Red Kenshin Deck Dominates LA UNION ARENA Regional

I just got back from an exciting UNION ARENA regional in Los Angeles, and perhaps to no surprise Rurouni Kenshin deck was by far and large the deck on everyone’s mind at the event. While we don’t know specifics on the meta breakdown yet, Kenshin seemed to be everywhere, making up two-out-of-eight of my matches, and more for others. In the top tables, Kenshin felt highly represented as well, and and the first place deck itself was none other than Red Kenshin piloted by the excellent UNION ARENA player and friend, Mylo.

Mylo’s LA Regional winning Red Kenshin deck list

Mylo opts for a very aggressive Red Kenshin deck here, dropping commonly played extra cards like Hiten Mitsurugi-riyu in favor of strong lower-cost characters to get the aggro play rolling faster. It’s a bold move that clearly payed off, and was likely enough to beat other Red Kenshin decks to the punch.

I’ve known Mylo for some time and have been able to watch his rise to the top via the deck lists and tournament experiences he’s shared via the JWA Discord community as well as on X. So I was totally elated to find out he had won – a very fitting result from a player who truly loves UNION ARENA as a game and for its community.

I even got to snag a picture with him shortly after his victory before I raced off to catch my ride home.

Me with Mylo shortly after he claimed his victory over 250+ players at the UNION ARENA Los Angeles Regionals.

Why was Red Kenshin so big at the LA Regional?

Red Kenshin showed clear signs of being the favorite going into the LA regionals. Apart from general buzz online, one huge indicator that it was going to be the most played deck even before the event was the fact that the price for its primary SR Raid attacker from the booster pack was trending at over $30 on TCGPlayer for a while, indicating players couldn’t get this card into their hands fast enough, and were willing to pay what (in UNION ARENA terms) is a very high price for it.

Red Kenshin packs a surprising array of power into one deck – perhaps more so than we’ve seen in any deck in the game so far to date. It’s got everything – board clearing capabilities, Impact, Double Attack, incredible card draw, and several very broken supporting characters thanks to the two-cost and three-cost Kaoru cards.

But it’s also Kenshin’s place in the meta that made it such a hyped deck. Whereas Dallas saw a relatively control-heavy meta, Kenshin acted as the ideal counter to energy-hungry decks like the powerful Lancelot, seeking to disrupt energy lines and swing for a ton of life before those decks can get set up.

Will Kenshin remain at the top for long?

It’s difficult to say how long Kenshin will reign supreme. As a more recent set in Japan, it feels like we finally have a brand new set that’s at the power level of a more advanced UNION ARENA. After all, UA has been out for just over a year now, and Kenshin’s incredible power shows that. Not only is Red Kenshin strong, fast, and reliable, other Kenshin decks show promise, like the Purple Saito deck that was also very much played at the regional.

While I wouldn’t be surprised to the number of Red Kenshin decks topping the regional to be quite, quite high in the final tally, I wouldn’t expect its playshare to remain so dramatic overtime.

While the deck is very, very strong into certain matchups, against others it’s just highly competitive, and many players will learn to work around it’s powerful effects and attacks once the set has been out a little longer.

How do you beat Red Kenshin?

While plenty of decks can beat Kenshin (I beat 1/2 of the Red Kenshin players I faced in the Regional running my favorite Goddesses build), the best deck to counter Red Kenshin is arguably the powerful Green BLEACH deck.

Here’s one I was playing around with last week.

Green BLEACH has very powerful plays into Red Kenshin. For starters, the two-AP Kenpachi is one of the only cards in the game that is immune to attacks from Kenshin with his “During Your Turn” ability that sends characters to the energy line, acting essentially as a free block.

Second, Toshiro is a powerful counter to the three-cost Karou who lets Kenshin players draw a card essentially every turn. Play Raid Toshiro when you have six other Court Guard charcters on the field and you are freezing an opposing character on the front line and all characters on the energy line for two turns essentially – and that also means Kaoru!

While that may not sound like a lot, denying these two advantages is a significant setback to Red Kenshin’s strategy if you manage to pull it off, and denying more cards can be vital especially towards the end of the game when resources may be running low.

While running Green BLEACH is the somewhat nuclear option to counter the Red Kenshin heavy meta, you can still beat the deck with other decks – you just have to practice. After playing way, way too many matches against Red Kenshin via my Goddesses build, for example, I felt fairly comfortable against the deck and (again) won half my matches against it, with one of the losses simply being from a bad trigger off of my opponent’s life (otherwise I was dominating the game).

The Lancelot player who traveled with me to the regional (who landed well into top 32) was also able to beat Kenshin thanks (in part) to practice drills we did against the deck, going 2/3 against Kenshin, with one of the losses being partially thanks to a very poor, bricked-up start.

The point I’m making with this is that Kenshin is not so overwhelmingly powerful that you have to either play the deck or play against it – the defining features of a tier-zero deck. Contrarily, with some practice, many decks can do well against it, and we’re likely to see Kenshin drop a little in playshare as players realize this. However, it will still be in contention for best UNION ARENA deck for some time.

More thoughts on the UNION ARENA Regional

Moving on now from the meta discussion, I would also like to encourage anyone who might be on the fence about attending a UNION ARENA Regional to really give it some thought. I had an immensely positive experience at the event, and did quite well all things considered – even with playing an off-meta deck.

Many, many players were simply playing their favorite deck, and not trying to metagame too hard, something which created a fun and variable experience. Despite Kenshin being the boogeyman of the format, I only actually played against it twice all day, and the rest of my matches were a fun and enjoyable collection of variance.

I even played against one player running the Hunter x Hunter Vol. 2 Specified Slots deck – and he played it like an absolute work of art.

So if you’re feeling a little nervous about your first UNION ARENA regional, I would recommend you give it a try anyways. Players are friendly and courteous, prizes (even for entry) are fantastic, and the overall competitive environment really isn’t a huge step up from what I’ve experienced at store tournaments and rare battles.

Entry prizes at the LA Regional

And who knows – you might end up being the next Mylo and topping the UNION ARENA Regional you participate in!