How to Play the One Piece Card Game

What you need to play

Each player needs three things, and a starter deck has all of them:

• 1 Leader card. It has a red back, so it's easy to keep out of your deck.
• A deck of exactly 50 cards. Characters, Events and Stages only.
• A DON!! deck of exactly 10 DON!! cards. Your resources. They never go in the main deck.

That's 61 cards a player. A playsheet helps because it shows where every card goes, but you don't need one, and Bandai has a free printable version on its rules page. No dice or tokens either: power boosts are DON!! cards tucked under your fighters, and damage is taken as cards. Sleeves are optional at home and must be opaque at official events.

What to buy first

One starter deck covers one player, so two people learning together need two. The easy answer is the Set Sail Deck Set [SD-01] (out 18 September 2026): two ready-to-play decks with Luffy and Ace as Leaders, a two-player playsheet, two guide books, two deck cases and an OP-17 booster pack. If you're teaching a friend or your kids, honestly, start there.

To pick a colour instead, the July 2026 starter decks each have a 51-card deck (Leader included), 10 DON!!, a playsheet and an OP-16 booster pack:

Red Luffy is our pick for a first deck. It attacks a lot, and you learn the rules faster when you're the one swinging. Older starters still play fine at home, but the early ones (ST-01 to ST-04 especially) are full of cards that have rotated out of tournament play. Browse our One Piece Card Game range, or ask us which deck suits you.

How you win a game of One Piece

At the start you put a small stack of face-down Life cards beside your Leader. The number is printed on the Leader, usually 4 or 5. When your Leader loses a battle you take damage, and each point of damage moves your top Life card into your hand. Once a player is on 0 Life, the next hit on their Leader wins.

Here's the twist. Every hit you land hands your opponent another card to defend with, and someone on 1 Life might be holding eight cards. The real skill is picking the turn to go all in.

The other way to lose is running out of cards. You lose the moment your deck hits 0, not when you next try to draw. It's rare, but keep half an eye on it if your deck draws a lot.

The five card types, and how to read them

Four card types live in your deck or on the table. DON!! cards have their own deck.

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Leaders have no cost and no Counter, can't be K.O.'d and never leave the Leader area. They do rest when they attack, like a Character.

Characters make up most of your deck, and you can have five on the field. To play a sixth, you trash one of the five first. That's a trash, not a K.O., so [On K.O.] effects don't happen.

Events come in two flavours: [Main] Events are played on your own turn, [Counter] Events only when your opponent attacks you, in the Counter Step. Stages can't attack or be attacked, and a new one sends the old one to the trash.

Reading a One Piece card

Here's Jinbe from the red ST-31 starter deck. Most Characters follow the same layout.

1. Cost: how many DON!! you rest to play it.
2. Power: its strength in a battle.
3. Attribute: Strike, Slash and so on. Some effects check it.
4. Counter: the +1000 down the left edge, used from your hand when you defend.
5. Effect text: what it does. Keywords sit in square brackets.
6. Card category: Character, Event, Stage or Leader.
7. Name: the character.
8. Type: its crew or group, like Straw Hat Crew. Lots of cards search for a type.
9. Colour: the hexagon in the bottom-left corner.
10. Card number, rarity and block icon: the number counts for the four-copy limit, the icon for tournament legality.

Leaders swap the cost circle for a Life number on the right, just above the card number. Some cards also carry a [Trigger] box, a dark strip with a yellow label just above the card category, like Gum-Gum Gatling Gun in the row above. More on that under battles.

DON!! cards: where your resources come from

If you've played Magic, forget lands. Your resources arrive on their own from the DON!! deck: 2 every turn, except the very first turn of the player going first, who gets 1. You're never stuck with a hand full of resources, and never short of the colour you need.

Each active (upright) DON!! in your cost area can do one of two jobs:

• Pay for a card. Rest (turn sideways) as many DON!! as the card costs. A 5-cost Jinbe means resting 5.
• Power up a fighter. Tuck it under your Leader or a Character for +1000 power during your turn. Stack as many as you like on one card.

A DON!! you've rested to pay for something can't be given to anyone that turn, and a given DON!! can't be moved to another card. So have a rough plan before you start: which DON!! pay for cards, and which go under your attacker.

Ten is the cap, because that's all there is. At the start of your next turn every DON!! you gave out comes back to your cost area. If a Character with DON!! under it is K.O.'d, those DON!! aren't lost; they drop back into your cost area, rested.

You'll also meet DON!! -1 early. It's a cost: return 1 DON!! from your field to your DON!! deck. Purple decks do this constantly, then use other effects to bring them back out.

The play area

Character area

The long row along the top. Up to five Characters.

Leader area

Your Leader, face up, all game.

Stage area

Room for one Stage.

Deck

Face down. Nobody looks at it unless a card says so.

Life area

Your face-down Life cards. Damage always takes the top one.

DON!! deck

Your 10 DON!!. Either player can look through it.

Cost area

The DON!! you've received, waiting to be spent or given.

Trash

Used Events and K.O.'d Characters, face up. Either player can look through either trash.

Your hand has no size limit, so you never discard at the end of your turn.

How to set up a game of One Piece

This is the step people most often get backwards: you draw and mulligan before you set your Life.

1. Place your decks Shuffle your 50-card deck and put it face down. Put your DON!! deck in its spot.
2. Reveal your Leaders Both Leaders go face up in the Leader area.
3. Settle who goes first Rock, paper, scissors or a coin toss. The winner chooses first or second. Any Leader effect that says "at the start of the game" happens now.
4. Draw 5 Each player draws an opening hand of five.
5. Mulligan if you want Starting with the first player, each player may shuffle their whole hand back and draw five new cards. Once only, all or nothing.
6. Set your Life Deal cards from the top of your deck, face down and unseen, as many as your Leader's Life number. Deal them one at a time onto the pile and the top card of your deck ends up at the bottom of your Life, which is what the rules want.
7. Play The first player starts their turn.

Going second gets you a draw and 2 DON!! on turn one, and you stay a DON!! ahead until you both hit ten. Going first lets you set the pace. Try both.

The five phases of a turn

Same five phases every turn, in this order. They're printed on the official playsheet too, so you don't need to memorise them.

1. RefreshDON!! you gave out come back, and all your rested cards stand up.
2. DrawDraw 1 card. The player going first skips this on turn one.
3. DON!!Put 2 DON!! from your DON!! deck into your cost area, active (just 1 on the first player's first turn).
4. MainPlay cards, use effects, give DON!! and attack, in any order.
5. EndEnd-of-turn effects happen, "this turn" boosts wear off, and play passes over.

Refresh Phase

Effects that last "until the start of your next turn" end. Then your given DON!! return to the cost area and everything you own stands up: Leader, Characters, Stage and DON!!. Yes, the Leader too. It rests when it attacks and refreshes like everything else.

Main Phase

Most of your turn happens here. In any order, as often as you can afford, you can play a Character, Stage or [Main] Event, use an [Activate: Main] ability, give DON!! to your Leader or Characters, and attack.

Characters come into play active (upright), but they can't attack the turn you play them unless a card says so, which is what [Rush] does. Coming in upright has an upside: your opponent can only attack rested Characters, so a fresh Character can't be attacked until it rests.

How battles work in the One Piece Card Game

To attack, rest your active Leader or an active Character and pick a target: your opponent's Leader or one of their rested Characters. Upright Characters are off limits unless a card says otherwise. Each attacker normally goes once a turn, and every one of them can go at the Leader if you like. Each attack is its own battle, with five steps.

1. Attack Step

Rest your attacker and name the target. [When Attacking] effects go off, then the defender's [On Your Opponent's Attack] ones.

2. Block Step

The defender may rest one active Character with [Blocker] to make it the new target. It can't be the card being attacked, and only one blocker can step in per battle.

3. Counter Step

Now the defender can boost their side, as many times as they like:

• Counter from hand. Trash a Character card from your hand and add its printed Counter (+1000 or +2000) to your Leader or one of your Characters for this battle. It costs no DON!!.
• Play a [Counter] Event by paying its cost.

4. Damage Step

Compare power. If the attacker's power is equal to or higher than the defender's, the attacker wins. Ties go to the attacker.

• A Character that loses is K.O.'d and goes to the trash. There's no leftover damage.
• A Leader that loses takes 1 damage (2 with [Double Attack]), and the top Life card goes to its owner's hand.
• If that Leader was already on 0 Life, the attacker wins the game.
• If the attacker has less power, nothing happens.

5. End of the Battle

"During this battle" effects wear off, including every counter boost.

What [Trigger] does

When you take damage and the Life card has a [Trigger] box, you choose: put it in your hand as normal, or reveal it and use the Trigger instead. Not both. Afterwards the card goes to the trash unless the effect sends it somewhere else (a "Play this card" Trigger drops the Character straight onto your field). Yellow decks are built around them.

One Piece card game keywords explained

• [Rush]Can attack on the turn it's played.
• [Rush: Character]Can attack the turn it's played, but only your opponent's Characters.
• [Blocker]When one of your other cards is attacked, rest this to become the new target.
• [Double Attack]Deals 2 damage to a Leader instead of 1.
• [Banish]The Life card it hits goes to the trash, not the hand, and its [Trigger] can't be used.
• [Unblockable]Your opponent can't use [Blocker] against it.
• [Trigger]Taken as damage from Life, you can use this effect instead of adding the card to your hand.
• Counter (+1000 / +2000)Trash this Character from your hand during your opponent's attack to add that much power. Free.
• [On Play]Happens when the card is played.
• [When Attacking]Happens when this card attacks.
• [Activate: Main]You can use this ability in your Main Phase.
• [On K.O.]Happens when this Character is K.O.'d, by a battle or an effect.
• [DON!! x1]Works only while this card has at least that many DON!! given to it.
• [Once Per Turn]You can use it once each turn.
• Circled 1, 2 and so onA cost: rest that many active DON!! in your cost area.

One Piece deck building rules

Pick your Leader first, because it decides what else is allowed in. After that there are only four rules.

• 1 Leader, exactly 50 cards and exactly 10 DON!!. Not 49, not 51.
• Every card must be your Leader's colour. A two-colour Leader lets you use either colour. A two-colour card only goes in if both its colours are on your Leader, so a red Leader can't run a red and green card.
• No more than 4 copies of any card number. It goes by number, not name. There are loads of different Monkey.D.Luffy cards, and each number gets its own four.
• Card text wins. If a card changes the deck-building rules, follow the card.

The six colours

Our advice for a first deck

Don't build from scratch. Play a starter deck a dozen times, then swap four or five cards at a time for ones from boosters in the same colour. Small changes teach you far more than guessing at a full 50-card list.

As you tweak it, count how many Characters have a Counter value. If it's only a handful, you'll struggle to survive. And keep enough cheap cards to do something on your first few turns, when you've only got 1 to 4 DON!!. A deck full of 8-costs looks great until you're staring at it on turn two.

Mistakes everyone makes once

1. Setting Life before drawing. Draw five and mulligan first, then set Life.
2. Attacking on the second player's first turn. Neither player can attack on their own first turn.
3. Countering to a tie. The attacker wins ties. Finish higher than the attacker, or save your cards.
4. Taking the Trigger card and using its effect. It's one or the other.
5. Playing Characters sideways. They come in upright and just can't attack that turn.
6. Paying DON!! for a Counter from hand. Character counters are free. Only [Counter] Events cost DON!!.
7. Blocking with the Character being attacked, or with a rested one, or twice in one battle. None of those is allowed.
8. Giving a DON!! you've already rested. Only active DON!! can be given, unless a card says otherwise.

Your first few games might take 40 minutes, and you'll probably get one of these wrong. That's normal.

Formats and what's legal

At home, play whatever you both agree on. Tournaments use two formats.

Standard uses Bandai's block system. Every card has a small numbered block icon in the bottom-right corner, each block covers four booster sets (OP-01 to OP-04 is Block 1, OP-05 to OP-08 is Block 2, and so on), and the oldest block drops out every April.

Some older cards have been reprinted with a newer block icon, and Bandai lists the card numbers that stay legal because of it (the ST-31 Nami, OP01-016, is one). With an older copy, check its number against that list rather than trusting the icon.

Extra Regulation doesn't rotate: everything from Block 1 onwards, minus banned cards. Ask your local store which format they run before you build for an event.

Bandai also keeps a short ban list. At the time of writing, five cards are banned and three pairs can't share a deck. It changes now and then, so check the official page before an event.

For UK events, your deck can be English or French cards (or a mix), DON!! can be any language, and sleeves must be opaque. New sets now come out worldwide at the same time as Japan, starting with OP-17 in August 2026. Find local events in the Bandai TCG+ app, and every rule in full in Bandai's full rules PDF.

Questions people ask

How many cards are in a One Piece Card Game deck?

Your main deck is exactly 50 cards. On top of that you have 1 Leader card and a separate deck of exactly 10 DON!! cards, so 61 cards in all. You can run up to 4 copies of any card number.

Can you attack on your first turn in One Piece TCG?

No. Neither player can battle on their own first turn. The player going second does draw a card and gets 2 DON!! on their first turn, but they still can't attack until their second turn.

Who wins a tie in the One Piece Card Game?

The attacker. If the attacking card's power is equal to or higher than the defender's, the attack succeeds. So when you counter, you need to finish higher than the attacker, which in practice means at least 1000 higher.

Can you attack active Characters in One Piece?

Not normally. You can only attack your opponent's Leader or their rested (sideways) Characters. A card effect can change that, but the basic rule protects upright Characters, including ones that were only just played.

What is a DON!! card?

DON!! cards are the game's resources. They come from their own 10-card deck, 2 per turn (1 on the first player's first turn). You rest them to pay for cards, or give them to your Leader or a Character for +1000 power during your turn. Given DON!! come back to your cost area at the start of your next turn.

Is there a hand size limit in One Piece TCG?

No. You can hold as many cards as you like and you never discard at the end of your turn.

Can I use Japanese One Piece cards at UK tournaments?

Not at official Bandai events. In the UK and the rest of Europe, the cards in your deck need to be English or French (a mix is fine). DON!! cards can be any language. At home, play whatever your opponent is happy with.

How long does a game of One Piece Card Game take?

Your first few games might take 40 minutes while you check the rules. Once you know them, most games take about half an hour. Bandai doesn't give an official playing time, but in-person best-of-one tournament rounds are 30 minutes plus 5 minutes of extra time.

What is the best One Piece starter deck for beginners?

For two new players, the Set Sail Deck Set [SD-01] is the simplest buy: two matched decks, Luffy and Ace, in one box. For one player, we'd start with the red Monkey.D.Luffy starter deck [ST-31], which plays straightforwardly and attacks a lot.

Where to start

The easiest ways in. Prices and stock on this list are live.

• One Piece Card Game: DP-11 - The Time of Battle - Double Pack Set Sold out
• One Piece Card Game: OP-16 - The Time of Battle - Booster Pack Sold out
• One Piece Card Game: OP-15 - Adventure on Kami's Island - Double Pack Set 10 (DP-10) Sold out

See everything for One Piece Card Game

Where these rules come from

Checked against Bandai's Comprehensive Rules v1.2.1 (28 August 2026), the official Rule Manual and the General Rules Q&A, 24 September 2026.

• ONE PIECE CARD GAME Comprehensive Rules v1.2.1 (Bandai, 28 August 2026)
• Official Rule Manual (Bandai)
• Q&A: General Rules (Bandai)
• Official playsheet PDF (Bandai)
• Block Number System announcement (Bandai)
• Cards subject to block number updates (Bandai)
• Banned and restricted cards (Bandai)
• Tournament Rules Manual (Bandai)
• Set Sail Deck Set [SD-01] product page (Bandai)
• Official card list (Bandai)