I Topped an Evangelion Case Tournament – Here’s How it Went
Some tournaments are just so much fun you feel a little something…extra after they’re done. That’s how it felt coming out of the Constellation Collective Case Tournament – my first “big” tournament post Evangelion/Sword Art Online Vol 2 being fully released. The meta was drastically different than what I anticipated – 4/5 of my matches were versus Yellow Evangelion – a deck I had written off as being unlikely to be touched by players due to the zero-cost Asuka draw-one-sideline-one card being cut from the English version of the game.
If this 28 player tournament is indicative of the new meta, Yellow Evangelion may end up being a top tier deck after all. However, 28 player tournaments often differ from much larger competitions, and it could just be this particular crowd harbored a fondness for girls who pilot Evas.
Overall, came out pretty strong in the competition, getting 3rd place in a highly competitive field piloting my beloved Purple Progressive deck, and bagging some pretty sweet prizes including my eighth Asuna Winner card of 2026, an Evangelion Booster Box, packs, and even pulling the gorgeous SR** of Rei!
Below, I’ll walk you through every nook and cranny of the tournament, including each round play-by-play, the top four decks from the tournament (mine included), and an interview with Drewtabulous who won the event with Yellow Evangelion!
Evangelion Case Tournament – prepping for the event
I’ve heard of players picking up a deck they’ve never played before and topping big tournaments with them. I, however, prefer to get plenty of reps in with a deck before taking it to a larger tournament. After opening my case of Sword Art Online Vol. 2 back in late January, I fell instantly in love with the Purple Progressive deck due to its aggression and power, and I’ve been playing it competitively ever since – granted that was just two weeks ago.
Already, however, I’ve managed to bag several winner cards with the deck that has been very consistent for me. You can see the very version of the deck I used to top the Constellation Case tournament via the image below.
I bring up the fact that I played this deck many, many times before topping a big tournament with it to show that even for players with plenty of experience and skill like me, practice goes a long ways. Taking your decks to smaller, local events is a great way to level up your skills and comfort levels with a new strategy before stepping into the arena at a larger event.
Besides the testing, competing, and deck building that went into putting this deck together, I also give myself bonus points for actually remembering to eat a solid meal before going to the case tournament – something I often forget to do when I’m excited about the approach of battle!
Evangelion case tournament – round-by-round
Here’s the fun part – where I get into the matchups I faced along my way to the (near) top of the heap!
Round one versus Yellow Evangelion
Despite getting a lot of little bodies out early and doing some damage, this match would have been much easier if I had hit an Asuna earlier. As it was, my most important piece – the Raid Asuna – didn’t come out until near the end of the battle! Despite this, I just slowed down and focused on keeping ahead of my opponent in damage and avoiding killing the four-cost Rei whenever possible.
In the end, I finally found Raid Asuna, used a plethora of BP reducing effects to push my opponent’s characters all down to 2000 BP characters, then swung through them a bunch of times with the Mito/Asuna restand combo for the win.
Round two versus Lancelot
This matchup was not one I had practiced much with Purple Progressive. However, I have a strong familiarity with Lancelot and felt I probably had a solid chance into it given Purple Progressive’s powerful aggression. This match wasn’t really close as I had a handful of zero-and-one-cost characters to push up and take chunks of life with.
I managed to move so fast that in the end I didn’t really even need to take any hits to life if I didn’t want to, but did so anyways to accelerate closing out the game.
Round three versus Yellow Evangelion
Despite making a slight error by discarding a zero-cost that would have enables me to start attacking earlier, this round went relatively easily. I’d learned from my first battle of the night that it’s better to move around the Rei characters whenever possible rather than sideline them. As such I used my Specials on the non four-cost Rei characters and then used Raid Mito’s “can’t be blocked” by 2000 BP or less effect as well as the three-cost Mito’s When Played to prevent Rei from blocking and sidelining herself to play more Rei characters.
Using specials early to keep my opponent’s ability to out aggro me at bay was also strong, especially into the four-cost Mari who is a prime special target rather than the four-cost Rei.
Again, Asuna was no where to be found early in this game and Raid Mito did most of the work for me with Asuna only showing up for a very powerful close.
Round four – loss versus Yellow Evangelion
Drewtabulous’s first place Evangelion deck from the tournament.
In round four I faced down yet another Yellow Eva, only this time I did find my Asuna characters early. Indeed, other than needing to take an AP draw on the second turn to find the cards I needed to play with, this game actually started out the strongest of any game in regards to setting up my characters to unlock their powerful combos.
However, just as I was about to swing through several unblockable attacks via my Raid Mito, a special trigger took her out of the game. To make things worse, the following turn two more specials came out of my opponent’s hand, clearing my board while he had a board full of attackers that he used to get me down to just one life.
It was an insanely strong turn that essentially took me out of the game. However, I played very well into that game and had some very strong plays earlier. The only thing I regret about my only loss of the night was at one point I chose to discard a Pendant of Aniorite rather than keep it in hand.
While at the time it felt like the righ move as I didn’t necessarily need it then and there and wanted to see more cards instead, having that Pendant would have meant keeping one more Asuna alive and avoiding the complete board wipe, and that certainly could (although may not have) saved me in the end.
It’s a good learning lesson that into Yellow Evangelion, Asuna’s necklace card is a must-have, keeping its powerful removal effects at bay.
Round Five win versus Yellow Evangelion
Luckily, I was able to bounce back from that tough game and close out my fourth battle versus Yellow Evangelion in style via powerful anti-blocking maneuvers from Raid Mito and even Argo to take plenty of free hits into my opponent’s life that they absolutely could not block.
Thoughts on the Evangelion Case Tournament meta and more
The fact that I played against four Yellow Evangelion decks might seem a bit scary/overwhelming at face value, but plenty of other decks were represented at the top tables, with an undeniable high representation of Yellow Eva decks throughout. While that does shed some light on how players are feeling about the new Yellow Aggro deck, one might also not want to read too much into it. We’ve seen mid-sized tournaments like this one feature heavy play shares of decks that didn’t end up being massively played at the regional level, and I would still guess that Purple Gaius will be the most popular deck at the Las Vegas Regional.
Still, Yellow Evangelion undoubtedly worked out well for Drewtabulous who faced a massively successful run after five very tough rounds. You can see his winning deck list (again) below along with other top decks form the event. Also get his perspective on the tournament in the interview section coming up.
Evangelion Case Tournament top decks
Despite my matchup spread being almost entirely Yellow Evangelion decks, as you’ll see from this collection of top placing decks from the tournament, it wasn’t just Evangelion at the top! Old meta favorites also had a positive showing, and overall the top four from the tournament was the definition of diverse!
First place Yellow Evangelion by Drewtabulous
Drewtabulous is running a consistent and powerful Yellow Eva build here, with two of the two-cost Asuka character cards teched-in to grant additional impact while also providing more names to make hitting the special easier.
Second place Red Kenshin by Lemon
This Red Kenshin build seems pretty straightforward at first but actually does have some unique aspects to it, including dropping the zero-cost Kaoru for a more aggressive four-of Yahiko. Lemon also runs the three-cost Megumi tech which seems to be gaining popularity lately.
Third place SAO Purple Progressive by Joseph Writer Anderson
I’ve talked about my Purple Progressive deck quite a bit in this guide already, as well as in one of my latest podcast episodes – however the proof is in the pudding as they say, and I don’t know what better proof there is that a deck like this one can be very powerful in the current meta than topping a case tournament with it! Sure, it’s a tricky deck to master, but the power levels you can reach are well worth the effort!
Fourth place Sukuna by Paladin
It’s always good to see an oldie-but-a-goodie like Sukuna topping tournaments. This deck runs some of the cards that are currently trendy with Blue JJK builds, like the zero-cost Sasaki & Iguchi. Otherwise, running the two-cost Yuji at only two feels a little unique. Anyways, Blue Sukuna has essentially proven itself as a top contender since it debuted, and with the added power from un-restricting the Yuji/Sukuna pairing, it’s gotten a second wind.
Interview with Drewtabulous about his Case Tournament winning Yellow Evangelion deck
Joseph Writer Anderson (right) with the Constellation Collective Evangelion Case Tournament winner, Drewtabulous (left)
It was a bit late after the tournament was over, and with a long drive home, I didn’t do a lot of talking that night other than snapping a pic of Drewtabulous’s deck and asking the other top players for their lists. However, I did catch up later with Drewtabulous for a few questions about his perspective on the tournament via Discord (Drewtabulous also happens to be a member of the JWA Discord). You can see our conversation below:
Drewtabulous’s tournament matchups
JWA: What did your first match look like?
Drewtabulous: My opponent didn’t get a double energy out in time to keep up with my tempo.
JWA: That’s tough but happens. What about your second match? Did that bring any more challenges?
Drewtabulous: My second match was into Mina/Reno, and it was actually fun because I had considered bringing [Mina/Reno] to the tournament myself. So I had done a bit of testing with the matchup already. For Mina to win, you need to see the Reno raids early which my opponent did not see and was only able to get one mina raid out if I remember correctly.
JWA: Right. I’ve played a ton of Mina/Reno and can concur that your odds of winning go up significantly if you hit the Reno play in the opening turns. What did the third round look like?
Drewtabulous: Round three was Mirror Match Part 2.
JWA: Wow. So you also faced a ton of Yellow Eva. How did this one go?
Drewtabulous: This was a tough one. I took an early lead by pushing small bodies up but my opponent was able to stabilize and swing back. I had a pretty crucial miss play that I was worried might ruin the game for me. I had blocked with 4/1 Rei and dropped a card to bring back a Rei thinking I had a 2/1 boost Rei in sideline I in fact did not have that but was able to play out the zero draw one. He had three on board and I was able to swing for four to win the game.
JWA: Very nice. And I think I know how round four was for you as that was our match. But what did it look like from your perspective?
Drewtabulous: Right – round 4 was into SAO Purple Progressive. Going into this tournament I was concerned about two decks. Both so happen to be purple. Those were Evangelion Spears, and Progressive. Someone may have hinted at its power early on and was hoping to avoid it if possible. And for good reason. That match was a slugfest from the start to finish and it really could have been anyone's game. Shout out to JWA.
JWA: Very fun and exciting match, for sure. And how was it for you in the finals?
Drewtabulous: Round 5 was into Red Kenshin. This matchup…I just didn’t want to see this matchup, and it was versus someone who piloted Red Kenshin at the last case tournament we had. The matchup, in my opinion, is a toss up for who ever gets the better high roll. And in my case my opponent didn’t see his double energy and was playing from behind. I then topped decked the Asuka SR for impact game.
My win condition for the Kenshin matchup was to make sure my two null impact Rei's never left the board once I played them. I was able to get them on board early and it definitely saved my butt by blocking an impact from Kenshin.
JWA: What were your general impressions on the tournament and the meta?
Drewtabulous: Overall, I had a blast. I consider myself a new TCG player, with UNION ARENA being my first TCG. So having an experience like this felt very validating. We have some really good player in our area so I truly was not expecting it. Shout out to CCS, they have been super goated for the community and a dope place to play.
Meta-wise, Yellow Eva is definitely going to be doing Eva things. Red Kenshin is very much still prevalent but it shouldn’t be a Kenshin Rare Battle anymore. I did not get to see purple Eva in action but have a feeling it will be up there. I also think we are in a meta where there are quite a few "rouge" decks likely to make it through. Especially Vol 2 SAO and – as always – Green Kenpachi.
JWA: A question I often see following a tournament win like this from other players is: what would you change about your deck following the win?
Drewtabulous: Honestly with how impactful the nullify Rei's were for me I may need to look at bumping that number up. It would just be looking to find what to drop. I am already at 11 zeros so maybe drop down to three finals and three nullify impact. I am an advocate for 11 zeros or three finals when you have a way to cheat out bodies for free.
Being a part of the grassroots UNION ARENA scene has been one of my favorite aspects of the game since picking it up back in 2024. Big, local tournaments like these show just how enormous the excitement for UA is – one that has only continued to grow with each massive new IP joining the arena. Stay tuned for more updates like this on the blog, and special shoutout to both Drewtabulous and Tayxia for inviting me to the event as well as consistently updating me about it so I didn’t forget to go!
Also special thanks to Constellation Collective for putting on the event and supporting the UNION ARENA competitive scene!
