UNION ARENA: Every Re:ZERO Deck, Ranked
Looking for the strongest deck in UNION ARENA: Re:ZERO to build?
In this list, we’ll be looking over every deck coming out in this hot set, and ranking them from good to great.
Although it’s an older set with roots in Japan going back to mid-2025, it still holds up pretty well to the current English meta. And while you definitely feel its age with a lack of some of the more advanced mechanics on offer in the game, with a planned Vol. 2 in Japan later this year, hopefully we’ll get some very powerful and advanced strategies thrown into the mix when that set comes out in the English Version.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- - Booster Box
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
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With that being said, let’s dive right into the top Re:ZERO decks.
#6 Blue Crusch/Ferris
Crusch/Ferris is a tricky deck to pick up at first with an odd mechanic that focuses on theoretically boosting the BP of characters in your hand while literally boosting characters on either yours or your opponent’s field.
There are a couple of very powerful combos you can pull off with this mechanic, but they all revolve around having your four-cost Crusch on the field.
Crusch Karsten (058)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Super Rare
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The first combo is a powerful free-play effect that you can unlock with Raid Ferris.
Ferris (044)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Rare
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Use Crusch’s passive ability to boost the BP of your characters in hand so you can free-play a powerful character.
The other is a powerful removal play. Use Crusch’s Activate:Main to boost the BP of an opposing character and then remove them via Wilhelm Van Astrea.
Wilhelm Van Astrea
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Rare
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Wilhelm comes in resting, but you can use your three-cost Ricardo to switch him to active if need be.
Ricardo Welkin
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Uncommon
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Running a few Subaru Raids pairs well with this deck. You can’t really get away with running a full Raid package, so I’m running two in my current list. While the deck may fall a little short of the upper competitive tiers, its fun mechanic, removal, and free-plays make it well above average, and a solid option to explore.
#5 Purple Beatrice/Subaru
Beatrice and Subaru may not look like much at first glance, but it can totally take you by surprise. To show you what I mean, just look at three-cost Beatrice.
Beatrice (077)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Super Rare
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This is my favorite card from the deck. At just three energy, you get a 4000 BP attacker who has a pretty crazy effect capable of not only pushing a character to the energy line, but locking them down so they can’t move the following turn.
In order to unlock that last bit, you’ll need to have played her via one of your effects. Luckily, that’s easy to do via your Event card.
Choose Me, Beatrice!
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Common
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While that’s a powerful event card, you also have the effect of your Raid Subaru to play your Beatrice (at the cost of just 1 AP).
Subaru Natsuki (071)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Rare
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Clearly it’s not the strongest deck in the world. But with a solid mechanic at just three energy cost – it’s a fun one to take your opponent off-guard and swing for the win.
#4 Yellow Emilia
Emilia is a surprisingly well-rounded Event-focused deck. It has a lot going for it, including forced rest. It’s a respectably well-rounded midrange deck, but it lacks the high end power you’d want from a deck like this.
Your strongest character is four-cost Emilia. She’ll be able to freeze your opponent’s characters if you have the right amount of Events in your sideline.
Emilia (027)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Super Rare
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And that’s relatively easy to achieve given Puck counts as an event.
However, unlocking a freeze as your ultimate ability with this deck feels lacking. Let’s just hope Vol. 2 delivers a bit more power to this otherwise enjoyable deck.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- - Starter Deck
UE24ST: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Starter Deck
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On the bright side, this well-rounded build serves as the official Starter Deck for the set, meaning assembling it is relatively easy. Its straightforward gameplay makes it a fantastic choice and a solid entry point for new players.
#3 Purple Echidna/Emilia
Echidna/Emilia is a pretty sick deck. It’s not an easy deck to use by any means, but for many UNION ARENA players, that’s just what makes it so much fun. Unlike the other Emilia deck on this list, there’s plenty of high end power to leverage in this strategy, like the ability to sideline opposing characters using my favorite card in the deck: six-cost Emilia.
Emilia (090)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Super Rare
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Emilia is a character who works really, really well when you combine her with your four-cost Echidna. Simply activate Echidna’s Activate:Main to draw a card, switch six-cost Emilia to resting, and then Switch her back to active. When done in this way, Emilia is able to either sideline multiple small BP characters in a turn, or one 5000 BP character.
Echidna (093)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Super Rare
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You have plenty of other handy cards in this deck, too, like the five-cost Emilia that can swap to the front line, or the two-cost Emilia that lowers the Energy cost of the next Emilia character played by 1.
Emilia (085)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Common
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Mechanically, Echidna/Emilia is most similar to Red Inuyasha in terms of the core switch to resting effect. That being said, this deck is decidedly more “fun” than overwhelmingly strong. Think of it as an A-tier deck that you can use to dominate locals. Leave it at home for regionals.
#2 Blue Subaru/Rem
This deck leverages the “start from zero” aspect that’s core to the anime’s lore by continually bringing Subaru “back to life” via many free-play effects. The constant free-plays are what make this deck relatively strong, but there are some definite holes in the strategy.
However, with a Volume 2 scheduled for release in Japan, it could be that we’ll get a few more modern mechanics whenever that set launches in English to help out. As it is, the weirdest thing about building this deck is the Rem gap. You have a ton of Rem characters but one wishes they provided a small amount more utility.
Something as simple as a fake two cost character that happens to be a Rem would help a lot, rather than having to run four Rem two cost characters that don’t do much.
Had Re:ZERO released much earlier in the English Version release cycle, Blue Subaru/Rem would likely have been fairly dominant of a deck. Where the English meta is at right now, however, it feels a shade behind.
That being said, there’s plenty here to enjoy. My favorite card of them all is the five-cost Rem.
Rem (051)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Rare
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This Rem character card is your quintessential five-cost removal tool. She makes it easy to get rid of threats on your opponent’s board. Scaling via how many zero-cost Subaru characters are on your field. It’s an easy way to achieve removal but does mean you have to run a bunch of weak Subarus.
Subaru Natsuki (040)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Rare
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Meanwhile, Raid Subaru unlocks handy recursion. He’s just drawing a card when played but then free-playing a zero-cost which you can use to unlock benefits via Rem.
All-in-all, it’s a very fun deck to play with a crazy amount of free play mechanics. With a little love from a Vol. 2, it could be quite strong.
#1 Yellow Rem and Ram
Rem/Ram is the strongest deck in Re:ZERO and it’s not really very close. What this deck can pull off when it gets what it needs is frankly quite frightening. The ability to free-play characters, reduce your opponent’s board to low BP characters, and then easily Snipe with Impact at just five energy-cost feels like an instant classic in an English environment that loves Snipe decks.
Rem (020)
UE24BT: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- • Super Rare
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This deck’s strongest card is the five-cost Rem. She’s the character that will be doing the Sniping. Notice, however, that you can only snipe opposing characters with less than 4000 BP. While normally that wouldn’t be ideal, it’s the exact reason you run so many cards in this deck capable of reducing the BP of your opponent’s characters. Not only is that great for softening their defenses, it makes it easy to Snipe just about anything you want.
Of all the decks releasing in Re:ZERO, Rem/Ram feels like it has the best chance of making it into the S Tier. At the very least, it will be high A tier.
