Sabo deck guide: OP17 Red/Black Elbaph Build Plan 2026

Updated October 19, 2026: rebuilt on every Sabo entry in OP-17 Limitless Play events from August 20 to October 18. The old version leaned on a list-count snapshot and named Black Vortex as a core card. Black Vortex shows up in one of the 202 lists we pulled, so it's out.

Why Sabo works: the cost-12 trick

OP13-004OP13-004Shop on TCGplayer Sabo has two lines. While you have 4 or more Life cards he gets -1000 power. With one DON!! attached, "If you have a Character with a cost of 8 or more, your Leader and all of your Characters gain +1000 power."

The OP-17 Elbaph cards make that condition easy. OP17-089OP17-089Shop on TCGplayer Jaguar.D.Saul is a 4-cost card that "gains +12 cost," so on the field he counts as a 16-cost Character. OP17-119OP17-119Shop on TCGplayer Loki does the same and adds +3000 power on your opponent's turn. Pirates Docking Six (OP15-088) gains +6 cost, enough for Sabo but not for the Elbaph cards.

That second threshold is the real engine. Usopp, Nico Robin, Sanji, Zoro and Jinbe from OP-17 are 2-cost Characters that gain +3000 power "If there is a Character with a cost of 12 or more." With Saul or Loki on the field and DON!! on Sabo, each of them swings for 6000. Gerd is the exception: he only gets his +12 if your Leader has the Elbaph type, and Sabo doesn't.

Image credit: One Piece Card Game official card list (Bandai). OP13-004, OP17-089, OP17-119.

Red/Black Sabo decklist: ChinoizeCup #109 winner

cicciopal won [OP17] ChinoizeCup #109 on September 14 with a 6-0 run through 64 players. It's the list we'd start from because it's close to what everyone else plays.

45 Characters and 5 Events. The low event count is the point: the 2-cost Elbaph cards are your counters and your attackers at once.

What the other Sabo lists play

Across 202 posted Sabo lists, the core is fixed. Usopp, Nico Robin, Zoro OP17-095, Saul and Loki are in 98% of lists, Chopper, Docking Six and Luffy OP17-093 in 97%, and Sanji, Brook and Bad Manners Kick Course in 94%. Nami OP17-086 is in 90% and Jinbe in 87%.

The real choices are at the edges. Red Nami OP01-016 is in about three lists in four. Gum-Gum Kong Gun and the I'm Luffy!! counter each show up in about half, Gerd in just under half, and the big Zoro EB04-007 and Ground Death in under a third. Loki is the expensive card, and it's in 98% of lists, nearly always as a four-of. Don't build Sabo without him.

How to pilot Red/Black Sabo

1. Open on a dig card. Nami, Usopp and Saul find the Elbaph pieces. Saul and Loki are 8 cards in a 50-card deck, so you hold one in your opening five about 60% of the time and in about 84% of games once you count the redraw.
2. Land Saul, then swing wide. Once a cost-12 Character is out, every 2-cost Elbaph body hits for 5000 before Sabo's buff and 6000 with it. Put the DON!! on Sabo when you have three or more attackers.
3. Mind the -1000. At 4 or 5 Life Sabo is a 4000-power Leader. Don't trade Life early for nothing, but don't fear dropping to 3 either, since that's where he's at full power.
4. Loki when the board is small. His K.O. clears a total cost of 4, so it's best into two 2-costs or a 4-cost. Docking Six and Luffy refill your 2-cost bodies from the trash after a removal turn.
5. Keep a mulligan simple. Keep a hand with a 1-cost dig and either Saul or a 2-cost Elbaph body. Two expensive cards and no dig goes back.

Maelstrom Gaming's combo guide walks through the same turns:

Red/Black Sabo matchups

We matched every round Sabo played on Limitless Play to the opposing leader. Mirrors and unknown decks are left out.

Chart: ShonenTCG. Source: Limitless Play round pairings, OP-17 Standard events, August 20 to October 18, 2026, pulled October 19.

The Luffy decks are the good news: Sabo beat Black Luffy (OP17-079) 37-26 and Luffy & Ace 27-19. Mihawk, the most-played leader before the ban, was dead even across 174 games. Rocks is the problem, 38 wins to 63 losses, and Purple Enel was worse on a smaller sample.

Players saw the same thing. "B Luffy actually has a better matchup into Rocks than Sabo does," u/SinntheticUCI wrote in August, and another reply in that thread summed up the early format as "Rocks>Sabo>Mihawk>Rocks." Our numbers back the first half; the Mihawk edge didn't show up. For the Rocks game, u/Tarch-_- put it simply: "For rb sabo, its all about finding the 2c bodies on time and being able to consistently have them ping at the rock's life or board."

Is Sabo still good after the Mihawk ban?

Bandai banned Mihawk (OP14-020) from October 12. Sabo was the third most-played leader in our window, behind Mihawk and Rocks, with a match record of 434-454. He won three events and finished in the top four of fifteen more; the biggest was 4th of 119 at ChinoizeCup #116 on September 29. In the week after the ban he had eight entries and went 20-15, a small sample but a better record than before, and cicciopal took him to 3rd of 64 at ChinoizeCup #122 on October 13. Losing Mihawk takes away an even matchup, not a good one, and Rocks is still around, so expect Sabo to stay a solid second-tier pick rather than jump. EB-05 adds Ripley, and Sabo players in the first EB-05 simulator events picked it up almost to a person; our EB-05 card list has the numbers.

Our weekly OP-17 leader matchup table keeps counting Sabo's post-ban pairings: every Monday it recounts the last four weeks of Limitless Play events and lists each pairing with 15 or more games.

Our take

Play the ChinoizeCup list as is. It's the stock list with the best result, and the deck is simple to learn: dig, land Saul, swing with a board of 6000-power attackers. If your local scene is full of Rocks, pick something else or practise that matchup hard, because nothing in the flex slots fixes it. If it's full of Luffy decks, Sabo is one of the best answers in the format.

How we checked this: we pulled every OP-17 Standard event on Limitless Play from August 20 to October 18, 2026 (standings, 202 Sabo decklists and the round pairings of every event Sabo played), and checked card text on the Limitless card database and Bandai's official card list.

Related Reading

• OP-17 Luffy Black Deck Guide: the other Elbaph leader, and the one Sabo beats.
• OP-17 Mihawk Deck Guide: the pre-ban top deck.
• OP-17 Newgate Deck Guide: a Red OP-17 leader with a trash plan.
• OP-17 World's Strongest Warriors Set Guide: the set the Elbaph cards come from.