In short: Yoshitaka Amano, the illustrator behind Final Fantasy since 1987, has painted two cards for the One Piece Card Game: Loki, the cursed prince of Elbaph, and Saint Shamrock, commander of the Holy Knights. Bandai unveiled them on Sunday 23 August 2026 at One Piece Day '26. Both ship in the OP-18 booster "The Dominance of God", due worldwide in November 2026.
What did Bandai announce at One Piece Day '26?
Two character cards signed by Yoshitaka Amano, to be found in the eighteenth booster of the One Piece Card Game. The reveal happened on stage at Makuhari Messe, then on the X accounts of the game and of Eiichiro Oda's staff, on 23 August 2026 at 2:03 p.m. Tokyo time. The game's English account summed it up in one line: "OP-18 features 2 colossal characters illustrated by the legendary artist Yoshitaka Amano".
To place that in your own time zone: 6:03 a.m. in London, 7:03 a.m. in Paris and Berlin, 1:03 a.m. in New York, and still Saturday evening in Los Angeles (10:03 p.m.) and Mexico City (11:03 p.m.). One Piece Day '26 ran on 22 and 23 August in Chiba, and it was the first edition streamed live on YouTube for the whole world. We had laid out the One Piece Day 2026 schedule and times before the event, noting that one session was set aside for the card game. That session is the one that delivered Amano.
The same weekend, Shueisha and Toei confirmed two animated films, ONE PIECE FILM GOD VALLEY for summer 2027 and ONE PIECE FILM BAAD for 2029, plus the 600 million copies milestone for the manga. Luffy finished first in the second WORLD TOP 100 global poll, ahead of Zoro and Sanji. In that flood of news, the Amano cards still managed to get people talking, and not only players.
Who is Yoshitaka Amano, and why does his name change everything?
Yoshitaka Amano was born in 1952 in Shizuoka. He joined Tatsunoko at fifteen and designed the characters of Gatchaman, Tekkaman and Casshern before going freelance in 1982. Since then his watercolours have given a face to the Vampire Hunter D novels, to Mamoru Oshii's film Angel's Egg, and above all to Final Fantasy, whose characters he has drawn since the first game in 1987.
What matters here is that Amano is not walking into unknown territory. In June 2025, Magic: The Gathering handed him Terra, the heroine of Final Fantasy VI, for its Final Fantasy set, in two versions. He also illustrates Square Enix's Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. An artist already familiar to Magic collectors arrives at Bandai with his Final Fantasy audience, a good share of whom have never opened a One Piece booster. That is Bandai's bet.
His style is the opposite of Oda's line: no hard black outlines, washes that bleed past the edges, elongated faces, colours that still look wet. On a 63 by 88 millimetre card the effect is striking. It looks like a novel illustration slipped into a deck.
What do Amano's Loki and Shamrock cards look like?
Two character cards in the game's "parallel" layout, with the illustration spilling over the frame and Amano's name printed along the right edge. On the visuals Bandai released they carry the SAMPLE watermark of press proofs, but the numbers, costs and effect text are readable. Those details are what tell you what the cards really are.
Saint Shamrock is numbered OP18-119 with the SEC mark, the set's Secret Rare. Cost 8, 9,000 power, Slash attribute, Celestial Dragons and Holy Knights of God types. Amano painted him standing in a blue cape, red hair in the wind, with a three-headed dog rising out of the mist on his left: Cerberus, his sword that ate a Devil Fruit. His effect lets you replay him from the trash when he is K.O.'d, then bring back another Holy Knight of cost 6 or less.
Loki, for his part, is numbered OP17-119. That is not a typo: the Loki Secret Rare already exists in the OP-17 booster, released on 22 August in Japan, with art by Akanegumo. The Amano version keeps the same text (cost 6, 8,000 power, +12 cost, +3,000 on your opponent's turn, and a K.O. of opposing characters totalling 4 cost on arrival) under a new painting, and it will be slipped into OP-18 boosters. Inside Games, which covered the stage, calls them special parallel versions created for the game's fourth anniversary. Bandai has not yet specified the exact rarity or the pull rate.
| Card | Number | Cost / power | Illustrator | Product |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Shamrock | OP18-119 SEC | 8 / 9,000, Slash | Yoshitaka Amano | OP-18, November 2026 |
| Loki | OP17-119 SEC (parallel version) | 6 / 8,000, Strike | Yoshitaka Amano | OP-18, November 2026 |
| Loki (base version) | OP17-119 SEC | 6 / 8,000, Strike | Akanegumo | OP-17, August 2026 |
| Franky (Leader) | OP18-021 L | 5,000, 4 life, green and purple | Hiyori Uto (TV animation) | OP-18, November 2026 |
| Nico Robin (Leader) | EB05-010 L | 5,000, 4 life, green and yellow | Naruse Uroko | EB-05, October 2026 |
The two other cards shown the same day are not by Amano, but they say where the line is heading. Franky gets his very first Leader card in OP-18, in green and purple, with an effect built around Stage cards. Nico Robin returns as a Leader in the extra booster EB-05 "Heroines Edition vol.2", expected in October.
Who are Loki and Shamrock in the Elbaph arc?
The two figures who shape One Piece's current arc: Loki is the giant prince of Elbaph, chained for six years for the murder of his father King Harald; Shamrock is Shanks's twin brother, leading the Holy Knights sent by the World Government to seize him. Amano's assignment is no accident, it is the duel the manga has been building since 2025.
We covered Loki at length in our guide to the Elbaph arc: a colossus crucified beneath the island, accused of killing his own father to eat a Devil Fruit handed down in the royal family, who introduces himself as the Sun God. The anime gave him episode 1160, "Loki, the Cursed Prince". Amano paints him mid-break from his chains, horns forward, in a palette of washed-out blues and reds that cuts against the dark flat tones of the Akanegumo card.
Shamrock is more recent. Eiichiro Oda introduced him in chapter 1137 of the manga, in February 2025, and the anime brought him on screen in June 2026 with episode 1167. Son of Saint Figarland Garling and Shanks's elder twin, he took command of the order when his father rose to the Five Elders. Same face as Shanks, minus the scars, and the same hair: the red Shanks wig we sell for cosplay (29.99 EUR, 4.8/5 from 5 reviews) works for both brothers, you just skip the scar makeup.
Click the image to watch Toei Animation's "The Knights of God" trailer, which introduces Shamrock's arrival in the anime.
When does OP-18 "The Dominance of God" come out, and at what price?
In November 2026, with no exact day announced by Bandai as of 27 August. The Japanese name is "Kami no Shihai" (神の支配), literally the rule of the god. The teaser posted on the Bandai Card Games YouTube channel adds a destination, Water Seven, and Japanese outlets cite the Holy Knights as the second theme. Inside Games describes the booster as the second half of the game's fourth anniversary, after OP-17.
The OP-18 teaser published by Bandai Card Games opens when you click the image.
Several shops have already opened pre-orders with 20 November 2026 as the date, but that is a distributor estimate, not a Bandai announcement. For the gap between Japan and the rest of the world, the most recent precedent is OP-17 "The World's Strongest Warriors": 22 August in Japan, 28 August for the English version. There is no French-language edition to date; the cards sold in Europe are the English ones.
On price, Bandai lists the English booster at 4.99 dollars for OP-17 and EB-05 on its site, and the Japanese OP-17 booster at 240 yen. Nothing points to an increase for OP-18. The difference between the two markets comes mostly from pack contents and parallel card rates, not from the unit price.
| Product | Release | What we know |
|---|---|---|
| 4th Anniversary Set (Japan) | September 2026 | Anniversary box, 18,700 yen |
| SD-01 Set Sail Deck Set (English) | 18 September 2026 | Starter deck set, 24.99 dollars |
| EB-05 Heroines Edition vol.2 | October 2026 | Nico Robin Leader, Nami and Robin cards by Takashi Kojima |
| OP-18 The Dominance of God | November 2026 | Amano cards, Franky Leader, Water Seven and Holy Knights themes |
| ST-37 and ST-38 | December 2026 (listings) | Starter decks, contents not announced |
How much will the Amano cards be worth?
Nobody can say before the first boxes are opened, and I distrust anyone quoting a figure in August for a card due in November. What we can do is look at what the neighbouring cards are worth today. On Limitless TCG, as of 27 August, the base Loki OP17-119 trades around 38 dollars and its alternate art around 114 dollars, one week after the Japanese release.
Three things work in favour of the Amano versions: SEC rarity, an illustration that exists nowhere else, and a name that pulls in buyers from outside the One Piece community. One thing works against them: Bandai prints a lot, and OP-17's two Secret Rares trade at modest prices a week after the Japanese launch. If you want a benchmark for what the market accepts to pay for a rare One Piece card, our ranking of the most expensive One Piece cards gives the scale. And for a promo card that gained value because it was hard to get, the Luffy card from the Grévin museum is the best recent example.
A seller's advice, in the absence of a crystal ball: if you pull an Amano, do not leave it in the booster wrapper. The rigid case we sell for Pokémon cards (19.99 EUR, 4.9/5 from 30 reviews) takes a One Piece card in the same 63 by 88 millimetre format, with a sleeve underneath. This is the kind of card you take out to show, not to play.
Why this collaboration matters beyond the card game
Because a painter whose style contradicts Oda's this much has been approved by Shueisha on a product sold in shops. Other Jump artists have drawn Luffy for anniversary illustrations before, while staying within the manga's codes. A Shamrock with pale eyes and fine features, without a single black outline, is a different kind of freedom, and it says something about the weight Bandai and Shueisha now give the card game.
For collectors it is also a bridge. People who chased Amano's Terra in Magic boosters last year will open OP-18 for the same reason, and some will stay. Bandai understands the mechanism: the game is turning four, the competition arrives with its own Naruto Card Game in 2027, and a signature like this does more for a set's profile than ten Leader cards. If you feel like wearing the crew's colours before November, our One Piece range covers Luffy, Zoro, Nami and Chopper.
Frequently asked questions about the Amano cards in the One Piece Card Game
Are the Amano cards Secret Rares?
Both visuals released by Bandai carry the SEC mark: OP18-119 for Saint Shamrock, OP17-119 for Loki. Japanese outlets describe them as special parallel versions for the game's fourth anniversary. As of 27 August 2026, Bandai has not published a detailed rarity list or pull rates.
Why does Amano's Loki card carry an OP-17 number?
Because it reuses the Loki Secret Rare from OP-17, released on 22 August 2026 in Japan with art by Akanegumo. The game text is identical, only the painting changes. This is standard practice in the One Piece Card Game: a set can include alternate versions of cards that already exist.
Where can I see the cards in full size?
On the game's English X account, ONEPIECE_tcg_EN, and on Eiichiro Oda's staff account, Eiichiro_Staff, which both posted the visuals on 23 August 2026. The images are 1080 by 1350 pixels and the card text is readable. Bandai should publish watermark-free versions on its site closer to November.
Has Yoshitaka Amano drawn for a card game before?
Yes. He painted both versions of Terra, Magical Adept for the Final Fantasy set of Magic: The Gathering, released on 13 June 2025, and he regularly illustrates Square Enix's Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. This is his first work for the One Piece Card Game.
What else is in OP-18 besides the Amano cards?
The teaser names Water Seven as the destination, and the stage showed Franky's first ever Leader card, in green and purple. Japanese outlets cite the Holy Knights as the second theme, with a Saint Gunko card. Bandai will reveal the rest of the list in the weeks before release.
Images: ©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation; ©Bandai. Loki and Saint Shamrock card illustrations: Yoshitaka Amano. Visuals released by Bandai on 23 August 2026 and thumbnails of videos published by Bandai Card Games and Toei Animation.
