Purple Reze Deck List and Guide
The strongest deck coming out of UNION ARENA: Chainsaw Man is Purple Reze. This deck is going to be tremendously popular when the set comes out thanks to its competitive viability and the fact that it focuses on Reze: the beloved character from the highly successful Chainsaw Man movie.
Below, we’ll be looking at the core mechanics of the Purple Reze deck and how to play it to success.
Purple Reze – quick start guide
Build up to five energy on the energy line to prepare for your bigger characters.
Prioritize a solid mix of Reze characters and Denji – you’ll need both to unlock your ultimate strategy.
Sideline Denji characters on the field to unlock a plethora of powerful effects.
Spread BP reduction around the board via Denji and Reze effects to remove chump blockers, or simply obliterate big BP characters in a single swoop.
Put pressure on your opponent via the 2-AP cost Impact 1/Damage 2 Reze to close out the game.
Reze is handling this all on her own
Some sets have great hybrid options. Chainsaw Man is not one of those sets. Indeed, despite the usual inability to mix energy colors, this set specifically has guardrails placed throughout its disparate strategies to prevent players from getting too creative.
The most obvious one here is that Reze can only use her strongest effects if she is the only 4000 BP or more character on the field or in the sideline. This prevents you from pulling some crazy Makima/Reze shenanigans. It’s necessary to remain the balance of power, but not exactly subtle.
Other sets – like SAO – handle this more deftly by essentially making it impossible to combine disparate strategies within the same energy color.
Raid Bomb Devil is your strongest character
Bomb Devil (017)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
Market Value
Loading...
While many characters in the Purple Reze are strong, Raid Bomb Devil is the strongest in my books. It has the most versatility overall.
You can use Bomb Devil to systematically take out chump blockers when paired with other BP reducing effects in your arsenal. Alternatively, you can easily sideline an opposing character with this effect thanks to reducing the BP of one character by an insane 5000 BP
Lastly, the Activate:Main is a solid add, letting you gain Impact for a turn. That’s a lot of solid effects built into one big Raid character.
2-AP Bomb Devil is your heaviest hitter
Bomb Devil (016)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • rare
Market Value
Loading...
While your Raid Bomb Devil brings the removal, your 2-AP character is a strong finisher. You’re going to want to use Bomb Devil to sideline your Denji, switch to active, then swing for Damage 2 and Impact 1.
Damage 2/Impact 1 is a very strong combo in UNION ARENA. It’s not the strongest as Nullify Impact can theoretically shut it down. But apart from Snipe/Impact, it’s one of the strongest closing moves you can have.
Reze and the free-plays
I talk about free-play mechanics all the time and how vital they have become for the UNION ARENA TCG. Having the ability to fill your board with characters no matter their BP level gives you a significant advantage. While once this ability was enough to catapult certain decks to the top of the meta – like Purple Spear/Gaius – now they are more of a necessity just to keep up.
Luckily, Reze has two strong characters capable of adding additional plays to your turn.
The first is the three-cost Reze
Reze (028)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • uncommon
Market Value
Loading...
While still a three-cost (so you’ll have to make room for this free-play character), it’s still such a strong free-play mechanic, letting you play just about anything from your deck that’s 2 Energy-cost or less without expending an AP.
Raid Reze AP re-stand
Reze (031)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
Market Value
Loading...
The other free-play mechanic is even stronger in this deck, and it’s the Raid Reze. While three energy-cost Reze will enable you to play a character for free, Raid Reze affords you plenty of options. You can either reduce the BP of an opposing character by 1000 (great for pairing with your other BP reducing effects to clear chump blockers) or re-stand an AP. It’s like having a built-in Final to your character, which in a deck as strong as this is a big deal.
Pair your sideline effects with Denji
Before moving onto some of the matchup info for this deck, it’s important not to forget Denji. While Denji (for the most part) won’t be a main attacker for you, it’s important to have him around so you can kill him. Sidelining Denji unlocks benefits both via your Reze effects as well as via Denji’s own When Sidelined abilities.
Denji (008)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
Market Value
Loading...
The advantage here is very much like the Yellow Evangelion deck and that famous play that lets you unlock a ton of draw when you sideline the Rei. By chaining abilities like Reze and Denji, you can unlock powerful plays and additional card search mechanics, and even more.
Purple Reze – key matchups to watch
Before closing this article out, let’s talk about matchups. Reze’s matchup spread is relatively strong into the current UNION ARENA meta.
BP reduction: a double-edged sword
Its biggest issue is arguably Yellow Sakamoto, as the Raid Sakamoto with the protection is a pretty hard counter to your Reze. Kenpachi is also going to be an issue as that deck blocks BP reduction, forcing you to instead target other characters.
Both of these are manageable however, and outside of those matchups Purple Reze starts to look even better.
Shadow Army advantages
Shadow Army should be a relative cinch to deal with: here your ability to spread BP reduction around will be strong, and you have plenty of removal to even take out a 12-cost Sung Jinwoo.
Todo shakeup
Todo won’t be a huge issue (especially if you aren’t relying on the Café site) however you do have to reach five energy-cost so make sure you keep a double energy generating character in hand.
Rare Battle dominator
Lastly, the Rare Battle should be particularly favorable for Purple Reze, and I would expect that event to be just as dominated by her as the Solo Leveling event was dominated by Shadow Army.
One huge leg up in that format is that Reze can get around Power’s protection that won’t work if her BP is reduced to zero.
As Red Chainsaw Man is arguably the most powerful deck outside of Reze, that’s a huge advantage in a limited format.
Purple Reze is perfectly poised to dominate the UNION ARENA meta. While it’s not without weaknesses (reliance on BP reduction is a gift and a curse), no deck really is. But it should go straight to the top of the heap when Chainsaw Man becomes more broadly available.
