For its second year in the market, theOne Piece Card Gamehad an incredible run. With powerful sets like OP09 Emperors In The New World andOP06 Wings Of The Captain, the card game is as competitive as ever. From recycling 2,000 power counters with Gecko Moria and Rebecca to clearing your opponent’s board with Rayleigh, the power level of the card game just gets higher and higher with each passing set.
Some of these cards have been in constant discussion in regards to their place in the Banned and Restricted List, but with such a young game as the One Piece Card Game, players will eventually learn to adapt or break the curse that these broken cards bring.
10Charlotte Pudding
How Many Cards In Hand?
Many players slept on this card upon its release in OP06 Wings Of The Captain. Pudding’s On Play lets you reshuffle your opponent’s hand back into the deck and they only draw five cards. This can be hit or miss. If they have a dead hand with no counters, you could possibly refill their hand with playable cards or even their win condition.
After players began to realize that the top meta decks were able to draw a lot of cards, Pudding became a necessity for all Blue decks to carry.
9Gecko Moria
Infinite Value
This is the card that most people call for a ban on. Even though it is still playable at four copies, Gecko Moria’s usage fell a bit as stronger Black decks, like Marshall.D.Teach, made an appearance at the end of 2024.
The card is still a value machine and as long as Black decks can fill their trash with characters with powerful on-play abilities, Gecko Moria will continue to rule the top end for the black color.
8Jinbe
Jinbe Play Weevil, Weevil Draw One
With a new Starter Deck supporting theOP01 Donquixote Doflamingo, the deck became an overnight threat to all who can’t wall off against a barrage of attacks. With Jinbe, Doflamingo is able to go wider faster.
This card has been in constant conversation of whether it should be limited or not, as the value that it provides can be comparable to the now-banned leader Red Purple Trafalgar Law. It probably won’t get banned. While the card is powerful and the deck is probably the best deck in the OP09 meta, it didn’t see as many results as people expected.
7Black Maria
Ramp For Free? And It’s Not Banned?
Red Purple Trafalgar Law was one of the most powerful decks in the history of the card game. The deck was able to remove bodies from your opponent’s board while playing free characters just as fast. In the lead-up toOP08 Two Legends, players were expecting for the deck to enter tier zero due to a single card in the set: Black Maria.
This card came packed in with a 2,000 counter, an excellent defensive tool for Law, and the ability to ramp up for free, making Law’s removal an easy task to achieve. Luckily for most Law haters, the leader is now banned, but we’ll fondly remember what could have been.
6Jack
Rest, Draw, Pop
It’s no surprise that black cards in the One Piece Card Game got preferential treatment in 2024. Rob Lucci and Black Yellow Luffy were some of the best decks, and no matter what deck you played, if it was black, then Gecko Moria was there. Jack was one of those key cards, specifically for the Rob Lucci deck.
Most of the removal in the One Piece Card Game is dependant on the characters’ cost, but Jack has a unique ability where while he is on the board, his cost becomes 11, making it quite difficult to remove. Jack is already a huge body to attack and when you put its draw effect into thought, it makes Jack an easy four-of in the deck.
5Silvers Rayleigh
The Right-Hand Man Of The Pirate King
It had been a while since Red decks did anything in the competitive space, but with Rayleigh’s arrival, we might see another red wave reminiscent of the early One Piece Card Game sets. Rayleigh is an excellent top-end for most decks since they usually focus on reducing power through multiple effects.
Sadly there aren’t many Roger Pirates cards as of 2024 to make a cohesive Pirate King deck, but Rayleigh is good enough to splash into just about any Red deck with room or need for a top-end character.
4Gravity Blade Raging Tiger
Double Removal
For a while, Gum-Gum Red Roc was the go-to removal Event for Blue decks. Bottom decking any card in the game is extremely powerful. The only problem is that most cards that are hard to remove usually have strong On Play abilities and have already done their job the turn after they are played, making removing them a bit underwhelming.
Although Gravity Blade Raging Tiger cannot hit everything in the game, it can bottom deck two targets, and in a meta where most decks have wide board removals, Blue decks will need this.
3Marshall.D.Teach
Negate Everything!
Leader abilities are the identity of every deck in the One Piece Card Game. Without them, every deck would probably look the same –no shade towards black decks. But what if those abilities were null and void?
The 10-drop version of Marshall.D.Teach perfectly compliments its leader. This beast of a character card can nullify your opponent’s leader effect until the end of their next turn. Combined with its leader effect, Teach can easily shut down any deck.
If Marshall.D.Teach negates Nami’s leader ability and the deck reaches zero, the player will lose rather than win.
2Shanks
Conqueror’s Haki In Card Form
Just like Silvers Rayleigh, Shanks did not have many support cards around him for a while, but with OP09 Emperors In The New World, the Red-Haired Pirates received an entire deck primed to take a top stop in most tournaments. And it’s all thanks to 10-drop Shanks.
As long as this card remains on the field, all of your opponent’s characters will have -1,000 power, making your opponent have to commit a bit more DON!! to attack and giving you easier targets for removal.
1Gum-Gum Giant
Just A Fun Card!
During the early ages of the game, Event cards were super powerful, but as of OP09, most of them are telegraphed, making it easy for your opponent to play around them. Gum-Gum Giant is different though.\
Used mostly in OP09 Black Purple Luffy, this card will be an excellent defensive tool for blocking attacks, all while drawing a bit deeper into your deck. It seems like a high cost to minus two DON!! and discard a card, but paired with purple leaders, those DON!! might not seem like a real cost.
