UNION ARENA: Every Sword Art Online Deck, Ranked
Sword Art Online looks like a fun and powerful set. Buch which of the many decks included in it are going to be strongest? Below, we’ll be ranking each and every new Sword Art Online deck from strong to strongest.
#6 Blue ALO
Starting this list off we have the deck that will more than likely end up being the least effective from the SAO set, and that is the Blue ALO deck based on the second half of the anime’s first season. While there are some interesting mechanics here that focus mostly on subverting your opponent’s defences by not allowing them to block you, ultimately there’s just not quite enough here to really pack a bunch that’s hard enough to break through the very competitive meta UNION ARENA currently has.
This deck is largely focused on Leafa who is one of the central characters of this part in the story. She’s got an effect that prevents your opponent defending against her. One interesting strategy would be to combine her with your bird cage site, boosting BP to just get direct hits off. However, this strategy likely isn’t reliable enough to work all the time, making us wish just a little more power had been added to this particular archetype.
#5 Green Mother’s Rosario
This Mother’s Rosario deck built around Yuuki and Asuna brings to mind one of the best Arcs in SAO. The deck itself is decent, focused more on getting around your opponent’s characters rather than simply removing them. Your two strongest characters are Yuuki and Asuna.
Asuna has the potential to boost to a pretty solid character, letting you draw a card when attacking, gaining 1000 BP, Damage 2, and not being able to be blocked by characters with 3000 BP or less.
That being said, the deck’s main mechanic of fueling your sideline with Yuuki characters falls a little short given there’s not a huge payoff for achieving this as there is in other, similar decks like the Code Geass Pizza deck. The four-cost Asuna Raid is a solid character but given how much work goes into getting her fully buffed up, you might want just a little bit more power.
Still, having a deck focused so heavily on characters that prevent your opponent from blocking them with low BP characters is unique, and could perform well in the right situations.
#4 Blue Aincrad
The Blue Aincrad deck is also the deck you can build from the Sword Art Online Starter deck. It’s a strong deck that focuses on a switching mechanic, letting you move your Asuna and Kirito characters in and out of the front line. Much in the same way we’ve seen with other, similar decks, doing this unlocks a range of benefits including additional attacks in a turn, a defensive layer for your strongest characters who will now be on the bench, as well as BP boosts for specific characters and added abilities.
While the switching effects in this deck are arguably the strongest we’ve seen in the English meta to date, there’s one glaring weakness to the Blue Aincrad deck (as well as Blue SAO in genera) and that is a complete lack of removal.
Unlike Yellow Tanjiro, for example, which has a few additional options for removal outside of the Special, Blue SAO forces you to rely solely on your attackers as a way to pummel through your opponent’s defenses. As we’ve seen in the past, this strategy typically can only take you so far, and decks with additional removal options fair better.
#3 Yellow Integrity Knights
Next up we have the Yellow Integrity Knights deck primarily featuring Eugeo and Alice. This deck is incredibly straightforward, gifting you a few characters who hit hard and Raid Alice as your strongest character altogether.
When played she grants instant removal up to 4000 BP as long as you have Kirito and Eugeo handy. Meanwhile, two AP Kirito acts as a solid attacker, getting multiple attacks off in a turn.
Integrity Knights has one additional trick up its sleeve, however – Eugeo. This guy acts as a serious defensive shield – complete with Nullify Impact and a “When Sidelined” effect that adds additional BP and Nullify Impact to a Kirito and Alice character on the field.
I could see this deck fairing well competitively, even if it won’t make it into the absolute top tier of the best UNION ARENA decks.
#2 Green Gun Gale Online
The main mechanic here is to build up your energy line to seven so you can play Kirito’s powerful raid. Not only does he have Impact 1, if you’ve taken out another character in a battle this turn, he also gains Damage 2. You’ll want to use his Activate Main ability to grant 1000 BP to one of your Sinon’s. If you’ve used Snipe, you’ll auto meet Kurito’s Damage 2 prerequisuite which means you’ll be swinging with a character who has both Impact 1 and Damage 2.
Additionally, you can use Kirito’s effect to make any of your lower BP Sinon characters stronger before playing your special which grants Sinon Snipe.
While this deck is a little too combo heavy to compete with the likes of Green Lancelot (one of the top decks in the meta), it’s got enough juice to launch itself to the top of this list. Indeed, you could argue that green GGO is the strongest of the decks in SAO, but there’s one more that I favor above it.
#1 Yellow Goddess
I mean, with a title like that how could this deck be anything but awesome? Instead on focusing on the three musketeers of Kirito/Eugeo/Alice, this deck focuses on the three goddesses: Asuna, Sinon, and Leafa. Of the two, this deck feels like the more versatile. It truly gives you a lot of options in how you deal with your opponent. For effective removal against lower BP characters, Sinon is going to be your best bet – letting you use Snipe to take them out.
Sinon is going to be an absolute deadly closer, letting you remove a character (with 4000 BP or less) while also taking a life via Impact. Of course, to gain access to all of these abilitiies you are going to have to be running fairly low on life. But what’s life without a little risk?
Meanwhile, two-energy Sinon is pretty crazy for such an early game card, letting you discard a card in order to grant it Snipe. While you won’t be able to pick off bigger characters with it, it’s a great attack to use against smaller BP characters.
Lastly, this deck’s strongest card is actually Asuna. Not only is her Raid pretty insane, every one of her cards in the line are strong, especially the three cost Asuna who lets you gain two cards to hand while also possessing the Yellow color trigger.
I really like Asuna in the current meta. Right now, a lot of people are playing Yellow Saitama – a character who cannot be sidelined or removed from play by abilities. Goddess Asuna acts as an excellent work around to cards like this by simply locking them down on the energy line. Combine her with Sinon’s removal and you have a deck that could potentially be top tier.
