Mustang FMA Blue Deck Dominates the First UNION ARENA Regional
Is Fullmetal Alchemist a strong UNION ARENA set? According to the results from UNION ARENA’s first Regional for the English version of the game held at Gen Con 2025 in Indiana, it might just be the best deck in the format. The Fullmetal Alchemist Blue deck was hugely represented among the top 16 players from the event, with seven different players piloting their own versions of the deck. Not only did it dominate from a play share standpoint, however, it also managed to top the event, with Somethingfresh taking first place after an 8-0 run for first place.
1st place Roy Mustang Blue Fullmetal Alchemist deck – Gen Con UNION ARENA Regionals
Mustang topping the event comes as something of a surprise after many UNION ARENA commentators (myself included) originally wrote him off as more of a B-tier deck. Solid enough to compete for sure, but not necessarily among the most elite decks UNION ARENA has to offer.
Over the last few weeks, Mustang began to show up at the top of smaller, local tournaments, causing some heads to turn. However, with seven of the top 16 decks being Mustang at the biggest UNION ARENA tournament to date, we can’t simply write him off as a fad or a lucky meta choice – Roy Mustang is clearly one of the strongest decks in the game right now, and more than likely he’s here to stay.
Is Mustang really that good?
Clearly at face value, Mustang is a strong deck. He’s got draw, and he’s got solid removal. The question really is, then, how good is his removal compared to other top meta decks? My initial feeling was that his removal was not quite as strong as the seemingly more consistent removal you get from a deck like Purple BLEACH. Purple BLEACH can rely on cards in the sideline in order to remove characters, for example, while Mustang must rely primarily on cards discarded from the hand, and its combo with Hawkeye that lowers BP of opposing characters.
The thing that really sets Mustang apart, however, is that he uniquely can keep removing opposing characters each and every turn if left unchecked. This puts tremendous pressure on your opponent to remove him before he can take multiple removals in this way.
Taking one impactful removal via Mustang can be enough to tilt the game in Mustang’s favor. Manage to let him remove your strongest characters over the course of two consecutive turns, however, and that could be the kind of momentum that you simply can’t reverse.
However, it’s not only getting rid of strong characters that can be a problem. According to UNION ARENA commentator and content creator, Lullaby Anto, Mustang was also effective at removing chump blockers, forcing players to defend their life with stronger bodies. Essentially, this acts as a sort of double removal – clearing the smaller characters more easily and then forcing another removal via blocking.
Whether a mix of pure dominance on the part of Mustang, or simply players not seeing that particular combo coming, Fullmetal Alchemist Blue has proven itself as a top UNION ARENA deck, and should be very, very popular moving forward. Indeed, prices are already on the rise via TCGPlayer as more players seek to replicate the success this deck found at the highest level of competition already.
UNION ARENA Gen Con Regional Meta overview
Data courtesy of EXBURST
While Mustang was the biggest news coming out of UNION ARENA’s first regional in the English version, it’s not the only deck worth highlighting from the event. Some crazy hero also managed to make top sixteen and earn a North America Finals invite running the budget-friendly and mostly overlooked Code Geass Red aggro deck.
A personal favorite of mine, the Red Aggro Deck can absolutely get under a lot of decks if piloted the right way and with a little luck. It’s a somewhat risky pick as if you don’t manage to hit things right early game you can easily lose gas compared to the many more powerful decks out there in UNION ARENA. Clearly this anti-meta pick worked for Marcelo, however, and we should all consider this player to be a legend after this insane success.
Top 16 Code Geass Red deck by Marcelo – Gen Con UNION ARENA Regionals
Additionally, it wasn’t the Ichigo/Rukia build or the Squad Zero Hybrid decks that managed to make it into the finals alongside Mustang. Instead, an old favorite found its way back into the upper echelons of UNION ARENA competition – Renji Rush. Thanks to our friend LullabyAnto again (and his excellent reporting from the event), we know that this build focused on using both Raid Renji and the new Four-cost Raidless Ichigo to pressure opponents with double damage.
Otherwise, Purple BLEACH was the deck with the second highest degree of play share from the event, clearly solidifying its place at the head of the herd in the English meta.
Additional insights into the UNION ARENA Meta
While we’ve covered the big news and some of the zestiest decks already, it’s worth noting a few more decks and trends that have carried over into the competitive arena of UA. First of all, as already noted by myself, the Nanami/Sukuna build continues to be the most effective version of Blue JJK. We saw this at local tournaments heading into the regionals, and the only Blue JJK deck to top the event was in fact Nanami/Sukuna.
Code Geass Purple fades into obscurity
Also somewhat surprising was the total lack of Code Geass Purple from the top of the top 16. Up until very recently, Code Geass Purple was heavily present at competitive UNION ARENA events, and managing to top many very large tournaments. Could it be that many players simply left this deck at home for fear of it not keeping up with the likes of Purple BLEACH without its Vol. 2 out yet? Did more players prefer to go with something brand new and seemingly up-leveled like Mustang versus a deck that will be getting a lot stronger in a matter of weeks when its own Vol. 2 comes out?
One things that comes to mind is that perhaps if there had been a stronger presence of Code Geass Purple at the event (and maybe there was beyond the top 16) Mustang might have had more difficulty. Code Geass Purple might have a less difficult time dealing with Mustang than apparently Squad Zero does.
Otherwise, the remaining decks to top the event aren’t altogether surprising. Yellow Saitama continues to be relevant today thanks to its anti-removal capabilities, and Todo is clearly one of the strongest UNION ARENA decks with some very serious advantages both today and after AOT and Code Geass Vol. 2 drop later in August.
Meanwhile, Toshiro refuses to fade from the UNION ARENA meta, and it stands proudly in this event as it has at many others previously.
While the dominance of Mustang is the most surprising outcome from this event, the rest of the playing field looks about as expected given the current UNION ARENA meta. Clearly there’s a lot to be said for an attacker and removal character who can reuse his strongest effect each and every turn. It’s also quite likely, however, that players will adapt to this new deck over the coming weeks, and I would expect to see considerably less Blue FMA at the next regional in Dallas in September.
That being said, congrats to all of the players who managed to top the first ever UNION ARENA meta and good games to everyone else who fought their hardest along the way!
