ST-09 Yamato

Overview

ST-09 is Bandai's yellow Yamato starter deck from August 2023, built around the Land of Wano type. Its 15 different cards are mostly Wano Characters (Kouzuki Oden, Shimotsuki Ushimaru, Shinobu, the Momonosuke and Yamato Characters) plus a few Animal Kingdom Pirates, with Kaido among them.

The Leader is a 5000 power Yamato with 5 Life. With 1 DON!! attached, it gains +1000 power on your opponent's turn while you have 2 or less Life cards. That is a defensive effect, and it does nothing in the early turns. The rest of the deck is built for the same window: several cards pay you for being low on Life, and several let you pull Life cards into your hand on purpose.

Every card in the box is block 1, so the deck rotated out of Standard on April 1, 2026. It still works for kitchen-table games and in Extra Regulation, where every card is legal except the ban list. If you want to play Yamato at a Standard event, the Green/Yellow Yamato Leader (OP06-022), sold in ST-28, is the legal successor; there is also a Black Land of Wano Yamato Leader (OP16-079) built around playing Characters from the trash.

Yamato

ST09-001

ST09-001, 5000 power, 5 Life: +1000 power on your opponent's turn at 2 or less Life, with a DON!!

The Yamato Leader (ST09-001) and all 15 of the deck's different cards are block 1 cards, so the deck has not been legal in Standard since April 1, 2026; it is still legal in Bandai's Extra Regulation.

Ratings

These are TurnZero HQ's own read of the cards, not tournament results or an official Bandai rating. How we rate starter decks →

How it plays

The early game is about developing bodies that block and counter well. Kouzuki Momonosuke, Fugetsu Omusubi and the 3-cost Monkey.D.Luffy are plain Characters with Counter values, and the 3-cost Yamato has a 2000 Counter. Shinobu is your early Blocker, and its On Block effect lets you take a Life card to give it +4000 power for that battle.

In the middle turns, Shimotsuki Ushimaru is the engine. With a DON!! attached, when it attacks you may take 1 Life card into your hand to play a yellow Land of Wano Character costing 4 or less from your hand for free. Kaido becomes hard to remove in battle once you are at 2 or less Life, and Portgas.D.Ace can trash a Life card instead of being K.O.'d once per turn.

Late in the game you want to be at 2 Life or fewer with a full hand. Narikabura Arrow and Thunder Bagua both get stronger there, the Leader gains +1000 on defense, and Kouzuki Oden, at 7 cost with Double Attack when given a DON!!, closes the game. If Oden is K.O.'d, you may trash 2 cards to put the top card of your deck back onto your Life.

Tips for your first games

• Do not take Life cards into your hand just because an effect allows it. Take one when the card you get back is worth more than the damage you risk, usually when you need a counter or a free Character from Shimotsuki Ushimaru.
• Keep 1 DON!! on the Leader during your opponent's turn once you are at 2 Life, since its +1000 power only applies with a DON!! attached.
• Thunder Bagua's second effect puts an opponent's Character with a cost of 3 or less onto their own Life cards. That removes a body, but it also gives them a Life card, so use it when the board matters more than the damage race.
• Give Kouzuki Oden a DON!! before it attacks so it has Double Attack. A hit on the Leader then deals 2 damage.

Key cards in the box

Shimotsuki Ushimaru

ST09-008

Takes a Life card to play a yellow Land of Wano Character costing 4 or less for free

Kouzuki Oden

ST09-005

7000 power with Double Attack when given a DON!!, and rebuilds a Life card on K.O.

Portgas.D.Ace

ST09-010

Once per turn, trashes a Life card instead of being K.O.'d

Shinobu

ST09-007

Early Blocker that can take a Life card for +4000 power in a battle

Thunder Bagua

ST09-015

Counter for +4000, and at 2 or less Life it moves a cost 3 or less Character to Life

Kaido

ST09-004

Cannot be K.O.'d in battle at 2 or less Life with a DON!! attached

Upgrade guide

Every upgrade below is legal in Standard and shares a color with the Leader. Prices are each card's base printing on TCGplayer on October 10, 2026; open a card for today's price.

Move to the Standard Yamato Leader (OP06-022)

This is the path to Standard. OP06-022 Yamato is Green/Yellow, has Double Attack on the Leader itself, and once your opponent has 3 or less Life it can give 2 rested DON!! to one of your Characters each turn. The yellow Akazaya Nine Characters below share its plan: each has a Trigger that plays it from your Life when your opponent is at 3 or less Life. It means rebuilding the deck around a new Leader rather than adding a few cards, and most of ST-09 does not come with you.

Yamato

OP06-022

Standard Leader: Double Attack, and gives 2 rested DON!! once the opponent is at 3 Life

Yamato

ST28-005

1-cost searcher for a Land of Wano card costing 2 or more; +3000 on your turn with 2 DON!!

Kin'emon

ST28-003

2000 Counter; its Trigger plays it with a Wano Leader if the opponent has 3 or less Life

Inuarashi

OP06-100

With 2 DON!!, trashes a card when attacking to K.O. a Character by the opponent's Life count

Nekomamushi

OP06-110

With 2 DON!!, can attack your opponent's active Characters

Kikunojo

OP06-104

6000 power that adds a Life card on K.O. when the opponent has 3 or less Life

Budget Land of Wano support for the original Leader (Extra Regulation)

If you keep ST09-001 for casual or Extra Regulation games, these Standard-legal yellow Land of Wano cards replace the deck's vanilla Characters without changing the plan. Ashura Doji and Blaze Slice add removal, which ST-09 barely has, and the two Momonosukes and Tenguyama Hitetsu give you more control over your Life cards. All of them work just as well under OP06-022 if you move to Standard later.

Ashura Doji

ST28-001

K.O.s a base cost 5 or less Character while the opponent has 3 or more Life

Blaze Slice

OP07-116

+1000 for 1 cost, and rests a cost 4 or less Character once the opponent is at 2 Life

Yamato

EB03-057

Gives 3 rested DON!! to your Land of Wano Leader when played

Kouzuki Momonosuke

OP06-107

5-cost Blocker that moves one of your Wano Characters onto your Life

Kouzuki Momonosuke

OP13-105

Lets you look at and reorder your Life cards

Tenguyama Hitetsu

OP06-108

1-cost Counter body whose Trigger gives a Wano card +2000

What to cut first

Bandai's list doesn't say how many copies of each card the deck has, so cut by card: take out every copy of these before anything else, and keep the deck at exactly 50.

Kouzuki Momonosuke

ST09-006

A 2-cost 4000 Character with no effect

Fugetsu Omusubi

ST09-009

No effect, and its Trigger only K.O.s a Character costing 1 or less

Uzuki Tempura

ST09-002

4 cost for 5000 power with no effect; the Trigger is its only text

Ulti

ST09-003

A 4-cost 6000 Character with no effect

Every card in ST-09

Bandai's card list for ST-09 has 15 different cards. 15 of them carry a block 1 icon or are banned, so they can't be played in Standard; they are still legal in Extra Regulation unless banned. Legality follows Bandai's block icons and its banned list effective October 12, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions