The One Piece TCG has been performing higher than expected with a sellout start and a huge dedicated player base straight out the gates. With the second booster set sailing its way from Japan to western shores, we decided to dig into what will be available to pull and rank them according to their value as collectibles, playable cards, or both. With that in mind, these are our picks for the top 10 cards from One Piece TCG: Paramount War that you need to get ASAP.
10. Kin’emon
First introduced in the Dressrosa Arc, Kinemon is a samurai known as Foxfire who leads the Nine Red Scabbards. His goal is to take back his homeland from Kaido, and Luffy is joining him in the challenge. This card features the parallel manga art that many collectors and players are seeking, and since green is overall a very strong color, this leader is sure to see constant play.
9. Toki
The wife of the legendary samurai Oden, Toki is important to the history of Wano. For the TCG, this parallel art will be the rarest of her cards, and that will be the biggest reason to own it. Overall, it’s simply a 1-cost blocker, but only if you have an Oden card. Otherwise, it’s not worth putting in your deck. But if you’re a fan of the character, this portrait close-up will be a nice addition to your collection.
8. Boa
Boa Hancock is definitely a fan-favorite, and stands as a fan-favorite future wife of Luffy. This new card is another close-up portrait parallel that will be chased after because of its rarity. In terms of playability, she allows you to draw a card and then trash a card, basically helping to replace a card in your hand that you no longer need. After that, you can trash another three cards, which will only be good if it synergizes with other cards in your deck (like the future blue Nami leader from set 3).
7. Sanji
This blue and green Sanji leader will be of high value because it’s one of the manga close-up portrait parallel arts that both players and collectors will want to own. What also makes this card exciting is that it’s the first dual-colored leader that will let you explore making a blue and green deck. His ability likewise rewards you if you play plenty of character cards with no skills, which will make for some interesting and possibly powerful decks.
6. Emporio Ivankov
This manga portrait parallel art card of Emporio Ivankov will also be sought after like the Sanjo leader above, but even more so.
A fair amount of Japanese players took to this leader when it came out in Asia, and have proven that Ivankov’s ability to draw you three cards if you have none in your hand allows for some strategic play and deck-building. It’s also great to see someone as random as Ivankov get a leader card so early in the One Piece TCG’s development, and will be an easy pick for anyone hoping to have a less traditional Leader card.
5. Ace
As the big brother to Luffy, Ace needs his own leader card as soon as possible, but his character card should tide fans over for a bit
Boasting some red-hot art for a Red color variant, this version also has to be played with the White Beard leader to activate his full effects. In exchange though, it can downright debilitate an opponent’s Character cards with -3000 power, setting you up to clean house and come out with nary a scratch.
4. Sakazuki
The notoriously despised Marine leader, Sakazuki is the one responsible for Ace’s death and is incredibly powerful. This parallel art features an action-packed punch with a fistful of magma going straight toward the opponent. And this card lives up to the depicted power; he has 7000 battle power and when you play him, you can instantly KO any character that costs 5 or less. That’s already half of every card in the game, and the inherent theme of the marines and the black color is to lower the costs of other cards. This makes it possible for Sakazuki to KO even higher-costed characters — what a powerful attack!
3. Luffy
This is easily Luffy’s most powerful iteration in the Paramount War set.
It’s all offense and pairs perfectly with the Ivankov leader. As soon as you play him and every time you attack, you can trash two cards from your hand and return an enemy that costs four or less to its owner’s hand and get double attack. That means you remove most blockers or other cards that have strong abilities or attacks. And if this Luffy hits, your opponent will lose two life.
Best of all, if you do this every turn and run out of cards, Ivankov will let you draw back up to three cards for a devastating combo synergy.
2. Uta
Uta is the main attraction in the recent One Piece Red film and is building up a large fanbase. Her character design is stylish and colorful which means this card definitely looks nice and serves as an excellent pull for collectors. This is one of the two secret rares in the set too, meaning it’s the hardest to pull. Viability-wise, she is an expensive yet character. Her ability can prove to be a game-ender because the turn you play her, you can return two Don!! to your Don!! deck to give all your characters and leader +1000 BP for the turn.
1. Kuzan
The other secret rare of the set, Kuzan aka Aokiji is a very powerful card because he has 10,000 BP and instantly KOs any character that costs 0 when you play him. You can also reduce the cost of one enemy character by -5 while he’s in play, which means any character that costs 5 or less is a prime target. Additionally, if you have other Marines effects in play, your opponent’s cards might have even further reduced costs.
To top it off, the parallel art looks tough and Kuzan is rocking his stylish outfit that he donned after he left the Marines to pursue his own goals.
Those are top 10 cards from One Piece TCG: Paramount War to pull and play with from this set, so make sure you get at least a few packs if not a few boxes, and enjoy opening them all up. If you’re collecting these cards for the art, or if you’re a player, then these are most of the cards you should be focused on getting sooner than later. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the top 10 cards from the first set, Romance Dawn. And if you’re a new player, we have a great guide on how to build the Red Zoro meta deck.
About the author
