SAO – Mother’s Rosario (Y/G) [09/19/2021]

Mother’s Rosario is the name of a mini arc that takes place sometime during the Sword Art Online’s story. The story focuses on two characters, Asuna and the friend she meets, Yuuki. Together, they band on an adventure where the two girls grow closer together.

The combo comprises of three cards that work coincidentally with the same title climax, 《マザーズ・ロザリオ》. All cards contribute different roles to the deck. The Asuna on the left acts as the finishing healer. She carries Yuuki’s skill from the series, Mother’s Rosario which lets her perform eleven consecutive strikes on her opponent. Practically, the Asuna performs an ability where she mills the top eleven cards of your deck representing the eleven strikes presumably. For every soul trigger revealed within those triggers, Asuna will deal that amount in soul damage to your opponent equal to the total number of triggers revealed. Then she will gain 3000 power turning her into a formidable attacking force.

The center Asuna is an another finishing option to choose from. Keep in mind that this finisher does not carry the traits on the Yuuki combo, so she cannot be fetched easily from the deck. Just like the other Asuna, she also carries a thematic combo that also performs eleven strikes. However, unlike the other Asuna, this Asuna checks for climaxes from the top of your deck and deals damage equal to the number of climaxes checked rather than soul triggers. Comparatively however, the damage she deals is in single damage instances equal to the number of climaxes revealed. She also has a requirement of having SAO/S80-001RR in your memory for her climax combo.

The Yuuki on the right acts as the deck’s main advantage engine. When she attacks and《マザーズ・ロザリオ》 is in the climax zone, you may pay her costs and add two cards with either Avatar (アバター) or Net (ネット) to hand.

The climax interestingly has three different versions. Since all combo cards combo with the same climax name, any climax above can be used interchangeably to fulfil the combo conditions. You can feel free to use either or even mix the ratios if you’d like.

There are a few conditions that make this deck profile slightly more challenging to build around. Firstly, the main advantage combo, SAO/SE26-10R can only search out two traits. If you were to build around SAO/S80-004SP-SP, there is a hefty need for both stock and hand, but at the benefit of having a more powerful finisher. Her requirements also need you to built around her Fluctlight (フラクトライト) trait which isn’t searchable normally with SAO/SE26-10R‘s combo.

SAO/S51-003SP-SP has far easier deck building constraints due to her carrying the specified traits for SAO/SE26-10R and a lowered combo cost overall (discard two over SAO/S80-004SP-SP‘s cost of two stock and the discard two).

In summary when deciding to pick between the finishers:

• SAO/S80-004SP-SP offers a better finishing option, but comes at a higher risk of consistency due to trait inconsistencies with SAO/SE26-10R. Her combo costs are greater too requiring a large chunk of stock to pull off at least twice.
• SAO/S51-003SP-SP is consistent with SAO/SE26-10R. The combo is easier to pull off with only a hand requirement rather than a stock investment. However, her damage is extremely volatile.

It is quite possible to fit a deck with both finishers. For the sake of this deck profile, the deck will presume that your main finisher will be SAO/S80-004SP-SP and that your main advantage engine will be SAO/SE26-10R.

Needless to say, because of SAO/S80-004SP-SP‘s condition, the above card will be required in the deck. The card itself is pretty decent overall acting as a power pump on attack and a means to add hand advantage on reverse but only for Fluctlight characters.

Cards like the above are exceptional additions to the deck as means to maintain hand and promote stock advantage for the deck. The card on the left, SAO/S47-103U is great for both of its effects. Firstly, the card lets you shuffle two targets back into your deck (trait does not matter) to give itself an extra soul for the turn. This can be used to push for extra damage or to help its own secondary effect during your own turn. This also helps provide targets for search effects, most notably for SAO/SE26-10R. Speaking of which, its second effect lets you place it into stock when it is reversed assuming you meet its condition, thus helping you stock charge for SAO/S80-004SP-SP.

Another great option that relies upon your opponent cancelling is the card in the center, SAO/S80-020C. This card lets you add itself back to hand if it your opponent happens to cancel this card’s damage.

The card on the right another great resource for recycling hand advantage. Given the flexibility of this card, it can be used to turn any external hand into a means to recycle another character to hand.

The series also contains clones of effects mentioned in previous cards letting you double down on certain effects. Having the two cards above replicate previously mentioned effects add to the consistency of the deck and grant further ways to recur hand and gain additional stock.

As per usual, I’ve provided some additional card options for the deck. Remember when constructing the deck, there are several aspects to keep in mind. The main finisher can be quite heavy in terms of stock reliance. Furthermore, the traits in the deck are not fully in sync. Keep these two points in mind when building the deck. Good luck with your games and may your eleven hit combo bring you victory.