Braverse Festival Arena Meta: 22 Winning Decks From Korea

Festival Arena went on sale in Korea on September 11. Brave League Season 4, the first Brave League season with it legal, opened on October 3, and on October 12 Devsisters posted the season's first 22 champion decklists to its Korean winner-deck archive. Fourteen of the 22 contain no Festival Arena card at all.

Where the set did land, it landed hard. All six Green winners run the same two Festival Arena cards, Apple Faerie Cookie (BS12-056) and Mint Choco Cookie (BS12-054), on top of an Arena of Glory shell that is close to card-for-card identical across the six lists. Purple won more events than any other color, and three of the five biggest, without a single BS12 card.

Every count below is ours, made by reading each published list against Devsisters' Korean and English card databases. The comparison set is the 63 store champion lists Korea published for Brave League Season 3, played July 11 to August 23, before Festival Arena existed. Our Summer Champion Cup breakdown covers the Asian championship lists from the same summer.

What the 22 lists are

Brave League is the store tier of Braverse organized play. Korea's Season 4 notice says the season runs from October to November 2026 at certified stores, an event needs at least four players to award its Season 4 Final invitation, and the card pool is every officially released Korean card. Festival Arena went on sale in Korea on September 11, 2026, three weeks before the first Season 4 event and three weeks ahead of its October 2 North American release.

Each list's description gives the event's player count, which is where the attendance figures come from. The October calendar Devsisters published for Season 4 runs to October 31, and the season continues into November, so this is a first look at a season in progress, not a result.

The color split, before and after Festival Arena

"Main color" is ours: the color of most of a list's cards, ignoring Avatar of Destiny (BS11-091), a Pure-colored EXTRA. That is not a judgment call for Season 4. All 22 lists are built on one color, and the most off-color cards in any of them is four.

Twenty-two lists is a small sample, so read the movement in that table as direction, not size. The bigger caveat is event size, because a title at a four-player event and a title at a 17-player event count the same in the table above:

Five Season 4 events drew 12 or more players. Purple won three of them and Red two. Green's six titles all came at events of four to six players.

Korea's most recent published field data comes from the Season 3 Final on August 29, where 47 players registered 17 Purple decks, 10 Red, 8 Blue, 5 Yellow, 5 Green and 2 Black. Devsisters' report on that Final names a Red champion and an Arena Green runner-up. There is no Season 4 equivalent yet.

14 of 22 winners played no Festival Arena card

Festival Arena has 112 new numbered cards, BS12-001 to BS12-112. The 22 winning lists use 22 of them, and most of those appear in just two lists. Here are the BS12 cards that made more than one list:

The other 17 BS12 cards each appear in a single list: ten Red cards in one Red list and seven Black cards in the one Black list. Count Festival Arena cards per list and the split is stark:

• 0 BS12 cards: 14 lists. That is all seven Purple winners, all three Blue winners and four of the five Red winners.
• 3 to 10: the six Green lists.
• 25: the Black list.
• 37: one Red list, built around Festival Arena's Red Arena Cookies.

No Yellow, Blue or Purple card from Festival Arena (BS12-019 to BS12-037 and BS12-057 to BS12-093) appears in any of the 22 lists. For what the whole set contains, see our Festival Arena card list.

Green: Festival Arena finished the Arena deck

Devsisters saw this coming. Its October 1 report on the Season 3 Final closed by saying it expected the Arena Green deck, which it described as having become more stable, to do well when Season 4 began on October 3. Green then won 6 of the first 22.

The six lists are close to one decklist. These are the cards every one of them plays:

The engine is the support area. Cookies move out of the battle area and get played back from the support area, and several of them pay you when they come back. Moon Rabbit Cookie's effect moves one of your other LV.2-or-lower Cookies from the battle area to the support area as active. Cookie Games Stadium rests to play an Arena Cookie from your support area and draw a card. Truffle Cookie trashes itself, once you have three Green cards in support, to draw and play an Arena Cookie from the support area. Devsisters' Season 3 Final report describes the runner-up winning a game with exactly this loop: a damaged P-104 Green Tea Mousse goes back to the support area through Moon Rabbit and comes back through Cookie Games Stadium undamaged, drawing a card on the way.

Green Tea Mousse Cookie shows up under three card numbers, and the four-copy limit counts card numbers, not names (Comprehensive Rules rule 5-1-1-4; our card numbers guide explains it). So the six lists run 9 to 11 Green Tea Mousse Cookies each. One lookup trap: the English card database names the base P-104 entry Buttercup Cookie and files the Green Tea Mousse version as P-104@1, while Devsisters' July 23 Community Letter calls the card P-104 Green Tea Mousse Cookie.

Here is what Festival Arena changed, comparing the six Season 4 Green winners with the ten from Season 3:

Apple Faerie Cookie is now the Green Extra deck's main card, at two or three copies in all six lists. It can be played with seven or more Green cards in your support area, and this deck's whole plan runs through that zone. Its 2-damage attack costs two generic energy, and if you went second you can discard a card to set one of your support cards active. Over the same stretch, the Green Shadow Milk Cookie (BS9-055), which nine of the ten Season 3 Green winners carried, fell to two lists.

Mint Choco Cookie (BS12-054) is a one- or two-of that feeds the same loop from the other end. Once per turn, you put a card from your support area into the trash and put a Cookie from your trash into the support area, rested. It is a different card from the Red Mint Choco Cookie (BS6-004) that our budget upgrades guide covers.

Plantain Cookie is not new, but its jump from two lists to six has a precedent on record. The Season 3 Final runner-up told Devsisters they expected a Purple-heavy field, went up to three Plantain on another player's advice, played fewer Ancient Healer's Gaze because it is hard to use against Purple, and went to four Cookie Games Stadium. Every Season 4 Green winner runs exactly three Plantain and four Stadiums. Plantain's FLIP draws two when your hand is five cards or smaller and a Green Arena Cookie is in your battle area.

Purple: the same deck, with no new cards

All seven Purple winners played zero Festival Arena cards, and they agree with each other almost as closely as the Green lists do. Four Silent Salt Cookie (BS11-089), Starfruit Cookie (BS2-062), Yogurt Cream Cookie (BS5-100) and Salt Cellar Cookie (BS10-120) appear in all seven. So do three or four Caramel Arrow Cookie (BS8-120), three or four Forbidden Grimoire, three Spirit-cutting Sword, and Extra decks that all include two Spectral Warmaster, two Dark Cacao Cookie (BS8-104) and one Shadow Milk Cookie (BS9-102).

That is the same sacrifice-and-Refresh core that won three Asian Summer Champion Cups, and our Summer Champion Cup breakdown walks through how it works. The Korean version leans harder on recursion out of the trash:

Caramel Arrow Cookie (BS8-120) is the hinge. Once per turn you discard a card and, with 15 or more cards in your trash, play a LV.2-or-higher Cookie from the trash. Dark Cacao Cookie (BS11-087) gains +2 HP when it is played from the trash, and the Dark Cacao EXTRA (BS8-104) can Awaken a Dark Cacao played from the trash that turn. The Season 3 Final's fourth-place Purple player named Caramel Arrow as the event's key card, for bringing back Dark Cacao or Stardust Cookie as the game required. Watch the name: Caramel Arrow Cookie BS3-113, the Ultra Rare in our Purple card rankings, is a different card.

Red: one old build, one all-in Festival Arena build

Four of the five Red winners share a pre-Festival Arena shell: four Fire Spirit Cookie (ST6-002), four Hollyberry Cookie (BS3-017), four Snapdragon Cookie (BS3-006), three or four Hollyberry EXTRA (BS10-024) and four Overhydrated Dough Swamp. The biggest gain is Timekeeper Cookie (BS6-010). It was in 1 of 13 Season 3 Red winners and is in 4 of these 5, at two to four copies. Going the other way, Nutmeg Tiger Cookie (BS11-014) and Cilantro Cobra Swordsman (BS8-002), each in 10 of the 13 Season 3 Red winners, are in one of these five.

The lists do not say why, but the card text lines up with the Green deck. While Timekeeper is in the battle area, its opponent "cannot use effects to move either player's Cookies from the battle area." Moon Rabbit Cookie, Choco Drizzle Cookie's attack and the P-104 Green Tea Mousse all move Cookies out of the battle area by effect.

The fifth Red winner is the most Festival Arena list in the set of 22: 37 BS12 cards across 12 numbers, at a 10-player event in Seoul on October 5. It runs four each of Candy Apple Cookie (BS12-017), Strawberry Mochi Cookie (BS12-016), Cherry Blossom Cookie, Cherry Cookie and Clumsy Day, three Crown Stage, and four Shining Glitter Cookie (BS12-018) in the Extra deck. Read off the cards, Red's Festival Arena Cookies are built around setting each other active again. Candy Apple discards a card to set another Arena Cookie active, Strawberry Mochi sets another Arena Cookie active, and Crown Stage sets one active at the end of your turn.

The same list also carries one Green EXTRA, Apple Faerie Cookie. Its play condition accepts a Candy Apple Cookie with Arena in your battle area, so a Red deck can play it. In return, Candy Apple's attack also deals 1 damage to an opposing Cookie while Apple Faerie is in your battle area.

Blue, Black and Yellow

Blue won three titles, at events of seven, seven and four players. All three run Orange (BS10-093), Grapefruit (BS10-096) and Lime Cookie (BS10-095), Icicle Yeti Cookie (BS8-076), Sorbet Shark Cookie (BS10-077) and Fallen Ice Statue. Two of the three run four Pure Vanilla Cookie (BS3-088). That is the BS10 one-drop package the Malaysian Summer Champion won with. Blue went from 14 of 63 Season 3 titles to 3 of 22.

Black won its first title in either season's lists: a 10-player event in Changwon on October 3. It is the second-most Festival Arena list, with 25 BS12 cards. Those are four Poison Mushroom Cookie (BS12-111) in the Extra deck, four each of two Cake Hound FLIP cards, Agar Agar Cookie (BS12-110) and Perfect Stage, plus Schwarzwälder and Red Velvet Cookie, all around four Dark Enchantress Cookie (BS11-115). Devsisters' Season 3 Final report explained why Black was the least-played color at that Final (2 of 47): a small card pool, Special Play Cookies that come in with low HP, and games lost for having no Cookie to play. It suggested watching Black as its pool grew. Festival Arena's 19 new Black cards are that growth. One title at a 10-player event is one data point. Our Black cards guide covers the pool.

Yellow won none of the 22. It won 7 of the 63 Season 3 titles, the last two on August 8.

Can you copy these lists for English events?

For the cards these lists use, yes. Four checks:

Our banned and restricted list covers the English list card by card.

The catch is promos. The Green lists rely on P-104 and P-113 Green Tea Mousse Cookie and P-115 Truffle Cookie. Devsisters' July 23 Community Letter says P-104 and P-115 came from the Power Arena Promotion Pack (Korea's card database files P-113 there too) and that the pack "is now difficult to find." The letter promised new-illustration reprints of P-104 and P-115 in a later promo pack, and the English database now lists Shiny Path promotion Pack printings of both. P-113 has no second printing in the English database. Two Red lists also use Ancient Scriptures Promotion Pack cards (P-151 Black Sapphire, P-157 Candy Apple), and two Purple lists use the Purple Candy Apple (P-161) from the same pack. Our promo cards guide covers where each promo line comes from.

There is no English data to compare these lists with yet. As of October 14, Devsisters' English winner-deck archive has no entries, and the newest lists in its Asia archive are the Summer Champion Cup champions, posted September 11. These 22 are the only champion lists in any of the three archives played after Festival Arena's release.

What these lists don't tell you

• The field. Devsisters has published only each event's winning list. These lists show what won, not what was played or how often it lost.
• Matchups or win rates. Nothing here measures them.
• Big-event results. The 22 events averaged eight players, and three of them had four, the smallest field that still awards a Season 4 Final invitation.
• The end of Season 4. These lists cover nine days of a season that runs into November, and the October calendar alone continues to October 31.
• The English meta. Korea had Festival Arena three weeks earlier than North America, and Devsisters' English archive has no post-release lists yet. Our meta tier list ranks archetypes on card theory, not results.

Quick Action Checklist

• Festival Arena's impact is concentrated in Arena Green. 14 of Korea's first 22 Season 4 winners played no BS12 card. Outside the six Green lists, only one Red list and the one Black list play any.
• If you play Green, start from the six-list core: four Choco Drizzle, Strawberry Crepe, P-104 Green Tea Mousse, Sting Durian, Cookie Games Stadium and Piercing Arrow of Purity, three Plantain, and two or three Apple Faerie (BS12-056) in the Extra deck.
• If you play Purple, you do not need Festival Arena. The seven winners share a sacrifice-and-Refresh core with three or four Caramel Arrow Cookie (BS8-120) for recursion.
• Purple won the bigger events. Purple took 3 and Red 2 of the five events with 12 or more players. Green's titles came at 4- to 6-player events.
• Timekeeper Cookie (BS6-010) jumped in Red, from 1 of 13 Season 3 Red winners to 4 of 5. Its text stops effects that move Cookies out of the battle area.
• The lists are English-legal. Both regions ban and restrict the same 16 shared cards. The obstacle is promo access, especially P-113 Green Tea Mousse.
• Recheck in November. Season 4 continues, and these are nine days of store-level results.