My Final? OP03 Law Deck ( + The Red Zoro Struggle) (Patreon)

MUST-READ IF YOU PLAY LAW, especially if you struggle against Red Zoro!!For the duration of OP03, I had "quit" Red/Green Law, because I was worried about getting Fire-Fisted by Zoro, and I was tired of whiffing my Bonneys, Dadans, Namis, etc. Despite this, I wish I had given Law a fair shot again myself, or that I preached the Law gospel, so other Law players could before better. It may sound kinda crazy to say "preach the Law gospel," but the EN Law players that performed well this format were either players I was already personally aware of, or players that are already considered top tier players. Just look at Nicky Goldman: https://twitter.com/nicky_goldman/status/1695586534135611482?s=20 , he just keeps on topping with Law. My pov may be biased, so maybe there's a lot more Red/Green Law in Top 16/32 than I have seen, but it felt like every other top deck has been topping in either higher frequency or higher amounts than Red/Green Law(at least in North America).

I actually got into an argument with my Arizona friends about which region is better between NA and EU, and part of my argument was talking about seeing more Law in EU than NA. And then they asked why I stopped playing Law. And since then I started testing Law again, and deck is more broken than I remember 😂.

Ranking in the Meta

[Yamato is way stronger than I thought(at least against Red)]

I positioned Law as the second strongest deck based on where I thought it stood in the meta, and after testing for the past few days, I couldn't have been more happier with this rating. As I frequently mention, when the deck is played at a very high ceiling, you consistently beat just about every deck on this list except good Zoros(and potentially Ace).

Even Zoro is a doable matchup, but it heavily depends on deck construction and strategy. If you're also lucky enough to play against a Zoro player that isn't as good, you will win those as well.

The Current "Standard" Law Decks

Film Brook Law (Vista Vers.)

[After play-testing more against Zoro, I now understand I don't need a billion copies of Film brook]

This is the Vista Version of Film Brook, and I think this deck is very strong! Before I talk about some specific cards(which I am sure y'all are curious about), I would first like to highlight the features of this build:

• Features 3 copies Sanji - An early attacker, that is able to clear Buggy!
• Features ST Nami - Very strong card against Whitebeard, and is secretly strong against Zoro!
• 2 ST Zoro - ST Zoro is a very strong play against both Whitebeard and Zoro, being a base 6K attacker is huge against Whitebeard, and being able to make this 6K is strong against Zoro's fire-fist, and when you're still at 2life and don't want to rest Rush Zoro.
• Film Brook - This is an extremely strong card against Fire Fist, rather than wanting to see this card on curve, we want to use this card to field an attacker when we have just been fire fisted, even using this to only play a chopper/Nami is huge, because it's another 5K attacker on the board
• Rush Luffy - People typically think Hawkins is stronger, but I think Luffy is actually stronger. This card is unblockable, is able to clear Buggy and is double-searchable. This card is undoubtedly stronger than Hawkins against Zoro due to being Strike and having Rush, so rather than picking Hawkins which is the better option against Whitebeard, I chose Luffy which is stronger against Red Zoro and double searchable
• Vista - I personally think this card is way stronger than Robin, Robin being searchable is too strong, but Vista has value against Zoros that try to play Gordon on curve, or players that try to play Blamenco and leave it standing
• 1 Guard Point - This card is a sad replacement to Radical Beam, but having at least 2 counter events is till very necessary imo. It helps clutch up the game against Rush Luffy, is strong against Zoro fire-fisting 2 blockers, and is strong against 9Beard.
• 1 Makino - I personally think ST Nami is stronger, but I wanted to run 9 2Ks, but I also wanted a 16th target for Dadan, so I decided to include 1 Makino

Now I would like to expand on a few of the cards featured in this deck:

Everyone knows about the strength of this card against Whitebeard, but it is also extremely strong against Zoro! One of the greatest losing streaks to Red Zoro is turn 2 Fire Fist. Many people assume they lose to Turn 2 Fire Fist because they can't shambles on turn 3, but they actually lose because 2 searchers are destroyed! Thanks to Starter Nami(and Vista), we have more "filler" cards that we can play to establish units early on, without being forced to play searchers.

This card is also extremely aggressive, and allows us to conveniently swing 7K with our leader, or attatch don to a 5K attacker to prevent it from being popped by fire fist, or attatch a don to ST Zoro to make it 6K on the opponents turn (another anti-Fire Fist measure)

I believe this card is extremely underestimated in Red/Green Law. I planned to use this card next set anyways, due to Blue/Black Rebecca, but this card is also very strong against Red Zoro! Rather than playing Brook on turn 1 of going second(and doing nothing), Sanji can be played instead. Due to being "Strike," this card is able to attack into Buggy! It's very common for me to guard either Zoro or Buggy's attack on Turn 2 of going first, and then I will trigger Sanji's ability and attack Buggy for 7K. This card is one of the strongest against Buggy.

People who are unfamiliar to Red/Green Law, may think that this card purpose is to play a 3 Cost Unit, or to produce 2 attackers on curve, but this card's true value is being another attacker against Red Zoro! A common issue against Red Zoro is that when our Zoro and Law has been Gordon + Fire-Fisted, we tend to lose the game, not only because we have to commit a bunch of don to shambling, but because it's hard to get 2 attackers on the board while also doing shambles. The only option is having another Blocker Law and Zoro.

But Film Brook alleviates this issue, by being searchable by Nami, and being able to call another unit. Even if we don't have a Zoro to call, it is still strong to fill up two units on the board for 4 Cost, and then shambles in a Luffy, Starter Law, or Blocker Law.

It is also strong that Luffy can replace Brook.

This card is lowkey stronger than Hawkins. Hawkins is a very strong card, but I believe it is winmore. We have been cooking Whitebeard since Set 2 without Hawkins, so rather than include Hawkins, why not include a card that is stronger against Red Zoro? And is still strong enough against Whitebeard(Unblockable 14K Twice is 10 cards out of Whitebeard's hand(if they are tapped out).

Hawkins Negatives against Red Zoro:

• Lack of Rush
• Slash (Can't Kill Buggy)
• Only Searchable from Bonney
• Can't return Bonney to hand (this is a huge negative, that only people who have searched Hawkins from Bonney, when searching for another Blocker Law, understand

Luffys Positives against Red Zoro:

• Strike (Can Kill Buggy)
• Double Searchable (We reuse Nami a lot)
• Has Rush(can attack Zoro immediately)
• Can Bring Bonney back to hand

Now let's briefly look at the other version of Red/Green Law.

Film Brook Law (Robin Vers.)

This is the other version of Red/Green Law I would take to tournament at the moment. The deck has already been explained in the previous section, so I will only talk about Robin.

Robins Benefits:

• Searchable from Nami
• Demands an Early Fire-Fist from Red Zoro
• Strong against Red Zoro 
• Can pop up to 7K with Otama(this is much harder to do with Vista, unless you have 2 Otamas)
• 2 More Targets for Film Brook, and is playable from Film Brook
• Stronger than Vista on curve, when going first

Robin has a lot of benefits, but I think Vista is overall a stronger card against Red Zoro. To me, Vista's immediate value has more value than Robin being searchable. If Zoro fire-fists you then hard plays Blamenco, what you doing bro? I still need to experiment some more with Robin vs. Vista, but my current impression is that Vista is stronger. Otama + Vista is also a disgusting play on curve against any deck.

The Red Zoro Struggle

A Good Red Zoro is currently Law's worst matchup, and it can get really rough if the Zoro player knows what they doing. 5Marco is very strong, but it isn't even the issue for real. Before we talk about countermeasures to Red Zoro, I first want to clarify, that the less of these cards you see in a Red Zoro players deck, the more likely Law is going to perform well:

These are the cards that make it rough for Law against Red Zoro. Blamenco is strong as well, but is easier to counter thanks to Robin/Vista. 

I personally think that Magra builds with no Gordon are advantageous matchups for Law. Noel from Team Seafoodking is a good example of this (this is his list: https://twitter.com/Dobogeee/status/1686175319705993216?s=20 ), he's a very strong player, but he talks about losing to Alfred's Red/Green Law pretty consistently with Red Zoro, and I think a huge part of this is the lack of Gordon. If a Zoro hits you with a turn 2 fire-fist, into a Gordon + 5Marco, Law has damn near lost the game, and this is just one example.

Tips against Red Zoro

Mulligan: Sanji, Vista, ST Nami, Searchers + Blocker Law

Attack Choice: Second (I think the extra draw, and being able to respond to Buggy with Sanji, or play Vista on turn 2 is very strong)

Keep your searchers alive

• Against a deck like Red Zoro that can destroy our units while being able to pressure our board, we need to be able to recurr advantage
• It's fine to play some amount of searchers early on, just make sure you have another searcher in your hand, and make sure to bring them back to hand with shambles
• The most important searchers are Bonney and Nami, in previous builds people would reccur Dadans instead of Namis, but make sure to recurr Nami [4-5 2Ks, 2 Defensive events, 4 Chopper, Attackers(Luffy, Zoros) ]

Going to 1 Life

• One of the biggest differences between players who are good/bad into Red Zoro, is knowing when to go to 1 life
• If Zoro is going too fast, I honestly think it's fine to go down to 1 life, we're able to clap black with a barrage of blockers, and we have more chances to see outs when we go down to 1 life
• If we already have a lot of card advantage (due to having seen multiple searchers), and have the cards we need in hand, then I would stay at 2 life and block Marco's 7K attack, and 2K Zoro's 6K attack(or blocker Law + 2K Zoro's 7K attack if there are no more attackers)
• Basically the decision between staying at 1 life or 2 life is based on if you already have enough cards you need in hand! A common play(from 2 life), is to shambles in a Blocker Law and play a ST Zoro(while the opponent has about 2 life remaining), allow them to reduce us to 0-1 life the next turn, and then go for game on the following turn(with Restand Law), or have a massive aggro turn and leave up defense!
• Sometimes we will also be forced to go to 0, because we had a mediocre draw, and need to see an extra card out of life, these cases are rare, but if it comes up I think it's worth gambling on whether your opponent runs diable jambe/Luffy, because it could give us the resources we need to come back. 

Ignore 5Marco

• Unless you somehow starved the Zoro player, or they are extremely low on cards on hand, I would generally avoid 5 Marco
• The Zoro matchup is a race for who kills who first, and unless you have high chances of killing 5Marco, you will lose the life race by attacking 5Marco (this same concept applies to the Zoro mirror match lol)

Zoro Players Be Bricked Up (Pause)

• Zoro players run a lot of bricks such as Gordon, Fire Fist, Fiery Doll, Pistol, etc. , so if you're forced to go for game, don't be scared and try to make the best attacks you can
• If they tap out on a strange turn, you can also take advantage and try to go forgame here, as their radical beam/guard points turn into bricks for that turn

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This is it for the article for now, I'm honestly very happy to be talking about Red/Green Law again, this deck is so much fun , and I really believe it should be popping off way more in tournaments.

A lot of people are probably looking into Yellow Yamato as well, so let's take advantage and sauce the Yellow players!!

As always if this article helped you out, please like, and with that being said, I will catch y'all in the next one, peace.