UNION ARENA Lights Up Bandai Card Fest in Las Vegas
Bandai Card Fest in Las Vegas is half way over by now, with the conclusion to National Championship events taking place on Sunday February 15, 2026. While plenty of exciting things have been on display at the Card Game Fest, UNION ARENA drew a ton of attention thanks to a sneak peak at upcoming sets including Solo Leveling, Kagurabachi, Sakamoto Days and Tokyo Ghoul. What’s more, the Card Game Fest in Vegas played host to UNION ARENA’s first ever National Championship event – one that I took part in for a relatively short six rounds, placing 49th overall at the invite-only event.
Below, I’ll take you through my day attending the event as a competitor, getting exclusive perks like early access to the retail store, a competitor only entrance, special attendance prizes and more!
Competitors got access to a private entrance
Getting to the competitor-only entrance took some walking, but it felt well worth it for the shorter lines, especially after seeing the massive line already forming for general entry around the front of the building. Qualifying for the UNION ARENA Championships North America Finals the previous day let me switch out my general entry badge for a competitor badge, and also gave me access to this pretty enormous perk. As hard as qualifying for a National Level tournament like this is, it’s well worth it just for the private entry alone!
Once inside, I checked in and was given my Finals exclusive AP!
Last Chance Qualifier Early Access Retail was painless
Assuming you had already checked in at the booth downstairs, the LCQ exclusive retail line was pretty painless. The workers were moving at a breakneck speed to get everyone their products on time, and the retail section was conveniently located next to a bunch of display cases bearing an early look at alt arts from some of UNION ARENA’s upcoming sets, as well as some of its latest and greatest ones – including my favorite one, Sword Art Online Vol. 2
Sword Art Online may be my favorite anime franchise of them all, but many many people are stoked about the next UNION ARENA set to join the English Version: the manga-based Kagurabachi set. Youc an check out all of the alt arts from that set via the pic below.
After Kagurabachi comes out, the next English Version release will be Solo Leveling. This is a massively hyped anime, of course, and should really get a lot of people excited for it. One cool thing to note about the alt arts in Solo Leveling is that the signed cards will feature the English dub cast for the show – something we haven’t had before in the game.
The next two sneak peeks are from sets coming a little later in 2026 – Sakomoto Days and Tokyo Ghoul. You can see some of the alts from that set below.
Bandai Card Fest in Las Vegas features plenty of exclusive items for sale
While there were plenty of exciting items for sale at Bandai Card Fest in Las Vegas, my favorite item was the Kagurabachi playmat and Action Point bundle. I had forgotten this particular item was even on sale at the Card Fest Retail store until I was standing in line and saw it on the product sheet. I’ve shared pics of this to my X account and have been blown away by how many people are hungry for products from this upcoming set. Clearly, the fact that Kagurabachi isn’t even a manga yet is not a deterent to potential players and collectors, and the fac that these cards are based on illustrations directly from the manga is also pretty sweet.
This #Kagurabachi #UNIONARENA playmat looks pretty cool! Straight outta Bandai Card Fest! pic.twitter.com/Xqas7nSPnG
— Joseph Writer Anderson (@Jnderson007) February 14, 2026
The UNION ARENA Championships North America Finals were short and sweet
Very quickly after getting out of the LCQ retail line, the Finals started. In fact, it was such a quick turnaround time that I was almost late to my first round! I will admit that playing in a Finals-level tournament the day after completing a grueling nine round LCQ tournament isn’t exactly ideal. I made many silly mistakes I normally wouldn’t, but ended up 49th overall which is pretty cool considering you are playing against the best-of-the-best at these things.
I played the same Purple Progressive deck I used to top the LCQ, and it worked really well. My losses that dropped me down to 49th weren’t the deck’s fault as much as they were my own. However, topping an LCQ one day and then doing fairly well at the Nationals the next is nothing to be at all ashamed of, and it was a very fitting way to cap off more than a year now of covering this fantastic game.
As far as the meta and tournament went, it was pretty short at only six rounds, with well-known competitor Jane taking the top spot with her Yellow Evangelion deck. Overall, the meta felt heavily Evangelion skewed, although we will have to wait until tomorrow to see just what made it into the top 16!
Getting my top 64 Finals AP signed by Akari Fujimoto
Joseph Writer Anderson (left) holding his Finalist AP signed by Akari Fujimoto (right)
I spotted UNION ARENA’s Global Producer, Akari Fujimoto, several times throughout the event – at the LCQ, at the Finals, and lastly, at the signing event that took place at 4pm today (Saturday the 14th). It’s great to see Akari’s presence at these high level events and clearly the UNION ARENA community is grateful for her incredible work on the UNION ARENA TCG just going by how long that line was to get things signed by her.
As a die-hard UNION ARENA fan, it’s great to see the game thriving going into a second solid year for its English version. Taking part in a top-level competitive event like the UNION ARENA National Championships was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and you can expect even more great things to come out about new titles and releases tomorrow on Bandai Card Fest’s final day!
