UNION ARENA: Code Geass Purple Deck List & Guide
My favorite deck strategy so far in Code Geass is the Purple deck featuring Lelouch, C.C., and Kallen. Using this deck, you can seriously mess with your opponent without sacrificing your own draw capabilities. In this guide, let’s look at the strategy that leverages the most popular characters in the franchise.
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Main Deck (50 Cards):
Kallen Kozuki (CGH-1-002) x4
Zero (CGH-1-009) x4
C.C. (CGH-1-005) x4
C.C. (CGH-1-006) x3
Kallen Kozuki (CGH-1-003) x4
Kallen Kozuki (CGH-1-004) x3
Kallen Kozuki (CGH-1-101) x3
Lelouch Lamperouge (CGH-1-016) x4
Gawain (CGH-1-022) x4
Lelouch Lamperouge (CGH-1-017) x3
Guren Mk-II (CGH-1-023) x4
Guren Mk-II (CGH-1-107) x2
United States of Japan (CGH-1-029) x4
Power of Absolute Obedience (CGH-1-030) x4
Although the synergy between different cards and their interactions is so strong in this deck that it almost builds itself, it’s taken some serious fine tuning to get it to where I really needed it to be. After much testing, however, the result is this powerful deck capable of dominating the meta.
The main strategy here rests in the powerful Guren coupled with effects from both Lelouch and Gawain that lower BP, softening your opponent’s front line and making it easier to take out your opponent’s characters. When combined, you have the potential for some very strong card removal.
However, this is going to need to be done strategically, and in that way this deck reminds me a fair bit of the Byakuya deck build I put together for BLEACH.
Play your cards right and you could certainly remove multiple characters in a turn with relative ease.
Let’s look at how this is done before getting into the rest of this deck’s strategy as card removal and BP reduction are going to be the most intriguing plays this deck has to offer.
Early game plays to set yourself up for success
With Code Geass Purple, it’s vital to move quickly. This deck works best when it’s taking life every turn that it reasonably can, simply trying to outpace decks with stronger characters before they can build up enough resistance to stop you.
However, unlike other decks that work aggressively, Code Geass uniquely doesn’t run out of steam in the later game. Once you’ve set things up by taking plenty of life early on, you have plenty of cards capable of sneaking their way into the finish line.
Early on, you are going to almost always be looking to go first and then take a life with one of your low cost characters.
Get zero-cost C.C. onto the board
Zero-cost C.C. is actually vital to this deck’s success and you’re going to want to use her very strategically. Having her in play means being able to easily hit your five-cost Guren raid. While you won’t always be able to save her until the time you need her to get off a raid, she can also be great to help you build up your board with stronger energy generating cards like the three-cost Kallen with two energy gen.
One-cost C.C. makes for a great early game attacker
This C.C. character is one I’ve been testing in my Purple Code Geass deck since getting my first products, and I have to say she really comes in handy depending on the matchup. Not only does she nullify Impact, she further incentives you to add her into your deck by granting you a card whenever she is sidelined. Early game, this makes her a very, every effective character to promote to the front line to take pot shots at your opponent’s life, especially if you go first and they haven’t managed to field a character on the front line yet.
What cards to play going first vs. second
When going second, my favorite move is to play both zero-cost AND one-cost C.C. to my energy line to prep her to start taking life the very next turn.
When going first, I will avoid playing C.C. as I’m going to want to promote my first played zero-cost character start of the next turn and you really can’t be wasting your zero-cost C.C. as an attacker. Instead, I’ll play Zero or Kallen down and use them to pressure my opponent. If you have to choose between the two, go with Kallen as you have more of her and you’ll need your Lelouch’s in play to use Guren’s raid.
A tale of three Lelouch
True to the anime, Lelouch acts as a strategic support character in this deck rather than (usually) your main attacker. Use Lelouch to grant additional energy, reduce BP, or get around your opponent’s altogether to take a direct attack on their life.
Let’s look at each of these Lelouch in more detail and dive into how you can pair them with your stronger cards to maximize your chances of winning.
Three-energy Lelouch
The most vital Lelouch for this deck is undoubtedly three-energy cost Lelouch. It’s vital as you will need either this card on the field or zero-cost C.C. in order to play the Guren. These two characters are the only ones capable of letting you play the Guren so you’ll need to use them strategically or add in a one more two energy generating character if you find this curve too narrow.
While this Lelouch is mostly here to grant energy, it’s got a solid trigger effect, and also a when played effect that enables you to force your opponent to use their stronger characters as blockers rather than their weak ones.
Four energy Lelouch
Four-cost Lelouch is a very effective card with multiple ways in which it assists your strategy. When its played it forces your opponent to discard, thereby limiting their resources for later in the game.
More important than its when played effect, however, is its passive effect that prevents him from being blocked by characters with 3500 BP or more.
Later in the game or against decks that love to field high powered characters, this ability can single handedly win you the game.
If your opponent catches on to how strong this card can be, you have the benefit of drawing two cards when it is sidelined.
Two-cost Lelouch
Last is two-cost Lelouch. While still a strong card, you mostly won’t need this effect during the course of your battles, or its better and more reliable to get the BP reduction from Gawain. If you were to go for a more flat out BP reduction build with Code Geass Purple you might want to up the number of this particular card in your deck. Otherwise, two should probably be enough to get the job done.
Gawain
Gawain’s BP reduction effect when played lets you get through your opponent’s board if they have managed to stack it with high BP characters.
Additionally, Gawain is challenging to block thanks to its passive effect that prevents it from being blocked by characters with 2000 or less BP. Not only can this effect be used to take late game wins against your opponent’s life directly, it can also be a great way to force your opponent to block with their stronger characters and not just low-power fodder.
The Guren Mk-II adds significant utility to this deck
While the Lelouch/BP reduction strategy is going to be the backbone of this deck, it’s not the only powerhouse attacker you have at your disposal. You also have one of the best attackers in the game in the shape of The Guren.
For just five energy, the Guren can be played to the field. Assuming the conditions are met, your opponent is forced to block its attacks while also offering up a Life thanks to the handy Impact 1 keyword. Forcing your opponent to block and taking a life card is insane, especially when you factor in the Guren’s relatively low cost. It’s also this deck’s highest cost character, meaning the rest of this deck’s strategy can be pulled off with relative ease.
While the Guren is so strong that the possibility of playing it is enough to excited any hardened Code Geass fan, the fact that you have a powerful and reliable way to search it out makes fielding this Knightmare Frame essentially a no-brainer.
SR Guren is also quite strong
While I actually think the rare version of the Guren will be your best bet in. most circumstances, you also have another option that’s quite strong. This card combos well with Gawain or your two-cost Lelouch as it should be able to efficiently act as a removal when played. One advantage to this Guren over the other is the condition of its ability is not based on having Lelouch on the field.
Use Kallen to search out the Guren
To help you find those shiny Gurens, however, you’ll need Kallen.
Just a three-energy cost character you can play for just one AP, Kallen lets you search the top five cards of your deck for your powerful Guren Raid. Assuming you find it, you can then just easily raid it onto Kallen (assuming you have the energy line you need built up). That should be relatively easy to do given the Guren is only a five-energy cost character and you have plenty of two-energy generating characters.
This Code Geass Purple deck is certainly my favorite deck right now from the set and the one I most look forward to building when the set releases on December 13th! With the ability to unlock insane card removal, and also forcing your opponent to block in a disadvantageous manner, I can see this deck doing really well in the UNION ARENA meta and possibly even end up being one of the top decks!
