Shanks Alternate Art is a part of One Piece Romance Dawn.

One Piece is one of the longest-running shounen anime and the best-selling manga series of all time. These two titles aren’t to be taken lightly; for a show to span decades, it has to maintain a level of quality throughout it’s run, and surprisingly, One Piece has managed to do that.

In this 25th year of its existence, the franchise makers decided to do something big to commemorate this significant milestone that anime had hit. So they came out with the One Piece Card Game. A Card Game that is not just a cash grab but has real passion behind it!

The cards in this game feature original artwork, which looks amazing, to say the least. One such card form, the first-ever expansion, is the Shanks Alternate Art. As the name suggests, the card features Shanks, so it was set for greatness from the get-go.

But there are many Shanks cards in the set; what makes this one the most popular? Let’s find out!

Origins

Shanks, also known as the ‘Red Hair,’ is the ruler of the New World, not the defacto, sole ruler, but one of the four Emperors who rule the world! He has been on the sea since he was an infant, initially part of Roger Pirates, but after his death, he created his crew, the Red Hat Pirates!

His adventures were so impressive that he inspired our show’s protagonist to become a pirate! He is also responsible for providing Luffy with his powers.

He is like a father figure to Luffy; he even sacrificed his arm to save him once!

Trivia

Apart from the Shanks Alternate Art, the set features three Shanks cards, each worth a lot in today’s market.

Illustration

At first glance, you might think this illustration is the same as the Shanks Parallel Art, and you’d be right about that. However, you’d be missing a minor detail, which is the background. As you can see, it has manga artwork, so that is the differentiating factor.

And this factor plays a lot into the price as the card is extremely rare, and I emphasized rare for a reason. You can open up 2-3 booster boxes and still not find this card; that’s the level of rarity we’re talking about here.

It’s not the most visually stunning card from the set; many others are better. But the rarity of this card is what drives its value.

Value

As of writing this blog post, the Shanks Alternate Art is for around $600-700, which we know is a lot! This card has set the bar for the future alternate arts in the One Piece card game and cemented the card game as a significant player in this space going forward!

Recommended – Art of One Piece: Nami (Parallel) from One Piece Romance Dawn