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 typically boasts a surprisingly wide array of competitive decks. It’s one of the things that makes the game so much fun. And although recent, high profile tournaments have skewed particularly heavy in favor of the Red Kenshin deck, the latest regional in Florida shows that adjustments to the game – such as un-restricting the Sukuna/Yuji pairing – have helped alleviate the play share monopoly of the game’s top deck.
We’ll get into all of this and more below in the current UNION ARENA meta rundown.
#1 Purple Saito is the best UNION ARENA deck
2nd Place – Halloween Case Tournament by Vexsten
Despite all the fuss being about the Red Kenshin deck (and the fact it now has two regionals under its belt), the trend is turning towards Saito in a massive way. Two of the highest profile tournaments lately feature an overabundance of Saito. The Regional in Florida saw Saito making up an incredible 30% of the top 16 decks, while the recent Egman/GG Haven tournament saw a Saito heavy meta in the top eight as well.
And really, it’s not hard to see why. While Red Kenshin has certain matchups it dominates and others it sruggles with, Saito’s matchup spread is more even. Sure, it’s not massively dominant over any of the top tier decks in particular, but it sure isn’t bad into them, either.
This more even matchup spread is helping Saito rise to the top at the highest level of competition – a matchup spread that is made possible thanks to one of the strongest attackers in UNION ARENA: six-cost Saito.
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.
#2 Red Kenshin
1st out of 250+ players at the Los Angeles Regional by Mylo
While Red Kenshin shows signs of slipping from its throne, it still might take the crown for being the most hyped UNION ARENA deck to date. 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.
#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 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.
#6 Todo/Mechamaru
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.
#7 Kenpachi/Toshiro
Top 5 out of 20+ players at the Halloween Case Tournament by Joseph Writer Anderson
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 always been something of a niche deck, however, with decent matchups all around. Now that the cards in the New Card Selection for BLEACH are out, it’s a whole different animal and quite scary to boot. I took the above deck to a case tournament and tied for second!
Although Green BLEACH decks vary from player-to-player 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 raid that boosts to an Impact 1 Damage 2 is no slouch either, making this deck an absolute terror in the right hands.
Learn how to build and play my custom Toshiro/Kenpachi deck.
#8 Mina Yellow Kaiju No. 8
1st place deck by Antix
Don’t let this Yellow Mina deck fool you – it’s easily the strongest Kaiju No. 8 deck of them all, with a collection of consistent and absolutely deadly combos that fair very well into the current meta. Admittedly, there are a lot of different ways you can build this Mina/Bako deck, but regardless of how you build it, your strongest card remains (unequivocally) five-cost Mina herself.
One of the coolest things about Mina besides the fact that she is a 4000 BP character with Impact who can switch an opponent’s character to resting and freeze them, her freezing effect also isn’t limited to once per turn. While that may not sound like a big deal, resting characters with her turn after turn can be a very powerful play, especially if you manage to combo it with your other resting effects – such as three-cost Mina or two-cost Soshiro – or a Yellow color trigger. Think about it as a similar benefit of Roy Mustang only perma-resting rather than removing.
Powerful turn-after-turn resting/freezing combined with strong consistency and an attack-from-the-energy line play make Mina a powerful contender in the current English meta.
Learn how to play this killer deck via my 1st place Mina Yellow deck list and guide.
#9 Toguro Bros
13th at the Florida Regional – Toguro Brothers by creamy
Toguro is a deck that’s gained a ton of noteriety since Yu Yu Hakusho came out late October. It’s taken top placements at local events and even at the Florida Regional, and is emerging as the game’s preferred big-guy character.
While getting Younger Toguro out is going to take some effort as an eight-cost, there are ways to significantly reduce his energy cost to make playing him much easier. Meanwhile, he’s got some insane removal capabilities, reducing your opponent’s field by 2000 BP and comboing well with the five cost Younger Toguro to achieve multiple removals in a single turn.
I used Toguro to win my Yu Yu Hakusho Rare Battle, and was blown away by how strong this deck can be if it gets set up, with really its only drawback being the fact that eight-cost Younger Toguro not being able to be played raidless.
#10 Tanjiro/Nezuko
Tanjiro/Nezuko is back! While it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Demon Slayer on the top of the meta, following Demon Slayer Vol. 2, Tanjiro gets several excellent new tools to help it move to the top. While the core switching mechanic remains its strongest selling point – enabling a powerful offensive front while also adding a defensive layers to your strongest Tanjiro characters – it gets three powerful new cards: zero-cost Nezuko, three-cost Shinobu, and a new color trigger.
Of the three, the four-cost Tanjior is arguably this deck’s strongest add.
Doubling as yet another 4000 BP Tanjiro attacker that can be switched out via Raid Nezuko, this Tanjiro with the Yellow Color Trigger grants a vital protective layer to your Nezuko, preventing your opponent from shutting down your core mechanic while it’s in the works.
While not the strongest UNION ARENA deck of them all, it’s still high up there in the upper tiers, and should be a particular favorite given how popular Demon Slayer is right now thanks to Infinity Castle.
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!
