Greetings! Railgunfan75 here with another group of set overviews to share with you. The English release of the latest Sword Art Online booster based on the Ordinal Scale Movie is upon us. The set released in Japan weeks ago and will be brought fully into English. I thought I would preview the set for those of you like myself who play the set in English. For this installment, I will be discussing the Yellow cards. In addition to the four colors, I will also discuss the main combo of the new set- the chain attack combo in a seperate post. So without any further delay, let’s get started!

As usual all  images and translations are from http://www.heartofthecards.com. 

SAO/S51-001
Asuna on Stage
Trait 1: アバター (Avatar)   Trait 2: 武器 (Weapon)
[C] During your turn, all your other Characters gain +500 Power.
[S] BRAINSTORM [(1) Rest 2 of your Characters] Flip over the top 4 cards of your Library and put them in the Waiting Room. For each Climax card revealed this way, search your Library for up to 1 Character with either ::Avatar:: or ::Net::, reveal it, put it in your hand, and shuffle your Library.

Sword Art Online now has another search brainstorm and the first level 0 brainstorm in yellow. Search brainstorms are always good as they allow you to setup your hand for your current or future turns and aids in deck compression. Asuna waifu decks were missing a good brainstorm before this and the card certainly can fulfill the role in those decks. For more competitive decks however, this card is probably the better option:

http://www.heartofthecards.com/code/cardlist.html?card=WS_SAO/S47-027

The difference really lies in the difference of the secondary effects. The best midgame combos in the set involve both Asuna and Yuuki and the Sleeping Knights brainstorm provides a significant power bump to those combo cards. And this bump is on both turns. Yes, Asuna can power bump any character but the pump is only on your turn and that makes this card arguably worse. This brainstorm is certainly not bad and a viable option in many decks but it has some competition.

SAO/S51-002
Asuna, Shooting Star Promise
Trait 1: アバター (Avatar)   Trait 2: 武器 (Weapon)
[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, put the top 2 cards of your Library in the Waiting Room. If there were at least 1 Climax card among them, this gains +2 Soul for the turn.
[A] [Put the top card of your Stock in your Clock, Send this to Memory] When this becomes Reversed in battle, you may pay cost. If so, choose up to 1 Character in your Waiting Room with either “Kirito”, “Asuna”, or “Yui” in name and return it to your hand.

This is a nice utility card. Free mill effects are always useful- it lets you get cards in the waiting room for salvage effects like this card has, helps you get closer to refresh and remove potential climax triggers from the deck. With this card, you get rewarded when you remove a climax by gaining an additional 2 soul for the character. This additional soul is actually a nice perk. You can either push hard for damage, or side around a higher level character for precise damage or to keep this character on field for defense. This effect can be used the entire game making this a nice free kate game play.

The search effect is actually nice in my opinion. The effect gives you permanent compression by sending the card to memory, and costs nothing from hand. The clock cost is arguably better than other clocking costs as the card you are clocking is not blind as it would be coming from the deck. There are plenty of viable targets for this card as there are plenty of good Kirito, Asuna, and Yui cards in the cards. This does lose some effective beyond level 1 due to the clocking cost but as an early game tech in effect, it works just fine.Probably best suited for decks which feature these characters and the Switch combo deck from the Re:Edit set.

SAO/S51-003
Asuna, Getting Over Her Fear
Trait 1: アバター (Avatar)   Trait 2: 武器 (Weapon)
[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may put the top card of your Clock in the Waiting Room.
[A] CX COMBO [Discard 2 cards from your hand to the Waiting Room] When this attacks, if ‘”Mother’s Rosario”‘ is in the Climax Zone, you may pay cost. If so, put the top 11 cards of your Library in your Waiting Room, deal X Damage to your Opponent, and this gains +3000 Power for the turn. X = sum of the number of Soul Triggers of those 11 cards. (Damage Cancel can occur)
SAO/S51-019   《マザーズ・ロザリオ》
“Mother’s Rosario”
Trait 1: None   Trait 2: None
【自】 このカードが手札からクライマックス置場に置かれた時、あなたは自分の控え室の黄のカードを1枚まで選び、ストック置場に置き、自分のキャラすべてに、そのターン中、ソウルを＋1。
[A] When this is placed from hand to the Climax Zone, choose up to 1 YELLOW card in your Waiting Room and put it in your Stock, and all your Characters gain +1 Soul for the turn.

Next up we have another Asuna healer which alone makes this card playable in a deck. This healer comes with an extra combo which is certainly interesting. It should be noted that this card does also combo with the card below which is the climax used for the strong Yuuki level 1 combo.

http://www.heartofthecards.com/code/cardlist.html?card=WS_SAO/S47-048

On that merit alone, it might see some play. The flexibility of having 2 cards combo with the same climax is a nice addition to the deck as it makes that climax less of a dead card in your hand. The combo itself is average at best though. It does have potential to swing for a sizable amount though what that amount will be is certainly not guaranteed.  The fact that you need to cards with soul icons to waiting room can be a bit problematic if your game plan is going well. By level 3, you would likely have removed cards with soul triggers from the deck as you are either gearing up to play them or trying to avoid over swinging by filtering out triggers. Also milling 11 in a compressed deck will inevitably remove some vital climax cancels which could coat you if you don’t win on that attack. This combo is without it benefits though. The 3000 power bump is certainly significant as it can help get over many level 3 characters. Also it can work as a nice last ditch effort in those games which you need to mill through your deck and have plenty of soul triggers still present. The climax choice is really based off the deck you wish to build, though the gold bar climax is probably the better option due to the power pump and the increased consistency of getting it. This card can easily be a 1 or 2 copy tech in for decks which also run the level 1 combo, though using the combo is a situational thing at best.

SAO/S51-005
Asuna, Kirito’s Lover
Trait 1: アバター (Avatar)   Trait 2: 武器 (Weapon)
[C] This cannot Side Attack.
[A] CX COMBO When the Battle Opponent of this becomes Reversed, if “Unchanged Feelings” is in your Climax Zone, search your Library for up to 1 Character with either ::Avatar:: or ::Net::, reveal it, put it in your hand, and shuffle your Library.
SAO/S51-020
Unchanged Feelings
Trait 1: None   Trait 2: None
[A] When this is placed from hand to the Climax Zone, draw a card, choose 1 of your Characters, and that Character gains +2000 Power and +1 Soul for the turn.

This is one of the new midgame climax combos that the set offers and it is not a bad option. SAO is one of the sets that can get away with an on reverse combo as it has plenty of power pump options available to it. Also the card is 5500 power to begin with already making it fairly sizable. This combo also has the benefit of being costless which is great since the endgame options are fairly stock intensive. It also nets you cards with only one reverse since the climax replaces itself (The one benefit of the climax type). Finally, search effects with no trait or character restrictions for midgame combos are good effects.

The card combo does have a couple of drawbacks though. The first is that you are likely to execute the combo 3 times like with many of the other combos the set has. There will inevitably be a lane where you won’t be able to execute the needed reverse. This is partially because the climax helps out only 1 lane verses 3 and you likely won’t be able to power pump 3 front row characters. Also the simple search effect does not compress your deck or mill through it as well as the other combos available particularly the Yuuki and Asuna (stock soul) combos. This combo is certainly a playable option (especially in a bargain deck) but there are other better combos out there.

SAO/S51-009
Asuna, Promised Day That’s Far Away
Trait 1: アバター (Avatar)   Trait 2: 武器 (Weapon)
【永】 舞台のこのカードのレベルを－1。
【自】 バトル中のこのカードが【リバース】した時、このカードを山札の下に置く。
[C] This gets -1 Level while on the Stage.
[A] When this becomes Reversed in battle, put this on the bottom of your Library.

Next up we have a nice beater option at level 1. This Asuna is especially nice because it can be get pumped a level by the Sleeping Knights brainstorm mentioned earlier which negates the -1 level effect. Also with the power pump it will easily sit at 7500 in the center stage. Considering the fact that SAO has nice level 1 counters, this card can certainly stay on the field for multiple turns even if it is one of the side lanes (where it likely be 7K which is not shabby. The bottom deck deck on reverse is really rather tame. Yes it can go back as damage but it can also be more easily cycled back to your hand from the deck especially considering the set’s search options. Overall a nice card with plenty of reasons to play it.

SAO/S51-011
Asuna, Today’s MVP
Trait 1: アバター (Avatar)   Trait 2: 武器 (Weapon)
[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, draw a card, and discard a card from your hand to the Waiting Room.
[A] When this becomes Reversed, if the Level of the Battle Opponent of this is higher than the Level of the Opponent, you may put that Character in Stock. If so, put the bottom card of your Opponent’s Stock in the Waiting Room.

SAO gets another advance summon killer and this one is in the form of a stock reverser with a nice hand filter effect. I have mentioned why these types of cards are good in the past and those reasons still hold true now. To spend a small amount of resources such as 1 stock to remove a 2 stock character from play that likely took some setup to play is always a net win. This one also stops encore or on reverse possibilities by send to stock which is likely the best removal option as it forces your opponent to pay out stock to get it back in circulation. Any card that has a hand filter is always nice. It may not be the most selective option, but you at least get a good discard option form this effect. This card is definitely a viable level 2 option.

SAO/S51-012
Asuna, Charming Beachside
Trait 1: アバター (Avatar)   Trait 2: 武器 (Weapon)
[A] [Discard a Character card with either ::Avatar:: or ::Net:: from your hand to the Waiting Room] When your Character’s Trigger Check reveals a Climax card, if that card has 2 Soul Trigger Icons, you may pay cost. If so, look at up to 2 cards from top of your Library, choose up to 1 of them and put it in your hand, and put the rest in the Waiting Room.
[S] [(1) Rest this] Reveal the top card of your Library. If it’s a Character with either ::Avatar:: or ::Net::, put it in your hand. (Otherwise put it back where it was)

Our next character is an interesting utility option though not an insanely good one. The first effect where you can gain a benefit for triggering a climax does have it’s uses though the best effects are the ones which let you pay out the climax immediately. This one does not let you do that instead requiring a card from hand for a hand fix. The hand fix notion is certainly good and it allows you to grab anything (including climaxes). It would just be better if you could pay out the climax for the cost.

The second effect is a solid effect. Paying 1 stock to add a card to hand is a bargain. However, there is a possibility to pay the cost and whiff on the effect. This likelihood is rare especially if you know you are out of climaxes. Also you have no control over which card is on top of the deck meaning it could be a useless card for you. This effect can be a good card plus option but there are scenarios where it won’t work well. I can certainly see reasons to play this card though it is far from perfect.

SAO/S51-018   不意の呟き
Unexpected Whisper
Trait 1: None   Trait 2: None
【カウンター】 あなたは自分のバトル中のキャラを1枚選び、手札に戻し、自分の後列のキャラを1枚選び、バトル中のキャラがいた枠に防御キャラとして動かす。
[Counter] Choose 1 of your Characters in battle and return it to your hand, choose 1 of your Characters in the Back Row and move it the Slot that the Character in battle was in as Defending Character.

This event counter has some interesting applications. It can allow you to save a climax combo card which is about to die or a card with a useful on play effect. It does however have a couple of noticeable downsides. The first is that your opponent will likely keep their character on the board, you have to sacrifice a back row character (which SAO’s backrow characters are key to many of the deck’s functions), and being an event it is tougher to get in your hand then the other counter options. This card while not terrible is certainly outclassed by the other counters available.

This concludes Part 1 of the Ordinal Scale overview. What do you think of the yellow cards in the set? Please comment below.  Next time I will be discussing green cards from the set so look forward to that coming soon.

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So until next time, this is Railgunfan75 signing off. See ya soon and Happy Holidays!