Red/black Sabo OP13-004 deck: decklist and guide (November 2026)

Sabo OP13-004 is the red/black deck that gains the most from EB-05. It is a Revolutionary Army Leader, but today it is played with Elbaph giants and OP-17 Straw Hats. Here you have the Leader, the game plan, a decklist that finished second in a 128-player tournament in October 2026, mulligans and matchups.

Data from tournaments and online games from 19 October to 3 November 2026. To see where Sabo sits in the meta, check our tier list of the best One Piece TCG decks.

What the Sabo OP13-004 Leader does

It is a red/black Leader with 5 Life and 5000 power, with the Special attribute and the Dressrosa and Revolutionary Army types. Its official English text reads:

"If you have 4 or more Life cards, give this Leader −1000 power. [DON!! x1] If you have a Character with a cost of 8 or more, your Leader and all of your Characters gain +1000 power."

In plain terms: while you have 4 or more Life, your Leader has 1000 less power. And if you give it at least one DON!! and have a Character with a cost of 8 or more on the board, your Leader and all your Characters get +1000. The attached DON!! stays there on your opponent's turn, so the +1000 protects you too.

How to play Sabo OP13-004: early, mid and late game

The trick is in the cost. Jaguar.D.Saul, Ripley and Loki gain +12 cost on the board, so a Character you pay 4 DON!! for counts as cost 16. That switches on two things at once: the Leader's +1000 and the +3000 the 2-cost Elbaph Straw Hats (Usopp, Sanji, Nico Robin, Zoro and Jinbe) get when you have a Character with a cost of 12 or more. A 2000-power Character ends up hitting for 6000.

Early game (turns 1 to 3)

• Turns 1 and 2: Usopp searches Elbaph cards and fills the trash. Nami and Sanji draw.
• At 4 or more Life your Leader has 1000 less: don't give Life away, but don't panic about losing the first one either.
• Keep the hand if you have a cheap draw card and a giant (Saul or Ripley).

Mid game (turns 4 to 7)

• At 4 DON!!: Saul or Ripley. They gain +12 cost on the field, so they switch on the Leader's +1000 and your cost 2 Straw Hats' +3000.
• Ripley lets you trash a card to play a cost 2 or less Character from the trash: two bodies for one card.
• At 5 DON!!: Pirates Docking Six counts as cost 11 and revives a cost 2 or less Straw Hat.
• Always leave a DON!! on Sabo: the +1000 also protects you on your opponent's turn.

Late game: how to close it out

• At 6 DON!!: Loki K.O.s opposing Characters with a total cost of 4 or less. On your opponent's turn he has 12000 with the Leader.
• At 8 DON!!: Monkey.D.Luffy OP17-093 draws, revives another cost 2 or less Character and, with a cost 12 on the field, has Rush.
• Zoro OP17-095 protects your giants from effects: if your opponent has removal, play him before the finish.

Mistakes that cost the most games

• Running out of giants on the field: your cost 2 Characters drop back to 2000.
• Forgetting the DON!! on the Leader.
• Against Rocks: Stussy checks base cost, and the +12 doesn't change it.

The golden rule: always leave a DON!! on Sabo and never run out of giants on the board. If your opponent removes Saul and you have no other giant, your 2-cost Characters drop back to 2000.

Sabo decklist: 2nd at ChinoizeCup #124 (19 October 2026)

This is the list Canepis took to second place at ChinoizeCup #124, a 128-player online tournament on Limitless Play, going 6 wins and 1 loss. EB-05 cards were already allowed, and the list runs two of them: Ripley and Yamato.

Total: 50 cards plus the Leader. Three other Sabo lists with 4 or 5 wins at ChinoizeCup #124, #125 and #127 share the same core; the events and a few counts change.

Key cards and why they matter

• Jaguar.D.Saul OP17-089: 6000 power for 4 DON!!, +12 cost, and searches for another Elbaph card when played.
• Ripley EB05-047: the second 4-cost giant, with +12 cost. When played you trash a card and play a Character with a cost of 2 or less from your trash: two bodies for one card.
• Loki OP17-119: cost 18 on the board, 11000 on your opponent's turn, and clears small Characters when played.
• Roronoa Zoro OP17-095: if your opponent is about to remove one of your Characters with an effect, you can return 3 cards from your trash to the bottom of your deck instead. He protects your giants.
• Yamato EB05-046: if your opponent has a Character with 8000 base power or more, it is an 8000 Blocker. When your opponent attacks, you can trash a card so that, if you have 10 or more cards in your trash, your Leader has 7000 base power that turn.

Flex slots and options

The differences in the Sabo lists that did well between 19 and 26 October:

• Ground Death OP14-096: two lists run it instead of I'm Luffy!!. With 10 cards in the trash it is a +4000 Counter, and on your turn, by resting 2 DON!!, it negates the effect of a Character with a cost of 5 or less.
• Roronoa Zoro EB04-007: two lists run 2. He gives your Leader +2000 until the end of your opponent's next turn.
• Gerd OP17-081: one list runs 1. She doesn't get the +12 cost here, because Sabo is not an Elbaph Leader, but she gets back a Character with a cost of 8 or less from the trash. For the same reason, Rodo isn't played.
• Miss Buckingham Stussy EB05-006: mentioned as an EB-05 option, but none of the four lists we reviewed runs her. Sending a Life card to your hand to give +3000 or -4000 makes sense in Sabo: at 3 Life, your Leader stops losing 1000.

If you want to understand how to weigh these changes, we explain it in how to build a One Piece TCG deck.

Mulligan

• Keep the hand if you have a cheap draw card and a giant: Usopp, Nami or Sanji, plus Saul or Ripley.
• Without Saul or Ripley, it's fine if you have two draw cards.
• Mulligan hands full of expensive cards with no draw, such as Loki, Luffy and Docking Six.

Matchups against the top decks

The ranked column is best-of-one games on a simulator, as of 30 October 2026, the same data as our meta guide. The tournament column adds up ChinoizeCup #124 to #127 on Limitless Play (19 to 26 October 2026), with EB-05 already legal.

Against Black Luffy you play the same Elbaph pieces, but your Leader gives all of them +1000; the guide is in Black Luffy OP17-079 deck. Against Rocks, their Miss Buckingham Stussy stops a Character with a base cost of 6 or less from attacking, and almost your whole deck qualifies: the +12 doesn't change base cost. Against Luffy OP13-001, their +2000 on defence cancels out the edge of your 6000-power attackers. Overall, Sabo went 72-64 in those tournaments.

What EB-05 and OP-18 change

• EB-05 is what pushed it up. Ripley is in 20 of 22 Sabo lists from the online tournaments on 19 and 20 October, nearly always at 4, and Yamato is in almost all the ones we've seen. EB-05 has been legal at Store Championships and regionals since 6 November 2026. Every card is in the EB-05 card list.
• OP-18 (20 November in English): as of 7 November, Bandai has not published any OP-18 cards in its database. The only thing affecting Sabo with an official image is the Loki OP17-119 reprint in parallel and gold versions. The new black cards going around (Saint Gunko, Goldberg, Dorry or MMA) are leaks and are not Elbaph.

The full forecast is in how the meta will change with OP-18 and EB-05.

Budget: which cards are expensive

Pirates Docking Six OP15-088One Piece Adventure on Kami's Island · ENView in store

Sabo is one of the cheapest competitive decks in the format. The regular version of the Leader was around $0.12 on 24 September 2026, and it also comes in the ST-35 Red/Black Sabo starter deck, released on 31 July 2026. TCGplayer market prices in US dollars:

• Loki OP17-119: about $21 a copy (31 October 2026). It is a Secret Rare and you need 4: about $85, most of the deck's cost.
• Usopp OP17-080 and Monkey.D.Luffy OP17-093: around $1.50–2 a copy (6 October and 6 November 2026).
• Yamato EB05-046: an EB-05 Super Rare. There is no stable market price yet.

The rest are OP-17 and EB-05 commons and rares. Prices change every week, so treat them as a guide. Before buying singles, you can test the list for free on ARENA.

Try it on ARENA

Sabo is learnt by playing: which order to drop the giants in and when to swing with everything. On our free One Piece TCG simulator ARENA you load this meta decklist in one tap, from your phone or computer browser. Like every other One Piece TCG simulator, ARENA is an unofficial fan project with no connection to Bandai.

1. Play against the AI on its four difficulty levels until the Saul turn comes naturally.
2. Create a private 1v1 room and ask a friend to play Rocks or Luffy OP13-001 against you, the two hard matchups.
3. Once you've got it down, climb the ranked ladder or join an online Swiss tournament.

If you want to compare ARENA with other options, see the best One Piece TCG simulators. And before you buy four Loki, play ten games with Sabo on ARENA.

FAQ

Why does a Revolutionary Army Leader play Straw Hats and giants?

Because the Leader doesn't ask for any type: just a Character with a cost of 8 or more. The Elbaph giants with +12 cost get there for 4 DON!!, and the Elbaph Straw Hats make use of that same cost.

Is the ST-35 starter deck enough to play competitive Sabo?

It gets you the Leader, which is inside. The rest of the cards are for the Revolutionary version; for this list you need the OP-17 and EB-05 cards as singles.

Are any Sabo cards banned?

No, every card in this list is legal. The latest ban was the Mihawk OP14-020 Leader, on 12 October 2026. The full list is in One Piece TCG banned cards.

Keep reading

• Rocks.D.Xebec OP17-039 deck: the most played deck and Sabo's toughest opponent.
• Enel OP05-098 deck: the yellow Life deck that wins by attrition.
• Luffy OP13-001 deck: the red/green deck that defends best against Sabo.
• The OP-18 and EB-05 meta: which decks go up and which go down.

One Piece card images: © Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation. One Piece Card Game is a Bandai product; ONLYCHASES is not affiliated with Bandai.