One Piece TCG: 5 Budget Decks to Start With

With One Piece TCG released worldwide in the past few months, we can finally find new cards in our local stores!

When we start playing a new card game, it is very hard to decide which deck to build or even tell if that strategy is worth investing in. Considering that, I decided to bring you 5 options of highly affordable and extremely cool decks, and offer you some options so you can upgrade them in case you like their strategy!

Vanilla Sanji (Blue and Green)

When we discuss cheap decks, this Leader is the first that comes to mind for one simple reason: This deck only uses cards without effects.

While some strategies are based on the effects each character has when they attack or when they enter the board, our dear cook benefits from characters not using any effects, using only bulk cards!

We have a few examples of characters you can use in this list, but you can use any character which has the same cost and power, which does indeed make this list a deck made only with its bulk.

Notice that there are also two Eustass "Captain" Kid. It is a card with an effect; however, its effect matches our Leader's ability perfectly, and having a strong blocker which can still untap at the end of the turn is essential to guarantee protection in the late game.

The deck's weakness is not having many cards with “Counter 2000”, which can make blocking harder, so, try to choose the moments you use the Event cards well!

Deck Highlight:

Upgrade Suggestion:

“Self Mill” Nami (Blue)

This is the community's favorite when we discuss budget decks, as the first and only Leader (so far) to have an alternative win condition.

The navigator uses a strategy which is very famous in other card games, called "Self Mill", which consists of drawing and trashing all cards in your deck, and, as per the card's additional rule, winning instead of losing.

With a solid base of cards which favor this strategy, Nami is the only Leader which can win on your opponent's turn, and, the best of all, she does all that at a reasonably accessible price!

As the list shows, this is an Event-focused deck, and it can defend itself as it trashes cards from the deck, only attacking when you want to use the effect of trashing 7 cards from your deck. Keep in mind that when your opponent takes damage, they get a card.

P.S.: The card "Impel Down All Stars" will mostly be used as discard fodder for card draw and discard effects, but it is essential in the deck due to its "trigger" effect!

Deck's Highlight:

Upgrade Suggestion:

“East Blue” Kuro (Green)

We return to our beloved main character's homeland to discuss this increasingly forgotten Leader. Kuro might not seem like a threat at first, but he definitely shouldn't be underestimated!

His ability to "untap" and then tap the opponent's characters makes him quite strong at the final stages of the game, and, with a solid deck base to support this strategy, he can become a hard opponent to hit.

Though there are still cards in the deck which aren't the same type as the Leader, they are important to solidify our base for this strategy and still stall the game so you can reach late game within a safe health margin, and use the Leader's ability more freely.

When you reach the seventh or eighth "DON!!", Krieg becomes extremely powerful, and incredibly hard to deal with. Your opponents will try to remove him at all costs, so use this window to turn the game in your favor. Remember to always tap your opponent's key pieces with the cards with this effect and, if you can, tap a blocker so you can catch your opponent by surprise and win!

Deck's Highlight:

Upgrade Suggestion:

“Aggro” Zoro (Red)

We can't leave out the best current red Leader from this list. Despite the steep price of popular Zoro lists, we can build a cheap and reasonably functional deck for this archetype, as Zoro is a Leader who only has one goal: getting your small units and transforming them into real threats.

It is currently common to see, in this meta, 1 or 2 cost cards which filter the deck being played on the first few turns; for example, those cards which look for others with their same type, and so on and so forth. Usually, these cards will stay there waiting for a later turn to be able to do something, and sometimes are even knocked out because of some other card's collateral effect. This Leader's unique trait is that he transforms this searcher unit into an able fighter for less resources.

With this Leader, characters with power ranging from 1 to 3000 are an outstanding choice, making them able fighters against most Leaders for just 1 DON!!, and granting you the possibility of forcing blocks early on without compromising much of your resources.

Another advantage to this list is that it is quite easy to adapt it from its Starter Deck, which makes it even more inviting to new players!

Deck's Highlight:

Upgrade Suggestion:

“Ramp” Magellan (Purple)

Last, but definitely not least, we have the most popular purple Leader currently, Magellan!

This Leader's ability brings this color to another level, can rival the format's Tier 1 decks and catch them off guard when it comes to lines of play. With this Leader's ability, we can always have an attack of at least 6000 power, which makes blocking harder and gets you a body advantage on board with a few cards from the infamous "Impel Down" or even by clearing the board with Kaido!

Always take advantage of Little Sadi OP02-073's ability so you can get two characters for the price of one and surprise your opponent by filling your board in just one turn.

When reaching "DON!!" 10, don't be afraid to use the "-DON!!" abilities so you can increase your Leader's power and get more efficient attacks, forcing your opponent to react inefficiently.

The best of all is that this list is present in a good portion of the Starter Deck “ST04”, so it is a great option to start in the Constructed format with!

This might be the deck with the best cost-benefit in case you want to upgrade it, as purple isn't a popular color and its pieces go for an unusually reasonable price.

Deck's Highlight:

Upgrade Suggestion:

One Piece TCG is still a very new game for us in the west, but it already has cards which are very hard (and expensive!) to get. On the other side, it is also possible to play, get results, and, more important than all of that, have fun playing without them.

Leaders, which are what form the deck's strategy identity, are quite accessible and allow for all sorts of tinkering, so, experimenting with new strategies, new colors and new cards is the best way to find your game style!

But what about you? Which budget deck in this list is your favorite? Leave it all in the comment section below! See you next time!