How to play the One Piece Card Game
This piece will serve as a basic introduction to the game of One Piece (OPCG) for card game players who have no prior experience with this game, but have played things like MTG, Pokemon, Digimon, YuGiOh, or even Hearthstone and Runeterra. One Piece Card game borrows in some capacity from most of these games, even the digital ones, so regardless of where you’re coming from at least some elements of the game will be readily recognizable to you. My hope is by the end of this you should be able to confidently engage with the game when it is released in the US this December, or even earlier if you’re lucky enough to get a spot in a Super Pre-release.
What is the objective of the game?
In OPCG your goal is to attack and win battles against your opponent’s leader card with your own leader and characters until you exhaust all of their life cards, allowing for one final game winning attack. Think of the leader card like a Hero in Hearthstone. It is a representation of the player that is always present on the field, but instead of taking damage relative to the strength of each attack against it, the leader’s life is represented by cards laid out at the start of the game that are lost 1 at a time whenever the leader loses in combat by any margin. This will be most recognizable to Digimon players as it bears a lot of similarities to the security stack, but with some key differences. Life is only lost when the defending leader loses the ensuing battle, not just from the declaration of an attack like in Digimon, and any life cards lost go straight to the defending player’s hand by default unless otherwise noted on the card.
How do I make successful attacks?
A successful attack occurs whenever an attacking character or leader finishes combat with an attack power equal to or greater than the defending leader or character. Attacks can be made by active (untapped) leaders after both players have already taken their first turn, or by active characters once they have been in play for a full turn cycle. You can attack at any point and in any order during the main phase. An attack is signaled by turning the card you want to attack with sideways, resting (tapping) it. Legal targets for any potential attacks include the opposing leader or any opposing rested character. Attackers can never die in combat, but any defending creatures that lose a battle are sent to the trash (graveyard). By default every leader has an attack power of 5000 so that is the minimum amount of power a character would need to possess in order to threaten the leader with an attack. The attack power of a card can always be found in the top right corner of the card.
Once an attack has been declared the defending player enters the counter step. During this time the defender can increase the power of any leader or character being attacked by discarding character cards from his or her hand to add that card’s counter value to the defending creature’s power. A card’s counter value is found on the middle left side of the card. The possible counter values are 1000, 2000, or 0 for cards without any counter marker. There are also counter event cards that can be activated during this phase that can also increase the power of the defending creature in addition to other effects, however these cards cost DON to activate.
What is DON?
DON is the game’s core resource that you will use to play event cards, creature cards, and activate abilities of those creatures or your leader. DON have their own deck aside from your main one with a total of exactly 10 DON cards. Every turn you will place 2 DON cards from your DON deck into the cost area, which is the point closest to you on your playmat or game space (get destroyed lands in front nerds). The only exception to this is the player who takes the first turn of the game will only put 1 DON card from their DON deck into play and also not draw a card from their main deck. Whenever you want to play a creature or event card you will rest the required number of DON to pay that card’s cost as noted in the top left of the card.
In addition to paying any costs associated with your cards, DON have another very important function. At any point during your main phase you may attach any number of active DON to one of your character or leader cards to increase their power by 1000 per DON attached for the duration of your turn. Some cards may also require a certain number of DON to be attached to them in order for their effects to activate, a cost noted in the textbox of a card as DON!! X 1, DON!! X 2, and so on. If the card they are attached to leaves the battlefield for any reason any DON on that card will return to the cost area rested. Any rested or attached DON will return to the cost area and reset to active at the start of that player’s turn before they draw.
How do I build a Deck?
One Piece Card Game decks are 50 cards total + your leader card, and can contain a maximum of 4 of each individual card. A card’s individuality is noted by its set number rather than its name in OPCG because many cards share names with one another. The game has 6 colors of cards, 4 of which will be playable upon release, and your deck can only contain cards that are the same color as your leader card. Some leaders are multi-colored so their decks can contain cards from each of their color identities, but at the cost of starting the game with only 4 life cards as opposed to the normal 5 for a mono colored leader. How much life a leader starts the game with is noted on the bottom right of every leader card.
Anything else I should know?
At its core the One Piece card game is about trying to manage resources in the best way you can in order to make strong attacks against your opponent while still being able to defend against their aggression. Most cards can help you do both and it’s up to you to decide which you think is more important in the given moment. Now that you have a good understanding of all the game’s base mechanics, be sure to fully read the text box of all of your cards for as we all know reading the card explains the card and some cards might bend the rules. I can’t wait to see all of you out there having as much fun with the game as I have!