When it comes to the color red in any TCG, what are the first words that come to mind? Red Deck Wins? Emotion? Aggressive deck? A literal warm color? How about... removal? No, although proven effective, I am not talking about player removal specifically. Today, fellow seafarers, we will be hoisting the spotlight on a leader from One Piece Set 3, Pillars of Strength: Ace.

Canonically, Ace is the wielder of the Flame-Flame Devil Fruit within the One Piece franchise, a loyal member of the Whitebeard Pirates, and a loving brother to our main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy. However, Ace's presence is just as prominent within the One Piece TCG, having two leader cards and a multitude of character printings. The leader we will be observing today is a mono-red leader with the typical 5000 power and 5 life. His ability reads as follows: "When this Leader attacks or is attacked, you may trash any number of Event or Stage cards from your hand. This Leader gains +1000 power during this battle for every card trashed." This ability is more than just having a few +1000 counters in hand, as Ace can also buff himself while attacking. However, is Ace someone who requires strictly Events and Stages to function properly?

We will go further into Events and Stages later, but for now, let's go over the available character support for this leader. Starting with some more recent printings, this uncommonly seen leader actually got some support pieces in the most recent Set 7 500 Years in the Future with characters Masked Deuce and Moda.

Masked Deuce is a one-cost, 2000 power character who serves as a searcher. His ability reads: "[On Play] If your Leader is [Portgas D. Ace], look at 5 cards from the top of your deck; reveal up to 1 [Portgas D. Ace] or red Event and add it to your hand. Then, place the rest at the bottom of your deck in any order." Similar to how Buggy can search for Events, Masked Deuce trades 1000 power comparatively for a +1000 counter on him as well, and he can search for "Portgas D. Ace" cards. Moving onward, Moda is a one-cost, 2000 power character with a +2000 counter and the ability: "[Your Turn] [On Play] Up to 1 of your [Portgas D. Ace] cards gains +2000 power during this turn." She functions as a Red Hattori for Ace leader!

Except... we won't be performing any reanimating in this deck. This does not change how versatile Moda is, having a +2000 counter for defense purposes and a way to buff Ace in a tight spot.

However, those are just some of the more recent support pieces for our Ace leader. Set 2, Paramount War, also introduced us to a Portgas D. Ace character with a cost of 7 DON!! and 7000 power with the ability: "[On Play] Give up to 2 of your opponent's Characters -3000 power during this turn. Then, if your Leader's type includes "Whitebeard Pirates", this Character gains [Rush] during this turn." This character, while high in cost, allows us to weaken characters for an easier swing at opposing leaders and potentially taking out a pesky blocker. On a less impactful note, Portgas D. Ace also received a promotional card printing as a 5 DON!! cost, 6000 power character with Double Attack.

Yet, there are other characters within the Whitebeard Pirate subtype to aid our Ace leader. For instance, Marco is a 5-cost, 6000 power character with: "[Your Turn] [On Play] K.O. up to 1 of your opponent's Characters with 3000 power or less. [On K.O.] You may trash 1 Event from your hand: You may play this Character card from your trash rested." Not only does Marco enter to exterminate pesky characters, but with a handful of Events, he has the potential to reanimate himself for later use.

With all these mentioned support characters, Ace is a leader who directly interacts with Events. Let's go ahead and review some Events that are helpful for our red leader Ace.

We'll kick it off with a signature event for our leader, Flame Emperor. Flame Emperor is a 7-cost event that reads: "[Main] If your Leader is [Portgas D. Ace], K.O. up to 1 of your opponent's Characters with 8000 power or less, and your Leader gains [Double Attack] and +3000 power during this turn." Along with a trigger that reads: "K.O. up to 1 of your opponent's Characters with 6000 power or less." This event removes characters such as 8-cost Katakuri, 6-cost Boa Hancock, both 7 and 5-cost Kid, 8-cost Kid, and 7-cost Hody. These are just a few staple threats that this card removes, on top of giving our Leader Double Attack. This makes Flame Emperor not only removal but also a buff card, proving it to be highly versatile.

While Flame Emperor is a leader-locked staple, there are other Events to note for Ace.

Ideally, in Ace, we want a mixture of removal Events, buff Events, and counter Events. Flame Emperor serves as a hybrid removal and buff event, but what are some other good removal Events? For starters, there is Gum-Gum Kong Gattling and Gum-Gum Jet Pistol, but there is also Fire Fist, which requires you to pitch an Event to potentially remove two characters from the board.

Additionally, Gum-Gum Fire Fist Pistol Red Hawk (Wow, what a mouthful!) serves as an excellent counter and conditional removal.

Other counters are already red staples, such as Radical Beam and Guard Point. When it comes to Events that will buff Ace, however, there is really only Fiery Doll, a 2-cost event that will buff your leader by +4000 power.

But this concludes today's hot take! Until we meet again, fellow seafarers!