That’s so Extra!
Once a year, the geniuses at Bandai create a booster set unlike any other. The purpose of which is to breathe new life into leaders that aren’t seeing play, and mix up the competitive meta with new mechanics and keywords.
Which means that 2025 is officially the year of the EB02 25th Anniversary Set, the second installment of the extra booster range. And may I say, probably the new title holder for the best looking booster packs we’ve seen so far. But there’s something even more special about this set than those that have come before, and that’s the underlying theme that features throughout all of the cards that are included.
2025 marks the release of the new One Piece anime series that’s soon to be released on Netflix. A brand new streamlined take on the original series that now spans over more than 1200 episodes. This new retelling of Luffy’s journey promises to be a digestible way for new and old fans to catch up on the story so far.
And so to celebrate this, the cards from EB02 feature art taken directly from the series panels, and will feature characters, locations and arcs that we can look forward to seeing when the series releases.
Down to brass boosters
So what can you expect to find when you crack open your shiny new booster box of EB02? Well, the first thing you’ll find is 24 of the finest looking booster packs Bandai have made to date; but inside those is where the fun begins.
Each pack contains 12 brand new cards, two of which are guaranteed to contain at least a rare; but have the chance to be a higher rarity instead. Even in packs that have a leader, you’re still guaranteed to find two rares at the back of the pack.
That being said, it’s worth keeping in mind that this set is much smaller than the usual mainline sets, such as the most recent OP10. As a result, there are only 87 individual cards in total, which results in the same common and rare cards appearing more often than usual.
It’s also worth saying that unless Lucky Roux is on your side and you pull an alt art leader; you’re only likely to get 2 ‘hits’ in each box. A stark contrast to the old boxes where 3 or 4 hits was the norm.
Nevertheless, there’s still some incredible cards to be found in this set that span across all rarities. Bandai have even been so kind as to give us the totals of each:
● Leader x 1
● Common x 29
● Rare x 21
● Super Rare x 9
● Secret Rare x 1
● Special Card x 26
Power spikes all round
Ever since the cards in this set were revealed a few months back, there have been certain cards that players have had their eyes on from the get go. These particular cards have already started making waves less than a week since release, and have quickly become staples for certain colours or leaders with particular keywords. Here are two particular cards that you should keep an eye out for whilst your cracking open your packs:
EB02-052 – Enel
We’re starting off with a beast of a card, and one that has gone straight into my mono yellow Enel deck without any hesitation.
● This character starts with 11000 power with rush if your leader has the Sky Island type.
● If you have 1 or less life cards, you can discard a card when attacking to gain a life, along with +1000 power until the end of turn.
This card compliments Enels leader ability perfectly, and opens up a lot of possibilities for sneaky plays. Especially when you attack whilst on 0 life to gain a life card, and then play another Enel and attack to go up to 2 life cards in the blink of an eye.
EB02-061 – Monkey D Luffy
Secondly, we have the only secret rare card in the set, but an immediate staple for most mutlicoloured purple decks.
● Gains rush if you have a multicoloured leader, and your opponent has 5 or more don cards.
● Enables you to return 2 don cards and draw a life card to hand to set this character as active.
Honestly speaking, there’s not much your opponent can do when you swing with an 11000 power character twice on the same turn it’s played. Which makes me thankful that it’s locked to dual colour leaders; otherwise mono purple luffy would be absolutely unstoppable.
Looking good in gold
You might have noticed in the rarity list that there are a whopping 26 special cards to find in EB02; which is absolutely wild for such a small set. This is because Bandai have reprinted some of the best alt art leader cards from the game with a textured finish and sharp gold foiling for some of the text and numbers. And seeing really is believing, as all 26 of these cards look incredible in person.
Unfortunately, the chances of finding one are incredibly slim, but if you’re lucky enough to pull one, you’ll have a shiny new leader to show off at local tournaments.
Final thoughts
Whew, what a rush, and not just from Luffy! That just about rounds up this amazing Extra Booster set, and I have to admit that I’m a big fan of where they’re taking these extra installments.
I can see more leader reprints coming in future extra booster sets to ensure that old leaders are included in the rotational ‘block system’ that Bandai are introducing next year. It also gives more variety to the ways in which players can bling out their decks.
My only disappointment is the lower rate of pulls in booster boxes, and it takes a lot of the thrill out of opening boxes rather than individual packs. That being said, it does mean that you’re guaranteed to find some good cards for your money, instead of missing entirely by only buying a couple of packs.
So, that brings us to the end of the review, but I’d love to know if you managed to find any tasty pulls in your packs. Be sure to let us know by using the @zatugames tag on all social media platforms and show off your pulls.
