Explaining My Love for 3Cost Brook in Black Moria/Sakazuki

Intro (@Cross_Aii) 

Hope everyone is good. Today we are going to be talking about THREE COST BROOK. A lot of people have mixed opinions on this card, or don’t really understand it. So I thought it would be good to make it’s own article. Let’s look at it.

Why 3 Cost Brook?

3-Cost Brook initially caught my eye, because it’s 3-Cost, and it’s ability can help reach itchy spots where we just need that extra minus 1, and I noticed that in combination with Sakazuki leader skill, and great eruption, it was able to hit four costs! So I started experimenting with it.

Being a 3 Cost

Brook being 3 Cost allowed for more efficiency, than I could have ever imagined. In both Sakazuki and Moria, being able to play Rebecca off Brook, is way better than people give it credit for. 

Being able to clear a big unit by combining a combo like IceAgeMoriaBrook, allows us to produce a blocker, WHILE clearing a big unit. 

This is an absolute game-changer against decks that can kill us fast like Yamato, and Katakuri.

And it being 3 Cost also allows for 2 units to be developed on the 6-don turn in the Moria deck, which is very good. And not only do we develop 2 units, we can actually combine it with Perona, to clear a 4-cost unit!

The extra Minus 1 + Pop

Brook’s additional minus one is actually extremely important to maximizing what Moria can do. The turn it’s most impactful on, is the 7-don turn of going first.

When Sakazuki goes second against Moria, they have the potential to clear up to 2 bodies WHILE producing a unit. And then going into their 8-don turn, if they have enough counter in hand, and they’re ahead enough, they have the potential to do Moria into Kuzan + Tashigi/Brannew. Moria doesn’t have the ability to clear both 8Moria and 4Kuzan on their 9-don turn, and this can directly lead to losing the game.

But 3-Cost Brook completely changed up the game.

Not only can we combine 3-Cost Brook with Perona or Hina/RebHina on our 7-don turn, in order to pop the body that they played on their 6-don turn. But we can ALSO, force them to answer Brook, instead of doing Moria + Kuzan! Because if they don’t, it’s possible for us to clear both Moria and Kuzan.

The reason we (typically), can’t answer Moria and Kuzan on our 9-don turn, is because we aim for an IceAge + MoriaHelmeppoLucci. 

But we aren’t Sakazuki. 

So IceAge only makes Moria 3-cost, and we have to dedicate Helmeppo to clearing either Kuzan or their Moria. But the extra minus 1 from Brook allows us to make 8Moria 2-Cost, while Helmeppo makes their Kuzan a 1-cost, and we are able to successfully pop both. 

This is actually one of the biggest reasons I play Brook in Moria. Sure it’s good on the 6-don turn of going second, but I could just play 4 Hinas, and 2-4 Brannews, and expect to see it on my 6-don turn right? But Brook’s ability to also be played on this 6-don turn, WHILE improving the Sakazuki matchup for when we go first, is too valuable to me.

Ryan Hartman’s Performance with 3-Cost Brook

My homie Ryan Hartman (I already shouted him out in the Discord for topping with BrookMoria this weekend, extremely proud of him btw, and it’s so amazing to see his progress.), also was able to consistently get rid of multiple 8-Cost kids against multiple Green Utas, which was also great. So people typically think they need Kuzan to clear 8-Cost Kids against Uta, but Brook actually puts in a lot of work against green. And even against Green decks with Rosinante, Brook helps us double-pop them.

TL;DR

Brooks ability to be called off Rebecca, earns us a lot of extra cards, because we pop something, WHILE producing a blocker.

Brook being able to be played on Moria’s 6-don turn is very important, and it’s very crucial to Moria’s 7-don turn against Sakazuki.

Brook is also a very strong card against 8-Cost Kid, and Rosinante

One thing I didn’t mention, but want to mention now, is that Brook also helps with the “no Absalom games.” And particularly against RP Law, only way to lose is to not draw enough Absalom/Lucci. So having more poppers is very strong. Even Moria + RebeccaBrook + Helmeppo, on curve, will be very strong.

Let’s specifically talk about Brook in Sakazuki & Moria now:

Brook in Sakazuki Specifically (Mainly about the Sakazuki Mirror)

Moria was the original deck I added 3 Cost Brook too. But funnily enough, I think it’s even stronger in Sakazuki.

The thing about Sakazuki is we damn near beat every deck already. The decks we are closest to losing to are like RP Law, which we can beat if we run enough Lucci(or you’re a crackhead like me and run enough Murakumos). And Yamato is basically just a calked up to whether you can draw 2+ blockers or not (a bit more complicated than that, but if you check my most recent top cut I was able to beat in best of 3, and I believe I made a game-losing mistake G1 too, although he did have triple Hody + Amaru lmao). Moria can also be a bit difficult if you miss a double clear, but I believe all these matchups are, AT THE VERY MINIMUM, slightly favored for the most part.

So the only matchup I’m worried about is the mirror. And everyone knows going first in the mirror is absolutely abysmal. You absolutely get out-valued by Kuzan(s) from the player going second, and you often have to see IceAgeMoriaHelmeppoLucci on curve to even stand a chance. 

So I thought to myself, how can I close the distance between going first and going second?

3 Cost Brook.

Most people don’t know off their top of the heads where advantage is won and loss in the mirror. There’s different plays that players can make on the going first / going second curve, that will make them closer or further away from having a handsize similar to their opponent. And even though Brook doesn’t draw us cards, it inhibits their plays in a way that prevents them from drawing significantly more cards than us.

My least favorite 5-don play when going first is eruption + houndblaze. I only like this play if we had Brannew + Tashigi, so we’re able to do 3 5Ks, or if we’re able to play a Brannew with the remaining 2-don.

The reason I don’t like this play, is because we give our opponent priority to just play another Kuzan, or even a Sabo (which can block before 7Bors takes effect, and digs them 1 card closer to 8Moria), rather than responding to our board.

Due to this, I significantly prefer eruption + Lucci. We clear their Kuzan, and their Brannew, and we’ve produced a body they have to deal with this(which means instead of drawing Extra cards with Kuzan, they’re spending cards to deal with Lucci. And if they don’t have great eruption, they actually lose a card!). And this is typically the best play, but it is quite unfortunate when Lucci gets botdecked.

But Brook provides a new angle. 

Brook on either the turns of 3-Don or 5-Don completely change the game. Brook on 3-Don, not only pops their Brannew/Tashigi played on 2-don, but it ALSO prevents them from playing Kuzan on curve. And if they do play Kuzan on curve still it opens up Great Eruption + Kuzan _ Brook effect on 5-don, which is huge for the battle in advantage. We draw off Kuzan, Brook clears a unit, and they have to answer both units the following turn.

And then if they don’t answer Brook and use Murakumo/Blaze instead. They have no unit to pump, and we still have priority to play Kuzan the following turn. Even playing Bors/Sabo could put them in a very awkward spot, because they would have to expand ANOHTER Murakumo/HoundBlaze. Very strong.

This actually the mistake I made in game1 before I got slowplayed, that made me realize that I could easily win game 3, if I secured game2. I played Brook T2, and he responded with swingf5K + Murakumo. But I spent my first 2 turns discarding both Borsalino & Kuzan, which were LITERALLY my best plays. I would have been insanely ahead had I kept literally either of them lmao. And he doesn’t understand I have those plays available to me on 5-don, so he would not be prepared. So sad, there’s a universe where I don’t get slow-played, if I was locked in on game1.

Aside from that Brook has a lot of benefits against other matchups. Notably against Yellow decks, Rebecca + Brook is generally an insane combo. I played against a Katakuri in swiss, and didn’t even need Sabo. I destroyed them with back-to-back-to-back, Rebecca + Brook combos. Rebecca + Brook also makes it easier to establish Moria on curve as well, very strong.

This card is also extremely strong against RP Law, it’s an excellent 3-don, or 4-don turn play, and being able to call Brook off Rebecca, is very relevant, espeically when considering playing Moria on curve.

Now let’s talk about Brook in Moria.

Brook in Moria

Moria is another deck that can pretty much beat every single matchup. It’s worst matchup s Black/Yellow Luffy, which is hard, but is somewhat winnable (defintely unfavored, but AwakenedTCG for example, was able to beat one in his recent tournament at Peoria, Illinois).

Black/Yellow Luffy also isn’t popular enough, and auto-loses to Sakazuki/RP Law hard enough, to where I think it’s hardly worth teching for as Moria.

So what matchup is worth teching for?

Blue/Black Sakazuki.

I touched on the power of Brook in this matchup earlier, but let me elaborate. Let’s look at the curve for Moria going first against Sakazuki.

F - Denotes the Moria player going first, S - Denotes the Sakazuki player going second

F1 - Cindry

S1 - Brannew/Tashigi

F2 - 6K Leader, play Perona(Leader skill)

S2 - 5K leader, play Kuzan

F3 - Eruption/Helmeppo/Tsuru + Absalom, swing 6K/7K Leader. DONT swing with unit played on F2.

S3 - Eruption + Eruption/Tsuru/Stage + Lucci or Hina + Eruption + Murakumo. Or if the Moria swung with their unit on F2, then Hina/RebHina + HoundBlaze on standing unit, swing into the rested unit.

F4 - Kuzan + Hogback or RebHina/Hina/Perona + 3brook or Tashigi(not played anymore) + Absalom

S4 - MoriaLucci combo, or HinaLucci combo. Or if Kuaan/Brook wasn’t played by Moria, Moria + Kuzan/Tashigi + Brannew

So let’s exam the F4 and the S4 turns.

First we need to recognize this fact. Without Kuzan/Brook/Tashigi on the board, there’s no way for the Moria deck to kill an opposing 8Moria + 4-drop. IceAge will only reduce Moria to 3-cost.

So our best play on this turn is basically Kuzan, or Tashigi, or Brook.

And this is why I like Brook so much. 

I can pop the unit played on their F3 turn, while forcing them to answer my Brook, instead of  them doing a Moria + Kuzan + Tashigi combo. And either Moria/Kuzan sticking are plays that directly lead to Moria losing the game, it will force us to try to get a lucky lethal, by hoping we can aggro them down, and they don’t draw blockers or Sabo.

Even if we can still only answer 8Moria and not Lucci on our 9-don turn, this is 20x better than them having either Kuzan or 8Moria stick. Kuzan and Tashigi will earn them 2 extra cards, and they can realistically clear 3-4 units on the following turn. Moria sticking will also allow them to clear 3 units, and sometimes 4, while maintaining an additional Moria for the est of the game.

And this is pretty much the main reason I run 3 Cost brook. If Sakazuki left the format, I wouldn’y be surprised if I took out Brooks and switched to an entirely new tech card. Or if I found a substitue to brook on the 7-don turn, that allows me to pop the unit played on their 6-don turn (so not Kuzan), I would also consider replacing Brooks.

But Brook also has the additional benefits of being additional copies of cards that allow us to produce 2 units on 6-don, it’s still strong against Yellow, Green, etc. 

And it is additional destruction against RP law, which severely reduces the chance of us losing to not drawing enough destruction.

----------------

I think 3 Cost Brook is a very strong card, that was underexplored in Asia, and has just started being explored in NA (but Sakazuki ban already around the corner). So many good players played it this weekend, Yonas, Jackson, one of me and Yonas’  locals, who also topped, Kyle Henriksen, etc.

There’s a lot of fancy combos you can do with it in non-black mirrors. But black mirrors are the hardest to understand Brook’s value in, so I hope this brought you guys some valuable insight.

With that being said, keep on grinding. And I will catch y’all in the next one, peace.