UNION ARENA: Every Sword Art Online Deck, Ranked

Wondering which Sword Art Online UNION ARENA deck to invest in?

Luckily for you, there are many powerful and also fun decks to choose from in the SAO set. Indeed, when the set first launched it massively shook up the meta, with several of its decks showing up at the top of tournaments everywhere. Even today, many of these decks remain the most popular in the game.

And while there are plenty of solid decks to choose from here, they are certainly not all created equal.

To help you make an informed decision on what deck to build, I’ll be ranking each and every Sword Art Online deck from strong to strongest.

#6 Blue ALO

Starting this list off we have the deck that will more than likely end up being the least effective from the SAO set, and that is the Blue ALO deck based on the second half of the anime’s first season. While there are some interesting mechanics here that focus mostly on subverting your opponent’s defenses by not allowing them to block you, ultimately that’s just not enough to pack a punch hard enough to break through the very competitive UNION ARENA meta.

This deck is largely focused on Leafa who is one of the central characters of Fairy Dance which is the SAO arc this deck is inspired by. She’s got an effect that prevents strong opposing characters from defending against her attacks. One interesting strategy would be to combine her with your bird cage site, boosting BP to just get direct hits off. However, this strategy likely isn’t reliable enough to work all the time, making us wish just a little more power had been added to this particular archetype to give it more oomf.

That being said, there are plenty of aggressive combos here that could easily take your opponent by surprise and eek out a victory for you. Really competitive players will prefer one of the other decks higher up on this list, however.

#5 Mother’s Rosario

This Mother’s Rosario deck built around Yuuki and Asuna brings to mind one of the best Arcs in SAO. The deck itself is stronger than you might think, focused more on a late game payoff than early game power. Essentially, you are trying to get as many Yuuki/Mother’s Rosario cards into your sideline as possible in order to power up your strongest character by far: four-cost Raid Asuna.

Asuna has the potential to boost to a very deadly character, letting you draw a card when attacking, gaining 1000 BP, Damage 2, and unable to be blocked by characters with 3000 BP or less. It’s hard to know why this combination of effects is so strong until you play the deck for yourself. Essentially, manage to get a few of her on the field and you’re putting an incredible amount of pressure on your opponent, making it possible to close out the game in a single turn of attacking.

However, Raid Asuna isn’t the only tool at your disposal. You also have the massively effective two-AP cost Yuuki.

This Yuuki is one of the strongest SAO cards of them all, with a powerful combination of effects that make her incredibly helpful in this deck strategy. She comes in active, lets you draw-two-sideline-one card, can’t be blocked by characters with 2000 BP or less and switches an opponent’s character to resting when sidelined. The only drawback here is that she does sideline herself at the start of your turn. However, this can work in your favor, giving you more Yuuki characters in your sideline to power up your two Asuna characters while also opening up holes in your opponent’s defenses.

For all of that, however, this deck is missing some key pieces that holds it back, like a solid removal option outside of the special and an additional zero-cost character that compliments the strategy. Volume two is going to help it out a lot, however, making this deck a solid one to invest in for later.

#2 Green Gun Gale Online

6th place Urameshi Draw3! SAO Case Tournament

Just in case you were wondering if Snipe was working its way back into the meta anytime soon, this Green GGO deck goes all in on that powerful keyword. Effectively, this deck pilots like something of a mix between Lancelot and Kurapika, which is fitting given it’s yet another high energy green deck.

The main mechanic here is to build up your energy line to seven so you can play Kirito’s powerful raid. Not only does he have Impact 1, if you’ve taken out another character in a battle this turn, he also gains Damage 2. You’ll want to use his Activate Main ability to grant 1000 BP to one of your Sinons. If you’ve used Snipe, you’ll meet Kirito’s Damage 2 prerequisite which means you’ll be swinging with a character who has both Impact 1 and Damage 2.

Additionally, you can use Kirito’s effect to make any of your lower BP Sinon characters stronger before playing your special which grants Sinon Snipe.

While this deck is a little too combo heavy to compete with the likes of Lancelot (one of the top decks in the meta), it’s got enough juice to launch itself into the top of competitive tournaments. While it’s past its peak in terms of popularity, the deck should still be a popular choice in the Sword Art Online Rare Battle format and still shows up here and there at the top of bigger tournaments.

#3 Yellow Integrity Knights

1st place by Vexsten

Next up we have the Yellow Integrity Knights deck primarily featuring Eugeo and Alice. This deck is incredibly straightforward, gifting you a few characters who hit hard and Raid Alice as your strongest character altogether.

When played she grants instant removal up to 4000 BP as long as you have Kirito and Eugeo handy. Meanwhile, two AP Kirito acts as a solid attacker, getting multiple attacks off in a turn which can be really strong in particular matchups and as a late game closer.

Integrity Knights has one additional trick up its sleeve, however – Eugeo. This guy acts as a serious defensive shield – complete with Nullify Impact and a “When Sidelined” effect that adds additional BP and Nullify Impact to a Kirito and Alice character on the field.

While this deck may lack the kind of power it needs to be considered in the top tier, its combination of consistency and power – especially in the early-to-mid parts of the game – make it surprisingly effective in a host of different matchups.

#2 Blue Aincrad

Draw3! SAO Case Tournament third place deck by Ming

The Blue Aincrad deck is the strongest multi-attack deck in UNION ARENA right now, as well as one of the top UNION ARENA decks of all. Upgradeable from the Sword Art Online Starter deck, Blue Aincrad focuses on a powerful switching mechanic, letting you move your Asuna and Kirito characters in and out of the front line.

Much in the same way we’ve seen with other, similar decks, doing this unlocks a range of benefits including additional attacks in a turn, a defensive layer for your strongest characters who will now be on the bench, as well as BP boosts for specific characters and added abilities.

While Asuna plays a key role in this deck, your strongest card is five-cost Kirito. He’s the key to this deck’s strategy, letting you attack with him, then switch him with one of your Asuna on the energy line.

Get one or two of these guys on the field alongside a Double Attack Kirito from the starter deck and you’re getting a massive number of attacks off in a single turn, while also buffing your Asuna characters to pretty insane levels.

Blue Aincrad’s only weakness? It’s not a removal deck. However, the widespread success and popularity of Blue Aincrad gos to show you that removal-heavy decks aren’t the only ones capable of succeeding in the game, and that the multi-attack strategy is more than simply viable – it’s one of the strongest plays in the game.

#1 Yellow Goddesses is the best Sword Art Online deck

1st place of 10 by Joseph Writer Anderson

I mean, with a title like that how could this deck be anything but awesome? Instead of focusing on the three musketeers of Kirito/Eugeo/Alice, the Yellow Asuna Goddess Deck focuses on the three goddesses: Asuna, Sinon, and Leafa. Of the two, this deck feels like the more versatile. It truly gives you a lot of options in how you deal with your opponent. For effective removal against lower BP characters, two-cost Sinon is going to be your best bet – letting you use Snipe to take them out.

On the other hand, Raid Sinon is an absolute deadly closer, letting you remove a character (with 4000 BP or less) while also taking a life via Impact. Of course, to gain access to all of these abilities you are going to have to be running fairly low on life. But what’s life without a little risk?

Sinon may be your strongest closer, but you also have an incredibly powerful play available to you thanks to Raid Asuna. She lets you very much mess up your opponent’s field – swapping characters between lines and preventing them from moving the following turn. Combine her with Sinon’s removal and you have a deck that’s handily in the top tier and also very popular.

Not only is her Raid pretty insane, every one of her cards in the line are strong, especially the three cost Asuna who lets you gain two cards to hand while also possessing the Yellow color trigger. I also like the two-cost Asuna with 2500 base BP that boosts to 3000 BP with four cards or less in life.

I could go on and on about how powerful Yellow Goddesses is as a deck (and I do in my podcast). In addition to how powerful the above strategies are, they’re far from the only aspects about this deck that make it so powerful. You also have the invariably helpful four-cost Leafa that takes stickiness to the next level with her “cannot be chosen” effect and boosted 6000 BP, the one-of-a-kind Unlimited Landscape Manipulation which lets you sideline a site, and more. But suffice to say this deck is my top pick for best overall Sword Art Online deck.