Solo Leveling Shadow Army Deck List and Guide – UNION ARENA
Want to play the powerful Shadow Army deck from the UNION ARENA: Solo Leveling set?
Below, we’ll be diving into my custom Shadow Army deck, and how to play it to win.
Shadow Army deck list
High level strategy-wise, this deck is all about attacking with your Shadow Army characters to wear away your opponent’s defenses and their life. This is relatively easy to do thanks to how strong you can boost your characters to be thanks to cards like Monarch’s Domain.
Once you’re within closing distance, you’ll use 12-cost Sung Jinwoo to close out the game with his powerful combo of switching characters to active and Snipe/Impact combo.
12-Cost Sung Jinwoo card breakdown
Sung Jinwoo may at first seem like a challenging card to get to understand, but he’s actually not all that complicated. Let’s break down how he works and what makes him so strong.
Reduce Jinwoo’s energy-cost for every Shadow Army character
Arguably the most noticeable trait on this card is that insane twelve-cost Jinwoo has. While that seems really high, you are going to be reducing that cost for each and every Shadow Army character in play. Given the sheer number of Shadow Army characters in your deck, you can rapidly reduce that cost down to a very playable number.
If on the Energy Line
One of 12-cost Jinwoo’s biggest selling points is that he can attack from the Energy Line…sort of. Like Saito, this effect will move Jinwoo to the front line. However, it’s unique in its own way. Unlike with Saito, the “swap” will happen after a character attacks, not when he attacks.
This also means that unlike Saito you’ll need a character on your front line to swap with in order to use this particular effect.
While it’s a little more involved than some of the other similar effects out there, that versatility does also unlock some options making it a very handy effect to have.
When Played
Lastly, Jinwoo has a powerful When Played effect that’s pretty important. First, you will use this When Played to switch up to one Shadow Army character on your front line and energy line and switch them to active. This works great in a deck like Shadow Army that loves to see its own characters switch to resting to unlock effects.
Finally, the most important When Played effect is the Snipe that Jinwoo will gain for the turn, allowing him to remove one of your opponent’s characters while also taking a life thanks to his native Impact.
While there is a lot baked into this card’s text, with a little practice he feels well-baked into the Shadow Army core strategy, making him an effective closer for the deck.
Sung Jinwoo Raid targets
As I always say, any Raid is really only about as good as its Raid targets. Lucky for Sung Jinwoo, his Raid line is very solid.
Two-cost Jinwoo doubles as a zero-cost
We’ll start with my favorite of his Raid targets: the two-cost Jinwoo. Don’t let that two-energy cost fool you, however. This is one of those powerful “fake” two-cost characters that can be played at zero-energy if you have no cards on your field. As is always the case, having access to a card like this in your deck makes for a very strong opening play.
But it’s not just having a fake two-cost that makes Jinwoo effective. He’s another Raid target of course, yet even more he’s got the Active Trigger and a When Played that lets you look at the top card of your deck then place it in the sideline or back on top of the deck.
One-cost Jinwoo recycles himself
One-cost Sung Jinwoo is a highly effective character. In a lot of decks, a card like this might be a four-of. However, in this deck – where you mostly want your board filled with Shadow Army characters – he can be run at less copies. Additionally, the fact that he can return this character from the sideline makes him reusable.
That’s pretty good given his When Played draw effect while also doubling as a low-cost Raid target.
Three-cost Sung Jinwoo
It’s not an understatement to say that Sung Jinwoo’s Raid line really does have it all. The two-cost that filters and can be played as a zero-cost in the right scenario, the one-cost that lets you draw and can come back from the sideline, and finally this three-cost double energy gen character that lets you search the top three cards of your deck for a Sung Jinwoo or Shadow Army affinity card.
Sung Jinwoo’s other Raid
In addition to the 12-cost Jinwoo that this deck is really all about powering up and playing, you can also include the other Sung Jinwoo as a tech and backup attacker.
Now, I will admit this Sung Jinwoo isn’t a necessary add to your strategy – but in practice feels like a strong addition. While you won’t likely hit your Impact qualification as this deck isn’t a mill deck, just the easy Raid (you have plenty of targets already) and forced block/removal is a strong support to this deck. We’ve tested this significantly and in practice this Raid feels like the AAA Wunder to 12-cost Jinwoo’s powerhouse.
Do you need this guy to pilot Shadow Army? No. But he sure does help.
Other Shadow Army heavy hitters
While Sung Jinwoo is undeniably your strongest attacker, any of your Shadow Army characters can boost to become offensive threats in their own right. This is partly thanks to the Monarch’s Domain site Purple Solo Leveling has access to.
That being said, some Shadow Army characters boost to big threats more easily than others. Take Igris, for example.
Outside of the Sung Jinwoo Raid characters, Igris is your best bet for a reliable attacker. I really like this character for its ability to enter the field active, while also letting you play a Shadow Soldiers character from your hand or sideline. This type of “two-for-one” ability – letting you get a powerful 4000 BP attacker while also filling up your board to make playing 12-cost Jinwoo easier – is exceptional in a deck like this one.
As if that weren’t enough, Igris makes running the Shadow Monarch Special card feel even better.
Playing Shadow Monarch into Igris is arguably one of this deck’s strongest plays. Igris will come in active, you will also be able to play a Shadow Soldiers card, and you gain solid momentum towards your end-of-game goal with 12-cost Sung Jinwoo.
Iron is a solid backup attacker, too
Finally, I have to talk about this pretty insane two-cost Iron character. This guy may lack a trigger, but being a two-cost character that easily buffs to a 4000 BP character or more feels like just the sort of backup attacker Shadow Army needs in its arsenal to overwhelm the opposition. Some may run more of him in their list. I feel like two-to-four is a sweet spot for this card.
Three-cost Shadow Army characters add versatility to the deck
We’ve covered a lot of the purely offensive stuff this deck has to offer. But there are two unique cards included that carry a lot of weight. These are Tusk and Kaisel.
While Shadow Army has a lot of strong plays, the two cards that have the highest skill ceiling and thus will likely be the most challenging to sequence correctly are arguably Tusk and Kaisel.
The interplay between switching them to resting to unlock pretty insane effects on demand, re-standing them via Sung Jinwoo’s When Played, and then using their other effect all in the same turn feels very, very strong. But it will take a well practiced player to get the full benefit out of these powerful effects.
Shadow Army deck – strengths and weaknesses
Of all the Solo Leveling decks, Shadow Army is arguably the most hyped. It certainly has the highest power ceiling of them all. Being able to boost run-of-the-mill characters to 4000 BP+ threats is nothing to turn your nose up at, and it certainly feels like it fits in well among the upper UNION ARENA tiers.
However, it does have its own fair share of weaknesses. For starters, it’s going to have a tough time against anything super aggro. We were just testing this deck the other day and it was relatively easy for me to beat it with Mother’s Rosario of all decks, simply by pressuring with a ton of small bodies early on before closing out with my Damage 2 Asuna.
SAO Mother’s Rosario deck vs Shadow Army testing
Sung Jinwoo is a lot easier to play than the game-ending Saitama, but he doesn’t feel nearly as strong, and can be dealt with in a variety of ways.
Does that mean Shadow Army is a bad deck? Not at all. It’s very strong when played right. Just not the overwhelming powerhouse the way a deck like Gaius currently is in the format.
