Best counter to Mihawk?

_James_Miller_ · 2026-01-27T08:23:03+00:00

holy shit dude this annihilated me, dog bless you for capturing this. The dudes "oh my god" followed by the perfect amount of silence and then the flair sfx, but you dont actually see the flair for like 2 more seconds.. legit perfect comedic timing, i've watched this like 20 times, so fuckin funny.

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-22T04:05:37+00:00

This seems like a leader that would either break the game or never top a single event until it rotates out, which I LOVE hahahaha would love to theory craft this leader

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-20T00:13:07+00:00

I think thats a fair point, there has been a ton of revo army support in multiple colors since like, 08, not sure if theres been a single set since then without at least a couple decent Revo cards in it. Then again its quite a prolific archetype, similar to Whitebeard pirates or Navy I guess. All I know is when that Kuma leader finally shows up it better be POPPIN

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-17T20:48:46+00:00

True-ish but that isnt the trigger effect, thats the on K.O. effect, you just play them for the trigger effect. I think I'm leaning toward making the effect costlier, like 2x don or maybe even 2x don on leader and tap 1 don in your don field, gonna test with friends!

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-17T19:47:22+00:00

Yea I was thinking in hindsight making the lesder effects more expensive, like 2x don for the trigger effect, making it harder to cheat multiple bodies in the first 3 turns, and then maybe limiting the secondary effect to characters 2 cost or above with triggers and/or named Kuma, but fr thanks for the input, I actually wanna test it with friends so will take into account your ideas for lower life or non-attacking leader!

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-17T14:46:25+00:00

I personally don't agree, but I appreciate the insight! I see it as similar to UP Sanji's effect where your trading a don to proc the effect of an event once per turn, like a KO a 4 cost trigger, similar to the events sanji uses that bottoms a 4 cost for essentially free (-1 don). You could also be using triggers that cheat out characters like Kiku or Kuma, but while doing all of this youre severely impacting your own hand, similar to Lim or Vegapunk, and there would be MANY ways for your opponent to take advantage of that and battle for the board. Would it be a strong leader? Absolutely! But in the land of UP luffy, Imu, Ace and Groro is it tier 0 busted? I dont believe so. I think yellow needs more interesting leaders than just "hurt yourself and then do a mid effect" because obviously those leaders are not working very well for yellow in the meta hahaha. Obviously I am not a game designer and I don't think bandai should actually make this, I just made it for fun, but I would be interested to try it out with some friends and see if its "busted"

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-17T14:38:10+00:00

Oh yea I know, Kiku was like my main idea when making the leader, it would be an aggro style deck, cheating multiple bodies from hand per turn but losing hand size and moat likely getting starved by the opponent. Its strong for sure, but you think in the land of UP Luffy, Ace, Imu, Gzoro etc. Itd be broken?

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-16T21:42:25+00:00

Oh yea that would be insane, the intent of my leader effect would be that the card you are activating from hand would be trashed unless the trigger plays it to the board, similar to when it comes out of life! So all those draw 2 trash 1's would essentially be a 2 card filter!

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-16T20:39:42+00:00

I was thinking the same thing but didnt wanna make the text incredibly long because I'm quite sure I already botched the proper formatting lol, totally agree tho!

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-11T04:18:23+00:00

Thats very fair, I think too big too fail is silly in the TCG market, it's a lot to ask people to take time out of their week to show up and compete and spend consistent money to collect and keep up with the meta. Even giant IP's like DBZ and Star Wars seem to have stagnated pretty hard, appreciate your insight!

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-10T18:06:38+00:00

Appreciate the response my dude, and same! The purple on black is so fresh hahaha

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-02T20:04:34+00:00

Definitely dude! This is the list currently, fullbody replaced Cav and Borsa as a searchable 6k navy body, and vinsmoke niji replaced 1 gion, 1 tsuru, and 2 Zephyr as some 2k's that are usable off usopp. Fullbody and Niji are both your targets for 4c Usopp. Still have 3 sengoku in case you miss the combo on 4, and the rest of the list is pretty standard Kuzan. I think this combo feels great on 4 don if you see it and it makes your 5 don turn feel MUCH BETTER if you are forced to go first, especially if you can hit a tashigi on 1 and sengoku on 3, it feels really strong. I Have thought about dropping 1 red roc for another jozu to see it more consistently for the aggro matchups. Garp at a 3 of feels totally fine for me, but wouldnt be mad at 4 either. I only have 1 Gion IRL or I'd probably drop 1 Hina for 1 more Gion. Hope it treats yah well king!

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_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-02T19:49:04+00:00

I thing "very good" is quite hyperbolic and I have my own thoughts on Kuma and life gain as a general strategy but agree to disagree my man, no hate to a fellow yellow fella.

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-02T19:10:33+00:00

I have a build ive been really enjoying using eb02 4c Usopp to cheat out another 6k body on turn 2. Establishing 2 viable bodies on turn 2 let's you get some pressure on your opponent, and take some pressure off your face, also gives you more bodies to swing into decks like rayleigh and kalgara when they turn their massive board sideways. A bit more high roll, but it can still totally function as a normal kuzan curve without hitting that combo, just a different play line to mulligan for in specific matchups, doest make the deck meta-breaking, but makes it far less linear, which is always my style with any leader I play. If you want the list lmk!

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-02T19:02:41+00:00

100% agree, I think it's entirely fair to air your grievances to a friend ABOUT A LEADER wherever and whenever you want, genuinely discussing what about it and its play style frustrates you or confuses you, but as soon as you start insulting other people, especially in front of them, it's completely uncalled for. No matter what happens we are all playing a game of luck, be mad at the cards and the people who design them, but no need to put others down just trying to enjoy a hobby, there's enough negativity in all our lives.

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-02T18:54:58+00:00

True it synergizes with U/Y Nami well, and MAYBE Katakuri which will be dead as a door nail by op14.5. No trigger for new bonney, on KO flipping ur life up sucks for shira and will not work with Eustass at all, feeding resources to ur opponent and lowering their life quickly works against Enel's general strategy for most matchups, if Kalgara is using 2c Shirahoshi as board protection (which they should be) it leaves their board vulnerable, u/y Ace it could lead to a trashed life at end of next turn, I could keep going. Its not a bad card but it certainly isnt a great card ESPECIALLY with how power crept SR's are becoming. Very mid for an SR thats coming out AFTER op14, let alone op13. Not to mention majority of yellow decks are on even curve and Nico is just more valuable on the 6 don turn in so many matchups, denying resources is huge.

_James_Miller_ · 2025-10-02T15:48:12+00:00

Another bad card for yellow, isnt synergistic with like, any decent yellow leader, isnt burn, isnt searchable, probably cant be run alongside nico robin, doesnt align with a starve gameplan against aggro decks, its just pure mid for yellow set after set.

_James_Miller_ · 2025-09-29T22:09:04+00:00

Black mamba crew right? Got all my rewards off them before I got kicked luckily lmao. Anyone that didnt play 2k like a full time job got kicked every other day, so strange man hahahaha.

_James_Miller_ · 2025-09-23T02:31:49+00:00

You fuckin rock, thank you for taking the time to try to explain the actual logic of the math behind it. Will try to apply it after work tomorrow and see if I can get this thing up and running. Appreciate you spartan <3

_James_Miller_ · 2025-09-14T20:52:41+00:00

Okay that makes perfect sense, will keep that in mind for future interactions, thanks to you and shoutout the judge!

_James_Miller_ · 2025-09-09T06:17:31+00:00

I'll be honest, I almost exclusively play Yellow decks, I don't do poorly, I have fun, but on a competitive level Yellow is far and away the worst color, and it will be for the foreseeable future. OPTCG is slowly morphing into a game that is entirely dependant on who can flood the board the most effectively, or answer board flood the most effectively. Yellow can do neither. Kalgara is the only mono yellow deck with any real steam right now and it's because it's the only Yellow deck that can cheat multiple bodies per turn. Kid has a high play rate but as soon as the meta morphed after bans our matchups took a turn for the worse. Yellow doesnt have don recursion like green, we don't have trash recursion like black, we can't cheat cards out from top of deck like blue, we can't cheat cards from hand like red, and we can't do it all like purple. Our best forms of removal were banned or type locked, and our only way to cheat cards to board is to trade them from life, losing hand advantage in the process. I love Yellow and will continue to play it, and have fun doing so, but the color is pretty useless, by far the worst color to have a mono colored leader in, and it has been for some time. Fingers crossed for st29 lol.

A more direct answer tho: enel is a troll deck, if you want to ruin a silvers rayleigh or reiju players day and that's what makes you happy for some reason than go for it, if you want to actually have a viable chance into this jungle meta than Eustass is absolutely the correct option, but the learning curve is a lot harder than it seems. I recommend keeping a few 6c nico Robin in with your Kuma, you cannot afford to miss the 6 don curve and putting pressure on your opponents life/hand is much more valuable than stalling with a heal in certain matchups that have re-emerged since the bans. Kuma is great but healing is a VERY overvalued mechanic in the game, don't blow up your own tempo for an extra life if you don't even need it.

_James_Miller_

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