Whether it’s because you want to beat your friends playing on the kitchen table or you’re preparing to conqueror the competitive One Piece Card Game scene, knowing which Leader cards have the edge is always important.
Sometimes the difference between one pirate commander and another is simply their strong statlines—many Leaders on the Grand Line boast powerful 6,000-strengthed attacks—while other times the abilities and keywords packaged with the cards (often themed around Devil Fruit or Haki powers) can be the reason they’re so busted.
With all that in mind, here’s the very best One Piece Leaders to play.
1) Rob Lucci (Black)
No Enies Lobby, no worries—Rob Lucci remains the strongest of the One Piece Leaders currently available to play, despite just losing his much-played stage card in the most recent banlist reveal in August. This partially helped him, however, because rival Leader Trafalgar Law was suspended at the same time.
Lucci reigns supreme because he’s just so good at clearly the One Piece board while at the same time stockpiling a veritable army on his side for the same costs. This gameplay is spurred on by eight-cost Gecko Moria, a removal-themed Lucci Character card, and recursion characters like Rebecca from Kingdoms of Intrigue. The CP0 agent regularly topped competitive One Piece events even before Law was banned.
2) Monkey D. Luffy (Black/Yellow)
Luffy’s first Leader card in the list stands among the rest of the One Piece Leaders as the format’s best combo captain. This Yellow/Black Leader wants to collect its puzzle pieces like staple five-cost blocker Sabo and the “kid” versions of the Three Brothers—Luffy, Ace, and Sabo—to repeatedly bounce them to play. These combos then boost Luffy’s Leader power to as much as 11,000 to 12,000.
3) Enel (Yellow)
The reigning king of the Life Trigger lottery, Enel has a very safe Leader ability (that lets him heal when he drops to zero life) and access to a whole pile of generically strong Yellow Characters. Most Enel lists focus on playing huge lategame bodies like 10-cost Ace from 5,000 Years in the Future and Yamato from Kingdoms of Intrigue.
4) Jewelry Bonney (Green)
Wings of the Captain introduced a whole bunch of competitively viable Leaders, including Supernova and Straw Hat ally Jewelry Bonney. The Big Eater is the premier mid-range deck of the One Piece game right now, trading speed for board control and the ability to slow down strategies with a single Don.
While mono-Green Leaders have historically struggled in One Piece, Bonney’s ability to rest an enemy Character every turn keeps her alive so much longer. Just make sure you remember to use it every turn.
5) Vinsmoke Reiju (Blue/Purple)
Reiju is very much on the rise after Two Legends released, with several Foxy Pirates upgrades added to the deck in 5,000 Year in the Future (and several timely bans) turning her into one of the fastest decks in the format. The strategy revolves around turning cheaper Vinsmoke cards into their kitted out versions.
6) Donquixote Doflamingo (Blue)
Incredibly, this Blue Doflamingo Leader card was actually released all the way back in Romance Dawn in 2022. It’s stayed relevant through the power of the Blue Rush strategy and more recent Seven Warlords of the Sea support printed in 5,000 Years in the Future—an upgrade soon to be followed by a reprint deck too.
The best strategy for this notorious Warlord is to flood the deck with other Warlord-themed cards and go wide. These Characters include powerful warriors like Dracule Mihawk, Crocodile, Jinbe, and Boa Hancock.
7) Gecko Moria (Black)
Moria only ranks so low in this list because Rob Lucci exists at number one; take the CP0 agent out of the rankings and Moria springs up to near the top. He plays a similar strategy with the eight-cost Gecko Moria Character as a cornerstone, though this Thriller Bark focuses more on graveyard shenanigans. Very flavorful.
8) Nami (Blue)
Nami has a Leader effect which means when your deck’s reduced to zero you win instead of losing. This means she plays a very alternate style to a lot of other Leaders in One Piece, focusing on milling herself very quickly.
While the Cat Burglar can be a bit difficult to learn and master, Luffy’s navigator is the perfect Leader pick for someone who likes winning a little differently.
9) Yamato (Green/Yellow)
The son of Kaido remains reasonably relevant in the One Piece Card Game’s competitive landscape thanks to his powerful Leader keyword: Double Attack. This, paired with Yamato’s ability to attach used Don to Characters, means any match against this Green/Yellow Wano Country Leader quickly turns into a fight for survival.
10) Monkey D. Luffy (Red/Purple)
I know, I know, another Luffy on the list, but he’s the One Piece protagonist, after all. This Luffy card plays very differently from his Yellow/Black alternative too, with gameplay more focused on building Don and slamming big bodies.
One of the best things about playing Red/Purple Luffy is that most lists run a lot of Straw Hat characters, as well as a super-powerful 10-cost Luffy Character card with Gear Five artwork that resets the board. This card, released in Awakening of a New Era, is one of the very strongest finishers you can play.
Honorable mentions
There are two characters we’ll put here: Law (from the ST10 Ultimate Deck) and Awakening of a New Era’s blue/black Navy commander Sakazuki. These Leaders are so powerful they’ve been banned. If they weren’t currently restricted, those two would undoubtedly top these One Piece Card Game rankings.
Many of these Leaders appear atop the One Piece metagame too.
