OP-16 Paramount War Leaders & Factions Guide (2026)

This is a faction map, not a claim that a short article can replace the complete card list. Bandai lists 126+1 product types for OP-16, so use the official list for a full inventory. The useful starting point is narrower: identify the Leader, check its colors, then sort Characters by their printed color and type.

TL;DR: OP-16 has six Leaders across Red, Green/Blue, Blue, Purple, Black, and Black/Yellow. The set also has two SEC Characters. The printed card category and color matter more than a character's name or faction label when you build a deck.

OP-16 Paramount War: quick answer

OP-16 has exactly six Leaders. The six deck shells cover Red Whitebeard Pirates, Green/Blue Impel Down and Straw Hat cards, Blue Impel Down and Buggy Pirates cards, Purple Navy cards, Black Land of Wano cards, and Black/Yellow Warlords and Blackbeard Pirates cards.

The important correction is that a shared name or trait does not make every printing legal under every Leader. One Buggy printing is a Green Character while another is a Blue Leader. The Admiral and Whitebeard support cards are Characters, not extra Leaders.

Overview: what the official OP-16 set page confirms

Bandai's product page labels OP-16 as THE TIME OF BATTLE and ties it to the Paramount War theme. It lists June 12, 2026 as the availability date, a $4.99 MSRP per pack, and 126+1 types in total. The listed rarity line includes Treasure Rare, Secret Rare, Leader, Super Rare, Rare, Uncommon, Common, Special, and DON!! cards.

The same page identifies six new Leader cards and gives each a short deck direction:

• Red Whitebeard Pirates: a fast-paced Life-pressure plan.
• Green/Blue Impel Down and Straw Hat: a Prisoner-focused shell.
• Blue Impel Down and Buggy Pirates: a wide-board plan.
• Purple Navy: a high-cost Three Admirals plan.
• Black Land of Wano: a Trash-focused shell.
• Black/Yellow Warlords and Blackbeard Pirates: attack redirection and Life manipulation.

Bandai also confirms two SEC debuts, one for Portgas.D.Ace and one for Marshall.D.Teach. The product page says the Three Admirals appear in the set's Super Alt-Art treatment. That corrects the old description of the Admirals as three Manga Rare types and the old claim that OP-16 had no Treasure Rare.

Key Takeaways

• OP-16 contains six Leaders, not nine or a larger group of Leader Characters.
• Leader colors are Red, Green/Blue, Blue, Purple, Black, and Black/Yellow.
• OP16-065 Sakazuki is a Purple Character, not a Leader.
• OP16-031 Buggy is Green, while the OP16-041 Buggy Leader is Blue.
• The two SEC cards are Character cards: OP16-118 Ace and OP16-119 Marshall.D.Teach.
• Bandai's product page lists Treasure Rare and 126+1 total types.

OP-16 Paramount War: leaders, colors, and types

The six Leader cards are the cleanest way to sort the set. The card list confirms their category, color, power, Life, and type. Their short effects also explain why the product page groups them into different deck plans.

• Portgas.D.Ace: OP16-001OP16-001Shop on TCGplayer is a Red Leader with the Whitebeard Pirates type and 5 Life. Once per turn, its effect can give Rush to a Monkey.D.Luffy Character or a Whitebeard Pirates Character with 8000 power or more.
• Monkey.D.Luffy: OP16-022OP16-022Shop on TCGplayer is a Green/Blue Leader with the Impel Down/Straw Hat Crew type and 4 Life. If the only Characters on your field are Impel Down Characters, its once-per-turn effect can set up to two DON!! cards active.
• Buggy: OP16-041OP16-041Shop on TCGplayer is a Blue Leader with the Impel Down/Buggy Pirates type and 5 Life. When an Impel Down Character is removed from the field, its DON!! effect can play a Prisoner of Impel Down card from hand.
• Sengoku: OP16-060OP16-060Shop on TCGplayer is a Purple Leader with the Navy type and 5 Life. Its main ability returns eight active DON!! cards to the DON!! deck to play up to three Admiral Characters with different names from hand.
• Yamato: OP16-079OP16-079Shop on TCGplayer is a Black Leader with the Land of Wano type and 5 Life. When a Land of Wano Character is played from the Trash, that Character gains Rush for the turn.
• Marshall.D.Teach: OP16-080OP16-080Shop on TCGplayer is a Black/Yellow Leader with The Seven Warlords of the Sea/Blackbeard Pirates types and 4 Life. On the opponent's turn, its Characters cost one more, and its once-per-turn attack redirection requires discarding a card with a Trigger.

These are not interchangeable color labels. The Leader's printed colors determine which cards can enter the deck under the normal rules. A Navy Character can still be Green, and a Prisoner Character can still be Blue or Green. Sort by the hexagon color first, then inspect the printed type and effect.

Ace and Sakazuki show why card category and color must be checked separately.

GODEEPER: The complete set hub adds product context and links out to the individual OP-16 deck guides. One Piece TCG OP-16 Complete Guide →

Representative OP-16 characters by faction

A faction label is useful for finding synergies, but it does not replace the color check. The examples below are representative cards whose category, color, and type are confirmed on Bandai's card list. They are not a complete inventory of every Character in the set.

Whitebeard Pirates and Red. OP16-014OP16-014Shop on TCGplayer Marco is a Red Rare Character with the Whitebeard Pirates type. If one of your Characters would be removed by an opponent's effect, Marco can be K.O.'d instead, and its On K.O. effect can play it from the Trash after you trash an 8000-power Character from hand. It belongs in the Red color pool, not because every Whitebeard-related card automatically shares the same color, but because this specific card is printed Red.

Navy and Purple. OP16-063OP16-063Shop on TCGplayer Kuzan, OP16-065OP16-065Shop on TCGplayer Sakazuki, OP16-073OP16-073Shop on TCGplayer Borsalino, and OP16-075OP16-075Shop on TCGplayer Garp are Purple Navy Characters. The first three are Admiral cards. Kuzan adds up to two rested DON!! cards on play and can stop a Blocker from activating for the turn. Sakazuki gives an opponent's Character -6000 power after paying DON!! and can generate active DON!! for a Navy Leader. Borsalino adds one active and one rested DON!! on play, then can become active with Blocker after paying two DON!! at the end of your turn. Garp adds one active and one rested DON!! when its Navy condition is met. Their effects support Sengoku in different ways.

Navy and Green. OP16-028OP16-028Shop on TCGplayer Smoker is a Green Navy Character, not a Purple Admiral. That single card is the cleanest warning against sorting by faction alone. It can share the Navy type with Sengoku's support package, but its Green color means it is not legal in a normal mono-Purple Sengoku deck.

Impel Down and the Buggy name. OP16-031OP16-031Shop on TCGplayer Buggy is a Green Character with the Impel Down/Buggy Pirates type and an On K.O. effect that plays a Prisoner of Impel Down card from hand. The Blue Buggy Leader cannot normally include it because Green is outside the Leader's colors. The shared name is not a color exception.

Impel Down and Blue. OP16-045OP16-045Shop on TCGplayer Crocodile is a Blue Character with the Impel Down/Former Baroque Works type. It has Blocker and can return one of your Characters to hand to play a low-cost Impel Down Character from hand. This is a Blue card with an Impel Down label, which is exactly the sort of interaction the official card list should settle before a deck is sleeved.

Sengoku and Marco illustrate the Leader versus Character distinction in two printed OP-16 cards.

The two OP-16 Secret Rare Characters

The SEC slot does not add two more Leaders. It adds two high-rarity Character cards with the same printed character names as two Leaders.

Portgas.D.Ace, OP16-118: OP16-118OP16-118Shop on TCGplayer is a Red SEC Character with the Whitebeard Pirates type. Its static effect improves the Counter of 8000-power Characters in your hand, and its On Play or On K.O. effect looks at the top five cards to find Monkey.D.Luffy or a Whitebeard Pirates card. The card belongs in the deck as a Character, not in the Leader area.

Marshall.D.Teach, OP16-119: OP16-119OP16-119Shop on TCGplayer is a Yellow SEC Character with The Seven Warlords of the Sea/Blackbeard Pirates types. Its On Play effect looks at the top three cards and can place one on top of your Life cards. Its Trigger can negate an opponent's Character effect and K.O. an opponent's Character with cost 5 or less.

The matching names are easy to misread in a card database. Always compare the card number and category: OP16-001 and OP16-080 are Leaders, while OP16-118 and OP16-119 are Characters.

GODEEPER: After you have sorted Leaders from Characters, use the set's chase-card breakdown to separate real deck pieces from collector treatments. OP-16 Best Cards to Pull →

How leader legality changes the roster

The official comprehensive rules require one Leader, a 50-card deck made from Character, Event, and Stage cards, and a 10-card DON!! deck. Only colors included on the Leader can enter the deck, and the deck can contain no more than four cards with the same card number. The rules are more reliable than a faction chart copied from a spoiler post.

This creates useful edge cases:

• A card can share a type with a Leader and still be illegal because its color does not match.
• A Character and Leader can share a name but remain different card categories.
• A multicolor Leader such as Luffy or Marshall.D.Teach can open two color pools, but it does not make every OP-16 Character legal.
• The card number matters for the four-copy rule. A different number is a different card even when the name is the same.
• The 10-card DON!! deck is separate from the 50-card deck and is not part of the OP-16 booster pool.

The practical sorting order is therefore Leader, color, card category, printed type, then effect. Starting with a character's anime faction and skipping the color is how the old version of this article turned Smoker, Buggy, and the Admirals into misleading deck advice.

Reading the OP-16 card pool

The card list is best used as a filter rather than a long character roll call. Select OP-16, then check whether each result is a Leader, Character, Event, or Stage. From there, compare the color and type against the Leader you want to play.

For collectors, the product page is the better source for the set's rarity structure and release details. It confirms the two SEC cards, the Three Admirals Super Alt-Art treatment, and the Treasure Rare listing. For players, the individual card entries are the better source for cost, power, Counter, color, type, and effect. Do not use a rarity list to infer a card's deck role.

For competitive context, keep a separate date stamp from the roster itself. A Leader's printed color and effect are stable card facts. A statement about which Leader is winning events or which SEC card is expensive can change after a new release or event result. The OP-16 meta report is the right place for that moving information, not this evergreen roster map.

Tips for sorting the cards

• Start with the six Leader numbers, then place the rest of the cards in color piles.
• Keep Leaders, Characters, Events, Stages, and DON!! references in separate stacks.
• Check the full type line. Navy, Impel Down, Whitebeard Pirates, and Warlords can appear in more than one color.
• Mark cards whose effects name a specific Leader or type, but do not assume a thematic match overrides the color rule.
• Treat SEC, Super Alt-Art, and other treatments as versions of a card category, not as extra Leaders.
• Verify all four-copy decisions by card number, not just by character name.

A five-minute sort using this order catches more illegal deck ideas than a long list of favorite characters. It also makes it easier to compare the official recommended deck direction with a community list without copying an outdated color assignment.

Step-by-Step: building a legal OP-16 deck

1. Choose the Leader card. Pick Ace, Luffy, Buggy, Sengoku, Yamato, or Marshall.D.Teach and place that one card in the Leader area.

2. Write down the Leader's colors. Record one color for Ace, Buggy, Sengoku, and Yamato, and both colors for Luffy or Marshall.D.Teach.

3. Filter the card list by color. Remove every Character, Event, or Stage whose printed color is outside the Leader's colors before judging its effect.

4. Sort the legal cards by type. Separate Whitebeard Pirates, Navy, Land of Wano, Impel Down, Warlords, and other types so the Leader's effects have a realistic pool to use.

5. Build the 50-card deck and 10-card DON!! deck. Respect the four-copy limit by card number, then verify that the deck contains no Leader card in the main deck.

6. Recheck the printed text. Confirm each card's category, color, type, cost, and effect against Bandai's live card list before buying missing copies or entering an event.

Key Takeaways

• The six OP-16 Leaders are Ace, Luffy, Buggy, Sengoku, Yamato, and Marshall.D.Teach.
• Sakazuki, Marco, Garp, Kuzan, Borsalino, Smoker, and the SEC printings are Characters.
• Faction and color are separate fields. OP16-028 Smoker is Green Navy, while the Admiral trio are Purple.
• OP16-031 Buggy is Green, not legal under the Blue Buggy Leader by the normal color rule.
• The product page lists two SEC Characters, Treasure Rare, and 126+1 total types.
• Use Bandai's card list for the complete roster and this guide for the sorting logic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the six OP-16 leaders? The six OP-16 leaders are Portgas.D.Ace in Red, Monkey.D.Luffy in Green/Blue, Buggy in Blue, Sengoku in Purple, Yamato in Black, and Marshall.D.Teach in Black/Yellow. Their official types are Whitebeard Pirates, Impel Down/Straw Hat Crew, Impel Down/Buggy Pirates, Navy, Land of Wano, and Warlords/Blackbeard Pirates.

Is Akainu a leader in OP-16? No. The English card is named Sakazuki, and OP16-065 is a Purple Admiral/Navy Character with 8000 power. It is not a Leader card. Marco, Garp, Kuzan, Borsalino, Smoker, and the two SEC cards are Characters as well, so they must be played inside a legal deck.

What does the OP-16 product contain? Bandai lists OP-16 as available June 12, 2026 at a $4.99 MSRP per pack, with 126+1 types in total. The listed rarities include Treasure Rare, two Secret Rares, Leaders, and the standard Character, Event, Stage, and DON!! cards. Product contents are random, so the total is not a playset.

Can OP16-031 Buggy go in the Blue Buggy leader deck? No. OP16-031 Buggy is a Green Character, even though it has the Impel Down/Buggy Pirates type. The OP16-041 Buggy Leader is Blue, so the Character's Green color is not legal under that Leader's normal color rule. Check color and card type separately instead of matching only the name or trait.

Which OP-16 cards are the Three Admirals? Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino are Purple Admiral/Navy Characters in OP-16. Bandai's product page says the set's Super Alt-Art treatment features the Three Admirals. They are not three Manga Rare card types, and none is an OP-16 Leader; Sengoku is the Purple Navy Leader.

How do I tell an OP-16 Leader from a Character? The official rules require one Leader, a 50-card deck made from Characters, Events, and Stages, and a 10-card DON!! deck. A Leader begins in the Leader area and controls the legal deck colors. Character cards remain in the deck and are played during the game, with no more than four copies of a card number.

Are the Ace and Blackbeard SEC cards Leaders? No. OP16-118 Portgas.D.Ace and OP16-119 Marshall.D.Teach are Secret Rare Character cards. The Leader cards are OP16-001 Portgas.D.Ace and OP16-080 Marshall.D.Teach. The shared character name does not make the SEC printing a second Leader, so check the card category and number.

Related Reading

• OP-16 Three Admirals Guide: A focused look at the Navy Characters behind the Purple package.
• OP-16 Collectors Guide: Rarity treatments and collector questions after you understand the card categories.
• OP-16 Sengoku Deck Tech: A Purple Navy example built from the Leader and Admiral pool.
• OP-16 Ace Deck Guide: A Red Whitebeard example using the Leader's printed conditions.
• One Piece TCG Beginner Guide 2026: The general Leader, color, and deck setup rules.

References

• OP-16 THE TIME OF BATTLE official product page
• OP-16 official card list
• ONE PIECE Card Game official rules
• ONE PIECE Card Game official comprehensive rules PDF