Leader effect

While you have at least 4 Life, Sabo loses 1000 power. With 1 DON attached, if you control a Character costing 8 or more, your Leader and all your Characters gain 1000 power. The leader’s threshold is 8; this deck’s Elbaf package separately rewards having a 12-cost Character.

Game plan

Develop numerous small Elbaf Straw Hats, establish Saul or Loki, and turn the small bodies into meaningful attackers. Finish through Luffy’s Rush and revival effects.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Protect your last Giant and use Zoro to preserve the wide board.
• Brook can attach rested DON to Sabo after spending all 8 DON on Luffy.
• Do not play Loki automatically if keeping DON on Sabo matters more.
• Kong Gun is strongest when you already have attackers established.

Leader effect

During the opponent’s turn, whenever you play a Character, draw one card. With 1 DON attached, once per turn, when your Amazon Lily or Kuja Pirates Character with 5000 base power or more is K.O.’d, the opponent adds their top Life card to hand.

Game plan

Arrange useful Life Triggers, develop Characters during opposing turns, and replenish your hand. Healing and the K.O. punishment make attacking into your position awkward.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Nami can arrange a future Trigger for Teach to put into Life.
• Preserve the DON attachment needed for the K.O. effect.
• Bounce and bottom-deck removal bypass that punishment.
• Perfume Femur provides an unblockable finishing attack.

Leader effect

Activate: Main, once per turn: Give Rush for the turn to up to one of your eligible Characters with 8000 power or more: a Monkey.D.Luffy Character or a Character whose type includes Whitebeard Pirates. No DON payment is printed.

Game plan

Find pieces with Garp and Moby Dick, establish defensive Luffy, then deploy large Characters that attack immediately. The Newgates strengthen the Leader while maintaining offensive pressure.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Keep 8000-power cards available as fuel for defensive, revival, and reveal effects.
• Attach DON to Vista before granting Rush when his attack can clear small Characters.
• Marco protects against removal, but not rest/freeze.
• Do not automatically prioritize the newer Newgate; the older one supplies Leader pressure and Double Attack.
• Opposing 10000-power Characters enable the newer Newgate’s discount.

Leader effect

If a Character with at least 7000 base power is in play, this 6000-power Leader loses 2000 power. During the opponent’s turn, your cards named Portgas.D.Ace and Monkey.D.Luffy gain 3000 power.

Game plan

Search for the Luffy–Sanji engine, deploy several attackers cheaply, then preserve that board for repeated attacks.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• OP12 Luffy is the crucial search target.
• Sequence rested-DON attachments carefully to enable Sanji’s Rush.
• Repeated 7000-power attacks drain Counters.
• The listed build has no 2000 Counters or Blockers, so automatically spending every DON can leave it exposed.

Leader effect

Gain 1000 power against an opposing Slash Leader. Activate: Main, once per turn: Rest one of your cards; if a Character costing 5 or more is in play, ready up to three DON. Afterwards, you cannot play Character cards from hand for the remainder of that turn.

Game plan

Establish a draw engine, deploy ST32 Mihawk into useful 5-cost Slash Characters, and use recovered DON for attacks, control Events, and defense.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Finish your Character plays before activating the Leader.
• First-turn Kin’emon can rest the Leader without sacrificing an attack.
• Count rested cards before relying on Trichiliocosm.
• Coffin Boat preserves defensive DON.
• Use Shanks to move from buying time into a finishing attack.

Leader effect

Banish: Life damaged by this Leader is trashed without activating its Trigger. When attacking: You may trash a card with Trigger from hand to add up to one DON from your DON deck, rested.

Game plan

Combine Banish pressure with rapid ramp, develop Big Mom Pirates bodies, then use 10-cost Linlin to turn the established Trigger board into powerful attackers.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Use Pudding to place a useful revival target in the trash for Oven.
• Banish can force the opponent to spend Counters early.
• Avoid ramping so aggressively that you empty your hand.
• Gum-Gum Giant converts an unwanted card into defense and draws once your DON engine is established.
• Aggression can punish you before healing arrives.

Leader effect

On the opponent’s attack, once per turn: You may trash one hand card to give up to one of your Leader or Characters 4000 additional power for that battle.

Game plan

A defensive “tank” approach, combining the Leader’s protection with support that increases base power. (Game plan as stated by the page.)

DON curve

Leader effect

When attacking: You may trash one hand card. The opponent then chooses between: you trashing another hand card and adding up to one top-deck card to the top of your Life, or trashing one card from the opponent’s hand.

Game plan

Extend the game through healing and Trigger development, then deploy 10-cost Linlin to strengthen the qualifying 4000-base-power Trigger Characters.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Preserve enough hand resources for the Leader.
• Oven discourages K.O. removal by providing another body.
• Starvation—an opponent withholding Life attacks—reduces access to Triggers; the small bodies are vulnerable before the finisher.

Leader effect

When attacking / on the opponent’s attack, once per turn: Pay DON −1 to reduce up to one opposing Character’s power by 2000 for the turn.

Game plan

Ramp into King, reach 10 DON quickly, then repeatedly deploy large defensive and control threats while recovering DON spent on effects.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Mulligan for the ramp sequence rather than an impressive collection of finishers.
• Usually keep the first 12K Kaido active as a Blocker.
• Track DON −X payments before planning the next large deployment.
• Sasaki is primarily a 2000 Counter, not the default ramp plan.
• Slow-Slow Beam Sword can punish an opponent who attacks with their Leader before their Characters.

Leader effect

Your Characters costing 12 or more gain Blocker. The leader does not itself grant their power increases.

Game plan

Build large Blockers, fill and reuse the trash, and exhaust opposing resources while the small Elbaf Characters provide repeated attacks.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Keep Loki active when its defensive value exceeds an attack.
• Searchers also fill the trash for Zoro, Gerd, Docking Six, and Luffy.
• Choose revival targets deliberately: Robin for power reduction, Brook for hand pressure, or defensive/recycling options.
• Sunny raises Docking Six from its modified 11 cost to 12, enabling Blocker.
• The guide explicitly recommends a more patient approach than Sabo.

Leader effect

Activate: Main, once per turn: Either trash one hand card or rest one DON. Up to one already-rested opposing Character does not become active during the opponent’s next Refresh Phase.

Game plan

Search for the control sequence, rest opposing Characters, attack or remove them, and freeze a surviving threat.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Prioritize board control over automatic Life attacks; race more against Rocks and Luffy & Ace.
• Recover Limejuice as a Counter through Law.
• Crone Oli protects Red-Haired Pirates, not Oden or Law.
• Use Shanks’s refunded DON for freeze, defense, or attack power.

Leader effect

When attacking: You may trash one hand card, then reveal your top deck card. If its type includes Rocks Pirates, draw two cards. No once-per-turn restriction is printed.

Game plan

Maintain hand flow through a heavily Rocks Pirates deck, answer the opposing board, then use the 10-cost Rocks Character for flexible multiple deployments.

DON curve

Tips and pitfalls

• Treat that curve as guidance, not an obligation.
• Discard defensive Events when Don Marlon can retrieve them.
• Limit off-type tech cards because they reduce reveal reliability.
• Preserve Kyo for removal protection.
• Keep 10-cost Rocks as a Counter when further deployment is unnecessary.
• Save the DON required for an unblockable finishing line.