Article 3: Filling back the big hole on the game
The last time I wrote an article on this site is...well, 2 freaking years ago!! Sorry, just do not have anything to write about and I gained back my interest in the game just now.
Anyway, we would look back at what I had missed talking about for like...2 years (OK, I cannot do it. I have to review 4 sets, and talked about irrelevant stuff, like the banning/restriction). We would look at today's metagame and the popular decktypes, Set 17/Extension Booster, my view on the card mechanics, etc.
Metagame/Decktypes:
As one can find in the deck section, I had always posted the latest of the decks from the biggest of Japanese tournaments. Although those tournaments may not say everything (it's just one tournament afterall), here're the feel of today's popular decktypes, by color.
Blue:
- Blue Weenie: For those who don't understand this deck. Basically, any weenie deck would use the most efficient Units in terms of cost/power ratio (i.e. U-267 Gundam Mk-II, which is 1-cost for 3/1/2), set on an efficient character (i.e. CH-175 Shiro), and put in a lot of Cantrip (draw a card in additional to the card play) power to keep the deck going. The difference between Blue Weenie and Green Weenie is one that Blue have more High Mobility Units, two is more efficient cards, while Green depends on Burn and temporary boost. This deck can have sheer power to deal at least 10 damages to opponent's Nation in mere 3rd turn. However, any reset cards or recovery cards that slow down the killing process can be bad, since if weenie cannot win before 6th turn, it's pretty much over.
- Blue Medium: This type of deck mainly used "Medium ranged" cards, or cards with 3 to 5 TNP cost, using recovery cards as some stall until the efficient Units takes over. In 2005, this type of deck mainly used the powerful beater Zeta Gundam (Hyper Mega Launcher Equipped) (U-245, Set 14 Rare). Now-a-days, it depends on either the powerful synergy between Gundam GP03 (U-270) and Z Gundam (U-265), the F90 series (Set 15 - 17), or efficient Units like Gundam F91 (U-297), Nu Gundam (U-288). The characters are mostly either gives the Unit "haste" (CH-147 Camille) or verstile (CH-91 Uso/CH-188 Astoriage).
Green:
- Water/G-Destruction: This deck is all about card advantage. Using the advantages gains by the effect of Water, plus a lots of Cantrips (i.e. synergy b/t Dopp, O-26 Water Specification, and U-172 Z'Gok) and some card destruction (C-8, CH-3) to make opponent slows down, this deck takes care of just about anything opponent have in mind. In the end, it wins like a Weenie deck: the cheap Units can eventually beat down opponent's Nation. See the 1st place deck in Taiwan National Championship for example (most of them looks the same).
- Green Weenie: A used-to-be popular decktype. This deck use Cantrip "planes" in Dopp and Gattle (U-47/48), a bunch of "Quick" Units, efficient Burns like Fuel Bomb (C-90), characters (Black Tri-Star, or the 28/68/80/101 lineup with "weenie character"), at last, some sort of boost (O-80 Total Attack, O-95 Marine Team).
- Green Medium: This deck is just like Blue Medium, except the Units are Green. This deck have 3 variants. One is the normal, where a deck run efficient burns, Units, and characters like U-208 HM Gyan, CH-151 Cima). The difference is this deck used the Colonies (U-78/79) to draw and protect. Two is the "Length of a Day" variants, which instead of using the colonies to draw, this deck use the powerful Green draw Operation for early game, abuse HM Gyan's "self bounce" effect to draw and play again (See 3rd place deck of each Group A and B here for those 2 versions). Third is the "Custom Machine Set" variants, which abuse the interactions between U-160 Char's Zaku II and CH-91 Char Aznable (see the last deck from here).
Black:
- MBC: This deck is "the control" deck. Using some 4 to 6 cost Units to control/win the game (i.e. U-106 Pallas Athena, U-Z54 Gottraltan, U-Z88 Gengorazo), running discards (C-30 Cinderella Four or C-55 Scirocco's Eye), reset cards/destruction (C-1 Atomic Bombardment, C-22 Supremacy of Black), draws/recover (O-38/O-42). This deck diminish in popularity due to the new Green/Black variant of Brightness of Soul (which have the cards in lower cost), and the inconsistancy with having to getting a lot of NPs before one can do anything, with Weenie being BIG opponent.
- Tire: This deck used cards with "Tire" together to create synergy with each other. This deck had not seen much light nowadays with not much new Tire cards in recent sets.
Red:
- Counter-Xi: As said in the name, or by looking at the decklist, this deck is the true "lock down then win" games. The idea of any Counter deck is Count opponent's big threat, did just enough not to lose to Weenies in early game (bounces like C-42 Leaving of Empress or C-59 Escort, stall like O-16 Depature from Jupiter Circle or C-72 Iron Wall Jamul Fin). Then using the number of Purple Gs to lower the cost of U-130 Xi Gundam. Once it's out, the sheer power and the Counters the deck runs to go against destruction should win the game. Now-a-days, this deck also used U-C82 Rafflesia, just to have extra Unit outside of Xi Gundam plus its synergy with the powerful character CH-C39 Carozzo Ronah to deal with threats ALREADY on the field. The Counterspells run are mostly C-3 Leak of Strategy (cheap and efficient), C-29 Char's Counterattack (verstaile), C-38 Space Ruler (going against the increase number of Prevent), maybe C-C20 Outrider (cheap). See here for two sample decks.
- Red Medium: As like all the other Mediums, it runs efficient Units. The difference for Red Medium compare to other is one the huge shooting stats of the Units (U-89 Perfect Zeong, U-C70 Nautilus), two is the way it deals with threats (Counterspells, of course). Otherwise, it runs good stuff like O-4 Turn, O-C1 Cosmo Babylon for recovery. See here for my own version.
- Crossbone Gundam: This deck use the cheap way to bring out some big Gundams via the Change effect of U-C38 Core Fighter. This deck use the hugeness of the Gundams (i.e. Crossbone Gundam X3) or the Multiple effect to stop opponent to win. There's a variant of this deck running also Brown, with the synergy of Multiple with O-62 Return of Dianna.
- Psycommu: As like the deck name said, it used Units with effect of Psycommu, combine with the tutor C-39 Warriors, Again....This type of deck is not as popular since the emergence of Red Medium.
Brown:
- Moonlight Butterfly/Postlude of Ruins variant: The whole Brown color based around the 2 powerful reset Command cards. Most Brown deck runs either one of the card. The variants are...
1. MF-Postlude: One of the popular deck right now. This deck use the power of the new MF Units + GF characters to beat opponent down, while using Postlude as a reset if anything goes wrong.
2. Vulture-Postlude: This deck use the effect of Vulture to get back cards from your Junkyard after Postlude resolves at the end of turn to give you the advantage of controlling the cards you will get back.
3. Hangar-Postlude: This deck abused the part of Postlude that it don't clear the Hangar. Having hand advantage over opponent after the reset is always a good thing. This type of deck, however, is being replaced by MF-Postlude because of purely change in Units run in the deck. Another variant in this deck would use a lot of cards putting cards into your Hangar (i.e. U-103 Turn A), then use the powerful C-X9 7th Space War to deck out opponent.
4. Master-Butterfly: This deck would use the synergy between Master Asia and Moonlight Butterfly: giving you a good Unit while slowing down opponent's response.
White:
- Good Stuff: This deck can also be called "White Beats" or "White Multiple". The deck is based around the powerful Multiple effect of U-96 Wing Gundam 0, which can burn down opponent's stuff badly. Otherwise, the deck used all the good 5-cost Units: U-29 Deathscythe (Quick), U-S101 High M.A.T. Freedom (Recovery), etc., and the standard White cards: Hacking/Support of Middle East (C-47/C-9) to draw/fliter, Stolen Parts/Power that Cuts Open (C-8/S16) to stall. This deck can be good once the pieces are on the field/Junkyard, but VERY bad against weenie. Like Crossbone, this deck sometimes splash Brown for Return of Dianna (O-62)
- Bloody Valentine Turbo: As the name said, this deck is based around the White reset Bloody Valentine (C-S24). Using draw/fliter cards like Hacking/Middle East, plus G-searcher Future shown by Zero (C-75), and the turbo-land Orb Emirate (G-8 Purple), this deck wants to bring out Units as fast as possible, use hand as fast as possible, then use Bloddy Valentine to clease opponent's hand while you don't lost a lot (since you used them). This deck is usually beaten by cards that negate the special G (thus one don't get the boost). See here for a sample (Top 8 deck).
- PS Armor: This deck, as for name-sake, is based around the PS Armor mechanic. The deck used the PS Armor Units to beatdown opponent (since they comes into play Reroll), sometimes supplement them with Cruisers, sometimes not. This is more of a "specific themed" version of White Beats, and rarely did good in tournament as Weenie decks slaughter this deck.
Multicolor:
I would only introduced the ones that are used in tournament. Anyone can mixed up two colors and built a deck, but the following are the more popular themes.
- Blue/Green Fleet Charge: This combo deck used the Blue Operation [Fleet Charge] (O-28), Green [Formation Flight] (O-73), [Giren Zabi] (CH-76) and either [Birmingham] (U-163 Blue) or [Zanzibar] (U-191 Green) (any bigger Cruiser). Using [Giren Zabi] to boost the Cruiser's shooting, then use [Formation Flight] to give you extra Units, at last, use [Fleet Charge] to make the whole detachment deals a LOT of damages to win. See here (top 8 deck) for an example.
- Blue/Black Titania: This deck used the Blue "Turbo" cards in Amman (U-17) and Anaheim Electronics (O-17) to bring out the big Titania. Then, since this deck have the turbo cards to give you NPs while opponent have to restart building the NPs, you have the advantage over opponent on bring out some big threats, and opponent cannot stop it. This deck's weakness is the dependence on those cards: if you cannot be faster than opponent, this deck is pretty much "stuck in neutral gear". Now-a-days, there's another version of using [Gengaozo] (U-Z89) instead.
- Blue/Red Counter-Dendrobium (Penelope): This deck combine the Counter/Draw of Red with the efficiency of Blue Units. There're two versions: one used Turbo card (see above) to bring out Dendrobium fast, the other is just Blue Medium splash Red. There's an older version which used Penelope (U-230) and Xi Gundam (U-130), but that version is not as consistant as it depends a lot on Purple NP.
- Red/Green Counter-Gromlin: This deck is the "Counter-Burn" deck of Gundam War. Although Gromlin don't burn cards, this deck combines Red Counters/Draw (which Green lack) and Green Burns (which Red lacks cards that get rid of cards on the field). Gromlin is served as the "winning condition" once you have enough cards on the field and opponent will then take the big hits every turn.
- Black/Green Brightness of Soul: This deck mixed in Green Medium with some Black Control cards, using the Dual card [Brightness of Soul] (C-4 Dual) to reset the field. Some variant also mixed in some reanimator card like [Birknau] (U-Z88) and [Salvaged Thing] (C-10 Dual).
- Black/Brown MF-Intimidation (Brightness of Soul): This deck use the synergy between MF Units and the Black reset card [Intimidation] (C-14). Since [Intimidation] does not affect Ring Area, the user of this deck can have some "free" turns to beat down opponent. Now-a-days, the deck transform by splashing Green (using Citizen Corporation on Moon Surface) and use [Brightness of Soul] as the "reset" instead, one is due to the side-decking hate of [Intimidation], and two is using [BoS] is more stable.
Set 17/Extension Booster:
After the introduction of MF Units in Set 16, the whole metagame change, as Brown finally gets some decent beatdown cards. Set 17, overall, is not as powerful as the set before. The set may gives Blue F91 and the new Seabrook, Red a whole new Rafflesia and a powerful Carozzo Ronah, Master Gundam is print with decent effect, while Master Asia becomes the "Master". White gets Infinite Justice and a pretty-good Athrun Zala, but Strike Noir is the best of White. However, the set DOES introduce Dual card, which few of them are powerful and usable and make multi-color deck a reason to be ran. Overall, the big "theme" of Ral Team disappointed a lot of people,
Extension Booster is another story. Most of the new cards, due to they're Rare in the beginning, are crazy. Blue gets the best Medium-size Unit in Zeta No. 3 in a while, with the Operation of [Invisible Shield] and the latest "I can do everything" character in Astoriage to support it. Green have Apsalus II as the appretizer, Giren as main-dish, and Roll Out as dessert. While the black cards are kind-of disappointing, Gengaozo is great, combining with the new [Fulra Griffon] is better. Red gets some new Psycommu cards (finally), with also the great Sazabi and Neglected Comrades. Brown maybe the most disappointing color of all, Kowloon Gundam is OK, Washing-Machine Turn A is only OK, Pharaoh Gundam is slow, Pharaoh's Curse is unstable. [To Stretch or Curve] (O-77) can be good, especially combo with [The Actualized Dream] (O-X13) to gives you 2 free cards per turn. White have the overrated Stargazer Gundam, a crazy Meteor Freedom, a SERIOUSLY overrated burn. The main sell point? The 6 uncounterable Dual cards. While some of them are not that good (as is not needed), there's the new Cosmo Babylon...and you do NOT have to fear about it getting destroy.
If anything, for new players, the set reprints a lot of decent cards. Although some are put in for draft, some unfindable card from Giren's Greed is finally reprinted, and that's good news for a lot of people.
Card Mechanics:
With each new set, the R&D team must think of something to keep the game fresh. While G Gundam is added in Set 16 (from poll), they did a decent job on flavor: the Ring. Well, for those who had watched G Gundam, the fights are always 1-on-1. Although Zeta would not fight Shining Gundam in the anime...it can happened in the game, but Zeta cannot provoke Shining.
At Set 17, it introduced Dual card. While mechanically, it's not that hard to think about as other game also have it, the reason it takes this long for it to come out is there're just VERY few instances for some color combination. While Blue-Green, Blue-Black, and Blue-Red happens all along UC calendar, Green-Black only happens...like...never (Titans only appeared in 0083, the "last" story with Zeon, for 5 minutes, Zeon barely have anything afterward), Green-Red? Neo Zeon and Zeon never co-exist. As for Black-Red...there're few instances in Zeta Gundam, but that's it. Overall, the designer does a nice job on mixing the flavor from each faction.
For just older...when Dismantle appears in Set 14, it's like a good news for a lot of Medium deck user: early game wall that can be a G also? Please...
This should do it on my long article. I doubt I would write another article until Set 18 release, outside of some emergency bannings.
- Baron, 1/4/2007
