In most card games, there are well-defined architectures for decks. Aggro or aggressive decks close the game out quickly, midrange decks trudge through the game gaining incremental advantage and exchanging that for wins, and control decks extend the game into late game when they take over and dominate.

While Magic has well-defined archetypes for these decks, it's a little more flexible in One Piece TCG. Is Doffy an Aggro deck, or midranged? Does Blackbeard count as control? And what about outliers like Nami? Today, I've decided to refine the core of what makes a particular type of deck and explore how different leaders can be played differently.

The Definitions: What's Aggro, Midrange, And Control, Anyway?

I gave a general overview of what these terms mean in card game decks, but there's a bit more to it than just the elevator pitch. Let's look at these in a little more detail.

Aggro/Aggressive Decks

These decks try to put its opponent out of the game before they can set themselves up. They win through consistent damage being dealt over the early turns. They have pretty good matchups against decks that need to build a board, and can usually end games very quickly on their own. In One Piece, decks running some version of Red have good rush strategies. One of the most impressive Aggro decks to come out of the game is OP01-001 Roronoa Zoro.

Deck: Roronoa Zoro Aggro | Example Aggro Deck

LEADER:

1x Roronoa Zoro (OP01-001)

CHARACTERS:

1x Monkey.D.Luffy (ST01-012)

2x Nico Robin (OP05-010)

2x Robson (OP08-013)

3x Silvers Rayleigh (OP08-118)

4x Hiking Bear (OP08-010)

4x Kid & Killer (EB01-003)

4x Makino (OP02-015)

4x Nami (OP01-016)

4x Roronoa Zoro (OP01-025)

4x Super Spot-Billed Duck Troops (OP04-009)

4x Tony Tony.Chopper (OP04-010)

4x Tony Tony.Chopper (EB01-006)

4x Tony Tony.Chopper (OP08-007)

EVENTS:

2x Diable Jambe (ST01-016)

4x Just Shut Up and Come with Us!!!! (EB01-009)

Midrange Decks

A Midrange deck develops a board, and tries to parley that board presence into a win, making it impossible for opponents to hit them while smacking back with surprising efficiency. They maintain a good presence in the early game and build boards too big for aggro to get through before closing the came out in the mid-to-late game. A great example of this archetype is OP07-019 Jewelry Bonney.

Deck: Jewelry Bonney Midrange | Example Midrange Deck

LEADER:

1x Jewelry Bonney (OP07-019)

CHARACTERS:

1x Jewelry Bonney (OP07-026)

2x Baby 5 (OP04-032)

2x Scratchmen Apoo (ST02-008)

2x Bartolomeo (OP07-031)

3x Eustass"Captain"Kid (OP01-051)

3x Shanks (ST16-004)

3x Viola (OP04-021)

4x Baby 5 (OP05-034)

4x Carrot (OP08-023)

4x Cavendish (EB01-012)

4x Donquixote Doflamingo (OP04-031)

4x Donquixote Rosinante (OP05-030)

4x Hody Jones (OP06-035)

4x Jewelry Bonney (ST02-007)

4x Scratchmen Apoo (EB01-015)

EVENTS:

2x Because the Side of Justice Will Be Whichever Side Wins!! (OP05-037)

Control Decks

Control likes to... well... control the game. It has answers for any questions you can ask, and if it doesn't have them right now, it has the tools to go digging to find them. The goal of decks like these is to get the game to a state where they control what happens. One of the most impressive control decks in the game right now is OP07-079 Rob Lucci although that's likely to change significantly after rotation. There are a lot of new decks to look out for in the Royal Blood meta.

Deck: Rob Lucci Control | Example Control Deck

LEADER:

1x Rob Lucci (OP07-079)

CHARACTERS:

1x Helmeppo (ST06-010)

1x Hina (ST06-008)

1x Kaku (OP07-080)

1x Koby (OP02-098)

1x Sabo (OP04-083)

1x Who's.Who (OP08-091)

2x Jack (OP08-084)

2x Kaido (OP08-079)

2x Kaku (OP03-080)

2x Spandine (EB01-043)

3x Spandam (OP03-086)

4x Brook (EB01-046)

4x Gecko Moria (OP06-086)

4x Kalifa (OP03-081)

4x Rebecca (OP05-091)

4x Rob Lucci (OP05-093)

4x Tsuru (OP02-106)

EVENTS:

1x Six King Pistol (OP03-097)

4x Ice Age (OP02-117)

4x Tempest Kick (OP07-096)

Building a Leader - What Works Best?

If you're like me and love deck brewing and testing, determining what is the best build for a leader usually takes some trial and error. However, color identity makes a world of difference since it guides you into a particular deck-building style.

Take OP07-038 Boa Hancock for example. The deck looks and plays a lot like a Seven Warlords of the Sea deck. Most people could just replace Doffy with Boa and call it a day as most of the same cards work in it. Doffy's Seven Warlords version is a wonderful midrange deck. Since there aren't a lot of Blue characters with rush, it's hard to build Blue as aggro.

However, if we look at Boa's ability we see that it offers us card advantage. With the amount of cards you could potentially be drawing, it's likely that you could build this into a pretty good control deck. It would take thinking outside of the box, but it's not impossible.

The same goes for a leader like OP07-001 Monkey D. Dragon. Intuitively it seems like a great build for aggro, but it could just as easily be used in a midrange deck to take advantage of Don!! Activated abilities. This sort of lateral thinking allows you to see patterns in how decks can be built and use those patterns to define how YOU want to play the game.

That isn't to say that there aren't any restrictions on this. Color identity in One Piece TCG isn't as hard-locked as in other card games, but some deck styles lend itself to certain colors more than others. Control, for example, is most definitely a Black color staple, simply because of how efficient its removal is. Red follows a close second, meaning a Red control deck may be possible, but Black's efficiency makes it the obvious choice for anyone building decks along that line. Thanks to a lot of reprints in the PRB boosters, a lot of the staple cards are now affordable.

How The Archetypes Work

When looking at archetypes, the general idea is that they represent a rock-paper-scissors subgame. So, Aggro decks tend to dominate control decks and lose to midrange ones. Midrange decks overtake aggro decks, but fail against control. Control preys on midrange, but falls to aggro.

If you take a look at the meta decks in rotation now, it's easy to spot where these archetypes play against each other. But there are also a few outliers that make it difficult to actually pin down what you're looking at.

A good example is OP09-081 Marshall D. Teach. Blackbeard plays a lot like a control deck. Except it's not susceptible to aggro because its early-game plays are good enough to cut down an aggro board before it establishes itself. Its bad matchup is... against a midrange deck: OP09-001 Shanks.

Another great example is OP03-040 Nami. What type of deck would you consider Nami? Based on playing the deck, I can safely say that Nami is a control deck, even though it doesn't do "control" the same way other decks do. It stalls for late game and then takes over, literally winning the game when it decks out.

All that says is that archetype matchups are suggestions more than anything else. Don't put too much faith in them. Put more faith in how you build your deck.

What Deck Archetype Is The Best For You?

While any player can play any deck, some players feel more comfortable playing a certain way. If responding to the opponent and then gradually taking over is your style, control is where it's at for you. If you prefer racing your opponent and asking the questions instead of answering them, consider playing aggro. If you're more of a "I like seeing synergies work" sort of player, midrange is where your strengths lie.

Building a new deck means finding the place that leader fits into the archetype. Once you figure that out, you can work out the most efficient way to build that leader outside of what people would usually expect.