The One Piece Card Game (Bandai, 2022) puts you in charge of a pirate crew. You pick a Leader, build a 50-card deck around them and attack your opponent's Leader until their Life runs out. Both players get the same resource every turn (DON!!), so you spend your time on decisions, not waiting for the right land or energy.
What's in a Deck
- 1 Leader card: starts the game in play. It sets your deck's color(s), your Life total and usually a special ability.
- 50-card main deck: exactly 50 cards, all matching your Leader's color(s), with no more than 4 copies of any card number.
- 10 DON!! cards: a separate DON!! deck. DON!! is your resource for playing cards and powering up attacks.
The Card Types
- Leader: your main piece. It has Power and Life, and it can attack every turn.
- Character: your crew. Each has a cost, a Power value and often a Counter value. You can have up to 5 Characters in play; to play a sixth, trash one of them.
- Event: one-time effects. Many Events have a [Counter] ability you can use on your opponent's turn to defend.
- Stage: a place that stays in play with an ongoing effect. You can have one at a time.
The Six Colors
- Red 🔴: raw power and aggression: big Power boosts and attacking every turn.
- Green 🟢: rests your opponent's cards so they can't block, and gets extra DON!! active.
- Blue 🔵: returns your opponent's Characters to their hand and draws or digs for cards.
- Purple 🟣: plays with DON!! itself: adding it, returning it and paying it for big effects.
- Black ⚫: lowers costs, K.O.s low-cost Characters and uses your trash as a resource.
- Yellow 🟡: works with Life cards and their [Trigger] effects.
Where Everything Goes
Setting Up
A Turn, Step by Step
Neither player can attack on their own first turn, and a Character can't attack the turn it's played unless it has [Rush].
Attacking and Defending
To attack, rest your Leader or an active Character and choose a target: your opponent's Leader or one of their rested Characters. Then the defender gets two chances to respond:
- Block: rest a Character with [Blocker] to make it the new target.
- Counter: trash cards from hand for their Counter value (+1000 or +2000 Power to the defender), or play [Counter] Events by paying their cost with active DON!!.
If the attacker's Power is equal to or higher than the defender's, the attack lands. A Character that loses is K.O.'d (trashed). A Leader that's hit takes 1 damage: the top Life card goes to its owner's hand. If that card has a [Trigger], they can use its effect instead.
How to Win
Land a hit on your opponent's Leader when they have no Life cards left. You also win if your opponent's deck runs out of cards. Every Life card they lose goes to their hand, so taking Life early also gives them more cards to defend with. Timing your big turn is the heart of the game.
Which Cards Can I Play?
Official tournaments use a Standard format: since April 2026, cards from the oldest block (the first sets and starter decks) can't be used there. Each card shows a small block number. For games with friends, any card is fine.
Beginner Tips
- Start with a starter deck. Each one is a full Leader, 50 cards and 10 DON!!, ready to play.
- Count Counter values. Cards with +1000 or +2000 Counter are your shields. Holding one or two in hand often saves a Life card.
- Leave DON!! up for Counter Events. Active DON!! you don't spend on your turn can pay for a [Counter] Event on your opponent's.
- Don't rush your opponent to 1 Life. Each hit hands them a card. Many players attack steadily, then use several attacks in one turn to finish.
- Attack rested Characters. Characters that attacked on your opponent's turn stay rested through yours, so they're easy targets to K.O.
Build Your First Deck
These three are built from the first starter decks. They're ideal for learning and playing with friends, but they use cards from the first block, so they can't be used in Standard tournaments. Copy one into our Deck Builder, see which cards you already own, and buy the rest: