Wishes, dreams, and predictions for what we will see in the first full Gundam Card Game set

We have roughly three months before the release of the first full GCG set along with the initial round of starter decks. To me that sounds like the perfect amount of time to make bold predictions that will be wrong with a high degree of probability. So that is what we are going to do here. I will mark each entry on two axes, "Hope" and "Prediction". Prediction indicates how likely I think the entry is, and hope is my desire for said entry. Confusing enough? Let's get started.

#Proliferation of all keywords

Hope: 5/5 Prediction: 4/5

Starting out with an easy one. We have seen Blocker , Breach , High Maneuver , and Repair so far, and of those two have been seen on two different colors. I really hope that we see each of these keywords spread to multiple colors so that we are not stuck with a single color being the Blocker or Breach color. This is a delicate balancing act. Too little proliferation and you may end up with a single keyword that is too strong and all decks are playing the color that hosts it. Too much proliferation and you may end up with one or two "best-of" decks that cherry pick the best cards from a couple colors.

My prefernce for each keyword is to have it fall into a one of two categories:

1. Split the keyword evenly across two colors
2. Split the keyword across a primary, secondary, and tertiary color

Keywords would then also be divided up based on both quantity and quality based on said hierarchy. I think this is most important to get right for the initial run of cards as a limited card pool with poor keyword distribution can heavly warp a metagame. Once the card pool expands, I think this becomes much less of an issue.

#No restrictions on card languages

Hope: 5/5 Prediction: 1/5

This is what I am hoping for more than any of the game related features I am talking about here. Normally I would say there is a 0% chance of this happening, but Bandai has made a big deal of the GCG having worldwide simultaneous releases (Note: After writing / before publishing this Bandai announced the One Piece TCG will be moving to worldwide simultaneous releases). The emphasis on worldwide releases mean that all events can have the same sets of legal card pools. Event organizers do not need to worry cards from other regions and/or languages not having official translations and rules. I think there is a big benefit to allowing

#Bases with AP

Hope: 3/5 Prediction: 2/5

Why are all the bases sitting ducks? Sure they are not going to shoot down a Gundam, but we have seen plenty of mobile suits being taken out by bases before. I think they would likely need to be given a bit higher level and / or cost, but what if you could not attack in to bases freely? I would be surprised if we never see this, but I do not think we will see it in the first set. The Base mechanic has so much untapped potential that I absolutely expect to see Bandai iterate on them and their design in the coming sets.

#More diverse AP/HP ratios

Hope: 4/5 Prediction: 3/5

The beta set has been extremely conservative in the AP / HP ratios. With almost every unit having no more than a ±1, I was skeptical to see if Bandai would give us more extreme differences between AP and HP. That is until we saw the Moebius Zero card from the demo event with a stat line of [2|4]. I am certainly more confident now that we get some variety, but I am not convinced yet we will get as such as I am hoping for. What if we got a Mercurius that was a [2|6] to account for its shield system?

#Main , Action , Burst effects on units

Hope: 5/5 Prediction: 4/5

Of all the things I am hoping for this is up there. We have plenty of units that have Deploy triggers, but no abilities that we can activate on the opponent's turn. So I really hope that we see new trigger and abilities on units. MTG has shown what a game where creatures have a large breath of abilities can look like, and I think Gundam would greatly benefit from this. Unit combat is currently the crunchiest and most interactive part of the game currently, but compared to other card games it is very passive. I expect that we will see a small amount of cards with additional effects in Newtype Rising, but I do not think we will see any in the starter decks. My estimate is that this is the area where Bandai will start out small and ramp up in ambitiousness as new sets release.

#Continued art quality

Hope: 4/5 Prediction: 5/5

If there is one thing Bandai knows how to do, it is source art for its brands. Nearly everything I have seen from the beta, demo decks, and previews has been beautiful. Obviously the alt art cards and LR rarity cards are going to be given special attention, but the art of the commons and uncommons is really excellent too. I fully expect Bandai to continue this trend with the intial couple releases. But I would not make a bet quite yet on the continued practice. I'll save a list of my favorites for another time, and instead just leave this an example: .