Sword Art Online brings the second Blue starter deck into the UNION ARENA franchise – the first Blue Starter Deck since Jujutsu Kaisen debuted (and with it one of the strongest UNION ARENA starter decks to date).

And while Blue SAO is likely not the best Sword Art Online deck, as a starter deck it actually kind of works when compared to the others, boasting a strategy that works pretty well on its own. This makes upgrading the deck relatively easy.

Below, we’ll be looking at a basic upgrade to make your Blue SAO Starter Deck better by just combining two of them. After that, we’ll take a look at what a fully upgraded Blue SAO deck looks like and how it works.

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Sword Art Online Starter Deck upgraded list

For a basic upgrade using only two starter decks, this list is pretty good. The elephant in the room in this upgraded deck is that there are too many non triggers. At 14 non-triggers, you’re sitting at nearly double the ideal amount of non-triggers (which is eight).

Why does the number of non triggers in your deck matter?

Having too many non triggers simply means you’ll get less value out of your life triggers. Life triggers can massively impact the course of the game, so you’ll want to include as many triggers as possible without negatively impacting your strategy in your final build.

That being said, this was the best I could do with just the cards available in the starter deck, with the biggest issue being a lack of more zero cost characters with no trigger.

With all of that being said, let’s move on to the deck’s two strongest characters.

This deck is built around Kirito and Asuna

This starter deck exclusive Kirito is a pretty phenomenal attacker. Using him alone you can access Asuna’s powerful effects that activate when she is moved outside of the movement phase. But he’s not only powerful thanks to his moving effect – he also gains double attack just from having Asuna somewhere on your field.

Double Attack is a very strong keyword, and Kirito is one of the few in the game that has such easy access to it whenever you want.

This deck has two different Asuna characters you’ll want to prioritize switching in outside of the movement phase, and the stongest one is Asuna. While she isn’t a raid character (meaning you’ll want to do some set up before you can get her to attack), switch her in and you are suddenly attacking your opponent with an Impact dealing character and a Kirito with double attack. Not to mention Asuna has 5000 BP attack, making it relatively easy for her to get through most of what you will be facing.

The other Asuna at your disposal from the starter deck is the two cost Asuna with 3000 BP. Just being a two-cost with 3000 BP is pretty impressive. However, the fact that she boosts to 4000 if you move her outside of the movement phase is phenomenal. Her only weakness is the fact that she doesn’t have a trigger. But given her importance to this deck’s strategy that’s a relatively fair price to pay.

The Sword Art Online starter deck comes with plenty of switching cards

Deck strategies that focus on switching cards in and out of the front line outside of the movement phase is hardly anything new. We’ve seen this mechanic on display in the Yellow Tanjiro deck and more recently in the Speed-o’-Sound Sonic deck. However, it’s the first time we’ve seen the switching play such a core role to a deck strategy.

And it makes sense given SAO lore. In the first season (on which this deck is based) fights are primarily based on battle system where one fighter stands at the front and is supported by a range of other fighters in his or her party. Basically it’s like the earlier Final Fantasy battle system if you’ve played that.

So this deck works in the same way, letting you easily move cards in and out of the front line. The main payoff is that you unlock powerful effects when this happens. While those benefits are enhanced in the fully upgraded deck, this basic upgrade still benefits mostly from your Asuna getting big buffs.

With that in mind, let’s look at the primary cards you have at your disposal to switch your Asuna in and out of the front line.

Switch

Switch is the first event card of its kind, letting you seamlessly move characters in-between lines or even swapping one character for another depending on what is most advantageous. The best part about this card? It lets you re-stand an AP when you use it.

Three-cost Kirito

We’ve already talked about the raid Kirito capable of the switch mechanic. However, this three-cost Kirito also lets you move characters in-between lines. What’s more, he’s got the decent Color Trigger, making him an automatic four-of in this deck.

Sword Art Online Blue Starter Deck upgraded list

The really nice thing about this deck is that you don’t need much to upgrade it to its complete form. Indeed, you really just need the Asuna raid and the Kirito raid from the booster pack to make this deck really work.

This Kirito lets you swap in another Asuna to attack after attacking, giving you multiple attacks in a turn. We’ve seen this effect work very well before in decks like Tanjiro, making Kirito your most vital character. The Rain Asuna here is also very effetive, gaining Impact just having Kirito on the field. She also lets you draw a card when attacking.

Luckily, there’s an Asuna zero-cost character you can get from the booster pack. This should help balance out your deck to ensure you don’t have too many triggerless characters.

The Sword Art Online starter deck stands out for how easy it is to upgrade, missing just a few raids to be strong. While in its fully upgraded version it’s still not the best UNION ARENA deck, it’s a decent mid-tier deck, and should be fairly popular among UA players who are fans of the anime.

UNION ARENA: Sword Art Online Blue Starter Deck Upgrade Guide