WINNER 8/12 Carta Magica Zoro Deck Experience (Patreon)

Yesterday I took Zoro to the Carta Magica Online Regional, and managed to get FIRST PLACE(this will be my Third Luffy and my Second win!!!) Here is the deck list I used:

This is the decklist I went with today, and as you can see it's about 3 cards off from the "Zoro in OP03.5" decklist. The main changes here were the decision to use no Magra, adding in a 3rd Gordon, adding a second Luffy, and adding in a second Fiery Doll! I will discuss each of these individually, but I will say now that I am likely to keep the 3rd Gordon and 2nd Fiery Doll, but will likely be cutting the second Luffy.

Magra Benefits:

• Strong against Yellow - You're on a clock against Yellow, so producing a body, while allowing a Weenie to hit for 7K is huge
• Strong against Mirror - Makes it easier to go for game with weenies
• Combines well with Makino for lethal
• Generally strong pressure

Magra has a lot of benefits, but I felt that it was unnecessary against Whitebeard, and weak against Blue and Green, so I decided to not use it.  Against Whitebeard Fiery Doll is sufficient enough to produce enough pressure, and against Blue and Green utility cards such as Gordon are much more important. If I play a less mid-rangey Zoro build in the future, I am likely to include Magra, but for the time being I doubt I'm reintroducing it to the deck.

Gordon Benefits:

• Strong against Whitebeard - Makes it easy to clear Luffy and Ace which means significantly less defense required!
• Strong against Green - Makes all of green's big threats such as Krieg, 7 Cost Luffy, 8 Cost Kid, etc. easy to manage. You probably lose to green without using Gordon
• Strong against Blue - Strongest card agaisnt Doffys 6K attackers, without it, it feels very neg attacking into 6K+ units
• Strong against Law - ...
• Strongest Going FIrst Play - Play Gordon on T1 or T2, and combine it with 5 Cost Marco to pop a 6K on turn 3!! (Really good for popping Atmos/Speed Jill when going first against Whitebeard)

I've been a Gordon coper for the longest time, so I feel stronger about this card than most people, but I do really feel like this card is broken. If Green  rises in popularity, I believe this card becomes essential. Even without Green's popularity, this card is broken against Whitebeard, and is very strong against Law(a lot of people don't know this but the less Gordon and Fire Fist, the more favorable Law is against Zoro...)

Blamenco Benefits:

• Searchable (This is why I prefer it to 4 Cost Brook)
• Strong against Yellow, Green(especially Green) and Blue - Buffs Marco, Fire Fist, and Pistol against all three of these decks!
• Strong attacker against Lucci's Borsalino/Blueno
• Another low cost attacker

I played against 0 Green today, so I didn't really have the opportunity to use Blamenco, but I know that it is a very strong card against Green. If I'm expecting Green, I'm comfortable leaving this card at 2. Otherwise, this card may be reduced to 1 copy.

This was one of the strongest cards today, but I think 2 copies is too much. Luffy is strong because the 6K base is very strong against Whitebeard, and it's "extra copies" of Diable Jambe! After today I think I would like to run 1 Rush Zoro and 1 Rush Luffy, or 2 Rush Zoro and 1 Luffy. I never need to see more than 1 Luffy.

Jackson Hoang uses only 1 Luffy and no Rush Zoro, which I think is valid, but I think having 2-3 Rushers is important for the Doflamingo matchup, and it makes it easier to lethal against various decks!

I ran this card for Blue and Green, this card is honestly one of the saving graces against Doflamingo post-restriction list. This card lowkey sucks against the mirror and Law, so don't bother playing it in those matchups(it's a loss of tempo, it's typically just better to use that don to attack with Marcos and establish low cost units.)

This card is simply too strong against Whitebeard. I originally ran Magra, so I could combine multiple Magras and Makinos to pressure White beard. But turns out FIery doll does the same thing, but better! You generally only need to see one Fiery Doll to pop off, but if you see two, you're 100% in there, This card is also good for randomly help lethal against various decks, including Yellow and the mirror match. If you really want to seal in the Whitebeard matchup, this card may be worth taking to 3. It also has the most broken trigger in the game.

This card was also very active today. I personally think it's worth using over the fourth Guard Point. The logic in my head was that "it's better to have three 3K counters, and 2 4K counters, rather than four 3K counters and 2 4K counters. Being able to pop a 4K is very relevant ability, because decks rely on little bodies to swing into Zoro's wide board. It can also punish random blockers.

I honestly want to add in a 6th Counter event, I miss the comfort of having 4 Radical Beam and 4 Guard Point...

This card came in clutch for popping 6Ks when I had no units, and was a ridiculous sack out of life. I think 1 copy is enough, but 2 is a safe number.

This card sucks against the mirror, but is really strong against everything else! This card allows you to finesse games against Law and Doflamingo, and is sometimes the saving grace against Whitebeard, when they try to wall up for game.

It's become a trend to exclude this card from Zoro, but I refuse to ever remove it(unless I'm playing a Nami build). This card makes it way more consistent to see 5 Cost Marco(which is very important against pretty much every matchup, and especially in the mirror). That alone is honestly enough reason to include it, but allowing Buggy to search for units is also strong.

Matchups

https://twitter.com/Cross_Aii/status/1690515763122380800?s=20

There were my matchups, and the hardest match-up of the day was definitely Doflamingo. Prior to the ban list it felt pretty easy, but for some reason it's started to feel a bit harder, it's definitely a match up I want to test some more.

All my Whitebeard games went fairly smooth. The Whitebeard game I played in finals was actually the worst matchup I had all day. It looked like I sacked because I saw a billion Buggies, but realistically I only want to see a Buggy or two, and then I want 2K counters, as opposed to events. That finals game was another game where I wished I had more White beard Pirates.

Future Considerations

As I mentioned in the Luffy section, the main change I'm thinking of at the moment is reducing Luffy to 1, and running 1-2 Rush Zoro. I'll post a new list on the Patreon when I devise it.

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That's it for the article for now, please like it if it was informative, so others know to read it. I'm so happy to have finally got another Luffy!!!