I played in a One Piece TCG tournament

03 May, 2026

I went to locals for the One Piece TCG today, and somehow ended up in second place overall! This was my first time playing at a game store¹, and I was playing an unmodified starter deck (ST-25 U Buggy the Clown), so that was not what I was expecting at all.

Luck likely played a big role, as apparently One Piece sticks to best-of-one for its tournaments, at least at this level. (possibly in order to allow high variance decks to have a chance at winning?) In the first match (vs. G Dracule Mihawk) the flat +1000 bonus Mihawk got because Buggy is a slash-type leader felt difficult to deal with but in the end they didn't draw any cards with counter effects on them, and they ended the game with like 10 cards in hand but no ability to block my weak attacks.

Not having a sideboard period feels like it could create non-games based on matchups though. My second opponent was playing RB Koby, and once I stuck and protected 7c Buggy (which symmetrically shuts off all 3/4c characters' abilities to attack) the game was effectively over, since that turned off almost all of their characters with the exception of 8c Smoker & Tashigi, who I promptly removed with 10c Buggy.

I totally misread the strategy of B Imu, though. I turtled up with blockers and picked off their characters once I saw fairly powerful 5c cards hitting the field, but I should have been trying to rush out as many attacks against their leader as I could to try to get their health down early. The characters all came back once 10c Five Leaders came out, so if anything all I was doing was fueling their graveyard, haha.

I did wander off to look at the Free Comic Book Day sales going on, since I didn't realize that I was supposed to receive additional prizing beyond the participation/match win packs I got earlier. The judge found me though, so I ended up with what felt like a good amount of prizing for such a small event (10 players, one of whom dropped after round 1). Fun night overall, everyone was very friendly!