UNION ARENA: Blue BLEACH Deck List and Guide
Blue BLEACH is the new energy color coming out in BLEACH: Thousand Year Blood War Vol. 2. There are two different yet complimentary ways to focus this build, either leaning more heavily into Ichigo or Rukia. In this build, however, we’re going to be mixing them up a bit while leaning more heavily into the Rukia Build
Breaking Down Rukia Kuchiki’s Raid
Rukia’s raid does some interesting things. The most interesting thing is that she switches a character to resting, and forces them to stay resting until Rukia leaves the field. While that’s a really strong effect, it’s arguably not as strong as another freezing effect we already have access to in the form of Toshiro. Toshiro should still be the preferred freezing tool in BLEACH’s arsenal. Toshiro may not have the potential of permanently locking someone down, but he forces characters down without any prerequisites. Additionally, getting guaranteed set to resting feels stronger than something that can be removed relatively easily.
Still, Rukia’s Raid feels like a solid choice, not only because she’s this deck’s primary character but because of tie-ins with the lore. In BLEACH Blue, instead of Ichigo, Byakuya, and Renji playing the main roles and Rukia supporting them, Rukia becomes the CEO of her own deck, with the boys playing support roles. It’s an interesting twist on the original deck that makes this one stand out.
Blue BLEACH zero-cost characters
Rukia’s Raid is the core character to this deck. But you need plenty of strong characters to build a solid curve on. To that end, let’s look at the zero-cost characters I’ve picked out and why.
Ichigo is a solid “draw-one-sideline-one” zero-cost character, helping fit this deck’s theme that includes solid draw power.
Rukia is purely here as a Raid target.
Zangetsu works because of its interplay with your Ichigo characters that let you discard a card and unlock additional effects when combined with it.
Two-cost Ichigo and Renji
Running two two-cost characters in this deck feels like the way to go, helping ensure you have just the right amount of lower cost characters to help you hit your curve while also capitalizing on these two character’s powerful abilities.
Starting with the two-cost Ichigo: while this character isn’t necessarily integral to the deck’s strategy, it helps in a lot of ways. For starters, it gives your Raid Ichigo another raid target. He can also be a solid attacker end of game to close things out.
Even more effective, however, is the two-cost Renji – a character who grants much needed Impact to this otherwise Impactless deck. 3000 base BP isn’t bad, either, giving you some pushing power when needed.
Three-cost Rukia & Renji
Despite being triggerless, this Rukia fits seamlessly into this deck, granting you a two-energy generating character as well as a powerful draw effect. Regardless, she’s going to let you draw a card. If you have a two AP character on the field, she lets you draw a card without discarding. Not to mention she’s an excellent raid target for your Raid Rukia.
You can pair Rukia with any of your two-AP characters this deck has to offer to grant the draw, but Renji is another great option for this given he’s the same energy cost.
Being only three-energy cost with 4000 BP is pretty solid. But as if that weren’t enough, he’s also got Nullify Impact and an effect that lets you switch him to active if you have another two-AP character on your front line, and a When Played effect that lets you re-stand one of your AP.
Four-cost Ichigo
While lacking the ability to switch one of your AP cards to active again like the Renji, this four-cost two-AP Ichigo feels like a must-have in any BLUE BLEACH deck. His “When Played” is a seriously powerful removal tool, bouncing a card back to the hand with 4000 BP or less. He’s got 4000 BP himself making him a solid attacker, the Active trigger, and an “Activate: Main” effect letting you draw a card and then discard one.
This build also includes the Raid Ichigo. With two viable targets to choose from, you should be able to play Ichigo with relative ease. While he’s a far cry from the kind of power we get in the Purple Ichigo, he has his uses, playing into this deck’s powerful draw capabilities and also enabling you to weaken your opponent’s defenses.
Byakuya is critical to BLEACH BLUE
Byakuya is another Two AP character that incentivizes you to run him in your list because of how easy he is to play. As long as you’ve played a Rukia that turn, you can switch one of the AP costs used to play him to active. Additionally, you can play another Rukia for free. That massively extends your AP for the turn, and is topped off by yet another draw effect.
How strong will Blue BLEACH be?
What’s the competitive outlook for BLEACH Blue? Will it compete well into the UNION ARENA meta?
Unfortunately, it could be better. Had the deck come out back when BLEACH’s base set debuted, the deck actually would have done quite well, and been a solid choice for store tournaments or rare battles. Today, however, there’s just such an insane array of decks that are stronger than this one.
That’s not to say that things are all bad for BLEACH Blue. As a tier-two deck, BLEACH Blue will do quite well. It just won’t be able to hang in there with the big boys, especially with so many other Vol. 2 sets coming out in the near future.
