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Deck building

From Leader to 50 cards: colour rule, curve, counter density, triggers — plus three decks to copy.

A deck is not a pile of good cards, it is a plan with 50 lines. The Leader decides what you are allowed to play at all. The curve decides whether you have something to do every turn. The number of counter cards decides how many attacks you can answer before your hand runs empty. Get those three numbers right and you already build better decks than average — before a single rare card is involved.

1. Pick the Leader — it decides everything

The Leader comes before the deck, not after it. It settles four things at once: – the colours: every card in the deck must share at least one colour with it. One shared colour is enough; two are not required. – the base speed: the Leader attacks itself, as a rule with 5000 power. – the Life count: it tells you how many hits you can afford. – its effect: in almost every good deck it dictates the plan. A two-colour Leader opens twice the card pool but demands stricter selection. Two colours do not mean two plans.

2. Exactly 50 cards, at most 4 copies

The deck holds exactly 50 cards. The Leader does not count, and neither do the DON!! cards. At most 4 copies of any card number are allowed; the exception is the handful of cards whose text explicitly permits any number. There is no 49 or 51 — the deck builder here locks the practice match until the number is right. Think in blocks of four and two. Four copies means “I want to see this almost every game”. Two copies means “nice when it shows up”. Single copies are usually an excuse for not having decided.

3. The curve — a play every turn

You gain 2 DON!! per round; the player going first only gains 1 in the opening round. Your cards have to match that rhythm, or you are holding a hand of six-drops on turn 2. A distribution that works as a starting point — meant for a built-out deck that can draw on several sets: – cost 1 to 2: roughly 10 to 14 cards – cost 3 to 5: roughly 18 to 24 cards – cost 6 and up: roughly 8 to 12 cards About half the deck should be Characters below cost 5 — they are what actually reaches the board in the first four turns. The deck builder shows the curve as bars and warns you when the left side holds fewer than 10 cards. On a starter deck budget these numbers look different. The three example decks below say openly where they differ, and why.

4. Counter density — your life insurance

Every card with a printed counter value is +1000 or +2000 power from hand when it matters. A deck without counters wins the first three turns and loses afterwards. As a rule of thumb, good lists run around two thirds of the 50 with a counter value, of which some 8 to 12 are +2000. On top come counter events that do more than hand out power. While building, do not only ask WHETHER you have counters, but how much power you can assemble in one defensive round. Four cards at 1000 are four cards gone; two at 2000 buy the same result for half the price.

5. Blockers — buy time instead of spending cards

A blocker absorbs an attack that would otherwise have cost you two cards from hand. 4 to 8 blockers is a good range for most decks: enough to redirect one attack per round, few enough that your board is not made of security staff. Fast decks get by with fewer — they want to be done before defence matters. Control decks sit at the upper end.

6. Search cards — the same game, every time

A deck that sees its key card in only half its games is really two decks. Cards that let you look at the top of your deck and take one of them into hand turn 4 copies into what feels like 7. For a feel for the numbers: four copies in 50 cards show up in a five-card opening hand in roughly one game out of three. Four search cards alongside push that well past half. So: consistency first, power second. The strongest card in the deck is worth nothing while it sits at the bottom.

7. Trigger density — damage that hits back

A [Trigger] only does anything when the card is revealed as Life. You cannot steer that, but you can set the odds: the more triggers in the deck, the more often a hit costs your opponent something. Rough arithmetic: 10 triggers in 50 cards means roughly every fifth revealed Life card is one. A deck that deliberately plays through its Life goes to 15 to 20. A fast deck that never wants to defend barely needs any. Make sure the trigger still does something when you are behind. A bit of power on one card no longer helps in a lost position.

Step by step: from nothing to 50

1. Settle the Leader. Read its effect twice and write down in one sentence how the deck is supposed to win. 2. Gather the core. Everything that directly supports that one sentence — usually 12 to 20 cards. 3. Fill in the curve. Add the missing costs until every turn has a sensible play. 4. Add defence. Count counter values, add blockers, until the ratios above are met. 5. Add consistency. Four to eight search or draw cards. 6. Cut to 50. Whatever you cut first was the 51st card anyway. 7. Play ten games before you change anything. After that change one thing at a time — otherwise you never learn which change helped.

Three decks to copy

All three are built from cards that really exist, and from exactly 50 lines. Expand a list, click a card for its card page — or copy the whole deck into your deck builder. And all three miss the guideline numbers above on purpose. Those describe a built-out deck drawing on several sets; these three are built on starter decks so that they stay cheap to rebuild. That is why they hold 24 to 30 cards at cost 1 to 2 instead of 10 to 14, 4 to 6 cards from cost 5 up and not a single one above that instead of 8 to 12 from cost 6 up, and 4 to 12 cards with +2000 instead of 8 to 12. That is not an oversight, it is the trade a beginner deck makes: expensive cards would sit dead in your hand through rounds 1 to 3, and nobody can play more +2000 counters than their own set contains — the red deck already runs all four copies of the only +2000 card ST-01 has. With 28 to 38 cards carrying a counter value, the red deck stays below the two thirds named above while the other two sit above it. Blockers are the one guideline all three meet (4 to 8). Building one of them out goes exactly the other way: expensive cards and +2000 counters in first, a few of the cheap ones out.

Beginner Red — Straw Hat aggro

Leader:Monkey.D.Luffy (ST01-001)·50 cards
Game plan

This deck comes out of a single starter deck and needs no rare card. Its plan is the simplest answer to the question of how to win: put one more Character on the board each turn than your opponent can remove, and attack without pause from turn 3. The Leader gives one Character an extra DON!! each turn so that a cheap attacker gets over the opponent's blocker threshold. If the game is still running on turn 7, you have lost — this deck wants to be finished before then.

Key cards

Karoo (ST01-003) is the best one-drop here: 3000 power for a cost of 1. Tony Tony.Chopper (ST01-006) blocks exactly the one attack that would otherwise get through. Guard Point (ST01-014) is your defence from hand and brings a trigger along. Monkey.D.Luffy (ST01-012) may attack on the turn he is played — four copies, because ST-01 holds nothing more expensive and the curve would otherwise stop at 4.

You need an account to copy this deck.

Green/Blue — tempo control

Leader:Roronoa Zoro & Sanji (ST12-001)·50 cards
Game plan

Two colours doing the same job: stealing your opponent's time. Green rests their Characters so they cannot attack; blue bounces cards back to hand and orders your own deck. You do not win by being faster, you win because your opponent loses half a turn every round. When attacking, the Leader may return one of your own Characters to hand — what looks like a drawback is how you use the same play effect a second time.

Key cards

Kuina (ST12-002) rests a cheap attacker round after round. Dracule Mihawk (ST12-003) brings a second Character along when your board is thin. Emporio.Ivankov (ST12-010) reveals the top card of your deck and plays it if it is a Character with a cost of 2 — otherwise it goes back to the top or bottom. Duval (ST12-014) is the blocker that buys a turn. Lion Strike (ST12-016) rests from hand — on defence too.

You need an account to copy this deck.

Yellow — triggers and Life

Leader:Yamato (ST09-001)·50 cards
Game plan

32 of the 50 cards carry a [Trigger]. This deck takes damage on purpose: every revealed Life card has a good chance of doing something on its own, and the Leader gets stronger once you are at two Life or below. So you play low deliberately, gather cards in hand along the way, and turn the game around from a position that looks like a loss from outside. Against very fast decks that is exactly where it breaks — then you have to counter earlier than you would like.

Key cards

Kouzuki Hiyori (OP04-103) puts herself onto the board for free through her trigger. Fugetsu Omusubi (ST09-009) and Uzuki Tempura (ST09-002) clean up on reveal and then move to your hand. Kin'emon (ST28-003) plays himself when your opponent is already low. Kouzuki Momonosuke (OP06-107) blocks and, when played, puts one of your own Land of Wano Characters face-up onto your Life cards. Ikoku Sovereignty (OP03-118) is the biggest counter in the deck at +5000; Thunder Bagua (ST09-015) pairs defence with card advantage.

You need an account to copy this deck.

Deck building mistake 1: the deck of favourite cards

Wrong

You take the 50 strongest cards in your collection. Three colours, no shared traits, almost everything at cost 5 or more. The deck is not even legal — the colour rule alone strikes out half of it.

Right

One Leader, its colours, one plan in one sentence. The second-best card that fits the plan beats the best card that does not belong.

Deck building mistake 2: the curve starts at 4

Wrong

Your cheapest card costs 4. For the first two turns all you do is hand over Life, and from turn 3 you never make the gap up again.

Right

10 to 14 cards at cost 1 to 2. They do not have to be strong: they have to carry a counter value and stand on the board by turn 2.

Deck building mistake 3: a bit of everything

Wrong

25 different cards, two copies each. Every game feels different, no plan comes together twice, and a deck like that cannot be practised at all.

Right

Fewer different cards, but in blocks of four. A deck that does the same thing every game is a deck you get better at.

Rule of thumb: before you add a card, say out loud which turn you want to play it on. If no turn comes to mind, it does not belong in the deck.

Sources

This chapter puts the findings in our own words. Read the originals here:

Test your knowledge

Quiz

1/2

Your Leader is red/green. Which card may go into the deck?

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