One Piece TCG: OP13 - Carrying On His Will Review (Leaders)

Usually, the One Piece TCG set that comes out in November is the most impactful for the western meta. Once this set comes out, the game changes almost completely: it's when the current "block" ends and a new one begins, and when Bandai starts introducing the core strategies for the next year.

So, in today's article, we'll go through all the new leaders in the latest One Piece TCG set, OP13 - Carrying On His Will. Let's dive right in!

Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey.D.Luffy OP13-001 is red and green and has 5000 power, 4 life, and the Strike attribute. He is also a Supernova and part of the Straw Hat Crew, so he connects two card types that have, historically, received great support and become quite efficient. This leader will essentially "update" Monkey.D.Luffy OP01-003 after the upcoming rotation.

His ability lets us, during our opponent's turn, if we have 5 or less active DON!!, rest any number of them. For each DON!! we rest this way, we can give +2000 power to one of our Straw Hat Crew characters or this leader during that battle. This effect makes his strategy reactive. That is, with it, we can turn our own resources into counters, control how each battle plays out, and make direct attacks harder. Particularly if we also play Charlestone OP05-038, which can untap our DON!! and, as such, give us the resources to defend ourselves even more.

Abilities like this force us to be more careful as we play, and we need to use them wisely. If we don't, we might end up without other resources. Monkey.D.Luffy OP13-001 rewards precise decision-making. With him, we'll have to consider when it's time to give up active DON!! to develop our board or our game plan, and when we need to protect ourselves. This way, Luffy is a balanced option, just like the character himself, and should act as a gateway for new players.

He is, without a question, the next "version" of Monkey.D.Luffy OP01-003 and was clearly inspired by him. We'll also use him in the Legacy format whenever we want to combine the Straw Hat Crew and Supernova characters.

Speaking of Supernova characters, Cavendish EB01-012 will also be great in this strategy. He'll let us use more DON!! in our turn, even if it's just a few of them (which we'll inevitably use to answer enemy pressure).

Portgas D. Ace

Portgas.D.Ace OP13-002 is red and blue and has 6000 power, 3 life, and the Special attribute. He is also part of the Whitebeard Pirates, which means he is one of the many Whitebeard Pirate archetypes that have received support specifically in these two colors since OP02 or OP08 after the upcoming rotation.

He also stands out because he has 6000 power, considering the standard is 5000. It reminds me of the deep scars Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040 gave us, as he was more resilient in direct combat and forced us to invest more DON!! to actually deal damage. Like all leaders with 6000 power, to make up for it, Ace also has less life, so we need to be twice as careful when we protect ourselves and when we take damage.

Ace has two abilities. We can use the first one during the opponent's turn, once per turn. If we do, we'll discard a card in our hand and give an enemy leader or character -2000 during that battle. So, it effectively turns any card in our hand into a +2000 Counter. This effect influences the math we make in our heads during each battle directly and creates windows for us to protect ourselves even when we don't have blockers. It also makes the fact our leader has 6000 power even more relevant.

We can activate his second ability if we attach one DON!! to him. Once per turn, whenever we take damage or one of our characters with 6000 base power or more dies, we draw a card. This effect is quite similar to what made Usopp OP10-042 playable during the OP10 meta. It gave us something positive whenever we lost something on our board or when we lost life and essentially filled our hand back again after we discarded some cards to use Usopp's effect.

The idea behind Portgas.D.Ace OP13-002 is to give up cards to nerf enemy attacks, but then get our cards back when we lose something on our board. Ace is a middle ground between red and blue: his 6000 power and abilities let us put pressure on the opponent, but he also offers us resilient ways to defend ourselves and protect our resources. This is also one of the most successful leaders in the most recent Japanese meta.

Gol.D.Roger OP13-003

Firstly, Gol.D.Roger OP13-003 is the highly expected King of Pirates from the series. Secondly, do you remember everything we said in previous metas about Monkey.D.Luffy OP11-040 and in this very article about Portgas.D.Ace OP13-002? That is, leaders with 6000 power need to have 3 life because this forces us to invest extra resources to get the power we need to actually deal damage? Well...

Gol.D.Roger OP13-003 is red and purple, has 7000 power, and has 5, yes, 5, life. He also has the Slash attribute and is a King of the Pirates and a Roger Pirate. 7000 power might seem like a lot, but it's actually not because he won't have this much power all the time. His text states that, while we have 9 DON!! or less in play, he'll have -2000 power, so he'll have the standard 5000 power most leaders have. So, his ability is a sort of goal: it rewards whoever manages to get over 9 DON!! quickly. Only then will we be able to use the King of Pirates at full power.

Furthermore, his effect starts with "If you have any DON!! cards on the field, 1 DON!! card placed during your DON!! phase is given to your leader directly". This means that, from the second turn onward, one of the DON!! we'll place each turn will go to Roger directly. This ability could be a disadvantage, considering that, while we don't get 10 DON!!, we'll have to give up one of them to our leader. Our curve could be compromised.

In the first few turns, Roger will be a regular leader with 5000 power and no abilities. We'll also have to "give up" a DON!! to him every turn. As such, he'll need a lot of support and ramp to stabilize. But, as we get to the DON!! we need, he will stabilize and turn into a 7000 power vanilla card. He'll be the threat many players will fear seeing on the board.

The best strategy for him will be using purple cards to ramp as much as possible. Most of the characters in his list, like Buggy OP13-072, Inuarashi OP13-061, and Kouzuki Oden OP13-063, will give us more DON!! if our leader has a DON!! attached, which he'll usually have every turn because of his effect. Finally, when Gol.D.Roger OP13-064 enters play, he'll nerf the entire enemy board globally.

Gol.D.Roger OP13-003 becomes more stable and less vulnerable the more turns we play. He'll need a certain setup in the first few turns to get to 10 active DON!! and keep it that way as soon as possible so that we can turn him into the monster he is, though.

Sabo

Finally, we have our last red leader, Sabo OP13-004. Sabo OP13-004 is red and black and has 5000 power, 5 life, and the Special attribute. He is a Dressrosa and Revolutionary Army character and really reminds me of Eustass"Captain"Kid ST10-003 because he has two colors and 5 life, as well as a drawback. While we have 4 or more life cards, Sabo loses 1000 power. He'll have 4000 power until we take two damage. Unlike Kid, however, this debuff is active in both our and our opponent's turn, so Sabo is quite vulnerable to attacks.

Nonetheless, Sabo's ability makes up for this weakness. With 1 DON!! attached, if we control a character that costs 8 or more, our leader and all our characters get +1000 power. This effect is simple but works really well because it turns big characters into even bigger threats. It can also turn Sabo into a 5000 power leader or even turn him into a 6000 power leader if we have 3 life or less. Like so, he'll be just like other 6000 power leaders.

So Sabo OP13-004 evolves as the match goes on. He starts with 4000 power and rewards us for losing life by becoming as powerful as Portgas.D.Ace OP13-002. Once we get a character that costs 8 or more in play, his global and permanent +1000 buff turns our board into a real army. Our characters will hit hard and be quite difficult to remove.

We must also remember that many Revolutionary characters in OP12 actually cost more DON!! because of their effects, so they end up costing 8 DON!! exactly. That's the case for Karasu OP12-085 and Hack OP12-089. Like so, we won't struggle to make Sabo the powerful leader he is even before we lose any life.

Imu

Imu OP13-079 is black, has 5000 power and 4 life. Instead of a clear attribute and card type, all they have is a "?". Like all black leaders, we expected them to do something like making a character cost less so we can knock it out, but, instead, they have one of the most unusual restrictions we've ever seen in One Piece TCG: we can't play events that cost 2 or more with this leader. This will change how we build black decks completely, as we usually add lots of events to nerf how much enemy characters cost so that we can remove them.

On the other side, Imu offers us a unique advantage in One Piece TCG: we can start the match with a "Mary Geoise" stage in play. In this case, that will be The Empty Throne OP13-099, which would usually cost 7. Its first effect, which is only active during our turn, gives our leader +1000 power if we have 19 or more cards in our trash pile. This effect is a natural consequence of Imu's game style, as it is only active in the late game.

We can use The Empty Throne OP13-099's second effect if we tap it and 3 DON!!. If we do, we can play a Five Elders black character that costs the same or less than the number of DON!! we have in play straight from our hand. That's right, we can put these characters in play without spending the usual DON!! they'd cost.

Back to Imu OP13-079: once per turn, during the main phase, they let us trash a Celestial Dragons character or discard a card from our hand to draw a card. As such, we'll be able to filter our hand, fill our graveyard, and even use a few of our Celestial Dragons' [On K.O.] effects.

Imu OP13-079 has become the most powerful leader in this set in terms of competitive viability. Their ability turns this deck into a combo strategy that, with five specific characters in the graveyard and the help of Five Elders OP13-082, lets us put five characters in play all at once.

Jewelry Bonney

Jewelry Bonney OP13-100 is the last leader in this set and probably the most boring one. She is yellow, has 5000 power, 5 life, and the Special attribute. She is also an Egghead and a Bonney Pirate. We can use Bonney's ability once per turn, during our turn, and only when we play a character with [Trigger]. If we do, we can attach up to 2 rested DON!! to a leader or character on our board. That's it.

This effect is too simple. It almost seems like she is just a filler card in this set, as well as a way to support Vegapunk OP07-097. The most interesting thing we can do with this leader is play her with Jewelry Bonney OP13-108. This card will go into play with Rush automatically and could even get two tapped DON!! while we also force our opponent to remove a card from their life pile.

OP13 is a real gift for anyone who pays more attention to the meta. A lot will happen still, and the game will certainly change a lot, particularly with so many new, interesting decks coming along.

Some of the themes in this set are the three main brothers, the ending of the Egghead saga in the anime series, and, finally, the King of the Pirates, Roger, who we all have expected for so long. My only complaint is that Jewelry Bonney OP13-100 seems a bit unnecessary, but who knows? Maybe, like Lim OP09-022, she'll become a phenomenon overnight.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!