How to Build a UNION ARENA Deck that Wins
Want to build a custom UNION ARENA TCG deck but don’t know where to start?
Building custom, off-meta decks is one of my favorite things to do and I have a lot of experience doing it for many games. However, it’s a bit harder than simply running with whatever is doing well at tournaments.
Perfection appears simplistic but in reality it is made up of many, intricate parts. Your UNION ARENA deck (once built) should feel easy and smooth like a well-oiled machine. But putting it together is anything but simple.
Let’s break down the many processes involved in building a functioning, strong UNION ARENA deck.
UNION ARENA deck fundamentals
Before getting into the more advanced tactics that a great UNION ARENA deck maketh, let’s talk about the basics.
Each UNION ARENA deck shares these aspects:
A deck of exactly 50 cards
Decks must contain cards from only one anime.
Only four of each unique trigger (Color, Special, Final).
And that’s it.
However, that doesn’t mean any old mashup of fifty cards that follow these loose guidances will work. Indeed, UNION ARENA decks are such specific things that require such absurd amounts of fine-tuning that even what appears to be small differences in card choice can add up to vastly different performances.
So where do you start?
Choosing a primary attacker is a solid starting point for your UNION ARENA deck build
Although there will be many options and characters to use as attackers, each deck primarily has one central character that the rest of the deck revolves around. Typically, a card has to be very strong in order to be a central attacker in a deck, and has to have plenty of supporting cards that make playing it possible.
A great example of an excellent primary attacker is five-cost Ichigo from the BLEACH Purple deck.
First of all, Ichigo is a strong card, with an effect that makes him capable of removing any single one of your opponent’s characters from the field. But what makes Ichigo viable isn’t only his excellent effect but rather a string of supporting Ichigo characters (all of which are solid cards in their own unique ways) that you can use as raid targets.
Questions to ask if your primary attacker is strong enough to build around
How do you know whether or not a potential card is strong enough to build an entire strategy around?
Ichigo is an excellent attacker and so are the other attackers that make up the backbone of the UNION ARENA meta. However, plenty of attackers have potential to make their way into strong decks that aren’t necessarily making headlines at tournaments yet.
So how do you dicipher whether or not any given card is strong enough to be your main attacker?
Take a look at this checklist to find out. If you tick all of the boxes below, you should know that your favorite attacker is a viable option to build around.
Does it have 4000+ BP?
If the card you are wanting to build around doesn’t have at least base 4000 BP, it probably isn’t going to be strong enough to compete as a primary attacker.
Does it have raid?
Raid is arguably the strongest general mechanic built into the game, letting you subvert the “enters play” resting stipulation that slows you down from overwhelming your opponent. It also lets you ignore the usual “moving between energy lines” rule, letting you quickly accelerate into battle and take damage.
For the most part, competitively viable decks are built around primary attackers with the raid effect. You can build decent decks without raid, but they are usually the exception not the norm.
Does it have more than one raid target?
Another key difference between a secondary attacker and primary one is how many raid targets are built into the corresponding energy color. As mentioned above, Ichigo is partly a solid primary attacker because has a plethora of raid targets to choose from. My BLEACH Purple deck, for example, runs three different sets of four raid targets that I can raid from. This vastly increases the odds of successfully raiding over these cards on your field when the time is right.
Not having enough raid targets means you are going to raid much less often in a battle, and usually denotes a card as being more of a supporting attacker and not your main one.
How useful are your raid targets?
Typically, the more useful your raid targets are for your main attacker will impact how strong your deck is. Going back to the BLEACH Purple example, each of Ichigo’s lower cost raid targets are quite effective, letting you look at the top card of your deck when played, or boosting up to 4000 BP when attacking while providing two energy generation.
A good contrast to this are the raid targets for the Toshiro deck that once was very popular in the meta. Toshiro only has two different raid targets to choose from and neither of them is particularly strong or useful on their own.
How strong is your attacker?
The final question to ask yourself is how strong the attacker you want to build your deck around itself actually is. Does that attacker have enough power to really turn the tide of battle or is he/she lacking somehow?
Five-cost Ichigo not only checks the box for every other question on this list, he himself is also a very powerful character, letting you sideline anything on your opponent’s frontline. Meanwhile, many characters that posess the rest of these characteristics fall short of actually being particularly impactful on their own.
A great example of a character who has it made in every department except this final and very important one is the five-cost Zenitsu raid from Demon Slayer. Although he has plenty of raid targets (each with handy effects), Zenitsu Agatsuma is lacking in the effectiveness department, and feels more like a supporting raid with a relatively ordinary draw effect. While the Damage 2 keyword is interesting, it’s not enough to make Zenitsu a threat in-and-of itself.
Choosing your secondary attacker(s)
Now that you’ve chosen your main attacker that fits the characteristics above: congrats! You’re well on your way to building a solid deck and in many ways the hardest part is over.
But where do you go from here?
Truth-be-told, having a solid primary attacker alone won’t win you many UA matches. Instead, you’ll need one or two powerful secondary attackers that balance out your primary character.
Going back to the Purple BLEACH example: one of the reason that deck is a top tier deck is because of how strong its secondary attackers are. Indeed, this deck runs three different secondary attackers (although two of them are Ichigo) all of whom are great, but the strongest of them is arguably Renji Abarai.
Not only is Renji a solid character when raided, he has an effect outside of his raid box that grants him damage 2. This is a great thing to have in a secondary attacker as you aren’t going to have as many raid targets typically for him, meaning often you’ll just play him directly from your hand.
Secondary attackers should offer something your main attacker doesn’t
While your main attacker is going to be your strongest card, no single card has everything going for it – they all have their drawbacks. Your secondary attacker should provide benefits you wouldn’t have access to from your main body.
In this example, Renji offers damage 2 when raided or when not, but other cards compliment Ichigo in different ways. Take for example the four cost Ichigo who is capable of gaining Impact when raided or Rukia’s raid who lets you draw additional cards.
While neither of these characters are strong enough to exist as their own deck, they make for excellent additions to this strategy.
Choosing supporting characters
Now that you’ve chosen your main attacker and your secondary attacker, it’s time to pick out who your supporting characters are going to be. For this example, let’s switch gears away from the Purple BLEACH/Ichigo deck and look at another top deck: Code Geass Purple.
Code Geass Purple has a huge range of characters with powerful effects outside of your main and secondary attackers. Although, how you choose which characters you run with are going to depend not only on their effects but also on their energy cost
Building a deck on a curve improves consistency
Building a deck on a curve is honestly a tricky concept to understand. Some TCGs this matters a lot, others hardly at all. In UNION ARENA, it matters a fair bit. Although how much it matters will depend on the deck you are playing. Decks with particularly high energy characters with huge effects live and die on a curve. Midrange decks like Code Geass Purple have a bit more flexibility.
So how do you build on a curve in UNION ARENA? Let’s look at some general rules to figure out how to balance your deck out using Code Geass purple as a general guide.
Running 12 zero-cost characters helps you get started on the right foot
Zero-cost characters ussually aren’t the most exciting characters to add to your deck, but they are necessary. Running twelve zero-cost characters is the gold standard in UNION ARENA, helping ensure you have enough of these characters to build the basis for your energy line without running so many that your deck gets watered down.
I always look to add exactly 12 zero-cost characters in my deck with almost no exceptions.
Good zero cost characters to add to your deck include those with triggers, or those that can be used as raid targets for your stronger attackers.
Some decks that like to run higher-energy characters may also want to consider running the sideline/energy generation character. This deck runs the zero-cost C.C. character to make fielding the Guren easier, while simultaneously surving as a raid target for Gawain.
Four one-cost characters to serve you early game
While most decks will run twelve zero-cost characters, past that things get a bit more subjective. As a general rule, running four one-cost characters is a good idea. This makes it more likely you’ll be able to build an energy line while also giving you some early game board presence if you need to rush your opponent.
The number of two-cost characters varies greatly
How many two-cost characters will largely depend on how many one cost you run. If you run a bunch of one cost characters like the BLEACH Purple deck tends to, you can probably get away with running fewer two-cost characters. However, if you’re only running the four one-cost characters, you’ll probably want to run another four two-energy characters.
The Code Geass Purple deck list above, however, gets away with running fewer two-cost characters because it runs four of the two energy generating zero-cost C.C. This makes it more likely to build up to playing a three-cost character and strengthening your energy line.
Typically, your two-cost characters will provide draw effects as a common theme, and including those types of characters is a great option if you have them available to you in your chosen energy color/anime.
Three-cost characters feature stronger effects
The power difference between zero-two cost characters isn’t great, typically being the one-two cost characters have stronger BP and handier effects or triggers than the relatively vanilla zero-cost characters that tend to provide either added energy or contain the “get” trigger.
That being said, once we get to the three-cost characters, things start to get more interesting. Typically, your three-cost characters will be your bigger energy generating cards, and getting one of these two-energy generating characters on your board can mean you’ve reached a stable point from which to launch more aggressive attacks without overextending.
In the Code Geass list above, for example, you have three-cost Lelouch to strengthen your energy line which is vital in ensuring you have what you need to field your strongest cards. While three-cost Kallen doesn’t boast two energy gen, she does have an insane card search capability that would not be included in a simple two-cost character.
Most decks run four-eight three-cost characters in them as well as the powerful three-cost final which is a staple in any deck. Think of three-cost characters as the bridge between your weaker setup characters and the cards that really move in to do some damage.
Choosing 2 AP characters (very) carefully
Once you get past the three-energy cost characters, you’ll (usually) be looking at either your main/secondary attackers or your two action point characters. Two action point characters are those characters that cost two action points to play, and ones that usually come with effects that are comparable to Raid characters. While Raid characters have the trade off of needing to already have a raid target in play, two AP characters don’t need them, with the trade off being (of course) the added AP.
Realistically, you don’t want too many two-AP characters in your deck as you just won’t always be able to field them. That being said, many strong decks run between two-four two-AP characters in them.
The perfect ratio of triggers
Last but not least, we need to talk about triggers. I won’t go into each and every trigger and what it does or even the rules on limiting specific triggers as I assume you know all that already. But what I will do instead is talk about how many trigger/non trigger cards you should have in your deck.
In case if you were wondering if there was a magic number of non ratio cards in your deck there actually kind of is: eight.
Eight is the ideal number of non-trigger cards and it means you probably have enough variety in your deck to signify a sound structure without overpopulating your cards with non-trigger cards that won’t provide any value when hit out of your life.
Is eight a hard and fast number?
Not at all. Some decks do really well with only four non triggers, while others do well with ten or twelve. However, as a general rule the more triggers you can field without sacrificing key game components the better off your deck will be.
While the world of deck building is an exciting and complex one, this guide should be a good bridge between the basics and more advanced things you’ll want to test as you go deeper into your UNION ARENA journey! Share any questions or things that you would like addressed int his guide via the comments below!
