UNION ARENA Store Tournament 2025 Vol. 1 Winner Cards are a Hit
Every three months, Bandai refreshes the winner cards you can get by participating in local UNION ARENA store tournaments. These winner cards have proven to be a massive hit among fans of the game and have really helped fuel a friendly and competitive scene for players to come together to test out their latest deck strategies.
I had the chance to compete at my very first 2025 Vol. 1 event tonight, and the prizes were fantastic. Below, let’s look at what you can get from participating in these tournaments, my experience at my event, and how the prizes compare to the previous ones.
Play at a 2025 store tournament and win these prizes
If you’re familiar with the store tournaments that took place during UA’s inagural months from October to December, then Vol. 1 should also feel pretty familiar. The only real difference between this quarter’s prizes and last is that there are fewer overall to choose from. While we will get into that in a bit, the important thing is that everything works just about the same.
At your store tournament you will:
Get a participation pack with an exclusive AP
Get a promo pack just for competing
Compete for one of three exclusive winner cards
Earn extra prizing depending on the store.
Here’s a look at Store Tournament 2025 Vol. 1 winner cards
The 2025 Vol. 1 winner cards focus on the two sets releasing during Q1 of this year. Because only two sets are releasing during the first quarter of the year, UA is borrowing from previously released sets – namely Jujutsu Kaisen – for the exclusive winner cards alongside cards hailing from both Demon Slayer and One Punch Man (both releasing in the early part of this year).
In order to get one of these cards, you will need to to finish in the top three at your local event. That means going home with a winner card this season will be a bit tougher than last where top four each got a winner card. But what’s life without a little challenge?
Also interesting to note is that there isn’t a clear “chase” among these cards. While the C.C. was the money card during the initial craze for UA back in October-December, here it feels like which of these cards you’ll want is driven more by your fav anime than an clear optimal choice.
Participation prizes
While having a winner card to flex with is great for bolstering community and a friendly sense of competition, it’s also fun to get stuff just for showing up. Here are the promos you will get just for attending an event.
Exclusive AP cards
Other than action point cards being necessary to play the game, I actually find these cards to be a pretty fun opportunity to customize my card gear apparal, and you can get some really cool artworks from the store tournaments.
Take a look at the AP cards you can get in special participation packs. Note, each pack contains just one AP card and it can be foil or regular.
Ultimately the prizes you can get at store tournaments right now are slightly more subdued than they were in the last quarter of last year. However, with fewer sets getting released, I suppose it makes some sense that prizes would be a little more toned down. I do think Bandai could have relatively easily added in one extra card and perhaps make it pop just a little bit more as opposed to the cards we have to choose from currently.
My undefeated run at the 2025 Vol 1 store tournament
If you’re looking for a more real-life view of what these cards look like, I won my first Vol 1 2025 store tournament undefeated and choose the Rengoku card as my prize. You can see a picture of that winner card (along with my prizes and winning deck) below.
I took Purple BLEACH to my local tournament as I like the way it handles versus the top UNION ARENA deck right now: Code Geass Purple. I was not dissapointed. After beating a Blue Sukuna deck and two Code Geass Purple, I secured my winner card of choice undefeated.
While this set of winner cards may be a little underwhelming due to less variety than the last season, these cards are still clearly fire with plenty of interest in them from fans of the game. Don’t miss collecting your own prizes at local UA events and start prepping for future decks you are going to build with these exclusive artworks!
