Hello! It's nice to meet all of you! I'm Matt Rodriguez. Powered by UltraPro and Pvramid Gaming, I'm here to make my debut of making content for the Gundam Card Game. As the charismatic loud mouth of my locals community, I'm here to make guides and help everyone enjoy the Gundam card game. I'm an everyman for "the people"- you, you are "the people". Today we’ll be analyzing the first 6 LRs of the set and their competitive viability and what I expect from them.

For starters, whenever I analyze a card or review it with peers, my initial question is always: “what does it do”. Name of the game is always simplicity in resource based card games. The better you can sell this card in a field of BG Tempo and GW Midrange the better! I’ll keep my subjectivity aside and keep this professional and to the point. Which means I'm going to go fully in depth on these 6 cards to get a better understanding of my approach to how I see cards and what I'll be playing next format for NTC 2026, Las Vegas, and Regionals.

1. NT Gundam #GD03-001

Another RX. You love to see it! Sadly the first 2 RX #ST01-001 & #GD01-001 set the tone of what I want from an RX. It needs to repair and be a L4 C3. The L5 and C4 isn’t as tall of an ask and it can draw a card from dealing a damage to a rested enemy unit, specifically the one we target. But there’s a limited space of cards in decks that makes this card so questionable in its viability.

Are we playing any other RX?

Are we playing Christina? #GD03-085

How many are we playing?

What are we playing it in?

Why does it only have 1 more AP compared to the others?

Why are we not playing Guntank #GD01-008 or (more) Anksha #GD01-020 ?

Even vanilla RX #GD01-013 still sees plenty of play. But we aren’t getting anywhere comparing to other cards. Which is a trend you’ll see when it comes to the current, mildly stale meta for Gundam. So let’s break down NT Gundam. It’s a repair unit, very solid and does get to a minimum of 5AP when linked. Dealing damage is always welcome in the fundamentals of the game and having repair is an added bonus for any "Blue Boss". Now, this is where things get tricky. The pilot itself is very interesting since we can’t talk about NT without its 2 pilots. Amuro #ST01-010 is a menace on any link unit. Having another one that both deals damage and draws while synergizing with Amuro is very welcome. Yet that’s the issue you run into. What are we playing? Earth Fed tempo can’t play this- nor can BW Tempo (Thanks to Aile Strike #ST04-001 ). "The White Base one" has more synergy and helps the grind game against BW Control, GW Midrange, and Tempo Mirrors. Delta Plus #GD01-006 and Sayla #GD01-087 is a 5/5 "Repair 2" unit that can link with any Earth Fed pilot. Granted, yes there is a on pair effect- a generic one at that. But it seems to play better with Amuro while being a free 4C unit on turn 4 or 5. Which is the biggest appeal of this card. It's practically begging to be played with Amuro. Yes, it does what it needs to do. But it just seems both unnecessary and gives us no value. It’s again, Delta Plus that can link with Amuro. The base set RX both draws and has an “Anthem” for repair while the ST one has an “Anthem” for +1 AP to everything. It’s a little bit of shame there’s no Earth Fed or White Base synergy. Let alone Christina only seems to play well with this unit in particular. Outside of its practicality, I have to ask, where are we adding this card to? It doesn’t fit the mold of Tempo, Control, or even Midrange when White is the cornerstone of the field for Blue-Themed Control and even Midrange decks. Control doesn't even play the Earth Feddy package to begin with. A field littered with Aile Strike, ST RX, and Wing. Christina and NT are interesting new additions to the game, but only a dedicated Earth Federation deck wants this card. BW Tempo wants Kira and Aile or even Sword Strike #GD01-073 . The gap between L4 and L5 is very steep when we begin to enter the meta impactful pivot turns for either player. This doesn’t seem like the one. Especially when, again, ST RX comes out a whole turn earlier and Amuro is also ready a staple of the color and game. Every practical scenario I can think of in my head I'm always wishing NT Gundam was just ST RX or anything I'm dealing 1 damage to is followed up by me attacking it or wishing my units got buffed by an anthem effect. A trend you’ll see with certain colors. Most pilot and generic good cards are heavily spoken for. Making a lot of fun or interesting cards hard to break into the landscape of premier events. This card is for sure a victim of "the wheel has already been invented". Although I do see this card seeing play in one deck that I constantly do want to return to.

2. The-O #GD03-002

If you are a part of my local's community. You know it's no secret this is my pick for best card in the set. I played GW Midrange during Beta format, BW Tempo during ST and GD01 format, Earth Fed Tempo during GD1's second half, and Big Red for all of GD02. It's time to cave into my "Blue Control" players roots from years of playing MTG since I was 10. With the fall and rise of BW Control in both Japan, EU, and the Americas it makes you wonder the whole meta trend of Control in Gundam. This isn't the article to break that down. So lets do a quick recap. BW Control has been a solid deck since GD1 during simpler days. It got a huge buff with Aerial #GD02-074 and Rick Dias #GD02-079 yet has been on a noticeable decline since Orlando Regionals and Japanese Area Qualifiers- why is that? With how simple Gundam is: Midrange, Tempo, and Aggro decks; as we've seen with Orlando, are far more simplier and don't require a "set up" or a need to "stabilize". Name of the game is "Consistency". "Freedom Blockers" #GD01-065 implies we'll SLOWLY nickel and dime someone to win. Or simply "BW Control" doesn't do much outside of stealing games off of RX//Amuro and Aile//Kira #ST04-010 and pivoting quickly to a "BW Tempo" playstyle off of 16 familiar cards. With blockers as leverage to auto-correct any mistakes. BW Control-Unicorn #GD01-002 has been stealing the spotlight for BW's success in Japan. With statements of "It does something" or threaten that the game is coming to a close very soon. Some players playing 2-3 Unicron and 0-2 Banagher #GD01-088 . Yes, 0 pilots for the unit- that's how good Unicorn is. Control as a whole needs a Boss as the face of the deck. People call it BW Control-Aerial or BW Control-Epyon #GD02-002 . Especially with Freedom being just a simple 4/6 blocker most of the time. So let me say that The-O, Scirocco #GD03-084 , and even the other Jupitris cards #GD03-003 & #GD03-087 have me excited! The synergy of the Link Pilot and Unit is something I want to see more of in Gundam! Themed around a "Keyword", works with anything but gets rewarded for playing in-trait, and breaking into success with OR WITHOUT their trait. From one set, they fixed Titans giving them their 1st and 2nd (and 5th...) best pilots out of 5 pilots (3 from GD3 - 2 from GD2). Such a vast improvement from how underwhelming the first wave of new cards from GD2 were. But let me break down The-O...

This card feels so future-proofed...it just needs to be paired and needs ANY (other) "Repair" unit to work. With the pilot being able to give any of your units "Repair 2". You also draw if it's a Jupitris unit, which is neat. But I'm very fixated on these numbers. L7 C5, 5/5, a +2/+2 pilot, and it has Repair THREE (3)?! This is a Unit! There are glaring downsides to this beauty however. Some of which are worked around fairly nicely. As we have seen with high level units, asking to be paired by turn 6 or 7 is not that high of an ask. Especially in Blue and obviously White. So asking to be paired when you drop this down isn't unreasonable. So here's the actual downside to this card, especially when we know the best Blue Boss for control. It says "Other". So it can't work by itself. Consdiering we have cards like RX and Messala, we are in a very good position. I've been playtesting with this deck and loving what I'm seeing in the current field especially after Messala debuted for a solid L6 C4 fits almost perfectly on curve going first or second. Blue Blocker, Repairs, dodges Wing Zero #GD01-024 , trades linked with a linked Freedom, and it trades with linked RX and linked Aile Strike. For a generic Rare?! Yes, more please! It's another link for our new pilot too?! It is so very refreshing to see me hyped for a pilot and not just a unit. While Titans are definitely on the table for competitive viability with so much more of the set not yet shown off. I'm loving the Blue side of this set the most. As mentioned previously, consistency is key. Taking notes from playing a MIdrange deck twice already, I'm throwing 4-4-4 of each Jupitris card and looking forward to watching me overrun Midrange decks, Tempo, Mirrors, and even aggro decks for Vegas. Having double The-O is game over for anyone and Amuro and Kira backing up the earlier turns is certainly a game plan I'm fully committed to!

For those keeping track we are only getting 2 Blue LRs this set. So it seems its all Earth Fed and Titans. With Green and White seemingly getting the favoritism treatment this set for LRs and card slots. But now we can jump into potentially the only 2 Red LRs.

34. GQuuuuuuX #GD03-034

Now this is a Big Red unit I can get behind. I’m loving the design of big red units not needing a pilot to do something, especially their only link. We’ve seen the Aggro focused Virsago #GD02-037 see play in Midrange decks in Japan since the release of GD2 along with Red Tempo decks and recently BR Aggro coming back from GD1 obscurity. Simple, deploy, Bolt something! Double Breaker as well! A let down of a keyword and mechanic when it's not an innate ability. It’s a generic ability stapled on here and that’s all I need. Clan evolving to this big midrange-y kind of play style is already strange since the previous Gquuuux all had first strike #ST06-001 , deployed a body #GD02-038 , or dealt 1 damage #ST06-002 . They were also smaller bodies with lower numbers too. I love this take on Clan. Dealing 3. At its most rawest form. You don’t even need to play the “odd” pilot(s) or any set up. Now, the real question. "How are we fitting this into Clan"? This is stark difference from playing Clan when it first came out. So I’ll wait until we see more Clan cards. Because ultimately the pilot potentially being negative synergy aside from linking and attacking the same turn this card is just a single target Wing Zero. Unless we are playing this in a Clan deck Machu #ST06-009 isn't the move for this card. Luckily; the more I look and think about this card, Machu isn't the pilot that comes to my mind...That’s not a bad thing but we run into a “The wheel has already been invented” scenario. I love this card and definitely want to play it in a WR control deck and grind out games until this wonderful monster can help me alpha strike and OTK someone off of Double Breaking Shields with less than 6 attacks! Finally being able to OTK in one turn with a great Double Breaker is what I need to see more of in Gundam. 8L 7C is a very high demand but this is something I never mind top decking if we’re still in the game! More than anything I want this to see play in Clan! I want to see more diversity in the format. Now I get to talk about cards more interesting than Gquuux...

35. GFreD #GD03-035

Alright, so, I’m already seeing some problems. For those at home, especially my locals. You all know my thoughts on this card. Which is sad to say because I do think this is and the next card share a LOT of similarities design wise and in terms of viability. Let’s begin with the stats. I said I wouldn’t make comparisons with cards but seeing a L6 C4 with a 4 and 5 for stats makes me think of three cards in particular that do fundamentally the same thing just differently and sometimes more often. Why does it have to say "once per turn" and have a cost. There’s other cards that have a simple Main/Activate. Dealing 1 Damage to all enemy units is a dream! Cards that do this all see play for red decks from Midrange, Control, to Tempo decks too. This card doesn’t get to the “what are playing it in” for me. It gets stopped with the “why are we playing it”. I’ve said this before and it’ll come up again very soon for one LR in particular~. But Gundam is not a “set up-based game”. A lot of turns and cards are played by turn and the tempo and momentum of the game changes very fast. Where cards have to be practical and simple to do something or at least threaten the opponent and how they’ll play their turns. Even something as simple as a blocker gets the job done- see GD1 Freedom Gundam. Requiring set up in the discard pile of all things is a very huge hurdle especially in red. Red pilots carry games and link units from Marida #GD01-093 to Haman #GD02-091 to even Full Frontal #ST03-010 and Athrun #ST04-011 . The when linked ability to fight a unit with 5 or less AP does seem like it’s meant to trade into something or at least win stalemates. But the other Big Red units do that and stay alive or 2/3:1 in trades. I’m just not seeing the bigger picture. If we’re playing a deck that has 2/3 pilots in grave by turn 6 we’re probably never winning that game. Especially if we’re playing a White Midrange deck that WANTS to see our pilots or at least link them. So here’s where the design structure baffles me. I said it when it was revealed and I’ll say it again; speaking as someone unfamiliar with the brand.

WHY IS IT ZEON?! (Yes, i need to watch the anime...)

The trait certainly isn't helping the situation. Both Nyaan #GD03-092 and GFreD don't help Clan in the slightest. Nor do they seem to play well or bridge the gap with RED Zeon and Clan.

So here's what I'm going to say to salvage this card that I secretly have a LOT of faith in. I'm not excited about this card in Clan...I'm also not really expecting to play GFreD if I'm being honest.

Nyaan is the key to everything.........

A pilot that deals 1 Damage on Link is something that does peak my curioisty. In Zeon nonetheless. The card is certainly a lot to unpack. Also another pilot to Link with Gquuuuuux #GD03-034 is something I'm privy to. We also can't underestimate pilots with the coveted +2 HP. Depending on what secrets GD3 has I may finally commit to my desire to play a new trait and//or play Clan! There's so many "if only", "what if", "it should've", but I think with a simple pilot I am putting a lot of faith in this card. Or, more realistically, putting a lot of faith into the bulk of the set and not just 1 pilot or 2 LRs. But Red has shown to be the most adaptable and simple of all the colors. So come January I'll either show up or shut up about Clan. Regardless, I am seeing Red and Green for Gquuux, but maybe not in a "Clan" deck...

50. Gundam Barbatos Lupus #GD03-050

The community has quickly come to a consensus about this card. This was also the most labbed card online until the obvious questions came to mind. Tell me if you heard any of these~

What does it do?

How are we beating Tempo//Aggro?

What does it do when linked?

There are (playable) Teizaw cards? (Hyakuren #ST05-006)

Why do I want my Tekkadon units in the trash? (You don't)

Why is it a vanilla 7/6 unit (when linked)?

Do I play more blockers to stay alive or more Tekkadon to make the effect live?

Why the sudden change of theme for Tekkadon and Purple?

Yeah...what DOES it do...?

"Activate･MainChoose 3 (Tekkadan)/(Teiwaz) Unit cards from your trash. Exile them from the game. If you do, choose 1 enemy Unit. Deal 2 damage to it."

May be the least I have to talk about. L7 C6 is a very high demand for a color that seems to have zero interest in seeing the late game but we suddenly have another slow Barbatos with a high ask #ST05-001. We all remember ST5 being +$50 on release and "King Barb" being worth more than ST RX. We've come a looooooong way as a community. If you aren't "Baby Barb" #GD02-054 or even "Barbie" #ST05-002 I always question why Barbatos is ever brought up in conversation. Obvious "Flavor Loss" and polar opposite gameplan to Purple aside. What is this card doing? Tekkadon has no way of filling the trash besides Ryusei #GD02-058. Even then, everything is so low to the ground and cost effecient- King Barb is L6 C4. So why is there a L7 C6 a Tekkadon LR? So lets get into it now. You are activating 1 effect at most. With decks having 8 Pilots, 4-5 bases (Corsica...#ST02-016), and 6-8 Commands (SoR #GD01-100 and FS #ST05-014) we have 32 at most Tekkadon//Teiwaz cards looking at 4 blockers at most and soooooo many filler purple cards to make this work. Not including Lupus itself. Implying, we are playing a higher curve slowing down the ability to even activate-

We all see the probelm here, yes?

Assuming we are randomly throwing smaller bodies to feed our trash we must be so far behind to use this effect. Or playing some obtuse "aggro" deck with a random L7 C6 body. To potentially deal 2 damage...maybe 4 if we are very far behind or discarding our units/shields, this is not a satisfying payoff. It's not hard to see potential in dealing damage and removing cards from our trash as the cost (GFreD #GD03-035). But the ask is very high for a color and trait that currently has no interest in wanting to fall behind or fill the trash with Tekkadon and Teiwaz units. Not even cards- units. There are cards that do well with playing with the trash, GD1 Aerial #GD01-067, GD2 Aerial #GD02-074, and Banshee #GD01-003. This isn't one of those cards. With how backwards this works with its color, its trait(s), and even its own pilot is shockingly absurd. If there's no other unit to deal damage to this is a 7/5 Link Unit that may use its effect to deal 2 damage to.

We all see the probelm here, yes?

Granted, I do like that a lot of these LRs are hinting at potentially Mono-Colored themes. Big Red, BR Midrnage, Earth Fed Tempo, BW Tempo, and even BW Control are very close to this idea. But considering I'm looking at the competitive landscape and current field, I cannot in good faith say anything nice about this card. Also saying "Mono Purple" does hurt me a little when this color has had very "ok" blockers isn't enough to make it in the game currently. A card needs to be more than "ok" to be good or see play right now.

70. Freedom Gundam #GD03-070

This card is "ok".

Shout out to my amazing spon-

Yes, this card is very "ok". To put it lightly. I'll also add that I want all my opponents to be playing this card. I think this is Gundam's 2nd knowledge check test with Psycho Gundam being the first with its "Chase Card" and $25 Day 1 prices. I could write up a lot on how grossly overhyped this card is, but to simplify things. This card is VERY generous wishful thinking. Every gamestate and scenario people have brought up have always been against BG Tempo or "stabilizing" against aggro decks, from a control player's perspective. Implying, your blockers, bases, and your Tempo Pivots and links like Amuro and Kira aren't enough. Which confuses me even more. Control players have evolved to catch up to BG Tempo. We don't play zowort anymore. We play win conditions that threaten our opponent. We know how to take hits and know when and how to stabilize. It's all fundamental traits needed to pilot control to success. We know not to play greedy. We know how to pivot to playing BW Tempo. Attack with your blockers, etc, etc. So I question why people are excited over what is essentially a base when it's rested/tapped. It doesn't protect bases, save us from breach, or when we have no shields. Consistency and simplicity is the name of the game- and no, linking Kira for +1 HP and attacking a unit with it doesn't mean anything. When Aile Strike or RX can do the same thing. A. Turn. Earlier. While needing a Pilot in a deck that needs its pilots for big plays. Again, this is all hypthetical...

FOR A SINGLE MATCH UP

What does this card do ~ agaisnt the Control Mirror or the absolute nightmare of GW Midrange. Wing Gundam #ST02-001, Deathscythe #GD01-025, Shenlong #GD01-029, Wing Zero #GD01-024. Ignoring that half of those units are all "Breach" units and two of them clear blockers with one being "High-Maneuver". I'm also ignoring that Aile Strike can bounce it if you block it in a Control or Midrange match-up. Or how the decks this is meant to beat can easily get to 5AP and has the Earth Fed package #GD01-008 & #GD01-020 to help with getting rid of rested units with minimal effort. Defend the castle doesn't work in slower based resource-based card games. Also ignoring that a lot of cards games have a card like this and they all never live up to everyone's expectations. I can confidently say, "I shall not be putting this card in any deck of mine nor have any interest in doing such". My local players knowing this was begrudgingly the first card I proxied for in-person playtesting and this card has always held me back. A blocker, pilot, or even one of my draw cards would've been preferred or my fortuitous game states were met with an immediate response. If I had a follow up for GD3 Freedom believers, I must ask.

"What are you playing this in- follow up, what are you taking out for it?"

Thank you for the read. I look forward to making more written and video related content for everyone. As well as more brief and easier to consume content. But, now I'd like to hear from all of you on what kind of material I should cover or any follow up questions. Enjoy any small break you may have from Gundam events and best of luck to all of you in your future battles fellow pilots!