UNION ARENA has only been out in the US briefly. However, we’re already getting some accurate tournament data on what the best decks are. While the meta will undoubtedly evolve over time, given my early experience with the game, this list looks like it probably won’t change a whole lot.

Below, let’s take a look at what the best UNION ARENA decks are. Come back frequently as we will continue to update this list as more tournament results become available!

#1 BLEACH Purple is the strongest UNION ARENA deck

Bleach Purple Aggro — *60-player tournament winning BLEACH Purple deck by Jake Renie*

This aggressive BLEACH Purple deck won the first large (60 player) tournament for the UA English version. In fact, not only did this deck take first place, two other players from the same team were playing the exact same deck. All three ended up in first, second, and third. That’s a pretty crazy accomplishment and just goes to show the power of consistency sometimes matters most, especially in a TCG’s infancy where draw support and card search is limited.

This deck focuses on the powerful Ichigo line to devastate the opponent quickly. At the same time, Renji acts as a powerful albeit blunt instrument to dismantle your opponent’s defenses.

While this deck may not boast an incredible range of strategies (and counterintuitively plays Rukia without a Raid target), it’s certainly going to play a big role in the UA meta for the foreseeable future.

Learn how to play my take on this deck via my BLEACH Purple deck list and guide.

#2 Kurapika Green Deck

*6th of 60 by Antoine Johnson - Green Hunter X Hunter*

You don’t need to look much farther than Kurapika’s Raid card to see why this deck is powerful. A 5000 BP essentially makes Kurapika one of the strongest attackers in the game. And that’s without taking into consideration the other powerful effects it has at its disposal.

This deck has plenty of other powerful card search capabilities. Characters like Neon provide much needed draw support, even enabling you to play a character directly from the top five cards of your deck in the active position.

Meanwhile, many of the characters in this deck have access to the powerful Impact keyword, making it easier to hack away at your opponent’s Life cards, and also the powerful Snipe keyword.

Kurapika hits hard and has a plethora of useful cards at its disposal that make it a strong deck that’s relatively easy to play.

Learn how to build and play this powerful Kurapika Green Hunter x Hunter deck!

#3 BLEACH Purple with Byakuya

One of the things that’s very cool about UNION ARENA (at least so far) is that the starter decks are pretty fire. While they do come with their own fair share of relatively useless cards, they are fully playable right out of the box, and it doesn’t take a whole lot to upgrade them.

BLEACH Purple is one of the starter decks released in the states upon UA’s debut. It also happens to be the strongest deck in the meta right now. And it’s not hard to see why.

In this deck you have a powerful combination of Ichigo Kurosaki’s Raid character with Byakuya Kuchiki. It also boasts a strong draw engine in the form of cards like Substitute Soul Reaper and Rukia. If you needed another reason why this deck was so strong, you can combine Ichigo (at any level) with Getsugatensho to obliterate anything on the field.

I’ve had hand’s on experience with this deck and can attest to its overwhelming power. If you are looking for a winning deck list that’s fun to play, build BLEACH Purple.

#4 Toshiro Hitsugaya Thirteen Court Guard Deck

There’s a reason Toshiro is the key to this deck’s success – its freezing effect that activates when played has the ability to force all of your opponent’s characters into resting is befitting of Toshiro’s icy Bankai.

Like the other top two decks on this list, this deck also has access to powerful card search thanks to Unohana. Another notable standout includes Kenpachi Zenpaki – an utterly attack focused card with no recourse for defense.

One of the reasons this deck isn’t higher up on the tier list at this point might just because of the fact that it’s relatively harder to build. There’s no starter deck based on the Green Thirteen Court Guard Squads affinity, meaning you have to acquire the cards you need out of boxes or online. Overtime, I could easily see this deck gain prominence and move even higher up on the tier list based on how deadly these combos can be.

#5 BLEACH Yellow Deck

BLEACH Yellow feels a bit like a combo deck. You’re mainly trying to get characters to rest before removing them from play with Bambietta. You have several ways to do this, bu thte best on eis As Nodt.

Meanwhile, your strongest draw support card is actually a site: the Silbern. You can use this ability each and every turn to ensure you don’t run out of characters to play.

Lastly, Yellow has access to powerful removal thanks to Medalize, capable of getting rid of just about any character in the game.

While Yellow may not pack as hard of a punch as the two top decks in this format right now, it’s a strong contender in the UNION ARENA meta and will more than likely show up at your store tournament sooner or later.

#6 Kenpachi/Yamamoto BLEACH Deck

The Kenpachi/Yamamoto deck is something of a dark horse right now, with most serious players preferring the Toshiro Green deck over this one. However, several wins have been reported using this deck at Store Tournaments, so I wouldn’t count this one out.

The deck strategy focuses around using Yamamoto to take as many Life cards as you can in a single turn. Supporting you is a range of strong secondary attackers who also grant significant energy. Lastly, Kenpachi is somewhat antithetical to the Yamamoto strategy, and yet that works. Because Kenpachi can come out swinging hard without any setup (like needing a Raid target), he perfectly balances the later game play with Yamamoto by relentlessly swinging into your opponent.

For more info, read my BLEACH Green Kenpachi/Yamamoto deck guide.

#7 Purple Hunter x Hunter

This Purple Hunter x Hunter deck has shown up on the competitive scene in one way or another scene the start, and it placed pretty highly in the first big UA tournament (the same tournament that BLEACH Purple won).

This deck’s synergy lies in leveraging the “When Played” abilities of your cards within a single affinity. In this way, it’s sort of similar to the Thirteen Court Guard deck above. That being said, it’s definitely on the lower ends of the meta right now in terms of both play share and wins. However, that also means people won’t necessarily be expecting it when you bring it to your next store tournament!

These are the strongest decks in the game right now you should know about, but stay tuned as I will be updating this list with even more strategies you can use to compete at your next UA store tournament!

The Best UNION ARENA TCG Decks Right Now