Luffy & Ace — Standard Strategy Guide

Archetype Overview

Luffy & Ace is a red-green Straw Hat midrange deck. It digs aggressively with cost-1 searchers, then cashes in on 4- and 5-cost turns that put several bodies on board at once, often with Rush. On your opponent's turn, the Leader's ability makes every Monkey.D.Luffy you control a much harder target. The list took 2nd place out of 64 players at ChinoizeCup #122 Tuesday on 2026-10-13, piloted by not_dev.

What the Deck Is

The list has three layers. The first is consistency. Seventeen cost-1 Characters dig for your pieces:

• Both Nami searchers (OP01-016 and EB02-017).
• Jewelry Bonney.
• Shakuyaku.

Four Thousand Sunny add one more dig on top of those. Nearly everything worth finding carries the Straw Hat Crew type, so these looks rarely miss.

The second layer is a payoff turn built from three Luffys and Sanji:

• Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) reveals 2 Events from your hand to play a red Character with 3000 power or less.
• That window includes Sanji. His On Play draws a card and drops a cost-5-or-less Straw Hat Crew Character from your hand.
• One of those Characters is Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014), which has Rush.

The third layer is a defensive shell. The Leader gives +3000 to your Luffys on the opponent's turn. Thirteen Events carry Counter effects, and four of them push your Leader's power on defense.

The green cards add tempo control. They let you rest Blockers, rest opposing Characters, and lock them down through a Refresh Phase.

The Plan

Your early turns are about card quality, not damage. Play searchers, keep counters, and assemble the pieces for your first big turn. That turn usually starts with Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015), which is why the deck runs 13 Events. Every Event you hold is also fuel for its reveal cost.

One 4-DON!! play can chain Sanji into a Rush Luffy. The OP12-015 Luffy then gives a rested DON!! to your Leader or a Character. The result is three bodies and an immediate attack from a single card.

From there, you keep recycling rested DON!! into power:

• Thousand Sunny gives a rested DON!! to a Luffy.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) gives one when it attacks.
• Once you have 2 or more given DON!!, the OP12-015 Luffy grows to 6000 on your own turn.

Roronoa Zoro and the 4-cost Nami (OP14-031) untap DON!! so you can keep developing. Nami also rests up to 2 opposing Characters. Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) rests a Blocker every time it attacks, so defensive boards struggle to stop your swings.

You close by pairing wide pressure with board denial:

• Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game rests opposing Characters or DON!!.
• I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! keeps rested Characters from coming back.
• Gum-Gum Mole Pistol picks off a small Character once you have a 6000-power body.

Why the Plan Is Strong

• The Leader's drawback is built out. Luffy & Ace loses 2000 power if you control a Character with 7000 base power or more. No Character in this 50 has base power above 6000, so you keep a 6000-power Leader all game. That is a real deckbuilding constraint: any card you consider adding has to respect it.
• Your Luffys are oversized on defense. On the opponent's turn, both 6000-power Luffys sit at 9000. The OP12-015 Luffy is at least 7000. Opponents have to commit heavy DON!! to battle off your threats, or ignore them and take the swing back next turn.
• The Leader has unusual counter support. Its types include Whitebeard Pirates, so Ga Ha Ha Ha!! can boost it. Both green Events double as +3000 Leader counters, so they are never dead cards. Bad Manners Kick Course costs 0 DON!! and protects anything. Meteor-Strike of Love converts a Life card into hand resources mid-battle. Twenty-five Characters also carry +1000 counters.
• Your bodies replace themselves. Almost every cheap Character either finds another card or comes free off a bigger one. Trades favor you over a long game.
• Rush punishes passive boards. Three Luffy versions and Sanji can all attack the turn they land. Opponents who skip developing to save counters still have to block or take damage.

Who Should Pick It Up

This deck rewards players who like sequencing puzzles. Your payoff turns depend on the order of play: which Events to hold for the OP12-015 reveal, which Character Sanji fetches, and where each rested DON!! goes. Expect your opening search choices to decide later turns too.

If you count DON!! carefully and are comfortable choosing between holding a counter and spending it as reveal fuel, the deck gives you a lot of options. If you want a low-decision aggro deck, look elsewhere: you can sequence this list badly and still look like you had a good draw.

The estimated build cost is about $307 at TCGplayer market prices. That is a real but not extreme investment for a deck that can hold up through a full Swiss day.

Core Strategy & Game Plan

How the Deck Wins

You win by turning cheap searchers into a board of Monkey.D.Luffy Characters that hit hard on your turn and are hard to remove on your opponent's. The engine is a 4-cost chain that puts two or three bodies on the board for one card's cost. You defend it with a Leader that boosts every Luffy by +3000 on the opponent's turn. You are the proactive deck. Counter Events keep your Leader alive, but the clock comes from pressure that grows every turn. That pressure forces your opponent to spend their turns answering your board, not advancing their own.

Why the Leader Matters

Luffy & Ace's drawback only triggers if you control a Character with 7000 base power or more. Nothing in this list reaches that, so you keep a 6000 Leader all game. The +3000 is gained power, not base power, so it never turns the drawback on.

The upside is real. On your opponent's turn:

• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) and Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) are 9000.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) is 7000 before any DON!! bonus.

Your Leader also has the Whitebeard Pirates type. That makes Ga Ha Ha Ha!! a live Leader Counter alongside the Leader-only +3000 Counters on Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game and I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!!. Most of your Counter suite protects the Leader. Your Luffys protect themselves through the Leader's passive.

The Engine

• Searchers. You have 14 one-cost Characters, all with +1000 Counter, plus four Thousand Sunny. Each one digs for Straw Hat Crew pieces.
  • The EB02-017 Nami, Jewelry Bonney and Thousand Sunny can also find Events.
  • Shakuyaku finds a Luffy or a red Event, which is your only search route to Ga Ha Ha Ha!!.
• The chain. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) reveals two Events from your hand and plays a red Character with 3000 power or less for free. Sanji is red, 3000 power and cost 5, so he qualifies. Sanji's On Play then draws a card and plays a Straw Hat Crew Character of cost 5 or less from your hand, such as:
  • Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014), which has Rush.
  • Roronoa Zoro, which sets two DON!! active.
  • The OP14-031 Nami.
  For 4 DON!! you get three bodies, a card drawn and one DON!! given.
• DON!! routing. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) gains +2000 once you have two or more given DON!! in total. You have three ways to give rested DON!!:
  • Its own On Play.
  • Thousand Sunny's Activate: Main.
  • Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014)'s When Attacking.
  Rested DON!! you already spent come back as power.

The chain needs two Events in hand. Revealing doesn't spend them. So in the early turns, prioritize searching up Events and avoid wasting Counter Events on small hits.

The Ideal Game

1. Opening turn. Play a 1-cost searcher or Thousand Sunny. Go for the missing chain piece first: Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015), Sanji, or a second Event.
2. Next turn. Going second, you have 4 DON!! here, so fire the chain now. Going first, you have 3 DON!!. Spend them on more searchers plus Thousand Sunny so the chain is fully assembled for your third turn.
3. Chain turn. Play Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015), which plays Sanji, which plays Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014). Attack with the Rush Luffy and your Leader. Use its When Attacking and Thousand Sunny to give DON!! to the OP12-015 Luffy so it reaches the +2000 threshold.
4. Midgame. Rebuild with more Luffys and keep the board wide. Your options depend on spare DON!!:
   • Sanji for 5 repeats half the chain on its own.
   • Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) at 4, plus one rested DON!! for Rush, rests a Blocker when it attacks.
   • Roronoa Zoro refunds two DON!! and sets itself active at the end of your turn.
5. Closing turn. Clear the path to the Leader, then swing everything.

Closing Tools

The lethal turn depends on your opponent's Blockers and leftover defense. These are the cards that handle each problem:

• OP14-031 Nami. Rests up to two opposing Characters of cost 8 or less. Then, at end of turn, it sets up to five of your DON!! active. You can spend everything on the attack and still hold DON!! for Counter Events on the crack-back.
• Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game (Main). Rests two opposing Characters or DON!!.
• I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! (Main). Stops up to two rested opposing Characters of cost 7 or less from untapping in their next Refresh Phase. This is strongest right after the OP14-031 Nami rests them.
• Gum-Gum Mole Pistol. Handles a specific blocker or threat. Its K.O. clause is live whenever one of your Luffys sits at 6000.
• Meteor-Strike of Love (Main). Adds +3000 to your last swing.

Managing Life

You start on 4 Life. Meteor-Strike of Love costs you a Life card, so save it for one of two moments: when the extra 3000 converts directly into lethal, or when you're far enough ahead that the Life card is better used as a card in hand.

Bad Manners Kick Course is your only Counter that costs 0 DON!!. It trashes a card from hand, and it can save a Character as well as the Leader. Don't trash a chain piece to it unless the battle decides the game.

Card Choices & Breakdown

The Search Suite: 13 One-Drops Plus the Stage

The deck is built around consistency. Thirteen cost-1 Characters and four cost-1 Stages dig into your deck, and every one of the Characters carries a +1000 Counter, so a search body you can't use still defends you.

• 4x Nami (EB02-017): The most flexible searcher. It finds any Straw Hat Crew card, so it can grab your Events and Thousand Sunny as well as Characters. It is green, so the Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) cheat can't put it into play.
• 4x Nami (OP01-016): Finds Straw Hat Crew Characters only. It is red, which matters because OP12-015 Luffy can drop it for free.
• 4x Jewelry Bonney: Looks at only four cards instead of five, but it is red and has a different name from Nami. That lets it find the single Nami (OP14-031), which neither Nami searcher can touch.
• 2x Shakuyaku: The only searcher that finds Ga Ha Ha Ha!!, since its target list is any Monkey.D.Luffy or any red Event. It isn't Straw Hat Crew, so nothing searches it back, and that caps it at two. It appeared at 1-2 copies in 4 of the 6 Luffy & Ace Top 8 lists (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19).
• 4x Thousand Sunny: Another five-card Straw Hat look on play. Its real job is the activated ability: rest it to move a rested DON!! onto a Monkey.D.Luffy Character, which effectively gives you a free DON!! every turn. A Stage doesn't trade with removal aimed at Characters, so play it early.

Twelve Luffys: The Payoff

Your Leader Luffy & Ace gives every Monkey.D.Luffy +3000 on your opponent's turn, which is why you run three different Luffys at four copies each. None of your Characters has 7000 or more base power, so the Leader's -2000 clause never triggers off your own board.

• 4x Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015): This is the engine. If you reveal two Events, it plays a red Character with 3000 power or less from your hand and gives a rested DON!!.
  • Eligible targets include every red one-drop and, critically, Sanji, who is a 3000-power red Character.
  • Its own DON!! give plus one Thousand Sunny activation reaches two given DON!!, turning it into a 6000 body.
  • On defense it sits at 7000 or more.
  This card is the reason the list runs 13 Events.
• 4x Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012): A 6000 four-drop that buys Rush for one DON!!. Its When Attacking ability rests a Blocker, so your other attackers get through cleanly. It has no Counter, but on your opponent's turn it defends at 9000.
• 4x Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014): A five-cost 6000 with built-in Rush. Each attack hands a rested DON!! to a teammate, which helps power up OP12-015. It also has no Counter and also defends at 9000.

Those eight counterless Luffys are the cost of this package. Because they are awkward to pitch as Counters, the rest of the deck carries a lot of Counter value.

Support Characters

• 4x Sanji: Draws a card and plays a Straw Hat Character costing 5 or less from your hand. The key chain runs like this:
  1. OP12-015 Luffy plays Sanji.
  2. Sanji plays a Rush Luffy or Roronoa Zoro.
  That puts three bodies on the board from one card's cost. Sanji also has a Counter and can Rush himself with DON!! x2.
• 2x Roronoa Zoro: Readies two DON!! on play, so it is close to free, and it sets itself active at the end of your turn. Two copies is enough because it is a tempo piece, not a threat you need every game.
• 1x Nami (OP14-031): Your only Blocker. It rests two opposing Characters with cost 8 or less and readies five DON!! at end of turn. One copy is enough because Jewelry Bonney, Thousand Sunny, and Sanji can all reach it.

Counter Events

• 3x Bad Manners Kick Course: A zero-cost +3000 that trashes a card from your hand. That makes it the best home for a dead counterless Luffy. Its Trigger gives -3000, which can swing a combat.
• 3x Ga Ha Ha Ha!!: Only your Leader has the Whitebeard Pirates type, so treat this card as Leader protection. It gives +2000, then hits an opposing Leader or Character for 2000.
• 2x Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game and 2x I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!!: Both are one-cost +3000 Counters for your Leader with a Main mode attached.
  • The Demon Aura Event rests two opposing Characters or DON!! for three DON!!.
  • The I Know You're Strong Event stops two rested Characters from untapping for two DON!!.
  They run at two each because their Main modes cost tempo, and both count toward OP12-015's reveal requirement.
• 2x Meteor-Strike of Love: Works in both the Main and Counter phases for +3000 at the price of taking a Life card into hand. You keep it at two because spending Life against a four-Life Leader adds up fast.

Removal

1x Gum-Gum Mole Pistol: Your only Main-phase removal. It hits a Character for 5000, then KOs a 2000-or-less Character if you control a 6000-power body, which any Rush Luffy satisfies. Its Trigger casts the whole effect for free. It is a single copy because a four-cost Event is clunky in a deck that wants to spend DON!! on bodies. It is the slot to reconsider first if your field is light on small Characters.

The Decklist

This is the 50-card list that took 2nd Place at ChinoizeCup #122 Tuesday (2026-10-13), a 64-player event, piloted by not_dev. It runs 33 Characters, 13 Events and 4 Stages, and costs about $307 at TCGplayer market prices. Three cards share the name Monkey.D.Luffy and three share Nami, so register and sleeve by set code.

Leader

Characters (33)

Events (13)

Stage (4)

Reading the Flex Notes

The "Core" labels follow the brief's data. Nami OP01-016, Nami EB02-017, Jewelry Bonney, Monkey.D.Luffy OP12-015, Monkey.D.Luffy ST21-014, Sanji and Thousand Sunny were played as 4-ofs in all 6 Luffy & Ace Top 8 lists (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). The counts of Monkey.D.Luffy ST30-012, Bad Manners Kick Course, Ga Ha Ha Ha!! and the two green Counter Events varied across those same lists (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19).

Two copies of Roronoa Zoro and the single Nami OP14-031 are where this list differs most. Together they make up the list's tempo package: extra DON!! and ways to rest opposing Characters.

Watch your Counter density. Neither 6000-power Monkey.D.Luffy has a Counter value, so 8 of your Characters do nothing from hand on defense. That is why the list runs 7 Events that can give the Leader +3000.

Opening Hands & Mulligan

Every opener comes down to two questions: can you dig on your first turn, and can you reach a 4-cost turn with real follow-up? The list runs fourteen 1-cost searchers plus four Thousand Sunny, so most hands answer the first question. Your redraw decision almost always turns on the second.

What a Keep Looks Like

• A 1-cost dig card. Thousand Sunny and Nami (EB02-017) are the most flexible because they can find any Straw Hat Crew card, Events included. Nami (OP01-016) finds Characters only. Shakuyaku finds a Monkey.D.Luffy or a red Event. Jewelry Bonney sees only four cards.
• A 4- or 5-cost threat, or two diggers that can find one. That means any Monkey.D.Luffy, Sanji, or Roronoa Zoro.
• Events. They are your defense, and they also fuel Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015), which needs you to reveal 2 Events from hand. Revealed Events stay in your hand, so they still defend you afterward.

The premium hand looks like this: a dig card, Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015), Sanji, and two Events. On 4 DON!!, Luffy reveals the Events and plays Sanji for free, since Sanji is a red 3000-power Character. Sanji draws a card and plays any Straw Hat Crew Character of cost 5 or less from your hand, ideally Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) with Rush. Then OP12-015 gives a rested DON!! to your Leader or a Character.

Send It Back

• No 1-cost card and no 4-cost. You have no first-turn play and no way to find your curve.
• Top-heavy with no dig. Multiple 5-costs (Sanji, Monkey.D.Luffy ST21-014) and nothing to play early, especially when going first.
• Counter-starved. Monkey.D.Luffy ST30-012 and ST21-014 have no Counter value. A hand of those plus Gum-Gum Mole Pistol has very little defense against an early push into your 4 Life.
• Events with no Characters. Events only power OP12-015 if you also have a red 3000-or-less Character in hand to play with it. Without a searcher, this hand does nothing on board.

Going First

You gain 1 DON!! on turn one, then 3, 5, and 7.

1. Turn 1: If you already hold your 4-cost, lead with Thousand Sunny. It digs just as well as a searcher, its activated ability needs it on board later anyway, and it keeps your 1-cost Characters in hand as +1000 Counters. If you are missing a threat, use Nami (OP01-016) to go straight for a Character.
2. Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Play two more dig cards to assemble the OP12-015 chain. If you already have the pieces, play one and hold a Counter.
3. Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Pick one of three lines:
   • Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012), resting your fifth DON!! to give it Rush.
   • Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) with native Rush.
   • The OP12-015 chain plus a 1-drop.

Going first rewards greed. You have an extra turn of setup before your 4-cost lands, so a hand of two diggers and no threat is a keep.

Going Second

You gain 2 DON!! on turn one and 4 on turn two, which makes your 4-costs a turn-two play.

• Turn 1: Play Thousand Sunny plus a searcher, or two searchers. Dig twice before your first real turn.
• Turn 2 (4 DON!!): Pick one of three lines:
  • The OP12-015 chain.
  • Roronoa Zoro, which sets 2 DON!! active on play. Spend them on two more 1-costs.
  • Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) without Rush, since you have no spare DON!! to rest.

Two 4-cost Luffys plus Counter cards is a keep here even without a searcher. Your Leader gives every Monkey.D.Luffy +3000 on your opponent's turn. A ST30-012 or ST21-014 that attacked sits rested at 9000, and OP12-015 sits at 7000, or 9000 if you have 2 or more given DON!!. Early Luffys are hard to remove through combat. You absorb pressure first when going second, so value Counter cards a little higher than you would going first.

Your Leader's -2000 drawback only triggers on a Character with 7000 base power or more. Nothing in this list reaches that, so you never need to weigh it in a keep.

Matchup Adjustments

• Aggro: Defense comes first. Your Leader-only Counters all work:
  • I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! and Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game give your Leader +3000.
  • Ga Ha Ha Ha!! gives your Leader +2000, since your Leader carries the Whitebeard Pirates type.
  Keep a hand of three Counter Events and one searcher. Count Bad Manners Kick Course at a discount, since it costs you a card from hand.
• Blocker-heavy midrange: Prioritize Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012). Its When Attacking rests a Blocker, which clears the way for your other attackers.
• Slow control: Keep for the engine, not for defense. OP12-015, Sanji, and a cost-5-or-less Straw Hat body put a lot of power on board in a single turn, and slow decks give you time to assemble it.
• Wide boards: Nami (OP14-031) and Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game answer them, but they are cards to dig into later. Never keep a weak hand just because it holds one.

Sequencing & Key Lines

Turns 1–2: Dig for the Chain

Your early turns exist to assemble one hand: a 4-cost Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015), two Events, Sanji, and a Straw Hat Crew Character costing 5 or less. Spend your first DON!! on searchers and pick each search target based on what that hand is still missing.

• Thousand Sunny first when you can. It digs like a 1-drop and stays on the field. Its Activate: Main pays you back on every Luffy turn after this one.
• Nami (EB02-017), Jewelry Bonney and Sunny can take Events. They can grab any Straw Hat Crew Event, including Bad Manners Kick Course and the green Counters. None of them can find Ga Ha Ha Ha!!, and none of them can find Shakuyaku.
• Nami (OP01-016) only finds Characters. Play her when the missing piece is Sanji or a Luffy, not an Event.
• Shakuyaku is the only search that finds Ga Ha Ha Ha!!. She also finds any Luffy, so she patches either half of the chain.

Every search sends the rest of the cards to the bottom in any order. Put the cards you're least likely to need deepest.

The Core Chain

The chain costs 4 DON!!. Play Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) and reveal two Events. Revealing doesn't spend them, so they stay in hand as Counters. Use that effect to play Sanji for free, since he's red with 3000 power. Sanji draws a card and plays a cost-5-or-less Straw Hat Crew Character from your hand. OP12-015 then gives a rested DON!! to your Leader or a Character.

That timing means you can run the chain on turn 2 going second or turn 3 going first. On the turn you plan to chain, don't fire Events as Main effects before OP12-015 resolves. You need two still in hand to reveal.

What Sanji puts down is the main branch point:

• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014): the default on exactly 4 DON!!. It has Rush built in, so it attacks with no DON!! left over. Its When Attacking effect gives another rested DON!! to a Character.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012): it needs an active DON!! rested to gain Rush, so only take it when you have at least 5 DON!!. Pick it when the opponent has a Blocker, because its When Attacking effect rests one.
• Roronoa Zoro: your Leader is Straw Hat Crew, so Zoro sets 2 DON!! back to active. That funds a Counter on the opponent's turn or a second play this turn. Zoro also sets himself active at the end of your turn, which keeps him out of reach of attacks.
• Nami (OP14-031): take her against a developed board (see the lock line below).

Ordering Your Attacks

1. Use Thousand Sunny after you've paid costs. It moves a rested DON!! onto a Luffy, so it has nothing to give until your DON!! are rested.
2. Turn on the OP12-015 bonus. It needs a total of 2 given DON!! across your whole field, not 2 on itself. The OP12-015 give plus Sunny already gets you there.
3. Attack with ST30-012 first if the opponent has a Blocker. Resting it clears the way for everyone else.
4. Attack with ST21-014 before your other attackers. Its DON!! give goes onto whoever attacks next.
5. Sanji can attack on the chain turn. If OP12-015 and ST21-014 both give their DON!! to Sanji, he meets [DON!! x2] and gains Rush. Take that third attack when the extra swing matters more than a bigger single hit.

The Lock Turn

This line is for 7 or more DON!! against a wide board. Play Nami (OP14-031) and rest two of the opponent's Characters with cost 8 or less. Then cast I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! as a Main so those two (cost 7 or less) skip their next Refresh.

Those two Characters can't block and can't attack next turn. Your attackers can also swing at them. Nami then sets up to 5 DON!! active at the end of your turn, so spend everything first. You still defend with a loaded cost area.

Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game is the other Main-phase option. Rest Blockers before you attack, or rest the opponent's DON!! to limit what they can pay for Counter Events and effects this turn.

Gum-Gum Mole Pistol's K.O. only happens if you control a 6000-power Character. Cast it after a 6000-base Luffy is on the field, never before.

Defense: What to Hold

Your Leader gives all your Monkey.D.Luffy Characters +3000 on the opponent's turn. That means:

• ST21-014 and ST30-012 defend at 9000.
• OP12-015 defends at 7000, or 9000 if you still have 2 given DON!!. Given DON!! stay attached until your next Refresh.

So the attacks you face land on your Leader or your small Characters. Budget your Counters around that:

• Leader-only Counters: Ga Ha Ha Ha!! works because your Leader has the Whitebeard Pirates type. None of your Characters do, so it can't save them. The two green Events give +3000 to your Leader only. Spend all three on Leader attacks.
• Character Counters: keep Bad Manners Kick Course and Meteor-Strike of Love for a Character you can't afford to lose. Bad Manners costs a card from hand but no DON!!.
• The cost of Meteor-Strike: it moves a Life card to your hand, and that Life card's Trigger never resolves. Two of your Events have Triggers (Bad Manners Kick Course and Gum-Gum Mole Pistol), so you're giving up a possible free effect. Fire it as a Main when the +3000 turns a blocked attack into a hit.
• Leave Counter DON!! up on purpose. End your turn with 1 active DON!! if possible, enough for Ga Ha Ha Ha!! (cost 1). Roronoa Zoro and Nami (OP14-031) let you do this without giving up tempo.

Playing Around Removal

The opponents most likely to beat you are the ones with removal that doesn't fight on power. The +3000 shield only stops attacks and power-based removal; effect-based K.O.s and rest effects ignore it. Three habits help:

• Spread your given DON!! over two Luffys. Don't stack them all on one Character, because OP12-015's bonus counts given DON!! across your whole field.
• Hold one chain piece back (a spare Luffy or Sanji) so a single sweep doesn't empty your field.
• Never reveal your last two Events if you're facing lethal. Revealing tells the opponent exactly how many Counters you're holding.

Matchup Matrix

The brief contains no head-to-head records. Every verdict below is a read argued from this list's card text and the field counts, so treat each one as a starting assumption to test. The named rows are the Leaders with the most entries or Top 8 slots in the brief's window.

Rocks.D.Xebec

This is the Leader you will see most. It took 8 of 32 Top 8 slots from 46 of 256 entries (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Its Top 8 lists are tightly built. All eight ran four copies each of these cards (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19):

• Miss Buckingham Stussy
• Gloriosa
• Charlotte Linlin (OP17-049)
• Edward.Newgate (OP17-040)
• Shiki
• Rocks.D.Xebec (OP17-118)
• There's No Authority in the World That Lasts Forever!!!
• Rocks Pirates

Learn the exact text of those eight cards before the event. Once one of them hits the table, assume the opponent has more copies.

Your plan rests on the Leader's wall. On their turn, your Monkey.D.Luffy Characters gain +3000 power. That puts the 6000-power copies at 9000 and the 4000-power copy at 7000 or more. Use that wall to steer their attacks into your Leader, and spend your Counter Events there. Pick your burst turn carefully. On that turn, Nami (OP14-031) or Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game rests their board, and I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! stops up to two rested Characters of cost 7 or less from becoming active.

The Mirror

Luffy & Ace had 31 of 256 entries (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19), so the mirror is a real pairing.

• Battle is a losing trade. Both Leaders buff their own Luffys whenever they are being attacked. Attacking into a Luffy is usually a waste, so the game becomes a Leader race decided by rest effects.
• Lock their attackers. Characters that just attacked are rested, which makes them ideal targets for I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!!.
• Clear their Nami. Their Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) rests your Nami Blocker when it attacks, so don't lean on that Blocker either.
• Expect more lock than you have. Opposing Top 8 lists ran 2-4 copies of OP13-040 and 1-3 of OP12-037 (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Your two copies of each may be the smaller count.
• Count Leader Counters. Ga Ha Ha Ha!! boosts their Leader too, since the Leader carries the Whitebeard Pirates type. Track every Counter Event they have used.

Monkey.D.Luffy (OP17-079)

This Leader had 29 entries, 3 Top 8 slots and 1 win (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). The brief has no list data for it, so you are playing partly blind.

Lean on tempo you can trust. Sanji draws a card and puts Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) into play with Rush. That Luffy then hands a rested DON!! to another attacker. Hold your Leader Counters until you have seen what they actually threaten.

Kalgara

Kalgara had only 9 entries but converted 3 Top 8 slots and won this event at 6-0 (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). That is the strongest conversion in the window. The Unfavored mark is about respect and limited reps, not a known card interaction.

Play conservatively. Keep your Life high, and don't spend Meteor-Strike of Love early. Its cost is a Life card, which is a resource you may need later.

Kaido and Sabo

Both Leaders were heavily entered but converted rarely (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19):

• Kaido (OP17-058): 19 entries, 1 Top 8 slot.
• Sabo (OP13-004): 18 entries, 2 Top 8 slots.

Without list data, rely on your structural edges:

• Your Luffys at 9000 on the opponent's turn make attacking your Characters expensive.
• Your Leader stays at 6000, because no Character in this list has 7000 base power to trigger the -2000 clause.
• Budget Bad Manners Kick Course, Ga Ha Ha Ha!! and the +3000 Counter halves of your green Events for Leader defense.

Strategy-Level Opponents

Blocker-heavy defense: Favored. You have several ways to get past Blockers:

• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) rests a Blocker every time it attacks.
• Nami (OP14-031) rests up to two Characters of cost 8 or less.
• Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game rests two more Characters or DON!!.

Use these to clear a lane, then swing.

Wide aggro: Even. Your two 6000-power Luffys carry no Counter value, so a hand clogged with them defends poorly. Keep at least one Leader Counter Event in hand. Nami (OP14-031) sets up to 5 of your DON!! as active at the end of your turn, which lets you pay for those Counter Events on their turn.

Removal-heavy control: Even. Rush is your answer, because a Luffy that attacks the turn it lands has already done its job before removal can touch it. Your 1-cost searchers and Thousand Sunny rebuild your hand. Gum-Gum Mole Pistol adds a Trigger that can swing a Life check.

Tech Choices & Variations

The engine is fixed: eight 1-cost searchers, twelve Monkey.D.Luffy, four Sanji and four Thousand Sunny. Don't touch them. That leaves about 15 slots to tune: Shakuyaku, Roronoa Zoro, the single 4-cost Nami (OP14-031) and the Event suite. Every swap below moves copies within the existing 50. Each card's role is already known, so the trade-offs follow straight from the card text.

The Flex Slots at a Glance

The Constraints Behind Every Swap

Three rules govern this list's tuning:

• Don't add a Character with 7000 base power or more. Your Leader loses 2000 power while you control one. Nothing in the current 50 reaches that line. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) becomes a 6000 attacker through its DON!! clause, but its base power stays 4000, so it doesn't trigger the penalty.
• Keep the Event count high. The On Play of Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) requires revealing 2 Events from your hand. Every Event you cut makes that play-a-Character turn harder to set up.
• Respect the search webs. Ga Ha Ha Ha!! is not a Straw Hat Crew card, so Thousand Sunny, Jewelry Bonney and green Nami can't find it. Only Shakuyaku can. Shakuyaku itself is Amazon Lily, so Sanji can't put it into play. However, it is a red Character with 2000 power, so the OP12-015 Luffy can.

Event Suite Tuning

Your Leader has the Whitebeard Pirates type, but none of your Characters does. That means Ga Ha Ha Ha!! works only as a Leader Counter here. The same is true of Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game and I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!!. Bad Manners Kick Course and Meteor-Strike of Love are your only Counters that can protect a Character.

Your Luffys already gain +3000 on your opponent's turn, so they defend themselves reasonably well. As a result, the Counter suite leans toward the Leader. The question is how far to lean.

• Against aggro: cut both Meteor-Strike of Love and move to 4 Bad Manners Kick Course and 3 Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game. Paying a Life card for +3000 speeds up the opponent's clock. Bad Manners costs 0 DON!!, which matters on the turns you spent all your DON!! developing. Its Trigger also stays relevant when it flips from Life.
• Against go-wide boards: add a third I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!!. In the Main phase, it keeps 2 rested Characters with cost 7 or less from untapping. Rest them first with Nami (OP14-031) or the Main mode of Demon Aura, then lock them for a full swing turn. Cut the Gum-Gum Mole Pistol to make room.
• Against slower control: Meteor-Strike of Love earns its slot. Taking a Life card into hand is a real card when the opponent isn't pressuring your Life. Its Main mode can also push a lethal attack through. In this matchup, keep the Gum-Gum Mole Pistol. Its K.O. clause needs a 6000-power Character on your side, and ST21-014 or ST30-012 Luffy meets that requirement as soon as either is in play.

Character Tuning

A third Roronoa Zoro trades 1 Shakuyaku for more tempo. Zoro's DON!! refresh lets you play a 4-drop and still pay for a Counter or a Sunny activation. Its end-of-turn untap also leaves you a 5000-power body that stays active through your opponent's turn. The cost is a thinner path to Ga Ha Ha Ha!! and to a specific Luffy. Make this swap only if you also raise Bad Manners Kick Course to 4, which every Straw Hat searcher can find.

A second Nami (OP14-031) is the strongest Character addition against boards that rely on Blockers or on keeping attackers active. One play gives you Blocker coverage, rests 2 opposing Characters, and sets 5 DON!! active at end of turn. Those active DON!! cover Counter costs on your opponent's turn. Fund it from Meteor-Strike of Love, not from a 1-cost searcher.

Don't cut the 1-drops below 8 Nami/Bonney. They are what let OP12-015 Luffy and Sanji deploy two bodies in one turn. If you raise your curve, both of those cards get worse.

Tuning for Your Local Field

Before the event, ask two questions:

1. Does the room attack your Leader early? If so, cut Meteor-Strike and raise the 0-cost and green Counters.
2. Does the room build boards? If so, raise the rest-and-lock Events and add the second Nami (OP14-031).

If you can't read the field, the registered 50 is a sound default. It covers both axes, and its two highest-risk slots are its singleton removal and its Life-for-power Events, which are also the easiest to swap.

Budget Options

At roughly $307 at TCGplayer market prices, this list is a real investment. The cost is not spread evenly, though. Most of it sits in a handful of booster-printed slots, and the Leader plus several key Characters come from starter-deck product. You can start with a functional version well below full price and finish it in stages.

Where the Money Likely Is

Cards printed in starter decks (the ST set codes) are usually the cheap end of any list. Booster cards that every competitive copy of the deck runs at four are usually where the bill comes from. The brief shows which slots carry that demand. The two 1-cost Nami searchers (OP01-016 and EB02-017), Jewelry Bonney and Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) appeared at 4 copies in every Luffy & Ace Top 8 list in the window, and Ga Ha Ha Ha!! appeared at 3-4 in all of them (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Expect those to be the expensive purchases. Roronoa Zoro, the 4-cost Nami (OP14-031) and the green Events sit in the middle.

The cheap backbone is the Leader, Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012), Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014), Sanji, Thousand Sunny and Gum-Gum Mole Pistol. Buy these first. Buy base prints, not parallels.

What You Cannot Cut

The 1-cost searchers are the deck. They find your Luffys, they feed Sanji and Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) a body to put into play, and they are your Counter density. Do not swap them for cheaper 1-drops. A substitute without the "Straw Hat Crew" type breaks Sanji's On Play and every search that runs off the type. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) is also non-negotiable. Revealing two Events to drop a free 1-cost searcher and a DON!! is the tempo engine. If you must save money, save it on Events and the 4-cost green Characters.

Acceptable Budget Swaps

The Ga Ha Ha Ha!! swap costs you the least. Its +2000 only reaches your Leader, because no Character in the list has the Whitebeard Pirates type. Both green Events give that same Leader +3000 for the same cost. Be aware of one trade-off: the two green Events are not red, so Shakuyaku cannot pull them. Use Bad Manners Kick Course as the fourth copy if you lean on Shakuyaku for Event searches.

Rules for Any Swap You Make

• No Characters with 7000 base power or more. One on board gives your Leader -2000, so a cheap big body works against your own Leader.
• Keep the Event count at 13 or higher. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) needs two Events in hand. Swapping Events out for Characters hurts that On Play.
• Keep the Straw Hat Crew type on Characters. Sanji, both 1-cost Nami, Jewelry Bonney and Thousand Sunny all key off it.
• Keep the Monkey.D.Luffy count. The Leader's +3000 on your opponent's turn applies only to Luffy (and Ace) cards. Each Luffy you cut removes a body that is hard for your opponent to attack.

Upgrade Path

1. Foundation: Leader, all starter-deck cards, and every copy of Bad Manners Kick Course, Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game and I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! the budget build calls for.
2. Searchers: All eight 1-cost Nami, the four Jewelry Bonney and Shakuyaku. Once these are in, the deck plays consistently even before you finish it.
3. Engine: 4x Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015). This is the largest jump in power. Prioritize it over everything below.
4. Finishers: Roronoa Zoro and Nami (OP14-031), then Meteor-Strike of Love back to its listed count.
5. Final polish: 3x Ga Ha Ha Ha!!. It completes the list, but it is the most optional piece if your budget runs out.

Common Mistakes

1. Reaching for a Green Counter to Save a Character

Three of your Counter Events can only protect the Leader. The Counter halves of Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game and I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! both read "Your Leader gains +3000." Ga Ha Ha Ha!! needs a Whitebeard Pirates-type target. Your Leader has that type, but none of your Characters do. Only Bad Manners Kick Course and Meteor-Strike of Love can boost a Character.

Before you decide a Character is worth defending, count those two cards specifically. Also add the Leader's +3000 to every Monkey.D.Luffy Character on the opponent's turn before you spend anything. Players routinely Counter a Luffy that was already safe.

2. Burning Kick Course on Leader Defense

Bad Manners Kick Course costs 0 DON!!, but it also makes you trash a card from hand, so you spend two cards for +3000. If your Leader is attacked and you hold one of the green Counters or Ga Ha Ha Ha!!, use that first. Save Kick Course as your flexible Character-saver.

The one exception is when you have no DON!! available. Kick Course is your only Counter Event that needs none.

3. Playing OP12-015 Luffy Without the Setup

The On Play of Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) only reveals 2 Events, so you keep them. It then plays a red Character with 3000 power or less from your hand. Legal targets:

• Red Nami (OP01-016)
• Jewelry Bonney
• Shakuyaku
• Sanji, at exactly 3000 power

The green Namis are not legal targets.

The premium line is Luffy into a free Sanji. Sanji's On Play draws a card and plays a Straw Hat Crew Character costing 5 or less, such as Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) with Rush. Two mistakes kill this line:

• Hard-casting Sanji for 5 DON!! on an earlier turn.
• Spending your Events as Counters the turn before you wanted to chain.

Hold two Events and Sanji together until you can use them.

4. Activating Thousand Sunny Too Early

Thousand Sunny gives a rested DON!! card, and only to a Monkey.D.Luffy card. If you activate it before paying for anything, it may have nothing to move. Spend DON!! first, then rest the Stage.

The clean sequence with OP12-015:

1. Pay 4 DON!! for Luffy, which rests them.
2. Its On Play gives one rested DON!!.
3. Sunny gives a second rested DON!!.

That puts you at the 2 given DON!! that Luffy needs for its +2000. The condition counts given DON!! across your whole board, so DON!! given elsewhere also counts.

5. Tapping Out With No DON!! for Counter Events

Your Counter Events cost 1 or 2 DON!!. If you spend everything on your turn, only Kick Course works on the opponent's turn. Two cards fix this, and they do different jobs:

• Roronoa Zoro sets 2 DON!! active immediately, giving you more to spend now.
• Nami (OP14-031) sets up to 5 DON!! active at the end of your turn. You can go all-in and still have Counter costs ready.

Don't spend Nami's refund turn holding DON!! back, because the refund already covers your defense. On turns without Nami, decide before attacking how many DON!! you are keeping.

6. Attacking in the Wrong Order

Your two Rush Luffys each want a specific slot in the attack order:

• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) rests up to 1 opposing Blocker when it attacks. Swing with it first so your later attacks can't be blocked by that Blocker. Its Rush costs resting 1 DON!!, so budget that before you pay for anything else.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) gives a rested DON!! to your Leader or a Character when it attacks. Send it early so the DON!! lands on an attacker that hasn't swung yet. Attacking with it last wastes the buff.

The default order is ST30-012, then ST21-014, then the attacker you just buffed. Nami (OP14-031) helps in the same way: her On Play can rest up to 2 opposing Characters before combat, which takes potential Blockers out of the picture.

7. Treating Meteor-Strike of Love as a Free Counter

Meteor-Strike of Love costs your top Life card on top of 2 DON!!. When you use it to stop a single hit on your Leader, you lose a Life card to avoid losing a Life card. You've paid a card and 2 DON!! for almost nothing, and you give up any Trigger that hit might have revealed.

Its real jobs are elsewhere:

• On defense: saving a key Character, where taking the hit costs you a body rather than Life.
• On your own turn: using it as a [Main] for +3000 that lasts the whole turn, which pushes an attacker through for lethal.

Check before every game-ending attack whether it gets you there.

Tournament Prep & Final Notes

What to Drill Before the Event

• The free-play chain. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP12-015) reveals 2 Events and puts a red Character with 3000 power or less from your hand onto the board. Sanji is red with 3000 power, so it qualifies. Sanji's On Play then draws 1 card and plays a Straw Hat Crew Character costing 5 or less, such as Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014) with Rush. That is three bodies for 4 DON!!. Goldfish it until you can spot every piece in your hand without thinking: the OP12-015 Luffy, 2 Events, Sanji, and a target.
• Counter allocation. Sort your hand by what each card can protect before the opponent's attack step starts. Getting this wrong can lose you a key Character.
• Life as a resource. Meteor-Strike of Love makes you take a Life card into your hand. Practice deciding when a 4-Life Leader can afford that and when it can't.
• Your most likely opponents. Rocks.D.Xebec (OP17-039) took 8 of 32 Top 8 slots across four 64-player online events (source: Limitless online standings, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Luffy & Ace took 6 slots from 31 of 256 entries in the same window (source: Limitless online standings, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Spend your reps on the Xebec matchup and the mirror.

Rules Interactions to Know Cold

• The Leader's drawback never turns on here. The -2000 checks for a Character with 7000 base power. Your biggest base power is 6000, on Monkey.D.Luffy (ST30-012) and Monkey.D.Luffy (ST21-014). Buffs don't change base power, so a pumped OP12-015 Luffy doesn't count. Never hold back a board to protect your Leader's power.
• Your Luffys are bigger on defense. On the opponent's turn, every Monkey.D.Luffy gains +3000. ST30-012 and ST21-014 defend at 9000 and OP12-015 at 7000, before anything else applies. Factor this in before you spend a Counter on a Luffy that is already safe.
• Most of your Counter Events only protect the Leader.
  • Ga Ha Ha Ha!! needs a Whitebeard Pirates target. Your Leader has that type and none of your Characters do.
  • The Counter halves of Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura Blades Drawn Dead Man's Game and I Know You're Strong... So I'll Go All Out from the Very Start!!! buff only your Leader.
  • Only Bad Manners Kick Course and Meteor-Strike of Love can save a Character.
• Bad Manners Kick Course isn't free. It costs 0 DON!!, but the +3000 only happens if you trash a card from hand. With an empty hand, it does nothing.
• Know what each search engine can and can't do.
  • Jewelry Bonney and Shakuyaku are not Straw Hat Crew, so Sanji can't play them.
  • OP12-015 Luffy needs a red target. The green Nami printings (EB02-017, OP14-031) are off-limits to it.
  • Sanji can never play another Sanji.
• Revealing isn't discarding. The OP12-015 Luffy only reveals its 2 Events. They stay in hand as Counters for the opponent's turn.
• Given DON!! is counted across your board. OP12-015 Luffy's +2000 checks your total given DON!!, not just DON!! on that Luffy. Its own On Play gives one rested DON!!. Thousand Sunny's activated ability gives another, but only to a Monkey.D.Luffy card.
• Gum-Gum Mole Pistol has a K.O. condition. The K.O. half needs a Character with 6000 power or more. As a Trigger, it checks your board at that moment. Note whether you have a 6000 body before you flip Life.
• Nami (OP14-031) sets up your defense. She sets up to 5 DON!! active at the end of your turn. That leaves you DON!! to pay for cost-1 and cost-2 Counter Events on the opponent's turn. Roronoa Zoro's 2 active DON!! do the same job on a smaller scale.

Time Management

This deck isn't slow on board, but it is slow on the clock. Counting Thousand Sunny, seven different cards in the list look at 4 or 5 cards. Each one then makes you order the rest on the bottom. In most games you never reach the bottom of a 50-card deck, so pick the order quickly and move on.

The chain turn is where you lose minutes. Plan it before you tap anything:

1. Confirm which 2 Events you're revealing.
2. Confirm Sanji's target.
3. Decide where the given DON!! goes.

Then run it in one motion. On the opponent's turn, sort your Counters by what they can protect before attacks start, so you aren't reading cards mid-battle.

Format Notes

The current banned list took effect 2026-10-12, with OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk as the new addition (source: Bandai official Banned/Restricted list, effective 2026-10-12). This list's result came the next day. Your 50 cards must match your Leader's colors, which here means red and green, with no more than 4 copies of any card number. There are no restricted cards right now.

Final Assessment

This list took 2nd at ChinoizeCup #122 out of 64 players. Luffy & Ace also finished 4th and 8th at that event. Across the window, it reached the Top 8 in 3 of 4 events but won none of them (source: Limitless online standings, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). That record fits the deck's profile: consistent, but it has to be piloted cleanly to close games out.

The strengths come straight from the card text:

• Seventeen 1-cost search Characters plus four Thousand Sunny make your draws consistent.
• The Luffy and Sanji chain can put three bodies on board in one turn.
• A Leader with no real drawback in this list grows your Luffys by 3000 every time your opponent attacks.

The weakness is just as clear: protecting Characters. Only five Counter Events in the list can protect a Character instead of the Leader. When an opponent attacks your board instead of your face, every Counter you spend on a Character is a real cost.

Learn the chain and learn which Counter saves what. Done right, this is a list you can bring to any Standard event.

Metagame Context

Built from not_dev's 2nd Place list at ChinoizeCup #122 Tuesday (64 players, 2026-10-13), via the Limitless platform. Metagame context comes from a research brief dated 2026-10-19 covering 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19, drawn from the Limitless TCG online platform; Limitless TCG event results; Bandai (official One Piece site). Card text and prices: optcgapi.com and tcgcsv.com (TCGplayer prices).

Source: tournament results. Decklist and placements as reported by the event organizer.