The One Piece Trading Card Game is in a great place at the moment. We just had one of the most meta dominant leaders get errata's in Sakazuki, and a brand new set come out with Op-07 500 Years In the Future. These two things have led to a wide open metagame just in time for Store Regionals, Regionals and even our first Nationals in Dallas, this upcoming September. All three events will have taken place with the Op-07 format. With Nationals being invite only, it's more important than ever to have an understanding of this current format so that you can do your best to win your invite at any upcoming Regional events and earn your chance to compete in Nationals. So, without further ado, lets break down this meta and see what the best options are!

Currently, four decks seem to be on top of the current meta. They are in no specific order: OP-07 Rob Lucci, OP-05 Enel, St-10 Red/Purple Trafalgar Law, and ST-13 Black/Yellow Monkey D. Luffy. These are the decks that top players are opting for and that have had a quick start to performing really well so far. What's interesting though is that no one deck has been dominant. This format seems to be pretty spread out with all of these forementioned decks having one or two bad matchups into each other. Any of these decks have the potential to win a regional and secure an invite. What is really interesting though is the tier right below this. If these decks make up tier 1, I'd say these next decks are tier 1.5.

Three decks fall into this next category with one of them really pushing into the top tier with the best leaders. That leader is the new, Op-07 Jewelry Bonney. The other leaders I'd place in this category are OP-01 Donquixote Doflamingo and Op-03 Nami. These decks can just see the right matchups and also have a great run with lower chance of winning a regional than our top 4. But these seven decks are what I believe makes up the meta and are the most meta defining decks. Now that we understand what leaders are performing well, let's look at what a few of these meta defining decks do and why they are good.

Let's start with OP-07 Rob Lucci. I believe by the end of this format this will be the most represented deck. It's not incredibly hard to pilot, can do multiple things, and focus on removal - which American One Piece players have favored in the previous formats. It has favored to even matchups into most of the format with its worst matchup being ST-13 Black/Yellow Monkey D. Luffy. The next deck I want to take a look at is OP-05 Enel.

Enel is a very consistent leader the relies on creating advantage through his leader ability. His ability allows you to put the top card of your deck into your life when you hit 0 life cards, for the cost of discarding a card from your hand. This ability can only be used once during your opponents turn. It's this ability that led this deck to winning the first ever One Piece United States National Championship. So, this deck is no stranger to being one of the very best. What is new about this deck is the OP-07 Portgas D. Ace card that we got this set. The fact that it has Rush when you are at two or less life and can add a card to your life is game breaking. It has pretty good matchups across the board with its worst matchup being OP-07 Jewelry Bonney in my opinion. Lastly, let's talk about ST-10 Red Purple Law.

Trafalgar Law is a terrific choice for this format. It is a super flexible deck that will benefit the player who puts a lot of repetitions into it and learns every line. The deck has good removal due to the leader ability, and can play an aggressive or a slower, go wide game. It truly can navigate the game to it's needs. It has good matchups across the board with its hardest matchup being ST-13 Black/Yellow Monkey D. Luffy.

So that's the format! I hope this article helps you navigate this wide meta and helps you choose what deck you want to play. I believe all these decks can win, which is why I believe the One Piece Trading Card Game is in a very good place for the time being!

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Definitions:

Metagame (meta for short) - This is what's popular in a current format and what defines it. For example, if we were to say Sakazuki was the best leader last format, we would say that was the deck that defined that specific metagame.

Format: A format is all decks that are playable for competitive play or given a certain set of rules. Think of it as bigger than the metagame. Even bad decks can be played within the format. Currently the format is everything released between OP-01 and Op-07, along with every starter deck.

Tier: This truly means what it says and is commonly used in trading card games to group together decks into competitive levels.

Line: Meaning a line of play or "play line." For example, at 9 Don!! My best play line with Enel might be to play a 9-cost Yamato.

Garrett Farrington

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