One Piece OP-18 "The Dominance of God": Release Date, Leaders and Revealed Cards

The One Piece Card Game's fifth year already has its first appointment: Bandai has unveiled OP-18 "The Dominance of God", the next main expansion, with an official trailer and a late-November 2026 release window in Japan. And the first reveals promise an extraordinary set: Franky's absolute debut as a Leader, the Holy Knights taking center stage and — for the first time in the game's history — cards illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, the legendary Final Fantasy artist. In this guide we gather everything confirmed, everything reported and what to expect: we'll update it with every announcement until release day.

Key Takeaways

1. What's Confirmed: Name, Trailer and Release Window

Let's start with the official facts. The set exists, it's called "The Dominance of God" and Bandai has published its official trailer — the name is no rumor. The Japanese release window is late November 2026: the first communications and Japanese store listings converge on the month's final week, with the exact day still pending on Bandai's official product page.

The English date, on the other hand, hasn't been announced yet — and we'll come back to that shortly, because the game's recent history tells us a lot about what to expect. Everything else you'll read on this page comes from reveals and listings reported by sector press and Japanese retailers: solid information, but to be treated as pending official confirmation, as always during spoiler season.

2. "The Dominance of God": The Holy Knights Take the Stage

The title says it all: OP-18 brings the manga's most anticipated current-era faction into the game — the Holy Knights, the World Government's supreme armed force at the heart of the Elbaf arc. The first reveals show figures like Saint Gunko and Saint Shamrock, alongside Loki and the Elbaf material: for collecting, this means first printings of characters destined to dominate the saga for years to come — historically the category of cards that ages best.

Alongside the "divine" thread, the reveals tell of the set's second soul: a nostalgic return to Water Seven, with Chimney, the Mini Merry, Karoo and the faces of that era. It's the formula the game has already perfected: one foot in the manga's present, one in the readers' memory — and two different pools of demand in the same box. To place OP-18 in the bigger picture, our complete map of every set from OP-01 to OP-17 is the starting point.

3. Franky Leader: An Absolute First (and the Other Five)

The news that made the most noise among players: according to listings reported by Japanese retailers, Franky debuts as a Leader card for the first time in the game's history — an eighteen-set wait for the crew's cyborg, in a Green/Purple identity that promises his style. For character collectors, his first Leader is by definition a piece of history.

The other reported Leaders complete a cross-cutting cast: Monkey D. Luffy (Green), Miss All Sunday (Blue) — the Baroque Works–era Robin, another nostalgic dive — Gunko (Purple/Black) for the Holy Knights, Karoo (Red/Blue) and Spandam (Black/Yellow). Six identities that, if confirmed, cover nearly the full color spectrum: a set built to move the metagame as much as the display cases.

Did You Know?

Yoshitaka Amano — the artist who defined Final Fantasy's visual imagination — signs, according to the first reveals, some of OP-18's cards: it would be the first time an illustrator of this caliber enters the One Piece Card Game, following the wave of artist collaborations that are turning cards into art objects.

4. The Amano Cards: The Set's Artistic Event

If the Holy Knights are the narrative hook, the Yoshitaka Amano illustrations are the collecting one. Reveals reported by sector press indicate two artist subjects — Loki and Saint Shamrock (the latter at Secret rarity) — each in a standard version and a parallel foil version. Amano's ethereal, unmistakable style applied to Oda's characters is the kind of crossover that speaks to two collector worlds at once: those who collect One Piece and those who collect Amano.

The precedent is fresh and we know it well: when Pokémon's thirtieth anniversary entrusted Mewtwo and Mew to YOSHIROTTEN, those cards instantly became the set's centerpiece. Event-run artist collaborations are the new frontier of value in TCGs — and OP-18, if the reveals are confirmed, will have its own.

5. Rarities and Parallels: What the First Reveals Indicate

On the rarity front, the circulated listings indicate around 127 cards (number to be confirmed) with the main sets' usual structure — six-card Japanese packs, twenty-four-pack boxes — and at least one special parallel already reported: a Holy Knights–dedicated version on Gunko, in the vein of the celebratory parallels the fourth anniversary made famous.

An honest note for those coming from OP-17: at the moment there is no sign of a Treasure Rare for OP-18 — the super-rarity introduced with the fourth-anniversary set may remain an exclusive of celebratory events, but it's early to say. How the full rarity pyramid works, Treasure included, is in our OP-17 guide; we'll update this section as soon as Bandai publishes the set's official composition.

6. What About English? The Lesson of Aligned Releases

The question everyone asks: when does OP-18 arrive in English? The honest answer: Bandai hasn't announced it yet. But recent history helps form a reasonable expectation: since the OP-15 cycle the game's releases have been globally aligned, and with OP-17 the gap between Japan and English was just six days (August 22 and 28). If the pattern holds, the English window should be extremely close to the Japanese one — but until there's an announcement, it remains an expectation, not a date.

For those deciding which version to get, the reasoning doesn't change with OP-18: tournaments and liquidity speak English, first printings and exclusives speak Japanese — the complete criteria are in our English vs Japanese guide.

7. Getting Ready for OP-18: What to Do Now

Pre-release season has its rules, refined set after set. One: preorders are opening worldwide these weeks — and on a set with the Holy Knights, Franky's first Leader and artist cards, the list-price window historically doesn't last. We announce our arrivals and preorders first in our Tuesday and Thursday live streams and on our socials, with the full catalog in the One Piece collection.

Two: use the wait to build context — the complete One Piece Card Game guide for the big picture, the set map to understand where OP-18 fits. Three: come back here. This page is our OP-18 worksite: the official date, the English release, the full card list and the products will be added with every announcement, right up to launch day.

Conclusion

OP-18 "The Dominance of God" has everything to be the fifth year's most ambitious set: the manga's most powerful faction making its debut, a first Leader eighteen sets in the making, Water Seven's return and — if the reveals are confirmed — the signature of one of the greatest living illustrators. The window is late November in Japan, English should follow closely if the aligned-release pattern holds, and spoiler season has only just begun. We're following it reveal by reveal — and this guide grows with it.

At GS Gameon we approach OP-18 as always: preorders announced first in our live streams, Factory Sealed–guaranteed products in both languages and selected singles from day one. The dominance of God is coming — let's be ready for it.

Note: OP-18 information comes from Bandai's official trailer and from reveals and listings reported by retailers and sector press as of publication; names, dates, contents and rarities are subject to official confirmation and may change. Article updated September 30, 2026.