UNION ARENA TCG’s First Big Tournament Has a Twist Ending

Part of the fun of getting into a brand new TCG is the fact that the metagame (decks that are strong) hasn’t been defined yet. That being said, UNION ARENA – the new TCG from Bandai focused on various and uber-popular Anime properties – is definitely starting to have its own metagame take form.

At the very top of the list (as I predicted via my best UNION ARENA TCG decks article) is BLEACH Purple. BLEACH Purple with Renji at its core took not only the top spot at UA’s first major English version tournament, but all top finishing spots from first to third. Talk about a meta-defining deck!

60-man tournament winning BLEACH Purple deck by Jake Renie

Above is the deck that took first place at the 60-player tournament hosted by Eggman Events.

What stands out to me straightaway about this deck is its incredible consistency. It foregoes the popular Byakuya play focusing instead on using Renji as a blunt instrument to overcome opposing characters and swing swiftly at your foe’s life.

Otherwise this deck comes with the main staples of a BLEACH Purple deck, with a few notable differences, like dropping Rukia’s Raid target in favor of using her as a 4000 BP body to attack with.

This deck is going for an aggressive, all-out attack and that’s all it says matters. Given its performance at the tournament finishing not only in first place but in second and third as well, many will tend to agree.

That being said, one might want to think carefully before getting too hyped on BLEACH Purple.

UNION ARENA has a meta still defining itself

UNION ARENA has barely been out in English yet, so we really don’t have the greatest sense of how decks are going to perform overtime. Even tournament data from Japan can’t be relied on here as decks are different in the US, card choices are different, and player preferences also tend to make what’s strong on one side of the Pacific less strong on the other.

While BLEACH Purple is undoubtedly strong and arguably the strongest, as more tournaments take place, we are likely to see that meta shift a bit. Kurapika Green from Hunter x Hunter has also seen some early season success, and other decks like the interesting Thirteen Court Guard deck could be darkhorses.

We don’t really know because the meta hasn’t taken shape yet. And it probably will continue to take shape for a long time.

Early tournament results aren’t always the most reliable

While it’s great for Jake and team to have such a big win early on (and congrats to them), early tournament results are often not the most indicative of how a metagame will progress over the course of a season (in between set releases). For example, the most recent season of Lorcana started with one deck as an absolute favorite. So what happened? Everyone teched against that deck and now two other decks are ahead of it in the meta.

The same sort of thing could happen in UNION ARENA, assuming their are sufficient techs to use against a deck like this that relies more heavily on consistency and aggression than anything.

UNION ARENA is off to a promising start

No matter what way you look at it, however, UNION ARENA is off to a fantastic start in North America, with large tournaments like this one already taking place, and a vibrant local Store Tournament scene brewing. No matter what deck you choose to play, odds are you’ll enjoy playing it, and maybe take home a few promos in the process.