Deck Guide

Sabo OP13 Deck Guide

Sabo OP13 gets a real lift from ST31, which opens new ways to reinforce the deck's early engine and makes its wide-board turns much more consistent. The core plan is still to snowball through Sanji into Pirates Docking Six, but the starter cards give the deck better search density, smoother pressure, and more reliable follow-up once the first combo lands.

Curve Guide Matchups
Sabo OP13 guide icon

Decklist

Main list for Sabo OP13 in the OP16 format.

Mulligan

Your mulligan priority is finding your searchers. Their job is to assemble the two key pieces of your opening plan: ST31-001 Sanji and OP15-088 Pirates Docking Six.

Cards to Prioritize

Your cleanest searcher for the opening engine. Nami helps you find the exact pieces you need to get Sanji plus Pirates Docking Six online as fast as possible.

Another premium searcher. Bonney improves your hand consistency and makes it much easier to line up Sanji and Pirates Docking Six on schedule.

Your third search engine is also one of your most useful setup cards. Thousand Sunny keeps digging while giving 1 rested DON!! to one of your Luffy cards every turn.

What to Look For

  • The main goal is to assemble ST31-001 Sanji plus OP15-088 Pirates Docking Six.
  • Pirates Docking Six matters even more because its self +6-cost effect is what gives you the cost-8 condition needed to turn on Sabo's Leader effect.
  • Your searchers should prepare that sequence instead of chasing a random late-game card.
  • An ideal opener has Nami, Bonney, or Thousand Sunny, plus Sanji and/or Pirates Docking Six already in hand.

Curve Guide

The main goal is assembling ST31-001 Sanji, OP15-088 Pirates Docking Six, and a Straw Hat Crew character that costs 2 or less from your trash for the Pirates Docking Six effect. Once that first sequence happens, the going-first and going-second curves start to look much closer, and the deck begins to flood the board with characters. Sabo's effect also makes the board much harder to break by giving your whole field +1000 power as long as you control a cost-8-or-higher character.

Going First

1 DON!!
Start with Nami, Jewelry Bonney, or Thousand Sunny. The whole point is to set up ST31-001 Sanji plus OP15-088 Pirates Docking Six as quickly as possible.
3 DON!!
Keep using your searchers to clean up your hand. Your priority is still getting to the next turn with the main combo available.
5 DON!!
This is the first key turn: play ST31-001 Sanji, then OP15-088 Pirates Docking Six plus a cost-2-or-lower Straw Hat Crew character from trash if you have one. Docking Six helps set that up by trashing three cards on play. If you want the Leader effect buff, Brook is excellent once it's in the trash. Blocker Zoro is a fine defensive pivot when the game calls for it, and Sanji into Rush Luffy is also live here.
7 DON!!
The preferred line is to run another Pirates Docking Six sequence. By now, the board you built the turn before already lets you exploit Sabo's leader effect much more aggressively while you keep adding characters.
9+ DON!!
Once the first Pirates Docking Six turns are done, move into your cost-7 Luffys. That's the natural next step in the curve and the point where your pressure really starts stacking.

Going Second

2 DON!!
Use your searchers to find Sanji and Pirates Docking Six. You don't need to force a different line yet.
4 DON!!
Keep searching for the missing pieces instead of drifting into side lines. You're still setting up the first ST31-001 Sanji into Pirates Docking Six turn.
6 DON!!
Play Sanji, with the same alternate targets as going first : Rush Luffy if you want more pressure, or Pirates Docking Six into Zoro when you need a blocker. Brook is still a strong Pirates Docking Six-effect target to give Don to your leader if it’s already in the trash.
8 DON!!
At 8 DON!!, you can start landing a cost-7 Luffy. If Thousand Sunny is already in play and you also have the cost-5 Luffy set up, you can give that cost-7 Luffy Rush and turn your development into immediate pressure.
10 DON!!
After the first combo sequence, the plan is to keep playing your cost-7 Luffys. At this stage, you're mostly trying to cash in on the board you already built and keep extending with your bigger threats.

Tech Cards

Meta-dependent flex options worth testing in Sabo OP13.

A defensive flex piece with Blocker, 6000 power during the opposing turn, and 2000 counter. The big selling point is flexibility: it shores up the board without becoming dead in hand, so it's worth considering if you want a more resilient list.

This one directly improves Sabo's defense while still adding offensive pressure. Since it's a Straw Hat Crew character, Nami, Bonney, and Thousand Sunny can all find it. It also gives the leader +2000 power by default, and when that stacks with Sabo's effect, your leader can reach 8000 power.

Garp adds another searcher to the deck, but it's less flexible than Bonney because it can only find characters that cost 3 or more. Since this list plays multiple cost-2 characters, Garp is more of an extra consistency layer than a clean replacement for your current search package.

This is your cleanest answer to Electrical Luna. Sabo boards really don't want their cost-7-or-lower characters locked from restanding, and I Have My Crew!! can raise one of your characters by +3 cost while replacing itself. The downside is obvious: this deck doesn't have much DON!! to waste, so you have to be selective.

Matchups

See Sabo's win rates when going first or second in OP13 Sabo stats in OP17 Format.

^ Slightly Favorable
  • The deck can develop multiple threats while still holding enough resources to answer the opponent's bigger bodies.
  • Build Sanji into Pirates Docking Six quickly so you can take control of the board.
  • Characters boosted by Sabo's leader effect make favorable trades much harder for Mihawk.
  • Once your board is set, keep pressuring without overinvesting all your resources into one character.
^ Favorable
  • Sabo can apply enough pressure before Green/Blue Luffy starts chaining its bigger restand turns.
  • Try to assemble your combo as early as possible so you can take the board first.
  • Use the leader effect to keep your board intact through opposing control attempts.
  • Keep multiplying threats instead of loading all your power into one character.
^ Favorable
  • Play your normal game plan.
  • Assemble Sanji into Pirates Docking Six quickly so you can keep the pace of the game in your hands.
^ Favorable
  • Even though several cards come from Starter Deck 21, Sabo has the edge in this matchup.
  • Get your engine online quickly.
  • Keep adding characters so the pressure never lets up.
^ Favorable
  • Yamato is one of Sabo's best matchups.
  • Follow your usual game plan.
  • Try to establish your board quickly through the main combo.
v Slightly Unfavorable
  • Sabo mostly wants to keep the pressure up while developing multiple characters over several turns so Teach has to keep answering the board.
  • Keep building your board instead of looking for one all-in explosive turn.
  • Use the leader effect to preserve key characters when you need to.
= Even
  • Stick to your standard game plan.
  • Develop your board gradually and keep your sequencing clean.
= Even
  • Keep building your engine without changing your curve.
  • Try to leave multiple threats on the board at once.
  • Many of Nami's characters have On K.O. effects, so focus Life and force the opponent to spend resources there.
= Even
  • Assemble your main combo quickly.
  • Keep developing your board throughout the game.
v Unfavorable
  • Follow your normal game plan.
  • Keep developing characters through Sanji and Pirates Docking Six.
  • Rosinante's plan is simply more stable over a long game, and that's the real problem here.
v Unfavorable
  • Don't fall behind on board in the first few turns.
  • Develop your combo as soon as possible so the pressure stays constant.
v Unfavorable
  • Purple Enel is one of Sabo's worst matchups.
  • Keep following your curve instead of trying to reinvent the plan.
  • Do your best to maintain multiple threats at the same time.
^ Slightly Favorable
  • Develop your board as quickly as possible.
  • Hold your resources so the pressure never really stops.
v Unfavorable
  • Keep following your main game plan.
  • Try to keep multiple characters on the board at all times.

Tips

Core reminders for Sabo OP13 in the OP16 format.

Prepare your trash early. Brook ST01-011 is one of the best cards to place there, especially by using it as a counter first. During your combo, Pirates Docking Six can bring it back so you can attach a DON!! to the leader and make Sabo's effect easier to turn on.

Use Pirates Docking Six to pick the right target for the moment. It can bring back Nami for another search, Zoro when you need a blocker, or Brook when you want the extra DON!! on the leader. The target shouldn't be automatic; it should match the board state.

Sabo's effect is the engine that turns your board from decent to oppressive. Once it's online, the +1000 power also applies during the opposing turn. That makes Pirates Docking Six harder to remove and turns even your small characters into meaningful attackers and defenders. Since Pirates Docking Six is the only card in the list that enables the leader effect, protecting it matters a lot.

Take advantage of the wide board once it's assembled. The deck gets especially dangerous into 5000-power leaders because your boosted smaller characters suddenly become real attackers. On the other hand, leaders that naturally sit at 6000 power or higher make that plan less efficient.

ST21-003 Sanji is mainly an offensive Pirates Docking Six target. In real games, its main job is usually giving Unblockable to Pirates Docking Six so your pressure converts immediately.

Don't neglect your Life total just because your board is harder to break once Sabo is active. The deck still needs enough room to keep building and enough resources left to defend the turns that matter.

In the late game, shift from pure development into board control. Your cost-7 Luffys and Gum-Gum Mole Pistol become your main tools for KO'ing opposing characters or dropping them low enough to attack over. If you can grant Rush to Luffy, it can sometimes handle a second target in the same turn.

Time for the Counterattack depends directly on Pirates Docking Six. The event can give you 4000 counter for 1 DON!!, but it becomes dead if Docking Six isn't in play. The good news is that once Docking Six sticks, it's usually hard enough to remove that the event stays live.

Ground Death has two separate jobs. In hand, it can blank the effect of an opposing cost-5-or-lower character, especially a blocker or an On K.O. threat. Once you have ten or more cards in trash, it can also give +4000 counter to your leader or one of your characters.

Bad Manners Kick Course turns awkward cards into defense. Since the event is searchable through the Straw Hat engine, it lets you convert a card that's weak in the current spot into +3000 counter and stabilize clunky hands much more easily.

Managing DON!! carefully matters a lot in this deck. Several lines ask you to preserve or attach DON!! at exact moments, whether that's to turn on Sabo's effect, make your attackers hit the right thresholds, or keep your defensive events available. It's also why some tech cards are hard to fit: there just isn't much DON!! to waste.