one piece card game op09 OP09-028 Sanji (C) – TCG Corner Placeholder Image Provided One Piece Card Game OP09

It doesn't matter if you still control Protocol Knight at that time, or if it's still a Knight

Characters are played into the Character area (and cannot be used to attack on their first turn in play), the text on Event cards is followed, and then the card is discarded (or trashed, in One Piece Card Game terminology), and finally, Stage cards are played and stay in play next to the Leader, unless a card effect removes them

In my mind, thats the biggest draw to drafting this strategy since the Giant is outlandishly powerful against a huge number of the potential decks you may face

They might get to draw a card to replace it, but it likely wont be as good as the one they got rid of