Rocks Master Class

What kind of deck Rocks is

Rocks is a midrange value deck with a card engine built into its leader. It doesn't win by racing. It wins by having more cards than you at every stage of the game, surviving the early turns on free counters, and then landing a 12000 Xebec that puts two more threats on the board for free.

The numbers that define it, from our Pro AI's games with this list:

• The leader attacks about 6 times a game, and Pro uses its dig on 99.7% of those attacks. Trash 1 card, reveal the top card, draw 2. With this list the reveal always hits (see "The engine" below), so every leader attack is +1 card.
• By your 4th turn you hold about 9 cards (9.0 going first, 8.7 going second, before that turn's draw).
• Xebec comes down the turn you reach 10 DON!!: your 6th turn going first, your 5th going second. When Pro plays Xebec, it's on that exact turn 93-94% of the time.

So the deck is a mix: a control shell (Stussy, Gloriosa, Rocks Pirates, Shiki) around a value engine (the leader, Kyo, Newgate, Linlin, Captain John), with one big finisher. Grind them out of cards, then take over the board on 10.

How it wins, how it loses, and what it must never do

How it wins. The hand grows every turn. The control cards stop their best attackers: Stussy's "can't attack", Gloriosa's bottom-of-the-deck, the Rocks Pirates bounce, Shiki's -3000. Then Xebec on 10 DON!! adds 12000 plus Shiki, or Newgate and Stussy, in one turn.

How it loses. Rocks has almost no counter values on its Characters: Buckin's +1000 is the only one. All of its defense is Events, Xebec held in hand, and its leader buffs. It loses when the opponent takes Life faster than the dig refills the counters. Its worst matchups in our Pro AI's games are Kaido (37% over 600 games, the same shuffles played both ways; 47% at full strength) and Black Luffy (44% at full strength).

What it must never do:

• Never skip the leader's attack. It's a free card every time. Pro swings with its leader on essentially every turn from its second turn on.
• Never play Buckin to the field. Pro played it from hand 0 times in 7,968 games, and strong players did it in 2 of 6,407. Buckin is a +1000 counter that stays in hand. On the field he would also switch off Xebec's +2000 hand counter, which only works while all your Characters are counterless.
• Never spend early DON!! on the leader. Until turn 6 Pro gives its leader 0 to 0.7 DON!! a turn. The leader attacks for the dig, not for damage; the DON!! goes to the curve.

The list

The list is MetaHub's top Rocks list (53% win rate on the site's data), the one our Pro AI plays. "Core" means it's in all 15 recent top lists on MetaHub; "flex" means some lists cut it.

How Pro uses each card, per game (7,968 of its games against the 12 most common decks):

The engine and key interactions

1. The leader's dig always hits with this list. The reveal needs a card whose type includes "Rocks Pirates". Every card in this list qualifies, Buckin included (his type is Original Rocks Pirates). So "trash 1, draw 2" is a guaranteed +1 card on every attack. That's why Buckin is in all 15 recent top lists even though his own effect does nothing here: he's a 1-cost counter that never misses the dig.

What Pro feeds the dig, most often first: Don Marlon (0.97 a game), Kyo and Charlotte Linlin (0.90 each) and Streusen (0.81): the cards worth least once their moment has passed. It almost never trashes Xebec (0.04), and rarely a counter Event.

2. Xebec on 10 DON!! is the turn the game turns. Its [On Play] draws 1 and puts out up to two Rocks Pirates cards with different names and a total cost of 9 or less. What Pro puts out with it:

• Shiki alone: 26-33% of the time
• Kyo + Shiki: 11-14%
• Edward Newgate + Stussy: 12-18%
• Gloriosa, or Gloriosa + Stussy: about 10%

Kyo + Shiki and Newgate + Stussy are the two full 9s. So from turn 4 on, keep a Shiki or a Newgate in hand for Xebec.

3. The counter budget. Rocks counters with free Events, Buckin, and its finisher. Per game, Pro uses about 2.3 Rocks Pirates, 1.7 There's No Authority in the World, 2.0 Buckin and 0.9 Xebec as counters. Don Marlon brings a used 0-cost Event back from the trash: one more counter. Edward Newgate (+3000 on the leader, trash 1), Charlotte Linlin (+1000, trash 1) and a rested Captain John (they can only attack him) are the rest of the defense.

4. Which counter to spend, by Life. In Pro's full-strength games (411 of them), at 5 Life Buckin is its most used counter (41%), at 3-4 Life it's Rocks Pirates and Buckin (32-37% each), and at 0-1 Life it's There's No Authority (31-35%) and Xebec (24-27%). The habit: spend the +1000 early, keep the +2000s for low Life.

5. DON!! goes to the curve, not the leader. The DON!! only shows up on the leader and Characters after Xebec, when there's nothing left to play.

The game plan

Going first (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 DON!!):

• Turn 1: Streusen if you have it (40-60% of games by matchup), otherwise nothing.
• Turn 2: Don Marlon or Stussy (each 25-50% of games by matchup), sometimes Kyo. The leader attacks every turn from here on.
• Turn 3: Charlotte Linlin or Gloriosa.
• Turn 4: Shiki most often (43-85% by matchup), otherwise Edward Newgate.
• Turn 5: Edward Newgate + Stussy, or another Shiki.
• Turn 6: Xebec.

Going second (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 DON!!):

• Turn 1: Kyo or Streusen.
• Turn 2: Gloriosa, Captain John or Don Marlon.
• Turn 3: Edward Newgate (60-85% of games in most matchups).
• Turn 4: Shiki, or two Gloriosa against a wide board.
• Turn 5: Xebec.

Turn order at a glance

Rocks's win rate going first and going second against each of the 12 most common decks, from the same shuffles played both ways (at least 300 shuffles per matchup), next to how often strong Rocks players choose to go first:

The gaps are worth up to 22 wins in every 100 games. The four places where the crowd goes the other way are the mirror, Shanks, Nico Robin and Charlotte Pudding.

Mulligans: keep almost everything

• Ship only the hands with no 2-to-5-cost Character (no Kyo, Don Marlon, Stussy, Captain John, Gloriosa or Charlotte Linlin). That's about 1 opening hand in 20, and over 7,281 hands played both ways (the same deal kept once and redrawn once), keeping those hands cost about 10 wins in every 100 against a fresh five.
• Keep everything else. Over all hands, keeping won 59.2% and redrawing 58.8%. The rule above (ship only the no-play hands) won 59.6%, the best of every rule we tried. The one exception is Rosinante (Chapter 12), where redrawing won about 6 more games in every 100.
• The best keeps have Charlotte Linlin or Don Marlon: keeping those hands won about 2 to 3 more games in every 100 than a redraw.
• Strong Rocks players ship 47% of their opening hands. Our Pro AI's analysis says that's far too many: the deck digs a card on every leader attack, so a redraw buys less than it costs.

What Pro does differently from most players

• It counters more at 3 to 5 Life. On hits to its leader at 3 Life Pro counters 37% of the time against 32% for strong players (at 5 Life, 30% against 24%), and in its close calls at 3 Life countering was the better move 67% of the time (106 of 159).
• Its turn order disagrees with the crowd in four matchups, and sharply in two. In the mirror, 94% of strong Rocks players go second, but over the same 532 shuffles played both ways our Pro AI won 54.3% going first and 45.7% going second (Chapter 1). Against Shanks, 95% go second, but going first won 64% to 58% over the same 300 shuffles played both ways. Against Nico Robin and Charlotte Pudding the crowd is closer to an even split (46% and 41% go first), while our Pro AI's games favor going first by 8 and 10 wins in every 100.
• It treats Xebec as a counter. Across its 1,050 full-strength games Pro used Xebec as a +2000 counter as often as it played it: 1.1 times a game each. Against fast decks like Luffy & Ace, the counter is most of Xebec's value (1.2 counters a game to 0.16 plays, Chapter 2).
• It keeps far more hands. Strong players redraw 47% of Rocks openers; Pro's analysis keeps everything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (about 95% of hands).
• The rest matches strong players closely: Pro and strong players make the same move 79% of the time on the same Rocks positions. The gap is in a few big decisions, and the matchup chapters are about exactly those.

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The mirror is the most common Rocks game by far: about 1 in 5 of Rocks's games on MetaHub's data. Both sides have the same engine, the same counters and the same Xebec turn, so it's decided by tempo, by who spends cards better on defense, and by who wins the Shiki fight.

Turn order: go first (against the crowd)

• Playing the same 532 mirror shuffles both ways (once going first, once going second), the side going first won 54.3%, the side going second 45.7%. That's about 9 more wins in every 100 games for going first (give or take 4).
• That goes against almost everyone: 94% of strong Rocks players choose to go second in the mirror.
• A likely reason: going first, your Shiki lands on game turn 7, a full turn before theirs, while their 6-DON!! Newgate is on the board. In Pro's games Shiki's -3000 goes on the opposing Shiki 70% of the time, so the side whose Shiki arrives first gets to shrink first.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 681 mirror hands both ways, keeping and redrawing came out even: 51.1% each. So the rule from Chapter 0 applies: keep any hand with a 2-to-5-cost Character.
• Ship the hands with none: in the mirror, keeping those cost about 26 wins in every 100 (31 hands, so give or take 10).

How to play it

Going first (our recommendation):

• Turn 1: Streusen (54%), otherwise nothing.
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Don Marlon (46%), Kyo (29%) or Stussy (25%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (58%) or Gloriosa (29%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (67%). If no Shiki, Edward Newgate (27%).
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): Newgate + Stussy or another Shiki.
• Turn 6: Xebec (83%).

Going second: Gloriosa is the turn-2 play here (49%), then Newgate on 6 DON!! (60%), Shiki on 8 (84%) and Xebec on 10 (84%).

What Xebec puts out in the mirror: Shiki 45% of the time, Newgate + Stussy 16%, Kyo + Shiki 13%. The mirror is a Shiki war, so Xebec's best follow-up is usually another Shiki.

DON!!: the leader gets 0 to 0.4 DON!! a turn until Xebec. All of it goes to the curve.

Win the Shiki fight

• Kill their Shiki first. When Pro's Shiki can attack either their Shiki or their Newgate, attacking the Shiki was the better move in 10 of 14 close calls (46% against 36% on average).
• Shiki's -3000 goes on their Shiki (70% of the time), then Newgate (14%).
• Stussy locks their Newgate (43%) or Xebec (28%).
• Gloriosa takes the small value pieces: Captain John 21%, Gloriosa 18%, Linlin 17%, Don Marlon 16%.

Taking Life

The mirror is a long game: Pro's kills come on its 7th or 8th turn (27 of 34 wins), so cards matter more than Life early.

• At 5 Life, almost never counter. Pro counters 11% of hits at 5 Life, and in its close calls there taking the hit was better 30 times out of 41. When it does counter at 5, it's Buckin (82%).
• At 3-4 Life, the call is close and Buckin goes first. Pro counters about a third of the hits; at 4 Life Buckin is 56% of its counters.
• At 0 Life, counter everything: 86%, mostly with There's No Authority in the World (38%) and Rocks Pirates (27%).
• Expect about 7 counters from them per game: Rocks Pirates 2.4, Buckin 2.2, There's No Authority in the World 1.8 and Xebec 0.8 in Pro's games. Plan your swings around them.

Don't pay cards for small buffs

The mirror rewards card counting, and Pro refuses to throw cards at small boosts:

• Newgate's +3000 when your leader attacks: usually skip it. In 85 close calls, not trashing a card for it was better 58 times (about 4 more wins in 100 on average). Your leader's attack is for the dig, not for damage, so don't pay a second card for power.
• On defense the same Newgate +3000 is a coin flip (better in 46 of 110), and Charlotte Linlin's +1000 (17 of 39) too: use them only when the Life matters.

Lethal in the mirror

• Pro's kill turns come at 10 DON!! with the opponent at about 1.4 Life and 4 cards in hand.
• On the kill turn it puts about 4.8 DON!! on its leader and 1.4 on Characters, and swings 3 to 4 times: Shiki (once per kill on average), the leader, Xebec and Newgate.
• There's No Authority in the World's Unblockable shows up in fewer than 1 kill in 10: it's the way past a Gloriosa Blocker. (It doesn't get around a rested Captain John: his taunt stops attacks on anything else, it isn't a block.)

Their cards to play around

It's your own deck, so count it: 8 free +2000 Events, 4 Buckin and up to 4 Xebec in hand as counters, Captain John's taunt, Stussy's lock and Gloriosa's bottom-of-deck. Two habits from Pro's games:

• Before your big swing, count how many of their 0-cost Events are already in the trash; Don Marlon can bring one back.
• When they rest Captain John, every attack has to go into him (6000 power), so count your swings against 6000 plus a +2000 counter before you commit DON!!.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated mirror game below, in the coach's own words:

• Five DON!!, their Captain John on the board: "Play Gloriosa. Its [On Play] effect happens right away. The coach rates it about 14 more wins in every 100 games than playing Charlotte Linlin." And for the target: "Choose Captain John for Gloriosa's effect. Captain John (6000) is the biggest of their Characters you can pick."
• Nine DON!!, a second Shiki: "Attack Shiki with Shiki. The coach rates it about 8 more wins in every 100 games than attacking Edward Newgate."
• At 2 Life with two counters in hand: "Take the hit. At 2 Life you can take the hit, and the Life card comes to your hand. You keep your 2 counters for later." Countering there rated only about 7%.
• The kill turn at 0 Life: "Attack their Leader with Edward Newgate. Swing it before Rocks D. Xebec: what they spend here can't save them later."

The narrated game: a comeback from 11%

Pro goes first, wins the early Shiki fight, then loses its whole board on turn 10 and drops to 2 Life with about an 11% chance to win. It digs with its leader, plays Xebec into Edward Newgate + Stussy (Stussy locks their Newgate), survives an 11000 Shiki by stacking Rocks Pirates and two Buckins onto Newgate's +3000, and wins at 0 Life: Newgate swings first to drain their answers, then Xebec, a 10000 Stussy and a 13000 leader. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Luffy & Ace is the second most common deck Rocks faces: about 1 game in 9 on MetaHub's data. It's a fast deck with 4 Life and a 6000 leader, and on your turn every Luffy and Ace it controls gets +3000. When our Pro AI plays both sides, Rocks wins this matchup 67% of the time in full-strength games (45 games), so it's a good matchup, as long as you respect its tempo.

Turn order: go second

• Playing the same 450 shuffles once each way, Rocks won 75.8% going second and 71.1% going first. Going second is worth about 5 more wins in every 100 games (give or take 3).
• Pro goes second, and so do most strong Rocks players (79% of them choose second in this matchup).
• Why: going second you hit 6 DON!! on your third turn, which is exactly Edward Newgate (see the key decision below), and Xebec on 10 lands on your 5th turn.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways against Luffy & Ace, keeping won 73.2% and redrawing 72.2%: keep any hand with a 2-to-5-cost Character, as in Chapter 0.
• Rocks is about a 73% favorite here either way, so don't gamble on a redraw: a hand with one early play is enough.

How to play it

Going second (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1 (2 DON!!): Streusen or Kyo.
• Turn 2 (4 DON!!): Don Marlon (32%), Captain John (28%) or Stussy (28%). The leader attacks from now on, every turn.
• Turn 3 (6 DON!!): Edward Newgate (64%). This is the matchup's most important turn: see below.
• Turn 4 (8 DON!!): Shiki (56%) or two Gloriosa (32%) to clear their Luffys.
• Turn 5 (10 DON!!): Xebec (30%) or more Gloriosa: by now the game is usually decided on board.

Going first: Streusen on turn 1 (60%), Don Marlon or Kyo on 3 DON!!, Gloriosa or Charlotte Linlin on 5, Shiki on 7 (65%), then Gloriosa + Gloriosa or Newgate + Stussy on 9.

Where the DON!! goes: little on the leader before turn 5 (0.1 to 0.6 a turn): one when the hit matters, none when the swing is only for the dig. Pro attacks with its leader 4.6 times a game and trashes a card to its dig on 100% of those attacks.

The key decision: on 6 DON!!, Edward Newgate, not Gloriosa. In 12 close calls between the two, Newgate was better in 11. On average Pro's analysis gave Newgate 73% and Gloriosa 31%, the biggest swing in the matchup. Gloriosa looks right (it removes a Luffy), but it's a 1000-power body their next Luffy walks over, while Newgate draws a card, puts 8000 on the board and, once a turn, gives your leader +3000 when it's attacked. Save Gloriosa for the turn after, when you can play two.

What to remove: their Luffys

Pro spends its answers on the Luffys, every time:

• Gloriosa (1.5 a game) sends Monkey D. Luffy to the bottom: the Rush Luffy (ST21-014) 46%, the 6000 Luffy (ST30-012) 29%, the 4000 Luffy (OP12-015) 23%. All three cost 5 or less, so Gloriosa always has a target.
• Shiki's -3000 (1.3 a game) goes on a Luffy every time, mostly the Rush Luffy (63%).
• Stussy (1.1 a game) locks a Luffy 84% of the time.
• Its attacks go into their small Characters: Sanji 36%, the two Namis 34%.

Taking Life

L&A takes Life fast, so this is where the matchup is won or lost.

• At 3 and 4 Life, counter the leader hits. In Pro's close calls on a hit to the leader, countering beat taking it in 20 of 22 at 3 Life and 11 of 13 at 4 Life.
• At 5 Life, still counter more than feels natural. Pro counters only 22% of hits at 5 Life overall, yet in its close calls there countering was better 10 times out of 12.
• Rocks Pirates is the counter to spend first (it's 46% of Pro's counters at 3-4 Life). Countering with it instead of taking the hit was better in 33 of 39 close calls.
• Xebec is a counter in this matchup. Pro plays Xebec only 0.16 times a game here but uses it as a +2000 counter 1.2 times a game: the game is usually over before 10 DON!! matters. Keep your board counterless (never play Buckin) so that counter stays on.

Lethal against Luffy & Ace

• Their leader is 6000, yours is 5000. Your leader can't damage theirs without a DON!!, so when the hit matters Pro gives it exactly one: in 32 close calls between "1 DON!! on the leader" and "attack as it is", the DON!! was better 22 times. The coach says it in one line: "That takes your Leader to 6000: enough to hit their Leader (6000)."
• The kill comes early: on Pro's 6th turn in 19 of its 30 wins (turns 5-8 for the rest), with L&A at about 1 Life and 4 cards in hand.
• Spend the DON!! wide on the kill turn: about 4.4 DON!! on the leader and 3.0 on Characters, over 3 attacks; Shiki swings on 2 of every 3 kill turns.
• Add DON!! until a counter can't save them. L&A's counters are +2000 to +3000 (Bad Manners Kick Course is +3000), so put enough on each attacker that one counter isn't enough: in the narrated game, three DON!! on Captain John (9000, "they'd need +4000") won 87% where one DON!! won 0%.
• There's No Authority's Unblockable doesn't matter here: L&A's list has no Blockers, and Pro used it on 0 of its 30 kill turns. Keep it as a +2000 counter.

Their cards to play around

• Bad Manners Kick Course (OP04-016): +3000 for a card from hand, their most used counter (1.6 a game). Assume one is there when you attack into their leader.
• Conqueror's Haki (OP12-018) and Gurararararara! (OP17-017): +2000 counters that also shrink your side (-1000 to everything, or -2000 to one). Swing your biggest attacker last.
• The Rush Luffy (ST21-014): it attacks the turn it lands. On your turn their Luffys are +3000 (the leader's effect), so don't try to battle them: bottom-deck, shrink or lock them.
• Demonic Aura Nine-Sword Style Asura Dead Man's Game (OP12-037): rests two of your Characters or DON!!. Don't count on a blocker staying up.

What the coach tells our AI

The site's coach explains every move from the same analysis Pro plays with. Its own words at the key moments of the narrated game below:

• Rocks at 4 Life, their Sanji swinging 5000 into the leader: "Counter with There's No Authority in the World. It's 5000 against your Leader's 5000: you need +1000. The coach rates it about 12 more wins in every 100 games than taking the hit."
• Right after Captain John comes down on 4 DON!!: "End your turn. Your attackers can't beat their Leader's 6000 this turn." Their 6000 leader is why Rocks's early swings here are for the dig, not for damage.
• Eight DON!!, two Luffys on their side: "Play Shiki." The coach gives Gloriosa only about 11% there, against 28% for Shiki.
• Rocks at 0 Life on their turn, Luffy into a rested Captain John after Shiki's -3000: "Don't block. Their Monkey D. Luffy (5000) doesn't beat Captain John (6000) as it stands."
• The kill: "Give 3 DON!! to Captain John. Captain John goes to 9000: they'd need +4000 to stop it." With one DON!! he'd be 7000, which a single +2000 counter stops, and Pro's analysis wins 0% of those games.

The narrated game: a win from 0 Life

Pro goes second, counters at 4 Life (about 12 more wins in 100 than taking it), then takes two hits on purpose and sits at 2 Life with ten cards. Gloriosa and Shiki clear their Luffys, Pro drops to 0 Life, and Captain John's taunt plus Shiki's -3000 on defense let it survive a full turn there. The kill: Shiki draws out a counter, three DON!! on Captain John (87% against 0% for one DON!!), the leader, and a six-DON!! Streusen for the last hit. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Sabo is Rocks's third most common opponent (about 1 game in 11 on MetaHub's data) and the closest of the big matchups: when our Pro AI plays both sides at full strength, Rocks wins half the time (30 of 60). Sabo's whole deck runs on one switch: a Character with cost 12 or more. Jaguar D. Saul and Loki get +12 cost, Pirate Docking 6 gets +6, and once one of them is out, Usopp, Sanji, Nico Robin, Zoro and Jinbe all get +3000, Chopper makes something Unblockable and I'm Luffy! becomes a +4000 counter.

Turn order: go second

• Playing the same 382 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 65.7% going second and 52.1% going first: going second is worth about 14 more wins in every 100 games (give or take 4), one of the biggest turn-order gaps Rocks has.
• The full-strength games say the same: 67% going second, 33% going first (30 games each).
• Pro goes second, and so do 94% of strong Rocks players.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways against Sabo, keeping won 58.7% and redrawing 56.3%.
• Ship the hands with no 2-to-5-cost Character: keeping those cost about 30 wins in every 100 here (27 hands, give or take 13).
• Edward Newgate is the card to keep: Newgate hands won about 8 more games in every 100 than a redraw (give or take 4).

How to play it

Going second (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1 (2 DON!!): Streusen or Kyo.
• Turn 2 (4 DON!!): Gloriosa (53%). Their turn-2 play is usually Usopp (52%), the 2-cost that becomes 5000 once a 12-cost lands. Gloriosa puts it on the bottom: Usopp is Gloriosa's target 48% of the time.
• Turn 3 (6 DON!!): Edward Newgate (70%) or Charlotte Linlin (30%).
• Turn 4 (8 DON!!): Shiki (87%).
• Turn 5 (10 DON!!): Xebec (57%).

Going first: Streusen (53%), then Don Marlon on 3 DON!! (50%), Charlotte Linlin on 5 (70%), Newgate or Shiki on 7, Newgate + Stussy or Shiki on 9, and Xebec on 10.

Answer the 12-cost cards first

Everything in Sabo gets better when they have a cost-12 Character, so that's what Pro hits:

• Stussy locks Loki (43% of its locks, 1.6 locks a game). Loki is 11000 on your turn and knocks out your small Characters when it lands, so a locked Loki is the best Loki.
• Shiki's -3000 goes on their big bodies: Monkey D. Luffy (OP17-093) 27%, Jaguar D. Saul 22%, Pirate Docking 6 21%, Usopp 9%. That's 1.6 Shiki effects a game.
• Gloriosa removes the small payoffs: Usopp 48%, Nico Robin 24%, Jinbe 13%.
• Its attacks go into Usopp (35% of its attacks on Characters), then Sanji (13%) and Robin (12%).

Taking Life: counter early in this one

This is where Sabo differs from the mirror. Sabo's attacks get +3000 all at once when the switch is on, so Life you give away early is Life you can't get back.

• At 5 Life, counter more than you think. Pro counters 31% of hits on its leader at 5 Life here (only 11% in the mirror), and in its close calls countering was better 35 times out of 54.
• At 4 Life, counter: countering beat taking it in 23 of 30 close calls.
• Rocks Pirates is the counter to spend: countering with it instead of taking the hit was better in 58 of 87 close calls (about 5 more wins in 100 on average). It's 42-44% of Pro's counters at 4-5 Life.
• Xebec is mostly a counter here: Pro plays it 0.7 times a game and counters with it 1.5 times. When Xebec could stop a hit, countering with it was better in 16 of 25 close calls (about 8 more wins in 100).

Lethal against Sabo

• Pro's kills come on its 6th or 7th turn (25 of 30 wins), with Sabo at about 1.4 Life and almost 5 cards in hand.
• Those cards are counters: Sabo uses about 6 Character counters a game against Rocks (Zoro 1.3, Chopper 1.0, Brook 0.9, then Robin, Sanji, Usopp, Nami), plus I'm Luffy! (+4000 with the switch on).
• So the kill turn is wide: about 5.7 DON!! on the leader and 2.8 on Characters, 3 to 4 attacks, and Shiki swings in 21 of the 30 kills (70%).

Their cards to play around

• Loki (OP17-119): "K.O. your opponent's Characters with a total cost of 4 or less" when it lands, and 11000 on your turn. Don't overcommit Kyo, Streusen and Don Marlon into their Loki turn (their 4th turn, 45% of the time).
• Gum-Gum Kong Pistol (OP17-098): 6 DON!!: K.O. two Characters with cost 6 or less once the switch is on. Your Xebec (cost 10) and Shiki (cost 7) survive it; Newgate and below don't.
• Monkey D. Luffy (OP17-093): gets Rush with the switch on; their 5th-turn play half the time.
• Tony Tony Chopper (OP17-084): makes a Character Unblockable, so a Gloriosa block won't save you on their big turn.
• I'm Luffy! (OP17-096): a +4000 counter while there's a cost-12 Character on the field. Locking or shrinking Loki doesn't switch it off (only knocking their 12-cost out does), so count it as live on your kill turn.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Sabo game below, in the coach's own words:

• Four DON!!, their Usopp on the board: "Play Gloriosa. The coach rates it about 6 more wins in every 100 games than playing Captain John." And: "Choose Usopp for Gloriosa's effect."
• Robin swinging 6000 into Rocks at 4 Life: "It's 6000 against your Leader's 5000: you need +2000. Taking it: it leaves you at 3 Life." Pro counters.
• Shiki attacking Robin with Loki, Pirate Docking 6 and Robin on their side: "Choose Pirate Docking 6 for Shiki's effect. The coach gives choosing Loki only about 20%." On Pro's turn Loki is 11000 or more, so -3000 doesn't take it out of the fight.
• Their leader swinging into Charlotte Linlin: "Counter with Buckin (+1000). Charlotte Linlin goes to 8000 against their 7000: the hit misses. That saves Charlotte Linlin."
• The kill turn: "Attack their Leader with Shiki. They need +4000 to stop it. Swing it before Rocks D. Xebec: what they spend here can't save them later."

The narrated game: surviving at 1 Life

Pro goes second, sends their turn-2 Usopp to the bottom with Gloriosa, and counters early. Sabo's Loki turn and a three-attacker swing put Pro at 1 Life, and Pro answers with Xebec into a second Shiki. On Sabo's next turn both Shikis fire on defense: two -3000s turn a 10000 Loki into a 4000 miss, and Linlin, Xebec and There's No Authority stop Robin. Pro then wins with Linlin, a 10000 Shiki and an eight-DON!! leader through three counters. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Black Luffy is the fourth most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 12 on MetaHub's data). It's the Elbaph build: Rodo, Gerd, Jaguar D. Saul and Loki all get +12 cost, and the leader gives every cost-12 Character [Blocker]. Once the switch is on, Usopp, Sanji, Nico Robin and Zoro get +3000, Chopper hands out Unblockable, and the Rush Luffy (OP17-093) attacks the turn it lands. It's one of Rocks's tougher matchups: in our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 44% (26 of 59).

Turn order: go second

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 62.0% going second and 46.0% going first: going second wins about 16 more games in every 100 (give or take 4), one of the biggest gaps in the list.
• The full-strength games agree: 56% going second, 34% going first.
• Pro goes second, and so do 98% of strong Rocks players.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 60.2% and redrawing 57.2%: keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (Chapter 0). Here keeping won about 3 more games in every 100 than a redraw.

How to play it

Going second (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1 (2 DON!!): Kyo (48%) or Streusen.
• Turn 2 (4 DON!!): Gloriosa (41%), Captain John (30%) or Don Marlon (26%). Their turn-2 play is Usopp (41%) or Jaguar D. Saul (31%); Gloriosa takes the Usopp.
• Turn 3 (6 DON!!): Edward Newgate (74%).
• Turn 4 (8 DON!!): Shiki (89%).
• Turn 5 (10 DON!!): Xebec (85%).

Going first: Streusen (50%), then Stussy (41%) or Don Marlon (34%) on 3 DON!!, Charlotte Linlin on 5 (75%), Shiki on 7 (81%), Newgate + Stussy or Shiki on 9, Xebec on 10.

Their 12-costs are the target

Pro spends more answers here than in the mirror, against Luffy & Ace or against Sabo:

• Shiki's -3000: 2.1 a game, on the Rush Luffy (39%), Loki (19%), Pirate Docking 6 (19%) and Jaguar D. Saul (14%).
• Stussy's lock: 2.0 a game, on Loki more than half the time (51%), then the Rush Luffy (14%).
• Gloriosa: 0.8 a game, on Usopp (49%) and Nico Robin (31%), the small Characters that turn into 5000s.
• Pro attacks their Characters about 5 times a game, mostly Usopp (26%), Sanji (15%), the Rush Luffy and Robin (13% each). Every Character you remove is a Blocker or a +3000 attacker you don't face later.

Taking Life

• At 3 Life, counter: in Pro's close calls on hits to its leader at 3 Life, countering was better 21 times out of 32.
• At 4 Life, take most hits: countering was better in only 25 of 66 close calls, and when Pro does counter at 4 it's Buckin half the time (51%).
• At 1 Life, take the hit when the call is close: countering was better in only 2 of 11 close calls. The Life card goes to your hand, and the counter you keep stops the lethal swing instead.
• Xebec is a counter here too: 1.3 times a game as a +2000 counter, 0.9 times played.

Lethal against Black Luffy

• Make Xebec Unblockable. Their leader turns every cost-12 Character into a Blocker, so There's No Authority in the World's [Main] (rest 1 DON!!: Xebec gains Unblockable) shows up in about a third of Pro's kill turns here (9 of 26), against 0-8% in the mirror, Luffy & Ace and Sabo chapters.
• Pro's kills come on its 7th or 8th turn (19 of 26 wins), with Black Luffy at about 1 Life and 4 cards in hand.
• The kill turn goes wide: about 2.6 DON!! on the leader and 3.5 on Characters, 3 to 4 attacks. Xebec (the Character) swings in 22 of the 26 kills, Shiki in 15.
• Expect about 7 Character counters from them per game: Zoro (1.4), Sanji (1.0), Rodo (0.9), Nami (0.9), then Robin, Chopper, Usopp and Gerd.

Their cards to play around

• Loki (OP17-119): lands on their 3rd or 4th turn (38-45%), knocks out your Characters with a total cost of 4 or less, and is 11000 on your turn. Don't stack Kyo, Streusen and Don Marlon into it.
• Monkey D. Luffy (OP17-093): Rush with the switch on, their 5th-6th turn play (46-48%), and it brings a 2-cost back from the trash. Shiki's -3000 is its answer.
• The leader's Blockers: Rodo, Gerd, Saul and Loki all block once they're cost 12. Count their untapped 12-costs before you swing, and keep There's No Authority for Xebec.
• Gerd (OP17-081): their most common play on their 6th and 7th turns (40%): a 3000 body with a 2000 counter that gets a Character back from the trash to their hand.
• Tony Tony Chopper (OP17-084): Unblockable for one of their attackers, so Gloriosa won't always block the big swing.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Black Luffy game below, in the coach's own words:

• Four DON!!, their Usopp and Nami on the board: "Choose Usopp for Gloriosa's effect. The coach gives choosing Nami only about 19%."
• Their leader swinging into Rocks at 4 Life: "Counter with Rocks Pirates. It's 5000 against your Leader's 5000: you need +1000. The coach rates it about 5 more wins in every 100 games than taking the hit."
• Ten DON!!, Xebec in hand: "Attack Monkey D. Luffy with Shiki. Shiki (9000) beats Monkey D. Luffy (8000) as it stands. The coach rates it about 9 more wins in every 100 games than playing Rocks D. Xebec." Swing first, then play Xebec.
• Stussy's lock: "Choose Loki for Stussy's effect. Loki (11000) is the biggest of their Characters you can pick."
• The kill turn, their hand full of counters: "Give 2 DON!! to Charlotte Linlin. Charlotte Linlin goes to 9000: they'd need +5000 to stop it, not +3000."

The narrated game: two turns at 0 Life

Pro goes second and sends their Usopp to the bottom with Gloriosa, then fights through a board of Blockers: it takes four swings to remove one Pirate Docking 6. Shiki swings before Xebec lands, Stussy locks Loki, and Pro survives two of their turns at 0 Life with both Shikis and Xebec countering from hand. The finish: Charlotte Linlin with two DON!!, then a 13000 leader that their five counters can't stop. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Kaido is the fifth most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 12 on MetaHub's data), and the one that punishes the wrong turn order hardest. It's a DON!! ramp deck: Yamato, Basil Hawkins, Black Maria, Queen and King add DON!! early, and a 12000 Kaido lands on their 4th turn in 79% of Pro's games. The leader takes 1 DON!! off for -2000 on one of your Characters when it attacks or is attacked. In our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 47% (29 of 62).

Turn order: go first, always

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 47.0% going first and 27.0% going second: going first wins about 20 more games in every 100 (give or take 4).
• In the full-strength games the gap is even bigger: 64.5% going first, 29.0% going second (31 games each).
• Pro goes first here, and so do 79% of strong Rocks players. The 21% who go second give up about 20 wins in every 100 games.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 42.0% and redrawing 41.5%: the Chapter 0 rule holds (keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character). The turn order matters far more than the hand here.

How to play it

Going first (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1: Streusen (48%).
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Don Marlon (35%), Kyo (32%) or Stussy (26%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (81%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (52%), and Rocks Pirates' [Main] (45%): rest 5 DON!! to bounce their King (cost 6) back to their hand. Pro uses the bounce half of Rocks Pirates here far more than anywhere else (0.5 a game, almost never in the other chapters), and King is the target.
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): Edward Newgate (58%) with Stussy or Shiki.
• Turn 6 (10 DON!!): Xebec (74%).

Going second (if you have to): Don Marlon or Gloriosa on turn 2, Newgate (42%) or the Rocks Pirates bounce (32%) on 6 DON!!, then Shiki, Linlin or Kyo, and Xebec on 10 (87%).

What Xebec puts out here: Shiki 39%, Kyo + Shiki 19%, Newgate + Stussy 12%. Xebec is played 1.5 times a game, more than in any other matchup in this guide: you need the bodies to match their 12000s.

Answer the big bodies

• Shiki's -3000 goes on Kaido (the Blocker Kaido, OP17-062, 72% of the time).
• Stussy locks King (42%), Charlotte Linlin (ST34-004, 26%) and the other Kaido (OP17-063, 12%).
• Rocks Pirates bounces King, the cost-6 that ramps their DON!! and dodges K.O.s by giving back DON!!.
• Gloriosa has few targets (0.3 plays a game): Yamato (60%) and Queen (35%) are the only common ones at cost 5 or less. Pro trashes Gloriosa to the dig as often as any card here (1.1 a game, tied with Linlin).

Taking Life

• At 5 Life, take it: Pro counters only 9% of hits at 5 Life, and in its close calls taking the hit was better 14 times out of 20.
• At 4 Life, counter: on hits to its leader at 4 Life, countering was better in 27 of 33 close calls. Your Characters too: on attacks into them at 4 Life, countering won 21 of 31.
• There's No Authority in the World is the counter of this matchup: 2.5 a game as a counter, the most of any matchup here. Countering with it instead of taking the hit was better in 33 of 56 close calls.

Lethal against Kaido

• Kaido games run long: Pro's kills are spread from its 6th to its 10th turn, and Kaido still has about 5 cards in hand on the kill turn.
• So Pro goes big on its leader: about 6.3 DON!! on the leader on the kill turn (1.6 on Characters), over 3 attacks.
• Make Xebec Unblockable when their Blocker Kaido or Yamato is up: There's No Authority's [Main] shows up in 7 of the 29 kills (24%).
• Swing Shiki before you play Xebec. In the 8 close calls where Pro could attack with Shiki or play Xebec first, swinging Shiki first was better 7 times (70% against 46%), likely because Shiki's attack pulls out a counter or a block before Xebec's two free Characters come down.

Their cards to play around

• Kaido (OP17-062): 12000 with [Blocker]. It arrives on their 4th turn most games; it's what Shiki's -3000 is for.
• Kaido (OP17-063): gives every counterless Character in their hand a +1000 counter, so their hand holds more counters than it looks.
• Charlotte Linlin (ST34-004): 10-cost, adds a Life card and sets one of your Characters' base power to 0. Their 5th-7th turn play (29-49%).
• Queen (OP17-065): [Banish], and two of your cost-5-or-less Characters can't attack: don't count on Kyo, Stussy or Gloriosa swinging the turn after.
• Their counters: Basil Hawkins (1.2 a game), Mamaragan (1.2), Yamato (0.9), Black Maria (0.9), NoroNoro Beam Sword (0.7).

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Kaido game below, in the coach's own words:

• Five DON!!, Linlin or Gloriosa in hand: "Play Charlotte Linlin. Its [On Play] effect happens right away. The coach rates it about 11 more wins in every 100 games than playing Gloriosa."
• Shiki swinging with their 12000 Blocker on the board: "Choose Kaido for Shiki's effect. Kaido (12000) is the biggest of their Characters you can pick. The coach rates it about 11 more wins in every 100 games than choosing King."
• Stussy's lock: "Choose King for Stussy's effect. King (7000) is the biggest of their Characters you can pick."
• Their third attack on Rocks's last Shiki: "Counter with There's No Authority in the World. It's 12000 against Shiki's 11000: you need +2000. The coach gives taking the hit only about 44%."
• The kill turn: "Attack their Leader with Shiki. They need +5000 to stop it as it stands, or they drop to 2 Life. The coach rates it about 9 more wins in every 100 games than attacking with Rocks D. Xebec (12000)." Shiki first, then the Xebecs.

The narrated game: fifteen turns through two Blockers

Pro goes first, plays Linlin on 5 DON!! and Shiki on 7, and keeps Linlin alive through two attacks with Buckin, Shiki's -3000 and Rocks Pirates. Kaido answers with two 12000 Blockers and puts Life back twice, and even after Xebec brings out Stussy (locking King) and Newgate, Pro sits at about 27% to win. A second Xebec brings a second Shiki. When they knock one out and swing three times at the other, Pro spends six counters to keep it. The kill: Shiki first, both Xebecs, then the leader with eight DON!! and Newgate's +3000 for 16000. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Purple Enel is the sixth most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 14 on MetaHub's data). It plays with only 6 DON!! in its DON!! deck and a hand full of Events paid for by returning DON!! ("DON!! -1" or "-2"): El Thor knocks out a Character with 3000 power or less, Gamma Knife gives -5000, Lightning Dragon keeps a rested Character from untapping, Mamaragan rests a 5000-or-less. And Holly gives itself and every Ohm [Double Attack]. In our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 50% (27 of 54).

Turn order: go first

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 68.3% going first and 46.7% going second: going first wins about 22 more games in every 100, the biggest turn-order gap of the 12 matchups.
• The full-strength games say the same: 66.7% going first, 33.3% going second (27 games each).
• Pro goes first, and so do 88% of strong Rocks players.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 57.3% and redrawing 56.3%: keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (Chapter 0).

How to play it

Going first (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1: Streusen (48%).
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Don Marlon (41%), Stussy (30%) or Kyo (22%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (56%) or Gloriosa (33%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (52%).
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): two plays: Stussy (52%), Edward Newgate (48%) and Gloriosa (41%) are the usual pieces.
• Turn 6 (10 DON!!): Xebec (71%).

Going second: Streusen or Kyo, then Don Marlon or Gloriosa, Newgate on 6 DON!! (70%), Linlin or Shiki on 8, Xebec on 10 (67%).

The key decision: Newgate over Gloriosa, Shiki over Gloriosa. When Pro's choice was between playing Edward Newgate or Gloriosa, Newgate was better in 15 of 15 close calls (73% against 58%). Between Shiki and Gloriosa, Shiki was better in 10 of 12 (50% against 38%). Gloriosa is still the matchup's most played Rocks card (1.35 a game), but it's the third play of a turn, not the first.

Lock their Enel, don't try to remove it

• Their Enel (OP15-118) can't be removed by your effects while they have 6 or fewer DON!! on their field, which is always true: their DON!! deck has only 6 cards. It's also +2000.
• So Pro locks it with Stussy: 58% of Pro's Stussy locks go on Enel. Shiki's -3000 goes on it too (52% of a small number), but bouncing or bottom-decking it doesn't work.
• Gloriosa bottom-decks their Blocker Law and Holly: Trafalgar Law (35%), Holly (34%), Senor Pink (12%).
• Pro attacks their small Characters about 4 times a game: Ohm (24%), Charlotte Pudding (21%), Shura (19%), Satori (13%), Law (13%). The 1-cost draw Characters are their card advantage; trade them off.

Taking Life: counter everything early

Pro counters hard here from the very first hit:

• At 5 Life, counter: Pro counters 43% of hits on its leader at 5 Life (11% in the mirror), and in its close calls countering was better 48 times out of 53.
• At 4 Life: countering was better in 15 of 18 close calls; at 3 Life, in 21 of 29.
• The likely reason: Holly gives Ohm and itself Double Attack. A hit you take from either of them costs 2 Life, and Enel's Events clear your blockers, so Life you give away early is gone fast.
• The counters to spend: Rocks Pirates (better than taking the hit in 56 of 75 close calls) and There's No Authority in the World (43 of 53). Xebec too: Pro counters with it 1.4 times a game and plays it 0.7 times.

Lethal against Enel

• Pro's kills come on its 7th or 8th turn (23 of 27 wins), with Enel at about 1 Life and 4 cards in hand.
• The kill turn: about 3.8 DON!! on the leader and 1.7 on Characters, 3 attacks. Xebec (the Character) swings in 22 of the 27 kills; Shiki in only 6 of them (22%), since Shiki is often the card Pro trashes to the dig here (0.6 a game).
• Their counters per game: Mamaragan (1.2, +1000), Holly (0.7), then Shura, Lightning Beast Kiten, El Thor, Satori and Ohm (0.4-0.6 each).

Their cards to play around

• El Thor (OP15-075): K.O.s a Character with 3000 power or less. Streusen and Gloriosa are in range; Kyo (4000) is not.
• Gamma Knife (OP05-077): -5000 on one Character, their 4th-turn removal half the time (49%).
• Lightning Dragon (OP15-077): a rested Character of yours with 6000 or less won't untap. Attack with your small Characters knowing they may stay rested.
• Holly (OP15-071): Double Attack for itself and every Ohm, and on your turn their base power is 6000. Bottom-deck it with Gloriosa or lock the Ohms.
• Trafalgar Law (ST10-010) and Vinsmoke Reiju (OP12-063): their Blockers. There's No Authority's Unblockable on Xebec gets past them, though Pro needed it in only 1 of its 27 kills.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Enel game below, in the coach's own words:

• Their first swing, Rocks at 5 Life: "Counter with There's No Authority in the World. It's 6000 against your Leader's 5000: you need +2000. Close call: the coach rates countering with Rocks Pirates about the same." Counter, even at 5 Life.
• Nine DON!!, Newgate or Gloriosa in hand: "Play Edward Newgate. Its [On Play] effect happens right away. The coach rates it about 8 more wins in every 100 games than playing Gloriosa."
• At 0 Life: "Play Gloriosa. Gloriosa is a Blocker, and you're at 0 Life." Then: "Choose Trafalgar Law for Gloriosa's effect. Trafalgar Law is their Blocker. The coach gives choosing Senor Pink only about 12%."
• A 10000 Senor Pink into Rocks's last Life, two counters already down: "Counter with Rocks D. Xebec. It's 10000 against your Leader's 9000: you need +2000. The coach gives taking the hit only about 0%."
• The kill turn: "Give 4 DON!! to your Leader. Your Leader goes to 9000: they'd need +5000 to stop it, not +1000." And then: "Swing it before Rocks D. Xebec: what they spend here can't save them later."

The narrated game: from 9% to a win at 0 Life

Pro goes first and counters their very first swing. Enel spends three Events to remove one Shiki and two Lightning Dragons to keep Kyo and Streusen rested, and Pro drops to 1 Life at about 9% to win. Xebec brings Streusen and Gloriosa (their Blocker Law goes to the bottom), Newgate puts Enel at 1 Life, and Pro stops a 10000 Senor Pink with There's No Authority, Rocks Pirates and Xebec from hand. At 0 Life, Gloriosa removes Law again, the four-DON!! leader draws out four counters, and Kyo and Xebec finish it. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Green Shanks is the seventh most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 20 on MetaHub's data). Almost everything in it rests your Characters, and then knocks out the rested ones: Benn Beckman rests two, the 12000 Shanks rests all of them, Withdraw Now and the 9-cost Shanks K.O. rested Characters, and their leader keeps one from untapping. It's one of Rocks's best matchups: in our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 76% (54 of 71).

Turn order: go first (a small edge)

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 64.3% going first and 58.3% going second: going first wins about 6 more games in every 100 (give or take 4).
• The full-strength games are too few to split it: 76% going first (37 games) and 76% going second (34).
• 95% of strong Rocks players go second here. Pro's games, the same shuffles played both ways, say first, but the gap is small: don't lose sleep over it.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 67.2% and redrawing 65.7%: keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (Chapter 0).

How to play it

Going first (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1: Streusen (46%), or nothing.
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Stussy (41%), Don Marlon (30%) or Kyo (24%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (73%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (57%).
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): Shiki again (62% of these turns include one), or Edward Newgate + Stussy.
• Turn 6 (10 DON!!): Xebec (78%).

Going second: Kyo on 2 DON!! (74%), Captain John (44%) or Don Marlon (35%) on 4, Newgate on 6 (65%), Shiki on 8 (59%), Xebec on 10 (82%).

The key card is Shiki. Pro plays it 1.2 times a game, and it swings in 32 of Pro's 54 kills (59%), more than any other Character. On 9 DON!!, playing Shiki beat playing Edward Newgate in 10 of 11 close calls (46% against 33%) and beat attacking with the leader first in 22 of 33. On 7 DON!!, Shiki beat Gloriosa in 13 of 21 (51% against 44%).

Use Captain John's ability before you pass. Rest him to draw 1 and trash 1: that was better than just ending the turn in 17 of 18 close calls. A rested John also means they can only attack John.

Their plan: rest, then K.O.

• Benn Beckman (OP17-027) is their 4th-turn play 74% of the time: 9000, attacks Characters the turn it lands, and rests two of yours. It's the main target: 61% of Shiki's -3000s go on Beckman, and when Pro's Shiki could attack Beckman or Yasopp, Beckman was better in 12 of 14 close calls.
• Gloriosa bottom-decks Yasopp (59%) or Lucky Roux (20%). Yasopp rests one of your Characters when it comes in.
• Stussy's [On Play] can't lock either Shanks: it only reaches base cost 6 or less, and the Shanks cost 9 and 10. Pro's locks go on the 12000 Shanks (26%), Law (15%), Yasopp (13%) and Limejuice (11%); for the Shanks, that means her [Activate: Main] (rest 3 DON!! and Stussy).
• Kyo is your insurance against their K.O.s: while Kyo is on the field, when one of their effects would remove one of your Characters, you can trash 2 cards from your hand instead. In the narrated game below it keeps Shiki alive against the 9-cost Shanks.
• Pro barely trades with their Characters: about 1.2 attacks on Characters a game (5 against Black Luffy). Most swings go at the leader.

Taking Life

• At 5 Life, take it: Pro counters only 12% of hits at 5 Life, and countering was better in only 10 of 36 close calls.
• At 4 Life, still mostly take it: countering was better in 20 of 51 close calls.
• At 3 Life, counter: countering was better in 18 of 29.
• Protect your Characters late: on attacks into your Characters at 2 or 3 Life, countering won 29 of 48 close calls. Every Character they knock out is one fewer attacker for your kill turn.
• The counters Pro spends: Rocks Pirates 2.4 a game, Buckin 1.9, There's No Authority 1.7, and Xebec from hand 0.9.

Lethal against Shanks

• Pro's kills come on its 7th or 8th turn (42 of 54 wins), with Shanks at about 1 Life and 4 cards in hand.
• The kill turn: about 4.8 DON!! on the leader and 3.2 on Characters, 3 attacks. Shiki swings in 59% of kills, Xebec (the Character) in 48%.
• Clear Lucky Roux first. When you attack, they can trash it to rest one of your leader or Characters, which takes away an attacker. Attacking it with Shiki beat ending the turn in 7 of 7 close calls.
• Their counters per game: Fugar (1.5), Hongo (1.2), Lucky Roux, Limejuice and Withdraw Now (1.0 each). Withdraw Now is +4000 on their leader (it counts as a [Shanks]), so leave room for it.

Their cards to play around

• Shanks (OP17-022): 12000 with Rush, rests all your Characters when it lands, and sets 2 of their DON!! active. Their 6th-turn play 60% of the time.
• Shanks (ST16-004): 11000, K.O.s one of your rested Characters when it lands. Their 5th-turn play 46% of the time.
• Withdraw Now and Allow Me to Save Face (OP17-036): rest 6 DON!!: rest one of your Characters, then K.O. up to two rested ones with cost 6 or less.
• Ryuma (OP15-036): K.O.s a rested cost-4-or-less on play and every time it attacks. Kyo, Streusen, Stussy, Don Marlon, Gloriosa and Captain John are all in range.
• Kouzuki Oden (ST32-002): one of your cost-6-or-less Characters can't be rested, which also means it can't attack.
• Trafalgar Law (OP13-031): becomes a Blocker once they're at 1 Life or less. Count it on your kill turn.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Shanks game below, in the coach's own words:

• Shiki's first swing, with Benn Beckman and Yasopp on their board: "Attack Benn Beckman with Shiki. Shiki (9000) beats Benn Beckman (9000) as it stands: it's K.O.'d unless they defend. The coach gives attacking Yasopp with Shiki only about 57%. It's their biggest Character."
• Beckman swinging at Charlotte Linlin: "Counter with There's No Authority in the World. It's 9000 against Charlotte Linlin (8000)'s 8000: you need +2000."
• Xebec's free plays: "Choose Stussy for Rocks D. Xebec's effect. The coach rates it about 5 more wins in every 100 games than choosing Edward Newgate." Then: "Choose Yasopp for Stussy's effect. Yasopp (6000) is the biggest of their Characters you can pick."
• The kill turn: "Give 2 DON!! to Charlotte Linlin. Charlotte Linlin goes to 9000: they'd need +5000 to stop it, not +3000."

The narrated game: Shiki through Benn Beckman

Pro goes first and builds Stussy, then two Charlotte Linlins, while Shanks rests and knocks out what it can: Benn Beckman rests two Characters, and Lucky Roux and Yasopp knock out Kyo and Stussy. Shiki comes down and takes out Beckman the turn it lands (81% against 57% for Yasopp), and when their 9-cost Shanks tries to knock Shiki out, a second Kyo trades two cards from hand to keep it. Xebec brings Stussy and Newgate, Withdraw Now knocks out two, and Pro holds its last Linlin with Shiki's -3000, Rocks Pirates and Xebec from hand. The finish: Linlin with two DON!!, Xebec, and a 13000 leader. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Nico Robin is the eighth most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 21 on MetaHub's data). This Robin is a Trigger deck full of Big Mom Pirates: most of its Characters have [Trigger], several play themselves when they're taken from Life, and Charlotte Smoothie, The 3 Sweet Commanders, Marshall D. Teach, Borsalino and their Charlotte Linlin all put cards back on top of their Life. Robin starts at 4 Life, and her leader has [Banish]: the Life cards it takes from you are trashed instead of going to your hand. In our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 68% (50 of 73).

Turn order: go first

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 64.3% going first and 56.7% going second: going first wins about 8 more games in every 100 (give or take 4).
• The full-strength games agree: 71% going first (38 games), 66% going second (35).
• Strong Rocks players split almost evenly here: 46% go first.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 57.0% and redrawing 56.3%: keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (Chapter 0).

How to play it

Going first (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1: Streusen (50%), or nothing.
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Don Marlon (45%) or Stussy (32%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (74%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (50%) or Edward Newgate (37%).
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): two plays, with Gloriosa in half of them: Linlin + Gloriosa (21%) or Newgate + Stussy (21%) are the usual two-card turns.
• Turn 6 (10 DON!!): Xebec (74%).

Going second: Kyo on 2 DON!! (63%), Gloriosa (40%) or Don Marlon (34%) on 4, Newgate on 6 (74%), Shiki on 8 (51%), Xebec on 10 (77%).

Swing before you build. On 10 DON!!, swinging Shiki at their leader before your leader attacks was better in 20 of 30 close calls (78% against 74%), and swinging Edward Newgate before playing Xebec was better in 9 of 13 (62% against 55%). On 7 DON!!, Shiki beat Gloriosa in 8 of 12 (42% against 34%).

Their Characters

• Their Charlotte Linlin (OP17-112) is the card to plan around: 12000, it lands on their 4th turn in 68% of Pro's games, draws, adds a Life card (or puts one of yours into your hand), and on their turn every 4000-power Trigger Character they have becomes an 8000. Pudding, Oven, Smoothie, Daifuku, Perospero and The 3 Sweet Commanders all qualify.
• Stussy locks a lot here: 2.0 times a game, on their Linlin (39%) and The 3 Sweet Commanders (26%). Linlin costs 10, so that's Stussy's [Activate: Main] (rest 3 DON!! and Stussy); her [On Play] only reaches base cost 6 or less.
• Shiki's -3000 goes on Linlin (60%) and Marshall D. Teach (36%).
• Gloriosa (1.15 a game) bottom-decks Pudding (24%), Oven (23%), Smoothie (21%) and their Blocker Borsalino (11%).
• Pro attacks their Characters about 3 times a game, mostly The 3 Sweet Commanders (26%) and Pudding (21%).

Taking Life: keep your Life high

• Their leader's [Banish] trashes the Life cards it takes, so taking a hit from it doesn't give you a card. Pro counters 41% of hits on its leader at 5 Life here (12% against Shanks, 9% against Kaido); in its close calls there, countering and taking the hit came out even (22 of 44).
• Staying high also blanks their Triggers. Silvers Rayleigh's Trigger only K.O.s one of your Characters when you're at 3 Life or less, and their Linlin can take a Life card off you when it lands.
• The counters Pro spends: Rocks Pirates 2.3 a game, Buckin 1.9, There's No Authority 1.8, and Xebec from hand 0.7.

Lethal against Robin

• Pro's kills come on its 6th to 8th turn (38 of 50 wins), but Robin is still at about 1.7 Life with 5.3 cards in hand: they keep adding Life, so the kill turn needs more swings (3.8 attacks on average).
• The kill turn: about 4.1 DON!! on the leader and 2.7 on Characters. The leader, Xebec (the Character), Shiki and Newgate each swing in about two kills out of three.
• Every Life card you take can fight back: 28 of their 50 cards have a [Trigger]. Daifuku, Oven, Smoothie, Perospero and The 3 Sweet Commanders play themselves from Life, and Marshall D. Teach's Trigger K.O.s one of your cost-5-or-less Characters.
• Their counters per game: Gum Gum Giant (1.6: +4000 and they draw 2), Streusen (1.5), Daifuku (1.4) and Yamato (1.4). Yamato and Borsalino are their Blockers.

Their cards to play around

• Charlotte Linlin (OP17-112): see above. Their 4th-turn play 68% of the time.
• The 3 Sweet Commanders (OP17-114): draws, adds a Life card and gives two of your Characters -3000. Their most common play from their 6th turn on.
• Zeus (OP11-106): they take one of their own Life cards into hand to K.O. one of your cost-5-or-less Characters.
• Silvers Rayleigh (OP14-108): K.O.s one of your 7000-base-power-or-less Characters when you're at 3 Life or less, on play or as a Trigger.
• Gum Gum Giant (OP09-078): a +4000 counter that draws them 2. Expect one or two per game.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Robin game below, in the coach's own words:

• Her leader's first swing, Rocks at 5 Life: "Counter with Rocks Pirates. It's 6000 against your Leader's 5000: you need +2000. Close call: the coach rates taking the hit about the same."
• Seven DON!!: "Play Edward Newgate. Its [On Play] effect happens right away. The coach rates it about 5 more wins in every 100 games than playing Gloriosa."
• Her leader swinging again, Gloriosa untapped: "Block with Gloriosa. Gloriosa takes their 5000 attack instead of your Leader, so you keep your 5 Life. The coach rates it about 11 more wins in every 100 games than not blocking."
• The kill turn: "Give 1 DON!! to Edward Newgate. Edward Newgate goes to 9000: they'd need +5000 to stop it, not +4000." Then, with Robin at 0 Life: "Give 9 DON!! to Stussy. Stussy goes to 14000: they'd need +10000 to stop it, not +1000."

The narrated game: a win without losing a Life card

Pro goes first and never takes a hit: Rocks Pirates, Newgate's +3000 and a Buckin stop every swing at its leader, so all 5 Life cards stay in place for eleven turns. Robin keeps refilling, with two Triggers that play themselves, Zeus knocking out a Linlin, Borsalino and two 12000 Linlins putting Life back. On the last turn the leader, Linlin and a one-DON!! Newgate take their 3 Life, and their Silvers Rayleigh Trigger does nothing because Rocks is still at 5. A 14000 Stussy goes through four counters. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Yellow Enel is the ninth most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 28 on MetaHub's data). It plays almost the same Big Mom Pirates Trigger package as Nico Robin (Chapter 8), adds Gecko Moria, Marshall D. Teach and an 11000 Enel, and its leader has a twist: the first time their Life hits 0 on your turn, they put the top card of their deck back on their Life (then trash a card from hand). It starts at 4 Life. In our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 63% (59 of 94).

Turn order: go second

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 57.3% going second and 48.3% going first: going second wins about 9 more games in every 100 (give or take 4).
• The full-strength games agree: 67% going second (46 games), 58% going first (48).
• Pro goes second, and so do 98% of strong Rocks players.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 54.5% and redrawing 56.3%: no clear edge either way (give or take 2.7). Keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (Chapter 0).

How to play it

Going second (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1 (2 DON!!): Kyo (61%).
• Turn 2 (4 DON!!): Captain John (35%) or Don Marlon (35%).
• Turn 3 (6 DON!!): Edward Newgate (76%).
• Turn 4 (8 DON!!): Shiki (50%).
• Turn 5 (10 DON!!): Xebec (89%).

Going first: Streusen (50%), then Don Marlon (35%), Stussy (31%) or Kyo (27%) on 3 DON!!, Charlotte Linlin on 5 (73%), Shiki (54%) or Newgate (40%) on 7, Newgate on 9 (50%), Xebec on 10 (75%).

Shiki and Newgate before Gloriosa. On 8 DON!!, playing Shiki beat playing Gloriosa in 19 of 24 close calls (67% against 55%). On 9 DON!!, Newgate beat Gloriosa in 15 of 21 (50% against 44%). It's the same lesson as against purple Enel and Luffy & Ace: Gloriosa is the third play of a turn, not the first.

Their Characters

• Gloriosa (1.2 a game) bottom-decks Charlotte Oven (39%), Borsalino (21%), Smoothie (19%) and Pudding (17%). Oven's [On K.O.] plays a 4000-power Character back from their trash, so sending it to the bottom beats knocking it out.
• Stussy locks 1.7 times a game: their Charlotte Linlin (34%, with her [Activate: Main]), The 3 Sweet Commanders (19%), Oven (15%) and Smoothie (11%).
• Shiki's -3000 (1.0 a game) goes on their Enel (EB02-052, 46%), Linlin (28%) and Marshall D. Teach (24%).
• Pro attacks their Characters about 2.8 times a game, mostly Pudding (28%) and The 3 Sweet Commanders (19%).

Taking Life

• At 5 Life, mostly take it: Pro counters 19% of hits on its leader at 5 Life, and countering was better in only 22 of 51 close calls.
• At 4 Life it's even (34 of 72); at 3 Life, lean to countering (13 of 23).
• At 1 Life, take the close ones: countering was better in only 1 of 11 close calls.
• The counters Pro spends: Rocks Pirates 2.3 a game, Buckin 2.1, There's No Authority 2.0, and Xebec from hand 0.9.

Lethal against Enel (OP05)

• Pro's kills come on its 7th or 8th turn (40 of 59 wins), with Enel at about 1.6 Life and 5.4 cards in hand.
• Plan one extra hit. Their leader refills one Life card the first time they hit 0 on your turn, and You're the one who should disappear!'s Trigger can do it again at 0 Life. Pro makes 4.3 attacks on its kill turns here, more than against any other deck in this guide.
• The kill turn: about 3.8 DON!! on the leader and 1.9 on Characters. Xebec (the Character) swings in 53 of the 59 kills, Shiki in 44, Newgate in 40.
• Their counters per game: You're the one who should disappear! (1.4, +3000), Zeus (1.4), Streusen (1.4) and Daifuku (1.2).

Their cards to play around

• Charlotte Linlin (OP17-112): their 5th-6th turn play (44-64%). 12000, draws, adds a Life card (or puts one of yours into your hand), and on their turn every 4000-power Trigger Character they have becomes an 8000.
• The 3 Sweet Commanders (OP17-114): draws, adds a Life card and gives two of your Characters -3000.
• Enel (EB02-052): 11000 with Rush. When it attacks at 1 Life or less, they can trash a card to add a Life card.
• Marshall D. Teach (OP16-119): adds a Life card when played; as a Trigger it negates and K.O.s one of your cost-5-or-less Characters.
• Zeus (OP11-106): they take one of their own Life cards into hand to K.O. one of your cost-5-or-less Characters.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Enel game below, in the coach's own words:

• Eight DON!!, Shiki, Newgate and Gloriosa in hand: "Play Shiki. It costs 7: all your DON!!. The coach gives playing Edward Newgate only about 43%." (Gloriosa: 22%.)
• Stussy's [Activate: Main]: "Choose Charlotte Linlin for Stussy's effect. Charlotte Linlin (12000) is the biggest of their Characters you can pick. The coach rates it about 11 more wins in every 100 games than choosing Charlotte Smoothie."
• The kill turn, Enel at 1 Life: "Attack their Leader with Shiki. They need +5000 to stop it, or they drop to 0 Life. Every line wins here. Swing it before Rocks D. Xebec: what they spend here can't save them later."
• The last swing: "Attack their Leader with Rocks D. Xebec. They're at 0 Life with no cards in hand and no Blocker: this hit wins the game."

The narrated game: one hit more than their Life

Pro goes second and trades early: Kyo, Captain John and the leader take Enel to 1 Life by Pro's 3rd turn, while Borsalino and The 3 Sweet Commanders keep refilling it. Shiki comes down over Gloriosa (70% against 22%), Xebec brings Linlin and Gloriosa, and Pro clears both Puddings. On Pro's next turn Shiki takes their last Life, their leader puts one back, and eight counters stop Xebec and the leader; two Stussys then lock both Commanders and their Linlin. Pro survives at 0 Life with Newgate's +3000, Shiki's -3000 and Rocks Pirates against their 11000 Enel, and wins with four hits into an empty hand: the leader's refill only works once a turn. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Charlotte Pudding is the tenth most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 33 on MetaHub's data). It's another Big Mom Pirates Trigger deck (see Chapters 8 and 9), built around the Katakuris: the 2-cost Katakuri trades itself in for a bigger one, the 6-cost Katakuri puts a Life card back and gives one of your Characters -3000, and the 8-cost Katakuri is a Blocker that untaps their Characters. Their Charlotte Linlin and The 3 Sweet Commanders are here too, and Divine Departure is -8000 on one of your Characters (or a +3000 counter). Pudding starts at 4 Life. In our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 58% (53 of 91).

Turn order: go first

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 55.3% going first and 45.7% going second: going first wins about 10 more games in every 100 (give or take 4).
• The full-strength games lean the same way: 60% going first (45 games), 57% going second (46).
• 41% of strong Rocks players go first here.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 57.3% and redrawing 54.7%: keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (Chapter 0).

How to play it

Going first (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1: Streusen (51%).
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Stussy (38%), Don Marlon (36%) or Kyo (20%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (67%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (62%).
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): Edward Newgate (49%), with Stussy, Shiki or Gloriosa.
• Turn 6 (10 DON!!): Xebec (64%).

Going second: Kyo on 2 DON!! (59%), Gloriosa (39%) or Don Marlon (33%) on 4, Newgate on 6 (85%), Shiki on 8 (46%), Xebec on 10 (76%).

Shiki over Gloriosa, and swing before Xebec. On 7 DON!!, playing Shiki beat playing Gloriosa in 19 of 21 close calls (39% against 25%). On 10 DON!!, attacking with Newgate before playing Xebec was better in 18 of 22 (42% against 34%), and attacking with Shiki first in 11 of 15 (48% against 34%).

Lock their big Characters

• Stussy is this matchup's card: Pro plays her 1.3 times a game and uses her lock ability 1.1 times a game, both more than against any other deck in this guide. Her locks go on their Charlotte Linlin (41%), The 3 Sweet Commanders (24%) and the 6-cost Katakuri (17%). Linlin costs 10, so she needs the [Activate: Main] (rest 3 DON!! and Stussy).
• Shiki's -3000 (0.5 a game) goes on Linlin (59%) and the 8-cost Blocker Katakuri (33%).
• Gloriosa (0.9 a game) bottom-decks Pudding (29%), the 3-cost Cracker (20%) and Daifuku (15%).
• Pro attacks their Characters about 2.3 times a game, mostly The 3 Sweet Commanders (23%), Pudding (19%) and the 6-cost Katakuri (18%).

Taking Life

• At 5 Life, mostly take it: Pro counters 19% of hits on its leader at 5 Life, and countering was better in only 22 of 49 close calls.
• At 4 Life it's close (48 of 85 for countering), and at 3 Life, counter: better in 13 of 16 close calls.
• At 2 and 1 Life, take the close ones: countering was better in only 8 of 25 and 1 of 10.
• The counters Pro spends: Rocks Pirates 2.6 a game, Buckin 2.2, There's No Authority 2.0, and Xebec from hand 1.1.

Lethal against Pudding

• Pro's kills come on its 6th to 8th turn (43 of 53 wins), with Pudding at about 1.5 Life and 6 cards in hand: they hold a lot of counters, so make them spend them before the turn that matters.
• The kill turn: about 3.2 DON!! on the leader and 2.7 on Characters, 3.6 attacks. Newgate swings in 34 of the 53 kills, Shiki in 33, the leader and Xebec (the Character) in 31 each.
• Make Xebec Unblockable when Yamato or the 8-cost Katakuri is up: There's No Authority's [Main] shows up in 12 of the 53 kills.
• Their counters per game: Zeus (1.5), Streusen (1.2), Mamaragan, the 4-cost Cracker and Yamato (1.1 each).

Their cards to play around

• Charlotte Linlin (OP17-112): their 4th-5th turn play (48-55%). 12000, draws, adds a Life card (or puts one of yours into your hand), and on their turn their 4000-power Trigger Characters become 8000s.
• Charlotte Katakuri (OP17-103): a Life card back and -3000 on one of your Characters. The 2-cost Katakuri can trash itself to put it into play.
• The 3 Sweet Commanders (OP17-114): a card, a Life card back and -3000 on two of your Characters.
• Charlotte Cracker (ST34-002): ramps a DON!! and K.O.s one of your cost-2-or-less Characters (Kyo, Streusen).
• Divine Departure (OP13-076): rest 5 DON!!: -8000 on one of your Characters. They run one.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Pudding game below, in the coach's own words:

• Seven DON!!: "Play Shiki. It costs 7: all your DON!!. The coach rates it about 6 more wins in every 100 games than attacking with Charlotte Linlin."
• Ten DON!!, their 12000 Linlin on the board: "Attack Charlotte Linlin with Shiki (9000). It's 9000 against Charlotte Linlin's 12000 as it stands. The coach rates it about 6 more wins in every 100 games than attacking Charlotte Pudding with your Leader." Shiki's -3000 brings it to 9000 against 9000.
• A second Xebec, Rocks down to about 19%: "Play Rocks D. Xebec. Its [On Play] effect happens right away. The coach rates it about 13 more wins in every 100 games than playing Stussy."
• The kill turn, every attacker spent but Streusen: "Give 10 DON!! to Streusen. That takes Streusen to 12000: enough to hit their Leader (5000). The coach gives playing Gloriosa only about 11%."

The narrated game: ten DON!! on a Streusen

Pro goes first and gets Pudding to 2 Life early, but the Katakuris, The 3 Sweet Commanders and two Linlins keep putting Life back. On its Xebec turn Pro throws four attacks at their Linlin; five counters save it, and their hand drops to two cards. Their second Linlin and a Commander leave Pro at about 19% to win, facing Pudding at 5 Life. Pro hits three times, adds a second Xebec, and on its last turn takes the last three Life cards with the leader, Newgate and Xebec. Then all ten DON!! go on a 2000 Streusen: 12000 against five counters that only reach 11000. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Boa Hancock is the eleventh most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 43 on MetaHub's data). It's a Kuja Pirates deck with three Blockers (Namule, Borsalino, and Boa Marigold once they're at 2 Life or less), Triggers that play themselves from Life, and two ways to take your Life without attacking: their 10000 Boa Hancock puts the top card of your Life into your hand when it lands, and their leader does the same when one of their 5000-power-or-more Kuja Pirates or Amazon Lily Characters is K.O.'d (once a turn, with a DON!! on the leader). It starts at 4 Life. It's one of Rocks's best matchups: in our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 78% (75 of 96).

Turn order: either is fine

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 73.7% going first and 71.7% going second: 2 more wins in 100 for going first, give or take 3.5, so no real difference.
• The full-strength games say the same: 80% going first (49 games), 77% going second (47).
• 95% of strong Rocks players go second here. Pro's numbers say it doesn't matter much.

Mulligan

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways (kept, then redrawn), keeping won 75.2% and redrawing 75.0%: keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character (Chapter 0).

How to play it

Going first:

• Turn 1: Streusen (53%).
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Stussy (39%), Don Marlon (37%) or Kyo (20%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (69%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (57%) or Edward Newgate (35%).
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): Newgate (43%), with Gloriosa or Stussy.
• Turn 6 (10 DON!!): Xebec (41%), or Gloriosa and Stussy.

Going second: Kyo on 2 DON!! (62%), Captain John (32%) or Don Marlon (30%) on 4, Newgate on 6 (77%), Shiki on 8 (62%), Xebec on 10 (65%).

Gloriosa is the most played Rocks card here (1.4 a game), but it's the last play of a turn. In close calls between two plays, Gloriosa lost to Newgate in 17 of 18 (41% against 33%, on 9 DON!!), to Captain John in 15 of 16 (on 4), to Stussy in 13 of 17 (on 10) and to Shiki in 11 of 15 (on 7).

Xebec is more often a counter here: Pro plays it only 0.56 times a game (only Luffy & Ace is lower) and counters with it 1.3 times a game.

Remove without K.O.s

• Gloriosa bottom-decks 1.6 Characters a game: Borsalino (30%), Boa Marigold (24%), Ran (20%) and Zoro (12%). Sending a Kuja Pirates Character to the bottom doesn't count as a K.O., so their leader can't take your Life for it.
• Stussy locks 1.9 times a game: their Boa Hancock (32%, with her [Activate: Main]), Gorgon Sisters (17%), Zoro (16%) and Shakuyaku (11%).
• Pro attacks their Characters only 1.8 times a game, mostly Charlotte Pudding (32%) and Zoro (21%). Shiki's -3000 is rare here (0.2 a game).

Taking Life: counter from the first hit

• At 5 Life, counter: Pro counters 41% of hits on its leader at 5 Life, and in its close calls countering was better 88 times out of 110.
• At 4 and 3 Life, still counter: better in 38 of 54 and 24 of 35 close calls.
• At 2 and 1 Life, take the close ones: countering was better in only 4 of 12 and 3 of 16.
• The likely reason: Silvers Rayleigh's K.O. and Shakuyaku's draw only work when you're at 3 Life or less, and their Hancock and their leader take Life cards on their own. Life you give away early switches their deck on.
• The counters Pro spends: Rocks Pirates 2.0 a game, Buckin 1.7, There's No Authority 1.5, and Xebec from hand 1.3.

Lethal against Hancock

• Pro's kills come on its 6th or 7th turn (52 of 75 wins), with Hancock at about 1.4 Life and 5.9 cards in hand.
• The kill turn: about 3.8 DON!! on the leader and 2.3 on Characters, 3.6 attacks. Newgate swings in 57 of the 75 kills, Shiki in 53, the leader in 47, Xebec (the Character) in 36.
• Make Xebec Unblockable when their Blockers are up: There's No Authority's [Main] shows up in 16 of the 75 kills.
• Swing Shiki before your last plays: on 10 DON!!, attacking with Shiki beat playing Gloriosa in 16 of 23 close calls (56% against 47%).
• You'll Frighten Me... (OP14-118): at 2 Life or less they can use it as a counter that stops one of your active Characters from attacking that turn. They run four.
• Their counters per game: Shakuyaku (1.1), Gorgon Sisters (0.8), Ran (0.8), You're the one who should disappear! (0.7, +3000) and Boa Marigold (0.7).

Their cards to play around

• Boa Hancock (OP14-112): their 5th-turn play 61% of the time. 10000, adds a Life card to theirs and puts the top of yours into your hand.
• Silvers Rayleigh (OP14-108): at 3 Life or less, K.O.s one of your 7000-base-power-or-less Characters, on play or as a Trigger.
• Shakuyaku (OP14-107): draws 2 (and trashes 2) when you're at 3 Life or less; also a +2000 counter.
• Roronoa Zoro (OP15-113): their 3rd-turn play (38%): trashes a card to add a Life card.
• Gecko Moria (OP14-104): 10000; its Trigger plays a cost-4-or-less Character back from their trash.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Hancock game below, in the coach's own words:

• Nine DON!!, their Zoro on the board: "Attack their Leader with your Leader. They need +1000 to stop it as it stands, or they drop to 2 Life. The coach rates it about 6 more wins in every 100 games than attacking Roronoa Zoro with Edward Newgate."
• Their leader swinging into Rocks's 8000 leader (Newgate's +3000 already on): "Don't block. Their Boa Hancock (5000) doesn't beat your Leader (8000) as it stands. The coach rates it about 5 more wins in every 100 games than blocking with Gloriosa."
• The kill turn, Hancock at 1 Life: "Attack their Leader with Rocks D. Xebec. They need +8000 to stop it, or they drop to 0 Life." Then: "Give 6 DON!! to your Leader. Your Leader goes to 11000: they'd need +7000 to stop it, not +1000."

The narrated game: six counters and still short

Pro goes first and gets Hancock to 2 Life by its 3rd turn, but two Zoros and a Trigger Shakuyaku keep refilling them while There's No Authority, Xebec, Rocks Pirates and Newgate's +3000 keep Pro at 4 Life. Their Boa Hancock then takes a Life card off Pro without an attack and leaves Pro at about 20% to win. Pro answers with Newgate hits, Xebec into Stussy (locking Silvers Rayleigh) and blocks, and on its last turn Xebec takes Hancock's final Life card. Their Rayleigh Trigger knocks out Stussy, but the leader, with six DON!! and Newgate's +3000, swings for 14000 through six counters that only reach 13000. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.

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Rosinante is the twelfth most common deck Rocks faces (about 1 game in 47 on MetaHub's data). It's a Navy deck built around Trafalgar Law, with fifteen Blockers (two of their three Laws, Borsalino, and the 8000 Rosinante & Law, which counts as both a Law and a Rosinante), Sakazuki's -6000 that lasts through your next turn, and Gum Gum Lightning to K.O. a 6000-power-or-less Character. Their leader protects the Laws: once a turn, when one would be K.O.'d, they take their top Life card into hand instead. It starts at 4 Life. In our Pro AI's full-strength games Rocks won 54% (54 of 100).

Turn order: go first

• Playing the same 300 shuffles both ways, Rocks won 59.3% going first and 52.0% going second: going first wins about 7 more games in every 100 (give or take 4).
• The full-strength games agree: 58% going first (52 games), 50% going second (48).
• 57% of strong Rocks players go first here.

Mulligan: redraw more

• Playing the same 600 hands both ways, redrawing won 63.7% and keeping 57.3%: about 6 more wins in 100 for the redraw (give or take 3). That's the biggest edge for redrawing in this guide: in every other matchup keeping won or the two came within 2 wins in every 100.
• Chapter 0's rule (keep anything with a 2-to-5-cost Character) won 59.7% here, between the two. Against Rosinante, when a hand is borderline, ship it.

How to play it

Going first (what Pro chooses):

• Turn 1: Streusen (52%).
• Turn 2 (3 DON!!): Don Marlon (38%), Stussy (37%) or Kyo (21%).
• Turn 3 (5 DON!!): Charlotte Linlin (54%) or Gloriosa (29%).
• Turn 4 (7 DON!!): Shiki (81%).
• Turn 5 (9 DON!!): Edward Newgate (52%), with Stussy or Shiki.
• Turn 6 (10 DON!!): Xebec (73%).

Going second: Kyo on 2 DON!! (69%), Gloriosa (33%), Don Marlon (25%) or Captain John (23%) on 4, Newgate on 6 (81%), Shiki on 8 (73%), Xebec on 10 (75%).

Xebec's free plays: Shiki over Stussy. When the choice came down to those two, Shiki was better in 16 of 22 close calls (61% against 52%).

Their Characters

• Rosinante & Law (EB04-038) is their 3rd-turn play in 92% of Pro's games: an 8000 Blocker. It takes most of Pro's answers: Shiki's -3000 (62%), Stussy's locks (58%), Pro's attacks on Characters (42%) and the Rocks Pirates bounce when Pro uses it (84%). It counts as a Law, so a K.O. on it can turn into a Life card in their hand instead. A bounce or a lock gets around that.
• Sakazuki (OP16-065), their 4th-6th turn play (49-62%), gets Stussy's lock (27%) and Shiki's -3000 (33%).
• Gloriosa (1.1 a game) bottom-decks their Blockers: the 6000 Law (P-093, 48%), Borsalino (30%) and the other Blocker Law (ST10-010, 19%).

Taking Life

• At 5 Life, mostly take it: Pro counters 19% of hits on its leader at 5 Life, and countering was better in only 26 of 55 close calls.
• At 4 Life, counter: better in 39 of 60 close calls on hits to your leader, and in 37 of 57 on attacks into your Characters.
• At 3 and 2 Life it's even (9 of 19, 7 of 16); at 1 Life, take the close ones (countering better in only 5 of 28).
• The counters Pro spends: Rocks Pirates 2.0 a game, Buckin 1.7, There's No Authority 1.6, and Xebec from hand 1.0.

Lethal against Rosinante

• Pro's kills come on its 6th to 8th turn (41 of 54 wins), with Rosinante at about 1 Life and 5 cards in hand.
• The kill turn: about 3.4 DON!! on the leader and 3.2 on Characters, 3.2 attacks. Xebec (the Character) swings in 38 of the 54 kills, the leader in 37, Newgate in 29, Shiki in 22.
• Fifteen Blockers means Unblockable matters: There's No Authority's [Main] shows up in 21 of the 54 kills. Gloriosa bottom-decking a Blocker on the kill turn does the same job.
• Their counters per game: the 5000 Law (P-088, 2.5 a game, +2000), I Love You!! (1.9, +2000, and at 2 Life or less it also brings a Law back from their trash), Mamaragan (0.9), X. Drake (0.9, +2000) and Borsalino (0.7).

Their cards to play around

• Sakazuki (OP16-065): -6000 on one of your Characters until the end of your next turn, and it ramps their DON!!.
• Gum Gum Lightning (OP09-077): K.O.s a 6000-power-or-less Character: Stussy, Kyo, Don Marlon, Gloriosa, Streusen and Captain John are all in range.
• Divine Departure (OP13-076): -8000 on one of your Characters. They run two.
• X. Drake (OP10-114): rests one of your cost-4-or-less Characters while their Life is equal to or lower than yours.
• Their leader: once a turn, a Law that would be K.O.'d stays, and they take a Life card into hand instead.

What the coach tells our AI

From the narrated Rosinante game below, in the coach's own words:

• Five DON!!, their 6000 Blocker Law on the board: "Choose Trafalgar Law for Gloriosa's effect. Trafalgar Law (6000) is the biggest of their Characters you can pick. The coach gives choosing Koby only about 27%."
• Xebec's free Stussy: "Choose Rosinante & Law (8000) for Stussy's effect. The coach gives choosing nothing only about 44%."
• The second Xebec: "Play Rocks D. Xebec. Its [On Play] effect happens right away. The coach rates it about 11 more wins in every 100 games than attacking with Stussy."
• The kill turn, Rocks at 1 Life: "Play Gloriosa. Gloriosa is a Blocker, and you're at 1 Life. The coach rates it about 9 more wins in every 100 games than attacking Rosinante & Law (8000) with Rocks D. Xebec (12000)." Then: "Give 2 DON!! to Stussy. Stussy goes to 7000: they'd need +3000 to stop it, not +1000."

The narrated game: through fifteen Blockers

Pro goes first, sends their first Blocker Law to the bottom with Gloriosa and gets Rosinante to 2 Life. Shiki's swing at Rosinante & Law would knock it out, but their leader takes a Life card into hand instead. Then Sakazuki and their leader wipe Pro's board, and Pro sits at about 25% to win. Pro rebuilds with Newgate, Stussy and Xebec (Stussy locks Rosinante & Law), loses Newgate and Captain John, and drops to 1 Life. On the last turn two Gloriosas send Borsalino and a Blocker Law to the bottom, a two-DON!! Stussy and the first Xebec take their last two Life cards, and the second Xebec finishes it. Watch it on MetaHub's YouTube.