Ahoy there, fellow seafarers! It's that time of the year again, coming to the year's close. 2025 is upon us soon, and just like last year with Awakening of the New Era, Bandai is introducing us to an absolute power house of a set at the end of 2024. This set comes to us with 6 new leaders, with 4 of them being the four emperors themselves, but also brings power in a variety of new ways to the single color leaders within the game.

We'll start off today's leaders with some of our Multicolored, non-emperor leaders, Lim.

Lim

If you don't recognize this character, that's okay. Lim is one of the few characters that were initially introduced in the One Piece Video Game One Piece Odyssey. We've certainly seen an expansion of card types in this game that expand outside of just the main story line itself in the past to movie references such as Uta, Baron Omatsuri, and Shuraiya but This is the first appearance we've seen of a character coming straight out of a One Piece video game.

Lim upholds the standard Multicolored leader stats with 5000 power and 4 life and has a static ability of "Your Character cards come into play rested" and "[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] You may rest 3 of your DON!! cards: Add up to 1 DON!! card from your DON!! deck and rest it, and play up to 1 {ODYSSEY} type Character card with a cost of 5 or less from your hand." Lim definitely has her own draw backs, and a huge one at that, seeing that all of your cards come into play rested... but let's look at some of the cards within the ODYSSEY card type that might be at our arsenal for this leader. After all, we are in purple to begin with in this leader and purple is well known for its DON!! Manipulation and she allows you to cheat out a 5 cost or less by just resting 3 DON!!.

Some useful characters coming out of Set 9 for this leader are Nico Robin, Rosinante, and Adio.

Nico Robin is a 4 cost 5000 power character that whether she enters rested or not, as long as you already have 2 other rested characters, she prevents your other Odyssey and Straw Hat Crew type characters from being K.O.'d by effects until the end of your opponent's next turn. She's kind of like Sabo, but without the draw and definitely more attuned for the Lim leader. Either way, this character has a solid base stat which allows her to swing into the opponent's leader once turned active and can protect your characters against opponents with heavy removal.

Rosinante in this ODYSSEY card type is staying true to his blocking and protecting characteristics we've seen in other Rosinante cards in this game. Rosinante is a 3 cost 4000 power character with blocker and "[On Your Opponent's Attack] [Once Per Turn] Set this Character as active." which allows him to block even if Lim brings him in rested. Sure, this Rosinante can't swing into the opponent's leader without adding a DON!! onto him but... his main purpose isn't aggression, right? So, we can look past that for now.

Lastly on our Odyssey list, we have Adio. Adio is a 9 cost character with matching 9000 power and two differently abilities attached to him. Adio has an on play ability of "If your Leader has the {ODYSSEY} type, set up to 3 of your DON!! cards as active." and "[On Your Opponent's Attack] [Once Per Turn] You may rest 1 of your DON!! cards: Up to 1 of your Leader or Character cards gains +2000 power during this battle." So lets take a deeper look into this guy. Big cost, big power yet his on play also gives you back 3 DON!! virtually meaning you've spent 6 DON!! on his cost and it also allows you to utilize Lim's ability if necessary to try and widen your board some more or just follow up with a 4 cost character such as Nico Robin. Adio also brings to the table a temporary buff for a Character or Leader once your opponent swings into you, which is a nice little add on. Additionally +2000 power never hurt your leader, right?

Now, onward down the multicolored leader path we'll go over one of our beloved Straw Hats, Nico Robin

Nico Robin

Nico Robin is a Purple and Yellow leader with standard multicolored leader stats of 5000 power and 4 life with Banish and has the ability "[When Attacking] You may trash 1 card with a [Trigger] from your hand: Add up to 1 DON!! card from your DON!! deck and rest it.". It's crazy to think that Bandai has printed a leader with banish, which in Magic terms is the equivalent of exiling something but instead of "something" it's their life pile, but also that her ability allows you to ramp seems super helpful to play out late game threats. Truly Ironic that a character who loves to read and learn about the past also erases what could have been from your opponent's life.

Some good cards to be utilized alongside Nico Robin from this are Nico Olivia, Nico Robin, and Jaguar D Saul

Nico Olivia functions just like Hattori and Rob Lucci, or Mona and Portgas.D.Ace; When Nico Olivia enters she buffs Nico Robin leader's power and has a +2000 counter with a cost of 1 and base power of zero. More accurately, Nico Olivia reads as "[On Play] Up to 1 of your [Nico Robin] Leader gains +3000 power during this turn." and has a trigger from life of "If your Leader is [Nico Robin], draw 3 cards and trash 2 cards from your hand.". Nico Olivia proves herself to be a useful buff when entering and provides card advantage if taken from life. Nico Olivia is truly proving to be supportive of Robin within this printing.

But, like the Government wrongfully named her, Nico Robin truly does show her demon side in her character card. Nico Robin is a character with matching stats of 6 cost and 6000 power and an On Play of " If your opponent has 3 or more Life cards, trash up to 1 card from the top of your opponent's Life cards." So you hit them a couple of times with your banish leader? Why not deprive them of another life card they won't be adding to hand... Give in to your own demons.

Lastly, Nico Olivia wasn't the only supportive parental figure in Robin's life... Let's have it for Jaguar D Saul. Now we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, just like the scholars of Ohara wouldn't, but Jaguar D Saul does prove to be a rather generic blocker with 3 cost and 3000 power. However, he has a trigger that is leader locked into Nico Robin leader and states "If your Leader is [Nico Robin], play this card." which means he truly comes in when he is needed most and ready to take the next bullet for you.

But we've read enough into this leader's potential, let's visit our last multicolored leader of the set and the first emperor we will be going over today, Monkey .D. Luffy!

Monkey.D.Luffy

Monkey.D. Luffy is a Purple/Black leader holding standard stats of 5000 power and 4 life. This leader comes with two abilities, the first one being "[DON!! x1] All of your Characters gain +1 cost." and the other is "[Your Turn] [Once Per Turn] When 2 or more DON!! cards on your field are returned to your DON!! deck, add up to 1 DON!! card from your DON!! deck and set it as active, and add up to 1 additional DON!! card and rest it." . Wanna give your characters on board Insurance at a discount? Well, you most certainly can. Black leaders definitely depend on your character's cost going down, and with this you can provide a little bit of deterrent from that method of removal. On top of which, if you decide to delve even a little bit harder into the purple gameplay of this leader you are rewarded by ultimately paying 1 DON!! for the cost of their ability by returning one of your DON!! back to the field active and another DON!! from the deck rested. Luffy, once again, truly providing for his own. But what pairs along well with this leader from this set? Let's give some examples real quick.

Now a lot of this leader's support is in purple in this set, so with that being said we are going to mainly focus on Sanji and Franky Characters.

Now, Franky is a 4 cost 5000 power character with an On Play that synergizes with Luffy leader and states " DON!! -2, You may trash 1 card from your hand: Draw 2 cards.". Now this appears to consistent with what Bandai is trying to make higher tier blockers in purple perform. Comes down turn two, solid power, and can draw cards for the player. Also nets you a DON!! if you play him turn two. . Which, besides putting a DON!! On your leader, you could end up playing the event "When you're at sea you fight pirates!!!" to search for another Straw hat with your now accumulated extra DON!! I suppose.

On the other hand... Or maybe, I should say foot given this character would never jeopardize his own hands, we have Sanji. Sanji is a 7 cost 7000 power character with an On Play ability that also synergizes with Luffy leader stating "You may return one or more DON!! cards from your field to your DON!! deck: This Character gains [Rush] during this turn. Then, rest up to 1 of your opponent's Characters with a cost of 6 or less." Which, sure. He doesn't specify minus 2 DON!!, but that's also the beauty in the versatility of that spelling. Also, 7000 with RUSH? C'mon, that's nothing but valuable aggression right there.

But that's enough conversation, if we dig any further into this I am pretty sure Luffy will get bored... Let's discuss something more, sinister. First up on our mono colored leader list from this set is none other than Marshall .D. Teach.

Marshall .D. Teach

Marshall .D. Teach upholds the standard statistics of any mono colored leader of 5000 power and 5 life but... most certainly holds an ability VERY unique to the One Piece trading card game. Marshall .D. Teach has a static ability of "Your [On Play] effects are negated." which may seem like a downside but, once you read his other ability, it's really not. Marshall .D. Teach's other ability is "[Activate: Main] You may trash 1 card from your hand: Your opponent's [On Play] effects are negated until The End of your opponent's next turn.". This warps a lot of the format. Until the spoiler of this leader, majority of the game is On Play characters but Marshall .D. Teach has the chance to just retire that idea entirely. Now what? Start playing with vanilla characters? I mean, sure, you could. But while playing Marshall .D. teach you are certainly going to shut down your opponent's Gecko Moria they would've played turn four or even something like like Doflamingo blocker from set 1. Any On Plays that you, as the Marshall .D. Teach player, see your opponent playing their next turn? Just negate it. This leader will require a lot of knowledge of your opponent's decks and insight into what they might play. But let's not dwell into that too much. Instead, let's go over some good characters to add into this leader from this set.

For this leader, some useful characters to utilize for this leader are Marshall .D. Teach Character and Catarina Devon

Marshall .D. Teach character is a 10 cost character with 12000 power, blocker and an ability of "[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] If your Leader has the {Blackbeard Pirates} type and this Character was played on this turn, negate the effect of up to 1 of your opponent's Leader during this turn. Then, negate the effect of up to 1 of your opponent's Characters and that Character cannot attack until The End of your opponent's next turn." If Marshall .D. Teach wasn't impactful enough, this character can completely shut off leader effects. Going against Nami and you've made it to your 10 DON!! Turn? Just drop this guy and negate their win condition. It's insane what this huge bodied character can do. Attack or block, universally useful.

Now Catarina Devon, however, provides more versatility based on whatever your needs as the Marshall .D. Teach leader sees fit. Catarina Devon is a 5 cost 6000 power character with an ability of "[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] If your Leader has the {Blackbeard Pirates} type, this Character gains [Double Attack], [Banish] or [Blocker] until The End of your opponent's next turn." again not an On Play.. however if you need to choose between these three different abilities, you can which is absolutely insane as far as I am concerned.

That just about fills up our entire evil meter if it were to be measured out in todays article. Let's lighten up the mood with some humor, and who is better to do that than our next emperor on today's list Buggy.

Buggy

Buggy upholds the standard statistics for a mono colored leader of 5000 power and 5 life but has a very unique ability of "[Activate: Main] You may rest 5 of your DON!! cards and trash 1 card from your hand: Play up to 1 {Cross Guild} type Character card from your hand.". Essentially you are paying the cost for a character, however for all your opponent knows you could be dropping a 10 cost character on your turn three. Even so, this leader is HEAVILY reliant on what Cross Guild characters are coming out of this set considering. No Cross Guild characters have been printed prior to this set. So, let's take a deep dive into the support of this leader.

For the support with Buggy we'll look at Dracule Mihawk, Crocodile, Alvida, and Mohji.

Dracule Mihawk, THE Swordsman, is a 6 cost 7000 power character with an On Play ability of "Draw 2 cards and trash 1 card from your hand." and blocker. This is a character you, as Buggy, have the ability to play a turn early if you go first, and allows you card advantage. Also., like Marshall .D. Teach character, Mihawk is a HUGE bodied character for its cost that you can easily justify attacking with instead of strictly sticking to blocking.

Next in our Cross guild head-honchos is Crocodile. Crocodile is a 7 cost 7000 power character with an on play of Play up to 1 {Cross Guild} type Character card or Character card with a type including "Baroque Works" with a cost of 5 or less from your hand." This crocodile, like leader Buggy, does heavily rely on his own potential card pool to utilize his on play. . But luckily for us, if we were to derive from the "Cross guild" card type even in the slightest, there is a large baroque works card pool cemented into the game for us ever since Set 1. There are also two Mr.1 Daz Bones options to play off this Crocodile available to us as well.

Not one of the leaders of crossguild but rather someone who alongside buggy grew a great dislike for Luffy, Alvida. Is a 5 cost 6000 power character with an on K.O. ability of "If your Leader has the {Cross Guild} type, play up to 1 Character card with a cost of 5 or less other than [Alvida] from your hand.". Alvida is good for swinging into your opponent's board whether it be their life or characters. Also having an "On K.O." ability proves useful since you could easily bring out a character like Mohji, Richie or even Cabaji.

Then there's Mohji. Mohji has seen it all. Mohji... is a 5 cost 5000 power character with a +2000 counter and an On play ability of "Look at 5 cards from the top of your deck; reveal up to 1 [Richie] and add it to your hand. Then, place the rest at the bottom of your deck in any order and play up to 1 [Richie] from your hand." Play a Mohji, get a lion. Play a character, get a blocker.

Next.

Shanks

Going over the final leader in today's article will be none other than the mono Red Leader appropriately named Shanks (Or Red-Haired Shanks).

Shanks is a mono-colored leader with 5000 power and 5 life with a useful leader ability that really gives you a form of protection against others attacks. Shanks has an ability of "[Once Per Turn] This effect can be activated when your opponent attacks. Give up to 1 of your opponent's Leader or Character cards -1000 power during this turn." No DON!! Requirement, No returning DON!! to your DON!! Deck , no discarding cards ; none of that. Just when your opponent attacks, give a character -1000. Your 5000 power character suddenly can't even touch Shanks. This Leader plays similarly to Bonnie by controlling your opponents attacks in some form of way. Just instead of resting a character/leader you will just reduce their power. But what cards are available to work alongside this leader?

For this segment we will go over Ben Beckman, Lucky-Roux and Shanks.

Let's start off by going over Shank's first mate, Ben Beckman. Ben Beckman provides solid stats with 7 cost 7000 power and a +1000 counter with an on play ability of "Trash up to 1 of your opponent's Characters with 6000 power or less." This on play removes threats like Rob Lucci character (Set 5), Edward Weevil (Extra Booster), Perona (Set 6), Kikunojo (Set 6; although you might want to avoid removing this character by effects), Jewelry Bonney character (Set 7) - all of these structural sound characters you might encounter on the other side of the table. Also since it says "Trash" it gets around characters that state "Cannot be K.O.'d" like Fukuro or Borsalino. Ben Beckman isn't just a big body but a solid piece of removal as long as you get his On Play to trigger.

Onward though, Lucky-Roux is a 4 cost 5000 power character with +1000 counter and blocker along with an on K.O. ability of "If your Leader has the {Red-Haired Pirates} type, K.O. up to 1 of your opponent's Characters with a base power of 6000 or less." So much like Ben Beckman who K.O's a threat on play, Lucky-Roux prevents you from taking damage while also taking out a threat on your opponent's board.

Lastly, like Marshall .D. Teach, Shanks also has a 10 cost character to go over. Shanks is a 10 cost character with 12000 power and Rush along with a static ability of "Give all of your opponent's Characters -1000 power.". That is not just on your turn, or your opponent's turn. This is AS LONG AS YOUR SHANKS IS ON THE BOARD. Which... is very powerful. Board full of 5000 power characters? Nah, they are just 4000. They won't touch your opponent's leader most likely... Rush in with 12000 power and reduce your threats. No doubt, like Marshall .D. Teach blocker, Shanks is a powerhouse.

But which of these leaders caught your eye? Will you start playing Nico Robin with banish at your local LGS, or do you wanna try and brew with Buggy? 'Till the seas due us part next time, fellow seafarers!