Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba [UE05ST] First Thoughts

 Union Arena Demon Slayer First Thoughts

Starter Decks

Friday we saw the release of the Union Arena: Demon Slayer Starter Decks. My local shop hasn't gotten their cards in yet but they are looking to drop Universus from their lineup and pick up Union Arena since that is all my kids and I have been playing there when we go lately. We have gotten a lot of interest from the other players and having one of each start deck so far has been a great way to help introduce players to the game.

Like the other decks so far in the game if you plan on building something around the starter deck which is Yellow then I would recommend you get 2 of them. The reason for this is like many other games the starter decks are designed to get you hooked on the series and the new mechanics but still fail here and there. The reason is staple cards have only 2 copies in each deck. The game allows for 4 of each card in a constructed deck so if something like the Tanjiro Kamado UE05ST/KMY-1-103 card becomes popular the only way to get it is from the starter decks. I plan to release an article in the near future that breaks down the set numbers a little bit but for now the ST means Starter.

Let's compare the two Tanjiro Raid cards:

First we have the Starter Deck card

Then we have the Booster card

In case they are hard to read the ST card has the following in the Raid Box
 If <Nezuko Kamado> is on your field, this character gains 500 BP and  (When this character attacks and wins a battle, deal 1 damage to your opponent) until the start of your next turn.

The BT card is has this for text in the Raid Box
 (When this character attacks and wins a battle, deal 1 damage to your opponent.)
 Add up to one <Nezuko Kamado> card with 3 or less required energy and 1 AP cost from your sideline to your hand. Play up to one <Nezuko Kamado> card with 3 or less required energy and 1 AP cost from your hand set to resting onto your field.

Looking at them we see a few differences and similarities. The Starter deck card is a great card to Raid into and attack right away since it gets 500+ BP if Nezuko is on the field and Impact 1. These end though at the start of your next turn, which is important because that means it also has that added BP for defense during your opponent's turn. This could save you a life point by allowing you to block and still stay on the field. The Booster card always has impact 1 but loses the BP boost. There is a cool interaction though I can see from having both in a deck. using the Booster card you can get a Nezuko onto the field and then raid a second Tanjiro up with the boost.

In a deck of 50 cards it is important to be able to get to your attackers as early as you can and have  enough to replace them if needed. There are still a few Yellow cards that are not available on the official card list yet and we most likely won't see them until Friday the 24th when they officially release. With what is currently on the official list only Tanjiro and Nezuko have Raid cards in Yellow. This makes 12 total of 50 cards in your deck or 24% of your deck. Between your opening hand and possibly losing some to your life pile that leaves pretty good odds to get them when needed.

Enough about that though. The other cool thing I don't think I have seen yet on Union Arena cards is on the Inosuke Hashibira card. It has Impact 1 and If on the Front Line If this character is active at the end of your attack phase, sideline it. That is pretty self explanatory, use it or lose it. At 1 energy cost and one AP it is a fairly decent early attacker with 2500 BP. There is one last line on the card though. When this character attacks and loses a battle, sideline it. This differs from the standard of attackers are not defeated. The card pushes some aggro into the deck and there is a Sabito card in the starter deck that give 1000BP When Played so that will help Inosuke survive an extra round or maybe two.

All that being said, we have played a few games against the Hunter X Hunter starter deck as we like to take each starter against the other decks in order of release. Hunter X Hunter having a 5000BP card still means you have to save your removal in the Demon Slayer deck for it but after only 7 games this weekend it was 4-3 Hunter X Hunter. I think Union Arena has done a great job balancing the decks with each release and look forward to getting a few boxes and starting to upgrade this latest release.

2025 and a New Game

 2025 is here already

What I am looking forward to in 2025

I don't make resolutions. Not because I don't keep them but mostly because just making them is boring. With that being said though there are some things I am looking forward to in 2025. One of them being Union Arena and where it goes. The market around me has 0 players besides my kids and me. This is fine because I will most likely play this as a secondary game to Star Wars Unlimited. If you haven't heard of it Union Arena came out in the US at the end of Q3 last year. It is a common rules game from Bandai Namco that features different intellectual properties for its sets. The first two were Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and Hunter X Hunter. You can find more details here: Official NA Site. I have watched all of Bleach and playing the game has gotten me to go back and re-watch a lot of the series, even if most of the time I just have it on in the background while I am sorting cards. Already released and upcoming properties include Jujutsu Kaisen, Code Geass, Demon Slayer, One Punch Man, Sword Art Online and more. My youngest son enjoys SWU but it isn't his bag for the most part. He has however already stolen my Code Geass deck that we started working on after purchasing a few booster boxes. So far Code Geass is the only set that hasn't had a starter deck to go along with it. The cards are featured in the tutorial app and website so that is were we started. We made a deck using that list and are upgrading it as we go. One of the nice things about a common rule game is that you will find a lot of cards that are the same stats and abilities across the properties, this is mostly because you cannot mix properties in a 50 card deck. If there is a property coming that you are interested in it doesn't hurt to get a deck now and start learning the mechanics since you many of them will be the same. With that being said though each property has enough unique cards and interactions that the game doesn't just feel like they are reprinting the same cards over and over with new art. I personally can't wait for SAO to drop, but May is a long ways away. Until then though I am going to keep getting the starter decks as they are released, which reminds me, some of the competitive decks are using cards only found in the starter decks. The downside to this is that usually a full deck uses 4 of a card and the starter decks only come with 2 copies of those. You will either need to buy two starter decks or pickup the singles.

More coming on Union Arena soon I hope. Hope everyone's new year is going well so far, thanks for stopping by.

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This blog is designed to be a place for me to write up my thoughts on my trading cards sales business. I have been a life long card game player and collector and recently decided it was time to start selling off some of my bulk, sealed products, and single cards. As I have grown so too have my tastes and the types of games I play. Right now in the end of 2024 I am all in on Star Wars Unlimited so expect to see a lot of content surrounding that. There will also be a lot of Pokémon content as I have been collecting for years and cracking packs with my kids.

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This is a hobby for me so don't expect content on how to get rich quick and please remember that opening packs just for to sell the cards is almost always a losing endeavor. I open packs, boxes, and sometimes even cases to ultimately build my personal collection and the sales is just to help offset and unload the extras.

Thanks for stopping by and keep an eye out for new content coming soon.

StrifeJester