One Piece TCG: Deck Tech - Purple Enel (OP15)

Let's start going over OP15 - Adventure on Kami's Island with the best deck in this set (most likely). Enel will return to the meta as a new purple leader, and it is already rocking the Japanese meta.

In today's article, we'll explore this leader, his curious effect, and his new aggro strategy!

Enel OP15-058 is a Special/Sky Island purple leader with 5 life and 5000 power. Pretty standard, right? What makes him stand out is his text, which includes a deckbuilding restriction. If you're playing this leader, your DON!! deck only has 6 cards instead of 10. This is the first leader in the game to change how much DON!! you get.

His other effect only works from turn 2 onward. Once per turn, you may use this effect and get one active DON!! and 4 rested DON!! from your deck. You may then give these 4 rested DON!! to one of your characters. This definitely fits purple as a color, but it's quite different from anything else in the game. It gives you a lot of resources early on, so it speeds up any game plan considerably. Instead of getting to 10 DON!! as fast as possible, like other purple decks do, this Enel works with a small amount of resources in a very efficient way.

This is why this list makes sense. Most cards in it do something when you have at least 6 DON!! in play, which you'll have most of the time. In other strategies, getting at least 6 DON!! in play is difficult: you'd have to play effects that return DON!! to your deck constantly, for instance. However, this is exactly what this deck does naturally. This entire leader was designed around having 6 DON!! in play.

Before anyone asks, yes, this deck is decent and probably the best strategy in the OP15 set. Enel OP15-058 is quite aggressive and fun, but it has its challenges. You'll have to learn how to manage 6 DON!! and everything surrounding this game plan to make it work, and it may feel counterintuitive at times. Please note that any card that disables effects, like Marshal.D.Teach OP09-093, won't disable Enel and force you to play with a 10 DON!! deck for one turn. This effect is essentially a deckbuilding restriction, so it's not something you can disable as you play.

In today's article, we'll look at a version that makes this strategy quite efficient. This Enel, piloted by Saito, won a Flagship event in Japan, beating 32 players in the process.

At first, it seems too focused. It doesn't play Stages. There is no space for frivolous cards. Almost every card in it draws cards, filters them, protects them, or interferes with the opponent on their turn directly.

Here it is:

Consistency Pieces

This deck plays many cheap attackers and can get all 6 DON!! in a single turn, but that doesn't mean it plays weak cards that are only decent in the early game. They're more like consistency pieces.

The first of them is Charlotte Pudding OP12-071. It lets you look at the top 4 cards in your deck and get a Sanji or an event. In a deck with twenty events and also two copies of Sanji OP07-064, this Pudding is a very relevant way to stabilize your hand. It doesn't interact with the Sky Island kit directly, but it fills your hand, which is perfect in this strategy. You want to find cheap answers, as these events are true cantrips, but you also want to find your Sanji, which can be a competent beater and enters play for relatively cheap because of its ability.

Satori OP15-066 is not a searcher, but, when it attacks, it lets us reorder the next cards we draw or put cards at the bottom of our deck directly. It's a great way to set up our next turns and stray away from strategies we don't want.

The Aggressive Kit

The real early game includes Satori OP15-066, Ohm OP15-061, and Shura OP15-067. All of them cost 1, have 2000 power, and have the same ETB effect: return 1 DON!! to your deck to draw a card. This, by itself, is already great overall because your main aggro resources refill themselves. As such, you won't have to decide between spending your resources or saving them. The difference is that each one pulls the game into a different path.

Ohm nerfs an enemy character when it attacks, Satori lets you reorder the top cards in your deck by letting you look at the top 2 cards, and Shura gains Rush when you have 6 DON!! in play or less, which in this deck is all the time. This deck, then, will start matches by turning the resources you get from the leader into cantrips, information, and aggression, all at the same time.

Shura is the most obvious aggressive early game piece, but Holly OP15-071 progresses our main game plan, and we'll always want to use it to set up our board. Holly costs 3 and gives Double Attack to all your Ohm cards and itself. It also sets your Ohms and itself to 6000 power, so it makes your board very resilient. This dog is the real MVP.

Enel

The two 6-cost Enels play similar roles, but they're not the same. Enel OP15-060 will have 10000 power and be protected against effects when you have 6 DON!! in play or less. You can also pay 1 DON!! to give it Blocker until the opponent's next end phase and then has you discard a card. This card is, at first, a tempo tool, as it protects your side of the board, but, after it blocks, it becomes a great beater. You can use it to deal the last bit of damage you need to end the game or destroy important enemy characters.

As for Enel OP15-118, it also protects the board and gets +2000 power, but, instead of a Blocker, it is a searcher. It lets you look at the top 5 cards in your deck, get one of them for your hand, and then discard one. Playing four of each of these cards seems right precisely because this deck revolves around these 6 DON!!.

Events

Cheap characters and big Enels are essential in this aggro strategy, but events pull it more towards midrange. Varie OP15-074 is perhaps the most subtle of them, but it is critical. Its effect costs 1 DON!!, draws a card if Enel is your leader, and also increases the cost of one of your characters until the end of the opponent's end phase. This type of effect isn't great in every matchup, but it acts as a +2000 counter on the opponent's turn as well.

El Thor OP15-075 is more straightforward. It can give your leader or characters +1000 power and then knocks out an enemy character that has 3000 power or less. On the opponent's turn, it is a counter and also gives an Enel character +2000 power.

As for Lightning Beast Kiten OP15-076, it also draws a card and gives an enemy character -1000 power. Once again it's a specific counter for Enel leaders or characters.

Lightning Dragon OP15-077, in turn, is probably one of the most annoying cards in this deck, in a good way. It draws a card and prevents an enemy character that has 6000 power or less from untapping on the next turn. This is an incredibly classic tempo play.

As for Mamaragan OP15-078, it is different. First, it draws a card and taps an enemy character that has 5000 power or less, so you can use it to open your way to attack the opponent if you tap a Blocker, or just destroy the enemy board. As a counter, it gives one of your characters +1000 power and also draws a card if you have 6 DON!! in play or less, which is once again all the time in this list. Finally, the two copies of Divine Departure OP13-076 let you remove powerful characters. If you tap 5 DON!!, as long as you have given a DON!! to a character, you may give an enemy character -8000.

So, this deck will nearly always do something relevant every turn. You might not be developing the board, but you'll be turning DON!! into card draw, nerfs, disabling cards, protecting your board, or clearing the opponent's battlefield. In this sense, it is quite similar to traditional purple lists.

At first, don't focus solely on filling the board. Instead, filter your hand and set up a turn with relevant effects.

Ohm OP15-061 nerfs enemy characters, Satori OP15-066 improves your next draws, and Shura OP15-067 attacks early on with Rush. From then on, you should focus on converting the resources you get into your next strategies. Sometimes, you'll spend them on a 6-cost Enel that disables the enemy board entirely. Sometimes, you'll follow up with a sequence of cards that destroys the opponent's strategy. Sometimes, a Holly OP15-071 will turn small bodies into much bigger threats.

My tip for the late game is that this deck seems to work a lot better when you don't rush it. It has tools to beat other aggro lists if you need to be faster than them, like Shura OP15-067 and cheap events that control the board. But this list truly stands out because it makes the opponent incredibly uncomfortable as the game goes on.

First, their characters won't untap, then you'll nerf them, then you'll put in play a big Enel that blocks many cards and doesn't die to effects. This deck doesn't win through a single flashy play but through a series of small decisions that put the other player against the wall.

Enel OP15-058 is quite straightforward to build, but we still have space to refine our lists with him and master them. It is most definitely the strongest deck in the current meta and will remain so for a while.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!