One Piece Card Game Colors Explained: What Each OPTCG Color Does

One of the core concepts in the One Piece card gamelike most trading card games, the color wheel. In One pieceplayers can build decks from six different color archetypes.

Each One piece has color a unique identity and inherent playing styleSome focus on lowering enemy power levels, others flood the field with characters and powerful threats, and still others rely on the power of life triggers (and a little luck) to swing the battle in their favor after taking damage.

The six colors in the Bandai game are: Red, Vegetables, Blue, Purple, BlackAnd Yellow. Set one, Romance Dawnintroduced the first four colors and these four colors also corresponded to the first Starter Decks the game ever had. Black then made his debut in set two, Paramount Warwith Navy cards and Yellow completed the game’s color wheel, an expansion later when it was released in Pillars of strength.

Below you’ll read what each color is good at, which archetypes appear in the wheel segment, and which players are likely to be most attracted to the different playstyles.

Red

Red in One pieceas in most modern card games that followed Magic: The Gatheringis aimed at rushing things to reach the finish line as quickly as possible. Many of the stronger competitive cards in Red show off the fast Rush mechanismallowing them to attack on the turn they are played.

On top of these character traits, Red also focuses on Power. Many of his cards, such as Romance Dawn main ingredient Otama, will lower the enemy’s power level to subsequently make them weaker in battle⁠—or to be removed by follow-up effects.

Some of the key archetypes featured in Red include the iconic Straw Hat Pirates, Whitebeard Pirates, Revolutionary Army, and MOVIE characters.

Vegetables

In One pieceGreen cards have two main mechanics that return in the new expansions: Resting characters And slope DonThe resting mechanics help Green decks slow down the game and then go into ramp mode⁠—meaning that more Don is added each turn than normally allowed—meaning that players can then deploy huge characters early in the game to gain an advantage in later game situations.

Historically, Green has had a bit of a tough time One piece‘S metagame due to the fact that removal has been so dominant. While Green can respond to these removals by letting things rest, it struggles to clear the board properly. Several Green Leaders, such as Uta and Eustass “Captain” Kid, have managed to do so in the past.

Archetypes that appear in green include almost all printed Supernovas cards, the Donquixote family, Fishmen, and Wano Country.

Blue

Blue is a very defensive color, where the gameplay mainly revolves around determine how everything plays outThis varies from anesthetic effects like the skills of Boa Hancock in 5000 years into the future Unpleasant powerful bottom deck events such as Gravity Blade Raging Tiger, which takes out two enemy characters for seven Don.

There is also a lot of focus on preparation. Many cards in Blue allow players to look at the higher cards in their deck and put them in the desired order. Other cards affect hand size and can even cause enemies to reshuffle their hand back into their deck for new cards.

Archetypes coming to Blue include Seven Warlords of the Sea, Impel Down, Baroque Works, and many Navy characters. There’s also a new subset of Whitebeard Pirates cards coming in when Two legends releases.

Purple

Purple takes Green’s Don ramping to the next level, spend resources (usually lives) to build huge Don stacks as soon as possible. Some of the best Purple decks can even play seven- or even nine-cost characters as soon as they have two turns.

It’s not all about building Don for yourself; some Purple cards also reduce how much enemy players can use each turn or squeeze Don back into their Don decks. This can slow them down while you build up your strong characters, tipping the scales heavily. This tends to lean Purple towards the midrange, though it can also shine in a control-themed style at times.

Archetypes featured in Purple include the Animal Kingdom Pirates, the Heart Pirates, the Kid Pirates, the Foxy Pirates, all of the Water 7 workers, and several other crossover Straw Hat characters from various storylines.

Black

If Blue was a tempo-controlling color, then Black is the outright removal color in the One Piece card gameThis color, which was only added in set two, is based on removing any threat that appears on the other side of the table.

This destructive gameplay is fueled by cost reduction. Black cards typically reduce the cost of character cards the enemy has played, then after those reductions they play cards that destroy units and low cost cards.

Competitively, Black remains one of the strongest choices. The best deck in the format right now is probably Rob Lucci, a Navy Leader who is all about destroying everything your enemy plays. Smoker also shined in Paramount War and Gecko Moria from Awakening of the New Age has remained variable.

Archetypes that appear in Black include the Marine and most CP classes, primarily CP9 from the Enies Lobby arc and CP0, which just appeared in the Egghead arc.

Yellow

One piece‘s newest color, Yellow, often gets a bad rap because it the life-oriented color on the gameplay wheel. Many of his maps have Trigger effectswhere these powerful effects activate after a player takes damage.

This focus on life can quickly turn things around in any game with a Yellow Leader. The “roulette” style can feel bad for opponents, but if you can land a perfect Capone “Gang” Bege⁠ — which stops attacks from his Trigger⁠ — or even a You’re The One Who Should Disappear!! (which gives back one life), you’ll feel like you’ve won the lottery. In addition to these triggers, Yellow also has a lot of heal cards.

Yellow features healing and also works well as a KO theme, though it doesn’t have the reduction abilities that Red (power-focused) or Black (cost) do.

Archetypes that appear in Yellow include Egghead, Big Mom Pirates, and Wano.