Oh captain my captain, what have you brought us today? Why, it is nothing more than a review of the leaders within OPTCG Set 7 named "500 Years in the Future"!

Before the announcement and previews for Set 7, the OPTCG meta was filled with a multitude of multicolored leaders ranging from Red/Purple Law to Yellow/Green Yamato. Honestly, as I began to worry about the future of the monocolored leaders I enjoyed playing at my local game store, I was glad to see nothing but monocolored leaders appear in the upcoming One Piece Set 7. Set 7 brings forth six new leaders, each one representing a different color within the six colors available in the One Piece Trading Card Game. Some of these leaders support an archetype previously available to the One Piece Trading Card Game tabletop, while others bring exciting new crews and groups to explore. Today, we will take a deep dive into the following leaders from Set 7: Monkey .D. Dragon, Jewelry Bonney, Boa Hancock, Foxy, Rob Lucci, and Vegapunk!

Monkey .D. Dragon, like the majority of our monocolored leaders, is a 5-life, 5000-power leader with an ability of "[Activate][Once Per Turn] Give up to 2 total of your currently given DON!! Cards to 1 of your Characters." Like father like son, this leader definitely resembles a very similar ability to our very first Starter Deck Leader, Red Monkey D. Luffy, who reads "[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] Give this Leader or 1 of your Characters up to 1 rested DON!! Card." But there are two important differences between these two leaders. While Luffy requires you to attach an already rested DON!! to himself or another character, Dragon specifically states that DON!! must already be present on one of your characters to move the specified DON!! amount to another character on your field. Nonetheless, Dragon also moves 2 DON!! instead of one once per turn. It's rather bizarre that Monkey .D. Dragon is found doing something besides looking out into the vast sky in anticipation of his next move. Regardless, at face value, this simply represents more power to swing into your opponents with, right? However, this amount of DON!! being utilized within Dragon's ability is actually more impactful than just that. While this set is named for years into the future, we're going to do the opposite and refer to cards previously printed to support Set 5 "Awakening of the New World" leaders such as Sabo and Belo Betty. When both of these leaders were released, a lot of Revolutionary Army characters rose with them. For cards such as Emporio Ivankov, Karasu, and Morley, it is vital that these characters have at least 7000 power as they check for that amount of power prior to their abilities activating. For the sake of you readers, we won't break down every character previously listed. However, it is important to note that Emporio Ivankov, once he has 7000 power, can play up to 1 Revolutionary Army type character with 5000 power or less other than Emporio Ivankov from your hand, which allows you to gain value by playing a FREE 5000 power character onto the board at least once a turn.

Moving on to our next monocolored leader, we have Supernova and beloved daughter Jewelry Bonney. Jewelry Bonney is the closest leader we have ever had in Green with a control-like ability. Jewelry Bonney has 5000 power and 5 life and the ability "[On Your Opponent's Attack] [Once Per Turn] You may pay one DON!! and rest up to one of your opponent's Leaders or Character cards."

Now, while Jewelry Bonney is our Green leader that supports the already existing Supernova archetype within the One Piece Trading Card Game, unlike our previous Green supernova leaders like Trafalgar Law, Eustass "Captain" Kid, and Monkey D. Luffy which promote a rather wide or aggressive gameplay style, Bonney promotes more of a controlling play style with this ability, forcing your opponents to consider what to swing with prior to declaring attackers. Now, Supernovas, much like Revolutionary Army, already have support prior to Set 7's announcement, but just to highlight some powerful examples of these support characters within the Supernova archetype, we have searcher Jewelry Bonney, X. Drake, and Killer.

However, Set 7 also brings us more support for the Supernova archetype within characters such as Urouge and Basil Hawkins.

Breaking these two Supernovas down a bit, Urouge is a 4-drop 5000 power blocker that states "[End of Your Turn] Set up to one of your DON!! cards as active." This is a phenomenal inclusion in a Jewelry Bonney leader deck, considering this allows us to utilize all of our DON!! on our turn instead of needing to leave a DON!! unrested, and then you can also defend yourself with Urouge after he has already allowed us to unrest one of our DON!! cards. Basil Hawkins, while he is also a blocker, doesn't mess with our DON!! Rather, Basil Hawkins is a 6-drop 7000 power character who gains blocker as long as your leader has the {Supernova} subtype. 7000 power makes for a huge blocker to try and attack around; however, if your opponent tries to remove Basil Hawkins by other means than combat, Basil Hawkins' ability reads "[Once Per Turn] If this character would be removed from the field by your opponent's effect, you may rest one of your opponent's Characters instead]." So much resting of your opponents' characters, restricting their ability to attack into your leader!

Further along the list here, we have the acclaimed "Most Beautiful Woman in the World" within the One Piece universe, Boa Hancock! Boa Hancock, like the other monocolored leaders, is a 5000 power 5-life Blue leader with "The Seven Warlords of the Sea / Kuja Pirates" subtype. Boa's ability is as follows: "[Your Turn][Once Per Turn] This effect can be activated when a Character is removed from the field by your effect. If you have five or less cards in your hand, draw 1 card."

While Boa Hancock brings a lot of Seven Warlord support to the One Piece TCG, she also brings a new archetype to the table of Kuja Pirates! Before Set 7, there were only three Boa Hancock characters that contained the Kuja Pirates subtype. Set 7 brings along another powerhouse Boa Hancock character along with a Kuja Pirate searcher in Gloriosa and useful blocker Marguerite.

While there isn't much to dive into with these characters, we will dive into some of the Seven Warlord support characters coming into this set that support already existing leaders such as Doflamingo. Let's take a look at Sengoku, Edward Weevil, and Trafalgar Law.

Edward Weevil is a Seven Warlord that, as long as you have one DON!! attached to him, allows us to look at the top three cards of our library after declaring an attack and lets us place them on top or bottom of our library in any order. Sengoku, while he is a Navy character, is a 1-drop 2000 power character that allows us to look at the top five cards of our library and reveal one Supernova type character from among them, putting that card into our hand and the rest on the bottom of our library in any order. Unlike Sengoku and Edward Weevil, Trafalgar Law is a 4000 power character with a +2000 counter on him and has an ability which allows him to be returned to your hand. If your opponent has six or more cards in hand, they are forced to put one card from their hand onto the bottom of their library. This ability punishes leaders such as Whitebeard who constantly have larger hand sizes and triggers Boa Hancock's draw ability by returning a +2000 counter to your hand. Although previously mentioned, character Boa Hancock also brings a ton of power to the field with her 6-cost 8000 power alone, not including her On Play ability to select one of your opponents' characters, making them unable to attack until your next turn, and returning a character with a cost of zero your opponent controls to the bottom of their library. This character is not only impactful once she hits the board but is also within the Seven Warlords subtheme!

But we are only halfway through the list of leaders making their not-so-subtle appearance in this set, and there is nothing subtle or comforting about this leader. Let's go over the antagonist from Long Ring Long Land, regardless of if he leaves bad taste in your mouth, Foxy; Captain of the Foxy Pirates.

Foxy is a 5000 power, 5-life Purple leader for the set with a leader ability of "[When Attacking] DON!! -3 If you have 3 or more {Foxy Pirates} type Characters, select your opponent's rested Leader and up to 1 Character card. The selected cards will not become active in your opponent's next Refresh Phase." Foxy leader stays on theme by slowing down your opponent's progress while also staying true to purple's DON!! manipulation attributes. But this leader is also restricted by the abilities of the characters within his own subtype. Let's take a look at some highlight characters with the Foxy subtype. Luckily for you few Foxy fans out there, the majority of the purple characters within this set are Foxy Pirates. We'll take a look at Pickles, Foxy, Porche, and Big Bun.

Starting off this Davy Back Fight with crew member Pickles, Pickles is a 3-cost 4000 power character with a 1000+ counter. Pickles reads "If the number of DON!! cards on your field is equal to or less than the number on your opponent's field, your {Foxy Pirates} type Characters other than [Pickles] cannot be K.O.'d by your opponent's effects." This effect is NOT restricted by Once Each Turn, End of Turn, or even Active. This is just a flat effect that exists as long as Pickles is on your field. This does make for quite the headache for removal pieces; however, protecting Pickles with a cost of 3 and 4000 power might be tough against Red removal, which is normally based on power stat lines, and Black removal, which is based off card cost. Just for example's sake, -1000 power less to Pickles and R/P Law leader can just -3 DON!! and send our boy Pickles to the bottom of your library. However, let's bring in our captain who just like Boa Hancock leader has a character card of his own as well. Character Foxy doesn't have an overwhelming stat line, but he does have a fairly oppressive set of abilities. YES, THAT'S RIGHT, THIS GUY DOESN'T JUST HAVE ONE ABILITY. Foxy is a 7-cost 7000 power leader with "[Opponent's Turn] If your Leader has the {Foxy Pirates} type, give all of your opponent's Characters -1000 power." and "[Activate: Main][Once Per Turn] Add up to 1 DON!! card from your DON!! deck and rest it." So not only does this character have an ability to add more DON!! to your DON!! pile during your turn, but he also decreases the power of your opponent's characters during their turn. Really sticking to Foxy's annoying tactics; while he may not be the most physically fit antagonist we've ever seen, he is certainly one of the more sly ones.

Enough of this captain though! Let's set our sights back to some of his current crewmates, or at least until this Davy Back Fight ends. Behold, Porche! Porche is the Foxy Pirate's searcher with a cost of 3 DON!! and 5000 power alongside the ability "[On Play] DON!! -1 Look at 5 cards from the top of your deck; reveal up to 1 {Foxy Pirates} type card and add it to your hand. Then, place the rest at the bottom of your deck in any order and play up to 1 Purple Character card with 4000 power or less from your hand." While the majority of searcher characters within other subtypes are either 1 or 2 cost, Porche is a 3-cost searcher; however, she makes up for it by not only searching for a Foxy Pirate character but also enabling you to play a 4000 power or less purple character from your hand to the field. Some strong purple examples that could be utilized in this deck for that purpose are Zoro-Juurou, Mr. 2 Bon Kurei, Wire, PICKLES! Or even Capote! While the possibilities are not endless, they aren't limiting at all.

Even with all these possibilities, we still need to go over our last spotlight character within the Foxy Pirates, Big Bun! This giant fishman isn't just muscle; he is a 6-cost 7000 power character 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, play up to 1 {Foxy Pirates} type card with a cost of 4 or less from your hand." While there is a condition that has to be met for this ability, Big Bun not only brings himself in as a huge body but another 4-cost or less Foxy Pirate from your hand. So for 6 DON!!, that could end up being a turn worth 11000 or 12000 power. Who knows? Foxy knows.

Enough of this antagonist though. Let's move on to a much more memorable antagonist.

Rob Lucci! Hold on! Didn't Rob Lucci already have a leader printed back in Pillars of Strength? He sure did.

For a clearer understanding of what I am about to go into, we've put on display both Lucci leaders. Yes, our beloved Cypher Pol member and the CP subtheme have already had their spotlight previously in Set 3, so this is a recurring theme. However, this Rob Lucci functions very differently from its predecessor. Set 7 Rob Lucci is a 5-life, 5000 power leader with the ability "[When Attacking] You may trash 2 cards from the top of your deck: Give up to 1 of your opponent's Characters -1 cost during this turn." Compared to Set 3 Rob Lucci whose ability reads "[Your Turn][Once Per Turn] You may trash 2 cards from your hand: When your opponent's Character is K.O.'d, set this Leader as active." Our new Lucci lead takes things from your library instead of your hand and reduces the cost of your opponent's character instead of restanding the leader. Does this make him strictly worse? Not necessarily; if anything, this Rob Lucci becomes easier to pilot. Having to reduce your hand size on the restrictions of [Your Turn] and the condition of "opponent's character is K.O.'d" is VERY costly and leaves the player to make some very insightful decisions that might require more thinking than desired. While discarding cards from hand will fuel your graveyard for recursion and Black effects to return things to the deck, this also limits the user's options as to what cards could be played. Air Door was a VITAL piece in Set 3 Rob Lucci to get CP characters out within a timely manner and to also fuel the grave with whatever cards may remain. However, this is no longer a necessary inclusion.

Enough reminiscing on past sets! Let's get straight to the nitty-gritty. This Rob Lucci will fuel the grave while also enabling removal already in your hand without any limiting restrictions, and BOY have the Cypher Pol returned with some power behind them. With the exclusion of Set 5's Rob Lucci character, let's go over Set 7's Cypher Pol characters Kaku, Kalifa, Hattori, and Stussy.

Let's take a look at our beloved Giraffe Swordsman, Kaku. Kaku is a 4-cost 5000 power character with a +2000 counter and the ability "[On Play] You may place 2 cards with a type including 'CP' from your trash at the bottom of your deck in any order: Give up to 1 of your opponent's Characters -3 cost during this turn." Not only are Kaku's stat lines of 4-cost and 5000 power pretty beneficial, but he even has high desirability just as a counter in hand. The On Play is only the cost of Set 7 Lucci Lead's activate ability as long as you discard 2 CP to ensure a higher-cost target will be removed from your opponent's board. There isn't much more to go over with this guy; his value speaks for itself. Moving on, Kalifa is also a 4-cost 5000 power character with a +1000 counter and a very useful ability of "[DON!! x1][Your Turn] Give all of your opponent's Characters -1 cost." Whoa...so, Lucci Lead gives a character -1 to cost, Kaku gives -3, and Kalifa gives all characters -1 during your turn? Suddenly, Set 3 Kaku can get rid of Moria if all 3 of those abilities were to go off. Some might call it magical Christmas land, but I call it a possibility nonetheless.

But what does the little bird Hattori have to say for himself? While normally perched on Lucci's shoulder, Hattori is a 1-cost 0 power character with a +2000 counter in hand that reads "[On Play][Your Turn] Up to 1 of your {Rob Lucci} cards gains +2000 power during this turn." Hattori does not discriminate by specifying Leader or Character! You could give either your Rob Lucci Leader OR Character +2000 power WITHOUT putting ANY DON!! on him! On top of the +2000 power, Hattori proves to us that this is one bird should not be underestimated. Also never to be underestimated is our last character from Cypher Pol, Stussy. Stussy is a 9-cost 9000 power character with "[On Play] You may trash 1 of your Characters: K.O. up to 1 of your opponent's Characters." Now, the DON!! cost of this character is a 1 to 1 match with the power; however, the removal ability on this character is not limited by the DON!! cost of the target. No, it simply states you must trash one of your own characters on the board to remove one of theirs. The target of this ability could be a 10-cost Kaido, a Nine Beard, or even other threats such as Katakuri character. Nevertheless, Stussy is a secret rare worth keeping an eye out for.

While we are almost at the end of our journey today, we haven't even reached max capacity on our brainpower yet. May I introduce to you the famous Doctor Vegapunk!

Vegapunk is our yellow leader for the set with A LOT of unique and important functions to him. Vegapunk is a 5000 power leader with 2 - wait, did we read that right? TWO LIFE? Uh, let's not get sidetracked. He has the ability "[Activate][Once Per Turn] Pay one DON!! Select up to 1 {Egghead} type card with a cost of 5 or less from your hand and play it or add it to the top of your Life cards face-up" and the restriction "This Leader cannot attack."

Well, this is certainly an experiment. While remaining true to the regular power for a leader, Vegapunk definitely has the smallest starting life total among ALL leaders within the OPTCG. However, his ability is not to be overlooked. You can even start adding to your life pile on your FIRST TURN. But is that the best thing to do? You'll have to test out this new archetype unexplored among One Piece Trading Card Game players before and figure that out for yourself! However, before you go out there experimenting with this figurehead, let's look at some of the Egghead characters coming out of this set to support this lighthearted scientist. For today, we examine characters Atlas, Franky, and Monkey D. Luffy.

While notably also one of Vegapunk's many satellites, Atlas is a 5-cost character with 6000 power, a +1000 counter, and an ability that reads "If you have less life cards than your opponent, this character cannot be K.O.'d in battle" alongside a life trigger of "If your Leader is [Vegapunk], play this card." That effect is not limited by a time restriction or a turn; rather, it just states if you have less life than your opponent, it cannot be K.O.'d in battle. In a color that does nothing but mess around with their own life total, what is there to lose? Not a 6000 power satellite, that's for sure! Let's keep the examinations going though. Next, we have our favorite cyborg, Franky! Franky is a 4-cost 5000 power character with a +2000 counter and a life trigger of "Draw 1 card. Then, if you have 1 or less life cards, play this card." While Franky may present as a vanilla 5000 power, he has use in the hand and in the life pile. 5000 power will still hit your opponents! Do not underestimate this cyborg! His usefulness is way beyond his face value as a vanilla 5000 power, we assure you. Lastly, we need to revisit our captain, Luffy. Within this subtype, Luffy is a 5-cost 6000 power +1000 counter character with the ability "[Activate] you may trash this character: If you have 2 or less life cards, K.O. up to 1 of your opponent's characters with a cost of 4 or less. Then, draw 1 card." This Luffy character also has a trigger of "K.O. up to 1 of your opponent's characters with a cost of 4 or less." So... whether he hits the field or is drawn from life, you have the option to remove a character? Excellent! This Luffy proves to be very versatile, whether it be in removing a threat on your opponent's field or swinging in for 6000 power, Luffy stands strong within the Egghead subtheme.

Whew! Many new and returning themes in this set, and an encouragement to monocolor gameplay, Set 7 has a lot to bring to the table! Until next time, friends!