For those who have been paying attention to the Maindeck Facebook page, and card game news in general, the big new thing on the block is the announcement of the One Piece Card Game by Bandai! The creators of Dragon Ball Super and Digimon are finally bringing a One Piece based card game to the world at large and I am personally very excited as a huge fan of the series. So to help everyone get oriented to what’s certain to be another hot new TCG, we thought we would make an article listing everything we know about the game so far, with a healthy dose of speculation based on how similar card games, especially ones from Bandai, have operated in the past.
So, first things first, what is this the One PIece Card Game?
The Basics
This game is being announced in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the series (ow, my hip) and will be released in Japan in July of this year. North America, Europe, Australia, and China will receive the game later this year in Winter 2022. A more specific date for the worldwide release has not been given yet.
The game will feature artwork from the manga and anime, as well as original illustrations. There will also be a special set of cards called “Don!!” cards. For those who don’t know, “Don!!” is a sound effect used very frequently in One Piece. Usually to denote a dramatic event like a character making an appearance or a big event happening. The official press release says the Don!! Card is a “key item” that is used to “increase the cost and power of battles”. We will go into what that might mean a little later.
In April, Japan will be hosting quick gameplay demo events at 100 stores across the country. With more demos coming in June afterwards, probably with a more complete ruleset since the events in April seem to be focused more on speed. After the game releases in July in Japan, store level organized play will begin. Then, from September onward, more events will be held, including the beginning of a championship circuit. Hopefully this means this kind of immediate organized play support will happen in the West as well. So we can avoid the delay between release and organized play starting like Digimon had.
In June 2022 a learn to play app will be released in Japan, similar to how Digimon had one. It is a pretty safe bet that this app will be brought over to the West when it is closer to our release date. Again, just like when the Digimon app was released.
Products
The One Piece Card Game will have a lot of product when the game officially releases. First off, there will be four starter decks, based on four factions from the series.
- Straw Hat Pirates (Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky, and Brook)
- Worst Generation (Scratchmen Apoo, Basil Hawkins, Capone “Gang” Bege, X Drake, Jewlery Bonney, Urouge, Killer, Zoro, Trafalgar Law, Eustass Kid, Luffy, and Blackbeard)
- Shichibukai, aka “Seven Warlords of the Sea” (Crocodile, Boa Hancock, Jinbe, Gecko Moria, Dracule Mihawk, Bartholomew Kuma, Donquixote Doflamingo, Edward Weevil, Buggy the Clown, Blackbeard, and Trafalgar Law)
- Beast Pirates (Kaido, X Drake, Page One, Sasaki, Basil Hawkins, Scratchmen Apoo, Ulti, Who’s Who, Black Maria, Jack, Queen, and King)
There is some crossover between the names on these lists, and there is no guarantee that every character listed will appear in their respective decks. As some characters change factions or died during certain events of the story. But these are all the characters that cover these factions.
The starter decks will go for 990 yen (approx. $10), so expect the standard $12-15 dollar price range for a Bandai starter deck over here, and contain a 51 card deck, and a 10 card Don!! Deck. There will be no booster pack in the starters like set 1 of Digimon, so I don’t think the West will get one included either.
The first Booster Set will be named “Romance Dawn”, which is also the name of the first chapter of the series, as well as the first graphic novel. Boosters will go for 198 yen (approx. $2), and contain six cards and one index card. Which will most likely be a checklist, just like in the Digimon booster packs. Expect the English language packs to be double the size and price, similar to English packs for Dragon Ball Super and Digimon (12 cards and 1 index card for $3.99 MSRP). It will be interesting to see if the second Japanese set releases before the first English one. If so, there is a chance we could get a mixed set like set one of Digimon.
There will also be a “film edition” starter deck that will contain characters from the various One Piece films. The starter is set to release on August 6th, with the release of the newest One Piece film, ironically titled One Piece Film: Red. This starter will sell for 550 yen (approx. $6), significantly cheaper than the standard starters. But it will still contain a 51 card deck and a 10 card Don!! deck. It will be interesting to see if and when this product releases in English, as the film doesn’t have a worldwide release date yet, and it might release before the set comes out in English in Winter. We will have to keep an eye out on that one.
Lastly, there will be four types of card sleeves releasing with the game for 770 yen (approx. $8). Each will contain 70 sleeves, more than the standard 60 used for Digimon. Probably to accommodate for the Don!! Deck.
In June 2022 a learn to play app will be released in Japan, similar to how Digimon had one. It is a pretty safe bet that this app will be brought over to the West when it is closer to our release date. Again, just like when the Digimon app was released.
Gameplay
So, what do we know about the actual gameplay? Unfortunately, as of right now, the answer is “not much”. But there is a lot we can glean from what little we have seen so far.
From the screenshot of the tutorial app, we can see you have a leader and other cards that can be summoned to the field. Each card has PW (presumably “power”), a deck area, and a discard pile, called the Trash pile (poor Mr. 2). Luffy had 4,000 power on his leader card,but is shown to have 5,000 on the field. So there is clearly some sort of way to power leaders and/or characters up, similar to the combo system in DBS. We can also see that the cards with manga panels on them that say “+1,000” on them also say “Don!! Card”.
We can also see life cards set to the side of each player’s area, similar to life in DBS and security in Digimon. Each character has 5 life, which corresponds to the number on the bottom right of the leader cards we have seen so far. These must be how you power your cards up, which would lend credence to the explanation in the press release of “increasing the cost and power of battles”. Which would also explain why the card doesn’t have a lot of other text on it.
We can see that Yamato is a character card, which must be the type of card that can be summoned to the field, like Battle Cards in DBS. Yamato also has 5,000 power on the top left, and the 3 in the top left is most likely her cost. But we’re unclear about how the resource system in the game works. However, we can see there are no cards on the field like energy in DBS, and the only other meter on the screen also contains the sound effect for “Don!!”. Which is on the bottom left and has the number 5 / 6. So the Don cards might also be used as a resource of some kind, but this is the most speculative of anything so far.
Lastly, we can see that the four Leader cards revealed so far (Luffy, Eustass Kid, Crocodile, and Kaido) each have a different color. That being red, green, blue, and purple respectively. Which is also represented by a color wheel on the bottom left of the Leader cards. Which would mean there are two colors yet to be revealed. These colors most likely represent the different color types of the game, similar to red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, and purple in Digimon, and red, blue, green, yellow, and black in DBS. These will most likely influence archetypes and deck building.
So we can actually gleam a lot from what we have seen so far. One Piece appears to be a halfway point between DBS and Digimon, but there are almost certainly more types of cards to be added. Hopefully the game can add more of a “One Piece” flavor to the game, and also have more interaction on the opponent’s turn than Digimon does. Which would make sense for a series with so many twists, turns, and DON!!’s like One Piece. We hope you liked this article, and let us know what you think about the One Piece card game, and what you think will be included. Stay tuned to Maindeck for more content on the One Piece Card Game in the future as we learn more!
