A first look at what "constructed" deck lists might look like

#Introduction

Welcome to the start of a series of posts looking at various deck lists that I have been testing, playing, and evaluating. They may not always be the best, but they are what I have been tinkering with and trying to tune. This first post is also going to be a bit weird. The format these decks are for does not exist and likely never will, other than the fact that we know the basic rules for deck construction. In addition, the set of cards is incredibly small, with a very limited number of effects. So do not take any of this as a predictive look into what the decks might look like at release. We have no idea if the beta is a representative slice of what is to come or some weird sampling that is supposed to work together. Either way, time to stop rambling and get to some deck lists.

#No Wing (G/W)

With the set of cards we have, you are realistically either going to be playing a mid-range or late game deck. Building an aggressive and consistent deck feels futile, but that is what we are trying to do here. Notably, we are not playing Blue here, despite it having some good early game units in 「G-Fighter」 and 「ReZEL」 . The issue is that there are only a few of them, and 「Amuro Ray」 is the only playable Blue pilot. Additionally, by cutting White you are at a significant disadvantage to anything else that is running White. You are missing out on the Blocker , but ultimately, it comes down to the oppressiveness of 「Kira Yamato」 .

So what might an aggressive Green / White list look like? Simple cut the top end, namely 「Wing Gundam」 and by proxy 「Heero Yuy」 , and fill out the deck with the 「Char Aznable」 package. This list is very much a work in progress and needs more work, but here is where we start.

What we are looking to do here is push through as much early shield damage as possible, without worrying terribly much about our board position. If we can get the opponent low enough, then we can try to finish the game by exploiting the High Maneuver of 「Char Aznable」 . Conceptually, we are giving up on the long game, as the oppressive late game of White control decks cannot be matched.

Any Green / X deck is going to choose second whenever possible, as it allows for the turn one 「Zaku II」 . The resource turn 3 here is unfortunately weak, and that is mostly a limit of the card pool. A third card that links with 「Char Aznable」 would be ideal, but we are stuck with 「Rick Dom」 for now. I have also been considering either subbing in or splitting this slot with 「Darilbalde」 . The 「Darilbalde」 is exceptional at clearing out opposing 「Demi Trainer」 and allowing you to maintain pressure on the board.

Resource turn 4 is where everything comes online. We have a total of eight Lv4 Cost 2 units to play, and all of our pilots are unlocked at this point. My general recommendation here is to be liberal with your use of 「Chang Wufei」 and 「Kira Yamato」 if it will let you either trade up or push through additional damage, even if they are not linking. I will generally try to hold back one 「Char Aznable」 for finishing the game, as the last point of damage can often be challenging.

This deck tops out with 「Shenlong Gundam」 which is a solid card for pushing through final points of damage. We really only care about the Breach effect, so it does not terribly matter what pilot gets paired with it. We throw in two 「Perfect Strike Gundam」 on top, as while it does not match the 「Wing Gundam」 in terms of raw power, its utility makes it a rival for the best unit in the set. We are running it over the 「Aile Strike Gundam」 for the reduced cost and the fact that it does not rely on pairing to bounce an opponent's 「Demi Trainer」 .

Given this list, what are we choosing not to play? The most obvious cards are 「Wing Gundam」 and 「Heero Yuy」 . I find if you are trying to really push the tempo of the game, these cards are just too slow. Without a link unit, 「Heero Yuy」 is just another generic pilot. I also personally do not like running only four 「Wing Gundam」 as my 「Heero Yuy」 targets; it just feels too inconsistent. By resource 6 this deck wants to be dropping whatever is left in its hand on to the board for a final go-wide push, as opposed to playing a single high-cost unit.

The more interesting question is: Why not Blue? Blue has a couple of excellent low-cost cards in 「G-Fighter」 and 「Guntank」 . The problem is twofold:

1. A lack of good targets for 「G-Fighter」
2. The High Maneuver effect of 「G-Fighter」 is on Deploy and not When Paired

This puts into tension the desire to play the card early, but wanting to save our High Maneuver effects for our opponent's Blocker units. Blue also suffers from having no good early sources of card selection or draw. This deck does not have enough time to get to Lv4 and play a 「A Show of Resolve」 . White offers much better filtering with 「Overflowing Affection」 and 「Strike Gundam」 to get to exactly the cards we need. The other big issue is that if you do not have White, then you are missing out on 「Heero Yuy」 , the card can just warp combat priorities.

So what are the weaknesses here? Aside from opting not to play some of the strongest cards in 「Wing Gundam」 and 「A Show of Resolve」 , the units this deck plays can easily get outmatched. The general rule of thumb that aggro loses to bigger aggro still applies in the GCG. You are also incredibly susceptible to poor starting hands. The mulligan rules are very unforgiving, and you can easily find yourself with a weak opening that you just cannot recover from. All fast aggro decks in the beta format are going to suffer from this, and hopefully once we get the full first set, we see more ways to make it a more consistent strategy.

#Wing Breach (G/W)

Now let us take a look at another list in the same colors, but with a very different strategy. The goal here is to get the most out of 「Kira Yamato」 and 「Heero Yuy」 by combining them with some of the larger units in the game. This provides a great strategy for running over some of the smaller aggro decks, but often struggles against some of the late-game Blue / White games.

The concept of this list is pretty straightforward. It is looking to trade as efficiently as possible on the board and utilizing Breach as much as possible to clear out shields. We still do not want to give up on the earlier game strength of Green and White, so we are certainly including the full suite of one-cost units.

To maximize the chances with the two pilots, the deck runs 6 link targets for each of them. We start with 「Kira Yamato」 as it is pretty simple. The four 「Strike Gundam」 are what I believe to be one of the White staples of the beta environment. It does not have the absolute best stat line, but it is good enough to trade with early units, and when linked with 「Strike Gundam」 is entirely respectable at [5|4]. The card filtering effect is also exceptional. It is a Deploy effect, so it can be used as needed, and it significantly helps smooth out your draws over the course of multiple games. Given that we are already running four 「Wing Gundam」 at the top end, we do not have a ton of space for further high-cost units, and so 「Perfect Strike Gundam」 does a good job filling the last two 「Kira Yamato」 unit slots. I have come to prioritize Deploy over When Paired effects due to their flexibility. You also do not always want to be playing 「Kira Yamato」 on to your Blocker units, as that means you are having to choose between the powerful -2 AP effect and controlling combat with a block.

Now we will look at the unit's for 「Heero Yuy」 . The four 「Wing Gundam」 are pretty explanatory. It punches through any other unit in the game, it destroys any base with Breach , and it helps prevent your opponent from developing a wide active board. 「Wing Gundam」 rounds out the six as a much weaker, but still solid link option. It does not get the target selection effect or Breach , but it still gets to 7 AP and is one of the few ways to trade two for two against opposing 「Wing Gundam」 . I think the other option, 「Wing Gundam (Bird Mode)」 , is pretty terrible for linking. A [2|2] that becomes a [5|4] that costs 4 resources just gets outclassed and destroyed by so many single cards. The Deploy is not worth running such a weak stat line that requires using one of your pilots just to be able to trade with mid-tier units.

I think the rest of the deck is pretty straightforward. Use Breach units to push through as much shield damage as possible, use your non- Breach units for clearing the opponent's board, and use your Blocker units to defend your Breach units. Non-blue decks all lack card advantage and so need to rely on as many selection effects as possible. This is why both this deck and the “No Wing” deck prefer to run max copies of 「Saint Gabriel Institute」 . The top / bottom can be incredible late game when you are digging for the pilot or unit needed to push through a last point of damage.

#Strike Control (U/W)

Finally, we get to the deck that I have been playing the most, and have been having the most success with. The concept is very basic; the beta environment has extremely limited forms of card advantage, so if we can slow the game down as much as possible and do whatever we can to get incremental advantages, we will eventually win. By overloading on Blocker units, this deck gets to control the board quite effectively. It is quite common to end the game on 0 shields. Even more so than other card games, remember that your shields / life points are a resource to be utilized to win the game.

To break down this list, we can start with the early game units 「Guntank」 and 「Darilbalde」 , skipping 「Demi Trainer」 it needs its own section. These two units are generally here to do as much trading as possible. The one damage ping can soften most early Green and Blue units, opening them up for an attack. The bounce of 「Darilbalde」 is great for clearing out the opponent's 「Demi Trainer」 and letting you trade where needed. The 4 AP is the main factor on this card. It is unlikely to survive any battles, and we really are not worried about that. It just needs to buy time until the late game. As one might assume, we will not be pairing pilots on to these units. That said, 「Hawk of Endymion」 can be very helpful for setting back an opponent that creates a non-pair link unit.

The mid-game has us looking to play 「Strike Gundam」 to filter out early game pieces, and 「Launcher Strike Gundam」 to bridge us in to the late game. The goal here is again to trade and block, trying not to go below 2 or 3 shields. As opposed to the early game, both of these units are reasonable link targets, but really only for 「Kira Yamato」 . I particularly like linking with 「Strike Gundam」 , as it can take out multiple lingering early game units when it is backed up by Blocker units to protect it. This pattern is the same thing we will be doing late game, linking a Strike unit with 「Kira Yamato」 , and then playing protect the link with the rest of our units.

For the late game, we have the full eight copies of the Lv5 Strike units. The game plan stays the same here, and it is not uncommon to drop to 1 or 0 shields while getting set up. But with enough Blocker units, you should be able to stabilize and get a base down. Once we are in the late game, this deck is excellent at controlling exactly what damage makes it through to a base and ensuring we have a backup ready to go. Remember that you do not lose the game to Breach damage when you have zero shields. There are plenty of times when we will block a Breach unit while on zero shields and then deploy a base the next turn.

This is the point in the game where the full set of 「A Show of Resolve」 starts to come online. Most other decks will be running on fumes at this point, and you will be getting low on cards, but combining the draw 2 with the 8 filter cards in the deck, you should be able to keep a steady stream of pressure and defense. We have numerous expensive cards to play at this point, and maximizing our resource usage may take priority over playing the most appropriate unit. Only once the opponent's board is nearly cleared will we stack attacking shields. The biggest thing at this stage of the game is to be cautious not to be blown out by a Burst pilot coming off out of the shield area. Bases coming from shields are not that big of a deal, as they cost the opponent another shield, and we generally attack with 5 AP units. 「Char Aznable」 and 「Heero Yuy」 are much scarier coming from the shield area, as they may unlock an unexpected attack. As such, always keep at least one unit back to block, and sometimes more depending on the number of cards in hand the opponent has.

Lastly, let us loop back around to 「Demi Trainer」 . Being a Lv1 Cost 1 unit, we will be playing this whenever we have the extra resources to. Even if it is on the board, though, we really want to save it for the late game. It is far more valuable as a Blocker that covers for one of your late game units than it is at protecting your shields. If you can get to the late game with a couple 「Demi Trainer」 available, it will be beyond frustrating for the opponent to get through the myriad of defensive units to your shield area. Since it was not mentioned anywhere else, 「The Witch and the Bride」 serves as your emergency coverage for an unexpected unit. It has performed well for me so far, but it is also a fine target to discard if the rest of your hand must be kept.

#Conclusion

There you have it, that is what I have been testing as of late, and three different directions you can take the beta set in. I, personally, think the Blue / White combination is by far the strongest given the card pool that we have. It has enough tools to drag the game on to the late game, and once there it has the card advantage and board control to win a drawn out game.

If you have yet to try out the GCG I highly recommend it. Product is extremely scarce currently, but that should hopefully lighten up at the end of the month. If it does not, try printing a set of proxy cards from any of the number of websites that support it. For a game with a very straightforward and simple ruleset, there is clearly room for expansion and depth.