The Ultimate Sword Art Online UNION ARENA Rare Battle Guide (Vol. 2)
In this guide, I’ll be going over everything you need to know about the UNION ARENA Sword Art Online Vol. 2 Rare Battle including the top decks to choose from, my personal picks I’m taking with me to rare battles, as well as the prizes you can get from both participating in and winning these Rare Battles.
Sword Art Online Vol. 2 Rare Battle Winner Cards
So the big one first – the real reason to compete in an SAO Rare Battle Vol. 2 event: this gorgeous Asuna card. Winners will get the Winner stamped promo while second-through-fourth will get the same card only without the stamp on it.
Other than bearing one of anime’s most beloved sword girls, this UNION RARE prize card should be hotly sought after for being part of the popular Purple Progressive deck – a tried-and-true deck that I used to qualify for the UNION ARENA NA Championship Finals.
SAO Vol. 2 Rare Battle Participation prizing
Lest you think it’s only the top four that goes home with something to be proud of, fret not – you also get some solid prizing just for participating in a Sword Art Online Vol. 2 Rare Battle. This is in the form of the special event pack Vol. 7.
There’s one card in each of these packs, and that one card can be one of the following cards from each of the three sets getting rare battles this March-April: Kagurabachi, Evangelion, and Sword Art Online. You’ll notice that there are two versions of the same card below as each card comes with a special gold version that is pretty rare and more valuable than the silver version of the card.
The Misato and Sinon should be pretty hotly sought after as those are both key cards from two meta decks. The Chihiro isn’t meta but still looks cool.
Sword Art Online Rare Battle format – decks and strategies to dominate the field
Now the fun part: what decks, cards, and strategies are going to give you the best chance of winning an Asuna UNION RARE Winner card? Now, the point here isn’t to give you exact builds to run at your SAO Rare Battle: you can find my list of current Sword Art Online Vol. 2 decks elsewhere on the site.
Instead, we’ll be talking more about the theory, techs, and matchups that should stand out in this alternate format.
#1 Gun Gale Online (GGO) – overall best deck
Gun Gale Online isn’t just one of the best UNION ARENA decks right now – it likely will dominate the UNION ARENA Rare Battle format more than any other deck. That’s not to say it’s necessarily tier zero in this format – it’s just overall strongest and should make up a significant amount of the play share at competitive events.
The key card to watch out for here – and the one I’m always quickest to remove – is the six-cost Raid Sinon. This card really is insane, letting you draw, free play and grant Impact to other characters – a powerful ability in a deck with so much snipe effects.
If your opponent manages to stack up more than one of these on their board, you could easily end up facing down a full front line of Impact. The insane Impact combined with constant removal is the hardest thing to deal with going into this deck.
Gun Gale Online best matchups
Now let’s talk about key matchup info for Gun Gale Online.
GGO has a favorable matchup into another powerful and popular deck: Purple Progressive. Progressive struggles under pressure from constant removal. With how much snipe you get with GGO, this is an easy pressure to apply.
Snipe avoids the “smile for you” character ability protection, making Purple Yuna not particularly strong into this deck.
GGO weaknesses
All of that being said, GGO also does have weaknesses that can be exploited. It’s biggest weakness is how long it takes to set up. While two-cost Kirito from Vol. 2 makes this hurdle much less than before, GGO is operating at its strongest when it has multiple powerful characters on the field. Manage to attack early enough and you could disrupt its strategy before it manages to completely dominate the board.
My personal best pick for the GGO matchup
If I had to choose one deck to run against this specific matchup, it would probably be the Yellow Goddess deck. Yellow Goddesses doesn’t have a ton of trouble dealing with overwhelming Impact from GGO. Indeed, in Goddesses you have plenty of Nullify Impact. Meanwhile, as the game goes on, your deck gets stronger, allowing you to go toe-to-toe against this powerful deck.
Whatever deck you pick, you should still have a pathway to victory. Just know that if you aren’t piloting GGO, someone else likely will be given how strong this deck is particularly in the Rare Battle format.
Purple Yuna – a close second
The other strongest deck that could rival GGO at the top is Purple Yuna. The main problem with this matchup is that the strong defensive layer added to your characters via “smile for you” does nothing against GGO. Still, you have some solid plays into that deck. Your four-cost Kirito is a powerful removal option even into the likes of 5000 BP GGO Kirito. Additionally, you can easily boost your characters into Damage 2 characters and run GGO before that deck gets set up.
Otherwise, Purple Yuna is a very strong deck, although notoriously difficult to pilot. You can use it to rapidly fill your front line with 4000 BP attackers, and do a ton of searching to find the cards you need.
Purple Yuna matchups
Purple Yuna feels relatively even into GGO other than the disadvantage to Snipe. Otherwise, it has moderate to good matchups into all of the other Sword Art Online decks, making it a solid choice for the SAO Rare Battle season.
SAO Purple Progressive – the Rare Battle Dark horse
I can’t write an SAO Rare Battle guide without also highlighting my favorite deck right now: the formidable SAO Purple Progressive deck with Asuna at its core. And while I really like this deck into the UNION ARENA meta, it’s got a few hurdles to overcome in the Rare Battle format. The biggest issue is GGO. GGO is a very tough matchup for Purple Progressive. If the snipe-heavy deck ends up making up a huge play share in Rare Battles, it could be tough for Purple Progressive to succeed.
To help set this deck up for success in this alternate format, drop cards like the Pendant that grant Asuna protection and instead lean into lower-cost bodies to quickly rush your opponent down.
Otherwise, it’s got a lot of plays that make it pretty strong into the format. Look out for this deck doing great things in the SAO Rare Battle!
Mother’s Rosario – Sleeper Pick
While Purple Progressive is relatively proven at this point, there is one outlier deck that could be a sleeper pick into the Rare Battle format, and that is the formidable Mother’s Rosario. Mother’s Rosario is a surprisingly tricky deck to master with all of the new tools it gets in Vol. 2. Indeed, the deck is so different now than what it looked like in Vol. 1 that it’s almost a new deck entirely – one focused primarily on Removal and Damage 2 to destroy your opponent.
While I doubt many will run Mother’s Rosario because of how tough it is to master, you might see it popping off in the hands of the right pilot.
Yellow Goddesses – a solid counter to GGO
While SAO Rare Battles are likely to be heavily mixed events given how strong many of the SAO decks are, if you are anticipating running into a bunch of GGO, Yellow Goddesses might be your strongest pick. This deck has a ton of Nullify Impact to make it a chore for GGO to deal with. Meanwhile, on the control end it outpaces even GGO, with a ton of deadly effects combined with the ability to heal itself.
It’s going to have a tougher time with fast decks like Progressive but in a control match, it’s the strongest SAO deck overall.
Other decks to consider
While the decks above are my top picks for this Rare Battle season, there are a few others to consider as well. Like the Blue Aincrad deck: still a solid deck that does in fact get stronger with the additions in Vol. 2. Cards like the new zero-cost Kirito with ALO affinity and the three-cost Asuna add considerable offensive capabilities to the deck, and it’s core mechanic of getting a bunch of attacks in to overwhelm your opponent hasn’t changed.
The last deck that could potentially be a threat is the Alice, Kirito, and Eugeo “Integrity Knights” deck. While this deck doesn’t offer anything particularly unique into this particular format, it’s still a solid midrange removal deck that is very consistent. The addition of a Raid Kirito along with the three-cost Eugeo/Kirito that can act as both is a huge boon to the “unique names” strategy this deck offers. It’s not particularly strong into any of the above decks but not particularly weak – remaining one of the most “well-rounded” decks in the format ideal for newcomers to the game.
Despite GGO being the likely favorite in the SAO Rare Battle format, there are many, many strong decks in SAO, making this likely to be a varied and fun event. So give it a shot and find a Rare Battle tournament near you via the Bandai TCG+ app!
