BLEACH Vol. 3 may be the single most highly anticipated UNION ARENA set to date. And while the set boasts an impressive range of powerful decks, arguably the strongest of them all is the Purple BLEACH deck featuring Rukia and Ichigo.
In this deck list and guide, we’ll be looking at how to build and play this deck with all the upgrades available to it in UNION ARENA’s first Vol. 3.
Purple BLEACH Ichigo/Rukia gets much more from Vol. 3 than it did from Vol. 2. It now has access to its fully powered up build, and a significant part of that is thanks to the Advanced Deck.
Power up Purple BLEACH with cards from the Advanced Deck
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War - Advance Deck
UE10DC: Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Advanced Deck
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Apart from being an excellent product for dedicated BLEACH fans due to every single card included being a foil variant, it also includes two net new cards to the strategy that help make Purple BLEACH the new S tier.
Rukia Kuchiki (083)
UE10DC: Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Advanced Deck • Super Rare
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Both cards are incredibly strong. However, it’s the two-cost Rukia that really makes competitive players do a double-take – unlocking additional filtering, sideline fueling, and even enabling the can’t be blocked by 4000 BP or more characters play.
The three-cost Ichigo is also quite strong – giving you additional filtering, draw, and double energy generation in a Raid Target for your eight Ichigo Raid characters.
Rukia Kuchiki (051)
UE10DC: Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Advanced Deck • Common
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That’s not all Purple BLEACH gets in its third volume, however: easy to miss is the zero-cost Rukia included in the Advanced Deck. This Rukia originally released in Japan’s first BLEACH UNION ARENA set, but was subsequently cut from the English Version for fear of it making Purple BLEACH too powerful too early.
While that move may have been necessary for the stability of the English Version’s meta game, the eventual addition of zero-cost Rukia felt a little too late. At that point, Purple BLEACH was largely outmatched by the meta.
Now, however, Rukia/Ichigo has its time to shine again, and tournament data from Japan shows that this deck is absolutely once again top tier.
Ichigo/Rukia Purple BLEACH deck gets a powerful attacker in Vol. 3
Uryu Ishida
UEX08BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Vol.3 • Super Rare
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Last but not least, Ichigo/Rukia gets access to a powerful new attacker in BLEACH Vol. 3 – one that isn’t even from the Purple energy color! This new Yellow Uryu is one of the reasons the deck is so strong. Whereas Vol. 2 gave a Raidless Ichigo to Purple BLEACH – one that has Nullify Impact and could potentially boost to a Damage 2 attacker, that Ichigo always felt a little slow. With no way to switch to active the turn it was played, it eventually became too slow of a strategy to really be reliable.
Now, however, thanks to this Uryu you get a 4000 BP attacker who comes in active, has Nullify Impact to strengthen your front line defensively, and even moves Ichigo characters from your removal area back into your sideline. This is critical as it allows you to reuse those cards to activate your Ichigo Raid effects all over again.
Ichigo/Rukia Purple BLEACH deck refresher
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Vol. 3 - Booster Display
UEX08BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Vol.3
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We’ve covered the additions to the powerful Ichigo/Rukia Purple BLEACH deck coming out in BLEACH Vol. 3, but for those entirely new to the game, here’s a refresher on how the other core mechanics work.
Essentially, the deck is built around your Raid Ichigo characters.
Ichigo Kurosaki (041)
UE01BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War • Super Rare
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Of the two, your five-cost is the strongest, letting you remove just about anything on your opponent’s front line – as long as you have the cards in sideline to reach those thresholds. On the other hand, the four-cost Raid Ichigo that can be found in the new Advanced Deck (and original Starter Deck), acts as both your Impact attacker and a draw engine.
Thanks to the addition of cards that more rapidly fuel your sideline – as well as using the Uryu that recycles card back into the sideline – using both of these effects becomes easier to achieve even earlier in the game. While decks in the past ran usually only two-or-three of the four cost Start Deck Ichigo Raid characters, with how many Raid targets you now have in the deck, and the added room from the fake zero-cost, it makes more sense to run a full playset of both Ichigo Raids.
Rukia Kuchiki (053)
UE01BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War • Super Rare
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The other important element of the Ichigo/Rukia deck is, of course, the Rukia Raid package. Rukia has always been integral to the Purple BLEACH strategy, however she was nerfed so early on that she failed to be as great of a threat as she really ought to have been all along.
Now with the fake two-cost, you can easily and consistently Raid her at all points in the game, and benefit from an insane draw effect that lets you see three cards, fuel your sideline with two, and further boost your other characters on the field via a handy Activate:Main.
Following BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Vol. 3, Ichigo/Rukia is easily one of the strongest decks in not only the title but for all of UNION ARENA. While there are many different ways to build Purple BLEACH following the new release, Ichigo/Rukia will likely be one of the most popular at a competitive level.
