One Piece TCG Deck Guide: OP12 - Silvers Rayleigh, a Great Aggro List!

OP12 - Legacy of the Master clearly centers around teachers and their students. So, let's start exploring this set with Luffy's own master, Silvers Rayleigh.

Silvers Rayleigh OP12-001 is a red Former Roger Pirates leader with 5000 power, 5 life, and the Slash attribute. From the very beginning, you'll have to obey a restriction when you build decks around him: decks with this leader can't play cards that cost 5 or more. This restriction affects how we build this list and play it directly, considering we can't use big finishers or heavy characters in it.

Nonetheless, this leader's main effect more than makes up for this restriction, as it significantly buffs low-cost characters. Once per turn, during the main phase, you can reveal two event cards in your hand to grant +2000 power to a character that has 4000 or less base power until the end of the turn. To build a great Silvers Rayleigh OP12-001 list, you need to combine low-cost aggressive characters with events. After all, you need to have them in your hand to activate your leader's effects.

You can even argue that Silvers Rayleigh OP12-001 is the golden standard for Mono Red Aggro lists that Bandai wants to see in the game as soon as Roronoa Zoro OP01-001 rotates out. In the current meta, its main problem is バギー P-084, which prevents you from attacking with 3- or 4-cost characters. This essentially makes it unplayable, so it's a big counter.

The list we'll explore today was used by Haruyoteya to win the Season 1 Japan Finals on August 16th, 2025. As such, this is definitely a perfect example of what this strategy should look like.

Let's see it:

As we mentioned before in our last article, this deck needs lots of events and small creatures to put pressure on the opponent. Many decks, like Sugar OP10-003, also struggle with this delicate balance, and it can certainly make Silvers Rayleigh himself a bit fragile.

The Events

This is where Silvers Rayleigh OP12-001 starts outperforming other event decks. Most of the events in this list cost 0 mana and can be used both on your turn and your opponent's turn, more specifically when you can use counters.

Decks with lots of events need to pass turns with some DON!! left to protect themselves with cards that only do that, so they're a bit limited and often give you dead hands. That's the problem with decks like Sugar OP10-003: sometimes you'll have to set up suboptimal offensive and defensive turns because you won't have DON!! to attach to your characters or efficient ways to counter small attacks.

As events, Haruyoteya used one copy of In Two Years!! At the Sabaody Archipelago!! OP01-03, a searcher for Straw Hat Crew characters in particular that you can activate as a trigger if you're lucky and get it from your life pile. It can get for you a few of the main characters this deck uses - we'll discuss them soon.

The main events in this list are the three types of Haki above: Color of Arms Haki OP12-019, Color of Observation Haki OP12-017, and Color of the Supreme King Haki OP12-018. All of them are quite flexible and useful in more than one situation. I tested them a lot on Tabletop Simulator, and, trust me, all of them won me at least one game each. Color of the Supreme King Haki OP12-018 was the most useful of all three Hakis, by the way.

Color of the Supreme King Haki OP12-018, besides being a +2000 counter, lets you tap a DON!! on your board to debuff all enemy characters and the enemy leader by -1000 power. It's your main way to protect yourself in this deck.

Color of Observation Haki OP12-017 gets events and characters that cost 3 or more from your deck for you and also lets you attach one untapped DON!! to one of your Silvers Rayleigh. This deck only plays one Silvers Rayleigh: your leader.

Finally, Color of Arms Haki OP12-019 is both a +2000 counter on the opponent's turn and a way to buff your characters or leader on your turn.

The only card that outperforms Color of the Supreme King Haki OP12-018 in terms of efficiency and ability to win the game is To Never Doubt--That Is Power! OP12-016. In the opponent's turn, it is a +2000 counter, but on your turn, it lets you attach two untapped DON!! to one of your Silvers Rayleigh. When you attack with the card you attached DON!! to, the opponent won't be able to activate their blockers, so To Never Doubt--That Is Power! OP12-016 is perfect to end games and go over every barrier in front of you.

The last event in this list is Gum-Gum Mole Pistol ST21-017, one of the best removals in the current format. It only works if we have a character with 6000 power or more in play (which we'll have lots of thanks to our leader), but it often lets us remove more than one enemy character per turn, so it's a great way to control the board.

Finding Events

What makes this deck difficult to pilot compared to other aggro decks (like Belo Betty OP05-002) is that you'll need to get, select, and save the right cards as you play. In fact, you'll need to go through your deck a lot to get the best events for each matchup and situation, but don't worry: this list plays many searchers so you can do exactly that. Many of them let you search for more than one type of card, so they're even more helpful for your game plan.

A great example is Shakuyaku OP12-006, which, besides getting events, also lets us look for a Monkey.D.Luffy character in our deck. Boa Hancock OP12-014 also lets us get an event or Luffy from our deck, but you can also trash it (move it from your board to your graveyard) to give up to 2 rested DON!! to your leader or other characters. This ability is quite interesting, particularly if you use it after you attack with it.

Buggy OP03-008 is another extremely efficient event searcher and a decent attacker after you buff it with Silvers Rayleigh OP12-001's ability. Buggy's ability, which states he can't be K.O.'d in combat by leaders or characters with the Slash attribute, is quite interesting. It often goes unnoticed and ends up protecting this clown from distracted opponents, particularly if they're playing Roronoa Zoro OP12-020, which focuses a lot on the Slash attribute. Buggy OP03-008 recently became a bit more expensive, so I don't recommend you get it right now. However, it will be reprinted next month in the PRB02 set, so it should become more accessible then.

Color of Observation Haki OP12-017 is the last event searcher in this list. It gives one active DON!! to your Silvers Rayleigh and lets you look for both an event and a character that costs 3 or more in your deck. We've already discussed it before, so we'll just move on to the next section.

The Straw Hat Crew

Finally, this list plays a Straw Hat Crew shell as well. The most important card in it is Monkey.D.Luffy OP12-015, which we can get with the aforementioned Shakuyaku, Boa Hancock, and Nami OP01-016. Luffy gets +2000 naturally when you have two or more DON!! in play. This passive ability works on both your and your opponent's turns and essentially puts a sturdier character on your side. This is great, considering this deck can't play big finishers or a straight-up boss monster.

Furthermore, Luffy's On Play ability lets you reveal two events in your hand to play a character with 3000 power or less from there and give a tapped DON!! to your leader or other characters. It is perfect to develop the board and play cards like Sanji OP10-005, which are more powerful on the board than in your hand.

Sanji OP10-005 himself is one of your best attackers. He gets to 6000 power on your turn very easily, without any other buffs, and refills himself when K.O.'d by drawing a card for you. Sanji OP01-013 stands out just as much, but you must use it wisely because, to activate his ability, you'll have to take a card from your life pile. Most times, he is a +2000 Counter you can get with Nami.

Finally, this list plays Roronoa Zoro OP01-025, which has Rush and is perfect if you want to end your turn with a last surprise attack on an enemy creature or the opponent's life pile.

The most critical matchup for this list is the Roronoa Zoro OP12-020 matchup. This leader is at the center of the meta and currently defines which other leaders are meta and which are not. Nonetheless, this matchup is actually quite favorable for Rayleigh, as he can hang on pretty well and just deal damage to Zoro bit by bit, all while refilling the board every turn.

You'll have to hang on with Color of the Supreme King Haki OP12-018, but it's To Never Doubt--That Is Power! OP12-016 that easily ends the game, as it goes over Dracule Mihawk OP12-030.

Another matchup we need to cover is Buggy OP09-042, particularly because of Buggy P-084, which prevents all characters that cost 3 or 4, enemy or allied, from attacking. This card is what makes this matchup practically unwinnable.

The only way to deal with it is with two Gum-Gum Mole Pistol ST21-017, which only makes this matchup even more impossible if your opponent plays a second Buggy Promo. Finally, many blockers in this blue deck can simply deal with your leader and smaller characters.

I didn't pay much attention to this deck when it was announced, but it surprised me quite a lot. It is not only strong but quite different from other aggressive decks, as it focuses on conducting the matchup closely and saving certain pieces depending on each opponent.

And, of course, if you're facing lots of Rayleigh, you should try learning how to pilot Buggy...

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!