How I Earned 2 Winner Promo Playsets in 3 Weeks
As someone who has tried their hand at many different TCGs, one of the aspects of Union Arena that interested me most was their promo system. In particular, getting to choose a foil card with “WINNER” stamped on it for a top four placement was a fun and stylish way to add to the prizing. But my fate was sealed when the first season’s promos were revealed. Among them, my favorite anime, Code Geass, was represented by the immortal witch, C.C.
I knew immediately I needed a playset, but my pride told me it wouldn’t be the same if I just scrolled through for-sale listings for the best deal. I had to earn them through my own hard-fought battles.
What I did not expect was achieving my goal by the end of the second week of the three–month season, and then following up the next week by completing the playset of another fan-favorite card: Kento Nanami from Jujutsu Kaisen. I wanted to share my keys to victory, and other things you may want to keep in mind if you have a favorite character or series you want to play for as more sets are released.
Keys to success: How to win your next UNION ARENA store tournament
The first key, and by far the most impactful one, is to start playing as early as possible. While I knew that all the Code Geass decks I want to play won’t be releasing until December 13th, Bandai had shown off that the first set of winner promos would be available during the entire October to December season. The other winner cards represent each of four sets for the same months: BLEACH, Hunter X Hunter, and Jujutsu Kaisen.
Despite never having watched BLEACH or HxH (go ahead, yell at me through your screens), I hopped-in during the first set releases to maximize opportunities to win. I have heard many people at local stores and online mention that they are waiting until a particular show’s set gets released to start playing. Don’t wait! Playing now means you can refine your deck, game sense, and knowledge to better guide you to victory.
Second key: show up!
The second key to my success followed a simple principle: Go to any and all events you can!
I am lucky to have three different local game stores that are running tournaments for UNION ARENA, one of which hosted the game two times per week. Some events may be small, but Bandai only requires four players to be present in order to be considered an official event.
Smaller events are also a great place to be more experimental with your deck lists to prepare for a bigger event. And while my early results were rough at the first few 10+ player tournaments (1-3 record), I got to play against a variety of opponents and decks. I quickly learned what parts of my deck struggled, and my budget build of BLEACH purple grew more reliable with every night spent at the shops. I was inspired by other players’ lists, talked about builds with other people for hours after matches, and retooled my decks dozens of times to get just the right feel.
Third key to success: choose the right deck!
Speaking of retooled decks, the final key was having a tried-and-true deck list to work with. Even with our current limited card pool, there are plenty of powerful decks to choose from. I personally used two decks that I tweaked as I went. Below, let’s take a look at the exact deck lists I used in more detail.
Budget Bleach Purple deck list
If you want a reliable deck while playing on the cheap, look no further than Bleach Purple. Most of these cards came right from mashing together two starter decks. Here is the rundown on this deck list.
Uryu and Orihime
Uryu lets you draw what you need and fuel your sideline, while Orihime lets you repeat the process and get double energy generation. This combo is available for most colors and is solid in almost any deck. It is particularly potent in this rush/mill focused deck. For extra sideline value, let Uryu move up as a disposable blocker.
Kisuke
Kisuke is a great double energy generator, but you only need two energy in order to play him! Purple decks rarely need more than four energy on the line, so you don’t want (or need) him showing up too often.
Three-cost Renji
As a budget choice, Renji can help build your sideline fairly quickly. Unfortunately, he is stuck at 3500 BP without the ability to buff himself, holding him back from threatening key targets when on the attack. I originally ran 4, but it is one of the first cards I would replace when you want to upgrade this list, especially for some 4000 BP options.
Ichigo
Run every Ichigo you can. All starter deck Ichigos provide solid value, the one-cost color trigger adds so much to tempo in so many ways, and the five-cost Ichigo provides extra removal to keep the opponent down. The five-cost is the most expensive part of this deck, but has dropped from $30 to $15 since I last played this list in a tournament. Upgrade to four if you play this deck long term.
Tenjiro
He grabs key cards back and builds your sideline at the same time. The fewer Raid SRs you add to this deck, the more Tenjiro you should play.
Raid Renji
Renji’s BP lowering effect that can remove some cards and threaten others, plus damage 2 in the late game, especially on the turns where you run out of cards to play. Running three copies has been comfortable for me, but you may prefer more. I got lucky that I picked them up before the EgMan tournament, but their prices have settled since then. I don’t recommend a pure Raid-less list in a budget style, so have the raid targets for extra flexibility.
Raid Rukia
When Raided, she has tw effects to get more cards in the sideline. The card advantage from the first is nice. The BP boost from the second usually won’t change how an attack phase plays out, but occasionally will force your opponent to lose an extra blocker. If you don’t need to add to the sideline, play her without Raid for a solid 4000 attacker.
Three-cost Rukia
More draw and sideline effects, but she has two counts against her. First, her “When Attacking” effect is mandatory, so you might lose some cards you wanted to hold on to while pressing your advantage. Second, she is 3500 BP, so she fails to threaten the common late-game 4000 BP cards your opponent will likely have.
Event cards
Run the four of both Bankai and Getsugatensho. I have seen people debate cutting Bankai, but I can’t tell you how much momentum I have built in matches from a single Bankai, let alone the insane board that two in one turn can pull off. Keep them.
Your matchup
This deck is fairly fast and can keep the pressure on with Impact. The decks you will struggle against the most are ones that have multiple 5000 BP characters, as you don’t have all the removal that a top tier purple deck will. Be conservative with the removal tools you do have, and be aggressive with moving characters off the energy line in the early game to try and win before removal becomes an issue. While I did end up switching off of this deck for tournaments, I have continued to play it against many lists and it holds its own pretty well.
Kurapika Hunter x Hunter Green
After winning some events and getting some very lucky tournament pack pulls, I was able to build my next deck: the powerful Kurpika deck from Hunter x Hunter.
There is a good reason this deck is at the top right now, and we’ll get into some of its insane plays below.
Zepile and one-cost Leorio
Like the Uryu/Orihime combo above, this pair is great for seeing the cards you need. However we will run fewer copies since we aren’t too crazy on building our sideline here, and we want to save some space on the energy line for some more utility-focused cards
Satotz
This card is nutty. He allows for early bursts of energy generation, and will clear space on the energy line after his job is done. The best value Satotz can provide is the opportunity for early Neon plays.
Neon
Neon is probably the most broken support card in our format. She curves your energy perfectly into Raid Kurapika, who will be your main search target from her effect. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t find the Raid though, as dropping almost any card from this list onto the field, active, is too good to pass up. I recommend no less than three. Even at my four copies, she was never felt dead in the hand.
Basho
Basho already provides a decent 3000 BP and a fantastic two energy generation. Combine those with Step and this card is a must-play. At almost any point in the game, he will be useful on either line, and he has the freedom to move there as needed. A flexible energy line is a resilient one, and a full front line is a winning one.
Three-cost Leorio
This card made a huge difference in how I played this deck. You can be aggressive with early Raid Kurapika plays with little fear from removal cards, even when you have only drawn into or or two of your boss cards. Two AP seems steep, but trust me – it pays for itself so quickly
Hisoka
For one AP, you get an effect that is Snipe’s little brother, plus card draw for your troubles. A great backup plan, but probably no more than two are needed.
Emperor Time: Absolute Mastery
I don’t know how this card made it out of playtesting. Giving a character Snipe is ridiculously powerful on its own, but you get so much more out of this card. Your two-cost, five-cost, and Raid Kurapikas will combine Snipe with Impact to allow you to keep dealing damage while removing key threats. Winning a combat not only gives board advantage, but also card advantage due to the draw effect. And the 3000 BP gain allows even the zero-cost Kurapika to beat almost every card in the format, if you are ever in such a pinch.
Your matchup
This deck is just too good. Pretty much the only hand this can’t play out of is a no zero cost characters. Manage your energy line well and you will be rewarded. Snipe controls the board extremely well, and with so many Impact sources your opponent will sweat over every life card taken.
And that’s about all there is to it!
I hope this helps you on your journey to get your winner card of choice. As for me, I’m looking to complete the collection of all winner cards; I’m working on Killua now and wrapping up with Byakuya.
