The Best New One Piece Leaders in The World's Strongest Warriors (OP-17)

One Piece's 4th anniversary set, The World's Strongest Warriors, is almost here, and it's upping the game's power levels to unprecedented heights. Themed around the Elbaph arc, it stacks Emperors, giants, and the Rocks Pirates into Leaders whose effects and synergies are unlike anything the game has seen before.

Here's a rundown of three of the strongest new Leaders from The World's Strongest Warriors (OP-17), along with sample decklists and strategic overviews to get you started.

OP-17 Yellow Linlin Deck

OP-17 Charlotte Linlin's gimmick is admittedly strange. Almost every Character in the deck is a 4000-power body with Trigger: Play this card. For most of the game, they pop out of her Life and slowly tax the opponent by swinging for 5000. Later, they start trading into the opponent's board, either through power-debuffing effects or, once the 10-cost Linlin SR effect lands, by being buffed up to 8000 power.

• 1 OP17-099 Charlotte Linlin 
• 4 OP17-113 Streusen 
• 4 OP11-106 Zeus
• 4 OP17-104 Charlotte Cracker 
• 4 OP17-107 Charlotte Daifuku
• 4 OP17-111 Charlotte Mont-d'or
• 4 OP17-109 Charlotte Pudding 
• 4 OP17-102 Charlotte Oven 
• 4 OP17-106 Charlotte Smoothie
• 4 OP17-103 Charlotte Katakuri
• 4 OP17-114 Sweet 3 Generals 
• 4 OP17-110 Charlotte Perospero 
• 4 OP17-112 Charlotte Linlin 
• 2 OP17-115 There's Still A Code Of Honour? You Clowns! 

(Example list from HashtagEMB)

Then there's the Leader effect, which hands the opponent a choice between healing you—effectively loading another Trigger Character into your Life—and discarding a card at random from their own hand. Neither option is good for them. This is a nasty, grindy deck, and a miserable one to sit across from.

OP-17 Black Luffy Deck

• 1 OP17-079 Monkey.D.Luffy 
• 4 OP17-086 Nami
• 3 OP17-094 Rodo
• 1 OP17-084 Tony Tony. Chopper 
• 4 OP17-091 Brook
• 4 OP17-087 Nico Robin
• 4 OP17-095 Roronoa Zoro
• 4 OP17-082 Sanji 
• 4 OP17-080 Usopp 
• 4 OP17-081 Gerd
• 4 OP17-089 Jaguar.D.Saul
• 4 OP15-088 Pirates Docking Six
• 4 OP17-119 Loki
• 4 OP17-093 Monkey.D.Luffy 
• 2 OP17-098 Gum-Gum Kong Pistol 

(Test list from Car D Kaizoku)

Themed after Elbaph, the kingdom of the giants, OP-17 Black Luffy is a deck whose cards buff their own costs to appropriately gargantuan levels. Loki, one of the set's Secret Rares, becomes an 18-cost Character on the opponent's turn. Luffy's Leader effect hands every one of those high-cost giants the Blocker keyword, while a suite of 2-cost cards fills out the rest of the board as a value toolbox, each of them picking up buffs whenever a Character costing 12 or more is in play.

The result is a board of 5000-power Characters that were played for 2 DON!!, most of which draw a card, protect the Characters next to them, revive Characters from the trash, or K.O. something on the other side.

Capping off the game plan is the 8-cost Luffy, a new 8000-power SR that gains Rush when a 12-cost Character is on the board, draws a card, and plays a 2-cost Character out of the trash, which can then draw a card of its own. The deck is a value machine, and a punishing late-game grinder in the right hands.

OP-17 Blue Rocks Deck

• 1 OP17-039 Rocks.D.Xebec 
• 4 OP17-050 Streusen 
• 4 OP17-045 Kyo
• 4 OP17-052 Don Marlon
• 4 OP17-054 Miss Buckingham Stussy 
• 4 OP17-046 Gloriosa 
• 3 OP17-044 Captain John 
• 3 OP17-042 Kaido
• 4 OP17-049 Charlotte Linlin
• 4 OP17-040 Edward.Newgate
• 4 OP17-048 Shiki
• 4 OP17-118 Rocks.D.Xebec 
• 4 OP17-056 Rocks Pirates
• 4 OP17-055 There's No Authority in the World That Lasts Forever!!!

(Example list by AbbsterTCG)

As the final Leader announced for the OP-17, Rocks D. Xebec's abilities and support look almost appallingly powerful at first glance. First of all, his Leader effect lets him draw two cards every turn, and while it requires you to trash a card to do so, the ability to filter cards from hand was fantastic even when it only drew 1 card. Going up a card every turn on a 5-Life Leader is enormous.

His support could headline other decks on its own. The 3-cost Buckingham Stussy plays like a 4-cost Galdino that can be activated every turn to freeze the opponent's Characters. The 5-cost Charlotte Linlin either draws you two or forces the opponent to bottomdeck two. The Rocks SEC puts 9 DON!! worth of Characters onto the board straight from hand. The catch is that none of these cards carry any counter value, so the deck has to run effects that turn those counterless bodies into defense.

Somehow, that isn't a dealbreaker. The Leader ability cycles hard enough to keep finding answers, and the breadth of control tools lets Rocks handle a wide range of threats. Its true ceiling won't be clear until experienced pilots have spent a few weeks with it, but the core cards verge on game-breaking, and this is a deck the format will have to respect.