Quick stats:
- Colors: 20 green / 17 blue / 8 yellow / 5 red
- Level 0 = 17 characters
- Level 1 = 13 characters
- Level 2 = 5 characters
- Level 3 = 7 characters
- Cards with triggers (excluding CX cards) = 9
Level 0
3x Sister Fond of Her Brother, Leafa
【AUTO】 This ability activates up to one time per turn. When you use an 【ACT】, choose one of your characters, and that character gets +1000 power until end of turn.
【AUTO】 [(1)] When a climax is put on your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to four cards from the top of your deck, choose up to one 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 character from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and put the rest into your waiting room.
1x Kendo Boot Camp, Suguha
【CONT】 All of your other characters get the following ability. “【CONT】 This card cannot side attack.”
【AUTO】 [(1) Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 character, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.
3x On Stage, Silica
【CONT】 Assist All of your characters in front of this card get +500 power.
【ACT】 [(1) 【Rest】 this card] Choose one of your 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters, and that character gets the following ability until end of turn. “【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【Reverse】, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.”
4x “Time to Get Serious” Kirito
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, this card gets +1500 power until end of turn.
【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【Reverse】, choose one of your other 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters, 【Rest】 it, and move it to an open position of your back stage.
2x Comforting Moment, Asuna
【AUTO】 [Return two characters in your waiting room to your deck, and shuffle your deck] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, this card gets +1 soul until end of turn.
【AUTO】 When this card becomes 【Reverse】 in battle, reveal the top card of your deck. If that card is level 1 or higher, you may put this card into your stock.
4x Look of Days Past, Kirito & Asuna
【CONT】 During your turn, this card gets +1000 power.
【AUTO】 At the beginning of your opponent’s draw phase, reveal the top card of your deck. If that card is level 1 or higher, you may return this card to your hand.
Level 1
3x Swimsuit Suguha
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, choose a character in your opponent’s center stage, and that character gets +1000 power until end of turn.
【AUTO】 This ability activates up to one time per turn. When you use an 【ACT】, this card gets +1500 power until end of turn.
4x 《Zekken》 Yuuki
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, this card gets +X power until end of turn. X is equal to 500 multiplied by the number of 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters you have.
【AUTO】 【CXCombo】 [(1) Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card attacks, if a card named “《Mother’s Rosario》” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to two 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters, reveal them to your opponent, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck, and this card gets +1 level until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
2x 《SAO Survivor》 Asuna & Kazuto
【CONT】 During your opponent’s turn, all of your other 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters get +1000 power.
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, look at up to two cards from the top of your deck, choose up to one card from among them, put it into your hand, put the rest into your waiting room, choose a card in your hand, and put it into your waiting room.
2x Determination with Life on the Line, Kirito
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, reveal the top card of your deck. If that card is an 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 character, this card gets +2000 power until end of turn.
【AUTO】 When this card is put into your waiting room from the stage, you may reveal up to three cards from the top of your deck. If you revealed one or more cards, choose up to one 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 character from among them, put it into your hand, put the rest into your waiting room, choose a card in your hand, and put it into your waiting room.
2x Asuna In Fine Weather
【AUTO】 When you use this card’s “Backup”, if the number of 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters you have is two or more, choose one of your characters, and that character gets +1000 power until end of turn.
【ACT】【COUNTER】 Backup 1000, Level 1 ［Put this card from your hand into your waiting room] （Choose one of your characters that is being frontal attacked, and that character gets +1000 power until end of turn.)
Level 2
3x Opposition by the Shield
【Counter】 Choose a character in battle, and that character gets the following ability until end of turn. “【CONT】 This card cannot deal damage to a player.”
2x Lisbeth, Confronting the PK Squadron
【AUTO】 When this attacks, if the level of the character in front of this is 3 or higher, this gains +6000 power until end of turn.
【AUTO】 ACCELERATE [Put the top card of your deck into clock] At the start of your climax phase, you may pay the cost. If you do, put up to 1 card from the top of your deck into stock, and this gains +1500 power until end of turn.
Level 3
4x Last Shot, Sinon
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand or by a “Change” effect, you may put the top card of your clock into your waiting room.
【AUTO】 【CXCombo】 [(2) Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card attacks, if a card named “Phantom Bullet” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, deal four damage to your opponent. When this damage is canceled, this card gets +3500 power until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
【AUTO】 When this card becomes 【Reverse】 in battle, put this card into your memory.
1x Full of Vigor, Yui
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, this card gets +X power until end of turn. X is equal to 500 multiplied by the number of 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters you have.
【AUTO】 [Put two cards from your hand into your waiting room] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, put all cards in your opponent’s stock into your opponent’s waiting room, and your opponent puts the same number of cards from the top of your opponent’s deck into his or her stock.
【AUTO】 During your opponent’s turn, when the damage you received is not canceled, if this card is in your center stage, look at the top card of your deck, and put it on the top of your deck or into your waiting room.
2x Adventure with Everyone, Leafa
【CONT】 This card gets +500 power for each of your other 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters.
【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, look at up to X cards from the top of your deck, choose up to one card from among them, put it into your hand, and put the rest into your waiting room. X is equal to the number of 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters you have.
【AUTO】 [Put two characters from your hand into your waiting room] When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【Reverse】, you may pay the cost. If you do, put that character into your opponent’s clock.
Climaxes
4x 《Mother’s Rosario》
Bar.
4x Phantom Bullet
Book.
Player Q&A
How long have you been playing the deck?
My first deck was a SAO2 TD I picked up nearly five years ago (yikes), but I started running bar/book around March of last year in the run up to Springfest trios – which I won! Throughout WSEL this year I’ve had consistently strong results topping 6 events of 20 attended, as well as taking it to Mouvaux and placing 2nd – with tonnes and tonnes of practice in both formats in between.
What made you choose Sword Art Online over other titles to play at the finals?
Mostly it’s a comfort pick. I had access to IMAS ML (which was a much better fit for the expected field) but having barely played between Mouvaux and Rome, I felt I had to lean back on what I’d been running all year. My list hasn’t changed significantly since I brought it to Rome last year; but I’ve hugely improved as a player in that time so I wanted to prove that to the other top players too!
For an open tournament, SAO is a great pick since it’s so versatile and consistent, but in an invitational, it can fall prey to those who understand the game more and can better manipulate the game state. I threw in the Lizbeths to have an out against aggressive EP decks like pants GS and 8book RZ, but frustratingly ran into neither – so I guess they were an effective deterrent!
What’s your favorite card in the deck and why?
The money counter is just unfair – it’s more of a win condition than anything at L3, which is why I’ve recently upped it to 3 – but my pick has to be the Silica tap-self. Its synergy with the Suguha 1/0 means I can contest the SMP 2/1 without counter (which was unfathomable 6 months ago), and it’s a ‘pay 1 plus 1’ without needing a climax which can pull you through a stalling L2 if you miss the goldbar cycle. The red splash it offers is neat too – though I used it for a lackluster 2/1 Lisbeth, it opens up a meta-based slot that would otherwise have to be on-colour or yellow. Having tested a little of Gaara SAO (bar/gate) I’m not afraid of aggressive splashes at all and the 2/1 Lisbeth is a lot more potent than what would be the alternatives (cat ears Sinon, Kirito antichange bomb).
What are this deck’s ideal board states throughout the game?
If my hand & the opp’s board state allow, I love to open coinflip–cleancut-X, so long as I see a climax or two bubble out early.
Most of SAO’s strength lies in its fluidity and the ability to match pace with your opponent, but for most of the game, your board will likely be Yuuki-Suguha-X, the Suguha saved by a counter or just crashed into when your opp goes ‘that’s gonna be too big innit’.
At late L2 – especially when your opp’s about to hit 3 – it’s crucial to win at least one lane to threaten money counter with, and that’s where the 2/1 Lisbeth earns its keep against EP decks. Ideally you have two L2 lanes (one 2/1 Lisbeth + one Yuuki) and hit L3 with a damage advantage for Sinon or Leafa to close.
When I hit 3 first, I love to see Yui as an extra defensive tool, and since Sinon struggles to close from L2 (shoutout to the IanTCG app), something like Yui-Leafa-Yuuki-bar is a strong defensive line that can push damage, compress, maintain cards in hand and set up for a finishing turn – and sometimes an accidental lethal.
I like to assess matchups as if they’re phased boss fights; viewing SAO as a 6-7 button player character responding to a changing game state with similar tools – Yuuki and bar being your staple rotation, but with room to maneuver around if you need to.
Does the deck have any notable good or bad matchups?
Versus most ‘fair’ or ‘flowchart’ decks, I’d say SAO just does the same thing better with stock swap and money counter, but any deck that has a huge power spike at an earlier level (which is something we’re seeing printed more and more) is a lot less positive.
I only ran into one good matchup in Rome in round 1 of swiss (new RSL), and from there on it was a hard graft, facing: SMP thrice, 10 event ML twice – which is bad enough without pants at the top countering money – KC with the new book 1/1 change combo and 8Gate GS, which is the only matchup resembling even. Losing board against SMP is less scary than losing damage lead – though the two are intertwined – but I think the matchup is closer to 45/55 than 40/60 since SAO can be so aggressive so persistently. Once you’re ahead though, it can be really difficult for the SMP player to pull back into the game: going for an aggressive mulligan into a strong opening play is the strategy to employ in most unfavoured matchups.
After playing and coming 3rd at the finals, are you planning any changes to the deck or are you happy with how it performs right now?
I’m competing in worlds for English in less than a month so I need to reacquaint myself with the ‘regular’ build, but the core is pretty solved. The only likely changes for the Japanese version are the 2/1 Lisbeths, though that’s mostly a meta call.
From what we’ve seen, the 10th Anniversary set is unlikely to offer more than a couple of tech choices while being a standalone set (as Alicization was) and there’s no reason to reinvent sliced bread – though I’ve heard some buzz around 8bar, I would be very surprised if that pans out, especially considering Sinon’s main strength is as a healer with fat defensive stats.
I would say that I’m unenthusiastic about SAO’s chances of topping events as well as it has been in both formats this year; with SMP-likes or GS seeing more prints and players. Though the deck itself is just as consistent as it ever was, it’s becoming increasingly ‘fair’ competing in an ‘unfair’ world.
In the new year I’m likely to put SAO on the back-burner, maybe looking toward a different variant or a different set altogether – but it’s certainly going to stick as a viable option in English when Alicization gives us the 2/1 Lisbeth to answer GS efficiently. From a personal standpoint though I’m looking to move away from competitive play a little to focus on finishing college, so I’ll probably leave the testing to the Dutch guys and steal their data to my own ends!
Congrats to Euan for making it into 3rd place 🙂 And thank you for working with me on this post!
