OP-05 Awakening Of The New Era is the fifth booster set in theOne Piece Card Game. This set signifies the first anniversary of the pirate-driven card game, and many players and collectors had their eyes locked on this set due to powerful meta-relevant cards like five-drop Eustass Kid.
This is also the first time a set included three different high-rarity “Manga Rare” cards featuring the three captains, Eustass Kid, Trafalgar Law, and everyone’s favorite rubber pirate, Monkey D. Luffy. Overall, the entire set is quite high in the power level, but there are clear winners when it comes to the best cards for competitive play.
The Commander Of The North Army
Lowering your opponent’s character’s power level is what the color red is all about. With this Karasu card, you may now inflict the power reduction onto your opponent’s leader card, making it extremely easy to deal damage, or force them into over-countering with the cards in their hand.
Karasu can double down on his effect since he can use it whenever he comes into the board and whenever he attacks. The only condition is that he needs to be at 7,000 power for the effect to trigger. Luckily that is not ever a problem with Belo Betty’s leader effect.
Kizaru: The Light-Light Fruit Wielder
Three-Thousand Worlds is one of the best removal options that blue has in its arsenal. It can remove any character with a cost of four or less by sending it to the bottom of your opponent’s deck. Luckily, the event card is not a character card and therefore, cannot attack. But what if Bandai made something that could?
Borsalino is basically Three-Thousand Worlds on legs. Although you’ll have to pay three extra DON!! for him, once Borsalino is on the board, you immediately threaten your opponent with a huge 8,000 power beast.
Sakazuki’s Deadly Attack
Red/Green Trafalgar Law has been one of the best decks in the game for quite some time, but with the introduction of Black/Blue Sakazuki and the Hound Blaze event card, blue decks now stand a chance.
Hound Blaze can give your leader or one of your characters a 3,000 power boost for the turn while also sending a small cost character to the bottom of the deck. This card can power up your characters and get rid of a small blocker for only two DON!! cards.
Guardian Of The Sky
6,000 base power characters have been a staple in the One Piece Card Game sinceEdward.Newgatewas released inOP-02 Paramount War. Not being able to attack with your leader without committing extra DON!! cards can ruin your game plan, so players opted into playing vanilla cards with 6,000 base power to deal with that leader.
Gedatsu fills a similar role in yellow decks that play the Sky Island engine. He is five-cost to play, but he comes with an excellent removal effect.
An Excellent Card For Any Yellow Deck
Depending on which side of the table you are sitting on, you might think generic color support is either one of the best things for modern deckbuilding, or a travesty printed by Bandai. Satori is an excellent card for any yellow deck. It comes equipped with just about everything that your deck might need. A 2,000 counter, a high enough base power, and a trigger that lets you play the card when drawn from life.
Even though the Sky Island is very powerful and a close match to the Big Mom Pirates set, Satori can easily be slotted into any deck if only for the counter value alone.
Beat Loudly, Heartbeat!
The peak of Monkey D. Luffy’s power is finally here. OP-05 was the first time Luffy showed off his Gear Five form printed in cardboard. Not only is this one of the most gorgeous cards in the set, drawn by Tapioca, this Luffy card introduced a new type of effect to the game.
When Gear Five Luffy gets played, you can return all of your DON!! back to the deck and place all of your characters except this one to the bottom of your deck, giving you an extra turn. You can make very aggressive plays by attacking with all of your current characters, then using Luffy’s effect to close out the game with a 12,000 power character.
The Princess Of Dressrosa
Blockers, most of the time, are must-haves in your deck. Whether it is to protect your life in a pinch, or to redirect an attack heading towards one of your main attackers, these cards can turn the tide of battle. Rebecca is another Dressrosa-type card to pair with theOP-04leader of the same name.
Not only does this card pair excellently with her archetype leader, but many Sakazuki players have found many uses for this to be able to constantly recycle their removal cards like Rob Lucci, or even other blockers, like OP-02 Borsalino.
The Samurai Hiding In The Land Of Wano
OP-05 is a great set to buy if you are planning to play any purple decks due to the number of ramp cards that are found in the set. One of the better ones is Zoro-Juurou. A low-cost card that can be played early on and can mostly benefit four-life leaders is a card purple needed.
While Zoro-Juurou is only 4,000 power, as long as you have three or less life, he will get you an extra DON!! to be used later in the turn, whenever he attacks.
Trafalgar Law Players' Worst Nightmare
Not only is this one of the best cards to stop decks like Zoro and Trafalgar Law from spamming the board with low-cost characters, but the fact that it is a black card makes this Rob Lucci so much better. Black as color bases its removal on play cost and has many ways of reducing your opponent’s characters' play costs to get them into a specific threshold to remove them.
Cards with blanket cost reducing effects like the 10-drop Kuzan from OP-02 make for great combo potential with Rob Lucci.
One Of The Best Blocker Cards In Purple
With the number of ramp cards in OP-05, Eustass Kid is one of the best cards to add in Awakening Of The New Era. Most of the purple effect require you to send back DON!! cards from the field back to your deck, effectively slowing you down a turn or turn in exchange for a powerful effect, but this Eustass Kid can refund one of the cards you sent back.
Especially after the release of the Three Captains deck, this card is a must-have if you want to play the red/purple Trafalgar Law deck, since you’ll be returning DON!! almost every turn to advance your game plan.
