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EB01 RP Law Guide - OP06's Strongest Aggro ft. Kai
🕑 Added 2024-05-24 16:48:40 +0000 UTCHi, Kai (@ikailakai) here with a new guide that maybe people weren’t expecting. Originally I wanted to do an Uta guide, as when I made the first part of the Uta guide, I mentioned wanting to make an updated version for EB01. However, it turns out that Uta essentially plays the same in EB01, so an update was not needed. I still believe that for Uta, the best way to play her is with 8 cost Kid, and this is supported by a new film 2 cost blocker as well. Adding this new blocker and the film Sanji allows for Uta to be a lot more consistently defensive behind the 8 Kid wall. However, she has weaknesses against decks that can overcome 8 Kid such as Moria, Sakazuki, and Enel, leaving her in a slightly awkward place in my opinion. I think that she is still solid, just maybe not as top tier as she seemed initially in JP EB01.
Nonetheless, this guide is not on Uta, this is a guide on Red Purple Law. Now, I am not a Red Purple Law player, I think people would be more surprised if I was. But as he is in the forefront of the meta in EB01, and Cross isn’t really experimenting with him, I thought it would be best for you guys for me to do a deep dive into this leader, aggregating knowledge from many top players. This guide has the ideas and help of ‘Fleché (@flechenoirehs), Dunkyyyy (@dunkyyyyyyyy), 亜流斗 (@M1uraS_o), and more people that I have asked for advice on certain situations and choices. All of my guides so far have been with my own experience experimenting with the deck, but I’m curious how a guide like this will land, where I aggregate the thoughts of over 10 people who I respect for their RP Law play. My apologies that this will come out a bit late compared to EB01’s release as organizing this material was difficult.
Annoyingly, many of them disagree on many points, but the beauty of this deck is that the tech choices almost seem to be purely personal preference, and (at least for now) not solved.
The Two Playstyles of Law
While in the mirror, it’s always a war of throwing things out and being low on Don to make sure your Reiju ability still activates, in other matchups, you have a bit more freedom to play the way that you want to play. Playing slower and speeding up your Don like a purple deck, or playing fast like a red deck come down to matchup as well as deck construction. Some decks will lean more towards a faster or slower game, so teching your deck for the way that you want to play is necessary to consider before you run the deck. If you shove in all of the cool cards you see on twitter into your RP Law deck, you will have a bit of a mess of ideas that don’t clash well.
Most of the players that I talked to preferred the slower playstyle, and this seems to be for consistency. However, the faster game plan isn’t necessarily lower in consistency, and just requires more precision to make sure you win before you run out of fuel.
There are many options to Laws deckchoice that posting 1 or even 2 decklists for each type is an injustice to the unexpected depth of deck building capabilities that Law, so instead, I have made the following graph.
While there are many cards that are core, there are so many cards that can fit into this deck, making it a choice that can adapt and stay in the meta for a while. Pick up this deck if you want to play a more aggressive deck, as it is the only one that has survived into OP07, where it is top tier.
The Difference Between Aggressive and Defensive Lists
Slow
The slower version plays the early game slowly, only using leader ability in situations where you can get your don back from your leader ability so that you can play on generally higher Don than you would expect from RP Law.
Be careful as when I say ‘slow’ it does not mean that you are playing at the game speed of other decks, but rather, that it is slow compared to the faster version of RP Law. You will still be putting out 2 strong bodies per turn, but you will have more total don and less explosive power with cards such as Ace to help re-secure the early game deficit.
Fast
This version of the deck just unga bungas at face and uses cards like All Sunday or Reiju to maintain resources, while continuously pressuring with Zoro and Kid & Killer. The goal with this version is to keep up pressure, not to burn your own resources. It is a difficult game to adapt and manage the cards that you have been given, but it is an exciting and fun way to play.
In this guide, I will present a list that I believe works well in EB01, but I want you to not copy it verbatim unless you really vibe with the deck. There are many people leaving results with different lists so I advise you to look at their lists, and just test what feels right for you to make the list that works best for you, and your meta.
What makes RP Law Strong?
Playing 2 things a turn is of course one thing, but being able to clear your opponent’s board at the same time is kind of disgusting. Your leader ability, if you manage to clear an opponent’s character, trades 1 of their board for 1 of your board for a +2 exchange. Not only this, but as it’s a ‘don minus’ effect, it’s in a weird sense, free. You can play a character, leader ability, to clear a character, and play another character, allowing you to get a +3 advantage in a turn on the board if you have the parts. RP Law used to have issues where he had low consistency, and 3 cost searcher Law would not stick on the board because of Sakazuki. However, as RP Law’s ability is so universal, you do not need the search anymore. There are so many strong cards in the deck that whether or not you can work with what you have largely comes down to your skill as a player rather than draws.
If you just think about the amount of advantage you gain from 1 Gordon + Leader effect, there’s really only one way this deck can lose.
Running out of fuel.
Before OP06, RP Law was a bit of a meme deck due to how highroll-y by nature it was. If the stars aligned, then you could do really well, but it was very skill and luck intensive that did not forgive any mistakes. That was until RP Law received Reiju. Reiju works perfectly with RP Law as it gives him the resources he desperately needs, while being playable off of leader ability. Due to Reiju, the deck actually comes down to whether or not you can manage to draw Reiju sometimes. If you draw 1, or even 2 Reiju, RP Law gives himself 1-2 extra turns where he can continue to add pressure to the game. Reiju with the explosive power of RP Law is just the perfect combo and the reason why the deck is top tier alongside Sakazuki, and alone in S tier in OP07.
Fundamental RP Law Deck Core
Fundamentally, there are 3 types of cards in RP Law’s deck.
Debuff Cards
Don Speedup
Rush
As RP Law’s leader ability on its own only reaches up to 3000 power, which in this age is very lackluster, debuff cards such as Gordon, Otama, or Film Law are used to reach these thresholds. This isn’t to say that you cannot use your leader ability without a target to bottom. You may feel obligated to do so because of the value, but this effect can oftentimes serve as a bonus. Granted, it’s a very crucial part of RP Law. Just don’t feel like you need to bottom something to play something, and envision the ideal board state and go for it.
As the leader ability is minus 3 don to use, if you use it at the wrong timing, or play the wrong cards, you’ll not only need to worry about your hand resources that you’re burning, but also your Don. If you do not have cards to speed up your Don, your leader cannot function at 2-3 Don alone. As such, you would need to pivot into playing a slower style. It is due to the Don Speedup cards that you are allowed to minus them safely and freely. These cards would include 5 cost Kid, Bon Kurei, Ain, Shachi & Penguin, Bepo, Miss All-Sunday, etc
Lastly, as the deck is an aggro deck, it is supported by rush cards – specifically Kid&Killer, that make the deck. Kid & Killer is, if you think about it, a 0 cost 7000 rush at the later stages of the game when it’s played off of leader ability. It’s a bit too much, and is not very epic for the opponent. Kid & Killer is that once in a blue moon strong red card that Bandai is allowed to give them, but it’s obnoxiously strong.
Other than these 3 categories, you’ll see cards like Queen, or 4 cost Law that do not really seem to fit into any of these categories. These cards are mainly utilized for their utility. Whether it’s needing the -2 hand from Law, or needing the consistency from Queen, these cards iron out the game plan that you want to push with the other core cards. As such, none of these cards will ever be ‘core’, but can be required due to the current meta.
This is the list I will be talking about in the context of this article. This is a more aggro focused list for the EB meta as Sakazuki won’t allow you to play slower for 7Ace, or Zorojuro.
This isn’t any particular player’s list but rather, my vision on what would be good for this deck with my friend’s input after having played 300+ games collectively with / against RP Law. (We would unironically play 10 games a night of testing lines, decks, and strategies with Law.
Although I’ve looked at the cards holistically, let’s look at them a bit closer before getting into more technical territory.
Otama:
Although I believe that Otama’s necessity has gone down in OP07, Otama is necessary in EB01 to deal with Moria. On top of this, she is a 2000 counter, so if she has the space in a deck, I think there is no reason not to include her.
Film Law:
In the same vein as Otama, Film Law helps you reach 5000 power with your leader ability. The difference is that Film Law has a 5000 power line, and only 1000 counter. They help clear the same statline, so an overabundance of these kinds of cards can get bricky in your hand unless you continuously have good targets for them, which isn’t the case in every matchup. As such, Law is, in a weird way, a 5th/ 6th Otama.
Gordon / Raise Max:
Unlike how Otama and Film Law were weirdly similar in their use cases, Gordon and Raise Max are not weird in their similarity, as they are the same card. I think Bandai was trying to print a new version of Gordon to make Gordon cheaper, but didn’t anticipate that both could be used. Big fucky wucky on their part. I think 6-7 is enough for this card as the meta is not as 6000 power heavy as OP07 and getting too many in your hand can be a problem too. However, this is a place where you can tune the deck to your liking. It’s already stupid that you’re allowed to have more than 4 of this card and I want Bandai to fix something going on here. Gordon and Raise Max, although they don’t have counter, help you reach 6000 power, or 9000 power with 2. It’s an invaluable tool for clearing the board assisted by your leader ability.
Rush Zoro:
In Japan, this is quite an underrated card, as people are prioritizing Chopper in the current meta. However, being on the receiving end of RP Law, Rush Zoro hurts so much more than Chopper or Zorojuro. As we now have Kid & Killer, we no longer need 4 of this card, and can settle with 2, as a 5th and 6th Kid Killer, or rush card in general.
Kid & Killer:
The best, always 4
As you can see from just these few cards already, this is how RP Law gains his consistency. While there is no guarantee that he will draw every card he needs, by running 6-7 of very similar cards, he has a higher chance of drawing the card, or its alternative. This is why I also rate Miss All-Sunday highly.
Miss All Sunday is very versatile. We don’t need to look at the trigger as we will rarely use it in this deck, but the on play effect for RP Law specifically is very enticing. She adds a Don, and draws a card. In this way, she is like extra Ain, and extra Reiju in one card. A lot of the time, how you end up losing with this deck is by failing to draw your Don Speedup or Reijus. Miss All Sunday covers this weakness by again, becoming a 5th or 6th copy of these respective cards. Being able to do both at the same time has big merit as well and is especially useful in the Sakazuki / Moria matchup.
This is a card that I would happily make 4, but due to it being counterless, and this deck basically not being allowed to run bricks, 2 is a safe option to not be greedy.
Ain:
I think many people will see Ain and wonder, why not Bepo? Not only does Bepo have the effect on play and on attack, but he also has counter. The reason why I choose Ain over Bepo is because you need to use your leader effect first before playing Bepo to gain the don. As such, you can’t play cards like Shachi & Penguin, or Reiju if you choose to prioritize Bepo. Conversely, as Ain has no condition on her Don Speedup, it actually makes it slightly easier to combo, despite having no counter. Worst case scenario, the card can still be played off of leader ability to have a similar effect to Bepo, so it’s not a massive downside. As Miss All Sunday doesn’t have the luxury of being playable off of leader ability (thank god btw), Ain is comfortably able to be increased, while I’m hesitant on Miss All Sunday.
Bon Kurei:
Bon Kurei is one of the strongest cards in the deck, but it is not universally playable like Ain is. You want to play Bon Kurei before the opponent plays big cards such as 8 Katakuri, or 8Moria so that they are forced to target Bon Kurei. If Bon Kurei sticks, you can hit for 9000+ power and maximize the value of Bon Kurei. Aside from this, he also speeds up your don, but generally, you want to prioritize playing Ain, and play Bon Kurei at timings where your opponent really doesn’t want to see him.
Imagine Bon Kurei as a spell taunt card and play him a time that the opponent needs to deal with him or he will gain enormous value.
Shuraiya:
Shuraiya is a tech card for BY Luffy. This card allows RP Law to reach BY Luffy’s power line without needing an insane amount of Don. Additionally, keep in mind that Shuraiya also stays at the power that he attacked with, in the event that he attacks. This means that if you attack with Shuraiya for 9000 base by copying BY Luffy’s leader, it will stay 9000 even during your opponent’s turn. If he gets rested, or is forced to use the block side in other matchups, he can be played around by simply increasing the power of your leader last. As such, if you are not in danger of dying, make sure to use Shuraiya as an attacker in matchups where the opponent’s power is higher than 5000. If there are no BY Luffy, or even Whitebeard as is seen here and there, then this card is not needed, but it is valuable in dealing with specifically, these 2 matchups.
Reiju:
Broken. Auto 4. Highest priority target with leader ability after Shachi & Penguin as it gives you more options in the following turns.
Shachi & Penguin:
Not only is ShachiPen a 2000 counter, but it allows you to use your leader ability in the early game with next to no cost. While it’s not always advisable to use your leader ability early, as you want to at least set up cards like 5 Kid, or in the case that you run 7 Ace, be able to play it, ShachiPen allows you to play 2 cards from your hand for the cost of one a lot of the time. If you play Bon Kurei + ShachiPen, or Ain + ShachiPen, then you minus 3 don, but also gain 3 don on turn 2 going second.
5 Kid:
5 Kid allows RP Law to use his leader ability every turn without any care except his hand size. It reduces the cost of leader ability and is himself a powerline. While many people leave him active as he is a key component to keeping your don healthy, I would suggest finding timings to rest him. If you rest him on the same turn that you hit with Kid&Killer, then you have a lot of extra damage the opponent didn’t anticipate, and a lot of the time, the opponent is forced to clear Kid & Killer over 5 Kid. In the event that they prioritize 5 Kid, you should ideally have set up a situation where they can only take 5 Kid or Kid & Killer. This would mean that they left a 7000 power character on the board for you to hit again with. Many decks can’t afford this, and are forced to take out Kid & Killer instead of 5 Kid. So remember, your blockers are still attackers in the right situation. I’ve been preaching this since my film Kid days.
Queen:
This was a card that I was not sold on for a while, but it is similar to Miss All Sunday in being a statline that replaces himself. What I mean by this is that when you play Queen or All Sunday, your hand size does not go down, as you are drawing a card to fill the spot they used to take. Having these economy cards helps with the consistency that RP Law tends to struggle with, and helps him find Reiju or other pieces that he is missing to start doing very stupid things.
4 Blocker Law:
Blocker Law is a card that perhaps I overvalue, or other people undervalue. It can be devastating vs Enel or BY Luffy, but moreover, many decks might go to 7 cards after taking a hit in the early game. Being able to spawn Blocker Law and take 2 cards is actually similar to playing a Kid & Killer and hitting for 7000. If you hit with 7000, you require the opponent to counter with 2 cards, 2000 + 1000 to defend it. Blocker Law forcefully rips 2 cards out of your opponent’s hand without giving them a choice. However, as the opponent will be countering 5000 power attacks often, it is not often that the opponent will be at 7 cards in hand. Against decks such as Sakazuki however that can easily clear a 3 cost immediately, hitting for 8000 on turn 2, and playing Law on turn 3 can be a surprisingly strong move in tandem with other cards such as All Sunday, Queen, or 5 Kid.
I’ve talked about a lot of Anti-Sakazuki tech, but to be honest, Moria is the harder matchup. Moria has the benefit of being a 5 life leader with easy removal thanks to great eruption and Absalom. I will get into the specifics of how to fight Moria later on, but here is another card that can be a very interesting tech that I think is slightly underrated, but is a meta call at the end of the day.
The main merit of this card seems to come from the ability to take a 7000 power character. This is not very important in the EB01 meta however as there are very few cards with 7000 power. The true power of this card is actually similar to the power of 1 cost Robin.
Robin is used solely to deal with Rebecca. I think the true power from Fire Fist comes from its ability to deal with Rebecca + another card at the same time. If you look closely at the text, the power minus, and the KO do not need to be the same target. As such, you can reduce the power of something to set up your leader ability, while KOing Rebecca, as she’s 0 power. This is a power move that really blew me away the first time my Rebecca AND Lucci died from the same card.
Matchups
Next, let's get into each matchup. Generally as RP Law wants to push his strongest move on the opponent, and force the opponent to respond, rather than need to respond himself, the mulligan for each matchup is generally the same. It’s a good basic rule to mulligan if you only see 1 color in your hand. You want a good balance of Don Speedup, and Power Minus in your hand so that you can create your board and respond well to the opponent’s early game as well.
Mulligan:
First: 5 Kid, All Sunday, ShachiPenguin, Gordon (Raise Max)
Second: Bon Kurei, Film Law, Gordon (Raise Max), ShachiPenguin, Ain
The strength of this deck is that there are many good cards, and it's easy to find roughly 2 of what you are looking for in your starting hand. As such, if you have a hand where you’re on the edge of whether or not you should mulligan, generally, I believe you should mulligan. If you get a bad hand twice in a row, it’s a bit unlucky, or you need to readjust some of the spots in your deck. There are enough strong cards in the deck that you should theoretically be able to find a good start.
So why don’t we mulligan for Reiju?
Reiju, although crucial to the deck, is not crucial to the early game. Reiju is a card that is meant to supplement and support your continuous power. If you focus too hard on the card draw to the point that you lose early game power, there isn’t a point to playing the deck, and you will be weaker in general. If you have Reiju in your starting hand on top of having 1-2 cards mentioned above, it can help sway your decision into keeping the hand. But it should never be the sole reason to keep a hand. You have many turns and ways to eventually draw into it, so believe that you will, and mulligan for an aggressive curve that increases your Don while keeping your opponent’s board under control.
General Movement:
If you used to play RG Law, you may remember taking your life brainlessly to 2 and then starting to do weird shambles shenanigans from there. RP Law is actually the same. If the opponent hits you in the early game, aside from the mirror, you will want to graciously take your first 2 life most of the time. This gives you 2 extra cards, which is a free Reiju!!!
When you play this deck, you generally don’t want to use your leader ability on turn 2 going first or second unless you can regain all of the Don you lost. When going first, there is no way to do this. You will either hit for 8000 and pass, or play a 3 cost only and pass. If you’re going second, you can play Ain + ShachiPen, or Bon Kurei + ShachiPen. In the event that you can do this, it can be a very powerful play. However, keep in mind that Bon Kurei needs a powerline to copy to actually hit something, so being played in the early game is not as threatening. However, it is like he has taunt, and can force the opponent to clear it even when he is not a threat. Even against good players who will see when you should or shouldn’t clear Bon Kurei, Bon Kurei will eventually need to be cleared. Until then however, there is no rush to hitting with Bon Kurei, as he is one of the scariest cards in the game just standing there.
After turn 3, you will want to start using your leader ability in tandem with red cards to reduce power and create a powerful board while keeping your opponent’s under control.
Lastly, there are some matchups that cannot clear 1 costs easily. Against these matchups, such as BY Luffy, you can use any extra don you have to just drop a Gordon that you can use later.
This early game is the key to keeping your don and hand size healthy and is a good template to understanding RP Law’s fundamentals. After this point, it is situational what you want to play, and when / how it should be played. This comes with practice, so just put in your work to take home that bag gamer.
Sakazuki:
First: 50-50
Second: Slightly Winning
In this matchup, we want to try to overwhelm the board to a point that Sakazuki fails to clear it. As such, you want to go second. Gordon can be cleared as soon as he’s played so you want to only play Gordon when you can immediately use the effect after the clear something. It’s important to spread your board hard, so cards like Ain and Shachi Penguin are key to setting up an early game that’ll be carried by Rush Zoro and Kid & Killer in the late game.
Additionally, Sakazuki is surprisingly fast due to Hound Blaze. Any 1-2 cost can be a threat thanks to that card and as such, it is slightly risky to over-take your life from attacks. Though I would still take down to 2, depending on the number of Hound Blazes you’ve seen, you may want to adjust and defend at 3 when it is cheap to.
RP Law Mirror:
First: Slightly Losing
Second: Slightly Winning
Although going first seems strong as you have less Don, you can spread your board faster going second. However, it seems to be very close, and people have varying opinions on whether first or second is stronger.
This matchup is another reason why Ain is better than Bepo. As Bepo needs to be a lower don to be used, there are many cases where you cannot reach the threshold, and he is a vanilla. If you have Ain, and your opponent has Bepo, the value that you gain over the course of each game is not negligible.
You want to be careful with the damage you take as generally you will both be dealing with the board with your leader ability, and trying to power through life while defending your own with Reiju’s resource advantage. Kid & Killer is an inevitability, so you do not want to freely take 5-6000 power hits after your first life as then you will be forced to defend a 7000 power hit.
As you are both being aggressive to each other’s life, if one side fails to draw power reduction, the game is instantly over. As such, prioritize these a bit more heavily in the mulligan, while making sure you still have good targets to place for Don Speedup / Board presence. 5 Kid will generally never stick for more than a turn, so Miss All Sunday, who draws you a card, and gives you Don is very very nice in this matchup. If you are seeing a lot of mirrors, consider increasing Miss All Sunday to fight a resource war and be stronger when going first.
Katakuri:
First: Winning
Second: Winning
Choose: Second
As is with other matchups, we want to spread our board faster and harder. Second helps immensely with this. However, both sides of this coin are winning.
While the old Katakuri used to have an insane amount of triggers to play around, Katakuri now is a bit more tame. Some run Onami, but many just run the Whole Cake Island Package + Reject and Amaru. The one thing that you need to worry about are a ton of triggers coming out and dying to a sudden Reject Amaru after Kikunojo trigger etc. As such, you want to play on the assumption that every life has trigger. If a character comes out of trigger, you want to be able to deal with it immediately, and be ready for it with Gordon, or have a play with blocker / counter to be able to ignore it. Generally in a race, you will win so you do not need to be overeager and rush the opponent down as it’s always possible to get lucky and hit 2 triggers back to back that swing the game.
People call Katakuri a 0 skill trigger deck, and while it’s true to an extend, it’s important for the opponent to play around the triggers. This means to set up positions where you’re not in trouble in the event that a trigger is pulled.
Remember, as some decks run Onami, you want to hit from the characters you want to protect first. Hit with low value characters such as Ain last as you won’t feel as bad losing Ain to a trigger than you would losing Kid & Killer to a trigger. Just be careful of losing lethal to something like Bege and not having blockers to be able to hold on to the game, and you will be fine. Katakuri is strong, but not against this deck.
Lastly, If the opponent plays 7 Mom, generally choose to give life. If you trash life thinking you’re in a very advantageous position, then you could die to reject amaru off of a lucky trigger. You don’t want to run this risk so keep this risk averse playstyle throughout the game.
Enel:
First: Slightly Winning
Second: 50-50
In OP07, this matchup is a lot more complicated due to 10 Ace being such a power card, but in EB01, 9 Yamato is the only way to increase life while taking the board. I think that this matchup is actually losing for RP Law if you run the slower version. What really makes this matchup in actuality is Miss All Sunday, and Rush Zoro. Having these ‘extra Reiju / extra Kid & Killer’ apply so much more pressure than Enel cannot handle, and are the reason why the matchup tips in Law’s favor. Enel’s goal is to starve RP Law, play Gedatsu on 5 Don, and Yamato on 9 Don and wait until RP Law runs out of fuel. However, with additional Reijus / Kid & Killers in Miss All Sunday and Zoro, it is very hard for Enel to find a footing in the matchup. As such, waiting out RP Law’s aggression is not a viable strategy if RP Laws play lists like the one above.
The actual worry for RP Law in this matchup is if the Enel is playing a more aggressive list. Due to Enel’s leader ability, it’s hard to actually push through the finish line. This gives Enel enough time to possibly push back with a surprise lethal with Reject Amaru, as Katakuri does. Play the matchup like it is Katakuri, but take first to avoid Gedatsu clearing anything you play. If you manage to play any 3 cost on 3, then any 5 cost + leader ability on 5, then you can always stay 1-2 characters ahead on the board and can inflict an immense amount of damage that they are forced to counter before 9 Yamato tries to save the day.
Black Yellow Luffy:
First: Slightly Winning
Second: 50-50
The more I play this matchup, the more I understand it now. However, it’s an extremely complex matchup for both sides. I would prefer to take first in this matchup and start setting up an aggressive board early. While in my BY Luffy guide, I said that RP Law shouldn’t hit, I think that that was a mistake. I think that hitting against BY Luffy is much more devastating in OP07 of course, but especially in EB01. BY Luffy tries to win this matchup by controlling his own life, and using Hiyori to manipulate his last life. By doing this, BY Luffy can be at 7-9000 while having 1 life left over. By hitting BY Luffy and importantly forcing them to use counter at the same time, they are stuck at 0 life with the choice to go to 9000 and have 0 life, or 7000, and have 1 life. If they go 9000, you can easily bottom their 5 Sabo and push for damage with your characters, and if they go to 7000, you can still harass them and make them use counter more than they want to. Shuraiya is very strong in this matchup, and as we only run 2, it’s a rare instance where you may be swayed in your mulligan if you see it.
This isn’t to say that you want to hit every single turn however. You want to set up a few characters on the board, and only go aggressive when you can force them to use counter. This is the most important part. If you mindlessly hit them to 0 they will be full power Luffy in the early game with a massive hand. 4 cost Blocker Law hurts BY Luffy, but it is not enough alone to flip the matchup.
Additionally, as many of your characters are 5000 power, and Luffy can go to 7-9000, they will generally ignore your board. Blockers are important to have to not lose to their magnum statline. Also consider countering cheap 5-6000 power attacks in the early game if they present themself, and you can recognize that most hits from now on are going to be 7000+.
Remember to just slap Gordon on the board when you have spare don. It feels really bad for BY Luffy.
…Also side note it feels really bad for Monogreen too. They’re a bit rare, but I have Gordon trauma from OP02 when Zoro’s would just start bullying me with Gordon.
Uta:
First: Slightly Losing
Second: Slightly Winning
This is a resource war. It is slightly harder for RP Law to play to maximum potential than for Uta to because Uta is quite straight forward. In an average Uta vs average RP Law fight, Uta will usually win, but RP Law has tricks up his sleeves to make the matchup better.
If Uta plays Nami, you need to clear it as soon as possible. Using 4 cost Film Law is a very high value response to Nami, and is important in keeping a resource / board advantage. Uta generally gets to play a big board while also creating a Don and hand advantage, and it seems like it would be hard for RP Law, but Uta cannot deal with RP Law’s board the same way Law can with Uta’s board. As such, it comes down to how well RP Law can handle Uta’s board. You need to have at least one power reducer in your hand in the case that they try to lock down the board with 8 Kid. But if you can overcome 8 Kid, over better, just bottom it with 2 power reducers, it’s a tough spot for Uta.
Secondly, don’t get baited by free blocks on 5000 power attacks. Only do this if it’s a crucial turn where Uta wants to play 7 cost Luffy. Otherwise, Uta can pivot and quickly KO something like 5Kid with backlight and make a difficult board state. Keep this in mind, as well as the value of 4 cost Blocker Law in mind when fighting this matchup to keep yourself in the resource game in hand, and on board.
Moria:
First: Slightly losing
Second: 50-50
You generally want to play this the same way that you fight Sakazuki. However, as Moria has more life it can be difficult to break through. Conversely Moria cannot search for Great Eruption as well as Sakazuki can, so if they do not have it, it’s a big opening. In this matchup, Moria can swarm the board very well as well, so dealing with these characters and not larger ones like 8 cost Moria make the matchup easier to deal with.
Additionally, dealing with specific Thriller Bark characters is better than spraying and praying. Absalom is the most annoying card in this matchup, and if you have the ability to, playing Film Law, Gordon, or Otama and bottoming Absalom every Abasalom, and if not, Perona, so that it can’t be played over and over again out of trash helps connect to a winning state.
Closing:
This brings us to the end of this guide. This one was slightly different in style from my other ones, but I wanted everything I said to be clear and simple to slightly more experienced readers. I recognize that my guides that are usually 10000+ words are realllllyyy dense to get through. I generally write them in a way that beginners will 100% understand everything that is being said, but for higher level players I recognize this style may be a bit arduous to read through. I have had many people reach out to me, and you guys are all very high level players, so I wrote this guide more succinctly so it wouldn’t be as difficult to read through.
Let me know which you prefer. I generally don’t have beginners reaching out to me (but you are welcome to (@ikailakai)), so I wrote this guide with the image of the people who reach out to me in mind. If you prefer my other style, I’ll figure out a way to accommodate both types of players.
Once again, thanks for reading.
