The Best UNION ARENA TCG Decks Right Now (2026)
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 the latest sets released – Sword Art Online Vol 2 and Evangelion – both boast powerful decks, they compliment one another well and create an environment that should still be varied and fun.
We’ll get into all of this and more below in the current UNION ARENA meta rundown.
#1 Purple Gaius is the best UNION ARENA deck
Move over, Kenshin decks – there’s a new kid in town and he’s got some shiny new toys that make a whole batch of UNION ARENA decks look antiquated.
The Purple Evangelion Gaius deck comes to the UNION ARENA English version unscathed. Unlike other energy colors that took serious hits when they had key cards cut from them, Purple Gaius is operating at full power. And that power is pretty insane when you behold it.
Of course, this deck’s single strongest card and core mechanic rests on the seven-cost Evangelion Spear of Gaius – a character that is unlike anything we’ve seen before in the game.
While there are many powerful combos that can be pulled off with this powerhouse card, the strongest use case is arguably using it to rapidly flood the board with 4000+ BP characters.
Beyond Gaius’s built-in draw engine on the Raid, you have a plethora of other draw characters in this deck like the three-cost Misato, Mari, the six-cost Asuka and the AAA Wunder that lets you control your opponent’s board and search out powerful characters When Sidelined.
Purple Gaius is a truly next-gen deck from a next-gen set and you can bet you’ll see it show up at your next high level competition.
Learn more about how to pilot Evangelion’s strongest deck via my Purple Gaius deck guide.
#2 Purple Yuna deck
Speaking of decks that are unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, let me introduce you to Purple Yuna from Sword Art Online Vol. 2. Purple Yuna is capable of cycling through cards like nobody’s business, letting you search out the key cards you need to achieve your strategy without even expending AP to do so.
And while there are plethora of strong cards in this set, the single strongest is arguably the powerful “smile for you” song/event card.
Typically, Special Trigger cards that don’t remove opposing characters aren’t very strong, but “smile for you” breaks that norm by being one of the strongest Specials in the game. Having this card in your hand or sideline gives you access to crazy plays whenever. Need an Impact character to close out the game? smile for you can help with that. Have a tricky opposing character with 5000 BP to deal with? No problem! smile for you has the answer.
“smile for you” extends your resources all the way through your sideline, while your many searching effects make it easy to find. Just make sure you always have one in your sideline or in your hand and you should be good to deal with whatever challenge you might face!
Admittedly, there’s a lot more to piloting Purple Yuna than that. Indeed, it’s the most challenging deck to play that I’ve run into to date because of the sheer number of combos you can pull off with it. But for a much deeper dive into the strategy, check out my Purple Yuna deck guide.
#3 Purple Saito
2nd place at Versus Games Regional by Will Ewing
Despite all the fuss being about the Red Kenshin deck (and the fact it now has two regionals under its belt), as far as Kenshin decks go, the trend has been turning towards Saito in a massive way. Two of the highest profile tournaments lately feature an overabundance of Saito. The Versus Games 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.
#4 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.
Another thing going for Red Kenshin is its 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.
Red Kenshin has seen a ton of success since it came out in September of 2025, and with favorable matchups into more than one of the strongest Evangelion decks, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Learn how to upgrade the Red Kenshin Starter Deck into a stronger build.
#5 Gun Gale Online (GGO)
Gun Gale Online is about to take the UNION ARENA meta by storm. Although it was played a lot in the SAO Rare Battle format when it first came out and a little bit at competitive event, post Vol. 2 it is one of the most hyped decks out there.
This is largely thanks to two cards: the two-cost Kirito and the six-cost Sinon – the first which reduces the energy-cost of your high energy characters dramatically and the second which lets you grant Impact to other characters on your front line while also enabling a free-play.
Cards that let you play a character for free – meaning no AP cost – are rapidly becoming a must-have in top tier decks. Almost all top tier decks have them now, with Red Kenshin being a notable exception. Meanwhile, the Activate: Main effect is the ideal way to give your other six-cost Sinon Raid with Snipe the deadly Snipe/Impact combo.
With the new energy reduction effects and such a powerful new utility Raid like this, GGO is a favorite going into the new meta.
See how it stacks up against the other Sword Art Online decks in my SAO Vol. 2 deck ranking.
#6 Red Shinji/Rei
The Shinji/Rei control deck is the other Evangelion deck that should do very well competitively. It’s a hard control deck that plays into the seven-cost Evangelion above all else, but it has enough support via powerful raids like the six-cost Rei and a plethora of low-cost search/filter characters to make it more than a threat in the English meta.
While most will look at the seven-cost Evangelion because of its insane attack powers as this deck’s key card, the six-cost Rei is arguably even more effective, helping make this deck really shine. She’s a powerful removal Raid and character granting an insane free play effect that makes you able to even Raid your seven-cost Evangelion for free at only six-cost.
Seeing the new SAO VOl. 2 decks as well as the Evangelion decks entering the fray really makes you realize just how much UNION ARENA is changing from its earlier days. The English meta is about to become much faster-paced while turns become extended by the sheer enhanced number of actions and choices you can make. However, it’s exciting to see a powerhouse deck like Red Evangelion stand out in the crowd for its apparent power – showing that combo and energy-heavy decks can succeed agains the backdrop of much more simple, straightforward decks that the former Kenshin dominated format could offer.
See how Red Evangelion stacks up against the other decks in its set in my guide to the strongest Evangelion decks.
#7 Muzan
Although once a low-tier deck due to a profound lack of trickers and consistency, with Demon Slayer Vol. 2, the Purple Muzan deck has evolved into one of the strongest late game decks in the game. Gone are the triggerless cards that only helped you by being sidelined, and instead you’ve got powerful low-cost consistency cards like Gyokko and Urogi.
Speaking of Gyokko – not only is he this deck’s zero-cost draw-one-sideline-one (virtually a must-have card in any top tier deck), his four-cost Raid characters works powerfully well in this deck, letting you remove chump blockers while also letting you draw-one-sideline-one When Attacking.
As handy as it is for Muzan to finally have a Raid that pairs so well with it, however, the real differentiator since Vol. 2 came out is the five-cost Muzan.
This Muzan unlocks massive value for your deck strategy that’s looking to hit 20 cards in sideline by letting you sideline as many characters on your field as you want when he’s played. While that’s strong enough as a means to rapidly fuel your sideline, you are also going to be drawing a card for each card sidelined in this way, playing a three-cost or less character from your hand for free, and then also activating the When Sidelined effects from your characters.
It’s a powerful albeit risky play that grants tremendous new power and consistency to this popular deck, while also helping Purple Muzan stand out as arguably the single deck in the UNION ARENA English Version to gain the most from a Vol. 2.
#8 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.
#9 Mina Yellow Kaiju No. 8
The powerful Yellow Mina deck is one of the strongest in the game right now thanks to having one of the strongest early game plays of any deck via the three-cost Reno/Bakko combos alongside the powerful control-oriented Mina. When combined these two strategies enable you to punch holes in your opponent’s defenses with low cost attackers in a way no other deck has been able to do to date.
Currently my favorite UNION ARENA deck and easily the strongest Kaiju No. 8 deck of them all, this deck’s strongest card is five-cost Mina herself.
One of the coolest things about Mina is that her Activate:Main stun effect isn’t limited to once-per turn. That’s important as you have plenty of resting cards at your disposal, meaning you can continue to stun opposing characters turn after turn as long as she stays on the field. Additionally, she only has to be on the front line to use her stun effect that prevents a resting character to switch to active the next time it would, making her versatile even into popular decks like Toshiro/Kenpachi.
Using Mina to rest characters 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.
Powerful turn-after-turn resting/freezing combined with strong consistency and an attack-from-the-energy line play via two-AP Mina make this deck 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.
#10 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.
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!
