As is the nature of all trading card games, certain decks often outweigh others in their presence; they rank higher on the tier list. Today's topic is a concern within the community: Starter Deck 10 Red/Purple Trafalgar Law and its overwhelming presence post-Sakazuki ban in the current meta of the One Piece Trading Card Game.

Starter Deck 10, The Three Captains, was released shortly before Set 5, Awakening of the New Era. This was the first starter deck to contain three different leaders to choose from, all of which functioned properly with the preconstructed deck inside. These leaders were Eustass "Captain" Kid, Trafalgar Law, and Monkey D. Luffy.

While all three leaders were of the same colors as the preconstructed deck, each leader functioned differently with their own unique stat lines. Eustass Kid had a conditional 5000 power and 5 life, Law had the regular stat line of 4 life and 5000 power, and Monkey D. Luffy had 6000 power but only 3 life. Most players started brewing aggressively with Luffy and Law, but Law's built-in removal while allowing the user to build a board state made him stand out. Law's ability reads as follows: "[Activate Main][Once Per Turn] DON!! -3; Place one of your opponent's characters with 3000 power or less on the bottom of the owner's deck, and play up to 1 Character with a cost of 4 or less from your hand." There is a lot to unpack with this leader, but let's start with the removal segment of his ability.

Law has the inherent ability to remove vital characters such as Fukuro, Rebecca, Killer (Set 1), Sugar, and Set 6 Marguerite. Most of these examples are blockers, but being able to remove these characters from the board makes it easier for attackers to hit your life. However, these are just 3000 power or less characters. Red has plenty of ways to reduce the power of other characters. Namely, Law often utilizes characters such as Gordon or Raise Max, which allow Law to remove a 6000 power or less character after utilizing these characters' abilities.

This broadens the range of removal to Sabo, Lucci, Okiku, Kozuki Momonosuke, Gedatsu, Ohm, and many other vital pieces. But this is only one side of Law's ability; don't forget that after removal, Law can play a 5000 power or less character from hand at the cost of 3 DON!!.

The second half of Law's ability allows the player to play rush characters or characters with utility. Some commonly utilized rush characters are Zoro and Kid & Killer, both of which have a base power of 5000. However, if your opponent is at 2 or less life, for the cost of 3 DON!!, suddenly Kid & Killer becomes a 7000 power swing.

With blockers being cleared, it isn't a challenge for Law to knock their opponent down to 2 life cards. But as previously stated, rush characters aren't the only ones that maximize efficiency with Law. Commonly used characters in Law decks for utility include Shachi and Penguin, which have the required 5000 power and return two DON!! from your DON!! Deck, meaning you've effectively paid 1 DON!! for a 5000 power body. Additionally, Vinsmoke Reiju can be used in case you need to draw some answers; Reiju is also a 5000 power body with "[On Play] If the number of DON!! cards on your field is equal to or less than the number on your opponent's field and you have 5 or less cards in your hand, draw 2 cards." In Law, you won't intentionally be matching the same amount of DON!! as your opponent.

This second half of Law's ability can also be used defensively by playing blockers such as Shuraiya, who can match the power of your opponent's leader.

With all this being said, it is clear that Red/Purple Law provides versatility and value with his ability.

Does this mean Red/Purple Law should be banned?

A majority of the community wants this leader banned for the reasons listed above. While I understand the sentiment, I want to reflect on an already banned leader, Sakazuki.

Sakazuki, much like Law, has a versatile ability within the realm of its color attributes: "[Activate: Main][Once Per Turn] You may trash 1 card from your hand: Draw 1 card." AND "[When Attacking] Give up to 1 of your opponent's Characters -1 cost during this turn." This powerful set of abilities promotes a controlling playstyle. Sakazuki could fuel the graveyard for "On Play" abilities such as Set 5 Rob Lucci or cheat out other characters with Rebecca, while also reducing the cost of your opponent's characters for later removal. Bandai, after seeing Sakazuki's large win rate, decided to ban this leader effective June 21st, 2024. This announcement was made in the middle of March 2024. Bandai then announced they would print a promotional Sakazuki leader with an errat'd ability: "[Activate Main][Once per turn] You may discard one 'Navy' type card in your hand; Give up to one of your opponent's characters -1 to their cost," a very watered-down version of Sakazuki's previous abilities, but still tournament playable. Bandai also did something similar with Whitebeard, banning him the month before Set 5 was released and then unbanning him upon Set 5's release. With this history, I believe Bandai is not inclined to fully oust leaders just because their win rate is high. However, is giving Sakazuki an errata truly a fix? Was a temporary Whitebeard ban effective?

I've pointed out a lot of characters that function as vital support pieces for Law. As oppressive as he is, the problem does not stem from the leaders themselves as much as the characters provided for them.

Removal now and forever will be a mainstay in One Piece decks, and both banned Sakazuki and Red/Purple Law support removal. However, in Law's case, he IS removal. Regardless of Law's conditional removal actions, Bandai has an opportunity to limit the quality of Red/Purple Law play by banning or restricting characters.

For example, with all the 5000 power bodies, it's not challenging for Law to bring out Kid & Killer, with a base power of 5000 but ultimately attacking with 7000 power. Kid & Killer may be a staple for Law, but is not needed in aggressive red decks to function. Banning this character would promote more strategic gameplay for Law, leaving him without a free 7000 rush character. Or even outright limiting Raise Max or Gordon to 2 would limit how many and how easily Law can remove a character. These characters might have the FILM type, but I assure you they were not designed for Red/Purple Uta Leader, as she has power-decreasing abilities herself.

All in all, instead of outright banning a top leader, I believe the best solution for Bandai moving forward is to focus on the pieces and encourage players to think outside the box when deck-building, promoting deck brewing instead of outright banning leaders.