Table of Contents
Hey everyone! After today's Championship finals in Japan, Bandai Namco announced the bans for the One Piece OP08 meta. Players have been calling for action on ST10-001-trafalgar-law, which has dominated the OP08 meta. Until now, the only deck that could consistently challenge it was Black Rob Lucci.
The community's prayers were finally heard, and ST10-001-trafalgar-law along with OP03-098-enies-lobby are now banned in the East's OP08 meta, starting September 1, 2024 in Japan and September 6, 2024 in the West. Bandai also announced a new Red Purple Trafalgar Law Leader, similar to what they did with Black Blue Sakazuki.
The Bans
ST10-001-trafalgar-law has had a great performance in OP07's West meta, and although it didn't completely take over the meta, things changed drastically in the East meta with the introduction of OP08-074-black-maria.
Leader ST10-001-trafalgar-law's effect is one of the strongest in the game, allowing you to remove one of the opponent's Characters from the field and cheat out a 4-cost or less Character from hand. This allowed R/P Law players to adopt an aggressive playstyle, making it difficult for opponents to match their field development.
A powerful effect must have a downside, and for ST10-001-trafalgar-law, it was the 3 Don return every time you activate the effect. This slowed down the Leader's upcoming turn and players would rely on Ramp cards to keep up with the opponent's Don. However, OP08-074-black-maria was a game changer, removing those Don restrictions with her insane ramping capabilities. This gave the deck an insane boost that most competitive decks couldn't match and fell behind.
Bandai could have banned OP08-074-black-maria instead of ST10-001-trafalgar-law, keeping a competitive meta deck but removing the insane Ramp power. However, it seems Bandai has had enough with ST10-001-trafalgar-law's effect as a whole and probably expects it will remain a problem in future metas as more cards are released.
As for the OP03-098-enies-lobby ban, this is a direct hit to OP07-079-rob-lucci, removing that cost-reduction consistency they've had. OP03-098-enies-lobby makes life way easier for the Rob Lucci player, and it's almost always the card in mind when in the mulligan phase. The ability to reduce the cost of one of the opponent's Characters by -2 once every single turn without having to spend any Don other than to play it and cards, sets you up for smoother future turns, putting Characters in range for your KO effects.
Although OP03-098-enies-lobby is a key card in Rob Lucci decks, it doesn't necessarily mean that the archetype will fall out of the meta. It definitely is a hit to the deck, which weakens its consistency, but the whole package is still powerful and will likely remain a meta contender. Cards like OP02-117-ice-age could replace OP03-098-enies-lobby for the cost-reduction on high-cost targets.
Although OP03-098-enies-lobby is a powerful stage, I didn't expect Bandai to ban it, especially with it not being a searchable card for the Rob Lucci deck.
New Leader
Trafalgar Law
Red/Purple Leader
4 Life / 5000 Power
P-088
[Activate Main] [Once Per Turn] DON!!-3: Send 1 of your 3000 Power or higher characters to the bottom of your deck: Play up to 1 4 cost or lower "Heart Pirates" type character card from your hand.
Law received the Sakauzki treatment. The new Trafalgar Law does not interact with the opponent's side of the field anymore. This means R/P Law players lost the control aspect of the Leader and will be more vulnerable during their defensive turns.
Law now returns a 3,000 Power or higher Character from your side of the field to the bottom of your deck and cheats out one 4-cost Character that HAS to be a "Heart Pirates" type, this is an awful effect for the current R/P Law list. Did you enjoy cheating out EB01-003-kid-killer for the 7,000 Power Rush attack? Well, that's long gone.
Overall, I think this new Leader is way weaker than what we had, and I don't see it having an impact in the upcoming meta. We could see a new list that revolves around "Heart Pirates" type Characters, but the fact that you're now losing a Character on the field to cheat out a Character is ultimately weaker than the old Law effect. And the fact that the returned Character is going back to the deck instead of our hand is lost value.
Meta Changes
OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju players are jumping for joy with Law's ban. Trafalgar Law single-handedly made the life of OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju players miserable in OP07 and OP08 metas.
This Leader wants to have the same or less number of Dons than the opponent to activate the Vinsmoke Character's effect, and with ST10-001-trafalgar-law returning Don, he's completely shutting down OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju game plan.
With ST10-001-trafalgar-law out of the picture, I expect OP06-042-vinsmoke-reiju to thrive in the upcoming meta, and we'll definitely see more of her in top cuts.
Two powerful decks in the OP08 meta and should now have a better experience against Rob Lucci players. Law was a tough matchup for both decks, so we'll see them perform better in the upcoming meta, especially OP05-098-enel.
Blue Nami players are thriving as well, although they were crushing the Rob Lucci matchup, ST10-001-trafalgar-law was a completely different story. The ability to go wide on the field and threaten multiple attacks, combined with ST10-001-trafalgar-law's effect to put OP03-044-kaya back in their deck, made it difficult for Nami players to top tournaments, especially with the high number of ST10-001-trafalgar-law players.
There aren't many aggressive decks in the OP08 meta, so Blue Nami will have a great showing now, I'm just hoping it doesn't dominate the competitive scene.
OP01-060-donquixote-doflamingo is already a top performer in OP08 meta and has managed to top and win tournaments in the East. The Rob Lucci matchup was the worst, and they usually relied on the Lucci player drawing badly to sneak wins. The Enies Lobby ban could give them a breather, allowing them to develop a threatening field and start striking down the opponent's Leader.
He also has a good matchup against OP03-040-nami, which will likely see more play once Law is out of the picture.
Dodged a Ban/Errata
OP08-074-black-maria was a consideration for keeping ST10-001-trafalgar-law in check since the deck only skyrocketed in performance thanks to OP08-074-black-maria's ramp capabilities.
Black has been a strong color for some time, primarily due to OP06-086-gecko-moria's ability to play characters from the trash. His effect enables combo plays that allow players to go wider on the field, empowering decks like OP07-079-rob-lucci, ST13-003-monkeydluffy, OP06-080-gecko-moria, and OP05-041-sakazuki.
Many players were hoping for a OP06-086-gecko-moria ban or at least for it to be Leader-locked so it wouldn’t continue providing the best play for all Black decks.
The focus has somewhat shifted from OP05-091-rebecca to OP06-086-gecko-moria, but some players still hope for OP05-091-rebecca to be limited to {Dressrosa} type characters only. This would shut OP05-091-rebecca down from being played in all Black decks.
Closing Words
I'm pleased with the ban on ST10-001-trafalgar-law and OP03-098-enies-lobby, as they address the current dominant decks in the meta. The ban of ST10-001-trafalgar-law should make it easier for Bandai to create new cards without worrying about how it might break the game with ST10-001-trafalgar-law's effect. Additionally, the OP03-098-enies-lobby ban weakens OP07-079-rob-lucci’s cost-reduction consistency and overall strength, without completely crippling multiple black decks by banning OP06-086-gecko-moria.
