We continue the coverage of the Gundam Card Game - you know that Gundam card game with the catchy and original title? Today we are looking at the second of the four starters that were released on July 11th. There are three language versions of the game, beyond the domestic Japanese release there are also variants in English and Chinese. This is an ambitious launch to be sure.
The ST02 starter, titled Wings of Advance, combines cards of blue and green colour, and focuses solely on the New Mobile Report Gundam Wing series. The Oz faction cards come in blue, making them compatible with the E.F.S.F. cards from Heroic beginnings while the Gundam Pilot faction will group together with the Principality of Zeon.
The contents of the four starters are very similar in that they contain the same number of components, although each deck will have its own quirks and composition. Besides the 50 card main deck you also get 18 additional resource cards, a token sheet, a playmat and a promotional bonus pack containing a random foil-version card. I find it interesting that the token counters aren't the same between the different starters, instead they have slightly differing effects based on certain card abilities.
The ST02 starter has the same flimsy rules sheet/playmat combo that we found in the Heroic Beginnings starter, but some of the card illustrations has been replaced to depict cards found in this starter set which is a nice touch.
Onto the unit cards then! Each faction gets its main card in a foil version where the other cards are printed in a matte finish. the cardstock feels quite sturdy and a bit cardboardy when compared to other Gundam Card game products out there. Three of the five colony Gundams are represented in the Wing, Heavyarms and Sandrock - the Altron and Deathscythe are held back and presumably encountered in the accompanying booster pack set. The Maganac Corps joins in with some disposable grunts. On the blue Oz-side we find the Tallgeese as the centrepiece - backed up by Leos, Aries and Tragos rank and file units. Several of the cards lack special abilities, most notable and surprising among these is the Sandrock that will have to rely on its base strength (or a pilot attachment...).
Among the pilot and command cards we have a heavy skew to the Colony factions; three Gundam pilots are represented while Oz only gets to play with Zechs, the After Colony-timeline version of Char Aznable. Oz also gets access to a single command card while the Gundam Pilots have two combo Pilot-Command cards between them. Each faction also gets a base structure rather than a spaceship; a Japanese boarding school for the Gundam Pilots (really...?) and the very nice looking Corsica Base-card for Oz.
the separate resource card section comes with alternate card backs; red colour for the 10 resource card and yellow for the special EX Resource cards as well as the Token mobile suit cards that are only representing Oz this time around.
Our secret promo-card this time is the Gundam Heavyarms in a rather discreet looking foil-variant. Besides the limited foil-effect you can also see that the shaded box that normally encloses the card effect text is removed to better show the underlying artwork.
Let's talk a bit about the card numbering-system in use for GCG. The Starter sets have their own numbering series with each Starter getting its own prefix, ST01 through ST04. The first booster pack series "Newtype Rising" has the short product code GD01 so I assume that cards from that set will be using a GD01-prefix instead.
The main cards of the starter deck are then numbered from 001 through 016, with each category of cards being sequenced by factions. Card numbers 001-005 represent the Colony faction units, Oz units come in as 006-009, the two "pure" pilot cards are 010-011 and the three command and/or command/pilot cards follow as 012-014. The two base cards end the sequence at 015 and 016 respectively. Each card also has a rarity letter assigned to it. Besides the Wing Gundam and Tallgeese foil cards all cards are rated as C for Common. The two foil cards are instead marked as "LR" which stands for Legendary Rare. Of course all these cards are of fixed distribution so it would have made more sense to give them a dedicated (S)tarter or (F)ixed category instead. I do expect that many if not all of the starter cards will show up in the booster packs as well as unwanted padding, presumably with different card numbers but similar artwork.
The bonus card found in the single-card promotional pack has the same number as the card it replaces, but the letter has been changed from (C)ommon to C+. Notice also the number 1 in the hexagon on the far right. I guess this refers to the first wave of Gundam Card Game cards and that the GD01 Newtype Rising booter set will have the same reference number.
All the resource cards have their own numbering schemes. The basic resource cards all have number R-001 and are listed as commons. I expect we will get to see quite a lot of promotional cards with alternate artwork and numbers down the line. The two EX-resource cards are numbered EXB-001 and EXR-001 respectively, perhaps the game will feature different types of EX Resources with different effects and abilities as well. The Token cards however have a shared numbering series across all the starter decks. You will find T-001 through T-003 in the Heroic Beginnings starter while T-004 and T-005 are found here and so on. Why make things easy when you can make them complicated?
Lastly I want to point out that like the other starters in this series you can find a variant of this package that also contains three promotional models for the upcoming Bandai miniatures game Gundam Assemble. I must admit I found the mobile suit selection for this set to be kind of interesting, rather than the expected Gundams the pack contains the Tallgeese and two Leos, one of them in space-flight configuration. However, as I stated before these figures are neither painted nor assembled and so are unfortunately not for me. I find it a bit odd that the suit selection doesn't match what is actually found among the cards but these two games are completely unrelated anyway and so it doesn't really matter.
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