With all 6 Leaders for OP13 now revealed, it’s the perfect time to examine how each one functions, the support cards they bring, and their potential impact on the upcoming meta.
OP13: Carrying on His Will is set to release on August 23, 2025, coinciding with the latest banlist update to bring a fresh competitive landscape. This set introduces a range of powerful cards designed to strengthen the six new Leaders while also providing valuable tools for older archetypes. These additions can give older Leaders a push in the meta, helping them perform and possibly show up in top cuts.
English versions are from Card Kaizoku.
Black Imu
All eyes are on the Black Imu Leader that recently got leaked. Imu is a 4 Life 5,000 Power Leader, with a ruling that prevents you from adding Events with a cost of 2 or more in your deck. This restriction is mainly to keep the Leader balanced, preventing you from including powerful Black cards that synergize with this deck. Additionally, at the start of your turn, Imu’s lets you play 1 {Mary Geoise} Stage from your deck. This is what makes Imu exceptionally strong with the new 7-cost Empty Throne Stage in OP13, allowing you to play this high-cost strong stage without worrying about searching for it or the Don commitment.
Imu’s Activate: Main effect lets you trash 12 {Celestial Dragon} type Character from your field or 1 card from your hand to draw a card. This is basically a way to filter your hand for better cards if you’re trashing a card from your hand, or removing a {Celestial Dragon} from the field that you don’t want to gain a card, which can find you the card you need either to develop or to use for its Counter effect.
The Empty Throne is a key card to include with Imu since you’re playing it for free through your Leader’s effect. Once you have 19 or more cards in your trash, your Leader gains a +1,000 Power boost during your turn, enabling stronger attacks.
As for its Activate:Main effect, you get to rest 3 Don to play 1 black {Five Elders} type Character with a cost equal to or less than the total number of your Don cards on your field. This means we get to play high-cost Elders for less Don, enabling us to develop multiple Characters in the late-game to put more pressure on the opposing player.
All of the Elders have 5,000 Power with an effect that prevents the opponent from removing them through an effect. This means they’ll rely on attacks to control your field. Each Elder has a unique effect and keywords, making them useful when played on the board but not presenting tons of aggression until Saint Stepherd Ju Peter joins, pushing their Base Power to 7,000.
The Five Elders is your strongest play. It’s a 10-cost 12,000 Power Character that lets you rest one Don and trash 1 card from your hand to trash all of your Characters, then play up to five Elder-type Characters with different card names and have 5,000 Power from your trash.
So we’re getting access to all the Five Elders we mentioned to play, setting the stage for an extremely aggressive upcoming turn to close out the game. However, since Five Elders is a 10-cost Character that requires you to rest a Don, it will not work without a support card. This is where The Empty Throne comes into play, at 10 Don, you can rest 3 Don to play Five Elders, and you’ll be left with 7 Don to rest one of them and cheat out all your Five Elders from the trash.
Another Stage that players have considered is Mary Geoise. It reduces the cost of your {Celestial Dragons} type Characters by 1, which means you get to play Five Elders for 9 Don and have 1 Don left to rest and cheat out the Five Elders type Characters.
All in all, Imu has an interesting playstyle, wanting to get to that 10 Don for the massive combo play and cheat out all the Elders from your trash. Those Elders will be Active, can’t be removed by effect, and will have 7,000 Base Power, so basically it’s game over on the upcoming turn.
Red Green Monkey D.Luffy
Red Green Luffy is a defensive Leader, enabling you to give your Leader or one of your {Straw Hat Crew} type Character a +2,000 Power boost for each Don you rested by this effect. This effect can only be activated when your opponent attacks, and you need Active Don to activate it.
This means when deck building, we want to include cards that can set Don as active to enable our Leader’s effect without prioritizing board development. On top of that, we’ll favor {Straw Hat Crew} type cards as your Leader only boosts their Power. So we have some deck-building restrictions here, but {Straw Hat Crew} cards are popular in OPTCG, so we have enough strong options to add to our list.
Sanji and Roronoa Zoro are perfect support cards for the Red Green Luffy Leader. On Play, they can set 2 of your Don cards as Active. You can use those 2 Don to either develop more Characters, go for heavier attacks, or bank them for your defensive turn. Sanji’s end of your turn effect sets 1 of your Don as Active, so for as long as he’s on the board, you’re gaining the Don value out of him.
The 6-cost Luffy creates an explosive Don 6 turn, developing a 7,000 Power Character with the Double Attack keyword and setting 4 of your Don as Active. From there, you can only develop a 4-cost or less Character, so you can still play the likes of Roronoa Zoro to go wider on the field and present multiple attackers to aggro the opponent.
RG Luffy feels like he’ll make things extremely difficult for the opponent to control the board through attacks, forcing them to rely on removal effects to weaken your side of the field. The Don you’re gaining from your Characters means we could technically build a more aggressive version aiming to rush opponents down, or we can go all out on our Leader’s effect, and adopt a more control playstyle, aiming to win the late-game.
Leader Luffy’s effect can be extremely strong depending on the meta, and I can see him performing well alongside the support cards that enable the defensive turns.
Red Blue Portagas.D.Ace
We have a new 3 Life card Leader in the game! Red Blue Ace is a 3 Life card Leader with 6,000 Power, meaning it can be tough for the opposing player to get their attacks through. On your opponent’s attack, you can trash a card from your hand to give your opponent’s Leader or one of their Characters a -2,000 Power reduction, preventing their attack from going through and protecting your Life card or a key rested Character in play. This effect means we get to trash a dead card in our hand, making use of it as a +2,000 Counter.
Ace’s second effect requires you to attach a Don to him to activate, and when your opponent deals damage to your Leader or KO’s one of your 6,000 base power or more Characters, you get to draw a card. So a resource value effect that ensures you don’t run out of steam in the late game and always have an option to trash a card for the -2,000 Power reduction.
Having both Red and Blue colors in this leader means we get to include the aggressive playstyle of red and the draw potential of blue.
Ace is a Rush attacker that immediately presents offensive pressure. On top of that, he’s attaching 1 Don to your Leader and returning an opponent’s 5-cost or less to the owner’s hand. Your opponent can then play a 4-cost or less Character from their hand, which can be beneficial for them if they can activate that 4-cost Character’s effect or develop a blocker.
The value of the removal effect from Ace will depend on the matchup and the Character you’re removing.
The PRB02 Marcus should fit perfectly with Red Blue Ace, acting as a blocker that draws you 2 cards when KO’d. You’re essentially adding 3 cards to your hand if Marcus gets KO’d.
Red Purple Gol D.Rogers
Gol D. Roger is the first 7,000 Power Leader in OPTCG, and on top of that, he has 5 Life cards, making him seem almost impossible to break! He combines Red and Purple colors in one deck and has two effects that revolve around Don.
Although Roger is a 7,000 Power Leader, he reduces his own Power by -2,000 if you have 9 or less Don!! cards on your field. This means that during the early to mid-game, you’re on the same playing field as your opponent, with 5,000 Power on your Leader until you reach 10 Don. Ramp cards are more valuable than ever here, helping you reach 10 Don as quickly as possible to remove the Power reduction. With access to Purple cards, we shouldn’t have an issue finding strong Purple ramp cards to include in the list.
His second effect checks if you have Don cards on your field, then takes 1 Don card from your normal Don phase gain and attaches it to your Leader instead. For example, if you’re going second and you have two Don from the previous turn, you’d normally gain 2 Don to your Don field to be at 4 Don. But with Gol D. Roger, one of those 2 Don will be attached to your Leader instead, which can slow down your overall board development. Once you’re at 10 Don, you stop adding Don cards, so you won’t be attaching more Don to your Leader unless you deramp.
Crocus and Kouzuki Oden synergize perfectly with what your Leader Gol D. Roger is trying to do. They both ramp 1 Don, if you have any Don cards given, which we have already given through our Leader’s effect.
They speed up your strategy while making use of your Leader’s Don attachment to himself.
10-cost Gol D. Roger negates your Leader’s effect, stopping you from attaching Don to your Leader or giving the -2,000 Power reduction. This means we can now de-ramp Don cards without the drawback of our Leader’s effect.
10-cost Roger is a massive defensive play, giving your Leader a +2,000 Power boost and all of their Characters a -2,000 Power reduction until the end of your opponent’s next End Phase. So for the upcoming turn, it’ll be almost impossible for the opponent to set up a winning turn.
Yellow Jewelry Bonney
Yellow Jewelry Bonney is a 5 Life card Egghead Leader. She needs Characters with a Trigger to activate her effect. When a Character with a Trigger is played, you can attach 2 Don to your Leader or one of your Characters.
The 2 Don you’re attaching allows you to go for heavier attacks that force more Counter cards from the opponent. Additionally, some Characters may require you to attach Don to them to activate certain effects, so the Leader effect allows you to do that without sacrificing board development.
OP13 expansion has a lot of Yellow Egghead Characters that can be played with Leader Bonney, giving the deck a strong mid to late game.
If you’re a fan of Yellow decks with tons of Trigger cards like Yellow Charlotte Katakuri or Yellow Vegapunk, then Yellow Bonney is definitely the deck to explore.
The 7-cost Stussy gives the deck a huge Don 7 turn, allowing you to cheat out a Character with a cost of 5 or less and has a Trigger. Stussy is locked to Egghead type Leaders, so you can’t play her in Yellow Leaders that don’t have the Egghead type.
Red Black Sabo
Red Black Sabo is a 5,000 Power Leader with the downside of reducing his own Power by 1,000 as long as you have 4 or more Life cards. So, you’re essentially posing less threat with your attacks early in the game, and your lower power makes it easier for the opponent to take your first 2 Life cards.
However, that downside changes when you play a Character with a cost of 8 or more and attach a Don to Leader Sabo. Now, you gain a +1,000 Power boost on your Leader and all your Characters during your and your opponent’s turn until the 8-cost Character is removed. This enables heavier attacks but also makes it harder for the opposing player to get their attacks through or remove your field.
This is a Dressrosa/ Revolutionary Army type Leader, so we have access to a lot of support cards that can enable your Leader’s effect.
Hack only works with Revolutionary Army type Leaders, and he’s a great inclusion to access to that +1,000 Power boost early into the game. By Don 5, you can get the +1,000 Power on your Leader and Characters, making them harder to remove and posing a stronger offensive pressure.
Sabo can give +2 cost to a Character and attaches 1 rested Don to your Leader. The +2-cost can be used on Sabo himself to become an 8-cost Character and activate your Leader’s power boost effect on Don 6.
Monkey D.Dragon should fit in the deck perfectly, and a great play on Don 8. You’re developing a 9,000 Power Rush attacker who attaches to 2 Don to your Leader to gain the +1,000 Power boost.
