During the official livestream of the ONE PIECE Card Game Championship 2024 WAVE1 Finals, BANDAI announced that two cards will be banned from tournament play in Japan and Asia-Pacific starting September 1, 2024. These cards will be the sixth and seventh on the banned list, joining the Moby Dick and Cabaji cards from Paramount War (OP-02), the Sakazuki card from Awakening of the New Era (OP-05), the Great Eruption card from Absolute Justice (ST-06), and the Reject card from Wings of the Captain (OP-06).
It is not yet known when these cards will be banned in other regions, but it is widely speculated that the two new banned cards will be blacklisted outside of Japan and the Asia-Pacific region shortly after the international release of Emperors in the New World (OP-09), which will occur in December 2024.
Trafalgar Law (ST10-001)
This card from The Three Captains (ST-10) has become a bane for countless One Piece Card Game players in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. The Red/Purple Law deck, which revolves around this leader card, has over-centralized the metagame to an alarming degree. At this point, almost everyone who doesn’t play this deck is trying to find ways to specifically counter it – and those methods have obviously failed because of how overpowered this card is.
A major reason this Law card is considered “broken” is the low cost required to use its ultra-powerful disruptive ability, which also allows the player to play a low-cost character card. The card’s interaction with Black Maria from Two Legends (OP-08) is also problematic; Black Maria’s 2000 counter, as well as her extreme simplification of DON!! ramping in a red/purple Law deck, has made the deck’s leader card far too powerful for a healthy competitive scene.
Enies Lobby (OP03-098)
Enies Lobby, a Stage card from Pillars of Strength (OP-03), was a crucial part of the Black Lucci deck – the only deck even in the same galaxy as the Red/Purple Law deck before its ban. Enies Lobby unbalanced several elements of the Black Lucci deck gameplay in favor of the player by reducing an opposing character’s cost by 2 without spending DON!!. It also gives the player clear advantages over the next few turns while keeping opposing characters within KO range.
One of the main selling points of the Black Lucci deck was its consistency in reducing the cost of opposing characters. However, BANDAI felt that this was too easy with Enies Lobby, so the meta suffered. As a result, the strength of the Black Lucci deck has now taken a serious blow.
For more TCG related news, check out the Pikachu card with the poncho from the XY-P promotional cards. Alternatively, head over to the SNKRDUNK app via the banner below and find the hottest and newest single cards and boxes.
