Shanks Landed in C Tier With One Piece Players, and His OP-17 Alt Art Is Down 38%

TCGTracker put Shanks at the top of its list of sliding One Piece cards on Thursday, with his leader alt art from OP-17 The World's Strongest Warriors down 56% in 30 days. On eBay, raw English copies of the card went for around $35 as October began and have sold for around $22 over the past two weeks.

Back in August, Thornberry Media called Shanks "our pick for the best OP-17 Leader heading into release." Players didn't go along with it. Shonen TCG's Oct. 12 tracker had Green Shanks in C tier on 25 decklists, while Black Luffy from the same set sat in S tier on 97.

Black Luffy's leader alt art slipped from around $48 to $44 over the same weeks, and none of the other four OP-17 alt arts we checked fell more than 13%. The character alt art of Shanks from the same set hasn't moved off $25.

The case for the leader is Green Mihawk. Bandai announced on Sept. 24 that it was banning him as of Oct. 12, and he was the most played leader on the tracker, with 318 decklists that would need a new one. But collectors have known that for the whole slide, and the Shanks alt art still gave up 38% of its price while they did.

If I wanted an OP-17 leader alt art, I'd buy the Black Luffy at around $44 before I'd catch the Shanks, because Luffy is the set's S-tier leader, on 97 decklists to Shanks's 25. I'd look at the Shanks again if Green shows up in Shonen TCG's post-ban results before OP-18 lands Nov. 20, since its counts still include results from before the ban.