The Best UNION ARENA TCG Decks Right Now (2025)
Looking for the best UNION ARENA deck to take with you to your next tournament? I’ve compiled a list of the most meta relevant decks right now, starting with the current best decks in the format.
UNION ARENA currently boasts a surprisingly wide array of competitive decks. That being said, thanks to the recent release of the fantastic Rurouni Kenshin set, the UNION ARENA meta has yet another powerful deck to contend with.
We’ll get into all of these decks and more below in the current UNION ARENA meta rundown.
#1 Red Kenshin is the best UNION ARENA deck
1st out of 250+ players at the Los Angeles Regional by Mylo
Red Kenshin is not only the best deck in UNION ARENA right now, it may be the most hyped UNION ARENA deck of all time. Heading into the Los Angeles Regionals (where it made up a staggering 50%+ of the top 32 decks) the deck saw incredible hype, and ended up topping the event.
While this deck does focus on the typical, powerhouse aggressive strategies that are a trademark of red, it also has a massively strategic layer to it that makes it one of the higher-skill decks out there.
As a Kenshin player, you must be able to assess the board state beyond making an all-out attack: you need to discern the optimal time to push characters back to the energy line, and when to let them be sidelined.
Also, Kenshin has access to one of the strongest draw engines yet revealed: one that lets you draw a card each and every turn essentially for free.
Red Kenshin also has access to a host of insanely powerful base BP characters. Their only drawback is that when they battle a character that character gets pushed to the energy line instead of sidelined. However, in many matchups, that’s actually a good thing. The beauty of Red Kenshin, however, is giving you the choice to shut that off. And the best way to shut it off is with your 2 AP cost Kenshin. It’s an incredibly versatile deck that is one-of-a-kind in the English version of the game.
Learn how to upgrade the Red Kenshin Starter Deck into a stronger build.
#2 Code Geass Green Lancelot
Top 32 deck from the UNION ARENA Los Angeles Regional by Jeremy Eggers
Code Geass Lancelot was once a mainstay in the UNION ARENA meta, and was so for a long time. Thanks to Code Geass Vol. 2, it’s once again back at the top! Although a tough matchup into Red Kenshin could diminish its popularity – at least in the short term.
If you’re wondering what to do to upgrade your existing Lancelot deck, you might be glad to know it isn’t missing much. The primary big addition to the deck is the two-cost Nunnally. While innocent seeming at first, this Nunnally makes it far easier to hit your high energy curve, meaning you can get those Lancelot Air Cavalry out to dominate the field much more easily.
While I expect builds for this deck to very greatly from player to player, I do like the inclusion of Cornelia’s Gloucester, making it relatively easy to find that Nunnally from the top five cards in your deck and play her safely to the energy line.
Learn more about how to pilot the powerful Lancelot deck in this guide.
#3 Renji Rush
Sixth place at the Bandai Card Fest in Dallas, 2025
Bandai feared the power of Purple BLEACH so much that they decided to cut the zero cost Rukia from its lineup altogether. The result? Players have shied away from the pure Ichigo/Rukia build and are doing something different (and old) instead – leaning back into the once great and powerful Renji Rush.
If it feels familiar to you, then chances are good you are an OG UNION ARENA player, perhaps hailing from the game’s earliest days when Renji Rush was known as one of the greatest threats in the meta.
As opposed to leaning hard into the Rukia draw engine or the Squad Zero combo of added removal, this deck looks to play it simply by focusing on a pure removal strategy combined with a ton of threats from Damage 2 characters.
While the deck hasn’t changed a ton since its earliest days, it does benefit massively from the inclusion of a Damage 2 Nullify Impact character thanks to BLEACH Vol. 2.
Ichigo becomes a Damage 2 character once you hit the 10 cards in removal threshold: a relatively easy threshold to meet given how many cards it takes to sideline 4000 BP characters and above with the card that is still this deck’s main appeal: five-cost Ichigo.
Sometimes old decks are the best decks, and Purple BLEACH remains a viable threat in the meta today over a year since it first entered the arena.
#4 Roy Mustang
Somethingfresh’s1st place Roy Mustang deck – Gen Con UNION ARENA Regionals –
One of anime’s most beloved heroes gets a deck of his own in the Fullmetal Alchemist Blue Roy Mustang deck. This deck is all about using a combo of effects to lower your opponent’s characters down to size, putting them within striking distance of Roy Mustang’s powerful “When Attacking” removal effect. That’s not all this deck has to offer, however. It also boasts one of the stronger draw engines among the top tier decks, and a highly handy Edward Elric card capable of coming in active and complete with Impact.
Edward Elric
After over performing at UNION ARENA’s first regional for the English version of the game, it’s clear that Roy Mustang isn’t only the strongest Fullmetal Alchemist deck – it’s one of the strongest in the game right now.
Learn more about the Blue Mustang deck that dominated UNION ARENA’s first regional.
#5 Purple Saito
First place deck by VALDY
Despite Red Kenshin getting most of the publicity as the top Rurouni Kenshin deck, Purple Saito is a close second. This deck offers the unique mechanic of being able to attack from the back line, a powerful effect that enables you to dodge certain lethal threats like a Special trigger out of life.
Meanwhile, the six-cost Saito isn’t the only thing this deck has going for it. Indeed, you have a plethora of powerful draw effects, filtering, as well as secondary attackers to choose from, making this deck an absolute blitz of strategic power that can be a challenge for any deck to deal with.
#6 Sukuna/Nanami Blue JJK
8th place at the UNION ARENA Bandai Card Fest Regional
Perhaps because of an anticipated limitation to starter deck Sukuna that never came, many assumed pure Blue Sukuna without Nanami would be the dominant deck post JJK Vol. 2. However, no Sukuna limitation was released, leaving players to build freely. The result? Nanami/Sukuna is doing very, very well at tournaments, regularly showing up in the top 32 and better.
And it makes sense: Blue Nanami/Sukuna feels like a Blue JJK greatest hits album, letting you mix-and-match this energy color’s strongest cards into a single, cohesive deck. It doesn’t hurt that Nanami also gained a ton from JJK Vol. 2, making it much easier to hit your end of game condition that sees his Raid boost dramatically in power.
While this Blue JJK player certainly knew what they were doing in order to make top eight at a big event, I personally have a soft spot for the other powerful Nanami Raid that’s excluded from this list. Still, I can see why they committed that given teir emphasis on the four-cost Yuji. Either way, it’s clear that Sukuna/Nanami is the definitive Blue JJK build for the time being, focusing on this toolbox of attackers rather than the go-big-or-go-home strategy the seven-cost Sukuna posits.
Learn more about Blue Sukuna/Nanami in my guide to top JJK decks.
#7 Todo/Mechamaru deck
7th place deck by Div – Gen Con UNION ARENA Regional
Purple Todo feels like a deck with something of a cult following. Despite the fact that this strategy didn’t have the nuts and bolts that it needed first time around, it’s still one that showed up on the local scene with plenty of players hoping to Boogie Woogie their way to victory.
Now, that’s changed thanks to plenty of added support from Volume 2. Cards like Ultimate Mechamaru grant considerable versatility to this deck, while the primary technical advantage here still rests in Todo’s character swapping ability – the best of its kind in the game.
Lastly, Todo could be a very handy pick into the JJK Vol. 2 Rare Battle format thanks to the Mechamaru’s site demolishing capabilities, making it a reliable counter to Blue JJK’s broken Shrine play.
#8 Kenpachi/Toshiro
Kenpachi/Toshiro is a deck that’s consistently performed since the earliest days of UA. Today, it’s gotten a boost in matchups thanks to the prevalence of Red Kenshin. Perhaps more than any other deck, Kenpachi/Toshiro can hard counter the BDIF thanks to a combination of the two AP-cost Kenpachi that can’t be moved to the energy line and Toshiro who can actually freeze down the energy line, shutting down aggro threats from Red Kenshin as well as the powerful three-cost Kaoru draw effect.
It’s still a niche deck, however, with decent matchups all around. We could see it really pop off with the added support it gets from the New Card Selection for BLEACH.
Although decks vary between more emphasis on Kenpachi or Toshiro, my build puts Kenpachi in the spotlight largely thanks to the “can’t be moved” gimmick that makes it very solid into Kenshin. Of course, the rait that boosts to an Impact 1 Damage 2 is no slouch either, making this deck an absolute terror in the right hands.
These are the strongest decks in the game right now you should know about, but stay tuned as I will keep updating this list with even more strategies you can use to compete at your next UA store tournament as more sets enter the arena!
