First One Piece Event Prep

Jumping Into a New Card Game

Tomorrow I’m going to a One Piece tournament. I don’t really know how to play One Piece and I’ve never gone to an event, but I want to get into it. Tomorrow is the release event for a new set, and it’s sealed—you go, buy packs, and play with the cards you get.

Sealed events are the perfect opportunity to start a new card game, no matter what game you want to get into. That’s how I like to just jump in. I don’t like deck building, but I love playing.

My Background with Card Games

If you know the trinity on the spike, I used to play Magic professionally. I used to make more money playing Magic than I did at my day job, back when Magic was still good—before Hasbro destroyed it. Don’t want to get into that.

I love card games. It’s been a big void in my life. I always looked forward to teaching my kids how to play Magic, and now I won’t even bother. I’m hoping One Piece can fill that void for me.

My Goal

My goal tomorrow is to win a match. My real goal is to win the whole thing because that’s just how I am with card games, but I’m being realistic. If I get one win, I’ll be happy.

What I’m Bringing

I ordered this Learn Together deck set—these are the only One Piece cards I have. I pulled the leader cards out because apparently sometimes you can bring your own leader. I threw those in this 20-year-old binder. I sleeved up 10 Don cards (the resource cards) too.

I don’t even have any other sleeves. I’m going to have to buy another deck box because this one is literally about to fall apart—it’s over 20 years old.

Safety Tips for Card Events

Going to a new venue I’ve only been to a couple times. I’m only going to bring this binder and this deck box in a backpack, and I’m always going to keep that backpack on me.

I grew up in an area adjacent to a rough area. The comic shop I went to and lived at was in a rough area, so you get used to defending yourself and not getting got. Always keep a backpack. When I’m sitting at the table, I’ll put my foot through the strap so nobody’s taking anything from me.

Probably not that much of a problem these days or where I’m going, but it’s just a habit from being a kid. I don’t usually bring trade stuff, and if I do, it’s just that little binder. That’s my pro tip for not getting your stuff stolen.

My Strategy for Sealed

I’ve looked through the set and usually it doesn’t matter what game you’re playing—in limited formats, there’s usually very little removal. You just want to put threats on the board and flood it, forcing your opponent to figure out how to deal with them without a direct way to do so.

From what I’m looking at with One Piece, that’s going to be the same. My plan is to look for big beefy dudes that I can drop on the board and follow curve.

Understanding Curve

The whole thing about card games—no matter what game you’re playing—there’s a cost associated with a card to play it, and you get X amount of resources per turn. Usually on your first turn you have a small amount of resources, then every turn you get more.

You want to do what’s called curving out:

• Turn one: use all your resources
• Turn two: get more resources, use them all
• Same thing on turns three, four, and all the way up

You want to drop a threat or something your opponent has to deal with every turn. In One Piece, especially in limited, I think it’s very hard to play control. I didn’t see that many cards that just say “destroy this dude,” so you’re going to have to do it in combat—which means you need a ton of threats.

What I’m Looking For

The thing I like about One Piece the most is that it’s all about card advantage. You can discard cards from your hand to prevent taking damage to your life total. And when you do get hit and take damage, you get cards back—like Pokemon prize cards where as you’re losing you get card advantage.

So I’m looking for:

• Big beefy dudes
• Cards I can discard to increase my dude’s power
• Blockers and counters
• Cool abilities

You want a bunch of big boring dudes who don’t have any abilities but are very strong. Just keep dropping them every turn and that’s how you win. It’s not glamorous, but it was like that in Magic, like that in Lorcana, and I’m assuming it’ll be the same in One Piece.

Life Update

This was a pretty crazy couple of days, but we’re through it now. Just a false alarm on some stuff—my son is super sick but it’s not going to be anything major. Yesterday we didn’t know if that was going to be the case, but it is. We’re in a much better spot today.

Crucible Guard is getting painted. I’m keeping the hobby streak alive, keeping the video streak alive, just trying to get back into a normal headspace now.

The LEGO Bonus

I did finish the Going Merry LEGO set, and this was the most fun I’ve ever had doing LEGOs. I did a ton as a kid and do a ton with my kids now, but this was the most fun set I’ve put together. I was a little sad when I finished it. Definitely recommend.