How to play One Piece TCG: the complete beginner's guide

The One Piece Card Game is quicker to learn than most trading card games and quicker to play than almost all of them. A game lasts around fifteen minutes, there is no mana screw, and the rules fit comfortably on one page. This guide takes you from an unopened starter deck to your first complete game.

What you need to play

• One Leader card. Your character for the game. It sits face-up from the start, has its own power, and determines which colours your deck may use.
• A 50-card main deck. Exactly 50 cards — no more, no less. Maximum four copies of any card with the same card number.
• A 10-card DON!! deck. Identical cards that act as your resource. They are not part of the 50.
• Life cards. Not a separate deck: at setup you place a number of cards from the top of your main deck face-down as your Life, based on your Leader's printed Life value (usually 4 or 5).

Setting up

The turn, in order

Every turn runs through the same five phases. Once you've internalised this loop, you know the game.

1. 1Refresh. Return the DON!! attached to your characters to your cost area, and set all your rested cards upright (active) again.
2. 2Draw. Draw one card. The player going first skips this on their very first turn.
3. 3DON!!. Place two DON!! cards from your DON!! deck into your cost area, active. On the first player's first turn, only one.
4. 4Main. The phase where everything happens: play characters and stage cards, use events, activate abilities, and attack.
5. 5End. Turn passes.

DON!! — the resource you never run short of

DON!! is what makes this game feel different from Magic or Pokémon. You gain two DON!! every turn automatically, up to a maximum of ten in play, so you never miss a land drop and you never get stuck. To play a card, you rest DON!! equal to its cost.

The clever part is the second use: during your Main phase you can attach active DON!! from your cost area to a character or to your Leader, and each attached DON!! gives that card +1000 power until the end of the turn. That means every unspent DON!! is a potential attack buff, and the interesting decisions in this game are almost always about splitting DON!! between playing cards and pushing damage. There is a full explanation in our DON!! guide.

Attacking, blocking and Counter

You attack by resting one of your active characters, or your Leader, and choosing a target: the opposing Leader, or one of their rested characters. You cannot attack an opponent's active character. That single restriction is what makes resting your own characters to attack a real cost — it leaves them open next turn.

An attack succeeds if the attacker's power is equal to or greater than the defender's. Ties go to the attacker, which catches out players coming from other card games.

The defending player has two ways to respond:

• Blocker. A character with the Blocker keyword that is active can be rested to redirect the attack to itself.
• Counter. Most cards have a Counter value in red on the left edge (typically 1000 or 2000). During the opponent's attack you may discard cards from your hand to add that much power to the defender. This is why your hand is also your defence, and why taking Life damage — which puts a card in your hand — is not purely bad.

How you win

When an attack hits a Leader, the defending player takes the top card of their Life pile into their hand. Some of those cards have a Trigger ability that can be activated for free when they're dealt as damage, which is the game's built-in comeback mechanic.

Once a player has zero Life cards left, the next successful attack on their Leader wins the game. You can also win if your opponent has to draw from an empty deck.

Rules that catch out new players

• You may have a maximum of five characters in play. Playing a sixth means choosing one to trash.
• A character cannot attack the turn it is played unless it has Rush.
• You can only attack rested characters, never active ones.
• Ties in power go to the attacker.
• Your DON!! deck is separate from your 50 cards and doesn't count towards deck size.
• Attached DON!! returns to your cost area at the start of your next turn — the buff is temporary.

What to learn next

Once you've played a few games with a starter deck, the natural next step is building your own. Our deck building guide covers colour identity, curve and card ratios, and the banlist tells you what you can't play in tournaments.