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It’s a golden age for pirates, and with theOne Piece Card Game, you’re able to join the adventure. Choose your leader and assemble your crew with all of your favorite characters of the manga and anime sensation, and battle for supremacy to determine who will be King of the Pirates.
Hoist the mainstay and set sail for romance. Gold Roger’s treasure is yours if you want it; wealth, fame, and power. He left it all in the One Piece Card Game! But unless you’re as reckless as Luffy, you should learn how to sail your pirate ship with our guide!
What Is The One Piece Card Game?
The One Piece Card Game is a Trading Card Game (TCG) based on Eiichiro Oda’s record-setting manga series of the same title. With over a thousand chapters (and episodes of the anime adaptation),the story follows young pirate Monkey D. Luffy and his crew on his quest to become the King of the Pirates.
In the One Piece Card Gameyou choose a Leader and assemble a crew of your ownto battle it out with your opponent. One Piece stands out from the “Big Three” (Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh)by separating resources into a separate deckinstead of shuffling them into the main deck, reducing the chances of being unable to play due to a bad hand.
While One Piece includes some other unique mechanics, like Trigger effects, many mechanics will still feel familiar enough to veteran TCG players that they should pick it up almost immediately, whileless experienced players will find the streamlined rules to be beginner-friendly and easy to learn.
Types Of Cards
There arefive different types of cardsused in the One Piece Card Game, of which three are used in your normal deck. The other two types, called Leaders and DON!! cards are separated from the main deck in their own areas.
Leaders
Each deck is built around a single Leader;Leader cards have a distinct red back and are separate from the main deck, spending the entire game in the Leader area. Each Leader card has aPower, representing the character’s attack power, anAttribute, at least oneColor, anAbility, aLifeindicator, and at least oneType.
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Card Number, Rarity, & Block Symbol
While most information on a Leader card is also present on other card types,Life is unique to the Leaderand determines how many cards you’ll put into your Life area at the beginning of the game. This is important because themain way you win the game is by attacking your opponent after eliminating all of their Life cards.
Life cards function similarly to prize cards in the Pokemon TCG, except that you draw a Life card when your Leader is damaged, not when you successfully attack your opponent’s Leader.
All cards in your deck have a color, and theymust match at least one of your Leader’s colors. Cards that do not match your Leader’s color cannot be included in your deck.
Characters
Character cards represent your crew;these cards, along with Events and Stages, have a blue card back and form your 50-card deck. When played, Characters go to your Character area, in front of your Leader and Stage areas.
Character cards share a lot of characteristics with Leader cards, with onlyfour key differences: all Character cards have acostto play, and may also have aTriggerorCountereffect, and no character hasLife. They still have apower, an attribute, a type, and at least one color, which must match at least one of the Leader’s colors.
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Characters are played from your handin the active (vertical) position by paying their cost by resting that many DON!! cards. Alternatively, if you take a Character card from your Life pile and it has a Trigger ability,you’re able to activate the Trigger immediately.
Events
Events are one-shot effects that you can play from your handduring your Main Phase or on your opponent’s turn during the Counter Step if the Event has a Counter effect. Unlike Characters and Stages, once an Event is played it is trashed; this makes it important toplay them strategically, looking for the best opportunity to play an Event to turn the game around or take a big lead.
Stages
Stages represent the location where your crew is battling,providing a beneficial effect for your Leader or Characters and staying in play similar to Character cards.Each player can only have one Stage card in play at a time, but if you want to replace your current Stage you’re able to just trash the Stage you currently have in play and play the new one.
DON!!
DON!! is your resource card in the One Piece Card Game; they have a white back and form their own separate deck of ten cards. All DON!! cards are functionally identical but may have different art.
In addition to being used to pay for Characters, Events, Stages, and some effects, DON!! can also be given to Leaders and Characters. Each DON!! attachedprovides +1000 Power to the Leader or Characterit’s attached to.
Setting Up The Game
Before you start your game, you need toset up your fieldanddecide which player will go first. This process is done in four steps:
Now you’re ready for the first player to start their turn.
How To Play
Each turn has five phases: theRefresh Phase, theDraw Phase, theDON!! Phase, theMain Phase, and theEnd Phase.
During the Refresh Phase, you’ll do two things, in order.
The Draw Phase
As the name implies, this is the phase where you draw a card. Note thatthe first player does not get to draw a cardon their first turn.
The DON!! Phase
The DON!! Phase is where you’ll play your resources, DON!!. During this phase, simplydraw two DON!! cardsfrom your DON!! deck andplace them face-up in your cost area.
The player who goes first can only draw and play a single DON!! card on their first turn.
The Main Phase
There are four actions you can take in the Main Phase, which can be done in any order and any number of times, as long as you have enough resources.
First,you canplay a cardby resting DON!! cards in your cost area equal to the card’s cost; Character cards are placed face-up in the Character area, and Stage cards are placed face-up in the Stage area, trashing any Stage already on your field. Event cards are trashed after they’ve been played.
Second, you canattach active DON!! cards to your Leader and Characters. Each attached DON!! card gives the Character or Leader a +1000 power bonus during your turn, but cannot be rested to pay costs until the following turn.
If a character is trashed, move all DON!! attached to that character back to the Cost area rested.
Third, you canuse a card’s effectif you meet the effect requirements. There are several types of requirements, such as DON!!×X, DON!!-X, and Activate (Main).
Description
DON!!×X
This ability is active when at least X DON!! cards are attached to the Leader or Character.
DON!!-X
To use this ability, select X DON!! cards attached to your Leader, Characters, or in your Cost area, and return them to your DON!! deck.
Activate: Main
This ability can be activated during the Main Phase, except during a battle.
Finally, you canattack your opponent’s Leader or rested Character; to attack, rest your Leader or a Character and choose the target that you’re attacking. You are now in a Battle, and any “While Attacking” effects on your attacker will trigger.
Winning The Game
There are two ways to win the game; the first win condition is todeal damage to your opponent’s Leader when they have no Life cards left. Leaders typically have four to five Life Points, which means thatyou’ll need to defeat them in five to six battlesto win the game.
The second win condition isfor your opponent to run out of cards in their deck. Unlike some other card games, this win condition does not require the player to draw from an empty deck or wait for their next Draw Phase;as soon as a player’s deck contains zero cards, they lose the game.
