Elbaph Sabo: OP17 Deck Guide

1. Introduction

Sabo has been the deck that promised more than it delivered since OP13. The old build could produce filthy turns, but it asked you to run a dozen events you'd never otherwise want, and half the time the combo just didn't show up. Great when it worked. Miserable when it didn't.

OP17 fixes that almost by accident. The Elbaph package was printed for the new Luffy leader, but it fits Sabo better than it fits Luffy. Every two-drop in this deck is a 2-cost body that turns into a 6000-power attacker on both turns, and every single one of them does something on top of that. There isn't a vanilla body anywhere in the important part of the list.

What you get is an aggro deck that plays like a midrange deck. It curves out on its own, it digs for the pieces it needs, and the pressure it puts out is awkward for most of the format to block or race. There's one matchup that actually worries me, and it isn't the one people assume.