Deck Guide: Black and Yellow Luffy

Many months ago, I wrote a deck tech for two out of the three leaders in the Three Brothers ultra deck, One Piece TCG's 13th structure deck. We covered

Portgas.D.Ace ST13-002 and Sabo ST13-001 in detail, but in both articles I emphasized that I would only go over Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 later on.

That was because, at the time, this version of the captain of the Straw Hat Crew was performing well in Japan with cards that hadn't been released in the west yet. So, I decided to wait a little longer until the EB01 - Memorial Collection set and the OP07 - 500 Years in the Future set were released to get these cards.

To my surprise, just before I started working on this article, Trafalgar Law ST10-001, a very problematic leader that caused many problems in the meta, was banned. Yay!

Now Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 has a lot of room to shine and become one of the best decks in the format. Without further ado, let's dive right in!

Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 was released in the ST13 - Three Brothers, a premium product that includes a deckbox and a special booster. This special booster includes three artistic "ink" versions of cards from the deck.

A good idea for this deck is to get one copy of it and complete the rest of the list with singles - for instance, if this deck only includes 2 copies of a certain card, you get the third one. If you do this, you'll save a lot of money, and it will be a lot more efficient than getting two ST13s, unless you want an extra deckbox and try your luck again with the alternative art boosters.

Just like in the Portgas.D.Ace ST13-002 article, I need to make this clear because we'll rely a lot on some cards that are included in this deck to play this version of Luffy.

Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 is a black and yellow leader. That already makes it stand out quite a lot, considering that these, nowadays, are among the strongest colors in the game. This color combination also gave him nicknames like "Taxi Luffy" or "Bee Luffy" because of the palette of this type of car and animal. This leader has 5000 power, 4 life, and Strike. Furthermore, yellow already stands out because it centers around manipulating your life pile, and this is one of its key features.

His main ability, which you'll activate by attaching two DON!! to him, triggers when you have 0 life cards, and lets you discard a card in your hand to move two characters that cost 5 from your hand or the trash to your life pile, face-up. As we'll see soon, this is not a simple heal: it is a tool to set up specific combos included in this deck.

Furthermore, this leader includes a specific line of text that states that when you remove any face-up cards from your life pile, you have to send them to the bottom of your deck instead of your hand. This means you won't be able to create a resource loop.

Remember two seconds ago when I said that this leader's passive ability was designed to prevent a resource loop? Well, forget all about that, because you can actually set up that type of loop with him. By recycling your life pile in a complicated, almost frenzied manner, you can make sure Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 always has 9000 power, instead of the usual 5000. You can do this even on your opponent's turn, and turn him into a true wall of power.

However, to do this, you'll need creativity, perseverance, and the help of a wild vampire.

This is the deck we'll review today. A player named Gavin managed to get second place at a regional tournament in Oceania with it:

The Little Brothers

The deck we'll analyze today looks a lot like Luffy's current family structure in One Piece: Ace is out, but Sabo is around. So, we'll only use two out of the three brothers who are included in the structure deck. There are, yes, variations of this list that use Portgas.D.Ace ST13-010 and Portgas.D.Ace ST13-011, but we'll set them aside for today.

Sabo ST13-007 and Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-014 are the child versions of these characters, and work almost in the same way. Each of them costs two and can be sent from your board to your trash to reveal the top card in your life pile. If the card you revealed costs 5 and includes the name of these two cards you discarded, you may play it directly from your life pile.

Furthermore, when you activate this effect successfully, your leader, regardless of who they are, gets +2000 power until the end of your opponent's turn. This means your leader can have 7000 or even 9000 or more power, depending on how your turn goes.

Simply put, you can send your Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-014 to your trash and check if the top card in your life pile is also a Monkey.D.Luffy that costs exactly 5, no less, no more. Then, you get to play it for free, and also buff your leader's power alongside it. Also note that you'll only have to check the card's name and cost, and not its color - it doesn't need to be a yellow card. This means you can set up plays with several other cards in the game that meet these conditions.

The Big Brothers

As for Sabo, Sabo OP04-083 is one of the best black cards in the entire game. He, himself, is a blocker, has a lot of power, comes in and draws you two cards and discards two others, and lets you play strategic cards straight into your trash. He costs exactly what you need to play him with Sabo ST13-007, and, the most important detail, when he enters the board, he protects your other characters from being K.O.'d by effects until the start of your next turn. This means that, with him. you can protect them for one turn.

This is an incredible card that will protect your board well, particularly against Rob Lucci OP07-079, a deck known for its many removals. I really missed Sabo ST13-008 in this list, as he interacts really well with the cards in this deck that discount costs, but, of course, it is clearly an option still.

Now, in terms of which Luffys we'll play with Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-014, we have two. Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-015 lets you, in your main phase, discard the top card in your life to draw a card and get +2000 power until the end of your opponent's turn. It is also interesting to point out that, even with zero cards in your life pile, you can still activate this card's effect and give it +2000 power, but you won't be able to draw a card this way.

As for Monkey.D.Luffy OP07-109, you can sacrifice it to destroy an enemy character that costs 4 or less, as long as you have 2 or less cards in your life pile. Then, you'll draw a card. Please note that you can activate this effect after you attack with this character as well, so he is even more useful.

The Vampire and the Loop

Gecko Moria OP06-086 is who made it possible for us to recycle the resources in this deck. When he enters the board, he can return, from your trash, a character that costs 4 or less and one that costs 2 or less. On his own. he already costs 8 DON!!, and has a lot of power (9000), so returning more characters to the board, by itself, will give you a big advantage when you play him.

It gets better: you'll return the two child versions of your pirates to the board, and, with Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003's ability (which we can activate when we attach two DON!! to him), also add two cards that cost exactly 5 to our life pile. These cards will be perfect for us to play with the effects of these child versions and increase our leader's power by 4000 until the next turn.

The idea behind this deck is to set up this play consistently to always have a gigantic Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 on the board, perfect to attack and make enemy attacks pathetic.

The Navy

We use the two main versions of Admiral Aokiji in this deck: Kuzan OP02-096 and Kuzan OP02-121. They both lower the cost of enemy characters, which is fatal when combined with cards like Finger Pistol EB01-051 and Kuzan OP02-121 himself, as they destroy enemy creatures that cost 5 or less. Kuzan OP02-121, in particular, K.O.'s an enemy creature that costs 0. Monkey.D.Luffy OP07-109's effect lets you sacrifice him to K.O. enemy characters that cost less than 4.

Some decks use cards like Ice Age to lower the cost of enemy characters when you play them, or K.O. enemy units with their trigger. And, as we mentioned before, Sabo ST13-008 is also a great option for this deck, as it lets us set up Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 faster (by letting us trash a card from our life pile) and also interacts really well with Sabo ST13-007.

Other Cards

Charlotte Flampe EB01-056, Makino ST13-012, and Kouzuki Hiyori OP06-106 are three cards that have +2000 counter, which is great for this deck's defense. Plus, they are all cheap and let you manipulate your leader's life. This means you'll be able to trigger other cards more efficiently and hit your Sabo ST13-007 and Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-014 consistently.

Monkey.D.Garp ST13-013 and The Three Brothers' Bond ST13-019 are two searchers that will easily get us our Sabos and Luffys - of any color and cost.

Now that Trafalgar Law ST10-001 is no longer in the format, Luffy finally has a place under the sun.

Rob Lucci OP07-079 is usually an easy matchup for this deck, as Sabo OP04-083 disables the main way this deck tries to attack you.

Enel OP05-098 is a closer match, but the most common strategy many players use against this leader (keep calm and build a wide board) is quite effective. Particularly as we're playing black and yellow Luffy and high-power cards, like Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-014 and Gecko Moria OP06-086, which heavily punish this leader.

Jewelry Bonney OP07-019 is another important leader for this format, but this matchup is a bit worse. She controls the board well and easily disables our main attackers.

Time has only made this deck better. It evolved quite a lot with the latest sets and got rid of Trafalgar Law ST10-001, one of its main predators.

Monkey.D.Luffy ST13-003 is now a fast taxi with a full tank for a journey full of big prizes and tournaments. It is a consistent deck that will only get better as more cards depicting these three brothers come out in its colors.

Did you like this list? Do you prefer other cards? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!