OP-17 Matchup Chart: Who Beats Who After the Mihawk Ban

Every number here comes from the seven events on Limitless Play that ran under the post-ban OP17.5 rules from October 5 to October 15, 2026: 319 players and 620 games between different leaders, all best-of-one Swiss on the simulator. Bandai's ban on OP14-020OP14-020Shop on TCGplayer Dracule Mihawk took effect on October 12, but four of these events, starting with ChinoizeCup #118 on October 5, already ran without him. The Rumble league lists him as a banned card, and no player in any of the seven registered him. Mirrors, byes and the one tie are left out. For the tier list itself, built on paper results as well, see our OP-17 meta tier list, and for decks to build, the One Piece TCG meta snapshot.

The OP-17 matchup chart

Chart: Shonen TCG. Source: Limitless Play standings and pairings for the seven OP17.5 events, October 5-15, 2026.

Read across a row: that's the row leader's wins and losses against the column leader. Cells under eight games are grey, because a best-of-one sample that small swings on one opening hand. The table below has every leader with ten or more players, its record against other leaders, and its best and worst matchup among pairs that met eight or more times.

The format runs in a loop. Black Luffy beats Rocks, Luffy & Ace beats Black Luffy, and Rocks plays Luffy & Ace about even. Whatever your local plays most decides which corner you want to stand in.

OP-17 matchup chart, leader by leader

Luffy & Ace: the pick

ST30-001ST30-001Shop on TCGplayer Luffy & Ace (LAce to most players) had the best record of any leader with a real field behind it: a little over three wins in five against other leaders. Its one losing pairing with eight or more games is Kalgara, and only 11 players brought Kalgara. Against Rocks it's close to a coin flip, and the plan there is simple. Asked how to play LAce into Rocks, one player on r/OnePieceTCG answered: "Go second. Find your combo. Swing face. That's all there is to that deck, nothing else to be done." We'd register it this week. Our Luffy & Ace deck guide has the list and a longer matchup table.

Here's the Rocks vs LAce matchup played out in full, from Moises Ong's channel:

Blue Rocks: even against the field

OP17-039OP17-039Shop on TCGplayer Rocks was the most-played leader, 52 of 319 players, and it came out almost exactly even against everyone else. Its real problem is Black Luffy. OP17-079OP17-079Shop on TCGplayer Black Luffy's leader gives Blocker to every Character with a cost of 12 or more, and OP17-094OP17-094Shop on TCGplayer Rodo costs 1 but gains +12 cost under an Elbaph leader. A Rocks player asking for advice on that matchup got this reply: "B luffy I believe is favoured anyways, swinging a bunch of 5s and walling up with blockers." The chart agrees, 14-19. Play Rocks if you've drilled the mirror and that matchup; the Xebec deck guide covers both.

Black Luffy and Purple Kaido: the Rocks counters

Image: Bandai official card list (OP17-079 and OP17-058).

Black Luffy beat Rocks and crushed Kaido 11-2, then went 5-14 against Luffy & Ace. That makes it a room read. If your store is wall-to-wall Rocks, bring it. If LAce is popular, leave it home. Our Black Luffy deck guide has the cost-12 Blocker plan.

OP17-058OP17-058Shop on TCGplayer Kaido is the odd one. It beat Rocks 9-5, the worst pairing Rocks has with eight or more games, yet it lost nearly every game to Black Luffy (2-11) and finished under even overall. We'd skip it unless you know the room is Rocks and nothing else. The Kaido deck guide explains the removal plan if you want to try.

Red/Black Sabo and Yellow Kalgara: the safe picks

OP13-004OP13-004Shop on TCGplayer Sabo didn't lose a single pairing by more than one game where the sample reached eight, and it beat Rocks 10-8. If you want a deck with no clearly bad matchup among the big samples, it's Sabo. Here's our Red/Black Sabo deck guide.

Kalgara (OP08-098) had the best overall record of anything with ten or more players and the only winning record against Luffy & Ace over eight or more games, 9-5. Eleven players is thin, so treat it as a counter-pick for a LAce-heavy room more than a ranking. The Kalgara deck guide walks through the leader and the pre-ban lists.

Image: Bandai official card list (OP08-098 and ST30-001).

Hancock, Pudding, Rosinante and Purple Enel: skip for now

OP14-041OP14-041Shop on TCGplayer Hancock lost to both Rocks (4-8) and Black Luffy (2-7) and finished with the worst record of the leaders in the table, so we'd put the list from our Hancock deck guide away for now. The Purple/Yellow decks and OP15-058OP15-058Shop on TCGplayer Purple Enel share one problem: Luffy & Ace beat Pudding 7-2 and both Rosinante and Purple Enel 8-3. Pudding does hold its own against Rocks (5-4), and one Pudding player's thread got this advice: "pudding can steal games if you force them to defend before they set up their big bodies." That's one good matchup in a field where LAce is the second most-played deck.

Why other OP-17 matchup charts still show Mihawk

The other matchup charts we found online were last built before the ban. The opdecks.xyz win matrix says it was updated September 10, 2026, and Straw Hat Stats is on the week of September 30, 2026. Both still list Dracule Mihawk, and every Mihawk game in them shifted the rest of the field too. If you want to know how each leader handled him, that's archived in our Mihawk matchup guide.

What could move it

• EB-05 (English release October 30, 2026). The online ChinoizeCup moved to the EB-05 card pool on October 19 and 20. Across those two nights (248 players), Rocks was still the most-played leader and won 57% of its games against other leaders, better than it does now. Bandai lists the set as "Tournament Legal after 7 days."
• Regional Monterrey (October 24, 2026). It's the first OP17 Regional on Limitless' calendar, played in paper, which is a different test from best-of-one on the simulator.

How we checked this: we pulled the standings and round-by-round pairings for all seven events from Limitless Play's public API on October 21, matched each player to their leader and counted every decided game.