On August 12, 2024, Bandai announced a new set of cards to be added to OPTCG's ban list. These cards are none other than the Red/Purple Law Leader and a Black stage from Set 3, Enies Lobby.

While the majority of players within the One Piece Trading Card Game expected the ban for R/P Law - which will receive the same treatment as Sakazuki with a ban on the Leader and then a playable errata'd Leader card to take its place - the Enies Lobby ban took everyone by surprise. Expectations were for characters such as Gecko Moria or even Rebecca to get the ban, but the only black leaders left affected by this ban are Set 3 and Set 7 Rob Lucci. These bans are set to go into effect on Saturday, September 6, 2024, in the eastern region. However, let's not dwell on it too much. Instead, let's discuss the potential for other leaders to see more play now that R/P Law will soon be a memory of the past.

Black/Yellow Luffy

While already seeing a fair amount of play, this leader was supposedly being held back by R/P Law. Gecko Moria avoiding the ban allows this leader to stand tall among others within the game. Black/Yellow Luffy operates with an interesting set of interactions. If the leader's life falls to zero, you can attach two DON!! to your leader and move a card named "Ace," "Sabo," or "Luffy" with a cost of 5 or less from your graveyard to your life pile. With this ability, the player can utilize some smaller characters to cheat one of the three brothers out from the life pile and onto the field. Like Enel and other Yellow decks, this leader is not afraid to let their life pile drop to zero and then benefit from it.

Red/Green Trafalgar Law

Taking a bit of a leap of faith here, R/G Law is a leader that held a position of power in the early stages of the OPTCG metagame. Life manipulation in Yellow and spot removal have significantly slowed down the progress of this leader. Yet, ironically, with R/P Law being out, I believe this leader holds the potential to resurface once again.

Red/Green Law runs with a standard stat line of 5000 power and 4 life, and his ability reads as: "[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] 2 DON!! (You may rest the specified number of DON!! cards in your cost area.): If you have 5 Characters, return one of your Characters to the owner's hand. Then, play up to 1 Character with a cost of 5 or less from your hand that is a different color than the returned Character." This ability, while restrictive, promotes a mixture of low-cost characters while also needing a balance of colors. These colors have grown a lot over time, and while staples such as 5-cost Yamato, 5-cost Law Blocker, and Tony Tony Blocker are still relevant, there is room for improvement in characters such as Kid & Killer, Urouge, Karmic Punishment, and Jewelry Bonney.

Blue/Purple Reiju

A lot of predictions have been made stating that after R/P Law's ban goes into effect, this leader will see a lot more play. Let's dissect this a little further. While this leader plays similarly to R/P Law, the main difference is that Reiju does not have removal built into her leader ability but instead provides draw power. As a brief summary, Reiju has a regular stat line similar to Trafalgar Law with 5000 power and 4 life, and a leader ability of "[Your Turn] [Once Per Turn] When a DON!! card on your field is returned to your DON!! deck, draw 1 card." While this may not seem like much, Reiju, like Black/Yellow Luffy, relies heavily on smaller versions of the characters within the Vinsmoke Family subtype to cheat out bigger versions of those characters. Take Vinsmoke Ichiji for example; on turn two, your 4 DON!! turn, you can play Ichiji, and if you happen to have 7-cost Ichiji in hand or in trash, you can return one DON!! to your DON!! deck and sacrifice 4-cost Ichiji to play out 7-cost Ichiji, which is a 7000 power character with Rush on TURN TWO. Honestly, this creates repulsive amounts of aggression within Purple.

Reiju has no problems drawing cards with her ability alone, and the stage King of Germa alongside pieces like Kaya allows for a quick board state of higher-cost characters.

Blue/Yellow Queen

Not a leader you hear about much nowadays, but I believe taking away a constant -2 to cost from Lucci and the errata of Law will make this long-game leader playable once again. Queen heavily relies on small blockers such as Sanji, Doflamingo, and Pound.

While not all of the blockers mentioned are low in power, they are low in cost. With decks like Nami on the rise, long-game leaders such as Queen, who do not swing until a few 9000 power bodies are out, are overdue for a comeback. Breaking it down, Queen has a regular stat line of 5000 power and 4 life, with the ability of "[DON!! x1] [When Attacking] If you have a total of 4 or fewer cards in your Life area and hand, draw 1 card. If you have a Character with a cost of 8 or more, you may add up to 1 card from the top of your deck to the top of your Life cards instead of drawing 1 card." This ability is certainly a book's worth of text, but it also allows sustainability so you don't go down to zero. The top end of this deck usually consists of Dracule Mihawk, Yamato, and Katakuri. A new addition to this top end of the deck is 10-cost Portgas D. Ace, coming in with 10,000 base power and gaining Rush if you have two or fewer life. On top of that, Ace adds another card to your life pile.

But these are just my predictions. What will YOU be bringing to your LGS? Until next time, may the seas do us part, fellow seafarers!