Common mistakes
The most common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1: spending all your DON
All your DON into Characters
You play as many Characters as you can. It looks great — a full board. But you cannot boost anything and cannot play a Counter, so the opponent gets through.
Leave 1-2 DON open
You play a little less but keep your options. You can boost, play a Counter or react to an event. Flexibility beats board size.
Mistake #2: countering too early
Countering at 4+ Life
You counter every attack on your Leader. Your hand empties out and in the deciding turns you have nothing left.
Use Life as a resource
At 4-5 Life you take the damage. You gain a card, maybe a Trigger, and keep your hand for the turns that decide the game.
Mistake #3: ignoring the attack order
Strongest Character first
You attack with your strongest Character first. The opponent answers cheaply, and your bait attack comes too late.
Weakest attacks as bait
Weak attacks first, as bait. They either eat Counters or get through. The strong attacks then land against a thinner hand.
Mistake 4: always attacking the Leader
Wrong
You send every attack at the Leader because damage feels like progress. Meanwhile your opponent collects cards in hand from their Life cards and builds their board in peace.
Right
Early on, attacks belong on rested Characters: you clear the board without handing your opponent cards. Only once you own the board and they are low on Life do the attacks go at the Leader.
Mistake 5: keeping the opening hand because it holds a big card
Wrong
Five cards, four of them cost 4 or more — but the strongest card of the deck is in there, so you keep. Nothing happens in the first two turns, and that strong card arrives in a position that is already lost.
Right
A mulligan costs nothing: whole hand back, shuffle, five new cards. Keep what does something on turns 1 and 2. A hand that has a play every turn beats a hand with one big card.
Sources
This chapter puts the findings in our own words. Read the originals here:
- 7 Beginner Tips to Improve at One Piece TCG Quickly onepiece.gg
- One Piece TCG Counter Cards: The Complete Rules shonentcg.com
- One Piece TCG Mulligan Guide: When to Keep or Redraw shonentcg.com
Test your knowledge
Quiz
1/1Why do you attack with weak Characters first?