Mihawk Leader Banned in One Piece, to Be Replaced with Weaker Promo
On September 24, 2026, Bandai announced that OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk would be banned from official One Piece Card Game tournaments, effective October 12, 2026.
The announcement comes on the heels of the previous weekend's North American Championship 26-27 Finals (aka "Nationals"), where Nicky Goldman took first place piloting a Mihawk deck.
In the same announcement, Bandai said that they would be printing a new promo Leader, P-163 Dracule Mihawk, at future events.
The new Mihawk Leader has two changes compared to OP-12 Mihawk:
- It no longer has the ability, "If your opponent's Leader has the <Slash> attribute, this Leader gains +1000."
- Its second ability attaches rested DON!! to itself, instead of setting the DON!! as active and locking out Character cards.
In effect, today's announcement works as an errata to the previous Leader. Players who enjoyed OP-14 Mihawk will be able to play their same decks using the new Mihawk, though with less flexibility to weave in Event and Stage cards, and without a massive advantage into other Slash-attribute Leaders.
Why Was Mihawk Banned and Replaced?
In their announcement, Bandai cited the way that Mihawk "significantly restricts the viability of Leader cards with the {Slash} attribute."
OP14-020 Mihawk's +1000-power ability references his status in the fiction of One Piece as the world's strongest swordsman. It's given him lopsided matchups against other Slash-attribute Leaders ever since he was released in January 2026, but issue has intensified due to his current prevalence in the One Piece meta.
Mihawk has been the deck to beat in the One Piece Card Game during both the current OP-17 format, and the previous OP16.5 format, thanks to his generically strong ability to reuse DON!! and the way he's been able to incorporate green cards that appear to have been designed for other Leaders. In OP16.5, Mihawk picked up ST32-003 Kouzuki Oden and ST32-003 Dracule Mihawk from the Green Roronoa Zoro starter deck, leading players to joke that the product was actually a Mihawk deck.
From OP-17, Mihawk picked up OP17-022 Shanks and OP17-031 Yasopp, parts of the Red-Haired Pirates Package that supported the OP17-020 Shanks Leader. Mihawk made better use out of 10-cost Shanks than the Shanks Leader, since Mihawk's ability let him gain back three additional DON!!, making the 10-cost Shanks effectively cost 5. Mihawk players could follow Shanks with Vander Decken IX to K.O. a big Character, and then use Leader ability and Electrical Luna to freeze the rest of their opponents' boards.
With these upgrades, Mihawk defined the last two formats, winning both of the last two Championship Finals and six of the last nine Regionals despite the huge target on his back. His oversized presence and inherent advantage against other Slash-attribute Leaders has driven other Leaders, like the new Shanks and Rocks Leaders from OP-17, almost completely out of the format.
"Fishhawk" Combo Still Legal
On Monday, September 21 when Bandai announced that they would be making a change to the One Piece Ban List, many players speculated that they would pair ban the combo of OP17-022 Shanks and OP06-033 Vander Decken IX, which can be used to rest an entire board and K.O. any opposing Character. A pair ban would prevent players from running both cards in the same deck.
Today's announcement leaves both cards untouched, so the combo will remain legal going forward, including in decks using the updated Mihawk Leader. Mihawk will not be able to follow up that play with Electrical Luna anymore. However, that card has not proven essential to Mihawk's power—Nicky Goldman's Nats-winning list ran no copies of Electrical Luna, and only a single copy of I Know You're Strong.
Today's announcement also leaves other strong decks from the OP-17 format as they were, including Purple/Yellow Robin, which won both the European and North American Flame-Flame Coliseum Events in the past month.
Which Decks Lose Out From the Mihawk Ban/Replacement?
The biggest loser from today's announcement is Mihawk itself, though the fallout from this functional errata is yet to be seen.
In some ways, the new Mihawk will perform very similarly to the old Mihawk. Future decks will likely run fewer Events like Electrical Luna and I Never Bother to Remember the Faces of Trash, as well as fewer counter Events, which Mihawk will have a harder time squeezing in on-curve. But with the Shanks/Decken combo still available to Mihawk, he'll still have an intimidating end-game.
If Mihawk's share of the meta drops, that will also be bad news for decks like Black Yamato that rely on farming Mihawk to stay relevant.
Which Decks Benefit From the Mihawk Ban/Replacement?
The biggest winner from today's announcement is OP-17 Rocks. This Leader has a positive matchup into almost the entire field, but has seen minimal play at major events because of its terrible matchup into Mihawk.
Now that Mihawk no longer gets a free +1000 against Rocks, that should even out the matchup. If Mihawk's meta share falls, that will open even more room for Rocks to assert its position as the deck to beat.
Other Slash-attribute Leaders like OP17-020 Shanks, OP13-003 Gol.D.Roger, and more off-meta picks like OP15-001 Krieg and EB03-001 Nefeltari Vivi will also have a shot at relevance. Shanks in particular has been completely absent from recent tournaments because it compared poorly to Mihawk. With Mihawk getting powered down, Shanks may be a preferable alternative in many matchups.
How Will the New Mihawk Leader Promo Card Be Distributed?
Bandai's announcement simply states that P-163 Dracule Mihawk will be distributed at "future events."
This language mirrors the language around P-117 Nami, which was printed as a replacement for OP03-040 Nami after the latter was banned in August 2025. P-117 was distributed during Store Tournament 2025 Vol. 4, suggesting that P-163 Dracule Mihawk will be available from local game stores as part of weekly play in the near future.
