My First One Piece TCG Event

The Event Recap

Just got back from my first One Piece event. I watched the Eagles lose (hopefully they can make the coaching staff corrections everyone’s been asking for all season), but more importantly—One Piece is awesome. One Piece is going to be a staple in my hobby life going forward.

I had more fun playing One Piece than I have had in a very long time. It definitely scratched that competitive card game itch.

Learning the Rules the Hard Way

I got a couple of cool cards—nothing huge on pulls—and I got my one round win. The first round, I messed up on the rules pretty badly. I thought you only got one Don card (the resource cards you need to play other cards) per turn, when you actually get two. My opponent didn’t say anything and just watched me be a dummy, which is totally my fault.

I lost that one, but halfway through the second round, my opponent let me know I was doing it wrong. Then I won my third round. So I’m one and two, with that first loss being because I was a big old dummy.

The Loot

Check out this playmat though—it’s Ian Miller art from Dragon Shield. Didn’t know this existed. The picture is holographic with this cool holographic texture. Way cooler than any of the cards I got.

I got three extra packs and they gave me a ton of promo packs too. I pulled a $5 card apparently (I don’t really know the values that well), another shiny boy, and Sherms if you actually care about One Piece. I got the Rainbow Luffy Promo Dawn, the girl promo (not the one for winning obviously), and the main hitter. Between this and some of the promos and a couple other cards, I definitely made my money back.

Why One Piece Works

Looking forward to playing constructed. Apparently it’s pretty hard to get actual cards here if you don’t pre-order stuff, and I missed the pre-order window.

The cards themselves are about twice the thickness of a Magic card. Modern Magic cards are a lot thinner than they used to be, but One Piece cards are really high quality. I always get nervous with card games of other IPs because they’re usually cash grabs, but this game has been impressive.

The Format is Perfect

The shop is only 20 minutes away, which is way more doable than the 45 minutes to sometimes an hour and a half drive to the Warmachine shop. And One Piece isn’t best of three like Magic—it’s straight best of one, which is kind of crazy. You really have to know what you’re doing and have tight deck building for consistency because poor draws can really screw you.

Because of that, a full event is only three rounds at 30 minutes each. It’s weird that you only get three matches, but it’s very cool that I’ll be able to play competitively without my wife getting too mad at me.

A Magic Rant

One of the biggest game stores in my area says they have a hard time running standard Magic events or competitive events—the only thing they really do is run Commander. That’s insane to me.

Commander (what used to be called EDH) was what all the people who went 0-2 and didn’t actually know how to play Magic went and did while the people who knew what they were doing played in the real tournament. It’s just crazy that you couldn’t play competitive Magic locally even if you wanted to now.

I’m a hater, I’ll fully admit it. You guys ruined the thing I loved most and you made Hasbro ruin it. But I’m just a salty boomer when it comes to Magic the Gathering.

Back to Painting

I’m still working through Crucible Guard. I didn’t get a Dolmenwood guy finished this week, but I got him primed. I’m having some problems with my air compressor—it’s not keeping up the PSI and wasn’t atomizing the paint properly, just kind of spitting it out.

I’ve had this Altoids tin since February 2014. After I ate the Altoids, it’s always just been a palette. I use it for contrast paints since they fall apart on the wet palette. Crazy to think I’ve had this since 2014—there’s been a lot of apartments and moves, a lot of opportunities to lose this thing.

The Plan Going Forward

I’ll finish this Dolmenwood guy tomorrow and do two models next week. I’m on track for finishing Crucible Guard when I want to finish it, but next week I really need to switch over to the Infinity commissions. I need to get those done and off my mind—I’m constantly thinking about them and it’s making it so I can’t enjoy these other projects.

So if you want to see me paint really tiny Infinity models, that’s going to be the bulk of next week, then we’ll switch back to Crucible Guard.

I’m not going to suddenly turn this into a One Piece channel and probably won’t really talk about One Piece again. But if you’re like me and you’re looking for that competitive card game itch, One Piece might be it.

See you tomorrow where we’ll get back to actual painting.

Transcript

All right, just got here. I want to get in and get signed up because I think there’s a chance I might not get a spot. All right, just got back uh from one or I didn’t just get back. I’ve been back for a while. Just watched the Eagles lose.

Uh hopefully they can make the the corrections to the coaching staff now uh that everybody has been asking for all season. But uh One Piece is awesome. One Piece is going to be a staple in my in my hobby life going forward. I had more fun playing One Piece than I have had in a very long time. It definitely scratched that competitive card game itch.

Um I got I got a couple of cool cards. Um, no nothing huge on like polls. I got my my one round win. Uh, the first round I uh I messed up on the rules and I’ve actually made a pretty huge difference. I thought you only got one like uh one if you I’m trying to think of like terms if you don’t actually know how to play.

I you need you need certain cards to play other cards and I thought you only got one per turn and you actually get two and my opponent didn’t say anything to me and just watched me be a dummy which again is my fault. Uh, so that one I lost, but then halfway through the second round, uh, my opponent let me know like, “Hey, you’re doing that wrong.” Uh, and then, uh, I won my my third round. So, look at this. Look at this playmat, though.

It It’s Ian Miller art from Dragon Shield. Didn’t know this existed. It’s It’s not coming through on or maybe I can get it to come through. It is like the the picture is like holographic. I can’t get it to show.

I guess maybe you can kind of see it. Uh, but it’s like like holographic texture. Look at the art. Isn’t it so sick? Uh, this is way cooler than any of the cards I got, but I picked up this plane mat.

Um, I I got three extra packs. Uh, and I they gave me a ton of promo packs, too, which is pretty cool. So, this is um I pulled this guy. It’s like a $5 card, apparently. I don’t really know the values of the cards that well.

Um, another shiny boy. Uh, and Sherms in case you actually care about One Piece. Really the only the only big hit that I got. Um, here’s some cool stuff. I got the Rainbow Luffy Promo Dawn.

Um, those are the cards I thought you only got one of a turn. But then I also, let’s see where we are. I got the girl promo. Not the one for winning though obviously because I didn’t didn’t win but I also the main the main hitter. Boom.

Um I think between like this and some of the promos and then a couple other cards I definitely made my money back. Like I said I got three extra packs too which is pretty cool. So uh but again very happy very cool to play One Piece. I now have three three games under my belt. I’m one and two.

Uh, and the first one was cuz I was a big old dummy. So, um, looking forward to playing constructed. Uh, definitely I got to get some some cards ordered. Apparently, it’s pretty hard to get actual cards here if you don’t pre-order stuff. And I didn’t know about uh the pre-order window.

So, I don’t think I’ll be [clears throat and cough] Excuse me. I don’t think I’ll really be buying Oh, here’s another promo uh from the release event, which is pretty cool. Another Rainbow Guy. I definitely got to get some some pimped out Dawn Dawn cards. Uh, saw some really cool ones that people had while I was there today.

Always got to rock the pink sleeves. Um, very fun game. And also, if you’re if you’re unfamiliar with the cards themselves, they’re like two times the thickness of a Magic card. Every time I play, I always kind of just compare stuff to Magic out of habit. Um, I don’t have any Magic cards with me right now, but these cards, I checked it.

Uh, I checked at the shop actually are literally twice as thick as modern day Magikards, which modern day Magikards are a lot thinner than they used to be, but it’s pretty pretty high quality. Pretty cool to see. I always get a little nervous, especially with like when it’s I don’t generally play card games of other IPs because they’re usually cash grabs, but this game um I’ve been watching it from afar. Here’s some these are some more of the commons and stuff and just very high quality. They feel really good in the hand.

This is This is what I actually look like. This is me on a card. The beard’s just a little bit too small. Uh but this is actually me. Um if you’re into waifuss, it definitely got waifuss.

I I’m I’m not really into that kind of thing usually. Uh that’s a good one though if you are. But um uh the cards are cool. I think Oh, these are the promos. They gave me like 15 promo cards.

I got our promo card packs from old sets is cuz I was a new guy and there was a lot of new people that they gave a bunch of cool stuff to. So, um, pretty cool there. But, uh, I don’t know. I just it was a really cool event. Um, I’m hooked on One Piece now.

Definitely going to be doing weekly the weekly One Piece event which is really cool because I wasn’t going to be able to make the Sunday War Machine event just do it’s like a 45 minute to sometimes like an hour and a half. I almost ripple shuffled this 45 minutes to an hour drive to get to the War Machine Shop and like knowing I’m going to be driving for 2 to three hours depending on traffic on top of playing. It’s just like it’s a really hard hard sell. Um as much as I love War Machine and this shop’s only uh it’s actually only 20 minutes away. I thought in my head I thought it was longer, but 20 minutes is is definitely doable and one piece it is it’s not two out of three like Magic was.

It is a straight best of one round, [snorts] which is crazy. Uh there is you got to really know what you’re doing and you really got to get you got to have tight deck building for consistency because you can just have some poor draws and and really get screwed. Uh but because of that, um a full event is only three rounds and it’s each round is 30 minutes. So that’s that’s pretty cool. I mean, it is weird that you only get like three matches.

So definitely in terms of like there’s not going to be a ton of matches actually played at an event. Uh but it’s just very cool that I’ll be able to play in a competitive environment. Just a game competitively uh with the babies with the kids, not have the wife get too mad at me. Uh very cool. And uh like I said, I definitely going to be playing War Machine though.

But so don’t worry about that. But I can’t play with like at the normal spot. It’s just not um I can’t regularly play there. So, I just kind of go out to the big events there. But what I plan on doing is playing a lot more War Machine online and a lot more War Machine just at my house.

But, uh, I gota I got to finish up getting some paint. Uh, this one this guy’s good to go. Uh, I think I’m moving on to the gold now. Yeah, that’s right. I’m moving on to gold.

I primed. I did not get a Dwood guy finished this week, but I got him primed. Um, I’m having having some problems with my air compressor. I I’ll be able to fix it. I think I just need to take it apart and clean it out a little bit, which I I I think that’s a thing, but it’s doing something weird.

I can’t It’s not keeping up the PSI. Like, this was airbrush primed and you can see like it’s uh it’s pretty bad. Like, it I don’t know. It was sending it. It wasn’t like atomizing the paint.

It was just kind of spitting out. Um I I’m talking fast. Uh feeling good. I still have my voice back. I don’t know if I’ll ever get my voice back at this point.

seems seems like this is just my new my new voice now. Uh but I’m gonna I’m about to brush prime him and that’ll probably be my painting for the day. But something I noticed, look at that. I’ve had this Altoids tin since February of 2014 and I’ve I’ve only ever after I ate the Altoids, it’s always just been a palette. And what I like I’ll use it until I can’t shut it anymore and it’s totally filled and then I bust it all out and play with it a little bit.

It looks cool. Um, it’ll be this crazy to think I’ve had this since 2014. Like, there’s there’s been a lot of apartments. There’s been a lot of moves, a lot of opportunities to lose this thing, and I still have it. Uh, [snorts] it’s pretty cool.

I didn’t I didn’t realize that. I don’t have many things that are that old these days, but it’s very cool. Um, I’ve been using it for the contrast paints cuz the contrast paints fall apart on the wet palette. And I’m just again I’m just going to prime this guy. That’s going to be getting my my paint on a model.

And I’ll finish this guy up tomorrow. And then that way I’ll do two two models. Two I’ll like technically finish two Dolwood models next week cuz I really that’s a cool goal and I don’t want to fall off. Um I’ve got I’m on track for finishing Crucible Garden when I want to finish it I think. But next week, I really got to switch over to the Infinity Commissions because I just need to get those done and off my mind.

I’m like constantly thinking about them. Like even now as I’m doing this, I’m like, I should be working on those infinity commissions. And it’s making it so I just can’t enjoy these other projects that I want to do. And I’m going to enjoy painting the infinity. I It’s just like there lurking in my mind because I’m doing it for somebody else, you know?

So definitely just going to get that infinity done next week. So uh I got to get build some of it. Uh, but if you want to see me paint really tiny Infinity models that’s going to be the bulk of next week and then we’ll switch back to Crucible Guard and time to get everything knocked out before the rest of it releases. And like I’m not going to like suddenly turn this into a One Piece channel. I I probably won’t really talk about One Piece again uh on this on this channel.

I mean on like ever. But uh just saying if you’re if you’re like me and you’re looking for that competitive card game itch and it’s what’s what’s crazy to me as I was like uh I follow the Magic scene just because like it was such a huge part of my life but I don’t I don’t play and I don’t follow the local scene anymore. But it is insane to me that one of the biggest like game stores in my area, they said they have a hard time running standard magic events. They have a hard time running competitive events and the only thing they really do is run commander. And that is just crazy.

And uh and I’m going to go ahead and say it. Commander what used to be called EDH. And EDH was what all the people who went 0 and2 and didn’t actually know how to play Magic went and did when all the people who who actually knew what they were doing so played in the real tournament. So it’s just crazy to me. And it’s actually not crazy because those are all the Timmy’s that just wanted to spend a bunch of money on cards and not actually really play the game.

And I’m a hater. I’m a hater. I’ll fully admit it. You guys ruined the thing I loved most and you made Hasbro ruin it. But I’m just a salty boomer when it comes to Magic the Gathering.

But it’s just it’s just crazy to think like you can if I wanted to get back into Magic, I couldn’t unless I play Commander. Uh and again, I don’t I’m not like if you have fun playing Commander, I’m not hating on you. I’m just hating the fact that there isn’t like you sort of crazy cat. Didn’t think a cat was down here. Uh but it’s just crazy to me that you couldn’t I couldn’t even go back and play competitive magic locally if I wanted to.

Like there’s not even like competitive uh EDH or competitive command or whatever whatever you little Timmies call it. But anyway, I’m all done for the day. See you tomorrow where we’ll get back to actual painting.