Monkey.D.Luffy is the most-printed character in the One Piece Card Game, and the number that matters is not the sixty-five Character cards. It is the seventeen Leaders. A Leader is the only card that defines a deck; every Luffy Leader is a different way to build one, and no other character in the game comes close to that count. Here is our top 10, in rank order.
Quick answer
The ten Monkey.D.Luffy cards that define the character are ten of his seventeen Leaders, ranked by printed life and then by where they first appeared. Luffy has 65 Character cards and 17 Leader cards across 39 products. The top of the list is ST29-001, the only Luffy Leader printed at 6 life, and the most useful single card for a new collection is OP01-003, the first Luffy Leader ever printed.
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
Three rules, applied in this order.
- Leader cards come first, always. A Leader is the card a deck is built around: it sets the colours you may use, the life you start with, and the strategy the other forty-nine cards have to serve. A Character card is a choice inside a deck. A Leader is the deck. That is why a Luffy list that ignores Leaders is a list of parts with no machine.
- Leaders are ranked by life, then by first printing. Life is printed on the card and is the clearest single number separating one Luffy Leader from another: 6 life is not a small advantage over 4. Where two Leaders share a life total, the one printed in an earlier main set comes first, because it is closer to the version of the character that established the colour.
- Where Leaders run out, Character cards fill the rest by power, then cost. Power is the number that decides whether a card can win a fight on its own; cost is what you paid. Between two cards at the same power, the more expensive one is the bigger body.
Two exclusions. Cards that name Luffy alongside another character are counted here as well as on the other character’s page, the same way every character page we publish handles them. And sealed product, playmats and don cards are not character cards and are out of scope.
The top 10, ranked
1. ST29-001 — Yellow — 6 life — ST-29
The only Luffy Leader printed at 6 life. Every other Luffy Leader in our index sits at 5, 4 or 3, so this one card is a full life total ahead of most of the list. For a collector rather than a player, that makes it the most distinctive single Luffy card in print: it is the outlier, and outliers are what a character collection is built around.
2. OP05-060 — Purple — 5 life — OP-05
The only single-colour Purple Luffy Leader. Purple is one of six colours and Luffy has exactly one Leader printed in it, so this card is the whole of that branch of the character — there is no second Purple Luffy to fall back on. It is also a main-set printing rather than a starter-deck one, which is why it leads the 5-life group.
3. OP15-098 — Yellow — 5 life — OP15-EB04
The second Yellow Luffy Leader and the first to arrive through an Extra Booster rather than a starter deck. It sits one life below ST29-001 and one printing after it, which is the whole of the gap between them.
4. OP17-079 — Black — 5 life — OP-17
The newest of the three 5-life single-colour Leaders, printed in OP-17. Black is the colour with the most Luffy Leaders overall — three of the seventeen — and this is the only one of those three from a main set.
5. ST01-001 — Red — 5 life — ST-01
The original Red Luffy Leader, from the first starter deck the game ever shipped. If you want the card that a 2022 Luffy player actually sleeved up, it is this one. It is fifth rather than first only because life is the first sort key and it sits at 5.
6. ST08-001 — Black — 5 life — ST-08
The first Black Luffy Leader. Black arrived as a Luffy colour through a starter deck before it arrived through a main set, which is worth knowing if you are assembling one Leader per colour rather than chasing a specific card.
7. ST14-001 — Black — 5 life — ST-14
The second Black Luffy Leader, and the second from a starter deck. Three Black Leaders total means Black is where the character has been revisited most often at the top of a deck.
8. ST21-001 — Red — 5 life — ST-21
The second single-colour Red Luffy Leader, and the last 5-life card in the ranked group. With this card the list has covered Red twice, Black three times, Purple once, Blue once and Yellow twice — which is the shape of the character in one line.
9. P-047 — Blue — 5 life — promo
The only Blue single-colour Luffy Leader in our index, and a promo rather than a set card. Promo Leaders are the hardest part of a character run to assemble, because they were never in a booster box: they came from events, magazines or campaign distributions, and supply is whatever was handed out at the time.
10. OP01-003 — Red/Green — 4 life — OP-01
The first Luffy Leader ever printed, from the set that started the game. It ranks tenth here because this Leader runs 4 life and the sort key is life first, not because it is the tenth most interesting card on the page. If you are buying one Luffy card and you want the one that started everything, this is it, and it is the card we would point a new collection at.
What the ten show
| What was counted | Result |
|---|---|
| Monkey.D.Luffy Character cards | 65 |
| Monkey.D.Luffy Leader cards | 17 |
| Total, across products | 82 in 39 products |
| Leaders on this page | 10 of 17 |
| Colours covered by those ten | All six — Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, Yellow |
| Life totals present | 6, 5, 4 |
| Power across all ten | 5,000 on every one |
Two things are worth reading off that table. First, every Luffy Leader has 5,000 power. Leaders do not vary in power the way Character cards do; the differences between them are colour, life and text, which is why this list sorts on life and printing rather than on attack strength. Second, the ten cover all six colours. A Luffy collection can be built as a colour study, one Leader per colour, and only Luffy and a handful of others make that possible.
Where these cards were printed
| Product | Card | Colour | Life |
|---|---|---|---|
| ST-29 |  ST29-001 |
Yellow | 6 |
| OP-05 |  OP05-060 |
Purple | 5 |
| OP15-EB04 |  OP15-098 |
Yellow | 5 |
| OP-17 |  OP17-079 |
Black | 5 |
| ST-01 |  ST01-001 |
Red | 5 |
| ST-08 |  ST08-001 |
Black | 5 |
| ST-14 |  ST14-001 |
Black | 5 |
| ST-21 |  ST21-001 |
Red | 5 |
| Promo | P-047 |
Blue | 5 |
| OP-01 |  OP01-003 |
Red/Green | 4 |
Four of the ten came from starter decks and one from a promo, which is the single most useful fact about collecting Luffy. Starter decks are printed once and not reprinted in the same form, and promos were never in a box at all. If you are working towards a complete Leader run, those five are the ones that will hold you up — not the main-set cards.
If you want one card
Take OP01-003. It is the first Luffy Leader, it is a four-life two-colour Leader from the opening set, and it is the card that every later Luffy Leader is a variation on. If you want the other end of the character instead, take ST29-001 — the 6-life outlier, the one card in the run that does something no other Luffy Leader does.
Both are single cards. Neither needs a deck built around it to be worth owning, which is the point of collecting a Leader rather than a Character.
Where to go next
- The full list — all 65 Character cards and 17 Leaders, with colour, cost, power and counter for each, is on Every Monkey.D.Luffy card in the One Piece Card Game. This page is the shortlist; that page is the inventory.
- The rarity behind these cards — a Leader can also carry a parallel or a special treatment. One Piece chase cards covers the tiers that sit above the base printing.
- Protecting what you buy — a One Piece card is 63 × 88 mm, so standard-size sleeves fit. Sleeves and holders for One Piece cards has the sizes.
Frequently asked questions
How many Monkey.D.Luffy cards are there?
Bandai lists 65 Monkey.D.Luffy Character cards and 17 Leader cards, 82 in total, spread across 39 products. That is the largest card count of any character in the One Piece Card Game. The full list, with colour, cost, power and counter, is on our Luffy character page.
Why does this list rank Leaders instead of the most expensive cards?
Because a Leader is the only card that defines a deck. It sets the colours you may use and the life you start with, and the other forty-nine cards have to serve it. A Character card is a choice inside a deck. Ranking the cards that define the character means starting with the ones that define how the character is played.
What is the most important Monkey.D.Luffy card to own?
Two answers, depending on what you want. For the card that started the character, it is OP01-003, the first Luffy Leader, a four-life Red/Green card from the opening set. For the outlier, it is ST29-001, the only Luffy Leader printed at six life.
Do all Monkey.D.Luffy Leader cards have the same power?
Yes. Every Luffy Leader in our index is printed at 5,000 power. Leaders do not vary in power the way Character cards do; what separates them is colour, life total and card text. That is why this list sorts on life and first printing rather than on attack strength.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- CardSpicy — Every Monkey.D.Luffy card in the One Piece Card Game, the source of every card number, colour, life, 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
- Roronoa Zoro — two Leaders and eight Characters, the deepest sword line in the game.
- Shanks — three Leaders and the highest power ceiling on this site.
- 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
- How to start a One Piece card collection — the character route, in order.
- Multicoloured Leaders — what a second colour costs you in life.
- One Piece card set codes — every prefix used above.
- Which One Piece cards were printed in more than one product — relevant to five cards on this list.
- 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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