1. The Ban in Short
On September 24 Bandai banned Dracule Mihawk, alt arts included. The ban kicks in on October 12, 2026. A new promo leader, P-163 Dracule Mihawk, will be handed out at events as the replacement, and it's a much weaker card. Nothing else on the list moved: no pair ban on Shanks and Vander Decken, no unbans.
This special issue looks at what Mihawk was doing to OP17 from August 16 to September 26, 2026, and uses that to call what the format looks like on October 12.
- Mihawk was the format. Almost one seat in five over the whole period, a 53% win rate and almost a quarter of every top cut. When the deck to beat also has a free +1000 against every Slash leader, whole archetypes stop showing up.
- Rocks is the big winner. It was the one deck Mihawk crushed, and it's also a Slash leader. Take the Mihawk games out and Rocks wins 60% of the rest.
- Robin and Sabo lose their best matchup. Both were beating Mihawk, and both drop under 50% once those games are gone.
- A new triangle is waiting. Rocks, Black Luffy and RG Luffy & Ace already beat each other in a circle, and without Mihawk in the middle that loop becomes the shape of the format.
- P-163 Mihawk is playable, not scary. It keeps the leader alive as a deck, but it loses the refund that made the old one so flexible.
2. What Mihawk Was Doing to OP17
- Green Mihawk18.2%
- RB Sabo12.2%
- Blue Rocks11.3%
- Purple Kaido9.1%
- PY Robin8.6%
- Other40.6%
| Green Mihawk | 18.2% |
|---|---|
| RB Sabo | 12.2% |
| Blue Rocks | 11.3% |
| Purple Kaido | 9.1% |
| PY Robin | 8.6% |
| Other | 40.6% |
Mihawk took 18.2% of the seats over the period, won 53.4% of its games and made up 23.6% of the placed decks, for a conversion of 1.30. No other leader was close on all three at once. It peaked at 29.7% of the field in the week of August 30 and never dropped below 13.5% after that.
The matchup spread explains why Bandai's statement leaned so hard on Slash leaders:
| Mihawk against | Mihawk's win rate |
|---|---|
| Blue Rocks | 70.9% |
| Purple Kaido | 57.1% |
| Black Luffy | 54.4% |
| RB Sabo | 46.1% |
| PY Robin | 40.9% |
Rocks, a Slash leader, won under three games in ten against it. That's not a bad matchup, that's a gate. Every week Mihawk grew, Rocks paid for it:
| Aug 16 | Aug 23 | Aug 30 | Sep 6 | Sep 13 | Sep 20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green Mihawk | 13.8% | 17.1% | 29.7% | 15.0% | 13.5% | 15.1% |
| Blue Rocks | 16.1% | 19.5% | 10.2% | 7.0% | 8.1% | 7.2% |
| PY Robin | 1.9% | 5.8% | 9.1% | 12.4% | 14.1% | 12.9% |
| RG Luffy & Ace | 1.3% | 0.5% | 1.9% | 6.6% | 10.4% | 12.0% |
Rocks was the most played leader of the week of August 23. Mihawk nearly hit 30% the week after, and Rocks halved and never came back. Robin went the other way, climbing on the back of the one big matchup it won against Mihawk, all the way to the most played leader of the week of September 13.
Green Shanks, the other green Slash leader of the set, never got going at all: 0.9% of the seats over the period.
3. The New Mihawk
P-163 is still a mono-green, 5-life, 5000-power Seven Warlords leader. Two things are gone:
- The +1000 against Slash leaders. Rocks, Shanks, Roger and the rest now face a normal 5000 leader.
- The refund. The old leader rested a card to set up to 3 DON!! back as active, then locked you out of playing Characters for the turn. The new one rests a card to give up to 3 rested DON!! to the leader. Same condition as before: you need a Character with a cost of 5 or more on the board.
The second change is the one that hurts. Those 3 active DON!! were what paid for an Electrical Luna after a big turn, a counter event on the opponent's turn, or extra power spread over the attackers. P-163 turns all of that into a single thing: a leader swinging for 8000. It also drops the Character lock, so you can develop first and still use it, which is a small consolation.
What survives is the finisher. Shanks and Vander Decken IX are both still legal, together, in any green deck. Mihawk still gets to that turn, it just has nothing left over after it. The old leader is legal until October 12, and our Mihawk guide breaks that turn down step by step.
4. The Format Without Mihawk
The simplest way to see who gains: take every game against Mihawk out of each leader's record and look at what's left.
| Leader | Play rate | Win rate | Win rate vs Mihawk | Win rate without Mihawk games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Rocks | 11.3% | 53.2% | 29.1% | 60.3% |
| RG Luffy & Ace | 4.5% | 54.7% | 54.8% | 54.7% |
| Purple Kaido | 9.1% | 49.5% | 42.9% | 51.5% |
| Black Luffy | 6.6% | 50.1% | 45.6% | 51.0% |
| Purple Enel | 4.0% | 48.4% | 43.6% | 49.7% |
| PY Robin | 8.6% | 51.7% | 59.1% | 49.6% |
| RB Sabo | 12.2% | 48.8% | 53.9% | 47.3% |
| Red Ace | 4.6% | 45.4% | 50.6% | 44.3% |
| Blue Rocks | 60.3% |
|---|---|
| RG Luffy & Ace | 54.7% |
| Purple Kaido | 51.5% |
| Black Luffy | 51.0% |
| Purple Enel | 49.7% |
| PY Robin | 49.6% |
| RB Sabo | 47.3% |
| Red Ace | 44.3% |
Winners
Rocks gains twice. It loses its worst matchup by a mile, and even against the Mihawk players who stay, the +1000 that made that matchup so lopsided is gone. Against the rest of the top decks it was already doing fine: it beats Sabo 67% of the time, Red Ace 70%, Purple Enel 60%, and Robin and Kaido 56% each. We think Rocks goes into October 12 as the deck to beat. Our Rocks deck guide is the place to start if you want to be on it, including how to play into Black Luffy.
Black Luffy is the answer to Rocks, and it's the only big deck that is. It beats Rocks 65% of the time, and it was also a Mihawk victim. If Rocks becomes the most played leader, Black Luffy climbs right behind it. The Black Luffy guide has the Rocks matchup covered.
Kaido gets back a lot of room. Mihawk was one of its worst matchups (43%), and the two decks it beats, Robin (59%) and Sabo (57%), are still everywhere. Its problem is Rocks (44%), so how well Kaido does depends on how much Rocks it sits across from. The Kaido guide covers all three: Rocks, Robin and Sabo.
Slash leaders finally get a fair shot: Green Shanks, Roger, Krieg, Vivi. None of them had enough play in this format for us to say how good they are, and that's the point. Shanks in particular got the same red-haired package Mihawk was stealing, and it now gets to use it without a better version of itself in the room.
Losers
Robin was the Mihawk counter: 59.1% against it, and a big part of why it climbed from under 2% of the field to the top of it in mid September. Without those games it drops to 49.6%. It also has two real problems waiting in the new format: Kaido (41%) and RG Luffy & Ace (34%). The first days of this week have already been rough for it, at 40%. We still think Robin is a solid deck, just not the obvious pick anymore. The Robin guide covers how to play the Kaido matchup.
Sabo is in the same spot with worse numbers. It was one of the few big decks winning against Mihawk, and without those games it sits at 47.3%. Worse, the deck that benefits most from the ban is the one that beats it hardest: Rocks wins 67% of their games. If you're sticking with Sabo, the Sabo guide has a section on exactly that matchup.
Decks that farmed Mihawk, like Black Yamato, lose the one thing they were there for.
Mihawk itself, obviously. P-163 is a different, smaller deck. Until October 12 the old leader is still legal, and the Mihawk guide is still the one to read.
5. The Next Triangle
Win rate of the row leader against the column leader, over the whole period. Only matchups with at least 20 decided games.
| vs | Rocks | Robin | Sabo | Kaido | Luffy | L&A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocks | mirror | 56% | 67% | 56% | 35% | 57% |
| Robin | 44% | mirror | 50% | 41% | 49% | 34% |
| Sabo | 33% | 50% | mirror | 43% | 57% | 51% |
| Kaido | 44% | 59% | 57% | mirror | 53% | 31% |
| Luffy | 65% | 51% | 43% | 47% | mirror | 30% |
| L&A | 43% | 66% | 49% | 69% | 70% | mirror |
The old triangle was Mihawk over Rocks, Rocks over Robin, Robin over Mihawk. Take Mihawk out and a new one is already there: Rocks beats RG Luffy & Ace, RG Luffy & Ace beats Black Luffy, Black Luffy beats Rocks.
RG Luffy & Ace is the deck we'd watch closest. It didn't care about Mihawk either way (54.8% against it), so the ban doesn't touch it, and it's been the fastest grower of September: from 6.6% of the field in the week of September 6 to 12.0% this week, still winning 54.7% over the period. It beats Robin, Kaido and Black Luffy, and it's even with Sabo. The Luffy & Ace guide has the lines, and the Rocks matchup it needs to survive.
6. Our Call for October 12
S tier
- Blue Rocks: the best record in the field once Mihawk is gone, and favoured against almost everything left. Read the guide
A tier
- RG Luffy & Ace: untouched by the ban, still growing, and beats most of the non-Rocks field. Read the guide
- Black Luffy: the Rocks counter. Moves up if Rocks takes over, as we expect. Read the guide
- Purple Kaido: loses its worst big matchup and still punishes Robin and Sabo. Read the guide
- PY Robin: loses its best matchup and has to deal with Kaido and RG Luffy & Ace. Still a strong deck, off the top spot. Read the guide
B tier
- RB Sabo: under 48% without Mihawk games, and the deck that gains the most, Rocks, is its worst matchup. Read the guide
- Purple Enel: gains a little from the ban, still under 50%, still loses to Rocks.
- Red Ace: was even against Mihawk, and loses 70% of its games to Rocks.
- Green Mihawk (P-163): left off the grid because the card isn't out yet. We'd put it here: it keeps the Shanks and Decken finisher but loses the refund and the Slash bonus. Playable, not a top deck. The guide covers the current leader, legal until October 12.
On the watch list
- Green Shanks: the leader with the most to gain on paper. Too few games in this format to call it, which is exactly why it's here.
- Red Whitebeard: 56.4% over the period and growing every week, up to 3.2% of the field this week. It places at 1.45 times its play rate.
- Yellow Enel: 57.6% and a conversion of 1.92, on very little play. Too small to rank, big enough to keep an eye on.
7. What to Watch Next
- Whether Rocks really becomes the most played deck, and how fast Black Luffy follows it.
- Whether Green Shanks, or any other Slash leader, turns the free room into results.
- How many players stick with P-163 Mihawk, and whether Shanks plus Decken is still enough to win events without the refund.
Every OP17 deck guide we've published is in Meta Hub, Guides. If you're picking up a new deck for October 12, that's the fastest way to be ready for it.