UNION ARENA: Every Kaiju No. 8 Deck, Ranked
Kaiju No. 8 is a fun set with a few strong decks. One of its unique aspects that we’ve not seen before in UNION ARENA is that it’s our first set in the English version to have only two colors included in it. This means it actually has less total number of potential decks to build than usual sets do. While that could be seen as a mark against it, it also theoretically makes building the deck you want from your booster boxes a little easier.
And while it may have fewer decks, it makes up for any shortcomings in its fun mechanics and electrifying alternate arts. Below, I’ll be ranking each of the four main new decks in the UNION ARENA: Kaiju No. 8 set from good to great.
#4 Soshiro
Soshiro is an intriguing character in the anime, and his deck in Kaiju’s UNION ARENA set is also intriguing – even if it is noticeably the weakest in the set. Like the Kaiju No. 8 deck, this deck focuses on switching cards to resting to unlock various effects. However, unlike the Kaiju deck, the payoff for why you’re running Soshiro as your main attacker just doesn’t feel quite there.
Perhaps the strongest thing about this Soshiro Raid is the built in protection he has – forcing your opponent to discard a card if they want to choose him with abilities. Having a Double Attack that can be reused turn after turn also isn’t bad.
You could potentially combine this card with the bigger Kaiju card to have a stronger deck. But as it is right now, Soshiro feels a little underpowered to justify being his own deck.
#3 Green Kaiju No. 8
One of the best Kaiju No. 8 decks is easily also one that bears the titular character: Kaiju No. 8 himself. And rightfully so – this guy’s a powerhouse in his own respective anime. What I particularly like about this Kaiju deck is that it feels like it could be a viable, higher energy green deck – something which has been largely missing from the UNION ARENA meta as of late (apart from Lancelot).
As is the case with just about any high energy deck, of course we have to compare it to the gold standard green deck. And actually, at first glance this deck holds its own weight in the comparison.
Let’s start with this deck’s biggest tough guy of them all – the formidable eight-cost Kaiju 8.
There are several things I really like about this card. First of all, don’t think about it as an eight-cost character: you’re looking to play it at six-cost for the most part. That’s not a tall order given you just need two or more resting characters on the front line to pull this off – something easy enough to achieve via how many cards in this deck rest themselves.
With that in mind, this card becomes very, very effective for a number of reasons:
Native Damage 2
Comes in active
Pushes a character to the energy line, forcing them out of the game for a turn and potentially disrupting your opponent’s energy line
Getting to six energy feels relatively easy in this deck given the plethora of solid two-energy generating characters available. Meanwhile, I love the consistency search card this deck gets that very much reminds me of the effective “Unit Maintenance” in Lancelot. Kaiju’s card is called “Found You.”
Being able to search the top six of your deck for your key cards (Kaiju) and then get an AP back in the process is a very powerful effect, and of course one that has worked wonders in Lancelot (despite that card only searching the top five).
All-in-all I don’t see why this powerful green deck couldn’t fair nicely into the current meta. And given the sheer coolness of its strategy and what it’s trying to do (sidelining characters while pummeling your opponent with big hits), it’s highly likely you’ll this guy showing up at tournaments near you.
#2 Yellow Kikoru deck
2nd place by nickynick – Egman Events & GG Haven’s Quad Win A Box
The Reno/Mina hybrid may be the strongest version of Yellow, but Kikoru is close on its heels for best Kaiju No. 8 deck. Play your cards right with this strategy and you unlock a highly aggressive play that can undercut your opponent, especially if they happen to be playing a more control-style deck.
This deck is all about getting as many three-cost characters onto your field as possible and gaining a bunch of benefits for having them. For example, the Kikoru Raid will buff to a much stronger character once you hit your ideal threshold of three-cost characters.
While these buffs may feel a smidge underwhelming, they’re not supposed to be all-powerful game ending effects – just strong enough to help Kikoru get through your opponent’s offenses after you’ve already done the job of weakening their life so you can swing for the kill.
Another card that is easy to overlook but one that can certainly be quite strong is the dedicated site card yellow gets.
This card reminds me a lot of the Hero’s Association card we got with One Punch Man, only it’s stronger, letting you both search for a card and play one for essentially free.
You have a bunch of other lower-cost characters with decent effects in this deck as well, but the real sweet spot is right around using your powerhouse three-cost characters to run down your opponent before they build up enough opposition to stop you.
Also, you might notice that this deck only runs two Final trigger cards – something which is quickly becoming the gold standard for Kikoru decks. Because this deck gets so much natural AP extend and free card plays via effects, you don’t need a full stack of Final trigger cards. Cutting the typical four-count down to two gives you more room for strong characters while still giving you a few AP extends in a pinch.
Kikoru is proving itself to be a strong contender not only among the Kaiju No. 8 decks but in the UNION ARENA English meta in general, with its unmatched speed giving it solid plays into the current playing field.
#1 Reno/Mina Yellow
If you’re looking for a deck that can go incredibly fast in the first early turns of the game and then switch to control towards the middle of the game onwards, then the incredible Mina/Reno Yellow Kaiju No. 8 deck is the one for you. The deck’s single strongest card is the five-cost Mina.
Mina acts as a sort of baby Toshiro Hitsugaya for those familiar with that deck, forcing an opponent’s character to resting and also keeping them that way the next time they would switch to active. However, it’s not nearly as strong of an effect as the character will be able to switch to active more readily than with the case of Hitsugaya.
However, Mina has the added advantage of the Bakko boost with Impact – a key mechanic in this deck in general. Additionally, her ability isn’t limited to “When Played,” meaning you can force characters who are rested to stay resting every turn she’s on the front line.
Meanwhile, Reno works as a solid, low-energy cost secondary attacker. Just like how Mina will benefit from having a Bakko on the same line, so will Reno – as well as just any other three-cost character, becoming a 4000 BP character as just a three-cost. More importantly, Reno unlocks one of the strongest aggro plays in the game, letting you raid him early in the game, play a three-cost Bakko for free, pushing up another character, and then swinging through as many as three attacks in a single turn.
That’s a lot of attacks to deal with as early as turn two, and many decks simply won’t be able to recover if you manage to get this play off.
All said-and-done, Yellow Mina/Reno is the one deck from this set that feels like it has it all. It’s already winning tournaments in the UNION ARENA local scene and is well positioned to compete with the very aggressive UNION ARENA meta we find ourselves in.
Agree? Disagree? Leave your comments below and let me know which Kaiju No. 8 deck you think is best.
