Introduction to Yellow Katakuri - The New Whitebeard (+ Anti-Law Decklists) (Patreon)

If the English restrictions stay, Yellow Katakuri is set up to easily be one of the best decks of the format. Even if the restrictions don't stick Yellow Katakuri will still be one of the strongest. But the difference is that, if the restrictions stick, Katakuri could officially overtake Whitebeard in representation.

I commonly refer to Red/Green Law in my articles as a deck that "Is timeless, but is difficult to play." On the flip side, I would like to refer to Whitebeard as a deck that "Decays over time, but is very strong in the moment and easy to play" Unless there is some new wave of support that changes Whitebeard, it is currently a deck that gets worse and worse as time goes on, due to players getting better, and cards getting stronger.

I think Yellow is a mix of these two concepts, Yellow is timeless in the sense that has the cards that allow it to be consistently strong against control decks, and has the triggers to allow it to keep up with Aggro. On the flip side, Yellow has similar ease of play to Whitebeard, but unless Yellow continues to get more powerful units and triggers, it's triggers might eventually fall behind the power of what decks can do.

I still don't believe Whitebeard was THE best deck in Set 2 or Set 3, but it's consistent deck power and ease of play, allowed it to be the most represented. Similarly, if Whitebeard stays restricted, it may drop in popularity, meaning Yellow Katakuri will be next up on the menu for "Very Powerful deck that is easier to play than everything else," which will greatly increase it's popularity. Unlike last set, I think Katakuri also has a lot of good matchups this set as well, so I think there's a lot of potential!

My Standard Katakuri Decklist

This is my current take on what a Katakuri deck should look like, and compared to last set there's less offensive triggers and more defensive triggers! Before we talk about card choice I would first like to talk about why Cracker/Smoothie are typically used at 0 copies now.

Why are Cracker and Smoothie not as common in Katakuri anymore?

These cards were basically always included in OP03 Yellow decks, but come OP04 you may notice that JP lists, YouTubers, or certain players have started to adopt these cards way less frequently.

Thanks to Sanji these cards are no longer necessary. Out of all the 4 Cost/5000 Power units that can be called from life, Sanji is easily the strongest one. This card has counter power, Blocker, and has 5000 power. This has freed up a lot of space in our deck because Brulee is no longer necessary as a defensive trigger, and Sanji is typically stronger than Cracker/Smoothie.

Offensive Triggers vs Defensive Triggers

In OP03, in order to make effective use of Yellow having access to triggers, we had to focus on aggroing the opponent with trigger units such as Peropsero, Cracker, and Smoothie.

But come OP04 this deck's defensive power has been significantly increased: 

Unlike Brulee (3 Cost/1000 Power Trigger Blocker from OP03), Sanji is a reliable Blocker when triggered out of life, it is basically a guranteed extra life. Similarly, Bege is a 2K counter that gets to stop an attacker for the whole turn when triggered out of life. Now that we have a consistent and powerful defensive trigger strategy, we don't need to play a bunch of offensive trigger units in order to take advantage of Yellow's trigger mechanic anymore!

On top of Sanji and Bege, we also have the defensive triggers of: thunderbolt which also destroys attackers, and Shirahoshi that can filter out one of our 17+ Counterless cards!

Katakuri Card Choice

| Here's the decklist again for reference

3 Cost Perospero

This card has been one of the most powerful trigger attacks since it's release. The opponent either has to get rid of it, and give us increased search power. Or they have to leave it be, and deal with being attacked by a pesky 5K attacker for the rest of the game!

Charlotte Amande

This card is the most insane 2K counter(next to Bege) from the latest set! This card allows us to get rid of dead countertless trigger cards(Perospero, Thunder Bolts) and deal with the opponent's board or tap an opponent's blocker. This card is especially strong against Law/Zoro (Law can no longer play Bonney standing against Yellow :( .

Cracker

This card is no longer as necessary as it was in OP03, but I decided to still include it because I think it is strong when trying to aggro Law/Zoro to death! (This card is also strong in the mirror if used properly)

Randolph

This card is a searchable version of the 5/7000 Attacker from the Yellow Starter Deck. I personally don't think this card is necessary (thanks to 6/8000 Perospero), but it is still very strong when going first.

Yellow Thatch

This is easily one of the greatest additions to the Yellow deck of all time!! Whitebeard has always been a rough matchup, so having a 6/8000 unit that naturally swings 2K above Whitebeard's life is absolutely insane. In a deck like Yellow that gets to play extra cards for free from life, it's also nice to have more big units to play on curve.

7 Cost Mom

This is a card people generally think is either really strong or really weak. I personally think this card is technically unncessary, but it has a lot of strength against the mirror match, GP Doffy, and Red Zoro! My only issue with this card is I think Katakuri is better into the bad matchups(Whitebeard and Law), but this card is technically stronger everywhere else.

8 Cost Katakuri

This is a card I would never like to remove from Katakuri, unless I give up on defeating Whitebeard/Law, and I want to give Rebecca an easier time. This card is really good for slowing down both Whitebeard and Law, and getting rid of 7 Cost Luffys while establishing a 8K body is one of the primary reasons Yellow is so strong against Rebecca. Getting rid of this card significantly increases our chances of losing to certain decks...

10 Cost Yellow Mom

There's nothing to say lmfao.

This card is also one of the strongest triggers in my opinion. It helps us threaten lethal a turn early against various decks(when used from hand), and this is one of the key triggers we need to see in order to beat Law(and it's really strong against Whitebeard). This card isn't defensively as powerful as Bege/Sanji, but it can potentially shut down an attack for free.

Other Katakuri Decks I would like to Test

Anti-Law Katakuri V2 (Starve Strategy: https://youtu.be/cMjl21MEmlE?si=mCKiCP5pyPLTbZlY )

Anti-Law Katakuri V2(Aggro Stategy)

I'll talk more about these decks as I test them, but basically I think Cracker is strong against Law for the starve strat(helps us OTK), and for the Aggro Strat(for whenever they have more life than us). 

I think there could also be a semi-starve strategy where I don't start attacking until like Turn 3/Turn 4 and Cracker would help with the life disparity.

My current theory is that Shirahoshi isn't that impactful in the Red/Green Law matchup, so I decided to replace it with units that are better against Law.

The goal with testing Anti-Law decks is learning what makes it possible to beat Katakuri, so I could incorporate some of those cards/concepts into a Normal Katakuri List!

-------------

This is it for the article for now, as always if you liked the article please like it. I don't plan on playing Katakuri in OP04(at least not yet), but I am interested in the development of the Katakuri decklists.