Ahoy there one piece fans, and welcome to another swashbuckling review of the newest One Piece Trading Card set. This time, we’re jumping back to the days of Dressarosa and islands beyond in OP10: Royal Blood!
Bolster the ranks
One thing that stands out with the setting of this set, is that Bandai isn’t afraid to return to previous locations and find new ways of representing old characters. Dressarosa has featured heavily in the past, but OP10 has been used to explore characters and scenes that weren’t previously touched on.
One of these in particular, is God Usopp, who features as one of the most played leaders from this expansion; and it’s clear to see why. He has a strong leader ability and a wide range of dressarose support from previous sets that fit into the same colours.
Ahoy there one piece fans, and welcome to another swashbuckling review of the newest One Piece Trading Card set. This time, we’re jumping back to the days of Dressarosa and islands beyond in OP10: Royal Blood!
Bolster the ranks
One thing that stands out with the setting of this set, is that Bandai isn’t afraid to return to previous locations and find new ways of representing old characters. Dressarosa has featured heavily in the past, but OP10 has been used to explore characters and scenes that weren’t previously touched on.
One of these in particular, is God Usopp, who features as one of the most played leaders from this expansion; and it’s clear to see why. He has a strong leader ability and a wide range of dressarose support from previous sets that fit into the same colours.
And then there’s Punk Hazard. Represented by wicked event cards and a keyword all of its own. However, these cards come with a slight twist. In this arc of the manga, some of the characters bodies are swapped by devil fruit means. Which is why you’ll find a slightly confusing Sanji character card with an image of Nami.
Card, cards, cards!
Each beautiful purple booster pack contains 12 cards, with commons, uncommons and rares guaranteed. However, with each rare slot comes the chance to luck upon a SEC, treasure or manga rare card. Of course the chances of finding one of these are incredibly slim, which makes pulling one even more exciting. But even with this set, I’m yet to pull a manga rare card for myself.
Nonetheless, there are heaps of exciting new cards in this set that span across all of the rarities, and Bandai are kind enough to let us know exactly what we can expect to find inside:
・Leader Cards x 6
・Common x 45
・Uncommon x 30
・Rare x 26
・Super Rare x 10
・Secret Rare x 2
・Special Cards x6
・Treasure Rare x1
・DON!! Cards x1
Looking for treasure
Unfortunately, OP10 lacks the impressive treasure rares that we’ve seen in previous sets; such as the gold gol.d.roger and the gold don from PRB. However, a lot has to be said for the alt art cards that we do have. The art primarily seems to have been taken from the anime and features vivid scenes that fans will remember.
And of course, there’s the manga rare card that is always illusive from the boxes that I buy. Every set features a manga rarity or two, and OP10 is no different. This time round it’s the yellow Trafalgar Law card that features in the Captain Kid supernova deck; a very strong card if I do say so.
Counters for days!
With every new expansion, three things are guaranteed. Power spikes, new keywords and leader cards and Royal Blood is no different.
The main power spikes in this set feature in the yellow and black colours; with two main culprits hogging the spotlight. My favourite of the two has to be the 8 cost Eustass captain kid. It brings potent life drain to yellow with an on play effect that trashes your opponent’s life and allows you to draw a card if their life is 2 or less. This is an incredibly strong late game, and can open the way to hitting for lethal if you already have big bodies on the field.
Of all the new leaders in this set, Eustass and Law stand out to me the most; and not just because they run yellow mechanics. Both leaders introduce situational leader abilities that require players to know the cards in their deck off by heart, whilst knowing every potential matchup they might come up against. But most importantly, having the ability to create 9K power blockers or flood the board with bodies means that they’re both really annoying to deal with.
Final thoughts
As a player who mains the yellow archetype, this set has provided a lot of exciting additions that make the annoying mechanics even more so. But it’s also done the same for a lot of other keywords that haven’t received any support for a long time. Which, when you consider the recent bans that have been announced, means that ancient leaders that have lurked in the background for years finally have the chance to shine in the competitive scene.
But it’s not all competitive, believe it or not. This set has displayed beautiful art and introduced characters to the game that fans have long waited to see. Which always goes to show that there’s corners of the one piece universe that still haven’t been fully searched.
So there you have it, another exciting set on One Piece cards and another opportunity missed for me to find a manga rare card. But perhaps you had better luck with your pulls? Be sure to let us know what you got by using the @zatugame tag on all social media platforms.
