UNION ARENA: SAO Rare Battle Guide
Read this guide to learn how to bag your UNION RARE Kirito.
This summer, Bandai has cooked up four exciting UNION ARENA Rare Battles to take part in. Of course, Sword Art Online is one of the latest sets to get a Rare Battle featured in the summer series, and those lucky enough to place in the top four of one of these tournaments will win a Kirito UNION RARE card.
However, topping a Rare Battle tournament is much easier said then done. In this guide, we’ll be looking at the ins-and-outs of the Sword Art Online Rare Battle format, diving into the decks, the strategies, and the matchups that you need to know about in order to survive and thrive.
Yellow Goddess has a strong matchup spread
Yellow Goddess has been fairing extremely well in tournaments around North America since the set released in English. However, that doesn’t mean it’s entirely easy to pilot. Indeed, there are many tricks to making this deck work for you. That being said, there are just three or four matchups you need to be mindful of, and we’ll go over those in detail below.
Versus GGO
For starters, GGO is a deck that will undoubtedly be played at many UA Rare Battles. It’s fun, powerful, and already doing well at store tournaments. And that’s a good thing for Goddess players as this deck is arguably your strongest matchup.
Your strongest plays versus it are your ability to hit the ground running early. While GGO looks to establish a solid energy line, Goddesses can punch plenty of holes in their defenses. There aren’t a lot of threats in this deck that can snag an unexpected win away from you, so assuming you have some Nullify Impact characters around, you should also be relatively safe playing at two life – a scenario which Goddesses loves.
That all being said, it doesn’t mean GGO doesn’t have any tools to use against you. Here are a couple of things to watch for:
Avoid using four-cost Leafa’s “When Played” as Sinon can relatively easily snipe over her 6000 BP when paired with her Special.
Be mindful of the fact that there are plenty of two-energy generating characters in this deck. A smart GGO player will look to wall off your Asuna Raid by stacking the energy line with these guys.
Look to target tap to gain energy characters early with your Asuna Raid.
All-in-all, Goddesses doesn’t have an issue dealing with GGO and with any luck you should be able to take this one.
Versus Blue SAO
Definitely be wary of Blue SAO. While your deck is more reliable and consistent, it does have a marked weakness to multi-attack decks. Instead of whittling your life down to two as soon as possible to take advantage of Raid Sinon’s Impact/Snipe/4k, look to preserve extra life. Keep it to four as much as possible so as not to be vulnerable to multi-attack, and shut down the five-cost Kirito whenever possible. Keep Nullify Impact characters around to stop the Asuna characters from punching through when you are low on life.
Versus Integrity Knights
Integrity Knights is your most even matchup. Don’t expect to have an innate advantage against this deck: you’ll need to be smart in how you manage your life especially since Integrity Knights can pull out a two-AP Kirito with Double Attack at any moment. Otherwise, this deck’s biggest threat is just its removal via Alice. Look to build up your board with plenty of characters to block with to help you stay ahead in the race. You really don’t want to be in a situation where you’ve over extended against this deck and then have very little board presence as that will make you a sitting deck against Raid Alice’s removal.
Additionally, you’ll want to not blow all of your characters and moves too early. In the late game, you have a distinct advantage against Integrity Knights thanks to your Asuna’s When Played and powerful Sniping. Look to keep tempo early to mid game then dominate in the late game.
Versus Mother’s Rosario
Mother’s Rosario is a deck that looks to build up to a powerful end game. This could be a problem for you as you will be doing much of their work for them – taking your own life and making it relatively easy for them to take you out with a hit or two from their Raid Asuna.
Your best bet against this deck is to overwhelm them with your superior early-to-mid game, taking plenty of life early, and rapidly getting to four in life so you can start using your stronger effects.
Be wary of sidelining Yuuki characters: instead set them to resting or trap them on the energy line as doing so well keep them from becoming fuel for their Asuna’s abilities.
Integrity Knights is your safest bet
Vexsten first place
Despite having some impressive plays at its disposal, it took a few weeks of the SAO format for Integrity Knights to catch on. When piloted correctly, this deck has a lot going for it, including removal, Nullify Impact, and Double Attack. Out of all of the SAO decks, Integrity Knights offers you the most balanced approach to gameplay. While it doesn’t have a distinct advantage over the other decks in the Rare Battle format, it doesn’t have any major weaknesses either. Let’s look at how it fares against the others below.
Versus Yellow Goddess
As said above, Yellow Goddess is a relatively even matchup, but you do have a few distinct advantages. Generally, your early game is stronger than that deck. Goddesses doesn’t start getting really scary until they hit four cards in their life. Integrity Knights, however, just needs a Kirito, Eugeo and Alice on the front line to access its strongest effects. Use Alice to remove characters from the game and put your opponent behind, while also leveraging many of this deck’s powerful rush characters to bring their life down to size.
If you manage to get Goddesses down to two life left, it’s very hard for them to stop your Kirito Double Attack.
Versus Mother’s Rosario
Mother’s Rosario fares better against Integrity Knights than you might think. Unlike Goddesses that puts itself in danger range of Kirito, that same card is much less effective against Mother’s Rosario which doesn’t mind sacrificing Yuuki’s to block him. Rosario also has a powerful double blocker in the form of Klein. This guy can be combined with the two-cost Yuuki to become a very solid 4500 BP double blocker, essentially nullifying your Kirito.
With all of that being said, again here you have a stronger early-to-mid game, capable of punishing Rosario if they don’t hit their cards in sideline they need with superior Impact attacks and removal.
Versus Blue SAO
Your key to success here is your consistency and your removal. Manage to control the board and prevent Blue SAO from setting up their combos and multi-attacks and you should be good to go.
Versus GGO
GGO presents some serious challenges for you. Your strongest play here is to try and rush them down before they get their combos going, but that’s certainly not a fool proof plan. GGO has plenty of ways to deal with Integrity Knights, including superior removal via Sinon’s Snipe.
If Kirito hits the field, you could be in real trouble as Integrity Knights has relatively little to swing through its 5000 BP, forcing you to rely on Eugeo to boost your 4000 BP characters by 1000. However, that’s only a temporary measure and not solid enough to help you outright remove Kirito.
That being said, you can use Eugeo as an effective defensive measure, preventing your opponent from punching too many holes in your life via Kirito’s relentless combo of Damage 2 and Impact 1.
Mother’s Rosario is the SAO Rare Battle Format wild card
Mother’s Rosario can be very, very strong – especially in the Rare Battle format. However, it’s not an easy deck to pilot. Instead of looking to stay ahead of your opponent via removing their characters and taking life each turn, you are looking to build up your board, survive many hits, and unleash a torrent of powerful attacks via your Asuna and Yuuki cards that can’t be blocked by weak characters.
Mother’s Rosario fares reasonably well into the SAO decks, without any distinct disadvantages. Indeed how well this deck performs will be largely determined by whether or not you hit eight Yuuki/Mother’s Rosario cards in your sideline.
As already mentioned, it’s got one thing going for it against Yellow Goddesses: that being the ability to take a bunch of life in a few turns if Goddesses isn’t careful.
It has some powerful counters to Integrity Knights, thanks to the Double Block and the ability to build up a full board rendering Alice’s removal less effective.
However, it’s not particularly great against GGO, and could be overwhelmed by Blue SAO’s multi-attacks. Here the Klein double blocker is going to be vital to slow them down until you can start using your fully powered up attacks.
It’s a wild card pick, but play your cards right and you could certainly come out on top of your UNION ARENA Rare Battle playing Mother’s Rosario.
GGO stands out with its high energy cost
Deck by Calaum
Unlike with standard UNION ARENA tournaments following the Basic Rules, GGO stands out in the SAO Rare Battle format as the sole high energy deck. This is both a gift and a curse. On the one hand, it’s the only deck that can field a character with base BP of 5000. On the other hand, it can feel a little slower and cumbersome when compared to the faster SAO decks.
That being said, GGO only suffers a distinct disadvantage against Yellow Goddesses: otherwise it can do well against any of the other decks. Removal tools for this deck are more consistent than they are for Integrity Knights. Meanwhile, it’s the deck with the highest amount of Impact thanks to Photon Sword as well as cards like three-cost Sinon gaining Impact when at 4000 BP or higher. Kirito also has Impact natively and can gain Damage 2 when combined with Sinon’s Snipe.
However, it’s seven-cost Kirito that lends the greatest advantage here in the Rare Battle format. Look to build up to seven ASAP and get him on the field so you can block 4000 BP attackers and live to tell the tale.
Blue SAO is the strongest deck when it has its pieces
12th place by Popito – Draw 3! Tournament
Despite many assuming Blue SAO would be a mid-tier pick for the UNION ARENA meta, it’s established itself as one of the top decks in all of SAO. It will undoubtedly be highly represented in the SAO Rare Battle format, and doesn’t have any bad matchups against those decks. It’s main problem is just consistency: how consistently can it get its combos up and running? If it hits its multi attack combos early enough and gets enough of them off, it can easily dominate the playing field.
If it manages to get its key cards removed before the combos start rolling, however, then this deck could end up very easily dead in the water.
Which deck should you take to your UNION ARENA: SAO Rare Battle?
Let’s wrap this up with this: a spark notes summary of what deck to choose. Basically, the SAO deck you choose will be based on the following:
Choose Integrity Knights if you want the most balanced deck.
Choose Mother’s Rosario if you want to risk it all on the end of game play.
Choose Blue SAO if you want the strongest deck with all of its pieces.
Choose GGO if you want the late game power despite the slower speed.
Choose Yellow Goddesses if you’re confident in your ability to win while at low life.
Choose Blue ALO if you’re playing for laughs.
