One Piece TCG: Deck Guide - Shanks, the Red Haired

When a famous franchise is the inspiration for a new TCG, like One Piece TCG, players often prefer to play their favorite characters, even if there are better options in the meta. However, when the stars align and a competitive leader is also a popular character, casual and competitive players alike flock to them like moths to a flame.

In today's article, let's explore a One Piece character who has been incredibly popular for over 20 years - Shanks!

Shanks OP09-001 is a red leader with 5 life, 5000 power, and the Slash attribute. He is also one of The Four Emperors and one of the Red-Haired Pirates. Shanks is the only Yonkou who has remained an Emperor since the story began, and, as a result, I could talk about him all day, particularly as he is one of my favorite One Piece characters. According to some interviews, he is also Eiichiro Oda's favorite character.

Nonetheless, what truly matters to us is his ability, which not only makes him one of the best strategies in the entire game, but also one of the best monored leaders ever released.

How Does His Ability Work?

During your opponent's turn, when they declare an attack, Shanks lets you debuff an enemy character by -1000 power until the end of the turn, whether that character is an attacker or not. You can use this effect in many ways, but the most obvious is to make enemy attackers less impactful, and make it harder for your opponent to deal damage. They'll have to spend more Don!!! to attack this way.

This essentially means Shanks OP09-001 is a 6000-power leader once per turn.

When you look at his ability and support cards a bit closer, you'll notice this deck was clearly designed to be more strategic and defensive than other aggressive monored lists, like Roronoa Zoro OP01-001 and Monkey.D.Dragon OP07-001. His game style is more similar to Stax strategies that focus on controlling the board and disrupting your opponent.

This is one of the best decks in the meta nowadays. It stands out because it is incredibly resilient, has great counter-attacks, and can be aggressive when you need to.

Its base is mostly cards from the OP09 set, Emperors in the New World, and the Red-Haired Pirates, which is Shanks' crew.

Its aggressive core interacts really well with Shanks' defensive ability, while cards like Shanks OP09-004 control the match for you.

This is the list I built based on a few lists other players built:

The Red-Haired Pirates

Uta OP09-002 isn't officially one of the Red-Haired Pirates, but it is critical in this deck because it is this strategy's searcher. When it enters play, this card lets you look at the top five cards in your deck and add a member of Shanks' crew to your hand.

Come On!! We'll Fight You!! OP09-020 does the same thing, but it is an event, so you can trigger it if you reveal it from your life pile. This way, you will draw an extra card and make up for the lack of counters in this list.

Hongo OP09-011 debuffs enemy characters, and, as such, makes them even more vulnerable to attacks or removals.

Limejuice OP09-014 is similar to Uso-Hachi ST18-001. It is a +2000 counter and can be aggressive throughout the game, as it prevents enemy blockers from protecting the enemy leader.

Building Snake OP09-008 is similar to Gordon P-013, as it also debuffs enemy characters. Its effect, which activates when it enters the board, lets you return it to the bottom of your deck and debuff an enemy character by -3000 power. It is essential if you want to remove threats that direct removals can't hit under other circumstances.

Benn.Beckman OP09-009 is one of this deck's key pieces. When it enters the board, it K.O.s a character with 6000 power or less.

Lucky.Roux OP09-015 is similar to Pedro OP08-030 because both destroy an enemy character when they're K.O.'d.

Out of all the characters with this type, the one that stands out the most is Yasopp OP09-013, one of the biggest loser dads in the One Piece universe. His effect is extremely rare: it debuffs the enemy leader. This is fantastic with Shanks OP09-001's ability, considering your opponent will have to work even harder to attack him. Furthermore, Yasopp also debuffs enemy characters when you attack with it and it has a Don!!! attached.

Shanks OP06-007 can K.O. a character with up to 10000 power when it enters the board.

As for Shanks OP09-004, it is, without a question, the strongest card in the entire deck. It has Rush an outstanding 12000 power, so you can attack your opponent with it straight away to put pressure on them. Furthermore, it debuffs enemy characters by 1000 power, so K.O.ing other characters will be even easier after you play it. As you can stack this effect how many times as you want, you will be able to debuff an enemy character by -2000 power or -3000 power, depending on the situation.

The worst matchups for Shanks are the three purple Luffy decks in the current meta, particularly Monkey.D.Luffy ST10-002. This leader already starts with 6000 power, so Shanks' ability is a bit less impactful against him. Furthermore, purple decks get a lot of Don!! quite fast, so they often put threats like Sanji OP09-065 and Luffy-Tarou ST18-005 in play earlier than usual.

Donquixote Doflamingo OP01-060 is also a difficult opponent. To beat him, you'll need patience, which red decks aren't known for. Nonetheless, you can do it with this Shanks.

Enel OP05-098 can be a challenge, but, if you're more aggressive and build your board well, you can even the odds. Playing more Shanks OP06-007 in this list can be a good strategy if there are many Enel players in your local meta.

Marshall.D.Teach OP09-081 is one of the strongest decks in the current meta, and can make Shanks' life a lot harder. However, great plays with Shanks OP09-004, Yasopp OP09-013, and Edward.Newgate ST15-002 can disable your strategy.

This is a red deck that can play it safe when necessary as a sort of Stax strategy. It is a very interesting idea that wasn't explored much in card games in general.

I can see this deck turning into a true fortress, like Magic: The Gathering's Monored Prison, which is one of my favorite archetypes.

Now, we just have to wait and see if this deck will have space to develop.

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!