October is stacked. Here is what I am watching.
New sets, banlists, and prereleases every single weekend. Here is everything on our radar for October.
October is stacked. Here is what I am watching.
October is one of those months where every game I run is doing something at the same time. Banlists, new sets, prereleases, Regionals prep. None of this is financial advice and none of it is set in stone, just one shop owner telling you where his eyes are.
One Piece: the banlist drops October 12
This is the big one. Bandai announced the banned and restricted list last month and it goes live October 12, right in the middle of the OP-17 era. The one-month OP-17 meta report paints a clear picture of what the banlist is disrupting: Green Dracule Mihawk was sitting in S tier with 220 tracked decklists at a 65% win rate, with Blue Rocks D. Xebec the strongest native OP-17 leader at 110 lists and 52.5%.
My read: anything propping up that Mihawk dominance is living on borrowed time. Post-ban, I would keep an eye on the A tier crew, Purple Kaido and Black Luffy, both sitting right around 50% and ready to eat whatever the banlist leaves behind. And OP-18, The Dominance of God, is already announced, so the calendar does not slow down after the shakeup either.
Riftbound: Radiance lands October 23
Riftbound's fifth set arrives October 23, with Pre-Rift events running October 16 through 22. Three new mechanics come with it: Deploy (Gear goes to a Battlefield and stays until someone takes that Battlefield), Show Off (reveal a qualifying card to unlock extra effects), and Disarm (stacking Might reduction on attack).
The spicy part: Radiance anchors the Regional Championships starting in November, which means the Pre-Rift window is your cheapest look at cards that could matter competitively a few weeks later. Our Pre-Rift night here on October 20 is already full at 16 players, which tells me the Seattle Riftbound crowd smells it too.
Pokémon: the Worlds hangover plus a 30th birthday
Worlds 2026 in San Francisco is in the books, with Andrew Hedrick winning Masters on Dragapult ex. Dragapult is still the deck to beat heading into Baltimore Regionals, but the creative builds keep coming, like the Alakazam and Dusknoir variant from the Worlds Top 8 that can swing four Prizes to zero in a single turn. Innovation is the theme of this format.
And on the collector side, October 30 brings the Pokémon 30th Celebration Battle Decks, one of three big releases that Friday alongside One Piece Heroines vol.2 and Gundam Stardust Trails, per Card Atlas's October release calendar. End of October is going to be a wallet workout.
Lorcana: Hyperia City, same day as Radiance
Lorcana's Hyperia City launches October 23, the same Friday as Radiance, bringing Coco characters and a new mechanic called ink drops. Steelsong has been running the Seattle set championship scene (more on that in this week's local news post), so the question is whether the new set cracks that hold or just gives it new toys.
That is my list. If you want to argue about any of it, Tuesday Riftbound Nexus Nights at 7pm is where the meta arguments happen live. 16 player cap, 10 bucks, bring your hottest take.
