SAO – Valentine’s Queen of 2023 (Y) [02/16/2023]

The elegant goddess, Asuna, sits calmly with grace as she looks towards the horizon with the setting sun. The familiar orange glow briefly touches her soft skin, leaving a gentle bit of warmth as it dissipates away.

Asuna leaps into the fray, lunging her rapier forward. As the “Flash”, Asuna dashes decisively into battle, leaving powerful blows with every strike. Both finishers above work with the same climax. The Asuna on the left mills the top eleven cards of your deck with her climax combo when she attacks and deals damage equal to the number of soul triggers milled while boosting her by a large amount of power for the turn. Asuna and Kirito on the right mills eleven cards from the top of your deck as well when they attack but for a higher cost. However, they deal two damage to your opponent for each instance of a climax milled instead of soul triggers.

Since both combos work with the same climax, consider your deck state and choose the combo that best fits your situation.

I would highly encourage you to choose the Mother’s Rosario climax with the two soul trigger for one reason that will be shown below in another paragraph.

To gather resources for the endgame, Asuna above is used. She has a demerit of being unable to side attack, but that doesn’t really matter for most situations as she is a Shimakaze combo, searching for specifically a character with either Avatar (アバター) or Net (ネット) trait to hand. The reason this combo is chosen above others is that a vast majority of cards are locked underneath other sub traits that won’t work with other synergies of the deck.

Asuna in her beachwear is a two soul trigger filter. When any of your characters trigger a two soul climax, she lets you discard a character, specifically Avatar or Net trait, and add a card from the top two cards of your deck. Furthermore, she can easily potentially refill your hand with her secondary tap ability.

We will also be running several level 0 utility pieces that primarily have ways of recurring hand. The Asuna to the left allows you to discard a card when she attacks to bounce one of your other Avatar or Net characters to hand, perfect for saving a key combo piece or utility card to be used the following turn. Asuna and Kirito is a coinflip profile that can potentially bounce back to hand at the start of your opponent’s turn. Asuna in the water may not be a way to retain hand, but she can shuffle key targets back to your deck for your combos while granting herself an extra soul for the turn. When she is reversed, you can reveal the top card of your deck and send her into stock if the card is level 1 or higher.

Given that the above cards are all level 0 characters, Kirito and Asuna here can spawn them easily for a cheap hand discard. Additionally, since most of the effects are activated during phases and not on-play (outside of Asuna in the water’s shuffle back effect), this card above can readily make value out of their effects. Alternatively, you can use this card’s effect to spawn in any other level 0 such as that of a brainstorm.

The dazzling charming Asuna graces us with this two card pairing. The Asuna to the left is a Riki profile that salvages any card with Kirito [キリト], Asuna [アスナ], or Yui [ユイ] to hand when reversed (we only care about the Asuna name trait here). She sends herself to memory to fulfill the condition for the Asuna to the right. Do note that the 1/0 does not have Asuna (the katakana form) in its name and cannot be fetched by Asuna.

The Asuna to the right gains additional abilities if the 0/0 Asuna is in memory. As long as the 0/0 Asuna is in memory, she gains an additional soul and 1000 power permanently, making her essentially a 1/0 two soul beater with no demerit. Furthermore, she has built in hand encore.

Some secondary options to include are the two above Asunas. Asuna on the left is a large beater during your turn with an on-play Musashi effect. Asuna to the right is an additional healer with an ability on-swing to pump your entire field by 500 power and an additional soul.

If you would like some more power support, Asuna on the left is a great level assist with an on-play power pump and hexproof granting ability. The Asuna to the right is an anti-early play stock reverser with a nice forced draw and discard ability on-play.

There are multiple backup options for Asuna. The beach goers is an anti-early play backup with a double hand discard cost. The beach ball Asuna is a memory kick backup to get rid of annoying threats. Lastly, the 1/0 Asuna is a reprint of the old 1/0 2000 Asuna counter with a modal power assigning ability. When you use her backup, and if you fulfill her condition, unlike most other backups, you can reassign the additional 1000 power to a different character outside battle. Use this to your advantage to potentially save multiple lanes.

Despite her pleasant looks and sweet personality, Asuna packs quite a punch behind her angelic outlook. An honest and gentle soul, Asuna always tries to do her best and act as both a strong frontline and supportive character.

Asuna hiding from the rain is a great option that gains a marker on any reverse, pumping herself permanently by a level and 1500 power for each marker. Asuna’s drop search has a great on attack ability to surveil your deck. 2/1 Asuna and Kirito benefit from the 0/0 Asuna in memory, and much like the 1/0 Asuna, it gains more power and a permanent additional soul.

Send your opponent to the heavens with Asuna’s dashing moves and gracious style. Show them the power of Mother’s Rosario as you deplete their life bar with all eleven strikes.