Article 2: A look at the color pie

OK, long time no article, right??

Yeah, last time I wrote article, Based Booster 3 (BB3) had NOT even been release, and now, Set 13 is out (Roar of Flame), as well as the latest Dramatic booster.

Gundam War, like Magic: the Gathering, use the "color" system. Although this game had a LOT of similarity to M:tG, like:
1. Generation (Nation Power) v. Land (Mana)
2. "Comes to play Rolled" v. "Summon Sickness"
3. Unit v. Creature
4. Operation v. Enchantment/Equipment
5. Command v. Instant/Sorcery
6. Of course, each color/faction/whatever have its different special "theme".

As this game is a DIFFERENT card game by a different company, of course, the rule is different. This game use "detachment" to attack as oppose to creature attack creature (unless it's banding...). This game also use different way to count "life", as oppose to 20 lifes, this game use the Nation.

Now, of course, my main topic of this article is writing about the speciality of each color. But before that, let's review (or maybe introduce) which Gundam faction in which stories were include in which color (I'm talking about major stories, not all the side stories)

Blue:
- Earth Alliance from "Mobile Suit Gundam", "Gundam 0080", "Gundam 0083"
- AEUG from "Z Gundam" and "ZZ Gundam"
- Londo Bell from "Char's Counterattack"
- League Militia from "V Gundam"
- ?? from "Gundam F91"

Green:
- Zeon Federation from "MS Gundam", "0080", "0083", etc.

Black:
- Titans from "Gundam 0083", "Z Gundam"
- Zanscare Empire from "V Gundam"

Red:
- Neo Zeon from "Z Gundam", "ZZ Gundam", "Char's Counterattack"
- Crossbone Vanguard from "Gundam F91/Crossbone Gundam"

Brown:
- All factions from "Turn A Gundam"
- All factions from "After War Gundam X"

White:
- All factions from "Gundam Wing" and all its side stories
- All factions from "Gundam SEED", "Gundam SEED Astray", and "Gundam SEED DESTINY"

So, after a list of Gundam stories (which if you don't understand, stop reading here and go to MAHQ.net to find out WHAT is Gundam first!!)

So, what's the difference between all this factions/colors/whatever??

Well, they're good at different stuff, and they HAVE shown that in the Gundam anime/manga series.

I would write the description from the rulebook, then explain what the heck it means.

Blue:
In the rulebook, it described Blue as a color that is "Good at production, Recovery, and Defense. Also, have a lot of great Mobile Suits"

When you see this description, if you ever play Magic: the Gathering, it resemble the color "White" (Plains). Basically, this color play the game defensively, while suddenly hit you with a HUGE Unit with great effects. I call this "Sudden Surprise" type. At last, this color have a lot of searcher for the "Gundam".

IS IT GOOD FOR BEGINNER?? Yes, since playing defensive is a great start for a play to learn the game: slow but steady
IS IT GOOD FOR TOURNAMENT?? Blue itself does not work well at tournaments, especially after the gone of "Mono-Blue ZZ Gundam crazy deck" (They change the ruling, it is only 20% powerful as of before the change)

Green:
In the rulebook, it stated Zeon have "great amount of battle strategies and crushing power. Also, it is good at the "dropping colonies" direct Nation attack strategy".

This color also could resemble a color from M:tG. This time, it's Red. Like Red in M:tG, this color is good at playing cheap Units (Goblins), burns/direct damages ("Colony Drop").

IS IT GOOD FOR BEGINNER?? This color is like the best for beginner. Dumping hand to field means nothing, and most of the good cards for this color are Commons
IS IT GOOD FOR TOURNAMENT?? Yes for this one also. Green had pretty much rule the tournament for a while now. The fast yet unpredictable strategies could only make opponent watch hopelessly.

Black:
Black is "great in power, too great that sometimes force self to have damages also".

This, of course, is "Black" in M:tG. This color is very specialize in mass destruction, and commonly have mass damages to both players. This color also have the big "good effect, with a drawback" part. Which means, it could do almost everything, as long as you can pay the side effect cost...

IS IT GOOD FOR BEGINNER?? No, this color relies on complex destruction strategy. This color also use "sudden turn around" strategy, which once it gone wrong, it WILL be wrong
IS IT GOOD FOR TOURNAMENT?? Still, it is hard to find a dominant deck type running color black. Since the "discard" and the "destruction" strategy could varied, this color is not consistant. HOWEVER, it IS a powerful color to play.

Red:
Red Red Red. It is good at "using strategy to win, but outside of battlefield".

So, many of you now would ask "what...the...hell...you're talking about??". Well, you can always compare this color with Blue in M:tG, as Red have the following advantages over other colors: Draw/Fliter cards, Countering (or, negating effect of cards). Basically, controlling what opponent doing.

This color also have the massive "Psycomm" weapon. Using this type of weapon leds nothing but devastration to opponent.

IS IT GOOD FOR BEGINNER?? Depends. This color is really the "best" color in terms on paper. But in reality, beginner would not understand how to use the card properly. Also, this color is the most expensive color to play out of all.
IS IT GOOD FOR TOURNAMENT?? Like any other card games, Control could always be use in Tournament. Two common type of Mono-Red deck use for tournament when I write this article is "Qubeley Psycomm" and "Crossbone Gundam".

Brown:
Now, we're talking about my favorite color of Gundam War (The reason?? Really, nothing but Gundam X and Turn-X). This color is good at "Scavenging, Recycling cards that had been use and use it again".

Basically, Brown is the only color in Gundam War that match no other color in M:tG. This color would use cards from Lost Card Pile, digging through it (with a LOT of "look at x cards") and find cards, and at last, the "Vulture/Recollection" effect.

IS IT GOOD FOR BEGINNER?? One big word: No. You have to decide a LOT on which card to recycle back, how to build up the pile for you to recycle, etc. etc.
IS IT GOOD FOR TOURNAMENT?? Brown deck does OK in tournament, there's two common types of Brown deck: Airmaster/Leopard "Change"/"Vulture" deck and "Moonlight Butterfly" deck. This color is often mix with Red to create more Psycomm power.

White:
In case you don't know, this color is the most popular color played in this game. WHY??

Anime...(Wing/SEED are popular)

This color is specialize in "Vast Power, Vast Strength, Big [Gundam]"

What THAT means?? Basically, the Units in this color could only be describe by one word: HUGE. Also, this color have a little bit of everything else: Recovering, Countering, a little drawing.

IS IT GOOD FOR BEGINNER?? Yes, the cards are just easy to find (since many people have them). The only problem is, White is the #1 color to have bad hand.
IS IT GOOD FOR TOURNAMENT?? Popular White deck include "Wing/Deathscythe Beat", "Normal PS Armor", and "Strike Gundam Change Deck". However, many Units have the [Restrction to 1] on your field (aka Legends), which makes this color needs a lot of different cards, making the deck inconsistant.

Hope this help a little bit.

- Baron, 12/19/04