Law in OP03.5 + How to Fight against Strawbeard!) (Patreon)

A couple weeks ago I expressed concern about Law's position in the format, due to the new restrictions. And while I still believe it has become slightly harder to play Law, I think it still has an incredible position in the format.

Here's my current perspective on the meta decks of the format Post Gen-Con:

(One of the Gorosei recently went X-2 at a major with Ace!)

This is my current perspective on the format, and as you can see I have Law at the bottom of S. Whitebeard and Zoro are ranked higher because they consistently perform at high power, but Law has the most potential to pop off out of the 3 S-Tier decks. Even if Zoro sees a bunch of Fire FIst, with the right decklist and the right playstyle, Law has the opportunity to play out of it! And as I have mentioned previously, Law has a good matchup into virtually everything on this tier list(minus Zoro), and the Whitebeard matchup has only gotten slightly worse!

Current Law Decks

The "New" Standard? Law

(Based off of Nicky Goldman's 2nd Place List(https://twitter.com/nicky_goldman/status/1687605600408989698?s=20) and Justin Dizazzo's(#1 Law Player on Limitless) Current List)

Based on the results of GenCon and the Law players I saw at top tables, this seems to be the new standard Law list! ST Nami is up to debate(I personally think the card is very strong), but the main cards to keep notice of are Sunny-kun and the reintroduction of Vista!

Sunny-Kun Benefits:

• Searchable by Nami
• Combines with Makino to hit Whitebeard for 6K
• "Wisdom" Type (It's not Slash to it can kill Buggy)
• Another 1 Drop

As you can see Sunny-kun has a lot of valid benefits to it! One of the issues against Zoro is running out of attackers or not being able to shambles on time, but Sunny-kun solves this problem by being a 1-Drop that helps flood the board, while being a convenient attacker.

Vista Benefits:

• Increase Win Rate against Zoro and Green
• Can be combo'd with Otama to pop a 5K/7K attacker against any deck
• It's generically strong to pop low cost bodies!

Vista's primary reason for being re-introduced is the rise in popularity of not only Zoro, but also Green! If you are not running the Film Brook package, I think it is important to include Vista in your Law deck. I have currently decided to use Nico Robin in Film Brook builds, and use Vista in non Film Brook builds. Since Vista is not searchable, make sure to use 3-4 copies!

Film Brook Law

We did a full 360 on the Film Brook build. After playing the Law matchup from Zoro's perspective on top of the perspective I already had from playing Law against Zoro, I decided that 2-3 Film Brook was enough. As I mention in the Law "Master Guide" , Film Brook is a recovery card rather than an aggressive card. After a Zoro player has used Fire Fist, Film Brook is the BEST follow-up.

Obscure? Cards I like in Red/Green Law

ST Nami isn't a mandatory inclusion, but it's a card I've come to like a lot in Law. It is a very strong card against Whitebeard(even with no more 9Beard being in format), and it encourages cards like 5Marco to kill it instead of one of our valuable searchers. This card has also made my overall don management in law very efficient. This card makes it easier to play around triggers, or conveniently helps make 3K units convenient 5K attackers, etc.

This card has been one of my favorite recent inclusions in Law. This card is seen a lot in OPO4 Law due to Rebecca, but even in OPO3 I think that it's a very useful card,

Sanji Benefits:

• Yellows best attempt at beating Law is starving, and this card denies that strategy
• Helps with Green decks trying to starve us
• Can attack into Buggy
• Is an extra attacker on our lethal turn, if we have life remaining!!

Adopting 4 copies of 2 Cost Brook is convenient for our lethal turns, but thanks to us including ST Nami we essentially already have "5 copies" of Brook. This is even more incentive for me to continue to include Sanji in my decks.

The Strawbeard Matchup

I've already covered how to play most of Law's matchups in the Master Guide, but Law plays differently into Strawbeard than normal 9Beard Whitebeard.

(Garrett Farrington's FIrst Place Whitebeard List (Core TCG July 7/31))

Strawbeard Deck-lists all vary, but the main cards that Law needs to be cautious of stay the same:

Luffy - This card will surprise Law with an unblockable 11K Attack, and if this card is not destroyed, it may even launch an unblockable 16K attack! With Radical Beam being reduced to 1, Luffy needs to be avoided more than ever before...

Ace - This card is extremely efficient at destroying rested characters. Due to this card we can't carelessly attack with our Blocker Law and Hawkins or we will LOSE the game

Crossfire - This card isn't always included, but is something we need to be cautious of. You can generally get away with attaching a ridiculous amount of don to Hawkins, but if there is no Restand Law, then it may be better to attach don to leader(Cross Fire can not affect the leader)

Red Hawk - Now that Radical Beam is at 1, this card is a common inclusion in Strawbeard lists. If this card is not properly cared for, we can lose the game on the spot. I would either shambles early, or be prepared to leave up an extra don, in order to counter red hawk destroying one of our units!

From Law's perspective there are 4 Key Cards that are powerful in this matchup!

Hawkins - This card is the strongest against Whitebeard! Luffy exhibits similar power(Since it can swing unblockable 13-14k Twice at the end of the game), but Hawkins is so much more powerful in the mid-game, due to being able to attack rested units while restanding. Hawkins is also basically unblockable since Strawbeard tends to only have 1 blocker at a time!

Otama - This card is the other strongest card against Strawbeard! It is no exaggeration to say that you may instantly lose to Strawbeard if you see 0 copies of this card. This card is the best way to keep with the onslaught of Rush Luffy's and Ace's. If you are just that guy and you draw 2 otamas, then you can combine this card with Vista as well!

ST(Starter) Nami - This card single-handedly invalidates Whitebeard being a 6K leader. Whitebeard being a 6K leader is convenient because it restricts the amount of units 5K leaders can play per turn, because they have to commit an extra don to attack the 6K leader. This affects Law more than any other deck because it directly inhibits our ability to shambles by Turn 3. Nami solves all of these problems, by allowing us to fully tap out, while still being able to attack Whitebeard for 6K. And for those who didn't read the Master Guide, attacking Whitebeard for 6K at least once every single turn, really is the difference between winning and losing.

ST Law - This is the card that changed the way Red/Green Law played forever, and this card's original purpose for being added was to combat Whitebeard! This is a key card against Whitebeard, because it allows us to create two massive attacks that allows us to close out games against Whitebeard.

How to Play Against Strawbeard

First: 50/50 ~ Slightly Advantageous

Second: Advantageous

Mulligan: Hawkins, ST Nami, Otama

GamePlan:

• Use Otama to efficiently attack into Whitebeard's attackers, and make sure to shambles Otama back to hand
• Hawkins takes priority over Blocker Law (It is also fine to hardplay Hawkins Turn 3 of going first)
• Attack Whitebeard for 6K every single turn(this makes a huge difference in how many cards Whitebeard has in hand once they reach 0 life)
• Be cautious of Ace, don't return the turn with Hawkins or Blocker Law rested in the mid-game(I will attack with Hawkins, restand it and not attack again). After the opponent has reached 0 life it's fine to be more aggressive, but I would make sure to have at least one Supernova that won't be removed, in case there are more restand Laws.
• Smart math - It's good to record games against Whitebeard or screenshot lethal turns in order to confirm that you are doing the most optimal math. Me, Jackson Hoang, and Thomas Nguyen got really good at doing math against Whitebeard because we've discussed a billion different lethal scenarios that we or someone else has screenshotted during testing

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This is it for this article for now, leave a like if this article helped you, so others know to view it. I plan to test Law on my YouTube stream sometime between this week and next week, so stay tuned for that!