, so I rate the deck very high.

There are many tech choices possible for this deck. The Wano package is core, but the top end can be either:

• Moria: helps you reuse Ryuma / make a board while clearing the opponent’s and gaining resources.

• Sabo: reduces your resources, but makes a more powerful 2 target KO

• Issho: helps chip away at the hand of Enel and BY Luffy. Simply adding this card flips the Enel matchup from slightly losing, to slightly winning.

• 9 Zoro: seals the game vs BY luffy and occasionally the Enel matchup, but is much too slow in other matchups as Perona is a 4 life leader with minimal defense

• 8 Kid: requires more spots in the deck for 2 cost Rosinante, but helps a lot vs many of the top decks including the mirror

• Stussy: personally feels like weaker less diverse Sabo

The one last card to touch upon is Bellemere. Bellemere is a card that lets your leader ability reach up to 5 cost. The meta is extremely 5 cost heavy, so this was a card that saved me in many situations. Being Activate Main also means that the opponent may feel obligated to hit into it, similar to Momonosuke, further increasing my resource lead.

All in all, I am happy with this list, and if I were to play in OP07 again, this is the list I would use. It is truly fun to play, and has a very high potential ceiling for plays that can be made turn to turn. Memorizing your deck order is another factor that you can flex on your opponent without them even knowing.

All in all, though I may be biased for Perona, I think that she truly is in a good spot, and Perona believers can finally rejoice.

A: Lucci

Lucci is a deck with an excellent matchup spread that is gated by 2 things– his consistency, and is BY Luffy matchup.

Lucci has an abysmal BY Luffy matchup for reasons stated above, but does very well vs the majority of the rest of the meta. Lucci can fairly confidently beat RP Law in OP07 (not in OP08 fuck me send help) thanks to cards like 4 cost Lucci, 5 cost Kaku, and Moria to infinitely clear the board and produce attackers on par with RP Law’s cards.

Cards like Stussy are used for the mirror, and Enel matchup, but again, I feel like with some adjustments, 8 Sabo is simply a more versatile Stussy. However, Stussy being searchable in this deck is a good merit and allows Lucci to consistently play boss monsters over and over in the last game.

Lucci is the strongest 8 cost Moria user in the game due to Spandine. With stage on the board, you can -3 cost from stage and leader ability, then play Rebecca, Spandine, Lucci and Spandam to gain resources while KOing the board and producing multiple attackers and a blocker. Lucci being able to play 2 Morias in a row is enough to shut most decks out of the game. However, as Lucci has no way to cycle through his deck aside from 5 cost Sabo, there will be games where he fails to draw the cards he needs, and can’t clear anything,

Lucci can be a very swingy deck, with extremely high highs, but equally low lows. He is similar to Perona where he has more powerful KOs, just with less card draw.

3 cost Brook is another good card that should be considered in my opinion as the 4000 power line, as well as on play and on attack effect minusing / KOing based on cost make a threat that needs to be dealt with, and is great for the RP Law matchup and other matchups.

Another friendly reminder that although I don’t agree with the pick, people were running the 5 cost Nightmare Luffy to deal with BY Luffy. Definitely give this card a shot and make your own opinions on if it deserves a 1of or 2of slot in your deck.

Now that we have gone through what I believe are the top 5 decks, I want to rapid fire a few more decks that are close, but not quite at the top of the tierlist in my opinion.

B: Moria

One of the advantages that Moria has over Lucci is that he has an ever so slightly better matchup against BY Luffy thanks to 8 cost Moria. However, my question is then why can’t Lucci run 8 cost Moria? Moria without Great Eruption can struggle to clear the board, and has instead adopted a more swarmy playstyle. By playing a 4 cost every turn, he forces the opponent to have to deal with him, rather than the other way around. Although I am unfamiliar personally with the Moria vs Lucci matchup, my friend, who plays both, says that Moria wins out the match as the black mirror is more about resources than board clear. Nonetheless, Moria struggles to make it over the edge of A tier and is overshadowed by decks like Lucci, and in my opinion, Perona.

To support this swarmy playstyle, I occasionally see 5 cost Smoker run, but Moria has more or less died out in Japan due to the RP Law matchup becoming difficult with the loss of Great Eruption.

B: Bonney

There are two types of Bonney you might see. A 10 cost Doflamingo focused Bonney, playing a more aggressive style, utilizing her leader ability to slow down the opponent as she inevitably rolls over the game, and a more defensive list, running 8 cost Kid and 9 Zoro to pull back games where tempo was lost in the early game.

The latter version was the more popular version in Japan. This version of Bonney focuses on making a powerful board and an 8 cost Kid that cannot be overcome. Although the matchup spread looks bad, and I agree, I don’t think Bonney is a great deck, she is better than people expect, just very hard to play. The biggest problem that Bonney has in the meta is that she hard loses to RP Law. RP Law, though maybe not as prominent in the meta in OP07 compared to OP08, is a deck that you will hit a few times in a long tournament. If hitting these decks means that there’s a 70% chance you lose, the deck as a whole struggles to be high tier. 

However, there was a version of Bonney that actually won a championship in Japan that went under the radar. The reason for this was that it was a Middle Schooler Championship. But don’t underestimate middle schoolers. There are some really really good players.

Also I really need to say, I think Urouge is a really bad card.

This Bonney list is a hybrid of the 2 versions of Bonney. It is defensive, but has the inevitability of 10 Doflamingo, or 9 Zoro depending on the matchup. I think that if I were to restart OP07, this is the Bonney deck that I would start with.

Closing

While there are other decks that you may see from time to time, like Yamato, or Hancock, I do not recommend playing them if you intend to win an event.

Yamato has 2 versions, a Wano version using 5 cost Momonosuke and Otama to gain infinite resources, and an aggro Yamato. These 2 have vastly different spreads, but none that cover all of the important meta matchups.

Hancock, while strong vs Law, folds to Lucci almost as soon as the leader is flipped over. Additionally, she loses to Enels and BY Luffy’s who know what they’re doing. (Side note, as Luffy, you want to be playing the 2 cost Babies out of hand in the early game as Hancock has a hard time getting rid of them. By keeping your hand low, the value of her Pudding goes down, which is the only way she can win the matchup.

Reiju has a horrible RP Law matchup, but can fight somewhat reasonably with the other decks in the meta. The main issue is her consistency as well as BY Luffy also being surprisingly difficult and heavily Pudding reliant.

Purple Luffy also has a bad RP Law matchup, and the Lucci matchup relies heavily on getting 2 Magellans in a row.

Zoro is one slightly unexplored deck that I think has more potential that people were giving it credit for. Still, Lucci can be difficult, and if BY Luffy can safely get to 0 life without losing too many resources, that can be a hard match too.

There are many good decks in this meta, and although the gap between the ‘top tier’ of 5 decks and the rest can feel a bit wide, having 5 decks in the top tier is unheard of in the history of the game. Reading the meta, and making adaptations for the current best deck will be crucial to staying ahead. 

The meta is very incomplete due to the lack of tournaments and time that we had in Japan. I hope that this article worked as a good primer to introduce everything in OP07, and that it is only the beginning to some crazy decks that Japan didn’t think of.

I thought of GP Doflamingo the other day and discussed it with Cross and he seemed to really enjoy it, so there may be more out there. We just need to find it.

Additional Comments by Cross

Just as Kai said, I think the OPO7 meta is very incomplete.
 I think there's better decklists for all the top decks we saw from Japan, and I think there's so many ideas that straight up haven't been tried.
People think I try to make sauce for the sake of making sauce (maybe people think this about my twin Kai too idk), and that is apart of the fun. But there's genuinely good decks out there, that just haven't been built.
My Yamato phase almost made me quit trying to make new decks, because I missed out on a lot of opportunities to top (but tbf if I did real playtesting, I would have concluded to play a better Yam list, or just completely retire the deck.)
But this Rebecca phase has convinced me that people just don't try shit out. And the crazy part is, if I didn't start playtesting, this would have been another Yamato phase. The decklist I started with, and what I have now is like night and day. So I wonder if there was a cracked Yamato list if I actually playtested LOL.
I'm still finding the perfect Rebecca list, and I'm confident to label this deck at the top of A, approaching A+.
Anyways, I just wanted to inspire people who are willing to try new cards, but need a push to know that they may not be wasting time.
And if any of y'all have any interesting concepts, please present them to me and/or Kai.
I'd say me and Kai are basically a 1-2 man team, when it comes to building decks like Perona & Rebecca. It's me or Kai spitballing ideas at each other for the decks we play, but we in different sets, so it's hard to give good advice.
I actually talked to one of the top west players about Rebecca deckbuilding for the first time the other day, and he actually helped me make a recent breakthough in the deck. So shoutout him, and that experience really makes me want to see if any of y'all have some interesting ideas.
Thanks to Kai for making this wonderful article, and round of applause to two of our Patrons, JT & Piper Lepine, for getting first and second place with Perona!! 
I know Kai's been pushing Perona for a minute now, and many thought he was smoking something crazy, but they really got there with the deck. And JT even used Kai's fire Bellmere tech LMAO(Bellmere gonna go crazy against BY Luffy's Sabo in OP07).