We're continuing to power through the GCB starter sets that were released last week and today we are looking at what I was expecting to be my favourite; deck ST03. While the red and green combo might be a colour-blind person's nightmare it is also the set that makes the most sense, combining two factions that are actually related. Unlike the unlikely pairings found in the other three starters here we actually have a logical composition formed from the Principality of Zeon (green cards) that go hand in hand with the red cards of the Neo Zeon faction. We will discuss factions a bit more in the next review but for now I can just say this set is the obvious starting point for any Zeon player.
I think the box art used on all the starters is fine but a bit generic and it doesn't really capture my imagination. The flipside isn't better with its litany of disclaimers and product warnings and the overall packaging is a bit flimsy and easy to damage. On my European version we can see names of four distributors in the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Italy respectively.
You know the drill by now; we have the same 50+18 deck of cards, a playmat with rules on the flipside and a promo-pack containing a random foil-version of one of the cards from this starter set.
The playmat and rules sheet is the same as we saw in the other boxes, of course updated here with card examples from the ST03 deck so we can enjoy images of the Sinanju in place of the Wing Gundam or RX-78.
It is hard to disappoint me wit ha deck of Zeon unit cards and this set certainly doesn't disappoint. The main faction in red sports a Sinanju in legendary rare-foil backed up by Angelo Sauper's Geara Zulu, a couple of mass-production versions and to my absolute delight a pack of Gaza-D's and Dra-C's from the Unicorn era. I am really tempted to buy more copies of this pack just to get additional copies of these cards but I have a sneaking suspicion they might be found among the commons also in the Newtype Rising boosters that release here on Friday. The Zeonic faction in green is of course led by Char Aznable in a Zaku II and he is backed up by mass-production Zaku Is, Zaku IIs and Goufs. It is a natural counter to the White Base team in the blue deck but perhaps not as exciting of a unit mix as the one we got for the Neo Zeon gang.
The red team is led by Full Frontal as the single pilot card with Angelo Sauper available as a combination Command/Pilot-card. The Principality of Zeon gets Char Aznable as the pilot and Ramba Ral as a combo-card. Each faction has its base represented by a classic flagship. The single command card goes to the red team. You will of course get access to additional pilot and command cards in the booster pack set but I still find it a bit odd that an additional "pure" command card was not included for the secondary faction in each starter set.
The resource-card section is identical to the other starters with its ten generic resource cards and single EX Base and EX Resource cards. Here the Token Cards are granted to the Principality of Zeon with representations of Char's Zaku II and a mass-production variant. I still don't understand what these token cards are supposed to do and why there are only cards for one of the two factions included but I don't really care as I am not interested in actually playing the game. Lastly, we have a punch-out style paper counter sheet which sports a unique selection of special tokens just like the other starters do.
I just want to take a minute and complain once again about the "resource" cards. These are some of the most soulless and boring bloat I have ever seen in a card game. Compare it to the energy cards from the Pokemon Card Game, each card is representing a certain element and has its own logo and colour printed smack-dab in the middle. Or how about the old Generation-cards from the Gundam War cardgame of the early 2000's? Just look at these beautiful cards from the blue an black faction. Each faction got a whole string of different motifs on the Generation cards just to breathe some life into the decks. Why couldn't GCB do something similar? These resource cards are super-lame...
So what secret rare-foil version card did I get in this pack? Well, it is a pilot this time; Full Frontal himself which should be really impressive. Sadly, it is not. The card has an almost fully black background which doesn't do much to elevate the foil-effect but I guess the colours are enhanced a little bit, the foil effect is very muted and hard to replicate on a still photo but certainly not worth chasing after in my opinion.
Before we wrap up I should of course also mention the ST03A version of the Zeon's Rush Starter Set that also includes three promotional figures for the upcoming Gundam Assemble miniatures game. The selection contains Char's Zaku II and then two different mass-production Zaku II's, one armed with a Heat Hawk and the other with a Zaku Bazooka. I think this is a really solid choice and kind of makes me think it would have been more interesting to have a couple of different Zaku II's in the starter, switching out the old Zaku I for example. Maybe there will be different versions of the Zaku II in the booster packs sporting different weapons, that would be a fun way to add some variety to each faction (but from a card meta-perspective only one of them would ever get played anyway...).
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