One Piece TCG: August Banlist Update!

On August 20th, 2025, Bandai released the new One Piece TCG banlist update. The community expected them to hit the main decks in the game: Gum-Gum Giant OP09-078, Hody Jones OP06-035, and Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040.

In today's article, we'll review this new One Piece TCG banlist update, which will be valid from August 30th, 2025 onward. Furthermore, we'll also discuss a few other details included in this update and how Bandai will release new banlist updates in the future.

This banlist update was quite surprising. We all expected Bandai to nerf Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040 somehow, as it was arguably the strongest deck in the format. After all, it could simply defend itself against most decks in the game, which is undeniably a bit broken.

However, Bandai introduced to One Piece TCG something they already do with their other TCGs: banning card pairs, that is, preventing us from using certain cards together in the same build. If they just banned these cards in any circumstances, weaker decks would suffer (something that happens in Digimon TCG, for instance), so this was an interesting call.

This banlist update also included a few other surprising decisions, like unbanning Cabaji OP02-052 and Sakazuki OP05-041, which we've all wanted for a while, and preemptively banning Nami OP03-040. But don't worry; they also gave us a leader to replace her.

We have a lot to discuss in today's article, so let's not waste any time.

Charlotte Linlin and Purple and Blue Luffy

This is the first card pairing Bandai decided to ban us from using together in the same list. This way, Charlotte LinLin OP08-069 won't see play with Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040 any longer, but we'll still be able to use her in many other decks, like Monkey.D.Luffy OP05-060 and Charlotte Pudding OP08-058.

Charlotte LinLin OP08-069 is one of the most important cards in the Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040 strategy. When she enters the board, she lets you return 1 DON!! to your DON!! deck and discard a card in your hand to get the top card in your deck and put it in your life pile. This is great if you're playing low-HP leaders, as it allows you to take some damage relatively stress-free. Besides, after healing yourself, she lets you put an enemy character that costs up to 6 DON!! on the top or the bottom of the opponent's life pile, and, this way, disable a threat. In most cases, Charlotte LinLin OP08-069 will be your main late-game tool. You can play her for free with Sanji OP06-119 and set up a devastating turn that creates 19 DON!! in total, heals you, and removes something from the enemy board. Not to mention she also has 9000 power, so you can use her later on to put pressure on the opponent.

Because of this ban, Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040 will no longer be the impenetrable wall he was before. He will no longer be a deck that, even with just 3 life, many players felt it was impossible to lose with in most matchups against less aggressive decks. And Bandai managed to nerf him without also nerfing decks that rely on Charlotte LinLin OP08-069.

Charlotte Katakuri and Purple and Blue Luffy

Bandai also banned another card from seeing play with Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040: Charlotte Katakuri OP11-067.

In this deck, Charlotte Katakuri OP11-067 is the most balanced attack/defense option. He is a blocker, has a lot of power, and, at the end of the turn, untaps himself and another Big Mom Pirates character on your board. In fact, when this ban was announced, we were using him to protect Charlotte LinLin OP08-069 from being targeted by attacks. Furthermore, the fact he untaps himself at the end of the turn means we can use his 8000 power to both attack our opponents and defend ourselves. He is always ready, regardless of what we need to do - attack or defend.

Just like Charlotte LinLin OP08-069, we could easily play Katakuri from the top of our deck with Sanji OP06-119. This way, we could set up a turn with a lot of DON!! and ruin the day and the game for everyone on the other side of the table.

Why Not "Pair Ban" Sanji?

Sanji OP06-119 might enable this entire strategy and let us create a lot of value, but he is not the problem. This card interacts really well with the overall strategy and manipulating the top of your deck, which means we can create really interesting plays with it, it's true. But the real issue was the line of defense formed by the two Big Mom Pirates above.

When we can't find Sanji, Charlotte LinLin OP08-069 will still be a way to heal ourselves, remove something, or put pressure on our opponent, and Charlotte Katakuri OP11-067 will still be a defensive/aggressive blocker that untaps LinLin.

Nami

Nami OP03-040 is a weird choice for this banlist, but follow along because this will make sense, I promise.

Nami is an East Blue blue leader with 5000 power, the Wisdom attribute, and 5 life. She has two abilities, but the second one doesn't matter much. It lets you trash the top card in your deck if she has a DON!! attached and deals damage to the opponent. You'll rarely use this, considering you'll have to manage your DON!! really well in this deck and thus can't waste one attacking your opponent's life instead of controlling their board. For instance, if you attack smaller characters this way, it will just be a suboptimal play.

Trashing the top card in your deck is, actually, just a way to enable Nami's first and most important ability. It states that, when you have zero cards in your deck, you'll win the game instead of losing. So, a good Nami list will use smaller characters (often blockers) that draw cards to try to defend itself and several events to buff Nami's power and draw or discard cards from the deck. This is how they inch closer to victory every turn.

Overall, Nami OP03-040 is way past her golden days. She used to be a very defensive strategy that rewarded reactive mindsets really well. She even occasionally won one or two tournaments, despite not being a top-tier list.

So, why was she banned?

Nami is quite complicated to face. Not because of how powerful she is but rather because playing with and against her are drastically different experiences. The way the game flows and the unofficial rules you have to follow are quite strange. However, there is a way to beat this Straw Hat Crew navigator, and it's precisely because this formula has already been cracked open that she lost so much space lately. Nonetheless, facing her when you have just begun playing and don't know for certain how to beat her is extremely frustrating. You simply feel there's nothing you can do except watch your opponent play huge counters and fill their hand with cards.

Nami also created a huge problem for Bandai: any consistent blue card draw tool is great in this deck, and some of them (like Cabaji OP02-052) had to be banned so Nami didn't take over One Piece TCG completely. This deck is also not that dynamic to play or watch, and Bandai itself doesn't really enjoy seeing it on official tournament broadcasts.

That being said, banning Nami OP03-040 was a preemptive strike, a direct result of the soon-to-be-released Otama from the OP13 set. This card is also a consistent card draw tool, as it costs 1 DON!! and draws two cards. You can also return it to your hand with other cards and use it as a +2000 Counter later on. It is extremely similar to Kaya OP03-044, one of the main cards in this "mill" list. Some Japanese content creators have already shown us what this deck would be like with Otama and Kaya together before Bandai announced they would be banning it, and it was truly incredibly strong, maybe even a tier-1 list.

If you enjoyed this leader, don't worry. Bandai created a weaker version of her to replace this version, as usual.

The New Nami

This Nami promo is exactly the same as the old one. She is an East Blue blue leader with 5000 power, the Wisdom attribute, and 5 life. She also has the same two effects: trashing a card from the top of the deck when she deals damage to the opponent with 1 DON!! attached, and winning the game when you run out of cards. The only difference is that we can only use "East Blue" cards in her list.

This restriction prevents us from using some of the most important cards in this Nami list, such as White Snake OP06-059 and Snake Dance OP07-055, which is a significant nerf for this deck. However, we'll still have cards like Kaya OP03-044. Overall, we probably won't see her in tournaments again because the entire strategy lost a lot of power.

Cabaji Unban

Since I started playing, I've spent months and months hoarding Cabaji OP02-052 and waiting for this day. Unfortunately, this day is the day Bandai also banned Nami, so I won't be able to sell any of my 22 Cabajis.

Cabaji is the same as the aforementioned Kaya OP03-044, but, to trigger his effect, a "Mohji" character has to be on your board. He was banned because he was incredibly consistent. In fact, he was often a great card-draw engine with Kaya.

Now that Nami OP03-040 is banned, there is no reason for him to be on the list. It's that simple.

Leader Sakazuki Unban

Sakazuki OP05-041 is a black and blue Navy leader with 4 life and the Special attribute. He has two effects: the first one lets you discard a card in your hand to draw another from your deck, and the second one discounts the cost of an enemy character by one until the end of the turn. He is extremely simple for a leader, but let this fool you, especially if you have just started playing and have never seen him in action. Sakazuki is a control monster.

In his golden days, he could clear the board very easily and put pressure on the opponent just as easily. He also masterfully refined your hand, as he let you select the best resources for each match and follow a very efficient game plan.

That being said, Bandai decided to unban him because they believe he isn't a threat to the meta any longer. At least that's what the balancing team believes. According to them, he can't bring problems to the game or make the meta too unhealthy anymore. And we, as a community, reacted really well to this. We'll just have to wait and keep a close eye on the competitive scene from August 30th, 2025 onward to see if this is true.

Overall, I have never seen such a positive and well-accepted banlist. Firstly, it removed real threats from the game and addressed a future issue from the Japanese meta for once and for all. It also unbanned a card that didn't do anything wrong and returned a great leader, a quite fun option as well, to us, so we can play around some more. The idea of banning cards from seeing play in specific decks is quite welcome, and we definitely can do a lot with it too.

I hope the balancing and development teams keep this up.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!