In a surprising turn of events during the Japan Nationals stream for the One Piece Card Game, the One Piece Trading Card Game Japan team announced that there will be a banning and restriction that will happen after the World Finals.

During the live stream, the hosts address the player community. They emphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy and diverse metagame to provide players with a fair and balanced competitive environment. To achieve this goal, the committee announced that they would have bannings or card restrictions after the World Finals.

What cards are likely to be Banned / Restricted?

Speculations are already floating around, but 3 theories are more likely to happen than others.

1. SakaLucci will be hit hard – Fans speculate that Rebecca, Lucci, and Moria will be restricted or banned. Sakazuki has dominated the scene since the discovery of the SakaLucci variant. With the Worlds being in OP05 format, it’s believed that most players will go for Sakazuki, which will put the ban hammer’s target onto the deck.
2. Big Mom to be restricted – People have a love-and-hate relationship with Big Mom. It’s a card that is extremely strong due to its on-play ability. People have been calling for its restriction for months, and their prayers might be answered on the next culling.
3. Moby Dick will be unbanned – Whitebeard’s Boat is the very first card to ever be banned by the OPCG Japan team due to its power. It was a very problematic card back then, but now that many cards can answer it, fans speculate it might be time to unban it.

The World Finals will happen on March 3; the next culling is expected to happen a week after. Although the announcement came from the Japanese team, it is to be expected that the western OPCG team will follow suit.