Yamamoto is officially back thanks to UNION ARENA: BLEACH Thousand-Year Blood War Vol. 3.
Although never the strongest deck in the game, Yamamoto has powerful mechanics in it that make it possible to blitz down your opponent in a few fell swoops. Vol. 3 fixes many of its glaring holes, making it stronger than ever before. Below, see what’s new and improved following the latest BLEACH set.
Yamamoto deck core strategy
Shigekuni Genryusai Yamamoto (093)
UE01BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War • Super Rare
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Yamamoto’s entire strategy pretty much revolves around your seven-cost massive attacker. 5000 BP and Impact 1 combine with a When Played that lets you push your energy line up to the front, and then grant those attackers with an additional 2000 BP. This makes it easy to overwhelm your opponent with an onslaught of 4000BP+ attackers, some with additional benefits, like the three-cost Shunsui that becomes a 4500 BP Damage 2 threat.
Shunsui Kyoraku (074)
UE01BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War • Rare
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Sajin is also very effective in this deck, letting you push forward more aggressively with the option to step back the following turn and rebuild your energy line.
Sajin Komamura (078)
UE01BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War • Rare
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Green BLEACH now has such a wide pool of cards to draw from that you can build this deck in many different ways. But the most pure form is by pairing Yamamoto with Unohana – an easy thing to do now that both Raid characters get such strong support added in Vol. 3.
Shigekuni Yamamoto
UEX08BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Vol.3 • Common
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First up is zero-cost Yamamoto – the new Raid target that fills a void in this deck. Originally, to Raid Yamamoto you often had to Raid over your five-cost Yamamoto. That feels pretty bad given how strong five-cost Yamamoto is on its own, acting as a reliable attacker, blocker, and even threatening removal via attacking – a solid counter into many deck strategies.
Now, the newly added Yamamoto fulfills two vital roles for this deck: adding a necessary low cost Raid Target to your main attacker while adding incremental energy generation you’ll need to set up stronger plays.
Retsu Unohana
UEX08BT: BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Vol.3 • Common
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Meanwhile, the new zero-cost Unohana gives you plenty of reasons to run the full Unohana Raid package. This zero-cost character is a brand new generation of zero-cost characters, combining filter and draw effects into a single card. This card alone makes it less necessary to run the one-cost Shinji from the New Card Selection, and obsoletes zero-cost Ikkaku for many decks.
Ultimately, the Yamamoto/Unohana focused strategy feels the strongest way to play this deck following Vol. 3. Yamamoto is a go big or go home kind of deck: you’re either swinging through a win in one or two turns of using him, or you’re going home packing. Unohana works well into this strategy by letting you fill up your board quickly, and you run a high enegy count anyways that she’s practically a no-brainer.
However, there are other ways to build Yamamoto for those so inclined: particularly around Toshiro or Kenpachi rather than the free-play mechanic Unohana unlocks. See two additional builds you can try out below.
While the additions Yamamoto gets in Vol. 3 don’t make it a top tier deck, it makes it totally playable. Bring this with you to your next local tournament and you’ll feel completely at home!
