Leader Ability
Vivi’s ability grants rush to ANY card for the price of resting 2 don. That means any 8-cost or lower card can instantly gain rush thanks to Vivi and you get to draw a card. The condition to draw a card does not require you to give rush to a character. You can have no characters on the field and you can simply rest 2 DON cards and draw a card.
Core Cards
Emporio Ivankov
Ivankov is vital to the impel down package and is a very strong 7 don turn play. Playing Ivankov will allow you to put two strong bodies on the field and if your hand size is low Ivankov’s ability will allow you to draw cards until you have 3 in hand. Realistically the most you can draw with Ivankov is 2 cards because when you play Ivankov, the card first checks how many cards are in your hand then you draw. After that, you play a card from your hand. It is still a strong ability and combined with Vivi’s ability you can play another Ivankov on your 9 DON turn and give rush to a card and draw a card, all with Vivi’s ability. It is recommended to run 3-4 copies.
Monkey D Luffy
Blue Luffy is the strongest character that you can play from hand using Ivankov’s ability. By giving it rush with Vivi’s ability it will allow you to attack with Luffy and activate his effect which allows you to put one card on the field to the player’s hand and gain double attack. You will still need to discard two cards to activate Luffy’s effect but with Vivi’s ability, you are really only discarding one card. It is recommended to run 3-4 copies.
Crocodile
The blue vanilla 5C Crocodile is also a core card because you can play it from hand using Ivankov’s ability. It has the same 7k attack as Luffy but it has no ability. When you don’t have a Luffy in your hand then Crocodile is the 2nd best card you can play alongside Ivankov. You can also play Croco on its own and give it rush with Vivi while drawing a card. That would be a 7 DON turn which isn’t too bad since Croc will be attacking with 7k attack. It is recommended to run 4 copies
Buggy
Buggy is the impel down searcher and is vital to search out Ivankov, Luffy, and Crocodile. It is recommended to run 4 copies.
Nami
Nami is core in this deck because it also helps search out Luffy. If you are running Three Thousand Worlds or Gum Gum Red Rock, Nami will also be able to search those out. There are some blue events that are also Straw Hat and Impel Down type like Gum Gum Rain, all of which are searchable by Nami. Depending on your build she can potentially search out a lot of cards. It is recommended to run 3-4 copies.
Mr. 2 Bon Clay
Bon Clay is your impel down 2k counter. He has a good effect that can potentially get through a low-cost blocker and since he has 5k attack he could be a good body to bring down and give rush with your leader’s ability. It is recommended to run 4 copies.
Donquixote Donflamingo
Doflamingo is a good early-game blocker that allows you to look at your upcoming draws and rearrange them in the order that you want. Sometimes donflamingo can actually help you by getting the card that you need to the top of the deck or if all the upcoming cards are useless you can put them at the bottom of the deck. He is a very good and flexible card. It is recommended to run 3-4 copies.
Tech Cards
The cards below are cards that can be replaced with other cards according to your playstyle. Since these aren’t the core cards in the impel package I put them under tech cards but each card does have a reason for why I included it. I will go over the reasoning for each card.
Marco
Marco helps clear blockers and also helps a lot in the Zoro matchup. Without him, a Zoro can run away with the game early on before you get the chance to play your late-game characters. Since his cost is only 5 DON it is pretty easy to play him and use your leader’s ability to gain rush and draw a card. Potentially killing 2 things. His 6k attack is also pretty good and often people are deterred from KO him because of his ability.
King
King has a very strong body and lets you draw when you play him. For 9 DON you can play him, give him rush, and draw 2 cards (one with his effect and the second with Vivi’s effect). Against Whitebeard King comes in handy for being able to go 8k into Whitebeard’s 6k attack. He is a great way to replenish your hand, have a strong body on board, and still have 1 DON left to play a 1 cost blocker or a 1 cost event.
Sanji + Brook
Sanji and Brook are mostly in the deck to fill the 2k counter slot. However, if you do have a need to play a low-cost card with rush that can attack, these cards can also be used. Both cards are also searchable by Nami thanks to their Straw Hat archetype. The flexibility and typing of the cards is why they are added to the deck.
Happiness Punch
Happiness Punch is a great counter that can be used by Vivi for only 1 DON. Once you get to the late game and play big bodies and give them rush you will find that you will have 1 DON left to work with. You can use that DON for attacking or you can use that DON as a counter. Happiness Punch is great because you can potentially stop 2 cards from attacking because you lower the attack of up to 2 different characters or leaders.
Bad Manners Kick Course
Bad Manners provides a good way to counter at 0 don by tossing a card that is useless in hand. The deck runs a lot of cards that have 0 counter so this a good way for those cards to be useful. Since you’re constantly drawing cards with Vivi you can easily recover from discarding cards.
Donquixote Donflamingo
The 7C doflamingo is the card you play to remove something on the field and gain tempo. The deck doesn’t run a lot of removal cards so Donflamino provides soft removal while also developing a strong body on the board. Donflamingo helps in the Katakuri matchup and Whitebeard matchup by removing their strong bodies and pushing them back a turn.
Sogeking
Sogeking fills in the same role as the 7C Donflamingo but also provides a way to recycle cards out of your hand and draw. This is a good way to search for needed cards and discard dead cards from your hand. Use him to reverse the tempo to your side.