Dracule Mihawk's leader is gone from official One Piece Card Game play, and the ban tells you more about the format's health than any set announcement this year.
Bandai announced on September 24 that OP14-020 Dracule Mihawk, the green Leader from OP-14 The Azure Sea's Seven, would be banned effective October 12, 2026. All parallel and alt-art versions of the card are included. The ruling came days after Nicky Goldman piloted a Mihawk deck to first place at the North American Championship 26-27 Finals.
Why Mihawk got the hammer
Bandai's official notice gives two reasons. First, newer booster releases made certain combinations with the card stronger than the design team had planned, pushing the result away from the play experience they target. Second, and more importantly, Mihawk was choking off an entire branch of the leader pool.
The card's passive reads as a big advantage against a specific subset of the field: "If your opponent's Leader has the Slash attribute, this Leader gains +1000." That turned Mihawk into a near-auto-pick against other Slash leaders, and it was strong enough to push cards like the OP17-020 Shanks leader into near-total absence from tournaments. When one deck quietly owns an entire leader type, the diversity Bandai cares about — "numerous decks built around the leader card," to quote the notice — stops existing. So Mihawk had to go.
The P-163 replacement is not the same card
Bandai rarely drops a ban without a fallback, and this one is textbook. In the same notice, it announced P-163 Dracule Mihawk, a new-text replacement Leader to be distributed at future events.
The P-163 promo keeps the same 5000 power, 5 Life, and Slash attribute, but the +1000 bonus against Slash leaders is gone. In its place, the second ability now attaches rested DON!! cards to Mihawk itself instead of setting DON!! active and locking out Character cards. It plays like a greener, less explosive version of the original — you still get the leader, but you no longer get the free advantage column over half the format.
What this means for players
If you were running Mihawk for events, you need a plan. The character version, OP14-119 Dracule Mihawk, is not on the list and remains legal — it's the leader that's banned, not the archetype. Worth double-checking which card you're sleeving up.
For everyone else, the format just opened up. Slash leaders that previously lost to the mirror-influenced matchup — Shanks, Gol.D. Roger, and off-meta picks like Krieg and Nefeltari Vivi — now have a real shot. Expect Slash representation to diversify in the weeks ahead.
And keep an eye out for P-163 at local stores. Bandai's wording — "distributed at future events" — mirrors the language it used for P-117 Nami, which appeared as a replacement after OP03-040 Nami was banned in August 2025 and shipped through Store Tournament play. If that pattern holds, P-163 won't be far off — but the official rollout date hasn't been announced yet. Watch the event schedule rather than count on it this month.
One piece of karted advice: if a vendor starts offering cheap "banned" Mihawk leaders as a bargain, remember that banned is banned. Your collection keeps the value for display; it just can't sit in a tournament deck.
Mihawk the character is clearly here to stay. Mihawk the geometry of every Slash matchup, not so much.