The new UNION ARENA: Sword Art Online’s Blue Aincrad deck focuses on one of the anime’s most popular arcs: the Aincrad arc. In this deck, you’ll be leveraging the powerful switching mechanic that’s much like the battle system in SAO. While it’s not the first time we’ve seen the switching mechanic put to use in UA, it’s the deck that has the most switching capabilities we’ve seen yet.

Below, let’s look at how you can use the powerful combo of Kirito and Asuna to decimate your foes.

Blue SAO zero cost characters

Let’s look at each of your zero-cost characters in this deck. As you probably know, these characters are vital to your strategy. You’ll need at least one zero-cost character in hand before you can play any other character, so running 12 helps ensure you find them when you need them.

Meanwhile, having multiple of these cards in a starting hand helps you play more aggressively. In this deck you have:

Asuna – 2000 BP and the active trigger makes her a good choice for early aggression.
Yui – her draw-one-sideline-one helps you see more cards which means you can more reliably get to the cards you need.
Kirito – is purely here as a raid target. The get trigger makes it easier to get him in your hand.

One-cost characters

Your one-cost characters are here to help you hit your curve. Because they only cost one energy, odds are pretty good you’ll be able to play them, making it easier to build up your energy line to bigger, stronger characters.

This deck runs two different one-cost characters: Kirito and Yui.

One-cost Kirito gives you a little added card search – letting you find an Aincrad character among your top three cards and adding that card to your hand. Meanwhile, Yui can bounce the other Yui character, let you draw another card, and also help you establish your energy line a little earlier on than usual.

Two-cost Asuna is purely offensive

Asuna is a very powerful combat character. When switched outside of the movement phase, she boosts to 4000 BP. That’s an insane stat for just a two-cost character, making her very handy to punch through your opponent’s defenses.

This deck has plenty of ways to move characters around, but one is the solid and well rounded Kirito. He’s this deck’s three-cost two energy generation character. He comes complete with a when played effect that lets you move one of your characters to the other line (a perfect pairing for two-cost Asuna) as well as the decent Blue Color Trigger.

Alternatively you can use Switch to move characters around. The biggest benefit of Swtich might be the fact that you don’t have to use an AP to play it.

Four-cost Asuna brings the heat

I really like the way Blue SAO can bring the heat at any level of gameplay. But once you get to the four-cost Asuna is when you really start to pack some damage. Again, these two Asuna cards are still focused on the switch mechanic. However, they’re considerably stronger than even the handy two-cost version.

Raidless Asuna is handy because she can be played to your back line then used to batter down your opponent the following turn without needing a raid target. However, as long as she’s been moved outside the movement phase, she’s going to become a 5000 BP character with Impact. That’s especially handy when dealing with an opposing frontline full of 5000 BP defenders.

Still, Raid Asuna is arguably the stronger option. She has Impact (when raided) so long as you have Kirito on the field. Additionally, she lets you draw a card when attacking. That’s not groundbreaking but she’s certainly a solid attacker, especially when you take into consideration what she does when combined with your two Kirito attackers.

Kirito

Both Kirito attackers in this deck are strong, but they are used in different ways. Let’s dive into each to understand how they play into this deck’s overarching strategy.

Starter deck exclusive Kirito

Here we have yet another card capable of switching your characters in and out of the front line. Of course, this will work wonders in powering up your Asuna cards. However, Kirito also gets a powerful buff from having Asuna in play. He gains Double Attack for the turn he’s played as long as she is somewhere on the field.

Double attack in a deck like this helps you add tremendous pressure to your opponent. However, that’s not all you have in your arsenal.

Five-cost Kirito

Finally, here we have this deck’s strongest card. As we’ve seen with the Yellow Tanjiro deck, switching an attacker out with another attacker is one of the strongest mechanics in UNION ARENA, opening up additional opportunities to attack beyond the simple four you have access to. What’s more, however, is the fact that this card can also switch characters at will, potentially activating even more powerful Asuna effects.

When you combine this Kirito with the Double Attack Kirito, and Asuna’s powerful Impact attacks, you have a deck capable of totally overwhelming your opponent via battling.

Potential Pitfalls of SAO Blue Deck

While all of that sounds really, really good, Blue SAO isn’t completely without its own share of drawbacks. The most glaring issue with this deck is the fact it lacks any kind of removal whatsoever. When we compare it with Yellow Tanjiro, for example, it falls a bit short of that deck given the lack of removal. Tanjiro has access to two different removal characters in the form of two-AP Tanjiro and Tokito.

This deck lacks any of that kind of finesse and instead must go for an all-out frontal attack. Decks that have been this reliant on battling as the only path to victory haven’t faired the best in the past competitively, and are usually outmatched by decks that are better at delivering a solid attacking frontline with consistent removal.

That being said, there’s still some incredible power in these attackers that could easily win you a battle as long as you aren’t outmatched by superior removal decks.

UNION ARENA: Sword Art Online Blue Aincrad Deck List and Guide