UNION ARENA: Every BLEACH Vol. 2 Deck, Ranked

UNION ARENA: BLEACH Thousand Year Blood War Volume Two is here and with it comes some powerful added support to key strategies from the original BLEACH base set. This “expansion” should be mega popular amongst UA players and BLEACH fans as it not only introduces key cards for existing strategies but entirely new decks we’ve not seen before, including a Blue deck based around Rukia.

We’ll be looking at each of the main new BLEACH decks after Vol. 2 with two notable exceptions: I’ve dropped Yamamoto from the list as well as Yhwach as those two decks aren’t getting huge amounts of added support. With that being said, let’s take a look at the best BLEACH decks to look out for.

*Updated following the news we won’t be getting Purple zero-cost Rukia.

#7 Blue Kurotsuchi Zombies

Kurotsuchi is an odd deck that feels sort of slapped onto the Blue energy color that has a much better strategy to use in the form of Rukia. My biggest problem with this deck is the special – the card doesn’t remove any opposing characters. However, you do have plenty of removal apart from the special but to me that’s a pretty big disadvantage.

The whole thing here is to sacrifice your “zombie” units to gain benefits like removal, and then bring those units back to reuse all over again. I think it’s an okay strategy but not nearly as strong as the other top decks in this set (which will be quite strong).

#6 Yellow Bambietta

Generally speaking, BLEACH Yellow is a deck that was briefly competitive but quickly fizzled out once more UNION ARENA sets came out. In Vol. 2, the deck gets some impressive support that could bump it up into the tier 2 range. However, it’s not likely to do much more than that.

The main mechanic in Yellow BLEACH post Vol. 2 is another Zombie mechanic, letting you unlock draw support, and bring characters back from the sideline. Apart from that, Bambietta gets to shine in a way she really couldn’t in the base set thanks to added ways to rest stronger characters and then sideline them. This is partly thanks to the three-cost Candice Catnipp card, letting you extend the reach of your two-cost Bambietta’s resting effect.

Beyond that, you also get a host of added buffs like the one-cost Liltotto helping you search out Bambies affinity cards, the powerful three-cost Toshiro which lets you switch any character to resting when chained with Giselle’s ability, and the very powerful Zombie Bambietta character capable of Impact and added draw.

It may not be the strongest BLEACH deck of them all, but it’s certainly one to watch for in both regular tournaments as well as rare battles.

#5 BLEACH Blue Rukia & Ichigo

Blue is the new energy color coming out in BLEACH Vol. 2 with entirely new strategies as opposed to the other cards that simply augment what we already got in the base set. While it looks like there are several ways to build this base strategy centered around Rukia and Ichigo, the above focuses on what is likely to be the more popular version of the deck focused on the Rukia Toolbox build.

Despite the fact that it will undoubtedly be popular, I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed by BLEACH Blue. While the SR*** Rukia is admittedly gorgeous, the mechanics this deck has to offer leaves something to be desired. I’m just not seeing a compelling reason to play this deck competitively when BLEACH Purple is still far superior. That coupled with an over-reliance on two AP characters makes this deck feel potentially slow and cumbersome in a relatively fast format.

That being said, if you just absolutely love Rukia and her frozen Bankai, this deck might be enough to wet your whistle.

#4 Byakuya Kuchiki Deck

This Byakuya deck plays differently than a typical BLEACH Purple build. It’s a bit more strategic. As I’ve said before, it’s the difference between outright power and death by a thousand cuts.

The cool thing about Byakuya is how solid he is at slinging BP reduction around the field. While this BP reduction was already impressive in the base set, thanks to the two-cost Byakuya character we’re getting, your BP reduction effects get a whole lot stronger.

Additionally, the new one-cost Renji comes in clutch here, removing the vital piece one-cost Ichigo plays in letting you see more cards. Because of the one-cost Renji you can easily drop the zero-cost Uryu without missing anything. And it also means you aren’t missing anything by not including the one-cost Ichigo since his color trigger conflicts with your solid three-cost Byakuya (who also has the color trigger).

Lastly, Raid Rukia plays a vital role in this deck as she should in any Purple BLEACH deck post Vol. 2. She provides one of the strongest draw effects in the game and raids easily onto the two-cost Rukia which we get in this set instead of the zero-cost Rukia which was cut from the original BLEACH base set because it made Purple BLEACH too strong.

If you like a more strategic approach to Purple BLEACH, one capable of removing multiple characters in the same turn, give Byakuya a try.

#3 Squad Zero

In this Squad Zero deck put together by Unionversity, you use a combination of powerful Squad Zero removal and draw effects coupled with three different Ichigos to attempt to dominate the board and inflict a ton of damage with Ichigo’s Damage 2 and Impact 1.

In fact, the new, raidless Ichigo is this deck’s strongest card, and the primary reason to build BLEACH Purple around the Squad Zero deck. That being said, I’m less bullish on Squad Zero than the Ichigo/Rukia build. Other than the addition of Imapct to the Ichigo, this deck doesn’t bring much into the BLEACH Purple repetoire that we didn’t have before. While there are several excellent draw effects, I prefer the consistency and efficacy of the new Ichigo/Rukia build unlocked by the two-cost Rukia as opposed to relying on a bunch of Squad Zero combos.

Regardless, the deck feels fun to play because of how many combos you can pull off, the sheer amount of cards you can draw, as well as the solid removal unlocked via Senjumaru.

#2 Kenpachi Toshiro

Toshiro has been in and out of the meta since the beginning of the game, and he’s aged very well. Although at first his freezing effect felt strong, it also felt a little unnecessary when so many other decks had straight-up removal. However, today there’s a lot of scenarios where having a freezing tool in addition to removal is actually a huge advantage. And so, Toshiro remains.

After volume two, Toshiro is likely to be the second strongest BLEACH deck overall. Toshiro continues to be strong because it’s Toshiro: the madly skilled youngest member of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads with the strongest freezing effect in the game. While Vol. 2 doesn’t add a crazy amount of support for this character, it does unlock even more ways to play this hardy fellow with the the main boost to his strategy being the one-cost Toshiro that lets you recycle your strongest card: Raid Toshiro. Watch out though: we are getting a series of unique BLEACH cards coming out later in the year that includes a very powerful new Toshiro card that would seriously enhance his deck’s strategy.

There are a lot of different tools and strategies to pair with Toshiro to make him even stronger, ultimately the strongest Green deck is likely to be one that combines Toshiro and Kenpachi together into one cohesive deck. Raid Kenpachi adds a significant buff to Kenpachi as a whole and really encourages you to build your deck around both of these powerhouse characters.

#1 Ichigo/Rukia Purple BLEACH

Purple BLEACH was originally so strong when it came out in Japan that Bandai actually decided to nerf it when the game came to America, removing the zero-cost Rukia from the game so that the deck wouldn’t utterly overwhelm the English meta. Even though we won’t be getting that particular Rukia in this set, BLEACH Purple still gets an instant boost thanks to two-cost Rukia, gaining easier access to the Rukia Raid character as well as the ability to sideline more cards and fuel your Ichigo’s power.

The other big add to this deck is the new four-cost Ichigo character card – one who relatively easily boosts to a Damage 2 character with Nullify Impact.

With these additions Purple BLEACH should once again move up to the top of the meta, and until JJK vol. 2 comes out, will quite likely be top deck in the UNION ARENA metagame.