The G Gundam Deck is a Blast
The Gundam Card Game is the one IP based game I am going to let myself have anyway, but given that I love G Gundam it was inevitable I was going to make a G Gundam list as soon as it was available, and hoo damn does this one not disappoint.
In the early-mid game, this deck excels at board control. It may surprise you to learn that all the Gundam Fighters specialize in controlling the board, but once the endgame happens it's possible for this archetype to wipe out the opponent very quickly.
The core of the early game control is the Maxter and Chibodee. The Maxter can dig you towards a Special Move, and Chibodee (like the rest of the Shuffle Alliance bros) can be paired with a unit after using their pilot command. And for the Maxter that means you can use Cyclone Punch again for free and give something -4 attack. Or give two 2/Xs -2 attack each.
A lot of the Tricks are wrapped up in Domon and the Shining Gundam.
- You play the Shining Gundam, and return a Special Move to your hand. You basically always do this if possible because there's no Unit recursion in this archetype at this time.
- You Link Domon with it, and get to draw and discard one. Discard a Special Move (like you just returned to hand!) and you get to use it for free! And still if you discard Cyclone Punch in this way you get to link Chibodee and the Maxter.
- You use the Shining Finger, tap something down, and now you Shining Gundam can attack into it for free thanks to First Strike.
Just for an example, this was only at a weeklies game so not the highest stakes, but I was playing this list against an opponent who had the Green One Year War aggro cards in their list. I play a Maxter, they make attacks with their strong 2-drops and get a few of my Shields. Then I pull that exact Shining Gundam-> Domon-> Discard Cyclone Punch-> Link with the Maxter line and now their board is gone and they can't re-establish one before I kill them.
The Master Asia Package is the late-game finisher of the list. The Haow is situational but valuable against aggro and token decks- It's liable to destroy their board completely. The Master allows you to chew through their shields quickly. And the Darkness Finger is just decent removal. And another thing that is good to discard with Domon's trigger.
The Rising Gundam is surprisingly load-bearing in this list. It links with any of your Pilots and lets you tap a unit to attack into. The stats are decent as well.
The Shining Gundam Super Mode is more situational, and leans more into the combo finish of the deck. There's definitely some tension with using it- It really wants to get up to 8 attack with First Strike from a Shining Finger and blow up just about anything your opponent has. But it also situationally has Suppression which lets it destroy two shields at once. In practice I've found the Suppression to be a bit too situational to be guaranteed, but I can easily envision a list that leans more into the Super Mode and Master Gundams to kill the opponent quickly. In theory they could be killed from three shields with just two attacks.
Overflowing and Airframe Seizure are even more card selection. Not advantage, that's relatively rare in the GCG. But selection matters a lot when you need A+B combos so dearly.
The Gundam Fight's +2 attack is sometimes useful, and Palau has the critically important sixth hit point. Plau could be replaced with the Argama, which has become critically important in the meta for negating Breach damage or the Master Gundam's ability.
Now, to do a little frog dissection on why this is fun, I offer the following observations:
- The deck offers a chance to feel extremely in control of the early- and mid-game, which is a nice feeling to have. And feeling like a favored matchup against some meta staples is nice.
- While yes, you only have a few options for which card you discard to Domon's effect, it offers a decision point which will vary between activations. The feeling of choosing between options leads to the feeling of finding the right line to take, which makes you feel smart and accomplished.
- The abilities triggering off of each other creates a somewhat intricate feel to the gameplay. I think there is a certain level of fiddling with cards and going A into B that is enjoyable for players (source: me).