Mark your calendars, Commanders — the Gundam Card Game just dropped its biggest beginner-friendly wave since launch. On September 25, 2026, four brand-new Starter Decks hit shelves simultaneously, and instead of four flavors of the same strategy, Bandai built four genuinely different ways to play. If you’ve been meaning to try the Gundam Card Game (or you know someone who has), this is the easiest on-ramp the game has had all year.

For anyone new to the Gundam Card Game: each player pilots Mobile Suits by pairing them with Pilot cards, paying resources from a separate Resource Deck to deploy and attack. You win by breaking through to your opponent’s six face-down Shields — no complicated mana curve, no deckbuilding required on day one. Every Starter Deck below is 100% ready to play straight out of the box.

Four decks, four playstyles

Qubeley funnel unit artwork from Gundam Card Game's Silent Barrage ST13 starter deck
Qubeley headlines Silent Barrage [ST13], the long-range Bits-and-Funnels deck.

Aquatic Assault [ST11] (Blue-Purple) is the patient, tactical deck. Headlined by Char’s Z’Gok, it leans on Marine units and battlefield control — pick your moment, punish anyone who rushes you. It also pulls in aquatic machines from beyond the original series, including the Mad Angler and Kapool, so it’s not a one-note nostalgia trip.

Raging Onslaught [ST12] (Red-Purple) is the opposite approach entirely. Gundam Epyon leads a close-combat, board-lockdown strategy that wants the fight over before your opponent gets a turn to think. The deck also mixes in Gyan, GQuuuuuuX in its Omega Psycommu state, and both forms of Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee — a genuinely eclectic roster built around fighting style rather than which show a unit is from.

Gundam Epyon artwork from Gundam Card Game's Raging Onslaught ST12 starter deck
Gundam Epyon anchors Raging Onslaught [ST12]’s close-combat, board-lockdown plan.

Silent Barrage [ST13] (Green-Red) is the long-range pick, built around Qubeley and its signature Bits and Funnels — remote weapons that let a Mobile Suit attack from multiple angles while the pilot hangs back. Gundam Aerial from The Witch from Mercury joins the lineup alongside GFreD and Red Gundam, spanning very different eras of Newtype history.

Heavy Dominion [ST14] (Green-White) keeps things refreshingly simple: hit hard, hit often, and let heavily-armed units do the talking. The-O, piloted by Paptimus Scirocco in Zeta Gundam, headlines alongside Full Armor Unicorn Gundam in Destroy Mode and Gundam Heavyarms Custom EW. Full Armor Unicorn’s deployment effect even scales with how many opponents are on the board, making it a strong pick if your group plays multiplayer formats.

The-O artwork from Gundam Card Game's Heavy Dominion ST14 starter deck
The-O leads Heavy Dominion [ST14]’s straightforward, hit-hard game plan.

What’s in every box

All four decks share the same foundation: a ready-to-play 50-card deck, 10 Resource Cards, a paper damage counter, a rule/playsheet, and a Bonus Pack that gives you a shot at an extended-art variant of one of the deck’s featured cards. Aquatic Assault and Silent Barrage each include 4 Token Cards, while Raging Onslaught and Heavy Dominion include 2 — a small difference tied to how token-heavy each deck’s strategy is. Every deck is also built with multiplayer formats like Battle Royale in mind, so cards that feel narrow in a 1-on-1 duel often open up once more players are at the table. Each deck carries an MSRP of $15.99.

The timing lines up with a good stretch for the game more broadly — Bandai brought the Gundam Card Game to PAX West 2026 for hands-on demos, and Cardmarket is opening its catalog to the game later this month, which should make singles easier to track down outside Japan-import channels.

Which one should you grab?

If you like to out-think your opponent, start with Aquatic Assault. If you’d rather end the game before it really begins, Raging Onslaught is calling your name. Prefer to whittle people down from a distance? Silent Barrage. And if “bigger robot wins” is a philosophy you can get behind, Heavy Dominion won’t let you down. Since every deck is tournament-legal and ready out of the box, grabbing two of them is also one of the cheapest ways to get a friend into the game for a first match.

New to the game and have questions about which deck fits how you like to play? Come say hi on our socials, or find more spotlights, guides, and TCG news at manariotgames.com. 🔦 Thursday Spotlight — a different TCG in the spotlight every Thursday. Follow to catch next week’s game.