Both of my boys are currently gripped by a Magic the Gathering madness that is fun to watch from a safe distance. I’ve played a few rounds of standard with them but when they ask why I don’t seem to like MTG as much as them I have to explain that I’ve played this game in some form for like thirty years, and I have never been good at it. I love this for them though.
Meanwhile, I still love to collect little pieces of art and turn them sideways sometimes. So when I saw the news about a Gundam TCG I rushed out and was able to buy three starter decks before everything got snapped up. I took the decks with me to Spokane and was able to convince both my boys to stop playing Magic long enough to try some Gundam with me.
I checked out the learn to play app on my phone and really liked the new Gundam TCG. Picked up a couple starter decks to try the real thing.
— Gabe (@cwgabriel.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 9:27 AM
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I’ll start off by saying the Gundam Card Game offers a learning app and it does a great job of teaching you how to play. It also surprisingly has a relatively robust free play mode once you finish the tutorial that will let you play with and against various starter decks as much as you want with two different difficulties. I used this to learn the game so that once we broke the actual cards out I’d be able to teach the boys.
After playing through the app and playing a bunch of games with my kids I feel confident saying this game kicks ass. I’m not a pro at these sorts of games but I’ll break down what I like about this one as a casual player.
The Gundam IP
Yeah okay I admit I am a sucker for Gundam shit. I love the shows, I build the models, I play the video games. They own me. With that said, the Gundam universe is on beautiful display here. I have never seen some of the incredible foil and texture effects they are laying down on these cards. They have also done an excellent job of matching the mechanics of the game to the IP so that you really feel like you’re playing a Gundam game and not some other card game with Gundam art.
Recources
The idea of “Mana Screw” is one most TCG gamers are familiar with. When the resources required to play your cards are distributed throughout your deck you can easily run into a situation where you simply can’t draw the gas you need for your engine. I’ve heard it said that if drawing energy was not built into the system then the best player would win every game and I have to admit I’ve seen this play out in real life when a novice beats a pro who got mana screwed. With that said, like many other games, The Gundam Card Game does away with this and instead gives you a small deck of resource cards and each of your turns you place one of them in your play area. So similar to how a lot of mobile TCG’s work these days you simply get one "resource" every turn.
The interesting twist here in my opinion is that in addition to requiring a number of resources to play from your hand, a card also requires a “level” to be satisfied. Your current level is simply how many resource cards you have in play. What’s fun is that a card might need a high level like 5 but then only require 1 actual resource be allocated to play it. It makes for a very exciting power curve that allows for fun combos late game.
Health
This is another area where I think the Gundam Card Game is really clever. Instead of a pool of health each player has a “Base” card that protects six “Shield” cards similar to prize cards in Pokémon. The game starts with you placing a unique base card in that position that simply has three health. The goal is to defeat your enemies base, then hit and destroy each of their six shield cards, then land one final blow against them to win.
There are a couple modifiers that make this mechanic especially cool. First of all, while you start with a default base card in that slot on the board, base cards are something you can draw into and play throughout the game. These advanced base cards will have more health and other special effects you can take advantage of during your turn. The really smart bit though is that they all require you to add one of your shield cards to your hand when played. This means that the act of shoring up your defenses short term comes with the cost of reducing them in the long term. I saw this specific mechanic come into play in incredibly interesting ways in multiple games. Especially when combined with the other cool modifier here which is the “Burst” keyword.
Your six shield cards are drawn from the top of your deck at the start of the game. They remain face down in their place on the board until an enemy attacks one. At that point you flip the card and look at it. Most cards will go to your graveyard at this point but some will have the “burst” keyword on them followed by instructions. This means you get to play that card immediately. These burst effects can do all sorts of fun stuff and the burst effect on Base cards is to put them in play. FUN!
Piloting Gundam
In most games like this it is common that a card cannot act the same turn it was played from your hand. There are all sorts of keywords to get around the idea of “summoning sickness “and spice things up but Gundam does it in a very cool way. You can play a Gundam to the board and it will have to wait until your next turn to attack, unless you also play its unique pilot to it in that same turn. There are lots of pilot cards and they can be attached to a Gundam card to apply a bonus to health as well as attack power and also usually confer special abilities the suit would not have on its own. A particular Gundam will have a number of possible pilots that you could attach to get these basic “Paired” bonuses but they will also list one pilot in particular that will grant them what is called a “Link” effect which in addition to granting powerful new abilities includes getting to act on the turn it was played.
There are lots of other little fun mechanics and twists on the average TCG. I love the whole package and I’m looking forward to the day when I can go to a store and buy some booster packs. I looked all over Spokane and here locally and I could not find anyplace that had any stock left. I’m hoping for a second wave of cards to hit soon because I’d love to modify this starter deck and try some deck building.
Last but not least I’d like to mention two really cool places in Spokane. The Gamers Haven and the Comic Book Shop in Northtown Mall. Both stores are big, beautiful examples of nerdyness staffed by genuinely friendly employees and both were absolutely packed with people having fun when most places in that town felt abandoned. Without going into detail I will say that my family has little in common culturally with eastern Washington and seeing something as simple and uncommon in Spokane as a pride flag was nice. Both of these shops served as much needed oases for my family during our trip and also I was able to buy a bunch of rad Gunpla there so thank you.
-Gabe Out
