The 10 Cards Everybody Wants from The Time of Battle (OP-16)

Guess what time it is!

The latest One Piece Card Game set, The Time of Battle (OP-16), releases on June 12, 2026, and players couldn't be more excited. Not only is the new set expected to shake up the (somewhat stale) format created by OP-15, but the gap between the East and the West is smaller than ever. The Time of Battle will drop in the West just two weeks after it debuted in the East, meaning that players around the globe will be racing at the same time to figure out how to build with the new Leaders. No more copying lists that were perfected months ago in Japan. Chefs who want the spiciest decks will need to get cooking immediately, and to do that, they'll need ingredients on hand.

Collectors have plenty to look forward to as well. The Time of Battle focuses on the central arcs in the Summit War Saga, often considered the best in all of One Piece. Like The Empire Strikes Back, Impel Down and Marineford form the tragic midpoint of the story, and recontextualize the grand conflict in starkly personal terms. The Time of Battle memorializes the central figures of that story with the jaw-dropping artwork we've come to expect from the One Piece Card Game.

Don't get lost in the fog of war! As you're cracking packs of the latest set, you'll want to keep a few of the biggest hits on your radar so you know what's worth keeping, trading, or locking in a safe for 30 years. These are the One Piece cards everybody wants from The Time of Battle (OP-16).

#10 Alt-Art Monkey.D.Luffy (OP16-015)

From a playability perspective, this slot could have gone to stronger red cards like Moby Dick and Edward.Newgate (OP16-003), both of which have a better shot at getting sleeved up in competitive decks like Red Blue Ace.

But Luffy is Luffy, and we can't deny how hard this alt-art illustration rocks. Luffy's trademark smile and three-point landing grab your attention long enough for it to drift to the upper right so you can admire Ace exploding a squad of Marines in the background. It's the same triumphant moment that Bandai is commemorating with the Luffy & Ace Starter Deck EX, which releases at the same time as The Time of Battle. That synergy is going to make alt-art Luffy a key chase for collectors when the set drops.

#9 Yamato (OP16-098)

The new Black Yamato Leader in OP-16 specializes in swinging approximately 10 million times by chaining Characters into Characters from the trash, all of which gain Rush from his Leader ability. Six-cost Yamato (OP16-098) is central to this game plan, letting you fill up your trash with big Yamato cards that this Yamato brings out.

Anyone interested in playing this explosive new combo deck needs four copies of six-cost Yamato, no questions asked—preferably the alt-art version for style points. Opinions are mixed about whether Yamato has what it takes to compete at the top of the meta, but everyone agrees it's really fun to swing 6000-8000 power five times in one turn.

#8 Boa Hancock (OP16-032)

A new Super Rare Boa Hancock card? With an alternate-art version? Yeah, you better believe collectors want this card.

And players are just as excited. In a format where the biggest threats ignore traditional removal and the late-game decks are all playing 12000-power blockers, Boa Hancock absolutely shines. Whether you're trying to stabilize or get ready to swing for lethal, Boa Hancock does everything you want a seven-cost bomb to do.

This card will be the preferred finisher in decks led by Green Blue Luffy, the second-best Leader in OP-16 after Black Yellow Teach. But Hancock has no built-in restrictions, so she may show up in any number of other aggressive green decks going forward.

#7 Prisoner of Impel Down (OP16-042)

Across all trading card games, you can generally count on a card that lets you run "any number" of copies in your deck to be way more valuable than its rarity would suggest. It's just math: every player who needs eight copies of Prisoner of Impel Down creates twice as much demand as a player who needs four copies of a normal Rare like Benn.Beckman.

And the folks who're going to play Prisoner of Impel Down are going to need a ton of copies. Early Buggy (OP16-041) lists run anywhere between 10 and 19 Prisoners, since all of Buggy's value rides on having a Prisoner in hand whenever one of your other Characters leaves the field. Even Green Blue Luffy decks run 10 Prisoners as their preferred +2000 counter, since they can cheat extra copies into play with Buggy (OP16-048).

As you're opening packs of The Time of Battle (OP-16), do your community a favor and put aside any copies you find of Prisoner of Impel Down. If you don't want them, somebody at your local game store absolutely will.

#6 Sakazuki (OP16-065)

Each of the three Navy Admirals who fought at Marineford is getting a new seven-cost purple card to go with the new Sengoku Leader, whose special ability drops them all into play at the same time.

Sakazuki is generally considered the strongest of the three, and unlike Kuzan and Borsalino, has found his way into other decks. Specifically, he's popping up in Donquixote Rosinante decks, where Sakazuki's repeatable ramp effect lets Rosinante discount Law cards without any downsides. A Rosinante deck upgraded with Sakazuki, Marineford, Trafalgar Law, and Koby from OP-16 went 5-0 at a recent tournament in Thailand, proving that the deck has legs into the new format.

If any new purple Navy Leaders are released in the future, Sakazuki could migrate there too, especially since (as a card with a Manga Rare version) it's never going to rotate out of Standard Regulation. Even outside of Navy decks, shrinking a Character by 6000 power for a whole turn cycle is so devastating that Sakazuki has a chance to show up in all kinds of purple decks going forward.

#5 The Alt-Art Leaders

All the new Leader cards in The Time of Battle have alternate-art versions with exciting split backgrounds that show off different aspects of their personality—topped off by a closeup on their eyes.

Luffy is, well, Luffy, so we can probably expect his alt-art card to be among the most popular. Players will also be after the Marshall.D.Teach alt-art, since Teach is the breakout Leader of OP-16, with strong matchups into both the Purple Enel and Blue Yellow Nami decks that dominated the last format.

Regardless of how they eventually rank relative to each other, these cards do an incredible job showcasing their respective characters. No collector is going to want to pass them up.

#4 Alt-Art Zehahahahaha! (OP16-116)

Black Yellow Teach's game plan involves stalling out to 10 DON!! and then dropping 10-cost Teach every turn until your opponent cries uncle. Zehahahahaha! powers up the second half of that plan by freeing up two extra DON!! each turn, and by pushing your opponent closer to death without asking you to turn your big blocker sideways during your turn.

As a key card in the best new deck from OP-16, Zehahahahaha! is guaranteed to see play immediately, and players and collectors will both be after this swanky alternate-art version. As the only alt-art Event in The Time of Battle, it might end up easier to pull than comparable alt-arts like Ground Death and My Era… Begins!!, but it's still an undeniable hit in the set that's bringing Blackbeard back to the top of the meta.

#3 Marshall.D.Teach (OP16-119)

Of all the cards coming in The Time of Battle, Marshall.D.Teach (OP16-199) is the one players probably fear the most.

In the last few months, yellow decks have received a treasure trove of efficient heals and devastating trigger effects. Teach is another entry to both of these lists that makes the earlier entries even stronger. By letting you pick the card you put at the top of your Life, Teach helps you chain Life-gain cards into each other, or set up game-swinging triggers—like its own! Which negates protections so its KO effect can hit a wider range of threats.

All of this on a card with zero restrictions on which decks can play it for full value. Nobody knows exactly how many Leaders will decide to run eight-cost Teach, but until players figure it out, everybody is going to want a playset of this card.

#2 The SP Cards

Each One Piece set introduces a cycle of Special Rare (SP) cards (mostly reprints) with a unified art style. In The Time of Battle (OP-16), the SP cards are all full-art portraits reminiscent of the popular SP cycle in Kingdoms of Intrigue (OP-04).

Needless to say, they look incredible. 

Collectors and players will likely gravitate to Ms. All Sunday the most, since Nico Robin is a top-10 character in the franchise, and this card sees play in the Crocodile deck that's been a strong meta counter against format-villain Enel. But all the cards in the cycle have been competitively relevant at some point, and could be again with the right support.

In the meantime, they'll just be extremely pretty to look at.

#1 The Three Admiral Manga Rares

As usual, the most valuable card in the new One Piece set is its Manga Rare—or in the case of The Time of Battle (OP-16), its three Manga Rares, one for each of the seven-cost Admiral cards designed for Sengoku.

Of these, we expect Sakazuki to be the most valuable for the same reasons everybody wants its lower-rarity versions. The Admirals don't rank too high on most One Piece fans' list of favorite characters—nobody wants to identify with the forces of law and order in a story where all the heroes are pirates. But the three Manga Rares together recreate an iconic image from the story, so determined collectors will be eager to put them all together, which should make all of them more valuable by association.