10 One Piece Cards You Should Buy Before The World's Strongest Warriors (OP-17)

One Piece's upcoming OP-17 expansion, The World's Strongest Warriors, is the game's 4th anniversary set, and the first to release (nearly) simultaneously worldwide, dropping in Japan on August 22, and in the West on August 28.

The expansion arrives at a moment where prepping for a new set means something different than it used to. Every recent release has pushed the game's power level higher than the last, and every time it happens, the previous era's staples get a little less safe as long-term holds. Cards that anchored the meta for a year now cycle out in a set or two, and the old strategy of grabbing a playset of a format-defining card and sitting on it comfortably has gotten a lot less reliable.

And so, our set preparation buy list logic has to change too. This time around, getting ready for OP-17 means spending less on yesterday's catch-all tech staples and more on cards that interact with the set's likely top decks, whether it involves feeding into those strategies (via combo enablers or cost manipulation) or standing up to them (via answers to resting, removal, and board-wide effects).

Here's our roundup of cards we'd pick up to prepare for the decks and meta of OP-17.

#1 EB01-048 Laboon

The upcoming SEC Loki K.O.s Characters with a combined cost of 4 or less, and Laboon just so happens to lower the cost of an opponent's character by 4. If Black Luffy becomes a real meta contender or Loki becomes a true meta staple, this 4-cost SR will be a great complementary piece.

#2 OP15-088 Pirates Docking Six

In addition to doing everything a black deck could want, Pirates Docking Six can be comboed out by other Characters like the trash-summoning OP-15 Nami.

#3 PRB02-006 Roronoa Zoro

With a new Shanks Leader incoming and green's rest package all over the format, this card is cheap insurance against Blocker-resting effects that could otherwise threaten a game.

#4 PRB02-009 Galdino

Blue's answer to Blocker-resting effects, this 2-cost turns your opponent's rest effects into card draw, ensuring you don't lose value on your Blocker body.

#5 ST32-003 Mihawk and ST32-002 Kouzuki Oden

The green Zoro starter deck shipped two SRs that immediately became solid inclusions in multiple Green decks. Mihawk draws and filters every time he rests, cheating out a 5-cost body on play. Oden draws a card and keeps a 6-cost or smaller enemy Character from resting through your opponent's next End Phase. Whatever green looks like after OP-17, these are likely to have a place in the meta in some form or another.

#6 OP13-031 Trafalgar Law

The logic for picking up this perennially-solid Law Blocker is simple: green is good, and Law slots into basically any list the color produces. Worth picking up even as Mihawk and Oden outshine it in a few key ways.

#7 EB01-002 Izo

A forgotten Rare with the Whitebeard Pirates type, Izo gives a rested DON!! to your board on play, then essentially turns your whole hand into +2000 Counters on the enemy's attack as long as your Leader is a Whitebeard Pirate or Land of Wano type card. This pairs very well with Newgate's Leader effect, providing immense counter value even when there's no actual counter in hand. 

#8 OP09-117 Dereshi!

With a new Life-focused Yellow Big Mom deck just on the horizon, Trigger yellow is back like it never left (probably because it didn't). Dereshi digs for up to two Trigger cards, and just provides a ton of value. Just be sure to pick it up before everyone remembers it exists.

#9 OP15-078 Mamaragan

One of the few cards whose value doesn't diminish no matter how high the power level climbs: nothing else provides +1000 Counter at no cost to DON!! or hand. 

#10 EB04-058 Borsalino

Still the gold standard for yellow healing and one of the best cards in One Piece, Borsalino can win games on his own. On top of that, his potential synergy with the new Big Mom Leader all but guarantees he remains a good get in OP-17.