Shanks has the smallest card count of any character on this list and the heaviest cards. Nineteen Character cards, three Leaders, and five of those nineteen printed at 12,000 power. That is a quarter of the character sitting at the top of the game’s ladder, which is a shape no other character we index has. Here is our top 10, in rank order.
Quick answer
The ten Shanks cards that define the character are his three Leaders followed by the seven Character cards at the top of his power curve. Shanks has 19 Character cards and 3 Leaders across 18 products, 22 in total. Five of the 19 Characters print at 12,000 power — 26 per cent of the run — and the highest cost is 10. Three Leaders, one each in Red, Green and Purple, all at 5 life.
This page does not rank by price. Our asking prices live on the product pages and move with the market; what is below is what the cards themselves state.
How this list was built
- Leader cards first. Three Leaders, three colours, three ways to build the deck. They are the structural spine of a Shanks collection and there is no reason to bury them behind Character cards that do less.
- Leaders ranked by life, then first printing. All three print at 5 life and 5,000 power, so the tie-break is which set printed first.
- Character cards ranked by power, then cost. For Shanks this produces an unusually clean cut: the top five are all 12,000 power and all 10 cost. The list then steps down to 11,000 and 10,000.
Cards that name Shanks alongside another character appear on this page and on the other character’s page. Playmats, don cards and sealed product are out of scope.
The top 10, ranked
1. OP09-001 — Red — Leader — 5 life — OP-09
The Shanks Leader from the set that made him a headline character rather than a cameo. Red is where the character began as a deck, and this is the card that established the colour.
2. OP17-020 — Green — Leader — 5 life — OP-17
The second Shanks Leader and the only Green one. Two of his five 12,000-power Characters sit in Green, and this Leader is the card that lets a deck use both of them; without a Green Leader those two cards have no home.
3. ST05-001 — Purple — Leader — 5 life — ST-05
The only Purple Shanks Leader, and a starter-deck printing rather than a main-set one. Purple is a single card deep across the whole character, which makes this the one Shanks card that cannot be replaced by another Shanks card.
4. OP06-007 — Red — 10 cost — 12,000 power — OP-06
First of the five 12,000-power Characters. Ten cost for 12,000 is the top of the printed scale, and this is the earliest printing of it for Shanks.
5. OP09-004 — Red — 10 cost — 12,000 power — OP-09
The second Red 12,000, from the same set as the first Leader on this page. Two 10-cost 12,000s in Red is what makes a Red Shanks deck able to threaten twice in a game.
6. OP13-028 — Green — 10 cost — 12,000 power — OP-13
The first Green 12,000. From here the character’s heaviest cards are Green, which is why OP17-020 ranks second on this list rather than being just another Leader.
7. OP17-022 — Green — 10 cost — 12,000 power — OP-17
The second Green 12,000, printed in the same set as the Green Leader. If you are building towards one Shanks deck rather than a collection, this card and OP17-020 are the pair to start from.
8. P-097 — Red — 10 cost — 12,000 power — promo
The fifth 12,000-power Character and the only promo in the group. A promo at the top of the power curve is the hardest combination in the character: it was never in a booster box, and it is the single card most likely to be missing from a Shanks run.
9. ST16-004 — Green — 9 cost — 11,000 power — ST-16
The first step down from the plateau: 9 cost and 11,000 power. Only one card in the entire character sits at 11,000, and it came from a starter deck.
10. OP01-120 — Red — 9 cost — 10,000 power — OP-01
The oldest Shanks Character card in the top ten, from the opening set, and a neat place to end the list: the first Shanks card that reaches 10,000 power. Everything above it on this page is an escalation from here.
What the ten show
| What was counted | Result |
|---|---|
| Shanks Character cards | 19 |
| Shanks Leader cards | 3 |
| Total, across products | 22 in 18 products |
| Cards at 12,000 power | 5 of 19 — 26 per cent |
| Highest printed cost | 10 |
| Colours across all 22 | Red 11, Green 5, Purple 3, Black 1, Blue 1, Yellow 1 |
| Leaders on this page | 3 of 3 — the complete set |
The 26 per cent figure is the one worth carrying away. Monkey.D.Luffy has four cards at 12,000 power out of 65 Characters, which is six per cent. Shanks has five out of 19. The character was printed rarely and heavily — fewer cards, each one closer to the ceiling.
Red dominates the run at 11 of 22, and it also holds the heavier share of the ceiling: three of the five 12,000-power cards are Red, two are Green, and nothing else reaches that number. Green is the second colour in every sense — fewer cards, fewer giants, and the only Leader that unlocks the two Green ones.
Where these cards were printed
| Product | Card | Type | Colour | Cost / Life | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OP-09 |  OP09-001 |
Leader | Red | 5 life | 5,000 |
| OP-17 |  OP17-020 |
Leader | Green | 5 life | 5,000 |
| ST-05 |  ST05-001 |
Leader | Purple | 5 life | 5,000 |
| OP-06 |  OP06-007 |
Character | Red | 10 | 12,000 |
| OP-09 |  OP09-004 |
Character | Red | 10 | 12,000 |
| OP-13 |  OP13-028 |
Character | Green | 10 | 12,000 |
| OP-17 |  OP17-022 |
Character | Green | 10 | 12,000 |
| Promo | P-097 |
Character | Red | 10 | 12,000 |
| ST-16 |  ST16-004 |
Character | Green | 9 | 11,000 |
| OP-01 |  OP01-120 |
Character | Red | 9 | 10,000 |
The spread is the widest on this site: OP-01 through OP-17, two starter decks and a promo. That is a consequence of a small run — with only 19 Characters to place, Bandai used almost every product type at least once.
If you want one card
Take OP09-001, the Red Leader. Three Leaders exist and this is the one that made Shanks a deck rather than a supporting character. If you want a Character card, take OP06-007 — the first 12,000-power Shanks card printed, and the start of the plateau that occupies half of this list.
Where to go next
- The full list — all 19 Character cards and three Leaders, with colour, cost, power and counter, is on Every Shanks card in the One Piece Card Game.
- The treatments above these printings — One Piece chase cards covers parallels and special versions.
- Protecting what you buy — One Piece cards are 63 × 88 mm. Sleeves and holders for One Piece cards has the sizes.
Frequently asked questions
How many Shanks cards are there?
Bandai lists 19 Shanks Character cards and 3 Leader cards, 22 in total, spread across 18 products. It is one of the smaller runs in the game, and the density of heavy cards in it is the highest we index.
How many Shanks cards are at 12,000 power?
Five of the nineteen Character cards: OP06-007, OP09-004, OP13-028, OP17-022 and P-097. All five are 10 cost. That is 26 per cent of the character sitting at the top of the printed power scale, against six per cent for Monkey.D.Luffy.
What are the three Shanks Leader cards?
OP09-001 in Red, OP17-020 in Green and ST05-001 in Purple. All three are single-colour, all three print at 5 life and 5,000 power, and one of them — the Purple — came from a starter deck rather than a main set.
Why does Shanks have so few cards?
He is a supporting character in the story rather than a protagonist, so Bandai has printed him less often. What is unusual is that the cards he does have skew heavy: five of nineteen at 12,000 power, where the game’s most-printed character has four out of sixty-five.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- CardSpicy — Every Shanks card in the One Piece Card Game, the source of every card number, colour, cost and power on this page.
- Bandai — the official One Piece Card Game card database, for card numbers and printed values.
- CardSpicy — One Piece card rarities explained, for the nine official rarity labels.
- CardSpicy — One Piece chase cards, for treatments above the base printing.
- CardSpicy — One Piece card index, for leaders, rarities and the set list in one place.
Other character rankings
- Monkey.D.Luffy — seventeen Leaders, the widest structural run in the game.
- Roronoa Zoro — two Leaders and eight Characters.
- Portgas.D.Ace — four Leaders across three colour pairs.
- Trafalgar Law — four Leaders, one of them single-colour Red.
- Nami — three Leaders, all Blue or Blue-based.
- Sanji — three Leaders and the highest-cost Character in the crew.
Related reading
- One Piece card rarities explained — the nine labels behind these cards.
- Multicoloured Leaders — why none of the three Shanks Leaders is two-colour.
- How to start a One Piece card collection — the character route.
- One Piece card set codes — every prefix used above.
- Grading One Piece cards — what a grade does to a Leader.
- The Collector’s Index — storage for everything on this page.
Card numbers, colours, life totals, costs and power values are quoted from Bandai’s published card database as indexed on our own character page at the date shown. Prices are not quoted on this page: our asking prices for what we hold are on each product page, and they move with the market.
Where to go next
- The CardSpicy card index — every card we track, with its PSA 10 population and market history (195 cards).
- The illustrator index — every artist behind those cards, card by card (110 artists).
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