As trading card games evolve, new sets are released that introduce powerful cards into the meta, and for the most part this is often balanced through playtesting. However, sometimes card combinations turn out to be more powerful than first expected, which results in a tournament meta dominated by one or two decks. It’s for this reason, that designers turn to the ban list.
Each year, after the One Piece World Cup Finals in Japan, a ban list is announced with the aim of balancing the current meta to give other decks a chance at being played. And, although many cards were under speculation this year, a total of four cards inevitably ‘got the chop’.
Alongside these bans, Bandai have provided the in depth reasoning behind each that led to these tough decisions being made:
OP06-086 Gecko Moria
“This card has seen a very high usage rate in decks that include black cards since its release, and we have been keeping a close eye on both its usage rate and its impact on the game. With no restrictions on the Leader it can be used with nor on the Character cards it can bring into play, this card allows the player to gain a huge advantage too easily. Playing it once is enough to create a large disparity between the number of Character cards on the field between the player and their opponent, making it powerful enough to single-handedly determine the winner of a game. We have also determined that developing an 8-cost card that can match or exceed this card’s performance will be difficult in the future.”
OP07-045 Jinbe
“When combined with Leader “OP01-060 Donquixote Doflamingo” or “ST17-005 Marshall.D.Teach”, this card allows the player to play multiple Character cards in the early game, creating an advantage beyond what was originally intended. In the early game, even low-cost and low-power cards can be difficult to deal with, which leads to one-sided battles. Furthermore, as a 4-cost card that puts Character cards into play, we have determined that it would be difficult to develop a card with equal or superior performance in the future.”
OP02-117 Ice Age
“Although there are many other cards which share this card’s ability to lower costs, this card is the only one that can significantly lower the cost of a Character card for just 1 cost.This card also synergizes extremely well with other cards with effects that rely on cost, and there is the concern that any future cards which rely on cost will have to be developed with this card in mind, overly constraining future card development.”
EB01-059 Kingdom Come
“Although this card is one of many Event cards with the ability to remove opponent’s Character cards with its effect, when used in combination with Leader “OP05-098 Enel”, the synergy between this card’s removal effect and the Leader’s defensive ability proved to be more powerful than anticipated. There is also the concern that having to develop cards with this combination in mind will greatly limit the future development of high-cost Character cards.”
With the addition of these 4 cards, it brings the grand total of victims to 11. And although players are often annoyed that their favourite decks are taking a hit, these decisions always leave the state of the game in a much better and balanced place.
Of course, there’s always the chance that some of these cards could be unbanned at any point if the impact is considered to be minimal. But for the time being, the range of meta decks has already increased to include a variety of leaders and colours that span across all current sets in the game and players have shown that they’re happy with the decisions Bandai has made.
