One Piece TCG: Deck Guide - Roronoa Zoro (OP12)

As with any TCG, learning the main One Piece TCG meta trends is essential if you want to win tournaments. Roronoa Zoro OP12-020 is, currently, the strongest leader in the OPTCG western meta. Many different versions of him see play, so we still have a lot to learn and can definitely improve his build, as this skilled swordsman is still not perfect.

In today's article, we'll go through one of the top-performing versions: it even won the North American National Tournament!

Roronoa Zoro OP12-020 has 5000 power, 5 life, and the Slash attribute. He is also a Supernova and part of the Straw Hat Crew, as well as green (and green only). This is the one color in the game that has grown the most, though it spent a long time without getting any decent support or a new relevant leader.

You can activate his ability with 3 DON!!. Once per turn, it lets you untap this leader if he battles an enemy character that turn. After that, Roronoa Zoro OP12-020 can't attack enemy characters with a base cost of 7 or less that turn. Because of this ability, Zoro can clean the enemy board and also answer one of our biggest questions when we're planning our strategy: when to attack enemy characters and when to attack the opponent directly.

He is actually pretty simple: we'll use his first attack to remove a key attacker on the opponent's board, then use the second free attack to put pressure on the enemy leader or a high-cost attacker. This will force our opponent to spend blockers and counters or simply take damage.

Because Roronoa Zoro OP12-020 is green, we can use ramp and other ways to reuse DON!! in his lists, so we'll have no trouble using his expensive ability. We'll also be able to set up strategies around reusing DON!! with characters like Cavendish EB01-012, as this is also a Supernova leader.

Currently, Roronoa Zoro OP12-020 is at the center of the meta, so anything that counters it stands out, and decks that struggle against him end up disappearing. He is sitting comfortably at tier 1, so he's a great option for casual and competitive events.

The version we'll explore today led Richard Yam to victory at the North American National Tournament in Dallas, Texas.

Here it is:

We can immediately see that it centers around the Slash attribute and, as such, interacts really well with the kit released with Zoro himself in OP12 - Legacy of the Master.

Initial Setup

Early on, we'll have very efficient searchers, so we shouldn't have any problem putting our plans in motion. Kouzuki Hiyori OP12-028 and Perona OP12-034 will let us look at the top cards in our deck and filter them according to what we want. This means we'll be able to get the pieces we want quite often.

Nami OP03-030 is similar but lets us look for "East Blue" cards instead, which actually covers over half the characters in this list. All of these searchers make this one of the most consistent green decks around.

This list's main line of defense is Koushirou OP12-027, a 2-cost blocker that protects Slash allies that cost 5 or less. Whenever an enemy effect would kill one of these characters, we can tap Koushirou and protect them.

This line of defense will protect the characters we really need to keep in play, like Cavendish EB01-012, Roronoa Zoro OP12-036, and Tashigi OP12-031. This way, our board will still be threatening even if our opponent tries to remove our cards. Some decks with this Zoro use Tashigi OP10-032 to do the same thing.

Slash!

"Slash" characters are the heart of this entire strategy. Shimotsuki Kouzaburou OP12-029 and Kuina OP12-026 directly support our leader. Kouzaburou is a +2000 counter that we can play whenever we need to tap enemy characters that cost 2 or less and then K.O. a tapped enemy character with a base cost of 1 or less. This type of removal is useful against decks that play many cheap cards, like Silvers Rayleigh OP12-001, or decks that play small blockers. Kuina's grandpa also lets us use our leader and our characters as removals, as we can use him to tap annoying support characters and attack them later.

As for Kuina, she is a key piece for our leader. If we tap her, she can rest an enemy character that costs 4 or less and then attach up to three tapped DON!! to a "Roronoa Zoro" leader. She actually doesn't work with Roronoa Zoro & Sanji ST12-001, so we'll use her to attach three DON!! to our main leader today, Roronoa Zoro OP12-020. This way, we'll be able to use his ability, and we'll also have a brand-new target to hit next.

If you're a fan of the theory that Tashigi is Kuina, then check this out. We can say Tashigi OP12-031 is a more "grown" version of Kuina OP12-026. When Tashigi enters play, she rests an enemy character with a base cost of 6 or less and then attaches three tapped DON!! to a "Roronoa Zoro" leader. Once again, these three DON!! will let us use our leader's main ability and attack twice on the same turn.

Tashigi's effect might be [On Play], that is, not as recursive as Kuina's effect, but it is still one of the most valuable cards in this curve. She also has 7000 power, so she's great for later attacks, while Kuina can't really do that with 1000 power. In fact, she usually leaves play right after you activate her effect precisely because she doesn't have that much power.

Roronoa Zoro OP12-036, in turn, is aggressive from the get-go. We can't play him through effects, which we wouldn't do with this list anyway. Furthermore, if we're playing a Slash leader, this Zoro can't be K.O.'d in battle by Slash cards and gains +1000 power. This means he naturally has 6000 power in our list and is an extremely reliable attacker.

Cavendish EB01-012 is one of the most efficient cards in the game in terms of recycling resources and has become quite expensive for a regular card with no special artwork or anything. He costs 5 and has 6000 power, so he perfectly fits the average curve our deck leans on, even more considering his [On Play] and [When Attacking] abilities. Both when he enters play and when he attacks, if we're playing a Supernova leader (like Roronoa Zoro OP12-020) and no other Cavendish is in play, we can untap up to two DON!!. This ability essentially lets us keep playing our turn. For instance, we can use this to give three DON!! to our leader and reuse him even after we use cards like Kuina OP12-026 or Tashigi OP12-031.

Cavendish is the main way to get DON!! in the best green decks in the meta, as he lets us control our DON!! curve. In this list in particular, he gives our Zoro the DON!! we need to use his ability.

Dracule Mihawk OP12-030 is the closest we have to a "boss" in this list and actually sets the pace for the entire strategy. He costs 8, has 8000 power, and has the blocker keyword, so he'll be our wall. He'll hold off smaller attacks until we can try to end the game. His [On Play] ability untaps up to four DON!!, so he basically returns to us half the DON!! we used to play him. As such, we won't run out of resources after we play him: we can even use our leader's ability or an event immediately after he comes into play. However, after we use this ability, we can't play characters with a base cost of 7 or more that same turn.

Considering our list, this restriction is irrelevant. We practically don't play any characters that cost 7 or more, so Mihawk is a safe, late-game card for this strategy.

Luffy Is The Man Who Will Become the King of the Pirates

Just like Dracule Mihawk OP12-030 is an extremely safe option for the last turns in the game, Luffy Is the Man Who Will Become the King of Pirates!!! OP12-039 is our main finisher. It is quite simple: it sets a "Roronoa Zoro" leader to active - once again, Roronoa Zoro & Sanji ST12-001 doesn't fit that description.

With this event, we'll have no trouble attacking with our leader again and again. The first attack, as usual, should be on the enemy board to remove a threat. The other ones should be directly on the enemy leader to hit their life. We'll also use Dracule Mihawk OP12-030, Cavendish EB01-012, and other characters in this assault.

Jewelry Bonney OP07-019 is one of Zoro's worst nightmares. Considering Bonney centers around tapping enemy cards and locking down our whole strategy, we can be sure at least one of our pieces will be tapped. If we attack with Cavendish, our leader will be tapped, and we won't be able to attack twice. If we attack with Zoro, we may lose a blocker. And so on and so forth. On top of it all, Bonney thrives in long matches and is extremely disruptive to Zoro overall.

Silvers Rayleigh OP12-001 is an ultra-aggressive deck that easily spams the board with characters. This deck plays Buggy OP03-008, who can't be K.O.'d in battle by the many Slash characters we play with Zoro. It can also ignore blockers with To Never Doubt--That Is Power OP12-016.

To sum up, Rayleigh will hoard lots of resources, particularly counters, as they'll rarely protect their small creatures and mostly protect themselves completely on a decisive turn instead. Then, they'll just counterattack to win.

Roronoa Zoro OP12-020 is currently the best deck in the meta, and he definitely deserves that title. This is a pretty reliable midrange list that leans on very versatile strategies but still stands on a solid core.

OP13, Carrying On His Will is coming soon, though. As this set will be the foundation for the next meta, it should shake up the game considerably. So, we'll have to wait and see how Monkey. D. Luffy's right-hand man will perform in the future.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!