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Pretty in pink
One Piece the Card Game keeps growing exponentially in popularity and size, and as it does, Bandai introduces more products to keep us fans hooked. Thankfully, they’re not slowing down, and have released a brand new set of cards for players to get their hands on.
This time it’s Extra Booster 01, or EB01 for short and it serves as the first boost of power for all faction colours in the game. Not only that, but it’s also the most eye-catching set Bandai have released so far with a stunning pink colour to catch fans' eyes in store. I also feel obliged to point out that it has one of the best straw hat characters adorning the front of the pack in his usual excited fashion.
But enough about the packaging, no doubt you’d like to know the ins and outs of the set and what you can expect to find when you crack open your own boosters. Well, never fear! In this review I’ll be talking about exactly what you can expect to find inside and what to look out for if you run certain colours in the deck you play.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Cracking packs
Following suit with the previous sets, each pack contains 12 exciting new cards to get your hands on. However, this particular set contains a smaller range of cards than a normal OP set; 50% less to be precise. But does that mean it lacks the excitement and desirability of a normal set? Of course not!
Because of this, you’ll find that you see the same cards popping up more often as you open more packs in search of something good. Nonetheless, much like other packs, you’ll still find 2 rares in each pack with the chance of one being a super rare or higher rarity. The highest of which is an absolutely adorable Manga Rare version of the Tony Tony Chopper card; the art of which features on the front of the pack.
But don’t just look to the manga rare for stunning art, as the entire set has an amazing range of fantastic illustrations from the manga, anime and individual artists. It’s almost worth opening the boosters just for the art alone in this set!
Spikes across the board
Unlike the other booster sets that have been released for the One Piece trading card game; the purpose of this set is to add new power spikes to all colours. Rather than focusing on bringing one or two underpowered colours back up to speed, this set is a great allrounder and a great one to play sealed battles with.
That being said, there’s always one type that seems to get a bit of favor, and in this set it’s black. With additions such as Brook, a 3 cost 4k drop with the ability to minus 1 a character and KO a 0 cost on play and attack, you can start to see what I mean.
Of course, there’s great drops for other colours, such as Kid and Killer for red, Charlotte Flampe for yellow and Mr 2 for purple. Which goes to show why this set is great to pick up for players who want to flesh out their decks with some new cards. There’s something for everyone waiting inside these boosters.
Final thoughts
As a player that runs two high tier meta decks, I only needed a small amount of card from this set to bring my decks up to standard. However, I still found myself opening quite a bit of this set as it’s really enjoyable to use to play the sealed format with friends. Nonetheless, I still found that I had a large amount of cards leftover that I’ll never find a use for; but that’s the same for any set in any trading card game.
Admittedly, it was slightly frustrating that because of the smaller set size, more of the same cards were appearing and the cards I actually wanted were nowhere to be found. I feel that it would have been more beneficial to reduce the commons and uncommons and increase the rares or super rares to give players a better chance of getting what they needed.
Regardless, this is still a super fun set to open, and with it, One Piece the card game only gets better and leaves me even more excited for what else is to come in future sets. But if you’re looking to pick up a large amount of boosters, I highly recommend picking up a full box instead, as there’s a higher chance of finding the higher rarities than if you open single boosters.
But no matter how you get your One Piece TCG fix, good luck with your pulls and have fun!
