The holidays have come early this year! Showcasing more LRs for GD03, and both ST07 and ST08 are now fully spoiled. Today we'll dive into the highly praised Gundam 00 cards and these Celestial Beings, or "CB" for short. The next article will cover ST08, the deck I'm highly anticipating, as well as the "Matty" cards.

Gundam Exia #ST07-001 At the end of your turn, if there are 7 or more (CB) cards in your trash, choose 1 of your Resources. Set it as active. WHEN PAIRED Place the top 2 cards of your deck into your trash. If you place a (CB) card with this effect, draw 1.

For better visualization. I'll translate the cards and cover some small notes only an overly analytical nerd like me would notice.

The Deck is a fair 50-50 for Purple and Green.

The ST Reprint card is "Fatal Strike" #ST05-014; considering there's only 1 other purple deck, this isn't surprising. I don't think people would've been happy if "With Iron and Blood" #ST05-013 got another reprint.

This deck also features 4 different pilot cards. On the surface this feels excessive, but when we look at the deck, everything all comes together. Let's introduce the CB Pilots.

Setsuna #ST07-009, Tieria #ST07-010, Lockon, and Haptism #ST07-012

L4 C1 +1/+2 WHEN PAIRED If this is a CB unit, it may choose an active enemy unit whose Lv. is equal to or lower than this unit as an attack target during this turn. (CB)

Following the design pattern of ST Pilots, they're all generic and not Link effect pilots. Something that has drastically hindered some cards such as Athrun #ST04-011, Zechs #ST02-011, and Akihiro #ST05-011, with Heero #ST02-010 being the only exception.

A pattern you'll notice with the green cards in the deck and in general for Gundam is them being themed around the "buddy system." Green has always been the "Unit" color in other resource-based games and wants board presence. Which is why people are more fixated on the "sub" side of these two starter decks. For the sake of this deck, both green and purple are needed to get the most out of its simplistic and generally strong fundamentalist playstyle. Similar to Clan, we're going to need both colors to get the most out of each color. The purple cards are for sure the outliers for design, but we need to talk about everything to fully get the idea.

Armed Intervention L4 C1 BURST Draw 1 ACTION Change the Attack target of an attacking enemy unit to one of your rested CB Units.

Ptolemaeus L2 C1 BURST Deploy this base DEPLOY Add one of your shields to your hand While you have a rested CB unit, this base cannot receive damage from enemy units that are Lv. 3 or lower except Unit Tokens.

Redirecting attacks and having out rested units act like makeshift "Burn Cards" is interesting and is a way to feed out trash or at least a neat way to make removal. The burst is also welcome. While the trait seems more interested in synergy with a Pilot or other units being in play. The Base seems to be a little overrated, while still being good. The action is definitely strong, but now it seems we have a lot of non-units Thankfully everything is good, and we get another Schoolgirl and Smuggler #ST06-012 in the form of Tactical Visionary #ST07-014.

"We saved the best for last," to quote a Newtype pilot I know. Now we can talk about what everyone wants to see: the Units. We'll go from the least impressive to the head-turners. For starters, I don't think I need to bring up the 4 vanillas. Exia #ST07-002 and Virtue #ST07-003 are the real stinkers. The two that are interesting ones based on pure numbers are the L2 C2 3/1 for being the only Level 2 unit in the starter deck #ST07-008 and being this set's L3 C2 3/3 link unit #ST07-006. Rather than being a trait-link unit like so many in GD02, we have a named link unit for a vanilla. If you notice, all of the CB units are link units. Something very cool to speed up the deck and get value from the units that have effects.

The "Buddy System" effect of just having a CB pilot, making it a 4/3, is something we've seen before, and while it is only during your turn. An L3 C2 with those stats, or better if it's linked, is a potential game changer. The Pilot making it not take damage on your turn from anything with 3 or less AP is menacing.

My personal favorite card design-wise. The Buddy System effect is that it gains BLOCKER. Purple Rick Dias #GD02-079 may not seem impressive, but seeing a Link trait and the pilot working so well with this card makes me excited to see more CB cards. A 4/4 blocker is nothing to glance over. Especially when you get rewarded for your opponent getting rid of it on their turn.

Japanese Twitter has been talking about this card and the LR Exia from the new set. I wondered how we fill our trash. But forgot this beauty, and their last batch of cards filled in all the blanks. I'm now a believer in Exia and Purple! The innate ability to ready a resource is very good. Also, it being CB CARDS is a much-needed and easy requirement. If we haven't reached it yet, you're probably winning. "What's the point of 1 active resource?" Simple! Armed Intervention. The new Action card redirects an attack. To fill more of our trash for the next Exia or the next Armed Intervention. But "we've saved the best for last".

Gundam Dynames L4 C3 2/4 During your turn when this unit destroys an enemy unit with battle damage, this unit recovers 2 HP. DURING LINK This unit gets AP+2

A 5/6 that heals when it wins a battle. That also attacks a Level 4 unit or lower when it's paired with Lockon. There's a lot to this simple card. The HUGE body is a huge deal. Especially with the Base and Command being able to force your opponent to attack into it. Being able to open gamestates off of the simple Pilot on pair, which is its Link. I think the biggest upside to this card is being able to play around Battle of Aces #GD01-111. Something RW Midrange, RW Control, and Big Red players were using as RX #ST01-001 solutions prior.

Overall, if I had to say out of the box, this is easily the best starter deck out of the 8. How well will the 00 cards be competitively? I'll hold onto my thoughts for a bit to see everything. But this is one I'm keeping my eyes on. It may be time I play Purple; it's the only color I have yet to play, and there's a lot of things I'm seeing and liking. There are obviously pros and cons to this deck, but for newer players or those who are a fan of Gundam 00, this is the product for you. GD03 and most likely GD04 will feature more CB cards. The most recent reveal of Store Packs has shown off my favorite art of the set. If anyone knows my trends for picking decks to play competitively. It's highly likely I may be a CB player in the future.

This Thursday starts Season 3 nearly a month before GD03. See you all in 2026! I am looking forward to seeing all of you at locals and NTCs. Here are some of my favorites from the promo packs. Looking forward to adding these to the Gundam Cube!

January 2nd is when events drop on the app for sign ups!