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Shonen TCG · General
The OP-16 Sengoku deck tech conversation keeps circling back to one number: 6 wins in EN tournament data from May 25 to June 9. That puts 
OP16-060OP16-060 at the bottom of the OP-16 leader pack. The number is real. So is the 32-player first-place finish that same window. Both things are true about Sengoku, and understanding why tells you exactly what kind of player this deck is built for.
Sengoku is not a beginner deck. The 8-DON return play is intuitive at the concept level but brutal to sequence properly across 7 or 8 turns while surviving aggro from faster leaders. When it works, three 8000-power Admirals landing simultaneously is a board state most opponents cannot answer. When it does not work, you spent 8 turns accumulating resources for nothing.
TL;DR: OP-16 Sengoku deck tech centers on returning 8 active DON!! to deploy Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino for free in one turn. He is the only OP-16 leader that prefers going first, by 6.2 points. EN week 1 shows 6 tournament wins and 1 confirmed 32-player first-place. Community list costs around $69.89. High skill floor, high ceiling.
OP16-060OP16-060 Sengoku is a Purple leader with 5000 power and 5 life. His leader ability: return 8 active DON!! to your DON!! deck, then play up to 3 Admiral-type characters with different names from hand for free.
The deck's entire plan is reaching 8 active DON!! and deploying all three Admirals in a single activation. The Three Admirals!! event card, a Navy-synergy engine of low-cost characters, and careful board presence in the early turns support that goal. The deck runs 50 cards, priced at roughly $69.89 for the community-validated list.
GODEEPER: If you want the full leader-by-leader picture before committing to Sengoku, the OP-16 meta tier list week 1 breaks down EN performance across all OP-16 leaders. OP-16 Meta Tier List Week 1 →
The ability activates at any point during your Main Phase. You return 8 active DON!! to your DON!! deck, then immediately play up to 3 Admiral-type characters with different names from your hand without paying their costs.
Three mechanics shape how the deck plays in practice.
First, DON!! return is not a cost you pay once per game. It resets your DON!! count to zero, but your DON!! deck refills from the returned cards. In subsequent turns, your DON!! total climbs back up. The ability is designed to fire on the turn you hit 8 active DON!!, which is turn 8 under natural DON!! draw. Several cards in the deck generate tapped or active DON!! to push that timing earlier.
Second, "up to 3 with different names" means you need three distinct Admiral-type characters in hand when you activate. The deck runs multiple copies of each Admiral to ensure at least one of each is accessible. Drawing two copies of the same Admiral before activation is a dead copy for that turn.
Third, the characters enter the field immediately. Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino all have 8000 power, so they survive most attacks. Their effects fire on entry. One Piece TCG characters can attack the turn they are played, so you are not waiting a turn before swinging.
The result: on your activation turn, the opponent faces three 8000-power characters with distinct disruptive effects and no additional DON!! cost on your side. Most boards cannot answer that.
Sengoku (OP16-060) ramps DON!! to drop all three Admirals in one turn, the payoff the whole deck is built around.
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About the author
TCG Deck Analyst
Former card game tournament organiser turned analyst. Covers One Piece TCG meta, deck efficiency, and card valuation. Builds spreadsheets for decks most people just play.
Disclaimer
This article is published for informational and entertainment purposes. It does not constitute professional financial, legal, or technical advice. Game performance, online services, patch schedules, and store listings change. Verify critical details (pricing, system requirements, regional availability) with publishers and storefronts before you buy. Affiliate links, where present, help support our editorial work and are labelled in our affiliate disclosure.
Three characters drive the activation payload. Each fills a different role after they land.
OP16-063OP16-063 Kuzan costs 7 and has 8000 power. His effect generates 2 tapped DON!! and removes one of your opponent's characters from the Blocker position for 1 DON!!. The Blocker disruption is the most unique ability of the three. When Sengoku deploys the Admiral board, the opponent's natural answer is to block attacks with their Blocker characters. Kuzan removes that option. Opponents who built their gameplan around a specific Blocker find it unavailable on the turn they need it most.
OP16-065OP16-065 Sakazuki (Akainu) costs 7 and has 8000 power. His effect applies a -6000 power debuff to one opponent character, and that debuff carries into the opponent's next turn. Against characters in the 6000 to 9000 power range, this is effectively a removal. Against leaders in the 6000 range, it puts them in danger of dying to an attack they would otherwise survive. The carry-to-next-turn clause is what separates Sakazuki from a generic removal: even if the debuffed character survives your turn, it enters the opponent's turn weakened.
OP16-073OP16-073 Borsalino (Kizaru) costs 7 and has 8000 power. His effect generates 1 active and 1 tapped DON!!, and he can gain Blocker for 2 DON!!. The DON!! generation partially offsets the 8-DON!! return cost, meaning the deck does not sit at zero DON!! after activation if Kizaru resolves. The optional Blocker mode turns him into a defensive anchor after the Admiral board establishes.
The Three Admirals!! event card (OP16-076, not in card DB) provides additional synergy with the Admiral type and helps assemble the hand before the activation turn. The "Buddha" Sengoku character card (OP16-077, not in card DB) also appears in some lists as an additional Admiral-type body.
Supporting characters include 
OP16-066OP16-066 Sengoku character (4x), 
OP16-075OP16-075 Monkey D. Garp (4x), 
OP16-064OP16-064 Koby (4x), 
OP16-067OP16-067 Tsuru (4x), and 
OP16-070OP16-070 Donquixote Rosinante (4x). 
OP16-078OP16-078 Marineford stage (2x) provides a field card to support the Navy package. These low-cost Navy characters serve two purposes: early pressure to keep the opponent honest, and board presence that buys time for the DON!! ramp to reach 8.
This is the community framework based on the Bandai Feature Deck #105 shell, priced at approximately $69.89:
Leader (1)
Characters (36)
Events/Stages (13)
The counts above are a starting framework. EN week 1 is still refining ratios, particularly around the counter event package versus extra character copies. Total: 50 cards.
GODEEPER: For comparison, see how the Akainu solo build handles the Purple archetype from a different angle in the OP-16 Akainu deck guide. OP-16 Akainu Deck Guide →
Sakazuki (OP16-065) is the highest-impact Admiral in the package, clearing the opponent's board the turn Sengoku deploys him.
Every other OP-16 leader in EN week 1 data prefers going second. Sengoku prefers going first by 6.2 points. That gap is not noise; it reflects how the deck's tempo works.
Going second in One Piece TCG gives you an extra card draw on turn 1 and means you reach DON!! count targets one turn earlier. For most leaders that extra card and tempo advantage is decisive. Sengoku is the exception because his win condition depends on timing, not resource accumulation.
When Sengoku goes first, he can reach 8 active DON!! and resolve his ability before the opponent has flooded the board to the point where three Admirals cannot close the game. When he goes second, the opponent has one additional turn to establish a board state that answers or delays the Admiral deployment.
The specific scenario: on the second-player's side, a fast aggro leader can reach a wide enough board by turn 7 that even three 8000-power characters cannot attack through it profitably in one turn. First-player Sengoku hits turn 8 one step ahead of that critical board-flood threshold.
In practice: call your coin flip actively. If you win the flip, go first. Sengoku is one of the few leaders where this is the correct default.
The Sengoku gameplan across the first eight turns breaks into three phases.
Turns 1 to 3 (early survival): Play low-cost Navy characters to establish board presence. Koby, Tsuru, and Rosinante all cost 3 or less. The goal is not aggressive damage; it is having characters on field that force the opponent to spend DON!! attacking them instead of you. Keep DON!! available each turn to counter attacks on your leader when they threaten a life swing.
Turns 4 to 6 (DON!! accumulation): Stop spending DON!! on characters unless the board demands it. You need 8 active DON!! on your activation turn. Any DON!! spent on characters in this window delays the payoff by a turn. Hold the three Admirals in hand if you draw them. Use the Three Admirals!! event card when it generates value without costing active DON!!.
Turn 7 to 8 (activation): Return 8 active DON!! and play Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino from hand. Resolve entry effects in order: Sakazuki's debuff first (removes threats or puts the opponent's leader in kill range), Kuzan's Blocker disruption second (removes their defensive answer), Borsalino's DON!! generation third (recovers some DON!! for attacks). Attack with all three that turn.
Turn 7 activation happens when Kizaru or another DON!! generation effect accelerates the count by one turn. Turn 8 is the natural activation under normal draw.
These assessments are directional based on EN community discussion. No fabricated win rates.
vs. Red Ace: Difficult. Ace applies burn pressure and closes games around turn 6 or 7, before Sengoku reaches 8 DON!!. The Navy blocker package needs to absorb enough damage in the early turns to buy extra time. Koby and Garp are the primary defensive anchors. If Ace has dealt 3 life damage by turn 5, the window to survive to activation shrinks significantly.
vs. Black/Yellow Blackbeard: Even to unfavorable. Teach's redirect control disrupts the Admiral board setup by redirecting attacks to small characters and refilling hand. The Three Admirals board still wins if it resolves, but Blackbeard has enough interaction to delay or punish a missequenced activation. See the OP-16 Blackbeard deck tech week 1 for how that matchup plays from the other side.
vs. Black Yamato: Favorable once Sengoku reaches turn 7. Yamato's recursion and search mechanics cannot match three 8000-power simultaneous threats. Yamato does not have a clean answer to an established Admiral board. The danger is Yamato accelerating to a wide board by turn 6 that blocks early attacks, so the Navy early game needs to keep the life totals honest before activation.
vs. Blue/Green Luffy: Slightly favorable late. Luffy's dual-pool resource base runs out of cards before Sengoku does. The Admiral board arrives at a point where Luffy cannot refill fast enough to answer three separate 8000-power threats in the same turn.
vs. Purple Enel: Hardest matchup. Enel's draw engine generates more resources than Sengoku can generate through DON!! return. By the time Sengoku activates, Enel often has answers ready across subsequent turns. This is the matchup where the long ramp makes Sengoku most vulnerable.
The question has a direct answer: yes, if you enjoy high-variance skill-testing gameplay and have experience with One Piece TCG's DON!! system. No, if you are new to the game or want reliable consistent results.
Sengoku's ceiling is real. A correctly played Three Admirals activation is one of the most powerful single turns in OP-16, and the deck has tournament wins to prove the concept. The $69.89 entry cost is accessible. The Admiral cards are not chase rares, so the build does not require significant singles investment to get started.
The floor is also real. DON!! mismanagement in turns 4 to 6 delays activation by a full turn, which is often enough for faster leaders to close the game first. The deck has no recovery line if the Admiral hand is incomplete on activation turn. Drawing two copies of the same Admiral before turn 7 is the most common way games are lost.
For experienced players looking for a skill-expressive Purple build in OP-16, Sengoku delivers. For players who want a more accessible entry point, the OP-16 Sengoku Deck Guide: Purple Marine Admirals Build covers the base version with flatter execution requirements.
Is Sengoku good in OP-16 One Piece TCG? Bottom-tier among OP-16 leaders in EN week 1 data, with 6 tournament wins in the May 25 to June 9 tracked window. The 32-player first-place finish shows what the ceiling looks like when played well. Not a leader you pick up for fast results, but not without tournament viability in the right hands.
How does Sengoku's leader ability work in One Piece TCG OP-16? Return 8 active DON!! to your DON!! deck, then play up to 3 Admiral-type characters with different names from hand for free. This fires in the Main Phase on your turn, typically on turn 7 or 8. The three Admirals enter the field immediately and you attack with them that same turn.
Why does Sengoku prefer going first in OP-16? He is the only OP-16 leader that statistically prefers the first-player position, by 6.2 points. Going first lets him resolve the 8-DON return and Admiral deploy before the opponent can flood the board with enough answers to stop the tempo swing. All other OP-16 leaders prefer going second.
What are the three Admirals in the OP-16 Sengoku deck? Kuzan (OP16-063), Sakazuki/Akainu (OP16-065), and Borsalino/Kizaru (OP16-073). Each is a 7-cost 8000-power character with a distinct disruption effect. Together they cover removal (Sakazuki debuff), attack access (Kuzan Blocker removal), and resource recovery (Borsalino DON!! generation).
How much does the OP-16 Sengoku deck cost? Approximately $69.89 per the gumgum.gg community list. The three Admirals drive most of the cost, but none are high-value chase rares. This is one of the more affordable OP-16 builds.
What is the hardest matchup for OP-16 Sengoku? Purple Enel is the hardest. Enel's draw engine out-resources Sengoku over the course of the game, meaning Enel has answers available when the Admiral board arrives. Red Ace is the second hardest, closing games before the 8-DON threshold is reached.
Should beginners play OP-16 Sengoku? No. DON!! economy management across 7 to 8 turns before the payoff requires precise sequencing that punishes small errors severely. Players new to One Piece TCG should start with a more forgiving EN-tier leader and return to Sengoku once the DON!! system is second nature.
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