Gundam TCG Starter Decks Review

Greetings, everyone!

In today's article, we'll explore Gundam TCG again, more specifically the four Starter Decks.

We'll discuss each strategy and go over all four lists, relevant cards, and main effects. So, get ready to find out which deck is more up your alley!

These are the four Starter Decks: ST01 - Heroic Beginnings, ST02 - Wings of Advance, ST03 - Zeon's Rush, and ST04 - SEED Strike.

All of them come with 10 Resource cards and the necessary tokens, such as Ex Resource, EX Base, and Unit tokens.

Bandai also released Starter Decks Assemble sets, which include miniature tokens. They're interesting for collectors and make the game more immersive.

ST01 - Heroic Beginnings

Let's go into the first starter, which is blue and white and based around characters from the Mobile Suit Gundam White Base and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.

Decklist

Gameplay

The idea behind this deck is to exhaust your opponent's resources and control the match. You'll also lean on tougher units to destroy enemy units without trading yours.

Amuro Ray and Guntak tap problematic enemy units you need to attack or enemy blockers that are protecting some key piece.

Gundam Aerial (Permet Score Six) debuffs units that are level 5 or below and, as such, makes fighting them easier for white Gundam.

Another key piece is the Gundam itself: because of its Repair ability, it is excellent in combat. It can recover pretty well, so it is a big problem for the opponents.

White Base is a way to win after you exhaust your opponent's resources. It creates a unit every turn and progresses your game plan bit by bit, all while you find more cards.

Your Blocker units will protect your key pieces.

Your Command cards will control the board directly. Thoroughly Damaged is great at removing small units from play, so it's quite useful against ST03, which plays lots of them.

Kai's Resolve is a way to Repair units after combat and force your opponent to work a little harder to remove them.

Unforeseen Incident is a great way to control enemy attacks, as it debuffs enemy units.

Finally, this list plays Suletta Mercury, which makes this strategy more defensive and recycles a resource.

Review

ST01 - Heroic Beginnings is quite balanced, as well as somewhat easy to learn. It'll hardly give you bad hands, so you can easily progress its main game plan and strategy.

To play it well, you'll need to know what you're facing. After all, this is a control list.

White Base is one of the best bases in the game. It constantly creates tokens and is perfect when your opponent doesn't have any cards in hand to play.

Amuro Ray is a great way to control the board, particularly with the Gundam.

I believe this is one of the best Starter Decks.

ST02 - Wings of Advance

Let's explore the blue and green Starter Deck, Wings of Advance. It focuses on the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing series, as in, the blue cards represent the OZ pilots and the green cards represent Gundam allies.

Decklist

Gameplay

Wings of Advance leans on a ramp strategy. It builds its defenses in the first few turns so it can buy some time to get more resources on the following turns and level up.

Wing Gundam (Bird Mode) is an essential part of this plan. It essentially lets you set up impactful plays earlier, as it puts Ex-Resource on the board.

Gundam Heavyarms, Tallgeese, and Wind Gundam will be your main units. If possible, you should use them during Link to get the most out of their abilities.

Wing Gundam can attack active units that are level 4 or lower. Its Breach 5 ability practically lets you destroy all enemy bases if you manage to destroy an enemy unit with it.

With its pilot, Heero Yui, Wing Gundam is one of the strongest units in the game, as it has 7 attack and 7 HP.

Another incredibly strong strategy in this list includes Tallgeese and Zechs Marquise. Zechs' ability draws cards when you destroy enemy units, so it's a great way to save some resources while you control the opponent. Furthermore, Tallgeese's ability lets you untap it once per turn, so you can attack with it again. Please note that Zechs only draws cards during Link.

As Zechs and Heero are the main pieces in this list, it also plays six units that can Link and, as such, get the most out of their abilities and make them a central part of the entire strategy.

Gundam Heavyarms is excellent against low-level decks that play small units. Its effect, which deals damage to all level 3 enemies when you destroy a unit and it is Linked, is an interesting way to control the board against aggressive decks.

Saint Gabriel Institute lets you pick the card you want to draw next, so it'll help you find the cards you need.

Corsica Base is a significant threat. The Tallgeese Token (Ap4 Hp2) it creates can destroy many enemy threats. Try to use it at the right time to remove as many enemy units in combat as you can. If you have another Corsica Base in your trash pile, you'll create two other Leo Tokens Ap1 Hp1.

Tragos and Aries both protect your Shields as you ramp.

Siege Ploy can be defensive, as it taps a unit that hasn't attacked yet in the opponent's turn as an action. You can also use it to tap a unit you want to destroy or even a blocker to win the game.

Review

When I tested this deck, I noticed it has the most powerful turns. While ST01 relies on getting ahead bit by bit, ST02 gets ahead through much more valuable plays.

Zechs Marquise and Heero Yui are two of the best pilots available, and you must get them off the board as soon as possible before they beat you. Particularly Zechs, which draws cards.

Heero Yui and the Wing Gundam are a devastating combination. Usually, the opponent will lose their main unit, and Wing will remain on the board. At the same time, you'll destroy something in their Shield Area.

The fact it can attack inactive units makes this deck extremely efficient.

I truly enjoy using Tallgeese to attack multiple times. Typically, your opponent will misjudge how much damage you're actually dealing if they don't pay attention to its effect.

Saint Gabriel Institute is a very slow base, and its ability is very limited. I don't recommend it for this deck.

Overall, this deck struggles with fast early games if you can't find Wing Gundam (Bird Mode) to ramp resources. You should try to get at least your blockers.

ST03 - Zeon's Rush

This Starter Deck is red and green and centered around Mobile Suit Gundam as well as the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn series. Green represents Zeon, and red represents New Zeon.

Decklist

Gameplay

Zeon's Rush is aggressive. It plays cheap units to fill the board and attack the opponent's most vulnerable spots.

Full Frontal fills the board quite fast, as it puts in play another level 4 or lower unit. Gouf is a great target for this ability because it also puts another unit in play, so you'll play three units all on the same turn.

When Char Aznable is a Link unit, it can't be blocked. But don't hesitate to buff other units with it when you attack. It is perfect to attack enemy bases with lots of HP and is a level 3 pilot.

Char's Zaku II is great in combat, as it refills itself when the opponent destroys it.

Zaku II is pretty aggressive and makes your attacks on the enemy base quite difficult to deal with. However, please note that its attack buff only activates when you attack with it on your turn. Pay attention to each combat so you don't lose it to your opponent because its effect isn't active.

Indignation improves every combat.

Close Combat is a way to remove blockers and attack your opponent with all you've got.

The Blue Giant lets you attack enemy units without taking damage, but only if they have AP 2 or less. This means it's more effective to deal with blockers.

The bases in this list are also interesting. Rewloola deals 1 damage to an enemy unit when it enters play, so it's an efficient way to remove small or damaged units, particularly blockers. Please note that it only deals damage to units that have AP5 or less.

When Falmel enters play, it puts a tapped unit with 3 AP and 1 HP in play. You should avoid trading this unit with weak enemy units because units with 1 HP are easy to destroy. You could use pilots to avoid this type of thing.

Review

Because this list mostly plays small units, it is very vulnerable to high-level units.

One of its main issues is finding decent ways to attack the opponent but still keep your board, particularly if the opponent is working hard to preserve theirs. Buffing your units and attacking them directly could be a way to get better trades.

You must use pilots in this list. That's what will make your units powerful and prevent the opponent from dominating the board.

When you pair Sinanju with a pilot, it can't be blocked, so it can deal damage to enemy units directly while you destroy their Shields. It's a decent combination in the late game.

Full Frontal is above average for a pilot, but it is a level 6 unit, so it doesn't really go with this list's main game plan - ending the game as soon as possible.

The worst matchup for this list against other starters is ST01. The number of blockers they can play early on, as well as the other defensive cards they play later, makes this matchup very hard for ST03.

ST04 - SEED Strike

The last starter deck is red and white and based around Gundam SEED. The white cards represent the Earth Federation, and the red cards represent ZAFT.

Decklist

Gameplay

This is a Midrange list. It plays decent early game blockers, like Aile Strike Gundam and Striker Pack, but also the Archangel base, which lets you use blockers when attacking and set them as active blockers later on.

To deal with high-level units, this list plays Aegis Gundam, which punishes the opponent's life and controls the board if it has 5 AP or more. Vesalius buffs your units, so it goes really well with Aegis Gundam. It also offers you a way to make decent trades with low-level units.

Kira Yamato is a great pilot in this archetype, particularly if you play it with Aegis Gundam (MA Mode). It helps you control the board, take less damage, and also takes advantage of Breach.

Athrun Zala lets you attack active units, as long as they're level 5 or less, so it's a very efficient way to control enemy units.

Hawk of Endymion is a decent way to delay your opponent or prevent them from dealing lethal damage.

The Magic Bullet of Dusk improves combat when you play it with Miguel's Ginn, Strike Dagger, and the Striker Pack tokens.

Strike Gundam is a useful tool to fix your hand.

Aile Strike Gundam, when you play it with a pilot that is level 4 or higher, returns a unit with 4 or less HP to the opponent's hand. It is a great way to win games, as it removes blockers in your way.

Review

This deck gets ahead bit by bit, and you must know each card well to get as much as you can out of them.

It is interesting against ST02 and ST03.

Kira Yamato is one of the best pilots in the game. Its ability, which debuffs enemy units in combat, is quite relevant. Its attack buff is also great.

As for the high-level units, Aegis Gundam is an efficient option. It is excellent against ST02.

This list is nice, but you'll need lots of practice to master it because its game style relies a lot on the opponent to win. You'll also need to pay attention to your triggered and active abilities to get ahead.

Despite this, it is a great choice. It has excellent blockers and interesting strategies.

Starter decks are a great way to start playing TCGs. They're a solid base to build on and should become quite decent, after some small adjustments, in tournaments too.

Each list above includes relevant, strong cards that have a lot of potential. Some of them could even end up in the top ranks of tournaments, like Amuro Ray and Gundam in ST01, Wing Gundam and Heero Yuy in ST02, Char Aznable and Char's Zaku II in ST03, and Aile Strike Gundam and Kira Yamato in ST04.

Other key pieces are also Full Frontal and Sinanju, so the format is quite diverse.

I believe ST01 is the best out of all four Starter Decks, as Amuro Ray and Gundam are essential in many decks. This list is also the most versatile choice to turn into a competitive build.

Another decent option is ST04. Its white cards steal the spotlight in the main decks in the game.

If you want to play the lists as they come, ST01 and ST02 are quite strong and include really impactful cards.

As for ST03, it is a bit overshadowed by the others because it is easy to counter.

I picked ST02 to start, partially because I had tested them before and partly because I truly enjoy Gundam Wing.

What about you? What is your favorite starter?

Which Starter Deck Most Stood Out to You?

Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!