The Best BLEACH UNION ARENA Decks, Ranked
BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War was the first UNION ARENA set to join the English Version of the game alongside Hunter x Hunter. Unlike the latter, BLEACH has continued to fare well, with several decks still making high level competitive appearances even today. With news of a Volume 3 coming in the near future, it seems highly likely that BLEACH will continue to be a force in the meta for some time.
But what are the strongest BLEACH decks right now?
Below, we’ll be taking a look at the strongest of the strong and ranking them. This way you know which decks will help you best climb to the top of the heap at your next competitive event.
And while BLEACH Vol. 3 may still be a ways off, you will need some of the cards from the BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War New Card Selection – something which is only available right now on the secondary card market.
#4 Yellow BLEACH
Yellow BLEACH got a ton of attention when it got a huge upgrade with BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War Vol. 2. The Bambies strategy effectively went from a fringe, low synergy strategy to a fully fleshed out deck – one where the Bambietta Raid fits seamlessly in with the Giselle zombie strategy. With plenty of draw, powerful resting effects, and a solid Impact attacker to close out the game, you can see why even today Yellow BLEACH shows up at high level events, like the North America Finals where it took a top 32 spot.
While it’s not nearly as popular today as it was when BLEACH Vol. 2 originally came out, should Vol. 3 include additional support for it, you could see Yellow BLEACH rise up in the UNION ARENA tier list once again and be a true threat to the English Version meta.
#3 Byakuya
Byakuya has long played second fiddle to the other, stronger Purple BLEACH deck: Ichigo. In the early days of the game, players used Byakuya as a tech option to help even the math against 5000 BP attackers. Now, he’s easily his own deck thanks to all of the goodies he gets in the BLEACH New Card Selection – specifically the one-cost Byakuya and the five-cost Renji.
While this deck may not quite be at the level of the top two decks on this list, it’s still a strong deck with some insanely good matchups, especially against aggro decks that will melt under the widespread removal that is particularly strong into low BP characters.
#2 Purple BLEACH Ichigo/Rukia
Purple BLEACH was once the undisputed best BLEACH deck, and even in contention for best deck in format at more than one point in time. While it’s gotten some added support thanks to the four-cost Raidless Ichigo and the zero-cost Rukia, it still feels like it’s just missing a little special something to really make it into the big leagues.
Speaking of the Ichigo and the Rukia, they really do add significant power to the deck. Rukia is your draw engine. Use her to see more cards and rapidly fuel your sideline to unlock your powerful Ichigo effects. Of course the same powerful removal is there via five-cost Ichigo, but now there’s a higher payoff from using this effect as you can buff your four-cost Raidless Ichigo into a Damage 2 attacker quite easily.
If Purple BLEACH gets additional support in Vol. 3 – something to modernize its strategy like a two-cost character that can be played for zero-cost with no cards on the field (most modern sets have these) or a character with a free play ability, you could see this deck once again making its way into the top ranks.
#1 Green BLEACH Kenpachi/Toshiro
Ever since the start, Toshiro is a card that had a ton of potential. Back in the early days, Kenpachi didn’t have a Raid making him more of a backup attacker than part of the main show himself. Meanwhile, Toshiro as a Raid is one of the very few Raids that actually feels like it gets better as time passes. Like, he completely freezes a character for two turns and there’s nothing you can do about it? That’s crazy!
Admittedly, the deck didn’t really come into its own until the release of the Thousand Year Blood War New Card Selection. Given how much money those collections go for, however, a deck like this one that requires many cards from that special set will cost a solid amount of money.
If you’re really wanting to run this deck, however, picking up these cards is totally worth it as they are incredibly strong.
Given the news of BLEACH Vol. 3 coming to the English Version soon, I just wanted to put this quick recap together of the top most meta relevant BLEACH decks in UNION ARENA right now. Stay tuned for more updates and info on BLEACH Vol. 3 as I will be updating the blog with more news as it comes available!
