UNION ARENA: Every Chainsaw Man Deck, Ranked
Looking for the strongest UNION ARENA: Chainsaw Man deck?
Apart from Solo Leveling, Chainsaw Man is arguably the most hyped UNION ARENA set of all time. It has everything a blockbuster set needs to be huge, and it’s coming out right in the middle of summer.
Competitively, these decks hold their own, with the top Chainsaw Man deck likely to dominate the meta. For collectors, the hand-signed serialized Action Point cards have already made headlines for fetching insane prices overseas.
But which of the decks pass muster? Which will rise to the top, and which will be relegated to friendly locals?
Below, let’s look at each and every Chainsaw Man deck, and rank them from good to great.
UNION ARENA: Chainsaw Man Booster Box
#4 Aki/Himeno
We’re going to start things out with what is likely the weakest deck in UNION ARENA: Chainsaw Man, and that is the Aki/Himeno deck. With that being said, it’s not all bad. The single strongest mechanic in the deck is Aki himself.
Aki Hayakawa (056)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
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However, just like in the anime, Aki is something of a double-edged sword. While on the one hand unlocking the deadly Snipe/Impact combo at just four energy-cost is virtually unheard of, it comes at a pretty steep price. First, you have to enable Aki to get down to no cards under him. That’s easier said than done given he automatically puts three cards underneath him when he is played.
Second, even if you do manage to hit zero cards under him, you’re rewarded yes by a Snipe/Impact play. But then Aki is going to sideline himself at the start of your turn which kind of sucks.
The other thing this deck does really well is swapping characters for additional attacks. Think of it like Blue Aincrad from SAO or Speed ‘o Sound Sonic from One Punch Man. This is primarily done via your Himeno Raid.
Himeno (066)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
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It’s an interesting way to get multiple attacks in a turn, especially when you consider how strong these characters can be depending on who you choose or how you boost their attack. However, it does come at a pretty steep cost: that being sidelining your Himeno. That combined with the four-cost Aki sidelining himself after using his biggest play during your turn makes this deck feel like it will fall behind much too quickly, especially without any powerful free-play mechanics built-in.
#3 Purple Makima
Purple Makima is a deck with a lot of good bones that just doesn’t quite have what it takes to really be a contender for the top tier. If you want to know what deck it plays the most like, it’s most like the Purple Song deck from Sword Art Online, although noticeably weaker.
Also an “Event” focused deck like Song, you’ll be using your characters as tools (Events) to unlock powerful effects, such as switching characters to Active, re-standing AP, and even granting tons of BP to characters. It’s that whole free-play lower cost characters and swarm with their BP boosted strategy that makes Shadow Army strong.
That being said, it lacks finishing power. While you can unlock insane amounts of plays in a turn, you won’t be able to remove much, or swing for Damage 2 Impact 1, or the other things top tier decks typically need to stay competitive consistently at the highest level.
However, I’m not sure that Chainsaw Man fans will really care all that much. It has Makima in it, and she’s a crazy popular character. Many will find this strategy simply good enough.
#2 Red Chainsaw Man
Red Chainsaw Man is a pretty sick deck. It’s got all the aggression and power of a Red deck, with mechanics that totally capture Denji’s daring and toughness from the anime. While I’m calling it the Red Chainsaw Man deck because it – more than any other strategy in the set – perfectly encapsulates the show, it’s really a deck that’s half about Denji, and half about Power.
To understand the core mechanic that this deck is all about, it’s really about Denji and Pochita. To understand that, look no further than the six-cost Raid Denji: the deck’s strongest card.
Chainsaw Man (048)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
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Chainsaw Man is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for you, letting you attack twice, swing with Impact, while also letting you stabilize your energy line with a free-play built-in.
To enable the free-play, you’ll need to prioritize getting Pochita under your Chainsaw Man.
Getting Pochita back onto your energy line is fairly important, as you can continue to recycle its ability, Raid over Denji again, and play your six-cost again, too.
Power (061)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
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Power plays a slightly different – albeit complementary – role to your Chainsaw Man. Playing her forces a block at just five energy, lets you draw a card when she wins a battle, and even has a defensive ability that lets you unlock a plethora of defensive and offensive strategies when you combine it with your four-cost Chainsaw Man.
While I don’t see Red Chainsaw Man being the meta staple/powerhouse that the #1 deck on this list will be, it’s a fun and powerful option that will drive fans of the show nuts.
#1 Purple Reze
I really want to highlight one thing about this deck: Reze is going to be so very popular when the set comes out. Not only is it arguably the strongest deck in the set (I think it is), it’s got one of anime’s most popular characters right now, and an insanely funny and lore-accurate mechanic at the heart of it that’s both fun and rewarding for fans.
The entire mechanic works around Reze beating up Denji – kind of like the movie that the deck is based on. Doing this unlocks some pretty insane effects, like crazy BP-based removal via your Bomb Devil, switching a powerful Impact 1 Damage 2 attacker to active, and even re-standing AP via your four-cost Raid Reze.
Bomb Devil (017)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • superrare
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Meanwhile, you also have a very consistent engine, a strong fake two-cost Denji, and plenty of free-play power, including the insane three-cost Reze that basically just lets you free-play anything you want (within the scope of this deck).
Reze (028)
UE22BT: CHAINSAW MAN • uncommon
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From a competitive deck standpoint, this is one of the clearer-cut “top deck” scenarios we’ve seen in the game in a while. Power mixed with Reze’s popularity and Chainsaw Man’s general hype will make this likely one of the most dominant decks in the UNION ARENA English meta for a while.
