Monkey.D.Luffy — Standard Strategy Guide

Archetype Overview

This is a Green/Red Straw Hat Crew deck built around one idea: DON!! you leave active at the end of your turn becomes free defense on your opponent's turn. The Monkey.D.Luffy Leader (OP13-001) converts active DON!! into power during the opponent's battles. The rest of the list exists to develop threats on your turn, untap DON!! afterward, and send that DON!! back across the table as blocks and counters you never had to spend a card on. It took 1st place at ChinoizeCup #121 Monday (2026-10-12), a 64-player event, piloted by snorlax1cynda.

The Engine: Active DON!! as Defense

The Leader's ability has three conditions you need to know cold:

• [DON!! x1]: the Leader must have a DON!! given to it. Thousand Sunny covers this cheaply. Rest the Stage to give a rested DON!! to any of your Monkey.D.Luffy cards, and the Leader counts.
• 5 or less active DON!!: the ability turns off if you have six or more active. More untap is not always better, so you plan your end-of-turn state.
• Per DON!! rested: each one gives +2000 to the Leader or one Straw Hat Crew Character during that battle. Any DON!! you rest is gone for the rest of the turn, so you are spreading a fixed amount of defense across every attack your opponent makes.

Since the Leader only has 4 Life, this ability is what keeps you alive. Play it well and your opponent's attacks run into walls while your hand stays full.

The Untap Package

Almost every Character in the deck turns tapped DON!! back to active:

• Usopp sets 2 DON!! active at the end of your turn.
• Sanji refunds 2 on play and untaps 1 more at the end of your turn.
• Nami (OP14-031) sets up to 5 active at the end of the turn. That number matches the Leader's cap exactly. She also rests two opposing Characters and stays home as a Blocker.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) sets 4 active on play, because your Leader is multicolored. That turns a cost-6 Double Attacker into something closer to a cost-2 play. The catch is that you can't follow it with a Character of base cost 5 or more that turn.
• Charlestone adds +4000 as a Counter and sets 3 DON!! active in the middle of your opponent's turn. That refuels the Leader for the next attack.

Put together, you can spend most of your DON!! developing on your own turn and still pass with enough active DON!! to defend. Most decks have to pick between developing and holding up defense. This one usually doesn't.

How the Deck Closes

The offense uses the same tempo, applied to your opponent's board:

• Rest effects: Nami (OP14-031) and Brook rest opposing cards.
• Locking them down: Electrical Luna stops rested opposing Characters of cost 7 or less from untapping in the next Refresh Phase. That shuts off blocks and attacks for a full turn cycle.
• Extra attacks: Brook can trash itself to stand a Character back up. A second swing from the Double Attack Monkey.D.Luffy is the obvious target.
• Immediate pressure: Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) gains Rush once you have given out 3 or more DON!! in total. Roronoa Zoro can gain Rush against Characters only, if your opponent has a Character with 8000 or more power. Zoro's on-play also gives your Leader +2000 through your opponent's next End Phase, so every DON!! the Leader rests goes further.

Laboon covers your board. If an opponent's effect would remove one of your Characters with 7000 base power or less, you rest 2 of your cards instead. That covers Sanji, the Double Attack Monkey.D.Luffy, Brook, Usopp, and every Nami. It does not cover Roronoa Zoro or the 9000-power Monkey.D.Luffy.

Why the Plan Is Strong

• Consistency: the deck has 12 search effects: two copies of Nami at 4 each, plus 4 Thousand Sunny. Each looks five deep for Straw Hat Crew pieces, and the EB02-017 Nami and the Stage can find any Straw Hat Crew card, not just Characters. Note that neither Nami searcher can find another Nami, and neither Laboon nor the Events are Straw Hat Crew.
• Card economy: Leader-based defense saves Counter cards, so you get to the late game with more resources than your opponent.
• Removal resistance: Laboon blunts effect-based answers to your key Characters.
• Tempo swings: rest effects plus Electrical Luna can take most of an opponent's board out of a turn cycle.

Who Should Pick It Up

This deck rewards players who track resources carefully. Every turn you have to count:

• given DON!!, active DON!!, and rested DON!!;
• which end-of-turn untaps will fire;
• whether they push you over the five-active cap;
• how to split your remaining DON!! across the opponent's attacks.

If you like tempo decks where small sequencing edges add up, this is your list. If you want a deck that plays itself, look elsewhere. Misreading your DON!! state for even one turn can leave your Leader undefended at 4 Life. At about $361, it is a real investment, so practice the DON!! math before you register it.

Core Strategy & Game Plan

This deck plays a ramp-tempo game with a defensive Leader. You spend all your DON!! every turn, and your Characters keep setting it back to active. That refund does two jobs. On your turn it lets you play more than your DON!! count should allow. On your opponent's turn it fuels your Leader's pump. You aren't trying to out-race anyone early. You make attacks into you expensive, then close with Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) Double Attack swings once their board is rested and locked.

The Engine: Spend, Refund, Defend

Your Leader is the core of the deck. With one DON!! given to it, whenever your opponent attacks while you have 5 or fewer active DON!!, you can rest DON!! for +2000 per card. That pump can go to the Leader or to any Straw Hat Crew Character. Five active DON!! is +10000 on a single battle. That makes 5000-power Leader swings a losing trade and turns a 2000-power Nami (OP14-031) Blocker into a real wall.

The refund pieces turn spent DON!! into defensive DON!!:

• Usopp: sets up to 2 DON!! active at the end of your turn, every turn it survives.
• Sanji: sets up to 2 active On Play, so it effectively costs 3. It sets 1 more at the end of each of your turns.
• Nami (OP14-031): rests up to 2 opposing Characters of cost 8 or less, then sets up to 5 DON!! active at the end of the turn. It gives you tempo and a full defensive reload in one card.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118): sets up to 4 active On Play, because your Leader is Green Red.
• Charlestone: +4000 as a Counter. If you trash a card, it also sets up to 3 DON!! active mid-battle, which reloads the Leader for the next attack that turn.

Thousand Sunny handles the other half of the Leader's condition. Its Activate: Main gives a rested DON!! to any of your Monkey.D.Luffy cards, and that includes your Leader. Once your main phase is spent, rest Sunny to meet the DON!! x1 requirement without using an active DON!!. Make this a habit, not something you do only when you remember.

The 5-DON!! Ceiling

The Leader checks for 5 or less active DON!!. In the late game, Usopp, Sanji and the 4-cost Nami can stack past that if you aren't careful. Every refund says "up to", so set active only as many as keeps you at 5 or fewer going into their turn. If you're already over 5 when they attack, spend the extra on a Charlestone to drop under the ceiling, then use the Leader.

How the Deck Wins

You win through damage in two or three big turns, not chip damage.

• Lock first. Nami (OP14-031) rests two Characters and Brook rests one more card. Then Electrical Luna keeps every rested opposing Character of cost 7 or less from untapping in their next Refresh Phase. They can't block your next swings, and they can't attack back with those Characters.
• Double Attack plus a reset. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) is a 7000-power Double Attacker that refunds most of its own cost. Brook's trash ability sets a Character with base cost 8 or less back to active, so Luffy attacks twice in one turn. Brook has base cost 6, and Luffy's On Play stops you playing base cost 5+ Characters that turn. That means Brook must already be on the field before Luffy lands.
• Rush finishers. Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) gains Rush once you have 3 or more given DON!! in total, and Sunny's attachment counts toward that. Roronoa Zoro gains Rush: Character against any 8000+ power Character, and its On Play leaves your Leader at 7000 through your opponent's next End Phase. That gives you more defense before you even rest a single DON!!.

Laboon protects the engine. Usopp, Sanji, both 1-cost and 4-cost Namis, Brook and the OP13-118 Luffy all have 7000 base power or less. When the opponent's effect would remove one of them, you can rest 2 of your cards instead. Laboon is Animal type, not Straw Hat Crew, so your Leader can't pump it.

The Ideal Game

1. 1-3 DON!!: Dig with Nami (OP01-016 or EB02-017) and Thousand Sunny. Look for 4-cost Nami, Usopp and Luffy. Hold your Counters rather than spending DON!! on Laboon unless you have nothing else to play.
2. 4-5 DON!!: Land Usopp or Nami (OP14-031). Both set DON!! back to active at the end of the turn, so your Leader starts pumping from this point. Attach a DON!! to the Leader every turn, using Sunny when you can.
3. 6-7 DON!!: Sanji refunds 2, which lets you add Usopp or the 4-cost Nami the same turn. Two refund Characters on board means you start every opposing turn with active DON!!.
4. 8 DON!!: This is the lock turn. Play Nami (OP14-031) to rest two Characters, then Electrical Luna, and spend the last DON!! on the Leader. You end the turn with up to 5 active DON!! and a frozen opposing board.
5. 9-10 DON!!: Close. With Brook already in play, slam Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118). Use its 4 refunded DON!! on attachments and a 4-cost-or-lower follow-up, then swing, trash Brook to reset Luffy, and swing again.

Each of those turns has the same shape. Develop with everything you have, refund back to 5 or fewer active DON!!, and give your opponent a choice between unprofitable attacks and passing into your next turn.

Card Choices & Breakdown

Every slot in this list answers one question: how do you end your turn with active DON!! for your Leader to spend on defense? The Monkey.D.Luffy Leader (OP13-001) only fires with a DON!! attached, and only if you have 5 or less active DON!! when the opponent attacks. Each DON!! you rest then adds +2000 to the Leader or a Straw Hat Crew Character for that battle. The deck refunds DON!! at end of turn so you can attack freely and still defend.

Search: 12 Nami, 4 Thousand Sunny

The two 1-cost Nami searchers are not identical, and the difference matters:

• Nami (OP01-016) finds only a Straw Hat Crew Character. Use it when you need a body: Usopp, Sanji, or a Monkey.D.Luffy.
• Nami (EB02-017) finds any Straw Hat Crew card. That includes Thousand Sunny, so this copy can assemble your Stage early.

Neither can grab another Nami, so the 4-cost Nami (OP14-031) has to come from a natural draw or from Thousand Sunny. Thousand Sunny's On Play search has no Nami restriction.

All three Namis carry +1000 Counter, so a late-game copy still pitches to defense. Thousand Sunny is the real reason for four copies. Its Activate gives a rested DON!! to one of your Monkey.D.Luffy cards, and your Leader is one of them. That covers the Leader's DON!! x1 requirement without spending an active DON!!. It also counts toward the 3 given DON!! that turns on Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004)'s Rush.

Note what the search package cannot find:

• Laboon is Animal.
• Charlestone is Donquixote Pirates.
• Electrical Luna is Minks.

Those twelve slots are drawn naturally. That is part of why they sit at 4, 4 and 3.

DON!! Refresh Engine: Usopp, Sanji, Nami (OP14-031), Charlestone

• Usopp sets up to 2 DON!! active at the end of every one of your turns. It is the most reliable piece because it repeats. As a 4-cost with +1000 Counter, it doubles as a curve play and a defensive card.
• Sanji refunds 2 DON!! on play, which effectively makes it a 3-cost 7000. It adds 1 more at end of turn. It has no Counter, so it is a commit, not a pitch.
• Nami (OP14-031) is the swing card. It is a Blocker that rests up to 2 opposing Characters with cost 8 or less, then sets up to 5 DON!! active at end of turn. The "up to" matters. Choose a number that keeps you at 5 or fewer active DON!!, because 6 active DON!! switches your Leader's ability off.
• Charlestone gives +4000 as a Counter. You can then trash a card to set up to 3 DON!! active. That turns the Leader's spent DON!! back into fuel mid-turn, so one Charlestone can effectively power two big Leader activations. Its Trigger rests a cost-3-or-less target.

Finishers: Luffy x7, Zoro x4, Brook x4

• Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) is a 6-cost Double Attack that refunds 4 DON!!, since your Leader is Green Red.
  • The cost: no Characters with base cost 5 or more for the rest of that turn.
  • That restriction still allows Usopp and Nami (OP14-031) as follow-ups. Luffy into Nami, resting two blockers, is the deck's signature turn.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) is a 9000 that gains Rush with 3 given DON!!. Its On Play scales with every Straw Hat Crew card on your field and targets one opposing Character. It is your top-end reach.
• Roronoa Zoro gives your Leader +2000 until the end of the opponent's next End Phase. Every DON!! you rest on defense then stacks on a 7000 base instead of 5000. It gains Rush only if the opponent has an 8000+ power Character, so treat Rush as a bonus against big boards, not a plan.
• Brook rests one opposing card on play. It can also trash itself to set a Character with base cost 8 or less active. That re-readies a Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) for a second Double Attack swing, or re-readies a Roronoa Zoro. Its +1000 Counter keeps it live from hand.

Protection and Lock: Laboon, Electrical Luna

Laboon is the deck's best Counter card at +2000. On the field, it protects any of your Characters with 7000 base power or less from removal by an opponent's effect, if you rest 2 of your cards instead. That covers Sanji, Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118), Brook, Usopp and every Nami. It does not cover Roronoa Zoro or Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004), which are both 9000.

Electrical Luna keeps every rested opposing Character with cost 7 or less from untapping in the next Refresh Phase. It pairs with Nami (OP14-031) and Brook rests to freeze a board for a full turn cycle.

Why 3, Not 4

• Electrical Luna at 3: it is a 3-cost Main Event with no Counter value. With nothing rested on the opponent's side, it does nothing outside its Trigger. That makes it a payoff, not a card you want multiples of in hand.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) at 3: the list already runs four Roronoa Zoro at 7 cost. Neither card has a Counter value, so a fourth 7-cost Character would be one more card that can't defend. The deck's defense leans on Counter cards and active DON!!, so dead cards in hand are expensive.

The Decklist

This is the list that took 1st place at ChinoizeCup #121 Monday on 2026-10-12, a 64-player event, piloted by snorlax1cynda. It runs 39 Characters, 7 Events and 4 Stages for exactly 50 cards. Several names repeat across different printings, so set numbers are listed next to each entry. Make sure you sleeve the right versions.

Leader

Characters (39)

Events (7)

Stage (4)

Reading the list

• Search coverage: You have 12 search effects across the two 1-cost Nami and Thousand Sunny. None of them can find Laboon, Charlestone or Electrical Luna. Those cards have to come from natural draws, so their counts matter more than they look.
• Defense: 24 Characters carry a Counter value, and Charlestone adds 4 more Counter cards. That is enough to back up the Leader's DON!! pumps. Your top end (Sanji, both 6/7-cost Luffys and Roronoa Zoro) has no Counter value, so do not count those cards as defense.
• Triggers: Only the 7 Events have Triggers. Treat Life hits as card advantage, not a safety net.
• Cost: The estimated price is about $361 at TCGplayer market prices.

Opening Hands & Mulligan

Your opener has three jobs. It has to start the search chain, survive the early attacks, and reach a 4-cost DON!! engine on curve. Judge every five-card hand against those three jobs. Any single high-cost card can be fine; what matters is whether the hand does all three.

What a Keep Needs

• A 1-cost starter. You have twelve: Nami (OP01-016), Nami (EB02-017) and Thousand Sunny. Each one looks at five cards for a Straw Hat Crew piece. The EB02-017 Nami and Thousand Sunny can find any Straw Hat Crew card, so they can pull a Stage. The OP01-016 Nami finds Characters only.
• Counter value. Sanji, Roronoa Zoro and every Monkey.D.Luffy Character have no Counter. A hand built from those cards cannot defend itself. Laboon (+2000) and Charlestone (+4000) are the cards you want here.
• A path to the 4-drop. You can hold Usopp or Nami (OP14-031) in hand, or plan to search one off a 1-cost Nami.

Snap Keeps

The best opener is Thousand Sunny plus any Nami plus a Counter card. The Stage's Activate: Main rests it to give a rested DON!! to your Monkey.D.Luffy Leader. That turns on the Leader's [DON!! x1] requirement without costing you an active DON!!. The Stage stays on the field, so you can repeat this on every one of your turns. With Thousand Sunny in play, the Leader's defensive ability costs you nothing to set up for the rest of the game. That makes it the strongest opening card in the deck.

Two 1-drops plus Usopp or the OP14-031 Nami is also a clean keep, even if the hand has nothing else.

Send It Back

• No Nami and no Thousand Sunny. Without a searcher you are hoping to draw your curve. Redraw unless the hand has both a 4-drop and real Counters.
• Top-heavy, Counter-light hands. An example is Roronoa Zoro, Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004), Brook and Electrical Luna with a single 1-drop. You will take Life damage freely before any of it comes online.
• Laboon as the only 1-cost. It defends but finds nothing. Treat it as a Counter card, not a starter.

A hand with one starter and one dead top-end card is still a keep. A spare card in hand is not wasted, because Charlestone wants a card to trash so it can set 3 DON!! active.

Going First

You have 1 DON!! on turn 1.

1. Turn 1: Lead with Thousand Sunny if you have it. You get the search, and you can attach the spent DON!! to your Leader right away. Otherwise play whichever Nami finds your missing piece.
2. Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Play a 1-drop and attach DON!! to the Leader. Then leave DON!! active. The Leader's ability only rests active DON!! on your opponent's turn, at +2000 per DON!!. Two active DON!! can become +4000 on a key block, or pay for Charlestone.
3. Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Play Usopp or the OP14-031 Nami plus a 1-drop. Usopp sets 2 DON!! active at the end of your turn. The OP14-031 Nami sets up to 5 active at end of turn. Either way, your opponent's turn starts with defensive DON!! you already spent once.

Going Second

You have 2 DON!! on turn 1, enough for two 1-drops.

1. Turn 1: Play Thousand Sunny plus a Nami, and move a rested DON!! onto the Leader. If you have no Stage, two searchers or Nami plus Laboon is the line.
2. Turn 2 (4 DON!!): The OP14-031 Nami is the premium play. It rests up to 2 opposing Characters (cost 8 or less) and refunds up to 5 DON!! at end of turn. You attack into a rested board and still defend at full strength.
3. Turn 3 (6 DON!!): Play the OP13-118 Monkey.D.Luffy and set 4 DON!! active, since your Leader is multicolored. Then follow up with a 4-drop. Its restriction only blocks Characters with base cost 5 or more, so Usopp, the OP14-031 Nami, 1-drops and Events are all still live.

Going second, you can keep a slightly greedier hand: your turn-2 four-drop is guaranteed on DON!! count. Going first, keep Counters more strictly, because you face an extra attack step before your engine starts refunding DON!!.

Matchups That Change the Keep

Whatever the matchup, the first filter does not change: a hand with no 1-cost searcher has to justify itself. If it can't, take the redraw.

Sequencing & Key Lines

The Rule Behind Every Turn: End With Five

Your Leader's defense needs two things on the opponent's turn. The first is at least one DON!! given to the Leader. The second is five or fewer active DON!! in your cost area, because the ability shuts off at six or more. Every end-of-turn effect in the list reads "up to," so you choose the number. If Usopp, Sanji and Nami (OP14-031) together could set more than five DON!! active, stop at five. Ending with six active DON!! turns off your Leader's defense, and it will cost you a game.

The cheapest way to turn on the DON!! x1 condition is Thousand Sunny. Rest it to give one rested DON!! to your Leader. That DON!! was already spent on a play this turn, so it costs you nothing extra. Activate Sunny at the end of every main phase unless you need that DON!! on a Monkey.D.Luffy Character instead.

Turns 1–2: Dig and Set Up

• Lead with Thousand Sunny when you hold a 4-cost Nami gap. Sunny is your only search that can find Nami (OP14-031). Both 1-cost Nami exclude other Namis.
• Use Nami (EB02-017) over Nami (OP01-016) when you need Sunny itself. EB02-017 can find any Straw Hat Crew card. OP01-016 finds Characters only.
• Going second, you have two DON!!. Play a 1-cost Nami, then Thousand Sunny, then activate Sunny to attach a rested DON!! to your Leader. You finish with two searches and a Leader that is set up for later turns.
• Don't play Laboon early unless you have nothing else to do with the DON!!. It does nothing on an empty board, and its +2000 Counter is better kept in hand.

Turns 3–4: The Untap Curve

At four DON!!, Nami (OP14-031) is your best play. Rest their two best active Characters so you can attack them or get past a Blocker. Then sit on up to five active DON!! at end of turn. Usopp is the fallback when you are safe and just want two DON!! back.

At five DON!!, Sanji costs three in practice: pay five, then set two active. Those two DON!! can pay for a 1-cost Character, or you can keep them active for the opponent's turn.

Ordering Your Big Turns

Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) sets four DON!! active, but you can't play Characters with base cost 5 or more for the rest of the turn. Always play Sanji, Brook, Roronoa Zoro or Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) before OP13-118, never after.

A strong ten-DON!! turn runs in this order:

1. Sanji: pay five, set two active.
2. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118): pay six, set four active.
3. Nami (OP14-031): rest two of their Characters.
4. A 1-cost Nami.

You end the turn with the Nami untap capped at five active DON!!.

Two other big plays depend on what you put down first:

• Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004): play it after your board is wide. Its On Play scales with every Straw Hat Crew card on your field, and Thousand Sunny counts. To give it Rush, reach three total given DON!!. Sunny's attachment counts toward that total.
• Roronoa Zoro: on a turn when you expect a big swing back, play it over other 7-costs. Its Leader buff lasts through the opponent's End Phase and stacks with your DON!! pumps.

Defending: Spend DON!! Across Attacks

Your Leader's ability triggers on each attack, and it can also protect an attacked Straw Hat Crew Character. Before you rest anything on the first attack, count how many attackers they have left. Each DON!! you rest adds +2000, so plan the full turn instead of blowing your whole pool on the first swing.

Charlestone refills the pool. It costs two, then trashing a card sets three DON!! active. That leaves you one DON!! ahead for the next attack's trigger. Use it on an early attack, not the last one, so the refreshed DON!! actually get used. Trash a spent 1-cost Nami or an extra Thousand Sunny before you trash anything that adds power.

Closing the Game

• Clear the way: use Brook's On Play to rest their Blocker before you attack.
• Swing with Double Attack: attack with Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118).
• Swing again: trash Brook to set that Luffy active, then attack again for a second Double Attack.
• Removal on 9000-power threats: Roronoa Zoro gains Rush: Character when they have a Character with 8000 power or more. Use it to clear that Character on the turn you play Zoro.
• Lock with Electrical Luna: hold it for a turn after they attacked with several Characters, since those attackers are still rested on your turn. Rest more of their Characters with Nami (OP14-031) or Brook first, then cast Luna. Everything rested with cost 7 or less stays down through their next Refresh Phase.

Playing Around Removal

The interaction that hurts this list most is effect-based removal of your engine Characters. Laboon answers it for any Character with 7000 base power or less, which covers Sanji, OP13-118 Luffy, Usopp, Brook and every Nami. It does not cover your 9000-power 7-costs.

The price is resting two of your cards. Pay with Characters or Thousand Sunny before active DON!! whenever you can, because every DON!! you rest for Laboon is +2000 your Leader no longer has. Against a deck that removes cards by effect, get Laboon down before your biggest untap turn, not after you lose the first Sanji.

Matchup Matrix

The brief tells you who is showing up. It does not give you the opposing card text, so every plan below runs on what your own cards do. For named Leaders whose plan you can't read from the data, sort them by how they play in the first two turns, then use the matching strategy row.

Rocks.D.Xebec

Xebec is the deck to prepare for. It had 46 of 256 entries and 8 of 32 Top 8 slots (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). It also finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th at the event this list won (source: ChinoizeCup #121 standings, 2026-10-12). All eight of those Top 8 lists ran the same eight four-ofs (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Expect the same core every game and learn it before the event.

Your plan is defense first, then one decisive turn:

• Arm the Leader before passing. Rest Thousand Sunny to give a rested DON!! to your Leader. That satisfies the DON!! x1 condition for their turn.
• Refuel at end of turn. Usopp and Sanji set DON!! active at the end of your turn. Those DON!! become fuel for the Leader's +2000-per-DON!! boost on their attacks.
• Convert on your big turn. Play Nami (OP14-031) to rest two of their Characters, add Brook's rest, then lock them with Electrical Luna. Swing with the Double Attack Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118).
• Mind Luna's cost limit. It only holds Characters costing 7 or less. Anything costing 8 that Nami rests will still untap.

Luffy & Ace

All six Top 8 lists ran four each of Nami (OP01-016), Nami (EB02-017) and Thousand Sunny (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-06 to 2026-10-13). They search exactly as well as you do, so you will not out-draw them. You win on tempo instead.

• Watch for their Brook. Two of the six lists ran one copy of Brook, which rests one of your cards on play. Laboon does not stop that, because resting is not removal from the field.
• Bank Leader power before you race. Roronoa Zoro's +2000 to your Leader lasts through their next End Phase.
• Finish with Rush. Close with Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) once you have three given DON!! across your field. Thousand Sunny helps you reach that count.

Monkey.D.Luffy (OP17-079)

This Leader had 29 entries, 3 Top 8 slots and a 6-0 win at ChinoizeCup #118 (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Don't assume it plays like your Leader just because it shares the name. Read its first two turns: does it pressure your Life or develop a board? Then play the matching row below.

Kalgara

Kalgara had only 9 entries but took 3 Top 8 slots, including a 6-0 win and a second Kalgara finishing 5th at ChinoizeCup #122 (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Same approach: identify its posture early and avoid overcommitting before you know it.

Aggro

This is where your Leader shines. On each opposing attack, as long as you have five or fewer active DON!!, you rest any number of them for +2000 each.

• Don't overshoot the threshold. Charlestone gives +4000 and can set three DON!! active mid-battle. That refuels the Leader for the next attack, but only if it leaves you at five or fewer active DON!!.
• Count before you cast. Check your active DON!! before casting Charlestone so you don't push yourself above five and switch the Leader off.
• Add blockers and Leader power. Nami (OP14-031) is a Blocker, and Roronoa Zoro raises your Leader's power for their next turn.

Removal-heavy control

Laboon protects any Character with 7000 base power or less, which covers most of your list:

• Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118)
• Sanji
• Brook
• Usopp
• Every Nami

When their effect would remove one of these, you rest two of your cards instead. It does not cover Roronoa Zoro or Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004), both at 9000. Deploy those when Rush lets them hit immediately, not as standing threats.

Wide / Blocker midrange

This is the matchup your rest effects are built for.

1. Rest their Characters with Nami (OP14-031) and Brook.
2. Cast Electrical Luna so those Characters stay rested through their Refresh Phase.
3. Attack with the Double Attack Monkey.D.Luffy.
4. Trash Brook to set Monkey.D.Luffy active and attack again.

If they field a Character with 8000 or more power, Roronoa Zoro gains Rush: Character and can hit it the turn he lands.

Rest of the field

Treat Sabo, Donquixote Rosinante and the Enel Leaders by strategy rather than by name. None had more than 2 Top 8 slots in the window (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19).

Tech Choices & Variations

Most of this list is locked. The twelve Nami and the Usopp / Sanji / Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) DON!! engine are the deck. Charlestone at four is part of how the Leader functions, since setting 3 DON!! active refills what the Leader rests on your opponent's turn. The real decisions are in about a dozen slots: the third copies, the top-end finishers, and the non-Straw Hat support.

The Search-Density Rule

Before you change anything, count your search hits. Nami (OP01-016) finds only Straw Hat Crew Characters. Nami (EB02-017) and Thousand Sunny find any Straw Hat Crew card. Laboon, Charlestone and Electrical Luna are not Straw Hat Crew, so none of the searchers can find them. That is 11 cards the deck cannot find. Every non-Straw Hat card you add makes your searchers less likely to hit. It also shrinks the bonus on Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004), whose On Play counts the Straw Hat Crew cards on your field. Any swap away from the crew has to earn that cost.

Flex Slot Summary

The Swaps and What They Cost

4th Electrical Luna over a 4th Roronoa Zoro. Luna locks down opposing rested Characters with cost 7 or less: they stay rested through your opponent's next Refresh Phase. It works best right after Nami (OP14-031) rests two Characters or Brook rests one. Your opponent then skips a turn of attacks, and blockers they leave rested stay rested. Against Character-heavy opponents, that turn usually wins the game. You give up a 9000-power body that also keeps your Leader at +2000 through your opponent's turn. Against aggro, that Leader buff is often worth more than any lock.

4th Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) over a Thousand Sunny. More Rush threats on the turns you give 3 or more DON!!, at the cost of consistency and a Straw Hat Crew Stage that feeds Luffy's On Play count. Make this swap only if your games regularly reach the late turns with the engine already running and you lack a finisher. Neither card has a Counter value, so the trade does not change your defense.

Trimming to 3 Brook. Brook's activated ability trashes it to set a Character active. Pointed at Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118), that gives a Double Attack Character a second swing. Brook also carries a +1000 Counter, which makes it a solid cut only when you are adding another Counter card in its place. Swapping it for a no-Counter closer weakens your defense twice: once for the lost Counter, once for the lost tempo.

Keep Laboon at four. It is the deck's only +2000 Counter Character. Its replacement effect also protects every Character with base power 7000 or less from opposing removal effects, which covers the whole engine. It does not protect Roronoa Zoro or Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) at 9000. The cost is resting 2 of your cards, so decide early whether you would rather rest those cards or lose the Character.

Outside Cards

Any card you bring in must be Green or Red to match the Leader. Two kinds of card are reasonable to test:

• A low-cost Blocker. Today Nami (OP14-031) is your only Blocker. A second one helps against aggro. It costs you a search hit unless the new card is Straw Hat Crew.
• Another Counter Event. These help against Leader-pressure decks. They work best if they cost 2 or less, so they don't fight the Leader's DON!! rest for resources. Each one is another card your searchers cannot find.

Cut from Thousand Sunny or the third Electrical Luna first. Never cut the engine or Charlestone to make room.

Tuning for Your Local Field

• Wide-board midrange: 4 Electrical Luna, 3 Roronoa Zoro. Rest with Nami (OP14-031) and Brook, then lock with Luna.
• Removal-heavy control: keep 4 Laboon. Lean on the 7000-and-under bodies Laboon protects, and keep the 9000s for when the board is safe.
• Fast aggro: keep 4 Roronoa Zoro for the lasting Leader buff. Consider a Blocker or Counter Event over the third Electrical Luna.

If you are tuning for online play, the most Top 8 slots went to Rocks.D.Xebec (OP17-039) with 8 of 32 and Luffy & Ace (ST30-001) with 6 (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Those figures cover only four 64-player online events, and no in-person majors after 2026-07-26 were listed. Treat them as a starting point, not a forecast. Your own locals' Character density matters more when you decide on the Luna count than any online sample.

Budget Options

At roughly $361 at market (TCGplayer, approximate), this is a mid-priced list. It is also hard to cut down, because nearly every slot feeds the same DON!! loop. The goal is to put your money into the engine first and accept temporary losses in the reach and tech slots.

Where the Money Likely Sits

No individual prices are quoted here, but you can predict the pressure points.

• Cross-archetype staples. Nami (OP01-016), Nami (EB02-017) and Thousand Sunny appeared at 4 copies in all 6 Luffy & Ace Top 8 lists, and Brook appeared in 2 of them (source: Limitless TCG online events, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Demand from two decks usually keeps a card's price up. These are also the cards you can reuse if you switch Leaders later.
• The cost 6 and cost 7 finishers. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118), Roronoa Zoro and Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) are the cards that close games. That is where premium versions tend to cluster.
• The Leader. Make sure you buy OP13-001. A different Monkey.D.Luffy Leader, OP17-079, is also in the format, and the two show up separately in results (source: Limitless TCG, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). Buying the wrong one is an expensive mistake.

The easiest saving costs you nothing in games: buy base prints, not parallel arts. Every swap below gives up real power. This one gives up only shine.

The Non-Negotiables

Do not trim these, whatever your budget:

• The OP13-001 Leader.
• All three Nami printings. They are different card numbers, so 12 copies are legal.
• Usopp.
• Sanji.
• Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118).
• Charlestone.

The Leader only fires if you have 5 or fewer active DON!! cards. It then lets you rest DON!! for +2000 power on each of your opponent's attacks. These cards are the ones that set DON!! back to active. Nami (OP14-031) and the OP13-118 Monkey.D.Luffy reset large chunks of DON!! on your turn. Usopp and Sanji untap DON!! at the end of your turn, so you have something to rest during your opponent's turn. Charlestone refreshes DON!! in the middle of their attack step. If you cut into this group, the Leader becomes a vanilla 5000.

The cost 1 Namis and Thousand Sunny are the consistency layer. A budget build already has fewer finishers, so it needs to find its engine pieces even more reliably.

Budget Swaps and What You Give Up

Any replacement must be Green or Red to match the Leader. Use Straw Hat Crew type whenever you can, so it shows up off Nami and Thousand Sunny searches. A non-Straw Hat filler also weakens the ST31-004 Luffy's On Play, which scales with Straw Hat Crew cards on your field.

The swap to avoid is cutting Sanji or Usopp for cheaper bodies. A 5000-power Character without the end-of-turn DON!! untap is not a budget Usopp. It is a different, worse deck.

Upgrade Path

1. Engine first. Get the Leader, 4 Nami (OP14-031), 4 Usopp, 4 Sanji and 4 Charlestone. Even with a stripped-down top end, the defensive Leader loop works.
2. Consistency second. Add the 8 cost 1 Namis and 4 Thousand Sunny. Sunny also gives a rested DON!! to the Leader or any of your Monkey.D.Luffy Characters, so it pulls double duty once the finishers arrive.
3. Primary finisher. Add 4 Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118). Double Attack plus the 4-DON!! reset is your strongest turn. Its restriction on playing cost 5+ Characters that turn shapes how you sequence it.
4. Secondary finishers. Fill out Roronoa Zoro and Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) to the full 4/3 split.
5. Tech last. Add Brook, Laboon and Electrical Luna at full counts. These win close games but don't hold the deck together.
6. Cosmetics, if ever. Parallel arts have no gameplay value. Buy them only after everything above is complete.

A build that stops after step 3 is a legitimate local-level deck. It plays the same game as the full list, just with fewer ways to end it.

Common Mistakes

1. Ending your turn with the Leader switched off

The Leader's defense needs two things on your opponent's turn: at least one DON!! given to it (the [DON!! x1] condition), and active DON!! left over to rest. A common loss is spending every DON!! on your main phase, attacking with the Leader without attaching anything, and passing with nothing to pump. Before you pass, check two things: is a DON!! on the Leader, and how many are active?

The fix: Use Thousand Sunny every turn. Its Activate: Main gives a rested DON!! to one of your Monkey.D.Luffy cards, and your Leader counts. That turns on [DON!! x1] without spending an active DON!!. Usopp and Sanji then set DON!! active at end of turn, which loads the Leader for the next turn.

2. Untapping past five

The Leader only works if you have 5 or less active DON!!. Late game, Nami (OP14-031) sets up to 5 active at end of turn, and Usopp and Sanji add more. Players stack every untap effect and pass with six or more active DON!!. Then the Leader can't activate at all.

The fix: Every one of those effects says "up to," so stop at five. Five active DON!! already gives the Leader +10000 on one attack. The same check applies to Charlestone: its refund sets up to 3 DON!! active. Don't let it push you over the cap before your opponent's next attack.

3. Dumping everything into the first attack

The Leader's boost lasts only for that battle. If you rest all five DON!! to stop an opening Character swing, you have nothing left when the real threat attacks your Leader.

The fix: Before you rest anything, count your opponent's possible attackers. Spend only enough DON!! to beat the current attack. Remember that Charlestone's refund lands at the Counter step, after the Leader's ability has already resolved for that battle. Its main job is fueling the next attack. When you cast it, trash a card if you can spare one. Skipping the refund throws away the half of the card that keeps your Leader online.

4. Playing the OP13-118 Luffy too early

The cost-6 Monkey.D.Luffy sets up to 4 DON!! active. After that, you can't play Characters with a base cost of 5 or more that turn. That locks out Sanji, Brook, Roronoa Zoro and the cost-7 Monkey.D.Luffy. Slamming it first, then finding you can't use the refunded DON!! on anything big, wastes a whole turn.

The fix: Play your cost-5+ Characters first, then this Luffy last. Spend its refunded DON!! on attaching, cheap Characters, Thousand Sunny, or Events.

5. Casting Electrical Luna before resting anything

Electrical Luna only locks opposing Characters that are already rested when it resolves. Casting it first means it misses Characters you rest later that turn.

The fix: Rest first, then cast Luna. Nami (OP14-031) rests up to two Characters with cost 8 or less, and Brook rests one card. Characters your opponent rested by attacking last turn are also targets. Luna only hits cost 7 or less, though. A cost-8 Character rested by Nami will still refresh.

6. Trashing Brook for no value

Brook's Activate: Main trashes it to set one of your Characters with base cost 8 or less active. Players often burn it for a minor re-attack while it could keep resting a card every turn as a 6000 body.

The fix: Save the trash for a high-value turn. Two good uses:

• Stand the cost-6 Monkey.D.Luffy after its Double Attack to swing again for lethal or near-lethal.
• Stand Nami (OP14-031) after she attacks so she's an active Blocker on your opponent's turn.

If the re-attack doesn't change the race, keep Brook on board.

7. Misreading the 7-cost Rush conditions

The cost-7 Monkey.D.Luffy only has Rush with a total of 3 or more given DON!! across your cards. Players play it with two attached and are stuck. Roronoa Zoro's Rush is [Rush: Character], so it can't hit the Leader the turn it comes down. It also only turns on if your opponent has a Character with 8000 or more power.

The fix: Count given DON!! before you commit the turn. Thousand Sunny's rested-DON!! attachment counts toward the total. Play Zoro when its On Play matters: +2000 to your Leader until the end of your opponent's next End Phase stacks with the Leader's own boost. Treat the Rush as a bonus against big boards.

8. Paying for Laboon with DON!! you need

Laboon lets you rest 2 of your cards instead of losing a Character with 7000 base power or less to an opponent's effect. If you pay with active DON!!, you can drain the pool your Leader needs for the same turn.

The fix: Pay with something you won't need, such as an already-used Character or a Stage you've activated. Only save a Character this way if it's worth more than your next Leader defense. Laboon's +2000 Counter is often the better use of the card.

Tournament Prep & Final Notes

What to Practice

1. End-of-turn DON!! counts. Your Leader only works if you have 5 or fewer active DON!! cards when it resolves. Nami (OP14-031), Usopp and Sanji all set DON!! active at the end of your turn. If you stack them carelessly, you can pass with six or more active DON!! and lose your Leader's defense on the first attack. Every one of those effects says "up to," so set only what you need. When you goldfish, say your active count out loud before you pass, every turn, until it's automatic.
2. Splitting defense across attacks. Each DON!! you rest to your Leader is worth +2000 for that battle only. A DON!! spent on the first attack is gone for the second unless Charlestone sets it back to active. Practice into a two- or three-attack turn. Decide in advance which attacks you take and which you stop. Don't spend everything on the first swing.
3. The big turn. Monkey.D.Luffy (OP13-118) sets up to 4 DON!! active, but then you can't play Characters with base cost 5 or more that turn. Play Sanji, Brook, Roronoa Zoro and Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) first, then OP13-118 Luffy. Drill this until you never get it wrong.
4. Lock turns. Rest their board with Nami (OP14-031), which rests two, and Brook, which rests one. Then cast Electrical Luna. Luna only stops rested Characters, so its value comes from what you rest beforehand.

Rules Interactions to Know Cold

• Your Leader needs a DON!! to defend. Its ability is [DON!! x1], so it needs a DON!! given to it when the opponent attacks. Thousand Sunny gives a rested DON!! to one of your Monkey.D.Luffy cards, and your Leader counts. That turns the Leader on without spending an active DON!!.
• Who the Leader can boost. The bonus can go to the Leader or to any Straw Hat Crew Character. Laboon is an Animal, so it can't receive it.
• Charlestone's refund. It sets DON!! active only if you trash a card from your hand. "Up to 3" lets you refund rested DON!! for the next attack's Leader activation. Take fewer if three would put you over 5 active.
• Laboon's coverage. It protects Characters with base power 7000 or less, and only from removal by the opponent's effects. It doesn't help against battle. Roronoa Zoro and Monkey.D.Luffy (ST31-004) have 9000 power, so they aren't covered. Laboon also requires resting 2 of your cards, so keep two available to rest.
• Brook's untap. Trashing Brook sets a Character with base cost 8 or less active. Every Character in this list qualifies, including your Double Attack Luffy. This is the Activate: Main ability, not playing Brook, so a Brook already on the field still works after OP13-118 Luffy's restriction is in effect.
• ST31-004 Luffy's Rush. It checks the total DON!! given across your cards, and the check is ongoing. You can give DON!! after it lands, and Thousand Sunny's DON!! counts toward the total. Its On Play effect scales with the Straw Hat Crew cards on your field. Your Leader and Thousand Sunny count; Laboon does not.
• Zoro. Roronoa Zoro's +2000 to your Leader lasts through the opponent's next End Phase and stacks with the Leader's ability. Its Character-only Rush works only if the opponent has a Character with 8000 or more power.

Time Management

The deck plays slowly. Two Nami versions and Thousand Sunny each look at 5 cards, and you track several "set active" effects every turn. To save time:

• Decide your search target before you look.
• Bottom the rest without agonizing over the order.
• Announce your DON!! changes clearly so your opponent doesn't have to stop and ask.
• Do your defensive math during your own turn, before you pass, so your opponent's turn isn't spent calculating.

The counted events ran Swiss with no separate top cut (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19). This list's winning run was 6-0 (source: Limitless TCG ChinoizeCup #121 standings, 2026-10-12). That means every round counts, and a draw from running out of time hurts as much as a loss.

Scouting the Field

Put your test games into Rocks.D.Xebec first. 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). At this list's own event, Xebec finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th (source: Limitless TCG ChinoizeCup #121 standings, 2026-10-12). Luffy & Ace comes next, with 6 Top 8 slots from 31 entries (source: Limitless TCG online platform, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19).

Keep the sample in mind. It covers four online events and no in-person majors. A new ban list took effect on 2026-10-12, the same day as this result (source: Bandai Banned/Restricted list, effective 2026-10-12).

Final Assessment

The list is built around one idea: refund DON!! during your turn, then convert the surplus into Leader power on your opponent's turn. Usopp, Sanji, Nami (OP14-031) and Charlestone supply the DON!!, and the Leader spends it.

The trade-off is the counter suite. Your big Characters other than Brook have no Counter value, so most of your defense comes from the Leader and Charlestone. That makes the deck unforgiving. A miscount at end of turn, or a 5+ cost Character stuck in hand after OP13-118 Luffy, can lose you the game.

Pilot it precisely and it gives you a proactive board, repeatable lock turns, and defense that scales with your DON!!. Bring it if you're willing to do the reps. If you can't count DON!! quickly and reliably yet, practice that before you register.

Metagame Context

Built from snorlax1cynda's 1st Place list at ChinoizeCup #121 Monday (64 players, 2026-10-12), 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.